mal103

Hikite is the pulling part of most actions, the open hand pulling down as you upper block, the open hand pulling in as you outer-to-inner block etc (Please understand my use of the word block means to me response which translates to forearm smash...) Pulling towards your heart is supposed to be the most powerful so any exercise that strengthens your arm pulling muscles is excellent for your MA!

Mushin Breath Practice Mushin is tricky to explain but part of it is to look at your opponent but not focus on one area, instead look and see everything, if you have good reaction speeds then you can be trained to react to any attack from anywhere, even if it's just to move out of the way. An inexperienced opponent will look where they are about to attack so will let you know what they plan. During sparring practice backing off and taking a deep breath or similar, if your cardio is good then all you need is to pace yourself and breath. Attack will keep your opponent on their toes and is the best defence, make them work, hit them hard and don't be predictable, do something out of the box and try to surprise them. Imagine being attacked by 3 blokes, would they expect you to leap through the middle and twist the neck of the centre one as in Kata Meikyo. Practice and study are the best advice.

I pay £4 per lesson, that's around 6 US dollars I think.... Some I get free as I offer to help out etc. I charge the same per person but give large discounts for families. I make a little profit after all hire, pads, insurance, printing etc is paid for - but then I often throw in extra weekend training and just break even. I'm lucky we don't have huge bills and only need to cover costs so we can train for the Karate and passing on our skills. We could make up some competition wins, exaggerate our experience, add a couple of dan ranks and then charge more but I couldn't look anyone in the eye to be soo phoney...

We put a group and page together but we generally only get 30-40 percent of our members look at it, paying FB for ads would be a complete waste of time for us, nobody has found us through it. We have the odd one that found our website through searching, nobody searches FB, you get things shared amongst friends and they may show a bit of interest but the majority of people's friends are miles away. The concept is great that friends share it and then their friends see it etc but you need to turn these people into customers not collect "likes", no good if they don't live near your dojo.

this also depends on how you train, if you delve deeper into Shotokan then you will start to learn that applications from advanced Kata are at very close range so if you practice these as drills you will be working much closer than the typical sparring distance. If you start winning against an attacker at long range then they will either give up or try to get closer or take you down to ground level. Again - the full Shotokan system includes ground fighting - its all in the Kata.

Train! Train slow, train fast, train hard... enjoy! A good instructor won't worry about it, maybe even try to improve on their teaching help out.

I prefer basics for beginners and to get senior grades to train with complex combinations that you can vary to keep pushing them. I get the idea but it's a lazy way of teaching as it's fixed, if the students hang around long enough they will see the full cycle but they will probably struggle on the harder stuff and/or get bored on the simple stuff.

I think it's good to add in applications from an early stage as some students need to know the "why" part of anything they do. I start showing basic applications to kata from early stages, I start showing the closer or more advanced applications from mid kyu level. Certainly by 4th kyu and brown belts I will show applications but ensure they are varied, especially advanced ones, ideally you are trying to teach them to explore them themselves.

Open door here too. Life sometimes gets in the way but I am always happy for people to come back to train with us, as is my Sensei. The only ones that don't get my respect are the ones who return for a few weeks and then enquire about grading, we first have to get them back up to speed so no chance. Out of respect I would approach your old Sensei/instructor and ask them if you can return to training. Maybe apologise for being absent, but they should be pleased to see you return.

Just running over this point and my earlier comments - a good Karate school/dojo will teach the Kata, then teach applications, also how they can vary and then drill them with a partner - ultimately drill them with a "not so compliant" partner so they can see if it works and if it works for them. The ideal for me is to pick one or some of these drills automatically if they were ever needed. Karate will get you to the same place as any other MA - you just have to stick with it - or get a good teacher.

I've only done Karate so can't compare the two, but I have been doing Karate properly so I would suggest you find a better school or stick with it. Most examples of other MA that I have witnessed can also be found in Karate IF done properly and fully with the full range, especially beyond black belt. Chasing two rabbits doesn't work either but then the grass is always greener...

Ideally between 10-12 but we do take them from 6 after we give them a trial. A lot of kids don't get it and just class it as any other activity but they may be good later on. From a business point of view having lots of kids is a good thing as it pays the rent, some are just looking for a reason to give up, some will go on to be great MAists. A lot of clubs will add grades to prolong the journey but i think this is purely making more money out of them. If mine don't do well enough then they skip grading.

Listen to your body is the best advise. If you are tired mid evening every day then you may need to either ease off a bit or add in another rest day. There are millions of bits of advise for what is best for you, the best ones are the ones that you enjoy and you see the results. On a full week I do 10 hours training, a mixture of Gym, Kata, Karate lessons, Karate teaching. I try to keep a mix of cardio and lifting, then vary the lifting so all muscle groups get a go. I'm not super fit but have a loose plan to gradually increase things and can see the results. Saying that I can run circles around some younger guys... On the other side of the arguement, don't allow it to take over your life, everyone needs a sofa/couch day as well.

Take above advise.... If you can move it then I would say you either have a fracture or just heavily bruised it, either way it will be very painful for several days, maybe even weeks. I did similar with a crooked punch that not only took the full force on my small finger knuckle but it made contact with a bony part of the opponent and hurt for weeks. So long as you don't have pins and needles at the end of your finger and its normal temperature then it should be okay, but will need to be rested or bandaged up whilst training. Above all of this is if you are in pain or in any doubt then don't take the advise of online KarateKa - GO SEE a Doctor! An x-ray will let you know - although their advise will be to stop doing MA for weeks. You can train with injuries if you are careful and have a good instructor.

When you get to a certain level of Karate and start to understand the applications of the advanced Kata you will learn the many techniques needed to take down a stronger/bigger opponent. A lot of these techniques are the same in many MA so it doesn't have to be Karate. You just need lots of training with the right teacher.

I'm confident that you can bend statistics to make them fit any situation, not long ago someone got an Oscar for convincing us that we were all going to fry as the planet gets much hotter and used convincing stats, most of the argument has been disproved by others taking a different look at the same data. I don't disbelieve that a study of some senior Karateka may have had reduced life expectancy, I am just annoyed that ridiculous statements like the OP are used to scare us into thinking we are doing something bad for our health. We are told every day that certain foods, drinks or activities are bad for us but are told out of context, like drinking 3 bottles of red wine a day is bad for you but the odd glass is good for you. There are loads of these reports normally fed to us by a newspaper who will make a broad shock statement like the OP. In todays news we are being told that nearly half the UK population will be classed as Obese within the next 20-30 odd years, do we really need shock statements that state an exercise is bad for us? I see the evidence every day/week that Karate has great benifits to our health, I also can see a few senior Karateka that only teach and who are no longer fit and healthy. The original statement makes you think that doing Karate will somehow be bad for your health, but suggests to me that not doing Karate (or anything) will be better for you? That's how it reads.

I've heard of lots of doctors advise against MA due to agravating the injury, sometimes I thik they are just trying to cover themselves. Try to seek expert medical advise but speak with your instructors to train slowly and easily at first and gradually increase in effort, maybe also do alternative exercises if you fear certain ones will put you at risk. I would also find a Dojo that does not make you sign up long term!!!

I think it's good to be loyal to your Sensei but you limit your teaching to the knowledge of one person? They may have a vast understanding of your art but I think it is a good idea to attend seminars and to visit others to expand your knowledge. However, part of being loyal to your Sensei is to ask their blessing for you to go and train elsewhere, some people are still against the idea though so it is then up to you what you do. I think some students make a mistake of blind loyalty where they don't question anything, the sort of person that writes rubbish on YouTube because it's different to how their Sensei does it. I'm not that experienced at instructing but I expect my senior students to provide good and bad feedback and not just follow like sheep. Also, cross training with other groups is in my opinion a good thing, it helps to spread good teaching concepts and will hopefully raise the standard of any that realise they are slightly under the standard. For instance I visited a dojo in London that was a higher pace than mine, i have included some faster paced training into the mix.

Losing students is horrible, some are just waiting for an excuse to give up though. I lost a student that was very keen and half way to Black Belt, I thought he was hooked but he suddenly left and was then very anti Karate. This hit me hard as you expect lower grades to drop out or senior grades if they are still not that interested - very rare though. Later on I discovered that he was into hill walking then suddenly changed to Judo, then suddenly changed to Karate, now he is on about the next big thing... So I guess he can't stick at anything long term so I don't feel so bad about him leaving. I did the same thing and looked inwards at my teaching etc but as stated earlier retention of students is high and only a few drop out so I am confident. Forget this chap and concentrate on the other students.

Go with option 1 from above, you may have to then explain to your Te instructor that you need to wear your normal belt as your CI prefers it. At the end of the day it's just a colour, you know you are always a student learning and the Sensei's know they are also students passing on their knowledge. I was keen to train with another club a while ago after an invite, mainly to compare and to see how they do it. My CI pointed out that they may use that against us, or it may be them trying to poach me and my students. It's good to learn new and to train with others but we have to be careful with politics and business etc. Good luck in building bridges...

I agree with everyone here on all angles... I would probably agree to teach them but I think I would insist they do a few standard lessons first so I can judge where they are and at what level - rank/grade alone doesn't always let you know this. If the Kata was done poorly due to bad basics of the student then you would have to correct this first before you can expect them to do the Kata properly, it would be like teaching Bassai Dai (a Shotokan Brown/Black belt Kata) to an 8/9th Kyu, if they don't understand things like hip twists then they won't ever be able to do the Kata justice. I think the only situation for this scenario to happen is if their Sensei had said they are not ready to progress further yet.

Karate/MA doesn't have to be linked to Japan or Okinawa, it has gone worldwide so should be treated as worldwide and not tied to the source. Any "good" school/style will include grappling, ground work and being able to defend yourself so be careful not to label them. Good luck and enjoy it!

It's fair to say that not everyone knows every possible application for every move and I also think it's fair to say that some instructors are happy with just the basic one that they were shown years ago. I have known students who have reached brown belt level and never had any applications explained to them, also to go through Kata and never go beyond the basic strike/block applications. Personally I find it fascinating to explore the applications, there are many "aha!" moments like when you discover that an X "block" could be a grab and strike, or it could be used to escape a wrist grab, or even a strangle hold, etc Here's the point I was aiming at... I have at least 2 students that have great difficulty in doing anything unless you explain what it's for, they are not natural fighters and struggle with even a combination unless you spell it out and show them. One is learning the green belt Kihon line work, for example - outer to inner block, elbow stirke, backfist strike and opposite punch needs to be explained as blocking a punch, elbow to chin, knuckles to head, punch to stomach... They have both come on very well and I hope they will eventually find new stuff easier but this is the first time I have come across this level, everyone learns differently, some just see and do, others need it describing in detail.

Forgot to mention Governing Bodies... Ask if they are associated to any, it doesn't always mean they will be good but always nice to know if they are linked to a larger group/org. They will normally adhere to their parents policies on Data/Child Protection, camera's etc and should meet a certain standard. This also gives you another option if you get badly treated by them or have any concerns. For example we have appointed a Child Protection Officer for our association and openly encourage people to report concerns to them, we also state that if you don't get a good enough response then you can approach the equivalant within the EKF. You may also find that if they are part of a larger group they may have inter club competitions, semina's or regular meets to cross train. Compare all of these points with a single Black belt who teaches within a small club but doesn't train themself, doesn't have any of the above and is not forthcoming when asked questions? In the UK anyone can put on a Black belt and open a club to teach Karate, people/parents assume they are getting the real deal. Doesn't mean their Karate is bad but you decide which you would prefer to train with. Just something to think about...

If I was to meet a "Master" of anything i would expect that they have been actually studying and training in the subject for many years. I have met a 5th Dan that was awful because he had been out front shouting at kids for over 30 years but never broke into a sweat - I say this disrespectfully because he is a disgrace to the belt - it's not something I would normally say about a senior Dan grade. A similar word over-used these days is "expert", I would expect an expert to know a lot about their subject and to be able to develop/react to any aspect of the subject matter. Like a cheap disaster movie where the lead role is discribed as the worlds foremost expert on the subject of the pending disaster - you would expect to see an old professor type with years in the field and not a good looking 25 y.o.