Wastelander

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.

Lateral movement and angles are definitely going to be your friend when it comes to countering people, in general. I do tend to throw front kicks and side kicks to stop people from blitzing me, but every now and then someone is able to slip the kick or has better timing than me and gets in close. It's at that point I usually step off at an angle with a roundhouse kick to the bladder (usually lands for me because their hands are up expecting punches) or I will throw a spinning backfist before stepping off-line (this one lands pretty often, too, because they see me turn my back and think I'm covering up so they feel comfortable dropping their hands into their attack). Every now and then, though, I'll end up with somebody who just DOES NOT STOP MOVING FORWARD--it doesn't matter if I hit them or move, they just keep pressing forward. On those people I usually just do my best to keep my distance by moving off laterally and picking my shots, or I'll clinch up and take them down, but I don't know if your style includes grappling or not.

You've only been training for a month. I understand that this isn't going to be what you want to hear, but you aren't going to be good at sparring after a month of training. You just need more time and practice! We don't normally have anybody start sparring until they have been training for about 4 months, and even then it takes time to get a feel for really hitting someone and really getting hit. You'll find that deflecting and blocking incoming strikes is a lot less about specific technique and a lot more about muscle memory--I find myself moving to block and deflect without even thinking about it and I can't even remember what technique I used after I've done it. You'll get that with practice, so don't worry about being "good" at sparring because you won't be for a while. The more you do it, the better you'll get, though. Just keep your hands up wherever your sensei tells you to keep them (I keep mine about shoulder height until I get into punching range and then I pull them up high and tight to protect my head) and practice drills for moving/attacking and moving/defending and, of course, spar every now and then.

1 Have you ever trained with a different style of martial arts? --Yes, I have trained with Kyokushin people, White Crane people, Kenpo people, and Kensho-Do people as well as people who have mixed backgrounds. 2 Have you ever trained in another country? --Only if Hawaii counts as another country? It doesn't? Then no, I've only trained in the U.S. 3 Have you ever trained outdoors? --Yes, I have, in front of the dojo, at couple of parks and at a couple of beaches. 4 Have you ever trained so hard you couldn't stand? --Yes 5 Have you ever had dreams about training? --Routinely 6 Have you ever been knocked unconscious during training? --No, but I did come close once when I took a shot right under the right ear and my vision went dark and my legs wobbled, but I stayed upright and my vision cleared up. I have been dropped by pain, though. 7 Have you ever intentionally lost a fight? --Of course I have. The kids would never spar with me if I didn't give them openings to try for and opportunities to win 8 Have you ever run from a fight? --I have avoided confrontation and bad situations. Does that count? 9 Have you ever cried during training? --Yes 10 Have you ever saved your own life with martial arts? --I don't think so 11 Have you ever saved another person's? --Only if using MasterPain's advice almost verbatim ("Don't do stupid things in stupid places with stupid people") has kept them from danger.

I had heard he had taken ill and had stopped teaching classes regularly. Thanks for the update and hopefully he will make a miraculous recovery.

I think everyone pretty well covered it--what you teach depends entirely upon what you want to achieve with your teaching. If you want to perpetuate your style for the sake of passing it on then you should teach it exactly as you were taught--I know people who do this and are very good martial artists, even though I don't like some of what they do. If you want to teach and art that is as effective as you can make it, then you may need to teach supplementary material that isn't normally part of the curriculum of your core art and you may have to remove "fluff". Or, as MasterPain mentioned, you could do both by stating that certain techniques are or are not part of the style and why you are teaching them anyway.

Well, I am not any of the things that you listed at the beginning of this post, but I wouldn't become angry, first of all. I've met black belts that I feel I am more skilled and more knowledgeable than, and I've met people who have been training half as long as me that are more skilled and more knowledgeable than I am. It's entirely possible that even though I don't think someone should be a black belt, their previous instructor may still have thought they should be. Now, if you are talking about someone going out on the mat and it becoming obvious that they have NO training AT ALL, that's another story. Either way, it is something you would need to talk to that person about. Again, I don't think anger gets you anywhere in this situation, but you can still try to find out if they lied to you and why, or if their instructor truly did give them that rank and they just had poor training, or if they maybe experienced some injury or trauma that is causing them to perform badly.

You will find there are many arts that branched off from other arts because the founders of the new ones found faults in the old ones, even though those faults may not actually have been there. As for blocking with the forearm being "outdated" or "too traditional" I think you are wrong, but it depends on how the block is applied--modern police officers, security personnel and MMA fighters use their forearms to block all the time even if it doesn't look like a traditional karate-style block. Regardless, the training will toughen you up so that no matter how you use your forearms to block they will be able to stand up to the punishment. My advice would be to try out classes for a while--as Liver Punch said, about a year or maybe even two--and see how you like it. In that amount of time you should develop a solid base in how to move, how to generate power and how to absorb/receive attacks so even if you don't feel they do realistic enough training you won't have been wasting your time.

Now, see, this is one of those things that seems totally odd to me, because I have ALWAYS worn my gi to and from the dojo, ever since I first got a gi--normally I go straight there and back, but every now and then I do have to stop and run errands and I usually take the gi top and belt off, but sometimes I don't if it's cold or I need to carry more than my keys. It was never mentioned to me when I started training and the habit stuck because I am one of those people that hates changing in locker rooms, or even bathrooms (I am ALWAYS early to class, so that isn't the issue). I can see where everyone is coming from, but I just don't feel like it's any more of a big deal than wearing a cyclists outfit--maybe a little weird to those outside the hobby, and not something you would normally wear, but there isn't anything terrible about not changing out of it to stop and pick up a gallon of milk.

Embroidering your name on your gi is commonplace in MANY martial arts--it's extremely common in Judo, for example, and I've seen it in many karate styles. There's nothing wrong with putting your name on your gi--if you guys take off your gi periodically while training, or if you all have one dressing room, it's a very practical thing to do. I would just stay away from belt embroidery unless your instructor gets it for you as a gift.

Definitely watch how people throw it in competition and have your sparring partners emulate it and ask your instructor what to do about it. I have found that a lot of people are open for ridge hands and spinning backfists, actually. I love doing both of them off of a duck-cover-and-turn so they rush in at me and right into either of those strikes, and I know a guy who is really good at catching you with them off of a step back while my instructor knows somebody who loves to step in with them and do a sweep at the same time. There are lots of ways to land a ridge hand, so you'll have to find out what ways are landing on you so your instructor can help you with those.

In my dojo we tend to do semi-contact (continuous) unless the kids who compete in tournaments are practicing for a tournament, and then we do more light-contact (continuous) and some point matches. We hit hard enough to let our partner know they were hit, but not hard enough to cause too many injuries (although it still happens on occasion).

No apologies necessary. It was me who made you believe that the way I wrote it, so I apologize to you. I don't really consider rough-housing, joking, etc "karate". My point about "blocks" is that they are not designed by the karate gods to be "blocks". These are techniques that are either striking at something, deflecting the opponent's hit out of the way to allow you to hit a soft target, or give you the opportunity to grab your opponent. A chest block can easily trap your opponents arm, strike the inside of it or worse. A head block can deliver a strike with your fist or elbow, or merely open the door for you to grab an arm. It is a big mistake to think of these techniques as "blocks" (as opposed to "uke" techniques) and many people do. No problem--that sort of thing can happen pretty easily over the internet. I would agree that rough-housing/joking aren't really "karate" but the blocking response still comes from my training. I agree that what are generally called "blocks" are actually techniques for receiving an attack in some way, as you describe, but I suppose I'm one of those weird people who isn't that concerned with the semantics--deflecting or brushing an attack aside, jamming an attack or covering up are all still "blocking" to me even though they technically aren't . I also don't care too much if you call it a middle block or high block even when you are using it to strike or apply a joint lock or choke. We needed to have something to call a motion that does a large number of things, so we had to pick something and it ended up being "block", probably because people learned block-punch-kick omote bunkai for so long and didn't know it as anything other than a block and when ura bunkai opened up we just kept the name. It would be kind of awkward to start calling them something like "middle receiving technique" and it seems like too much work to specifically name them differently for every application when the motion is the same.

Since you quoted me it seemed like you were directing it me, so I apologize for the misinterpretation. I agree that you can't just know what a person behind you is doing and spin around to block them, but I do have to slightly disagree with you on the idea that there is no such thing as a "block" in karate--I think that there can be, but it's not usually the most effective thing you can do. When coworkers/friends/family/my wife jokingly punch at me I will usually block it, and that's all--either a palm block, a swim block or a backhand block, typically--which works out just fine because I don't get hit and they don't get hurt. If someone were attacking me, those reactions would probably save me from getting hit once or twice, but blocking is not the most efficient use of my energy when it comes to self defense because it does nothing to end the threat unless I manage to block so hard that they hurt themselves and give up, lol. I would much rather deflect an attack while countering than simply block and wait my turn to attack the attacker.