cross

Thats true, but at the same time, not training at all would be a sure way to avoid injury.

Ive always been under the impression that things gradually get worse with age. What do you base this statment on?

Haha, i think ive said this before. Common sense is universal. Sometimes im lucky enough to use it.

No problems. The key is simplicity and practice, like most things. Having at least a basic well practiced gameplan is much better than winging it or wondering what you could have done after the event.

For those who missed this on national geographic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-x4iJM2aU4 Interesting clip regarding pressure point techniques. Any thoughts?

The mindset you acheive during kata would be worlds apart from how your body would react during a violent situation. Fine motor skill is the first thing that flies out the window.

Couldnt have said it better.

I completely agree. And ill add that when faced by multiple attackers you dont have much in your favour. Being pre-emptive and active, rather than passive and reactive, is one of the few things that can give you the upper hand. From my experience, 99% of the time i would start with: A palm heal to the face: same body mechanics of a stiff jab. or An open handed slap(hitting with mainly the palm heal) : same mechanics has a left hook. The reason i choose these is because i have drilled it over and over with and without partners, from the passive stance(this is an extremely effective setup for palms), and an unprepared position. They trigger you to pre-empt, you use a pattern interupting question to distract and then strike. There has not been a time so far when it hasnt landed if that procedure was followed correctly. The only time it wont work, is if you are 2 far away so they can see it coming, or if you dont use the question to distract them. Why palm and not punch? We have all heard the story of mike tyson and other boxers breaking their hands when no gloves are involved. Did they punch incorrectly... possibly. But damage to the small bones in the hand is a very real problem involved with punching. Break your hand with your pre-empt and your left with one hand if you have to continue fighting. Palms are also good in that you can follow through like a punch, but if you dont bring your hand back you already have some control of the face and can rake or grab if the situation requires. Not to mention the legal advantage of slapping someone over punching them.

I agree with you here bushido_man96, but at the same time, i wonder how far an instructor is able to veer from the original syllabus without loosing the important aspects of the specific style. Perhaps 2 much focus on the self defence aspects would take away from those who want to do art for arts sake. But if self defence is advertised then they definetly need to cover it in depth.

There is a topic related to the use of pre-emptive strikes here: http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=16844

If you wait for someone else to hit first you have already lost. If you feel that your in direct danger then do what you have to do to get out of there. What kind of strike would you pre-empt with? A punch to the face, i wouldnt. The pre physical part is often over looked in martial arts training. Ignoring a threat is not the answer, putting your head in the sand isnt going to make it go away. You should see from what you just said that ignoring them just made them more aggressive. Learn how to deal with the phycological aspects of an assault and you wont have to rely on physical agression, or a bouncer to save you.

Does that mean training 90%(100% in most cases) barefoot, has seen in most dojos, is the most effective and realistic way?

The human body has a natural set of responses on the subconscious level. Why try and override thousands of years of human evolution with something a few "masters" thought was a good idea hundreds of years ago? It makes sense to learn what your bodys natural responses are and enhance them, not try and re-learn how to respond. What if there statement was made because there was no reasearch to suggest anything different or no-one questioned them at the time? Credentials or not, common sense is universal. Should we continue to do something until someone with higher credentials overrules the original idea, even if years later there is no real evidence to support doing the said thing?

Today, the majority of great fighters do not practice kata, there are exceptions, but thats all they are, exceptions.

Your comment "The point is, if he believed in kata, then there must be some value there." That was the only reason you provided to this point. I look forward to hearing other reasons why you find kata benificial. Certainly, but when your justification for doing kata is "because someone else did it", i wonder, if we are doing kata because of oyama, what else should we do that he did many years ago. Punch stones to condition our knuckles, go into the mountains to train and live. 2006 is a very different time to when oyama was training. You can visualise being attacked while performing kata, or you can actually replicate getting attacked with training partners and defend against it. All the visualisation in the world isnt going to prepare you for the adrenaline and loss of fine motor skill, associated with being attacked. Firstly, impact. Hitting a bag is exactly that... hitting. Its a whole different ball game to performing kata. Also, in general the techniques found in kata have limited applications to the realities of violence in the 21st century. Ive seen it time and time again, an application being taught that looks a little bit like the original technique(if you have an amazing imagination) that turns out to be an elaborate throwing and strike combination, all starting from an "opponent" throwing a single karate style punch and holding it out so you can control his arm. Its just not realistic. Im not denying this, however your solo training time could be spent doing more practical things than kata. The majority of the time, that is the only reason kata is taught in the first place though. Because thats what your instructor was taught, or it maintains the spirit of budo etc. Not many instructors give a good reason has to why kata would apply to someone who wants to learn how to defend themself NOW.

It depends on your goals, if you want to be purely a martial artist then you might be missing something. But these days the spiritual aspects of martials are fairly limited, and often used by traditional schools to justify not teaching effective self defence. You will learn just has much about hardwork, humility, respect etc from any of the combat arts you listed. What do you want to acheive from training? When you clearly define that, it will be alot easier to work out which (if any) martial art can help you achieve these goals. If your goal is to be an expert at a certain art, then in a way it doesnt really matter what you choose. However if you want to learn to defend yourself or get fit, not all arts are equal.

Doing something to maintain tradition is not always practical to modern life. I focus specifically on self defence so do all my training in normal shoes and my everyday clothes (t-shirt and shorts, jumper and trackpants in winter). Never do i wear a gi, or train barefoot. The whole dynamic of kicks, mobility, stomps, wrestling all changes when you throw shoes into the mix, so you better train with this. I wonder how many females train in heels if they are likely to wear them when they go out at night?

Im not saying it needed to be, but thats the reality of it.

From most accounts it was introduced has a means of physical training for school children?

If you dont consider this to be a sportive aspect, how would you describe it?

If we are talking purely in terms of self defence then i dont think there is really a definite answer to that. Self defence situations are highly unpredictable, so formulating a clear gameplan is very important. Knowing what you want to do, and feel comfortable doing to aid your escape. Equally important is being adaptable and training for what could happen when your gameplan fails. Does that mean you should do them 50/50? I say no. Depends on your gameplan, personally, i train to control while striking. Im not talking about the common idea of strikes like jabs, crosses, front and round kicks(although they come into it, they dont form the main part). The bodys natural ability to rip, grab, pull, tear, hold, hit(you can see this is not just striking or just grappling) is often enhanced in stressful situations, if you can control the attacker while doing all that, then all the better.

Overly long stances, modifications to original kata for the purpose of excercise and physical strength.

This brings up a point regarding how you train. If your goal is to learn self defence, the 2 arnt seperate things, there are all trained together. Although at a basic level you will work each thing individually at times, just the same has you would work just punches and just kicks. But you should always have to goal of combining the two elements. Its like AndrewGreen said in an earlier post:

If you are talking about a fight, then yes, the more skilled person has an advantage. However, self defence is a completely different animal. You do enough so that you can escape, that doesnt mean you have to fight on until you submit him, knock him out, or until the bouncer comes. You do what you have to and get out of there fast. Its nothing like a drawn out sparring match where you go back and forth trying tactics until you get the better of the other person. In self defence there are alot of variables, multiple attackers, improvised weapons, the element of surprise, environmental factors etc. Its not has clean cut has grappler vs striker. If you are serious about learning to defend yourself, you better have a working knowledge of both.

Gave up on the "soda"(we call it soft drink in aus) a few months back after a fairly painful visit to the dentist. He said it was alright to drink in moderation, however i decided to go off it completely. These days i drink water mainly, milk and juice sometimes... not the mention the occasional beer... but thats a different story.