infinitehand

A forum isn't exactly the best environment for "elaboration" but a good teacher is. Any questions let me know. Im also in the process of getting some videos up on YouTube. Perhaps that'll be more helpful.

Kata are pragmatic fighting systems in and of themselves. Knowing 30 kata doesn't make a bit of difference to the Karateka who UNDERSTANDS and can Read one. Kata contain: locks, pins, throws, chokes, strikes, grappling and Kyusho. No technique is for show, chamber, prepare or "load". Each individual technique is there for a specific reason.

I like to think there are no blocks in Karate. Like you say misunderstood.

Receive. Receive is what Uke means

I'm glad to get so many replies so quickly! I do feel Karate is an extension of our natural response. It's like going straight long enough to end up where you were. I don't think anyone in a "real" situation, would step and rising block a punch to the face. By the time you stepped youre hit. By the time your hand crosses the other hand you're hit. Now if you just put one hand up there real quick sure you'll catch it, but that's not the technique is it? both hands are moving. In the situations with the broom stick. I'm glad his Karate worked for him! That is what's important. But I doubt he stepped into a zenkutsu dachi, and pulled one hand back to his hip/chest. In reality he probably flung his hand up there as quick as possible ( out of a natural flinch reaction) and it was in the rising block position. Which still is awesome. As much as I hate "what if" scenarios you have to think would that still have worked against a bat? or a steel pipe? Did the broom stick injure him? Would a smarter attacker have used the broken end of the stick against him? I feel like your Karate should work in any situation. As for the spin kicks to the head, I have a lot of experience with them and they're not that hard to counter when you get over the fear of being knocked out by them :/ I would probably use a gedan barai against it. There is a better technique in Shuri bases systems that have two open hand "blocking" at the end of one of the Pinan kata, I believe you do this four times at fourty five degrees. but how can a low block defend against a high technique? Because you've put them there! As for the question about the hand that comes back and how it doesn't make sense. It's called hikite, pulling or drawing hand, and it never comes back empty.

I know it's a loaded question so please fire away. Someone unexpectedly throws a ball, a wad of paper, a rock, whatever at you and instinctively you throw your hands up or move. Same when a rock hits the windshield on the highway, there is a very low chance of the rock coming through the windshield yet we flinch any way, why? Becasue the human body was designed to protect itself. Why then in Karate, do we spend decades practicing foreign "blocks" as "blocks" when we are already naturally programmed to deflect of cover up? Yes I understand our natural responses need training too, but hopefully by now you get my point. So my question: "Are there blocks in Karate?" I mean really. Try not to split hairs here. I know people "modify" traditional karate blocks to make them faster or have replaced them all together. Lets look at the full motion of the technique, both hands working together. Let's examine: The meaning of "Uke" The real reason for the "chamber" or Hikite What's happening in between What happens when you combine it with stepping or shifting.

What is a pre-grade? But I agree with the replies here. Just practice. Just train. It's probably a mental thing. 90% of the battle is in the mind. and I assure you, it wont be the last time.

Good post Bahrain!! Keep in mind the mindset of Saifa when training it. "Smashing and Tearing". Carry this attitude with you. Great angels/off center line techniques. Saifa is good for teaching how to sink or drop weight. There is a really nasty throw in it. Lots of brutal techniques involved (but which ones aren't?)

The backfist is a great technique. Not to be seen as better or worse than a jab. It all depends on how you train it. Find a guy who can't keep his hands up a back fist works every time. Get a guy to drop his hands a backfist works every time. It appears to me that many people see it as a "tag your it" technique. Well if that's how you train it that's all it will do. If you train it to drop people that's what it will do. It's great off angles and its great to set something up. But if you don't like it you probably won't use it and this won't develope which is no problem. The traditional blocks used as commonly misunderstood "blocks" probably won't help you at all because except in the rarest cases or "modified shortened" versions traditional karate blocks don't work at all. But then again, I personally don't think there are any blocks in Karate. If you like Shotokan but don't want to give up knockdown fighting see if some of your dojo mates want to train that way with you in whatever time you have available. Also you can still compete and such.

For me, boxing, Thai boxing and wrestlings are sports, they have goals like trophies, money and ranking. So, dont fool yourself into thinking that a "Black Belt" is not something that they look for...its just in the form of a strop made of Tin and leather that says "Champ". As for Kung fu...dude...they have rankings. Ever hear of a white and gold sash or a black and red sash. They have ranks as well. No physical endevour that I know of that man has created is with out a "goal" such as a Dan ranking or a title of some sort. sorry to me its all the same! Your comment on the bold is flawed. As a guy who boxes, I can tell you that there are TONS and TONS of none-competive recreational boxers that have INSANE boxing skills that puts pro boxers in to shame. You wanna know why? Because there love for boxing is PURE and SINCERE, these guys train boxin for the LOVE of boxing. They are not concerned with ranking,reputation,money,traveling to fights,dealing with managers etc... Overtime pro boxers might lose there passion and there style might suffer and they end up becoming point fighters to protect there boxing record and ego, thus quality goes down because they are afraid to fail because there self-worth is shifted from the quality of there art to there boxing record These guys have one task to do, just train boxing and some of them make decent money being sparring partners for pros. But in the end they keep there art pure and they avoid politics of boxing that pro boxers have to deal with which lots of pros fall out of love with there boxing because there are so many greedy blood thristy managers in the "sport" of boxing. In short, I can write a book on how there are AMAZING unknown boxers who are the backbone of training camps. Can I assume that there are people in world of martial arts like that as well? People who dont concern themselves with ranks and only focus on performing 5000 repitions? When I train, I train. No thoughts of rank, promotions or titles. I know we've gotten a bit off topic but this is important to me.

No I do not believe Kata are necessary to systems to impart fighting skills to someone. Many forms of martial arts produce incredible athletes and fighters without the use of Kata. Kata is THE MOST important aspect of Karate training. In Karate, everything is kata. When we do "Kihon" we're doing Kata. When were doing "junbi undo" or preparatory exercises, were also doing Kata, when were doing partner work or fighting were doing Kata. Everything in Karate can be traced back to Kata. Even Jackie Chan said it in the new "Karate Kid" movie said it, I don't remember the exact quote but it says "everything in life is Kung fu, putting on your jacket etc." this is Kata. You live Kata. Some people are not interested in this and that's fine. Additionally: When we fight we don't bounce around and were not doingi it for points. We think how can I use Kata, the principles techniques etc. This is the emphasis in my Dojo at least

These points have probably been covered. 1. Don't kick above the belt. If your system doesn't allow low kicks the. Aim AT the belt, make it harder to see coming. 2. Lean forward and stomp down and go in with hands, if he's grabbed you his hands are busy. 3. I assume You're kicking with the ball of the foot, if so thrust forward with your hips and kick with the heel. This may take some practice but it works for me. 4. Set your kick up better.

Ha! I have the same problem except I'm 26 and male! Can you imagine! My teacher would say your problem is your light, so you have to learn to take a blow, and use experience and treachery. Experience will come, so focus on the treachery!

Pull/control/suppress Marching far quietly My teacher's Teacher visited last summer and showed us his Seyunchin, now please understand I may represent this wrong but as I understood it he said at that level, Seyunchin means calm within the storm, or law of the storm. It was certainly Seyunchin, but it looked like crashing of waves, it was one of the few kata "performances" I've seen to blow my mind! I said to myself "THAT'S the level I want my kata".

I'm not sure I'd anyone has replied with the same thing. But I personally like this. Tiny ceremonies are nice but at the same time I think obscure the true goal. I think maybe your teacher was saying, hey look, it's no big deal.

My dojo has a 6 year minimum. But I know this varies from school to school. I think the thing to watch out for is garaunteed BBs I'm x amount of time. A lot of commercial schools will also advertise set testing dates every 1.5 months or so and this too I think is a red flag. But if you find a school you like and the training suits you and you work hard, your teacher may give you a BB in 3 years, I say trust his judgment.

I'm sorry for your loss. A good Sensei is as much a part of your family as your immediate family, in many cases a father. I know you're doing right by him just by continuing on.

This may have already be touched upon but here I go. The most important thing in life protection, especially for women, is mindset. You can teach a million techniques and grabs and what not, and sure maybe they can do them perfect. But if they can't turn it on, that mind set that says its you or me, what I do next decides if I'm going home or going to the hospital, or worse! And you can't teach that in a few hour seminar, unfortunately. Now obviously the ideal things to teach is awareness and avoidance. But yes, you can't stress mindset and intent enough in a real situation.

OH YEAH! Why do we turn and block first. Well it's not because we're being attacked on the leftby bad guy 1 and bad guy 2 is waiting patiently behind so you can turn and block him. If my hands are moving or I'm stepping that means I've already done something. If I turn to the left its because I put the attacker there.

Right on. There are no blocks in Karate. If something is thrown at you, or a rock flies up and hits your windshield while driving you flinch, throw your hands up etc. so why would we train to extend ourselves out to meet an attack, and why do most schools practices this was at an exaggerated distance? Because they don't know better. It's not their fault they just arent shown or their teacher never knew because he wasn't shown. And for some reason they have a "my way is the only way" mentality and refuse to look inside what they are doing because they were taught "that's just how it's done". The hands are always working together and the hand that goes out almost ways comes back with something in it. But, you can block that way if you want to.

Very nice topic. Truly the question should be does YOUR karate have throws? It seems to me that the pioneers of karate pre wwII all either studied judo or some other art. And it is said that Okinawan sumo was very popular so it is natural to believe that throws and takedowns were incorporated into the Katas they developed. Once again I wasn't there, but there are numerous pictures of Karate masters performing throws just a simple search online shows that. IMHO Karate throws are not JJ throws. I don't study JJ and can't speak on it with any authority. I believe JJ has more developed throws than Karate. The throws I practice, yes, on a regular basis seem pretty rudimentary and nasty. Most appear to be slams as opposed to actually throwing someone in the air. For instance, pin the foot then do throw "A". This seems a lot more nasty than an average hip throw. I'm sure JJ does this too. But I've never studied any throwing or grappling art, nor has my teacher. We just do what we do. So To ask does karate have throws, you have to look where your asking. Originally? Yes I believe so. Should it? Oh yes. If a certain school doesn't practice them then I suppose the answer would be no.

Nothing on my belt. I think this varies from school to school, asso. to asso. I've seen it alot in Korean styles but I'm not an authority on anything so I don't know. Sometimes in pictures of Okinawan teachers youll see three stripes on each side. I think this means however many stripes +Sixth dan. Once again I could be wrong, and if I am no disrespect. It's all correct according to what your teacher says I suppose. Personally to me, nothing belongs there.

Wow alot of responses on this one. Nope, I haven't read them all. But here is my two cents. Kata are not sacred, they are not mystical or have any kind of special power. I am certain we do not practice Kata the way they were practiced when they were first developed, (however I wasn't there so I don't know). However Kata are tools. Vehicles if you will, that transmit vital principles and strategies/tactics when looked at under the hood. With that being said (keeping with the vehicle theme) imagine trying to change a tire or oil or what have you with out any of the necessary tools required. Could it be done? I suppose, but it'd be pretty hard. Also, who has the advantage? The mechanic who has all the right tools, and knows how to use them. Or the mechanic who has none?

Yes we spar with my teacher. In my first few years it was just me and him, every night. As the class grew he still fought, everyone, often in a format of, he fights everyone for two minutes back to back, no rest. Then after the last student fights him, the last students stays and fights everyone for two minutes, back to back, no rest and so on. When we train Sensei trains, when we take a water break, Sensei trains. Just one of the many reasons I'm still with him.

This point may have already been made but since I didn't fee like reading all of them here we go again. The term practical is a "hot word" that separates "us" from "them". "Traditional" is no longer enough to describe any school that emphasizes the original intent of Karate so you see alot of words like "original" "practical" "functional" etc. I think in many cases this is a marketing gimmick in order to attract custome.. err students that are looking for something outside the daycare mcdojos ever present everywhere. However just selling something as "functional" or "practical" doesn't mean it is so be wary. p.s. IMHO Mr. Abernethy is a wonderful karateka who is doing great things to bridge the gap of Traditional and "modern" combat oriented systems.