James L

One of my sensei has a system I like a lot. Anyone coming into his dojo new to our style starts at white belt, regardless of any rank thy may hold in other styles. Then, after an appropriate amount of time, they will grade to whatever level in our style the sensei feels is appropriate. As an example, we had a gentleman come into our dojo who held a dan grade in shotokan (we train goju ryu). This gentleman trained consistently 3 classes per week, worked hard, but as those familiar with the styles knows it takes some time to make the shift to the "goju" way of doing things from shotokan. The next dojo grading was about 6 months afer this gentleman started. At that gradng he was graded from white to green belt, which was where my sensei felt he was performing in our style. I like this method because it respected his past training while ensuring the quality in our dojo remained high. Incidentally he is now a brown belt a year and a half in.

Hey all, Long time lurker, first time poster. I had to comment on this discussion. To put my comments into perspective my background before starting my Karate training (in which I still consider myself very much a neophyte) was in grappling. Specifically, 5 years of high school wrestling, 9 years of Judo, and 2 years of Brazilian Jiujitsu. I just wanted to post that anybody who has a theory on how to spar or fight a grappler, and who hasn't actually tried out that theory in resistant training or sparring with a skilled grappler, is at serious risk of deluding themselves. The only way someone could beat a skilled grappler with head stomps and/or downward kicks and knees is if they incapacitated that grappler first with a strike that seriously disoriented them, or if the grappler was somehow incapacitated by the throw itself. Considering how much grapplers train to take falls, however, I wouldn't count on that second option. Perhaps the grappler might have an unlucky slip and the striker times a well delivered blow. That would be a very rare occurrence. Honestly, The thought that someone is going to sweep me onto the ground and I will be helpless to their downward strikes is a stretch. If I go to the ground disoriented by strikes of course that might be another story. I can say that I am 110% comfortable on the ground, whether my opponent is standing or is on the ground grappling with me. The fact that you are standing and I am on the ground is not something that intimidates me.... I still feel quite comfortable in my ability to defend myself, take my opponent down, or stand back up. I don't want to start a "striking versus grappling" debate or anything like that, I love Karate and the training I am getting at my dojo. Grappling is a lot like swimming though: you can't theorize about it, you have to get wet to understand it. From the perspective of developing self defence skills I highly recommend people participate in full contact sparring with a skilled grappler and test out their theories. It can be a very eye opening experience. Best wishes in your training. Cheers, James