Wastelander

Thank you very much!

Sorry to hear that! Unfortunately, that is certainly something that you can run into--just because someone practices a solid art and is good at it doesn't necessarily mean that they are a good teacher, or have a teaching style that will work well with your learning style. Hopefully you have better luck elsewhere!

Welcome back to karate, and to the forum!

Honestly, to not know that Shorin-Ryu exists you would almost have to have absolutely no interest in karate--it's a pretty major system. That said, spreading awareness is always good, and if the people in your area aren't aware of it then you are doing them a service and maybe you'll pique their interest and they will research it more, and maybe even stop by your dojo to workout every now and then. As far as your competitions go, Shorin-Ryu as a whole tends to emphasize kata, which is excellent for self defense but not terribly useful in competition sparring unless grabs, sweeps, throws, chokes and joint locks are allowed . Kicks are certainly a very useful tool in sparring (and I love them to death) but I would argue that hand techniques are more important. Try this when you get a chance--ask someone to spar with you using only kicks while you use only hands, and then vice versa. You'll see what I mean

Congratulations on doing so well at your first tournament! As far as how much sparring you should do, it really depends on what your goals are for your training. If you want to do a lot of competitions and want to compete in the kumite divisions and do well, then you will probably need to do more sparring. If you just want to do competitions every now and then it isn't really an issue.

Correct. That is what I tend to do, but you may find that it doesn't work well for you, so it's something to try out and make your own decision about. For me, it makes it much easier to explode to the outside of my opponent, but I know some people prefer to use the same stance as their opponent and take a lunging step with their rear leg (thereby switching their stance and getting to the outside of their opponent).

First of all, welcome to the forum! Angles are your friend--if you move straight forward to attack or straight back to defend you will get stopped by kicks and run over by your opponent. It's unfortunate that you can't do any sweeps or grabs, but even so, you'll be in a much better position of you use angles. I like to use the opposite stance from my opponent and shoot to the outside of their body, which makes it easy to avoid or deflect kicks and then sets me up to hit them in the ribs or side of the head. I also like to throw roundhouse kicks to the stomach from that step and follow up with my hands.

Looks like Goju-Ryu, Shito-Ryu, Matsubayashi-Ryu and Kyokushin are all in your general area: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Canberra%2C+Australia+karate Also some Muay Thai: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Canberra%2C+Australia+muay+thai There could be more that simply don't have a web presence, as Dobbersky said, but that's a start. Goju-Ryu, Shito-Ryu and Matsubayashi-Ryu may or may not spar, at all, and if they do spar it may be no-contact or light-contact point sparring, so you would need to go watch class to find out. Kyokushin and Muay Thai will generally have full contact sparring.

I use both, depending on what I'm trying to accomplish. If I want to whip a kick out quickly and sting somebody, I use the chambered kick because it accomplishes just that (whipping and stinging, but without a deep impact) and works well to set up combinations with my hands. If I want to slam my shin into somebody's leg or ribs and make sure that they feel it in their bones afterward I'll push my leg off the floor (this does result in a slight chamber, but not very noticeable) and throw my whole leg and body into it. Both hurt to get hit by, but in different ways, and both can be fast depending on the practitioner.

If you are wanting to compete then there is no reason not to start now. If your instructor thinks it's okay for you to compete then you should go ahead and do it if that's where your interests lie.

Dropping into shiko-dachi/kiba-dachi definitely help you maintain your balance while grappling and I've used it to stop judo throws before, and shooting a leg back into a long, deep zenkutsu-dachi when they shoot for a double- or single-leg takedown sets you up nicely to roll them. Between that and general skills of deflecting an attacker it works fine for defending against unskilled attackers but it's a little limited for dealing with a skilled grappler--it's always best to train a grappling art to learn how to defend against a grappler. Funny, this is why I took up judo for a while as I wanted to understand a grappling style. I now train in my karate style and BJJ. I have given quite a bit of thought to this subject and I do believe it has given me much deeper insight into kata techniques. In fact, my first line of defense would be exactly what you said above. Although the bunkai for a down-block in zenkutsu-dachi is to block a kick, it is far more effective as a lunge strike or in this case a defense against a grappler trying for a takedown. My question was more directed to the idea of actually training to defend against these techniques, rather than just studying two arts. Do you drill against throws and other take downs? Ah, yes, we do drill against throws and takedowns, but mostly things like front- and rear-suplexes and double- and single-leg takedowns because they are pretty common--anyone who has wrestled understands the ideas behind both, and most football players can pull them off as well. Since I have judo experience and my instructor has jujutsu experience, we do tend to use a lot of other sweeps and throws in our drills but we don't train against them in karate, specifically, because we train against them when we grapple or do MMA-style training.

Dropping into shiko-dachi/kiba-dachi definitely help you maintain your balance while grappling and I've used it to stop judo throws before, and shooting a leg back into a long, deep zenkutsu-dachi when they shoot for a double- or single-leg takedown sets you up nicely to roll them. Between that and general skills of deflecting an attacker it works fine for defending against unskilled attackers but it's a little limited for dealing with a skilled grappler--it's always best to train a grappling art to learn how to defend against a grappler.

No problem, and don't worry about how long it takes you to learn things--karate instructors are accustomed to teaching people with absolutely no martial arts experience, so the fact that you trained in the past (even if you don't remember most of it or know any new material) is helpful. You'll pick things up faster than more people would. Besides, you're only 4 years older than me--I don't think we're allowed to claim "older" as an excuse for stuff for a while

I'm not a Wado-Ryu or Goju-Ryu practitioner, but mawashi-uke tends to be fairly similar in most styles. This page has a video of a Wado-Ryu practitioner performing a kata containing mawashi-uke at the end: http://www.wadokai.co.uk/technical_video_kata/ni_sei_shi_instructional.php That said, I wouldn't be too worried about it--when you start training at that dojo they probably aren't going to expect you to know what everything is.

Everyone seems to have a different opinion on this--I feel like children should have been through their first major growth spurt before starting to use a makiwara. My instructor doesn't have a problem with younger students hitting a makiwara before that because they simply don't hit it hard enough to cause problems with the growth of their joints, which may be true but I don't know.

You seem to need better friends--I don't mind teaching my friends a thing or two because they are either martial artists already, good enough friends that I don't have to worry about it, or people who will forget it in five minutes anyway.

Drying a gi in a machine dryer will shrink it, and can cause a little extra wear just by virtue of it rolling around in a hot metal box. I am built a bit strangely, though, so I always have to buy a gi that is too large, which means that the shrinking that occurs in the dryer is perfectly fine by me.

I usually hear this as "traditional martial arts are dead" which just makes me chuckle a little. I think that the martial arts are evolving, but they were always intended to evolve. The people who tend to say that martial arts or traditional martial arts are "dead" are usually the same people who have never trained in traditional martial arts, or if they have it was usually for a few months when they were 12, and so they are looking down on something they know nothing about.

He practices Seiyo Shorin-Ryu, I believe, so blue belt should be 7th kyu. Which reminds me--jaypo, do you train out of the hombu dojo for Seiyo Shorin-Ryu in Mesa, AZ? If so, you should come up to Scottsdale and work out with us one of these days!

Congratulations! Those mis-timed blocks of front kicks can be brutal on the fingers--I've broken my right index, middle and ring fingers (each on separate occasions) that way.

Mine is wastelandkarateka for anyone interested in adding me.

Every now and then I will choose not to reply to a particular topic or post about a particular thing in case I am ever tracked down, but I didn't make it difficult to track me down to this account. Most of the stuff I've said I am not concerned with people from my current or previous dojo finding online.

Well, I just added you on Skype using the Skype name you posted at the beginning of this thread. I won't be available every day, but I do get off work early in the afternoons so I should be able to do something every now and then between 2:30pm and 5pm PST, depending on when I go to the dojo that day.

The walk-in challenge seems very old fashioned and disrespectful to me as well, but aside from that I have to say that I feel bad for the karate guy. I'm not sure what style of karate they practice at this dojo or how much they spar and how, but he did not look very good at all. That said, neither of them had any groundwork at all, despite obviously knowing some takedowns. The Wing Chun practitioner definitely did use trapping and counter-striking off of his trapping effectively but, as you mentioned, it also seemed like the karateka had never seen Wing Chun before because he had no clue what was going on, which seems weird to me in this day and age. My instructor enjoys perpetuating the Shorinkan curriculum as it is, but he is also the kind of person who is CONSTANTLY trying to learn more and improve his own personal style of karate, and in doing so he helps his students do that as well. He routinely works with people from other styles and incorporates the techniques that he finds useful (and some that he doesn't, in case we might) into our training. We also invite people to our dojo periodically (like that open sparring event we did last month) and work out with them. Exposure to many different methods of fighting is always a valuable experience, especially when you get the opportunity to actually practice with them. Doing this challenge matches seems stupid to me, since it's a good way to bruise egos and burn bridges. I would much rather see them arrange an open mat session where both schools can get together to practice and learn from each other, and spar if they want to in a friendly setting.

I don't know if anyone has done this, but I actually just recently purchased a webcam and installed Skype, so I can participate! I'm currently recovering from surgery, so I can't do a whole lot, but I do have time after work when I can work with people over Skype. Should we put together a list of Skype names so people can add others? ETA: I just remembered the Google+ has the Google Hangout feature so several of us can video chat at the same time, since apparently Skype charges for that feature.