andym

Hello and welcome to the forum.

[/img] Sums it up really.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVx7gXe87QI&feature=youtu.be This illustrates the point in an awe-inspiring way. Both guys had trained up for this fight. They had a strategy to deal with each, a game plan, variations on techniques to use etc. No one expected what they actually did to each other. PS - Stand and salute these men, awesome is the only word !

In fact thinking about this a bit more. Most Dojo I know, encourage lower grades to spar with higher grades to improve the lower grades sparring ability. Now I'm even more puzzled.

I , like many others , am puzzled by this response by the Dan grade. 'The Kun' ( the [dojo] oath) that i know of , make no mention of anything like this. Dojo etiquette, maybe. But the question is, is this information posted up in the dojo ? Is it well known with in your dojo that a kohai (lower grade) can ask something of a senpai (senior student) ? All in all puzzling with out more detail.

All the best for the grading, if i'm not to late.

Well done you lot and congratulations to all of you.

20 Year Gap ! Sorry you WERE a 4th kyu 20 years ago. That means to me you are back at the beginning. There is a monumental difference between the memories of what you did 20 years ago and what your body will do now ! If the gap was of a few years, it would be worth asking the question of the teacher, but after 20 years ? Besides, it should and would be up to the discretion of the teacher IMO.

MasterPain, this is in Great Britain - We have very different views in relation to carrying weapons remember. That said, I see this as a good thing - first aid in the first instance. But it might also bring home to the gang members the inevitable futility of that life style. I remember one football thug at work doing a company first aid course and finding it traumatic - the full implications of what he was up too. Pretty soon he had left being a football hooligan behind. So it just might work.

This is a very informative blog, by Victor Smith, a senior Isshin Ryu Sensei. http://isshin-concentration.blogspot.co.uk/

Good luck, hope you don't get too many bumps .

Hello jollyrogers and welcome to the forum.

Hello and welcome to the forum.

To me, MMA doesn't enter into this debate. My view is linked to martial arts clubs that try to teach everything and be 'all things to all men'. They teach a generic sport Karate, usually of a poor standard. This is the issue for me. As I said Or the 'Karate' (or Ju jitsu, or what ever term they want to use) is obviously a miss-mash of karate , kick boxing and a bit of some Kung Fu etc , the teacher has picked up. That's if they want to use the flag of tradition. sometimes the same thing is passed off as MMA !

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Well done Tempest, keep up the good work.

I think the issue here is being lost in the word 'traditional' ? I believe what muttley means is the lack of a definitive style, and I would agree. All to many martial arts schools teach a combination of this and that. But, most of the times the sum of the whole, is less than the original parts. A definitive style is the spine on with things can be added, as and when a student requires them. If the school teaches 'a combination of this and that', from my experience - it lacks a coherence - a spine. As too why this is happening, I'm at a loss. As to MMA, I know several traditional instructors who became MMA coaches, thinking this is the future of the martial arts. But they are just that - coaches. Fighters come and go, the relationship involved in teaching traditional arts is missing. Fighters come and go, students may not heed their coaches advice, sometimes behaving disrespectfully to them ! Their sport coaches after all. Now they miss the definitive structure and ethos of the traditional arts. Two simple reasons for the growth of MMA, it's brutally effective in the ring: but remember 90 % of those training in MMA will not get into the ring. Plus, it's a sport, instantly understandable to the western mind, no translation needed to comprehend it's function and purpose.

I hope he was only joking ! If not he was being stupidly negative especially as it's Goju. One of the less gymnastic styles. Of course aging has it's effects - I now I'm 53. Just as an example that age is no barrier - watch this. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151277108219368 This lady is 86 years old , performing the Kata, Jion. Simply brilliant.

It's an off shoot of Kyukushinkai Karate.

Yes, that's the one Harkon72. I was just going to do a description myself, as it seems to causing confusion. As I said , nothing wrong with doing it short term or as a test. But, long term - 18 months in my case - caused real problems. So bad I had to have a month or so off training with my legs, in any form. Plus, long distance running would sometimes cause me problems, which I think started here.

My warning is based on personal experience of that exercise. I think it's the number and intensity that cause the issue. Looking back ( this dates back to the 1980's) plyometrics were unknown. Viewing them in this light would mean low numbers of reps would be recommended, rather than the high numbers I and it would seem, Harkon72, are using.

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Beware the squat/front kick - as a periodic test of fitness, great. As a regular exercise - No ! This is an exercise that can lead to knee damage in the long term.

Hello and welcome to the forum.

I second that !