jaypo

If you're not making mistakes, you're not learning! The good news is that you are recognizing them. That's the first step towards fixing them! My most common mistake is when I'm asked to apply certain techniques, usually in 1 step applications, but instead, I do what feels natural. My Sensei always says "It's never wrong if the technique works", but I get down on myself because I want to do what I'm asked to do in that situation. I think by letting your instructors know that you recognize the mistakes, you'll gain their respect. But be sure you're working on correcting them!

I kind of know what you're talking about on a different scale. The system I train in is more of a self defense system based on traditional martial arts. We learn the traditional techniques, but we focus a lot on the self defense applications. I also do a lot of research (reading, videos, outside "unofficial" training) of other techniques. So I prepare myself for real situations thru my training. When I spar, it's for points, so I can't apply my knowledge the same way I would in a real situation. Like you're saying that hikite interferes with keeping your hands up and blocking with 1 arm vs 2, I tend to get "scored on" a lot more because I don't mind getting hit with a glancing blow if it allows me to set up a good shot on my opponent. I also like to block front kicks with x blocks downward, but it leaves openings that can be scored on. In reality, I'd use the x block to grab the leg and probably take the opponent down. But in sport karate, it's not allowed. I also block very hard, so although my block may leave an opening, I'm pretty sure their technique will have a lesser effect, because I've actually broken 2 feet with blocks! Case and point- last night, some kyu level students were testing. One lady who is reallllllly set on obtaining her black belt was testing for orange (8th kyu). Her final task was to spar with each of the black belts for 1 minute each, and we could only evade or block. Then, she had to spar each of us and score. Well, by this stage in the test, she decided that she was going all out and she was going to take that rank no matter what. Basically, the black belts had to survive the onslaught as long as we could until she scored a point. When it came to me, the way she finally scored was that I was backpedalling away from her onslaught and got caught trying to avoid the wall, and it caused me to lose my focus. She threw a kick as I was trying to move away from the wall, and although it hit my arm, it was on the reverse side of the judge, and he called it a score. I fell because my feet got tangled up. The reality of it is that I could have ended the whole session within the first 10 seconds. She just charged in like a bull, and if I applied my training, I could have caught her with about 100 different things. If it were a real situation, I could have absorbed any of the techniques to deliver a stronger one. However, since it was a sport karate type situation (that I wasn't allowed to score with), it dissallowed my techniques. So to me, having to spar using "sport rules" is sort of contrary to what I'm training for. I understand why Master Funakoshi was against sport karate now!

There are 2 things for me. The first is having my legs keep up with my training! The second is trying to "unlearn" everything I've been taught in certain situations. I transitioned from Shotokan (years ago) with very tight basics to an open system that has Muay Thai, Shorin Ryu, and Kung Fu techniques, so we do a lot of trapping, throws, inside fighting, etc. whereas, I never did that in my previous training. So when we're doing bunkai from a Shotokan based kata, it's hard for me to not trap, kick with my front leg, or forego a step when I can counter with a reverse punch, etc. The good news is that my instincts are what's making it happen, and it can be considered a good thing. But when I'm trying to set an example for the kyu level students, it messes them up.

I have a couple of thoughts on the subject. First, I agree that it is the higher belt that dictates the flow and contact of the session. If they're like me, they see it as a learning and teaching tool, not a competition. I love sparring with the lower belts because I know when to "allow" them an opening. It makes me feel good to see their eyes light up when they "tagged a black belt!" Thankfully, there's only 1 student with an ego. He's the only one that has to be put in his place while sparring. We have a few new female students that are deathly afraid of even doing bunkais because they are worried about me tagging them. However, after a few sessions, they've seen my control, and it's a little easier on them. A senior belt should have great control over HIS/HER techniques. But a lot of times, they won't have control over the lower belt's. I was sparring with a girl (my Sensei's daughter) when she tested for brown belt. She is very agressive and throws a lot of hard kicks. My strategy was to avoid her kicks and counter quickly when she committed to her strikes. I am able to control my counters with no problem, but I could not control her constant advancing, so one time, I blocked a front kick and threw a reverse punch to her stomach. My technique went where it was supposed to with the correct "light" contact, but when I threw, she was still advancing, and she ran right into my punch. After the session, she said that I put her stomach thru he spine!

Congrats! That was quite an accomplishment. I was tested a few weeks ago for my Nidan rank. Halfway thru the test, the power went out at the facility. Thankfully, there was enough light to finish what he thought was enough to show our knowledge. I passed, but he said that me and the other 2 that passed will have to go to a weekend training session, 3 hours each day, to "validate" our rank because we didn't get to spar with him or do any multiple attacker scenarios.

Welcome to KF, Ninjamom! I was up in the Sister Bay area last year and had to pass thru Green Bay. Seems like my kind of area!!

Welcome to KF! I took a 22 year break myself, and as chance would have it, I wound up training again after countless injuries and knee replacement surgery in 2000. I started back when I was 37 and waaayyyy out of shape. I was able to get back into form, and the fire is burning hot again! So take that step. You won't regret getting back into it!

Shorin Ryu is actually traslated "Shaolin Way". So in reality, that style was evolved from Chinese Kung Fu, so I'd expect the strikes to be alike in whatever metal device they're compared to!

One thing that helped me (and it may sound silly) is that I try to get myself positioned behind my opponent as frequently as possible. For example, when practicing 1 step drills, say the attacker is stepping and punching chudan. Instead of stepping back and blocking from the outside, step to the side with your block on the outside of his arm. You'll find yourself at his side. If you take a sharper angle, you can position yourself straight behind him. While sparring, I try to circle around a lot, and when I am able to block/deflect a technique (especially when they commit 100%), I am usually in a pretty good position. I was sparring a Nidan the other day, and I must have caught him with about 10 attacks to his back/kidneys.

Slippery slope! First thing is this- if he's mentally challenged, then he may not know right from wrong, and that's dangerous. I'd get with the authorities and let them know that you're concerned. As a martial artist, the first thing is to try to avoid violence, and that can prevent a violent encounter. As for self defense- if he's mentally challenged, then he probably doesn't have much combat training. So if a conflict can't be avoided, protect yourself to the best of your abilities. I'm not sure about the specific techniques you mention, but TSD is an effective art. It all depends on the individual employing the techniques!

Our Master Instructor conducts the exam up front while an assistant instructor sits behind the table. We're a small(ish) club, so we don't have the personnel to have multiple people roaming. So he does that himself, and an assistant does the "paperwork" part of it!

Congrats! I remember my years from purple to being on the cusp of brown was awesome. Sadly, I had to quit right before my brown belt test. But everything happens for a reason! Congrats, and focus on being the best purple belt you can be- until it's time to be a brown belt!!!

Very interesting scenario! I'm as big a fan of Bruce as anyone, but realistically, if he's confined to a space that small and 20 men bumrushed him, there's really nothing he could have done. He weighed 135lbs. So if about 3,400 pounds of human being suddenly subdued him, I doubt he could have overcome all of them. He may have been able to dispatch some, but he was confined to a small space. I think the answer is that a bunch of random "hands" had to subdue him and bind those deadly hands!

I used to dislike sparring as well. I can't stand to lose at anything, and I always had a fear of losing. Getting hit never bothered me. I was always afraid of losing OR not performing up to my standards. But after a few sessions, I started to approach sparring as a learning tool. I try advanced techniques, and I use moves from our katas. If I lose in points, it doesn't matter. If I land san advanced technique that I've been working on, it is a good session! I'm the kind of person that will give up a couple of shots to be able to land a "kill shot". So when I'm point sparring, I really don't feel bad if I lose in points. Example- the other day, I was sparring a Nidan who is a lot bigger than me. He's pretty quick, but I'm quicker. But he's powerful, so getting inside on him is tricky- if he hits you with a sidekick, you feel it! So I was waiting for his attack in my orthodox stance. He started in on me, and I immediately jumped forward with a flying knee to his solar plexus. Now, he landed a reverse punch to my chest a split second before my technique, but had this been a real world scenario, I'm pretty sure I would have dropped him with my knee while his punch may have just stung me a little. So he won the point. But in my mind, I won that battle! If you're afraid of the contact, remember- pain heals, chicks dig scars, and glory lasts forever!! If you're afraid of losing, change your approach to sparring and just realize that it's a learning tool. If your Sensei sees you performing applications from Kanku Dai (or another advanced kata from your style), he'll see that you are retaining what he's teaching you, and you'll gain a fair amount of respect for it regardless of how many points you may give up!

Many styles of karate were based on the person's physical stature as well. I have trained in a sport based Shotokan system and switched to a Shorin Ryu based system. My current system is a combo of Shorin Ryu, Shotokan, and Goju Ryu. But my Sensei teaches based on self defense applications. That's what I love about it. He still teaches us the tradition, but he makes it practical.

1. As far as leaning in to punch, you would need to work on your footwork- lunging in more with your back straight up. That would prevent the leaning. Think of a fencing competition- the slide forward by pushing off of their back foot and lunging forward- I use this a lot sparring, and if it's done fast enough, it gets thru most of the time. But keep your guard up because you're entering in to your opponent's range. 2. I love to switch. I'm right handed, but I like to fight like a southpaw a lot. I'm faster and stronger, so I like to use lead hand punches and kicks with my right. And sweeps! In Jeet Kun Do, this is a major concept- fight with your strong side forward because of this. I also like to base my stance on what my opponent is doing. If he's leaving his leg out there, I'll switch my stance where a front leg sweep will catch him. If he is aggressive and keeps charging in, I'll put my strong leg out front and catch him with a sidekick. 3. Use angles. If you can't get inside his range, you'll have to find ways around it. I like to counter by evading the technique and creating shorter distances to counter strike. 4. RELAX! A beginner sparred my Sensei last week, and he's a teenager. He was exhausted and Sensei wasn't even sweating. I told him that he's learned to relax and breathe properly over the years. Being tense and nervous will use up your wind and energy quickly. You need to learn to breathe and to relax. Oh, and practice! Good luck with it. I used to dislike sparring because I'm ultra competitive, and I can't stand losing. But now, I approach it not like a win or lose contest, but like a learning tool. It gets more fun when you start to apply your kata techniques in a battle scenario!!

I'd pick either Japanese JuJutsu or Judo. I've been training in Karate for about 4.5 years, and I'd love to add that grappling/throwing aspect to my skillset. We do practice some jujutsu throws, but we only scratch the surface of that!

I'm for it. We periodically have students from other dojo's come to train with us, and our Sensei usually holds a sparring session. I think he does it to guage his students against other styles. We had a 2nd degree TKD student train with us, and it was very interesting to go against him. He had beautiful kicks, but he left so many openings that it was pretty easy to score on him. But he was very agressive. I think that as long as everyone understood that it was a "learning" session, a lot could be gained from it.

I think it all boils down to intent. If the owner/head instructor is in it more for the money than he is for teaching his art, then it is a McDojo. In the example above, if he's a good business person and not a great instructor, but he hires the best possible instructors to teach his art, then he has an interest in providing the best instruction of his art. AS LONG AS HE IS PUTTING THE QUALITY OF THE INSTRUCTION ABOVE THE PROFITABILITY. I was recently appointed the title of Deshi in my club, and I've become the treasurer. I am able to see the business side of our club now, and I'm proud to say that my instructor is truly in it for the love of teaching. The personal profit is minimal, but myself and our "Ichiban" are working on ways to make the club more profitable. Not for our own pockets, but for better quality training materials and facility repairs. I think clubs that put profit first ahead of quality of instruction fit the definition.

Usually, my Sensei teaches us the movements first by repetition, and then he shows us the bunkai. But the last one we learned, he taught us the bunkai first in the order of them (without telling us what he was doing), and then walked us thru the kata sequence. It was different to me, because all I've ever seen was being taught the movements first, and then the applications. I kind of enjoyed it.

We did some light contact sparring yesterday, and 2 beginners looked horrified! They're not in the class to become warriors. Just martial artists. I was able to spar with the largest black belt. And I landed some spinning kicks to his liver, a sidekick to his ribs, and a couple of punches to his head. However, if I were to hit him with any one of those strikes with full force, he would be incapacitated. But that's the style we train in. We look for openings that will cause the most damage, and our higher level students can find them even against a high level opponent. So we don't use full force, or there would be a lot of injuries!

When I feel a student knows the movements well enough, I like to line up 4 attackers at N, S, E, and W. Then, I have them attack as per the kata and let the "victim" perform the applications from the kata on the attackers. It's fun, and if it is done at a good pace, it's a very good workout!

Do you learn weapons at your dojo as well or do you go out to learn them? We do some basic weapons training in our club. Very basic sword, sai, tonfa, and bo staff techniques.

I had this problem last night. I was asked to teach a class to 2 students- one is a 45 yr old blue belt that will be testing for purple in 2 weeks, and the other is a 10 year old green belt that is testing for blue, but keeps pushing to skip blue and go to purple! I was taking them thru their katas, and it was clear that the blue belt knows the "routine", but he lacks form and knowledge of the bunkais. The green belt knows bits and pieces from a lot of katas, but he can't complete the ones he's supposed to know from start to finish. So I went thru everything with them and explained what they needed to know and understand. I told the green belt that I think that his knowledge needed to catch up with his confidence and that he needed to practice a lot at home. The way this ties in is that both of them press the advanced students and our Sensei to teach them more of the advanced techniques because they don't feel that perfecting the basics shows their progression. I'm a huge proponent of either perfecting something before learning something else or working to the best of my ability towards perfecting what has been taught. I believe that one shouldn't focus on the time. They should focus on the technique.

As a guy with the same problem (off for 20 years, started training again), I found that stretches that focus on the hips work the best for me. I do lunge stretches (basically stretching for a front split) along with the typical Shotokan stretching routines. (Hard to explain, but google should help!) I also do pigeon stretches for hip flexibility. Those have helped me tremendously. I can do high kicks now, although I cannot come close to any kind of side splits. When I started back, all of my kicks hurt. Now, there is no pain, and my kicks are a lot higher.