lit-arate

I've done martial arts for twenty years. I began when I was six. I've stretched, and stretched, and stretched. And I'm still several inches off the floor when I do a side-split. I would love your suggestions for how to get through that last bump. A bit of info that may or may not help: 6'6" (1.98m), 185lbs (84kg) (hooray for autoimmune disorders that keep me from gaining weight). I have black belts in American Kenpo and Taekwondo, and can kick well over my head. I do yoga for my stretching, and the usual sets of kicking repetitions. I do six hours of Aikido and three to four of TKD per week in-class, plus my own practicing at home. Thanks to Aikido, I have a strong and flexible core (which gave me a few more inches on my split, I think). Help me, karateforums. You're my only hope. PS. "But if you're 6'6" and can kick over your head, you don't need to do the splits," you say. You're right. Until we're invaded by eight-foot tall aliens whose only weakness is front-snap kick to the chin.

I love GNT's videos, and after he posted this one, I started using some of them in sparring. They're certainly not going to knock an opponent out (not my kicks, at least), but they're great for distracting to set up a more powerful strike--and they're positively murder in point-sparring.

My understanding is that the "Karate" appended to the end of Parker's Kenpo was as much a business strategy as a lineage marker. Unless I'm misremembering my sources, Huk Planas (I think it was Master Planas) has said that the name had several different endings in its early stages (Karate, Kung Fu, Jujitsu) depending on which was more popular. I believe he also said that GM Parker referred to it in conversation as "American Kenpo," and only added the other appellations for promotion. Compared to hard, hard-styles, Kenpo seems to be awfully full of open-hand circles. Especially the later techniques and forms look far more Chinese than Japanese to me (Long 6 may as well be Hung Gar). I had an easier time transitioning to Aikido's soft-style movements than to Taekwondo's hard-style. I was also renown in my Kenpo dojo for being too soft and circular in my movements, so take this with a grain of salt.

I'll be testing for my shodan in Taekwondo at the beginning of December, and in Aikido either December 2014 or July 2015. I already have a black belt from American Kenpo, but it's embroidered with "American Kenpo" in Chinese on it, so I can't exactly wear it for the other two. Plus, it's rather low-quality, so it hasn't so much frayed as just torn off the top layer and exposed a core that belies the thirty dollars I spent on the belt. So, in short, I'm on the market for a new belt. I've scanned this part of the forum and found many useful tips for where to buy belts, and varying opinions on the available materials. I'd like to get a satin belt, because I'm so fancy. However, everyone says that the satin belts wear out more quickly, but I was wondering: how dilapidated is "worn out," and how long is "quickly"? I'm hoping for some actual numbers gathered from experience, here. Like, "My belt was unusable after two years," or "My belt was quite worn but still presentable after six years," etc. I'm leaning either Eoisn Panther or Kataaro, so if you had one of those, that's even better. Thanks much!

I'm an British Literature Ph.D. student/in a few years (hopefully) Literature professor. I read poems to my students while I make them do pushups. (Not really. But I should.)

What irritated me most about this video is that her belt wasn't even. That's something my dojo always emphasized, and it really bugs me when black belts have one side of their belt dangling a foot below the other. That is to say, everyone complaining about the video is being silly. Yes, the guy was awful. Not in question. Maybe he wasn't sure about fighting a woman, at least until 4:00. Then he was angry, and was really trying to hit her within whatever rules this pseudo-organization uses. No, he wasn't trying to kill her, but you note that she didn't just kick him repeatedly in the groin after breaking his knee. So, those arguments are invalid. I think she did exactly what I would have told her to do. She wore him out by running circles around him. She worked his legs like a boss. She hit him in the face with that rear-hand reverse punch every time. And when she saw that it worked, she kept it up. She convinced him early that taking her to the ground was a bad idea, so he gave up on that (bad move, him). She played it beautifully, in my occasionally humble opinion. Final judgment: in a refereed, rule-bound fight between a small karate-ka with solid techniques versus a larger "street fighter" with no technique, this is what it should look like.

It seems to me that the question of "Effectiveness" can be misleading. The beginning of the thread started out with this question, but it seems to have been buried. Is the jab an effective finisher? Almost definitely not. Is the jab effective in a streetfight? Apparently, debatable. Is the jab effective at doing what a jab does, which is keeping one's opponent defensive, thinking about one's hands, and maybe convincing one's opponent to give away his or her favorite defense? Yep. So, if the question is efficiency vs straight power, that's something you could actually measure: energy given for power generated. Taekwondo rear-leg roundhouse is probably the most efficient kick for the massive power it generates. But is it an effective jab? Not in a million years. So, which question are we asking? Power or effectiveness for the designed purpose?

I second Tempest. No center control = no balance, no power, no targets.

I would look to see how people taught each other: The Sensei/Chief Instructor is the one who practices with a partner and makes only a few corrections with only a few words--if even. The senpai is the one standing there not practicing with his or her partner, and delivering a lecture on what the partner was doing wrong. The kohai (I had to look that word up, I admit) are the ones who are both correcting each other. My Aikido Sensei almost never speaks in class. I've had her come over to my partner and I, stick out her wrist, perform the technique, pause in one spot and look down at her foot, and then walk away without saying anything. Technique corrected.

I picked camaraderie, but I think I could have picked "Culture" under a specific definition and meant the same thing. I started as a Kenpo-ka, and switched to Aikido not because I wanted to add a grappling style (as if Aikido fits that definition, but whatever), but because I couldn't find an accessible Kenpo dojo. I added Taekwondo because it's a club at the university where I study. I would train in Fuzzybunny-do if it meant I got to practice some kind of athletic bodily practice with people who love doing the same thing.

You seem quite nonchalant about your condition, but I just want to express my sympathies if it inconveniences or hurts you in any way. I would say that sticking with Aikido specifically will be helpful in ways you wouldn't initially guess. I claim no expertise in Aikido (I'm probably an "intermediate" student, if black belt is "advanced"), but I am willing to say that I have really, really good ukemi. Eventually, you and nage will flow together to the point where nage doesn't actually have to immobilize you, or cause pain; ukemi becomes an almost pre-sponse (like a response, but before). This should help you recognize when you're going to injure yourself before it actually happens, both on the mat and on the stairs. (This does depend a bit on which branch of which federation you're practicing. If you're under someone like Chiba-Sensei or Tissier-Sensei, then you'll learn to flow with nage's insane force, and it will probably hurt you. Not that I disagree with their styles; it's just different.)

That wasn't a fight: that was murder. Give your son a high-five for me.

I second pretty much everything everyone has said about angles, circling, faking, and versatility of strikes. My three additional suggestions (two practical, one abstract): 1) Keep your bloody hands up. Half the points your opponent scored on you were from the flying superman back-knuckle someone mentioned above. That's a move that is super effective, but shouldn't be; your hands should be extended in front of you and covering your face/head so that you can just bat that move away and counter. I think of my defense as a zone defense: front hand covers solar plexus to abdomen, back hand covers solar plexus to nose, front leg covers abdomen and lower. If one of those slides out of place, or drops when you kick (may I emphasize that one again: drops when you kick), that zone is open, and your opponent will be glad to enter. 2) It might be counter-intuitive given your hardstyle background, but I recommend getting your stance forward (weight on front foot, feet pointing forward/45). Watching you fight, it seems like you have a tendency not to follow up or throw multiple multiple strikes, and I'm certain shifting your weight would remedy that. If you're facing away from your opponent when you throw a kick, you have to turn all the way around to throw a hand--and by that time, it's too late. 3) Start thinking about playing your opponent more. This is effectively similar to faking, but a slight psychological difference. As in chess, where you really should be playing through your opponent's head (what will s/he do next if I do x?), I find that I do much better if I drop my own plans and just try to help my opponent make poor plans and get him/her to agree to make a mistake. As with the side-kick groin-shot post above, if you notice that your opponent tends to drop his hands when he throws a roundhouse kick at your chest, give him your chest--and a head-shot. When you think about it, most martial arts techniques (ie. from kata, bunkai, etc.) begin with a block/counter, so it's your job to pick which block/counter you really like, and invite your opponent to practice that technique with you. And an observation: I'm 6'6" (198 cm), flexible, and have solid kicks. I throw spinning kicks, aerial kicks, etc--and I think I've landed maybe two in my years and years of sparring. I throw them for two reasons: they freak people out (so that they make mistakes), and they help my opponent fixate on my legs so that I can score with a basic straight punch. So, learn fun kicks if you want--because they are fun--but don't fool yourself into thinking you'll score with them. And keep in mind that if someone calls your high-kick bluff even once in a tournament by blitzing when you jump or spin, that strategy is sort of shot to hell for the rest of the match for sure, and possibly every other fight you have left in that tourney. Keep it up!

While it may not soothe your nerves in quite the same way, and while it will get easier, I just have to say that I still get flinchy, sometimes. I've been sparring for eighteen years--I can barely remember not being in martial arts--and sometimes, when someone hits really hard, or I know I'm outclassed, or just for no random reason whatsoever, I'll have a lot of trouble not looking away or caving when pressure comes on. I hope this is some comfort in that while it may not go away entirely, it doesn't mean you'll make a poor martial artist. I've won grand champion in tournaments where I've flinched and shied away in some rounds. I've never been a terribly aggressive person, and you don't have to be, either. Best of luck to you, and long live martial artists who don't much like hitting people but are good at it, anyway!

Started just before I turned 22. I figured that I had no marketable skills, so I should have some incredibly refined and specialized unmarketable skills. I appreciate very much both the fact that you quote yourself, and what you said. You're right; if the problem is length of time to belt, then changing that length in either direction won't solve the problem. I really, really, really like your approach. Oh, the readings of threatened masculinity I could do on this ... No, not wrong--just an infinite rabbit-hole of semantics. What would it mean to "convey a system"? I'm pretty sure that one could, with equal reason, argue my capacity to convey the system of American Kenpo (I can execute the full syllabus) and my instructor's incapacity to do so (he's always refining his execution of the syllabus) with nary so much as a breath between. I think this post just operates on the same flawed logic that Shizentai corrected me on: why not just have 500 ranks? Why not just two? Because length-to-rank-x is the problem, it can't be the solution. Again, thank you all for your excellent input and discussion.