shadowspawn

I understand what you're saying. You're talking more in the same sense that Bruce Lee spoke. Take what works for you and move on. If you like elements x and y from karate and elements z and q from kung fu then that's what you should use. However, you have to be careful. Otherwise, you get people teaching stuff like this: So it's not to say "no style" rather, your style. The moves that work best for you are the moves you should use. Not entirely sure what you're getting at linking to that video. I mean yes it looks silly, but from my perspective, it does have its merits. I mean if you hit the ground and you're not in a MMA ring, I don't think you'd be willing to risk laying on your back hoping to catch your assailant in your guard if he decides to fight on the ground with you. I'm pretty sure you'd be trying to work on getting back to your feet as soon as possible. This seems like a decent set of ground techniques to make space for you to transition from on your back to on your feet.

Strength is what gets the leg up. Flexibility is what keeps you from hurting yourself. Work the kick one step at a time. First work on getting that knee up as high as you can. Once you feel you can get that knee up as high as you can at a respectable speed, then work on the leg extension. Start by keeping your leg straight and lifting it as high as you can until you feel a tightness in your hamstring. That is the maximum height you want to try to kick at until you build your flexibility in your hamstring. Regular stretching and calisthenics should help build your flexibility. Once you can get rid of that hamstring resistance, work on building your quad muscles (the ones that get you to extend your leg). I find squat kicks are good for this. Once you feel that you've developed all the necessary basics, put them all together slowly (step by step if you have to). Focus on good technique and try to get feedback on your technique from your sensei/sempai. Once you got good solid technique going for you, gradually speed it up and you should be good.

$10/month for 2 1.5 hour classes a week. We don't need to pay rent for the dojo we use though so that cuts down on costs a lot.

With regards to front kicks in our style, heel kick=hitting something low. Ball of the foot=hitting something high. If you're trying to snap someone's knee back with a front kick, you'll likely find it a lot more effective to use your heel (even in the case of a snap kick) than you would trying to contort your foot to get the ball of the foot to work effectively. Unless of course, you're wearing hard-soled shoes in which case you can just kick with the toe of the shoe and cause some significant damage.

A roundhouse kick will typically come out parallel to the ground or at a slight angle downwards to generate maximum power by minimizing gravitational resistance. There are variations that come up at a 45 degree angle, namely in MMA due to the increased speed of cutting the distance traveled roughly in half, but that's another story. A side kick will take an even more direct approach by coming either straight out towards the target or "snapping" at a slight upwards angle depending on whether you're doing a thrust kick or a snap kick. In either case, gravity is usually working against you unless you're striking low (as in a street fight as thrust kicks for the legs are relatively dangerous in the ring). @sensei8: 180 degrees away from the opponent? That seems very dangerous honestly. If you miss, you leave half your back wide open to your opponent. I typically aim for either a 90 degree turnout or a 145 degree turnout depending on how much extra range I think I need, but I always try to make sure I never show my back to the opponent.

I'd say it's 80% practitioner and 20% style. Technically speaking, I think that someone can simply get into 100 fights and develop their own style of "street fighting" and be a very effective fighter in their own arena by experience alone without having a definitive "style" they derived their techniques from. Then you can have someone who's as stiff as an 80 year old man trying to practice a grappling martial art like wrestling or jujitsu and get absolutely wrecked every time they try to take the fight to the floor because they simply don't have the range of motion necessary to make the martial art effective. What I do believe is that everyone has their own forte and choosing the martial art that closest resembles what you're good in is a significant portion of being an effective martial artist.

Ours comes downward at an angle with the blocking hand starting as high up as we can raise it while still keeping it behind our head. Application is that coming down at an attack increases the momentum behind it due to gravitational force. It also trains students for a followup grab of the arm by getting them to instinctively use gravity and their hips to strike downwards with an open hand so when they apply it in sparring, it becomes a lot easier to understand. As per hand starting positions, we use both, or rather we have used both at various points in time. We originally started with the hand up, hand down method with the intention of the downed hand covering the relatively large opening created when lifting your arm so high above your head (same mentality that we use for our gedan barai). The both hands up method allows your hips to more easily get into the motion since both hands are moving in the same direction. And because of the lack of a pulling hand, there's no resistance to the hip rotation when performing the technique. Both have their applications depending on what your intention is and none are inherently wrong. The only "wrong" way I see people doing an open hand block is by extending their arm and blocking with only the area from the fingertip to the base of the palm rather than from the fingertip to the elbow. For one thing, it leaves a huge margin of error that can easily have you missing the strike completely. Another thing is that leaving your hand so far out from your body makes it extremely easy to lose control of that hand if it were to be grabbed. Another is that you should never have to reach that far out to deflect an incoming attack unless you're like a 4 foot person up against an 8 foot tall giant (and even then, good luck generating enough leverage with your arm extended so far). If anyone can explain to me a significant benefit for blocking in such a way, please share because I honestly see absolutely no practical use for such a technique outside of an eye rake.

For power, I definitely agree with the above. Shoulders should follow the hips for sure. But for speed, I find it best to have your shoulders lead with your hips moving roughly half as much as they would when throwing a finishing strike. I like to think of it like this. When you want to generate power, you need to get your entire body in on the motion starting with your legs (a powerful, rooted stance), then your hips to initiate the power, then your torso to transfer the energy into your arm. When you want to throw a fast and somewhat powerful strike, if you initiate the motion with your shoulders, it comes out a lot faster and rotating your hips a moment before impact will ensure a good amount of energy is transferred to your opponent while still getting that initial "oomf" that gets that arm out quickly. This is just my opinion of course.

Interestingly enough, I've actually had this happen to me once in the past. What had happened is that my original instructor had to abandon the dojo for a while for IRL things that I won't get into and one of his students took over the class. Honestly, I believe there were others who could have done a better job in the dojo than he did, but I guess it was better than nothing. Anyway a few months later, he was caught buying alcohol for minors and was basically banned from the place that used to host the dojo. After a few years, the original instructor returned, but by then I had already been an active member of my current dojo and so I just stuck with that. As per the questions: 1. Not necessarily. I'll quit if what they're teaching isn't very effective in any real way, shape, or form. 2. Rank/title means little to nothing to me. If I have to get rid of it, it's no big deal. 3. See above. 4. Not at all. Maybe if I were practicing some form of Kung Fu or other deeply religious-tied martial art I would, but I don't see how your instructor being a "bad guy" should lose you respect among other practitioners. 5. Why would anyone do that? Unless of course their lineage isn't based on who they trained under so much as it is who they want to have trained under. In that case, I'd consider it somewhat deceitful personally, but that's just me.

So I got into a conversation with my grandma the other day (used to be head nurse at a hospital here) about whether the punch as we know it today is a natural technique or a developed one. I am leaning toward the latter. I mean when you tell a little kid to hit something as hard as they can, usually their first instinct is to run up to it and hit it with a hammer fist. Even for those that have seen games/TV shows/movies where people punch one another, they still have a tendency to hit it with a hammer fist. Additionally, you're much more likely to hurt yourself (namely your wrist and knuckles) by punching someone in the face than you would if you were to use a hammer fist. As far as I can see, all evidence points to the punch being a technique that we adopt by way of imitation rather than one that we naturally use for attack.

Personally, I'm against using videos to teach you. Not only do videos often have mistakes, but without an instructor to tell you to bend your knee some more, pull your hand some more, widen your stance, etc. you could be doing it incorrectly for years without ever noticing it until it's too late. I would recommend you attend a class at least part time to make sure you are doing everything correctly. You don't want to develop bad habits.

It depends on what muscles are being strengthened and the muscles employed when using the technique in question. The muscles involved in throwing a crescent kick will not be the same as those used to throw a roundhouse kick. Squats won't help much in the way of throwing the crescent kick and instead, the increased mass you put on by building up your leg muscles could potentially slow you down since you are increasing the M in your equation without doing much for the F. If you work everything out equally though and exercise each muscle to make them all strong, yes you will increase your speed. I find it's more reliable to simply practice the techniques though as I have done experiments with working out certain muscles (for a few months I worked heavily on my right arm's bicep and heavily on my left arm's tricep and found that not only did my left arm actually throw punches faster, but it felt as though my right arm was throwing them slower) and I personally think that unless you have a very balanced workout regiment, you'll end up specializing only in the techniques that make large use of the muscles you are isolating.

We do something similar but we only have six directions in our exercises. We call them the six pivot points. There is left, right, inside left (northwest), inside right (northeast), outside left (southwest), and outside right (southeast). They are all strictly evasive maneuvers which is why we do not practice forward and back during the exercise.

Ah I remember the first time I failed to break a board. I ended up with the dreaded one-knuckle LOL Of course I'll often end up with it after breaking a few boards anyway. I always thought I just don't notice it until after I stop. Not sure on that though and I'll have to confirm one day. Oh and in that same session that I mentioned above, after the guy failed to break it with his hand again, he jumped up and stomped on the board. Unfortunately for him, it still didn't break and now he has a sore foot in addition to a sore hand LOL

I try to avoid wearing my gi out in public, but sometimes it just has to be done. I think of wearing your gi (especially full gi with belt, jacket, pants) to be an embarrassment personally. It is to me what wearing underwear is. It's no embarrassment to wear it where appropriate, but to be caught in public with it is where it gets embarrassing. EDIT: and the reason full gi would be more embarrassing than with simply the jacket+pants is simply because of the rank designation that wearing a black belt would imply. It's simply not good news and attracts unnecessary attention to yourself.

I am a fairly small person, and I actually find that Sensei8's method works well for me also. It took me a long time to work out how exactly to get my jamming kick in with just the right timing and posture though. I had to eliminate a good deal of excess motion and relax more to increase speed. Also, I had to get used to the feeling of my kick hitting a target that would not go back as I struck it. It's a totally different feeling than kicking something mobile like a bag. If in a blitz situation you kick the same way as when your opponent is stationary or backing up, you may or may not go flying backwards. To prevent this from happening I went out into a park and found a big rock to kick for about 30 min a day. Even if a jamming kick doesn't earn a point by itself, it will surely make an opponent think twice about running at you full speed. Also, if you can keep your center of gravity where you want it, a jam-kick can be a good set-up for another swiftly-following strike. Just wanted to throw this in. You can push the heavy bag back and forth so it gains some forward-backward momentum and, as its coming back, you can fire a kick/punch/etc. to help better prepare you for hitting a charging opponent. The heavier the bag, the better.

Not if it's difficult!! While I see that your comment was not meant to stir up arguments, you bring up a good point. Only the most dedicated martial artists would be practicing it, and they would be considered "the best" if such an art existed. If an art is so difficult that only a select few can actually participate and train successfully, how can it be the best? I would see the limited success as a con, and therefore not the best. To add to this, it also very much depends on the practitioner of the art. Some people don't have the mentality and/or physique for certain martial arts. Hence, in practice, a skilled Jujitsu practitioner can take out a skilled Karate practitioner and vice versa depending solely on the abilities of the practitioners themselves. What I feel it ultimately comes down to is a matter of preference. What is best for person #1 may not be best for person #2 which may not be best for person #3 and so forth. You could liken it to the firearm caliber debates about 9mm vs .45ACP vs 10mm vs .357mag. All are deadly. It's just some like 9mm more than .357mag and vice versa.

Generally speaking, I prefer people who blitz. It lets them do the work of getting in range for me. Due to my short stature, I usually have to fight for every inch of headway when trying to close the distance between me and the opponent. If they're coming to me rather than me having to go to them, it makes my job so much easier. That being said, staying light on your feet and working on evasive footwork is probably the best way to go if you're trying to stay out of range from someone who crowds you in. The idea being to force them to change directions and thus their momentum. If you move in a linear line (forwards or backwards), your opponent doesn't need to change their momentum at all and you'll find yourself crowded in really fast.

We use an old hard wood floor that has been eaten away by termites to a certain extent. Held together with nails and duct tape, it works for the most part. You just need to be careful how you step in certain areas. But I guess it does help train you to be more aware of your environment as opposed to a completely flat and solid ground with no obstacles or impediments whatsoever.

That is exactly what I say whenever people ask me for my opinion on the best anything. If it truly was the best, all the other competitors would not exist at all since there would be no point in practicing an art that doesn't work. For example, no one would use an internet browser that can't browse the internet (save some exceptionally strange people). That's why none exist.

Hey guys. No need to be so harsh. You need to give the art some credit. If you do it hard enough, maybe you can convince your attacker that you're some crazy dude jacked up on crack or something and make them go "OH SHEEZ!" and run off. The only problem is that you'd have to be doing this every waking moment of the day. You know, to give the illusion of psychosis.

I'm not sure if it's all psychological or not, but it sure feels like it hits back a lot harder if you don't break the board. I've had that happen to me when I was trying to break concrete the first few times. You learn fast that it's best not to be intimidated by it. The more scared you are, the more it's gonna hurt LOL

This reminds me of a time years ago when I wanted to practice breaking for the heck of it. I grabbed a bunch of fencing boards (cause we had extra boards lying around that we were never gonna use) and went at it. The first one I took, I broke it and it splintered in a kind of zig zag across the middle. Gave my hand a little rest for a bit and grabbed the second one. Here is where it gets hilarious. My friend also tried to do the same thing on this second board. He made impact and didn't break it. Needless to say he was ticked and his hand was hurting LOL. So then my turn comes up. I hit that thing as hard as I can and it snaps just like the last one but this time the left side of the fencing board flies up using the cinderblock I was using to hold it up as a fulcrum and smacks me right on the side of the head. Bruce Lee definitely lied when he said boards don't hit back LOL

Definitely light contact. Perhaps medium when I'm throwing to make them drop their guard but we definitely do not go 100%. During kumite, we simply don't throw with the hip. I'd say that's roughly 10-20% of full power. A bit trickier with kicks and those are usually the things that end up being medium contact but we always (or at least we're supposed to) throw for the abdomen when kicking to avoid injury even if someone catches a good kick. Attacks to the back are generally off-limits unless you're throwing with the flat of your foot. Shots to the face are allowed for black belts where contact is discouraged, but sometimes allowed as long as it was thrown with control (which it always should be). "As long as you're still standing, there should be no penalty".

This is a very interesting topic as this same issue is being brought up today in my school. My sensei still bows to his late sensei even now long after his death. His sensei died young at the age of 28 I believe as a sandan during a time where we worked on a 5 day system. Since then, he has surpassed his sensei in terms of rank but even to this day teaches his karate as "Tokunaga's version". That said, I personally believe that it would be best to use your own signature for those who were trained specifically under you and reserve your founder's signatures for those who had the honor of training under him. As has already been stated, it doesn't make much sense for someone who has passed to be the one to consent to someone who has achieved shodan. But at the same time, I wouldn't think it fair to remove their names from the certificate altogether if you feel you couldn't have gotten to that point without their assistance. I suppose it really depends on what the certificate means to you. If it is a means of authentication as you say, I would think it best for those alive today to certify people when they are of rank. If you think it more of a document that represents your school and is a physical manifestation of its genealogy, I would maintain your founder's signature. TL;DR? If you think it more of a certificate of authenticity and acceptance rather than a genealogical document representative of your school's roots and its successor generations of karate-ka, I would think it makes more sense to impose your own signatures on said certificates.