Wastelander

Welcome to the forum!

Why don't you teach the Pinans to adults unless asked?As tatsujin mentions, part of it is that they were designed primarily for children--which doesn't make them bad, or mean that they don't contain useful material. To me, they are simply unnecessary for adults, who can take the time to simply learn Passai, Kusanku, and Chinto, from which most of the Pinan material is derived. Yes, it takes longer to learn Kusanku than Pinan Yondan, but I would say that it doesn't really take that much longer to learn the three koryu kata than it takes to learn the 5 Pinan kata, and I would rather take some extra time to get people up to speed on them than spend all that time on the Pinan series, only to spend the same amount of time on the koryu kata, later, which largely contain the same or very similar material. As for what I start my adult students with, they begin with Chibana Chosin's three kihongata, then go into Naihanchi. Would you mind sharing with me what you start your adults with (kata)? Actually, I would be interested in what you kata list (in order) would be for adults. Thank you. As mentioned, above, I start them with Chibana's kihongata, and then the three Naihanchi kata. After that, it's Tawada Passai, then Kusanku Dai, then Shuri Sanchin. At that point, they also get to choose either Chinto, Gojushiho, or Seiyunchin, and they are expected to seek a kata/form from another system, as well. If they want to become an instructor, they'll obviously have to learn all of the kata, including the Pinans. I only have 5 belt colors for adults, and a completely separate color scheme for children. I also did away with the multiple levels of black belt because, in my experience, they lead to nothing but political nonsense, so I just have a black belt, and then an instructor certificate that can be sought and tested for by those who want to teach.

Well, given that I practice an Okinawan system, I learned the Pinan kata, not their Japanese counterparts. At this point, though, I only teach them to children, unless I'm asked to teach a seminar on them. I have also learned Gekisai, although they aren't part of the Shorin-Ryu curriculum I learned, but I don't teach it unless someone specifically wants me to. They all have good material in them, but I would say I would choose Pinan over Gekisai, as there is just more material, and that material largely ties directly to older kata.

If you were in the US, I would say that it's not feasible for a lot of people to get a doctor's note just to say that they are cleared to participate again, because most people can barely afford to go to a doctor when they actually have a problem, much less once the problem has gone away. Given that you're in the UK, though, I suppose that's less of an issue? I would second Bob's suggestion of checking with an attorney, just because there are some legal considerations when you get into medical documentation and private health information. In the end, though, it's up to you on whether you feel safe taking her back on as a student without the doctor's note. Normally, concussions can be recovered from in a matter of a few weeks, but if I recall the studies I saw several years ago correctly, that can be drawn out to many, many months if the concussed person isn't able to fully rest their brain, and I would guess that a 16 year old has probably been focusing quite a bit on school.

Different martial arts will place varying degrees of emphasis on both the "martial" and "art" portions of the term. Some tai chi is actually very hands-on and combative, although the majority may not be. If the origin of it is martial in nature, and it can still be trained in that manner, then the art is still a martial art, even if most people aren't training in it that way. At a certain point, though, I would say things become "martial-themed arts," such as XMA/tricking.

My favorite instance of alternative naming for techniques is chudan-soto-uke/chudan-uchi-uke. These are always two different techniques, but which name is applied to which technique changes from school to school and style to style, because there are two approaches to naming them: 1. Name the movement based on the direction it travels 2. Name the movement based on the part of the arm that is leading the movement I end up always having to clarify this when I'm teaching seminars, because I call the middle level receiver that moves to the outside "chudan-soto-uke" (middle level outside receiver), but many schools would call that "chudan-uchi-uke" (middle level inside receiver) because they are used to using the inside edge of the forearm to "block" things.

Thank you all, for the votes, and congratulations to all of the winners!

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum!

Congratulations, Bob, and thank you for all of your contributions to the community!

Sounds like good material to share, to me. I would certainly be interested in following along with it.

Welcome to the forum!

"Complete" is a bad word to use in terms of martial arts, because in order for a martial art to be "complete," literally, it would have to contain every possible fighting technique in existence, which is patently ridiculous. No martial art is, or can ever be, "complete." The only real way to use "complete" in relation to martial arts in a manner that makes any sense is with regard to direct transfer of a system from one person to another; was the "complete" curriculum of the system taught to the student, or not. Even then, though, we have to understand that people are flawed creatures, and also agents of change. I don't teach the exact same thing this year that I did three years ago, or three years before that. I am certain I have also forgotten things, while I've learned other things. Martial arts shouldn't be stagnant, unchanging, etched-in-stone curricula of combat, and I don't believe they ever were in the past, so we can't expect anyone to have learned the "complete" art from their teacher, because it was constantly evolving. The whole point was for the student to keep that evolution going. Now, a martial art can be "well-rounded," in the sense that it covers a wide range of combative ranges and contexts. In that sense, I would say that karate was, and for some people still is "well-rounded." Okinawa already had native fighting arts, and then it started blending with arts from China, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, and Japan. Some people learned entire systems, as their instructor taught them at the time, and some didn't, but they all changed what they learned as they went, as well.

My late Sensei bought his on Okinawa, and it cost him around $200, IIRC. I can't say I've seen them for sale for less than that, here in the US, unless they are rather small. If a small one would work for you, I think I've seen a couple on Amazon. You could always build your own, as well?

As soon as you mentioned Matsumura Seito I had a pretty good idea. Not alot of the Okinawan based guys are doing kiko...and Ryan makes a heck of an impression with his iron body skill demonstrations! I have "known" Ryan for a long time. He and I both go back to the early days of the interwebs when websites were new and we were all on email mailing lists. I don't know if he would know me from "Adam" nowadays...it has been a while. The thing that struck me with what Ryan was (is) doing...at least that I am aware of, I can't claim to know all of his training and information...is that it seems to all be "hard" kiko. Meaning iron body and/or Golden Bell types of training. That is certainly a part of the qigong of [southern] China, but the softer portions seem to be "missing". Anyway, good to know that we both "know" some of the same people...or at least Ryan! LOL! It's a small world! I've only gotten to train with him for a weekend, when I hosted a training event, but we've had online discussions for years and years. He's somewhat more withdrawn from the internet in the past few, though. As I recall, he does incorporate internal kiko methods, but he ALSO practices Tibetan hatha yoga, and some related methods, so how much of a blend he does is hard for me to say. It'd be best to ask him directly.

His name would not be Ryan would it? It would, indeed! I actually suspected you may already be familiar with him--if you're not him, yourself, with the wonders of anonymity on the internet . In all fairness, I haven't had a conversation on kiko with him for many years, so my memory on it is a bit hazy.

My thought would be that every instructor emphasized different aspects of the arts they taught, and not everyone who trains karate is interested in kiko, today, so it stands to reason that not everyone would have been interested in it in the past. I have a friend who learned kiko from one of his Okinawan instructors (can't remember if it was Matsumura Seito or Ryukyu Kempo), and what he's explained to me seems pretty well systematized, so some lineages certainly have it. That said, I haven't seen many other people from his lineages doing it, so it would seem that only the people with an interest really took it on.

Welcome to the forum!

The name sounds like it would be translated as "30 Hands," although without having kanji, it's hard to be certain. I can't think of any karate kata by that name, nor was I able to find any other martial arts forms with a name that in any way references "30 Hands," from any style. From looking at it, I would say that this was someone's new creation using bits and pieces of existing kata, since every piece of that form is found in other kata, almost verbatim. I would also guess that it was invented specifically FOR tournaments, as it starts at the front and then moves backward, which is a fairly common practice when creating competition forms, as you do not have to back away from the judges after announcing yourself in order to start.

Welcome to the forum! I do believe we have a Kyokushin practitioner or two on here, or at least people who have experience in it. I've just got Kyokushin friends, and have occasionally visited them for sparring and such, myself.

Depends on what you plan to do, but for me, it would be sparring gloves, mouthguard, groin protector, and a pair of Thai pads, or some other kind of striking mitts. If you could do mats, that would be ideal, but for bare minimum, this would cover the vast majority of partnered training. You have the safety equipment to spar with, and pads you can use to work your techniques and combinations with full power, to make up for the fact that you won't be going full-force with everything in sparring. Throws and takedowns will have to be done with control, though, or skipped entirely, without mats to fall on.

I mean, essentially you have rank in whatever your instructor says you have rank in, whether it makes sense or not, lol. To me, if you are training two different styles, and being ranked in one while doing some cross-training with another and blending that in, you're still ranked in just the one style. If you're training two styles that have been fully blended together into one style that you are being ranked in, then you have rank in just the one style, not its parent styles. If you're training in two styles that are completely separate and distinct from each other, you have rank in whichever of those you're being tested for rank in, so either one or both. With your situation--and I may be misinterpreting this--it sounds as though you are training two separate systems, but the ranking is done as a whole? With that being the case, I would probably say that you have rank in two styles, even if that only comes with one belt and certificate, so long as that certificate of rank says you trained in both of those styles. Semantics are weird

There is always the possibility that there are simply no active Shotokan practitioners in your area. If that turns out to be the case, I would encourage you to seek training in another art, even if it means "starting over," so to speak.

I'm afraid a Google search is probably going to cover more ground than asking here, just because Google is much bigger, but I'm sure if someone in the area is a member here, they'll chime in when they see your post. In the meantime, you might look into things like Nextdoor, and see if anyone else in your area knows somebody, or would like to join you for training.

It's really up to your instructor. In general, though, it's pretty rare that anyone cares that the labels on the keikogi and obi match. I don't think most people buy the same brand of keikogi and obi, to begin with, because of pricing, fit, and customization options.