tayl0124

As far as Embroidery on a belt. I wouldn't want any on a belt under black belt. The biggest reason being that I would assume that you won't have a kyu rank belt for too long. At least that is the case in the systems our group associates with. I figure why spend the money to have a belt embroidered if you are only going to wear it for a year or less.

Ask your Sensei. In my school and other school who follow our lineage you have to be a brown belt or above to have embroidery on your gi. And that is usually only the style of karate on the breast.

I agree with the shrinkage factor. I will say that being that I have never had another quality gi before, that I assumed it was because it was 100% cotton. I did notice that according to their size chart I should have ordered at size 8 not a size 6 as I ordered. The 6 fit very well when new, but has lost some length after 1 or 2 years or wear and washing in only cold water with line drying. Perhaps if I would have ordered the 8 as their sizing chart suggests and washed it and dried it, perhaps it would fit like the 6 does when it was new. For that reason, I am currently in search of a cotton/poly blend gi that is reasonably priced.

If you can find a competent teacher they are very easy to learn. There isn't too much to the nunchuku. Problem is that people want to look flashy while doing it, and effective nunchuku technique doesn't look as much flashy as it looks scary! The problem with weapons in gereral I find is that people don't actually know what the intended striking surface is on most weapons. Can anyone guess what part of the nunchuku you are actually striking with? OR the Bo for that matter?? Mind you, striking with the wrong part is still going to hurt like hell.

We (well our sensei) trains in a few weapon styles, so currently here is the list. Bo Sai Tonfa Nuntai bo (sp?) Eku Tekko , both horseshoe and stirrup style Titsu Nunchuku Nuntai Sai He has not yet started training with, but is studying a style that teaches them. Timbe and rochin (sp?) Kama

We have used them at our school a few times, and have nothing but great success with our orders. As a matter of fact, I am on the verge of getting an order together to place soon.

I believe that it is good to train yourself in more than one style, as someone else posted, you would tend to be more well rounded. Also you may gain a better understanding on why something you do in one style works better for you than what they do in another style. Look back at the true martial arts masters, the ones who created entire systems. Most of those systems came from a hybrid of other systems. It is it good enough for them, it is good enough for me. I do believe that you have to have a good solid foundation (black belt at least) in one before you can attempt to train in another, unless they are very different from each other. I currently study Isshinryu, but also study ryukyu kobudo at the same time. The weapon kata's in Isshinryu are very simular to those in ryukyu kobudo, however the organization that I am learning under was started by the same person that tought the Isshinryu master many of his weapon katas.

This post is so old, but I am new here so let me throw in my 2¢. First about pull-back. I truly believe that it is used as a training tool. Once a karateka truly understands Sanchin ( if you practice it for many many years) you can transfer the knowledge that you learned from the push-pull technique, to gojuryu's hard soft technique. What I am saying is that you learn how to apply the same concept using sanchin rather than push pull. Now onto hand position. Don't forget what Tatsuo Shimabuku said when he was once asked by a group of karateka sitting a table drinking. He asked them which of the bottles on the table was the best. They argued that this or that one was the best, and then he replied with a simple yet well thought out message, "all the bottles were good. All of them served a purpose: to hold what they were intended to." That being said, I prefer to use what we train. I am fortunate enough to train with some people that know very well the capabilities of the body, but each style could argue which is better. Next time you want to test the difference have someone hold your hand in each position while trying to push them away. Which position do you feel stronger in?? I would argue that with your fist at you hip you are able to use your entire body to push your fist forward, whereas the higher you place your fist, the more you tend to use just your arm.

New to the forum, so I am searching out all isshinryu based threads. At our school, this is the only Sai kata we learn before Shodan.