muttley

You see, I always used to use a nice little spinning uraken in sparring when off balance with the leg lifting to make a feint reverse kick, in NAKMAS (UK) Dojo's, this has apparently now been disallowed due to the fact that it could be deemed as reckless.

Effectiveness and spirit are what counts from a self protection point of view. Certain techniques can look lovely and flowing but if they don't work in the real world when the brown stuff hits that fan, what use are they? As Geoff Thompson once said: "I've learnt thousands of techniques in training, how disappointed was I when I realised that the one that worked for me was a simple right cross".

Right so I went to my new club which is a "traditional" Shotokan Club, in the brown/black belt session, we got taught a new kata called Junro Godan. I have never heard of this before, but it's apparently one of 60 new kata's introduced in Asai Ryu Karate (http://fskcasairyukata.blogspot.co.uk/) Has anyone any experience of these kata's and what levels they relate to?

When I was training for my shodan many years ago, I was training at 2 clubs from different associations, both Shotokan Karate, but one was KUGB and the other was EKGB (Now EKF I believe). The additional training assisted me in my stamina and fitness, the only issue I experienced was a few differences in how the kata are performed. It certainly opens your eyes to different ways of training and performing certain techniques though.

I know, I may well have to expand my search radius a bit.

Oh I intend to go nowhere near his bunch, the guy seems a complete muppet when it comes to martial arts training. I seriously can't understand why Shotokan Karate in my area has been so diluted in it's teachings (in my experience). There is no contact, virtually no sparring at all. It's not right, Karate is a martial art, I love Karate, it teaches loads of great stuff, discipline, control, self defense...how the hell can you learn these things (especially control of your body and mind) by dropping essential parts of the teachings? The amount of McDojo's around here is frightening, too many people declaring themselves high dan grades, self appointed mostly is wrong. Fighting Lions is another bunch, I trained with them once a long time ago, I had been a 1st dan for about a year (a mixture of Karate and Kickboxing), the guy told me he'd would get me teaching my own classes within 6 months...no thanks.

I had thought of doing Kyokushin (and Ju Jitsu), trouble is, I like Shotokan (when taught properly) and I am so worried about McDojo's, there are a lot of them around here, anyone had any dealings with Matt Fiddes??

That would be great, but it's the age old problem of finding the time for it. It's been a struggle to find a club I can train at once a week on a regular basis, let alone find 2 different styles.

Just finding martial art books in Waterstones is an effort, they had 4 books in my local branch (pretty much all about Tai Chi.), Smiths was even worse! I have read Watch my Back, Waking Dragons by Goran Powell, Working With Warriors by Dennis Martin and a few other books about Zen in the martial arts and one about living the martial way. They are all good books about martial arts, but not about origins of the arts. Karate-Do My way of life and Karate-Do Kyohan are both fantastic Funakoshi books, but I have yet to find anything else apart from The Book of Give Rings by Musashi (that's well worth a read). Mind you, I just found "Judo Memoirs of Jigoro Kano" by Brian N Watson on sale at Amazon.co.uk (for the kindle) for the princley sum of £0.01...what is there to lose?

I have read quite a few books by "modern masters" such as Geoff Thompson and others. I would however, like you, like to read some autobiographies by the likes or Anko Itosu and Motabu etc.

Funny you should say that, I contacted him via twitter this afternoon, his main dojo is (relatively) close to where I work, the only issue is, I live nowhere near where I work (Thanet) and I don't think any of the sessions fit in with my shifts at work which is really unfortunate. I've looked for some Goju Ryu clubs but again, there are none around here. In my area it is Shotokan, Kyokushin or amalgamations of various different martial arts from Japan, China and Thailand which I find awkward.

Looking around, there seems to be no end of kugb clubs in my area and "kids karate". However there just seems to be nothi g for applied martial arts in my area of Kent. Maybe there just isn't the need. Seriously thinking of opening my own dojo!

It really is the problem I am finding at the moment, the clubs in my area (mainly KUGB) don't do this. I am hoping that the club I am going to check out tomorrow is a TSKA club (Tradiotional Shotokan Karate Association), never tried a club of this association before so we shall see I guess. It annoys me that in the time since I started training in the 80's, Karate (in the UK at least) has been so sports orientated. It's become a victim of the law suit society we now have, nobody wants to do something that could lead to being hurt, even if it is for the better in the long run so dojo's now deliver a very watered down version of karate.

I know exactly what you are saying there. I have studied with many sensei's who are happy to just teach the grading syllabus and nothing more, this is great if your goal is to progress through the grades quickly to be able to say "hey look at me, I have a black belt". I would much rather have a Sensei who teaches the syllabus but who also teaches the practical use of techniques against attackers. It's one thing being able to throw a decent upper block to thin air, but against an attacker intent on smashing a beer bottle over your head (or worse) will that block work? I am a great believer in realism in training.

As a first dan in Shotokan and a prison officer, I am interested in what people think about Shotokan as self defence in todays world. I read (a lot), lately I've been reading a lot of stuff by Geoff Thompson, Iain Abernethy and Rory Miller as well as listening to podcast with Kris Wilder. A lot of the stuff about karate in these publications are about how it can be great, but not in the format it is taught, karate (and indeed all martial arts now) train the student to fight against another trained fighter. In my experience, most violent people in society are not trained fighters, they are just aggressive and violent individuals who have some part of the brain (that tends to deal with reasoning) missing. Karate teaches us to fight to a definitive fighting distance which is usually quite far away from our opposition with a view to closing the distance in a strike, fights (in my experience) do not act out like that, instead the violent person gets in close with deception and attacks. Also does Shotokan teach effective defence against weapons or against multiple attackers?

Thanks, I got to Shodan before quitting (and starting again, then quitting and starting again), like I said, I thought I had found a club that I liked but they never did any kumite at all, not even semi contact stuff which annoyed me as how do know what if feels like to be hit if you never get hit or what adrenaline does for you in a confrontation without experiencing it? I might have found another Shotokan club in my area (been there all along, but I thought it was linked to the other club I trained at and it isn't). Going along tomorrow to check it out and see how it goes.

All I want to do is find a club in my local area that teaches good self defence. After years of Shotokan Karate, I thought I had found a club but fell out of love with it, not sure if it was the club or the style that I just stopped enjoying. My trouble is finding a club that fits in with my shifts at work. I want a martial art that will help with close combat as most of the stuff I face at work is in close quarters in confined space and some times against multiple opponents. I just can't seem to find a club that fits in, maybe it's partly down to my own bias towards Karate. I see loads of clubs that are teaching a mix of "freestyle Karate", Kickboxing, Kung Fu etc etc but nothing more specific! It's starting to annoy me now.

Zen in the Martial Arts is a good read as is Working with Warriors and Watch my Back, also Waking Dragons and The Book of 5 rings.

I guess what I am trying to say is that I want to try something different, Shotokan has served me well but the clubs I have trained at in the KUGB have started to leave out kumite which has annoyed me somewhat now.

Could someone please enlighten me as to the differences between these 2 styles? I have studied Shotokan for ages but want to move on to something new, something different. My main issue is that with Shotokan being taught as non-contact, little sparring etc, what have I got to do to prepare myself for a Kyokushin lesson? Am I likely to be smashed across the dojo and come back covered in bruises and black eyes etc? I am not afraid of getting hit, I just don't know how my work would react to me turning up black and blue!

could be interesting

Hi I would like to know everyones thoughts on starting up Jitsu training as a complimentary system for Shotokan. I feel that I want to try a different system and feel that Jitsu could be just the thing that could compliment my shotokan, what are the thoughts on this?

Patrick, yes it is that Geoff Thompson. Found it strange to find another Geoff Thompson who is also a martial artist and motivational speaker, must be something in the name.

I just wanted to share with you guys my experience of Geoff Thompson and what a fantastic bloke he is. I have been in contact with Geoff via email over the past few months due to some issues I had been trying to get my head around in my working life. Geoff has been an inspiration to me during what has been a truly difficult time for me. After having listened to Geoff's advice and his podcasts, I have tried my best to lead a "selflessly serving" life. This has been brought more to the forefront after a colleague of mine had an accident while out on a bike ride (training for London-Brighton bike ride). My colleague came off of her bike on a bend and landed on her back, in her rucksack was her water bottle which smashed her spine leaving her paralysed from the chest down. We are now in the process of raising funds for her at work and are having a rugby match against a team of vets (most of us have never played rugby). Anyway, I emailed a load of companies and clubs and have received such a range of "prizes" for our auction and raffle that is going to be held on the night of the match. This generosity really restored my faith in human kindness and seriously highlighted the "selflessly serving" model. I emailed Geoff to tell him this and how it is due to my experience through the rugby match and through my discussions with himself that has now got me thinking more positively and enjoying life more. Totally out of the blue, Geoff has sent me a set of his books (all autographed) for the raffle as well as some books for the library where I work (or for me to hand out to the young people I work with in order to help them realise their potential and change their life!) This has totally taken me back and now Geoff has even volunteered to come and do a key note speech to the young people I look after. He is a totally amazing man and I thank him for being there when I needed him.

It is getting talked about as a black belt kata, quick look at the KUGB grading syllabus, it's a 2nd-3rd dan kata!