muttley

Solid post. I certainly do not claim to be studying a form of karate direct from Fuakoshi or Oyama, I study the offshoot of Oyama's version of Karate.

I am not going to be specific as to the martial art here, just want peoples opinions. I finished reading Waking Dragons and am now re-reading The Karate Way, in this book Dave Lowry covers what he see's as being a good instructor. It got me thinking how I would feel if I was training and respecting my instructor to then find out that he had something of a sordid past or that he flirts with females students while married etc. I have no experience of this as (to my knowledge) all of the instructors that I have had over the years have been people of good repute and I've had no reason to doubt this. I don't know how I would feel if the person I respected and wanted to "be like" turned out to be not as he seemed. Is it enough that an instructor has studied the art and is good at teaching the techniques involved or should they lead something of a "better" life that puts them above others in society? In the UK, instructors, by Law have to be subjected to a DBS (Disclosure Barring Scheme) it used to be called a Criminal Records Check. This checks any previous criminal history a person has and is used to safeguard children and vulnerable people. Does any other Country have a similar check for people working closely with such people? Whilst the DBS check is good, it only checks things that the police/criminal justice sector know about, what about the things they don't know as they weren't reported? And what about a persons morals? How does one check them> I guess when you first start to train under an instructor, it is fairly simple to come away from them if something isn't right. But what about if you've trained there a while and then find something out? How easy is it then?

Yes, in a way it is. I think there are too many of these "Instructor/Black Belt" special courses now whereby people sign up to a "special offer" and get fast tracked to black belt. Once there, they decide that they are more than capable of opening their own school but interpret it entirely differently/wrong. Whilst an instructor might have the best intentions at heart and honestly feel they can teach, so many just can't and I fear that. However, I also fear these schools (not necessarily Karate, but martial arts as a whole) who purport to no touch knock out and who teach the art of zen etc etc On top of this, I do fear that someone will take the theory of shu-ha-ri (I knew I knew it!) and just go too far with it if that makes sense.

Something has been seriously bothering me lately and I've not been.able to put my finger on it until now. I shall start by asking fellow forum members this simple question: "Where do you see the future of karate?" I am talking about a specific style, I am more interested in the overall future of karate as a whole. As I see it, now karate is practised as various peoples interpretation of how they were taught, Shotokan is Funakoshi interpreting his teachings by Itosu and Azato, Kyokushin is Mass Oyamas interpretation of what he learnt from Funakoshi (you can get the idea here). Now to my concern, I am worried for the future of karate. There are people.out there who are happily making a merry buck from "teaching" what they understand or want to promote as karate and it is not good. There are too many people taking what they have been taught (often by "legitimate" instructors) and making a hash job of it into something else, something that isn't karate in order to promote themselves as something new, different and even better than what they were taught when, in fact, it is quite the obvious. I know of the theory in karate reference the changing circle (can't remember the 3 word Japanese term of it), but surely there is only so much change there can be.

This is interesting. My training is my way of looking after my psychological health as well as physical health. I often feel lost when I am unable to train, it is my release, my time where I don't have kids, work, home issues on my mind, I just have karate to think about. I have a stressful job, we do get looked after after particularly bad incidents, just the other weekend I was first on scene at a fatal car crash, I spoke to someone about it, but to be fair, going training as soon as possible is the best thing I did as I just essentially beat the images out of my head. To Nidan Melbourne, I am sorry for your loss, be strong.

Miyagi and me , the blue eyed samurai are great books too I will check them out

Waking dragons really is one of the best karate books out in my opinion

My wife is a teacher, when I was working with the juveniles, our stories were VERY similar.

No bleeding knuckles, just a little sore

It did start to feel better once I got used to it to be fair and doing an open hand technique felt 100 times better than a punch! Definitely can see the benefit of the training already.

Makiwara hurts, that is all!

I am looking forward to training tonight (and sincerely thankful that I got out of work on time so I can train). Hopefully, if it is another 1-1 session, we can look into the kata in more depth. I know I am a novice as far a Kyokushin goes, but the "basic" understanding of the Kata is there and I would love to be given the opportunity to start looking at it differently already.

You could be my UK twin, except that I didn't study Shotokan my first time around. Way too many dojos here that I pass on my way to mine for many reasons. The similarities between my old system and current one got me to visit my current dojo. What was going on in there made me stay. I don't know if it's just me getting old (I'm 39), if I got lucky my first time around, or if the state of MA in general is taking a turn for the worse in regards to what is expected from students from a respect/protocol/tradition standpoint. Most schools out there are very, very different than I remember them being 20 years ago. Kids (and adults) have much less respect nowadays than when I was growing up; society seems to have changed, perhaps therefore reflected in dojos. Then again, my parents and grandparents said this when I was growing up too. Growing up, I guess. I like to think of choosing a dojo like choosing a pair of shoes - no matter how "good" or pretty they are, if they don't fit right, none of that is relevant. Find a dojo that fits you. Solid post! I think it could be a case of being a mixture us growing up (I too am 39 until March!) and the fact that society has indeed changed vastly since the time people from our era were in their formative/teenage years. Trust me, I have seen it all in my work. As a prison officer in a juvenile facility, I saw the very worst of how teenage boys can be, now in my new role in the judicial system, I see not only the teenagers, but also the younger ones who behave with no respect. It's as if (and in the prison, the lads used to state this quite frequently) the kids want us to respect them for being a teenage kid. It's like, because they got into a local gang, they deserve respect, well my answer to that was always that respect is earned and they had not earned my respect yet. Unfortunately now, I also see the parents of these kids and some times it is easy to understand. It is a shame that society is like this now, and I can only hope that people realise that change is needed. It is not only an issue in the UK, I am obviously aware that in the US in particular things are worse (aren't we about 10-20 years behind the US in society model or something?) Anyway, to the original poster, stick with it and keep going until you find that dojo that just fit's and feels right, trust me, it is out there.

Hi and welcome! I can't give you any advice on dojo's in your area I am afraid as I am UK based. HOWEVER I can understand exactly how you feel and what you are going through. I have recently returned to training (pretty much for the exact reasons you state) after a good 15-20 year hiatus. I had trained in Shotokan when I trained before and was eager to return to this style due to the level I got to, however on looking for a good Dojo in my area, I found that I just couldn't find a Dojo that I wanted to train at. There were too many "young black belts" which the CI's seemed to use and abuse, they were using 15 year olds as uke's and as co-instructors with no qualifications. This disturbed me, a lot! I too was annoyed with the high proportion of kids turning up in their gi's already, again, I used to change at the Dojo. There was too much messing about in lesson time, kids were not respecting the Sensei which to me was just unheard of. Anyway, after taking more time to find a Dojo, I literally stumbled upon one that was local to me, different style (Kyokushin) but had everything. As a new Dojo, it is small with often only myself and the Sensei there (there are other students). I love my new Dojo, it is a fantastic place for me to go and get lost in Karate for a few hours a week which is really helping me to unwind from my rather stressful work life. There are childrens sessions, yes they are more relaxed than the adult sessions, but they still are very much based upon "tradition", students bow when entering and exiting the Dojo, all students partake in reflection for a few moments at the end of the lesson and bow to the Sensei etc. In my new Dojo, I am seeing a lot of what I saw in my old Dojo's and it is fantastic. My advice, take your time, visit many Dojo's train in them for a couple of lessons, speak to the CI and see how you feel. But the most important thing is something that you have already done, you have made that decision to get back into Karate/Martial Arts and trust me, the feeling when you step foot back into a Dojo for the first time is just fantastic, memories will come flooding back and, if you are like me, all of a sudden everything just feels right again. Sorry for a long reply, I just started and couldn't stop.

"Taikyoku" means 'Wide view', they are kata taught to create a basis for fluid movement like 'Pinan' (Hian) kata you are moving from one stance/position executing this or that strike or kick. Many look at kata (no matter the ryu) as a set sequence of movements in response to an imaginary attack or ongoing battle, maybe war, for some maybe many this is true, I like this idea of kata, but... I much prefer the idea that what many over look in kata, any kata is multiple battles demonstrated indervidually one at a time. The kata is offering the practitioner the basic actions for an attack or defence, its upto the artist to explore more of the Bunkai of the movement, the kata. Consider Mai Gedan bari, the first movement in Taikyoku Sono Ichi. Mai - front or forward Gedan - lower section Bari - parry (block is close but not truly correct) http://karatetest.com/kyokushinkai/10thkyu.php A truly awesome site (FYI: the owner is happy share) that lists Kyohushin Kihon in 'Flash' format. The basic application of this technique is to 'parry' a punch or maybe a kick to the side. The arm sweeps past the body in a downward motion pushing the strike or kick past you as it comes in, think of the activity like aikido, to use the force/power of the attack/opponent against them. That's it right? nothing more to be got from this correct? Anyone see the throw away of the enemy? The attack from behind? What about the neck break use of Mai Gedan bari? I like to see and so consider kata movement/demonstration of kihon as each action or step is its own combination/battle ... bunkai. So to go back to Taikyoku Sono Ichi ... The first movements to the left are (to me) the basic parry and step forward strike. Then the turn around, a throw away of attacker one, step through and punch attacker two. Stepping turning left, parry an attack, now advance attacking an attacker, maybe more (attack, attack, attack) (3x punches = 3x attackers!!) Turning to the right is maybe another throw away and strike, maybe this is the neck break and strike! and so on...... Taikyoku Sono Ichi is not such a basic kata now, it has depth, it has meaning in its ease and simple movement, all done fluidly and clean... Very solid points there, I like the interpretation. When I learnt Shotokan Kata, I very much looked at is as purely a set of movements, now I am learning Kyokushin Kata, I am intending on learning them in a different manner.