Wastelander

There is no shame in your decision. Often when people decide to quit training karate it is because they aren't getting what the want out of it, but that is usually because they do not yet see the value of what they are learning as far as how it applies to what they want to learn. The things that you are wanting, however (other students your age, sparring, competition and effective self defense basics) should be evident in a dojo fairly early on and if those are the things you want and your current dojo doesn't have them, it's time to move on. I'm not sure about Kyokushin but I want to say Portugal has a decent Shotokan presence but I could very well be wrong.

I haven't taken a blow to the throat in training that I haven't absorbed with the muscles of my neck, but before I trained I did, once. My windpipe was visibly dented, albeit not very far, and I ended up squeezing the sides of the dent gently until it popped back out. That was probably one of the most panic-inducing moments of my life, I'll be honest--I couldn't talk and it was very hard to breath.

Is there a particular reason you want a LIGHTWEIGHT gi that is 100% cotton? It's much easier to find a 100% cotton middleweight or heavyweight gi. The problem with 100% cotton lightweight ones is that they tear apart really easily.

I don't think there is anything wrong with martial arts being practiced as a leisure activity, so long as it doesn't get lose its effectiveness as an art so that the people who want to practice seriously are able to do so and all can benefit from it. As to your questions, I haven't had a dan ranking yet, so I'm afraid I can't address that one. I have failed a kyu ranking before, though--I failed my sankyu test the first time around. I also have known several other people who haven't passed kyu ranking exams and I know at least one, but maybe two people (I can't remember for sure on the second one) that failed their shodan exams. I think part of the reason that there is a high rate of passing is certainly because of lowered standards in some schools, but I think in other schools there is a high passing rate because instructors are only testing their students after they KNOW that the student can pass, and that assures a much higher likelihood that the student actually will pass.

Pretty much any martial arts supply company will have those. Century is the most common and is reasonably priced: http://www.centurymartialarts.com/Uniforms/Lightweight_Uniforms/6_oz_Lightweight_Student_Uniform.aspx

I haven't trained anywhere near as long as many people on this board--sensei8 included, of course--but the longer I train the more I find that styles are very restrictive and that everyone develops their own way of training their respective styles. I've come to terms with the fact that things will change over time based on who is teaching the art and passing it on, and I believe that I will one day pass on an art that is different in appearance from what I originally learned, but still true to the vision of the art.

Crescent kicks really hurt my knee, so I don't really use them in sparring and we only have one crescent kick in one kata in our curriculum, anyway. I do use crescent kicks from the ground, though--that's about the only place that I, personally, find them to be useful.

Wow! I really hate politics in martial arts! I'm glad you were able to be reinstated and absolved of any accused wrongdoing, sensei8. I can think of plenty of reasons that the President of an organization would need to be expelled but I highly doubt you would qualify for that, given your knowledge and attitude toward martial arts.

Well, that depends on your definition of "nice" but HandmadeSword.com has some good ones that look nice that fell well within your budget--mine was $250 from that site and works well for kata and some light cutting. For a REALLY nice katana, custom forged ones are the way to go and I know people who make them, but you're looking at probably double your budget and a wait for them to make it

As pretty much everyone else has said, a heavyweight gi is hotter and more durable, but I would also add that they tend to be more expensive. If you KNOW you are going to be training for a long time then the investment in a good, heavyweight gi makes sense, but if you don't know for sure if you'll stick with it then you would probably be okay just buying a cheap middleweight gi.

I agree that you need to learn control, but that's because I believe that EVERYONE can benefit from developing control. That said, what exactly did she expect when sparring in a Kyokushin dojo? It's a style known for full-contact, knockdown fighting, so she can't honestly expect the same type of control she's used to from a Shotokan dojo. When I went to spar with some Kyokushin folks I fully expected that their level of control and contact was going to result in me getting hit a lot harder than I had been hit in point sparring and probably at least a bit harder than the contact sparring I've done. You can't walk into a dojo that trains a full-contact style and expect them to tap your gi for a point unless you work that out with your partner in advance.

But if it's just broken down kata, why not call it Kata. Even call it kihon. Why displace it from the rest of the art and create a new label? Well, I don't feel that it particularly matters what you call it. Most people who train martial arts are recreational martial artists and they don't really care what it is called as long as it helps them reach their goals (fitness, self defense, competition, etc.) and so if you told them they were going to work kata and then just had them work a small piece of it against an attacker, maybe they would make the connection and maybe they wouldn't. If you tell them you're going to work self defense techniques and that the techniques they are working come from kata, they don't have to make the connection because you just told them what it was. I suppose it is kind of silly, but that's just the way I see it

We do have specific "self defense techniques" that are just short response drills to certain types of attacks, so in that way we do compartmentalize. That said, just about every technique in those drills comes from kata and we do explain that. The idea behind this is that it can take a long time to break down a kata and become proficient at its application and being able to use the application in self defense, but we can teach some basic defensive techniques from the kata that they can use right away.

For grappling I use a Datsusara MMA brand hemp gi unless I'm doing a judo competition--then I just switch to a cheap, Chinese brand single weave.

She most definitely failed the "leave your ego at the door" portion of the agreement. Nothing you said seems to be out of line for the environment and I'm sorry your friend was offended but she either didn't understand the rules or is very, very entrenched in formality.

We call my instructor Sensei, Sensei Poage or Mr. Poage and the same goes for any of the other black belts with the exception of one who has the title of Shihan and so we call him Shihan, Shihan Allred or Mr. Allred. Those of us who are assistant instructors below the rank of black belt are usually just called Senpai before our first names.

Hey, now! I'm from rural Illinois and I don't think that way

I've never been a huggy person--I've had to get used to it with my wife's family, since they are very huggy people, but I usually do not hug unless I receive a visual or verbal cue to do so. In training, the closest I get to hugging is the "macho hug" you mention--shake hands, pull into a shoulder bump and slap the back .

The way you were taught in Shuri-Ryu is similar to how I've been taught in Tae Kwon Do. I agree with your point about the many different ways of doing it. I also should have specified the type of knife hand block I meant (the inside to outside knife hand block with the rear hand guarding the body), since there are many different types that all have clearly different purposes. However, even the same type of block will be a little different based on the context. Still, I'm curious about how and why different styles do it differently. When both hands pull back to the ear and then shoot outward as we learned in Shuri-Ryu, I have to look at why I would ever have both hands on one side of my head--for me, it would be because I had stepped into a punch or kick and needed to cover that side of my head. After that, I always follow the rule that you never have a hand doing nothing, so the hand that guards the body should be grabbing something (usually the attack I covered my head for) and pulling it out of the way so I can use my knife hand to strike.

In Shuri-Ryu we brought both hands back to the ear and then executed the knife hand, but in Shorin-Ryu I actually haven't been given any solid direction beyond "depends what you are doing" so watching me run kata with knife hands in it is interesting . The way I look at it is this: the way you execute it depends on what you are doing with it, and since you can do a LOT of things with it you are going to see a LOT of variation in how to do it in the air.

I have found that I, personally, enjoy collecting kata--some for their practical applications and some for the sake of kata. That said, I think that there is certainly a lot of value in studying only a few kata very closely but I also feel that the idea that a person should only learn a set number of kata is limiting. People should be able to learn however many kata they want.

Any time Barboza, Njokuani, Machida or Siver fight you should probably be watching if you like to see good striking!

It definitely was, and I'm sure my sensei will be thrilled since he loves using that kick in sparring . Here's a page that has a good video on it that has both normal speed and super-slow-motion: http://deadspin.com/5876227/edson-barbozas-roadhouse+style-face+kick-knockout-is-even-better-when-slowed-down-500 I really liked the combination he used right before the spinning hook kick, too.

I haven't had to use my training in real life aside from break-falls and avoidance tactics. The closest that I came was in Hawaii when two drug addicts started following and harassing my friend and I (he's also a karateka) while we were walking to the store one night. I'm a very poor runner and I don't think he's much of a runner, either, so I didn't know how long we would be able to outrun people on drugs. Luckily they never attempted to close the gap we maintained and we were able to avoid any further confrontation after they finally gave up.

Can I ask Wastelander, what methodologies didn't you agree with? Certainly! Since my exposure to Wado-Ryu has been fairly limited outside of forums and a few practitioners I have trained with, I can't say that this applies widely to the style but I know that at least some Wado-Ryu practitioners practice kata but no bunkai. I don't agree with that practice even a little bit, but as I said I don't know how widely it applies. Thanks! Hmm, that’s interesting. Strictly speaking, and as I understand it, Wado doesn't utilise the "process" of bunkai or at least not in the same way that Okinawan styles do. That said, Wado kata is not just performed as a dance - even when done solo. Typically we use the term Keisetsu, which means to physically comment on a movement (by doing it against and opponent) - but then this is done without changing the basic shape of the technique found in the kata. This is different to the Okinawan approach of bunkai which essentially means to take apart. To less informed of course - this looks like a kinda half baked way to approach your kata training, but then when you consider that the majority of Wado's DNA come from Nihon Koryu Bujutsu - and then factor in the plethora of paired kata (with jujutsu origins) that we have (compared to Okinawan styles) as a result of that - then the picture becomes clearer. Basically, the Wado kata and the wado approach to kata can't be realised imo, unless they are practiced in tandem with Wado's paired kata. And it’s that marriage that non Wado practitioners can’t appreciate – because they have no exposure to our paired kata work. As I usually say to Okinawan karateka. Wado has a different approach – not better or worse just different. Sojobo Thank you for explaining that! I never meant to imply that I thought one methodology was better or worse, necessarily, just that I didn't personally agree with it. Now that you have explained it better (usually I have only heard "we don't do bunkai" without any accompanying information) I can see how you can still make kata practice valuable.