CredoTe

For us, yudansha are given two certificates with each Dan: one to take home / keep, one to hang in the dojo. We do this to establish yudanshas' credentials / qualifications and to show their history / lineage with us. But, we only do this with our Matsubayashi-Ryu rankings. All other style rankings are hung elsewhere in the dojo in lower traffic areas (i.e. back office, etc.) Otherwise, like Lupin1 said, we feel it becomes a "LOOK AT ME" scenario.

Congrats! Glad to see you healed up and tested your mettle! Looks like you did well Journey on!

I realize this is an old thread, but... JiuJitsuNation, MAs like the one you encountered get my hackles up They give MAs like us a bad name. Guys like him let their egos and the weight of their own excrement get in the way, and it leads to prideful disrespect, such as you dealt with. They also tend to damage the art of Karate / traditional MA... See, guys like him are also mostly tournament-minded, in that they're more concerned with winning big trophies for their school than passing on good Karate and students that can defend themselves. Being tournament-minded in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as tournament / competition minded MAs realize that that's where their training is (it can be very difficult to be both a tournament competitor and self-defense minded trainer). What I'm getting at is that it's never an issue of style-vs-style. That argument is useless, IMHO. It's about the philosophy behind one's training. What are you training for, and why? In my dojo, we have a motto to aid in training... We all know about the adage "practice makes perfect", right? Well, our motto actually modifies that; it goes something like this: "Practice makes permanent. If you practice wrong, you'll do it wrong." What it means is, in the heat / chaos of a situation, your training instincts will come out. If you practice a move ad nauseum weakly, you will perform it weakly instinctively. Likewise, if you practice a move correctly with all the right technique, power, mechanics, etc, you will perform it that way instinctively. (This is why military training is the way it is, why LOEs train to shoot center mass, etc). What happens is guys like that A-hole MA you encountered either don't realize this, or they forget their philosophy behind their training (their ego / excrement gets in the way). Then, their egos lead them to believe their tournament training can take on anything on the street. Tournament / point fighting = who's better, faster, more aggressive at playing tag (I'm not talking K1 or other hardcore Karate / MA competition). IMHO, these guys contributed to the stigma that Karate / MA is useless vs. MMA ("Hey! Let's join these underground fight / shootfighting / MMA competitions and try to point fight / play tag with them....AAACK! Why is my finger and whole fist up my wazoo? How did this 'know nothing MMA' guy PUT IT THERE?") But... that's a topic for a different thread...lol Yes, we train against multiple opponents. We have very intense drills and kumite geared towards this. This is one of the main things we train for, and since "practice makes permanent", we train often and hard in this... And, yes, running is always an option!

And from: In my earlier days of my journey, I was an aggressive blockhead, especially when I competed. I got my rear end handed to me nearly every time. Once I gained some humbleness, I started to become more passive and eventually became a passive blockhead. As a passive blockhead, whether in street defense kumite / partner drills or in competition kumite, I got my rear end handed to me nearly every time. (Blockhead = me not learning to change my ways and getting my rear end handed to me.) Since then, I've learned that in a street defense situation, a normal, humble joe shmoe MA like most folks and myself need to maintain a certain amount of passivity and mental calmness to a certain point. Once a situation on the street changes from verbal to physical, at that precise moment, a mental switch must flip and "HIYAAAAH!" You must be aggressive enough from that point forward to defend yourself and / or your loved ones, regardless of number of attackers. Multiple opponents means you must change your tactics from how you would take on one opponent (and must include trying to be a track star...run away!). tallgeese, remember that joe shmoe MAs don't have the benefit of military or LOE training. Military and LOE's like you are trained to be soldiers, and that you're trained from the start to be aggressive because of the situations that you will most likely be in (which I think is some of the wisdom you're trying to share). Because we don't deal with intense situations like military or LOEs on a normal basis, and because we don't have the badge of law supporting us, joe shmoes like us will have a different encounter experience and must contend with an attacker on the street a little differently. I understand that LOEs would say, that besides basic routine traffic stops, every serious encounter is unique (I have 4 students that are LOEs), but, if you would, humor me for a few For instance, if some street thug decided to get brody with me at a parking lot or whatever somewhere and threatened to close in on my or my loved one's personal space (but has not yet crossed it), I have two basic options. 1) I can remain calm and passive and move my loved one and I out of danger while informing said brody street thug that "we don't want trouble / leave us alone." Or, 2) I can flip my "HIYAAAAH" switch and go aggressive in an attempt to preempt this theoretical brody street thug. As a joe shmoe, if I choose option 2, brody street thug is not going to react the same way if you, as an LOE, would choose option 2. It's psychological: people react differently to uniformed and badged law officers than to joe shmoes (else, why would there be undercover officers?). If you choose option 2, said brody street thug knows you're armed, have access to backup, etc... He knows his options are to run (and get splatter-tackled and arrested), to attack you with fists (and get splatter-tackled and arrested), or attack you with weapon (and get maced, tasered, or shot; in case of mace or taser, followed by splatter-tackled and arrested). Because brody street thug already has a plan of aggression in mind (even if only random / spontaneous), if I choose option 2, I will most likely get my rear end handed to me or killed. However, if I choose option 1, and thus prepare for impending danger by putting myself and loved one in better position, when brody street thug crosses that line of personal space, SURPRISE! "HIYAAAH!" switch flipped, counter-aggression on, supported by my MA training. If weapons are involved, brody's wrists, elbows, and knees are subject to breakage, and his throat and groin are subject to smashing... Takedowns work in any case, but if brody has buddies with him, there's no time to turn a takedown into a tap-out. A takedown must take brody out in order to move on to his buddies. Preemptive, on-all-the-time aggression works in sport competition / MMA because contenders are in a controlled environment with rules and no fear or expectation of death (reasonably, that is; i.e, when was the last time someone was killed in an MMA bout?). In sport competition / MMA, people do train to win, and superior aggression almost ensures victory. However, in street defense, there is no winning, only survival. To quote: Self-preservation = survival... Don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to disparage you and your training methods, or the wisdom you are trying to impart. From your posts I've read around here, sounds like you're intensely well trained and experienced. I plan on researching the court case you mentioned in a previous post on this thread. While I've never won championships at competitions / tournaments, I've successfully defended myself and loved ones in street situations. And, I'm definitely no master, either. One of my personal improvement projects in my MA training is I think I've gone too far back towards being a passive blockhead. So, I'm training to be more aggressive in my defense responses... Oops... Sorry my 2 cents ballooned into a novel again... I get long-winded sometimes

Oops... Forgive me I didn't mean to implicate you leaving in a rude or huff... Only that was the most relevant example from my experience that I could share with you. If the student from my example had left in a manner similar to your situation, the outcome may have been better... BUT... It could have been better had we / I found a better solution, as well. Whenever something like this happens, which is not too often fortunately, I always ask myself, "Is there something I could have done differently?" I'm definitely not saying that I (or we as instructors / yudansha) am responsible for anyone's behavior (only my own and my kids')... Rather, I ask that question of myself to learn from the situation so I can improve myself as a person and as an instructor / yudansha. You are quite right about a lot of instructors that are way too full of their own excrement / ego. As you progress in your training, and truly find the humbleness that MA is supposed to impart (seems like you're on your way to humbleness), you'll be able to quickly sense / pick out the instructors that are way too full of themselves. When you meet them, the best way to handle them is to just smile, shake their hand and / or bow (whatever greeting suits the situation), and "see ya!"...lol Sounds like your new school is a good fit and that you're looking for the positive things that happened because of your situation. The best 2 cents I can offer about a new school (or any school, for that matter) is ask yourself a simple question from time to time during your training: "Is this school giving me the training I am looking for?" In other words, what are you looking for in your Karate / MA journey? Your answer to that question may (most likely will) change over time as you take different paths on your journey. Good luck in your new school

No, you're not crazy for working out a lesson plan / teaching curriculum that makes sense to you. In my area, most Karate schools that teach the Matsubayashi-Ryu / Shorin-Ryu kata teach them in high quantity / rapid succession. As in, by the time a student of theirs is advanced kyu (3rd - 1st kyu), the student may have been shown almost all the kata. In our dojo, the kata curriculum is much slower to reinforce the quality of skill in a kata, rather than just speed-learning them for one reason or another (typically to look good in tournaments). Solid post Alex, and I concur, as well as mimic your methodology concerning said topic at hand, wholeheartedly across the board. Teaching Kata to children isn't much more different than teaching kata to adults. Both, kids and adults, learn the kata's the same way, train in kata the same way, and develop the kata the same way.However, the Bunkai for children is absent of what Alex was referring to with the destruction's, joint manipulations, striking to certain areas, etc, all taken out, and with the emphasis more on 1-3 step self-defenses. Great posts, and I agree with you both, sensei8 and tallgeese. The only thing I would add to this is that our Youth (9-15yo) classes are not quite as physically demanding as our Adult classes. While many kids like physically demanding activity (to be honest, many NEED physically demanding activity ), we find that kids get quickly bored when we try it. Now, we don't let them off easy, no way... We do something similar for our Kids (4-8yo) classes. We incorporate a certified curriculum (non-Matsubayashi, non-style-specific) for our wee youngsters that essentially takes 10th kyu white belt and stretches it out to 10 "mini-kyus" (some would say this is just a $$$ grab, but there's more to it than that). They don't learn any kata, but are taught basics of movement and mobile stances (no statue stance training), balance, coordination, stranger danger, etc. We impart the basics of bunkai/oyo through kihon-like drills and games. All moves, waza, bunkai/oyo, etc are are targeted for their age levels. Once they advance to the 3rd "mini-kyu", we start showing them the basic moves / waza of Fyukugata Ichi. When they test for graduation from this kid curriculum (as a 1st "mini-kyu"), everything they learned through the "mini-kyus" plus Fyukugata Ichi is tested. When they graduate, they are awarded with a Matsubayashi-Ryu 9th Kyu ranking. It's a great way to transition from a non-style-specific kid curriculum to our Matsubayashi-Ryu system.

30 Jul 2013: Youth Class Kihon to develop tachi and uke, particularly forearm block conditioning. Kata and Kata bunkai execution. In Kata bunkai execution, student performing the kata is surrounded by students who are the attackers. The student performing the kata defends against the attackers according to the kata. We do this with novices, mainly, to help them visualize opponents, not to program them to be robots.

Great advice... Yes! Karate / MA or any style learned for self-defense should be based on natural movements. Yes! This is the meaning of Gamaku! Great advice Yay! Tanden! In any stance, we mustn't break our Tanden... keeping Tanden is crucial...

We test every 3 to 4 months depending on the progress of the class as a whole. If we feel that too many haven't improved enough to test in 3 months, we'll go a 4th month. This is usually enough time to work out kinks in students' progress as a class to test. Individually, we closely observe a student's progress. Regardless of testing time (whether 3 or 4 months), if we deem the student's progress is lacking, we'll inform the student s/he is not ready for the test. We don't mince words, but we're respectful and professional about it. However, we still tell the student that it's his/her choice to take the test. If they take the test anyway and fail, it's on them. Most of the students in the past that went against our advice to not test ended up failing; however, we've had a few surprise us... Regardless of whether we deem a student is ready for a test or not, if a student fails a test, s/he fails. In event of a test failure, we'll inform them in private why they failed and what they can do to improve and pass the next time. Great post I wish I could say I went all the way through my kyu grades with similar-aged peers. That must be a great experience. See, three of my fellow students were ahead of me when I started with my current instructor 15+ years ago... One was a Shodan (we'll call "A"), one a 1st kyu ("B"), and one a 3rd kyu ("C"). Well, eventually I caught up to them. When I made it to 3rd kyu, "B" got his Shodan, "C" had only advanced to 2nd kyu, and "A" quit all together. By the time I earned Shodan, "B" was still a Shodan and "C" earned Shodan with me. So, to me at least, it was cool that "B", "C", and I were all Shodans together... Alas, it didn't seem to sit well with the other two, and they became lax... I eventually passed them up, and they quit, too... It's like your 2nd to last and last passages in your post...you fail, try harder, fail, try again...DON'T QUIT...PASS... I liken these issues to ego, pride, and "know-it-all-ness". As a matter of fact, I just had to address this issue with one of my 16-year-old students. One of the analogies I use with this issue can be found in the movie Forbidden Kingdom, where Jackie Chan's character Lu Yan is talking to Michael Angarano's character Jason. They're sitting around a campfire the night before Jason's training is to begin, eating dinner and drinking, and Jason asks Lu Yan about all these "techniques" that he may be shown: "Buddha Palm", etc... Lu Yan leans to fill Jason's cup with water, overfills it, and continues to pour water into the cup. All the while, Jason is saying, "my cup is full, please stop... hey my cup's full..." "Yes, your cup is full," Lu Yan responds. "How can I teach you anything if your cup is already full? Empty your cup..." My student seemed to understand this analogy well, so we'll see if it takes hold in the near future. As for my fellow classmates that quit, I only pray they would realize this... As for myself, I find that about every 3 - 5 years in my journey I realize I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING, and empty my cup again...

sensei8, we absolutely do practice shuto uke with the bottom outside edge of our hands; that part of our hands has tougher bones. We train shuto uke against bags, makiwara, and partner drills to develop use of this part of our hands. This issue comes up frequently with our novice adult students because, as you pointed out, it seems illogical... We demonstrate a shuto uke inside against a full power haymaker to show them how it's possible (but not necessarily ideal). We also demonstrate a shuto uke to the outside of a haymaker by combining it with a barai and a side-step (thus making the shuto uke more of a strike). Shuto uke is not executed with just wrist "whip"/"snap"/"flick" alone... Gamaku must be factored in! (Remaining quote from CredoTe redacted by CredoTe to save forum page / scroll space) A very solid post!! Arigato sensei8-san

Yes...yes...yes...again...and again...Very solid post!! Domo arigato gozaimasu sensei8-san Great topic thread, and props to your 5000+ posts! (I'm still a newbie around here...) So far, the few dozen of yours that I've read have been quite good / solid, as well. And props to your many years of experience... From what I've garnered by all the posts I've read, you have about twice as many years in your Karate / MA journey as I have... (no allusion to age, of course )

Nice...very nice!! Domo arigato sensei8-san

Outside of the dojo, I train every day to some extent or other. On my "rest" days (muscle recovery days), I still do gentle stretches and kata nice and easy and slow (good way for me to focus on form and control). On "hard" days (hard karate / workout days), well, I think most here know what hard personal workouts are... In addition, we (my instructor and I) have class / in-dojo training 4 days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings for 2 - 3 hours each, then Saturdays for 6 - 8 hours. The ranges take into account after-hours personal training we give to students.

Ananku, Wanshu, Passai, Chinto Plus the Pinan pentad, particularly Pinan Yondan, as well as Naihanchi trio

29 Jul 2013: Adult Class Kata Kihon to practice bunkai/oyo from kata Partner drills to continue bunkai/oyo practice from kata Yakusoku Kumite Partner drills to practice several different locks and armbar takedowns 30 Jul 2013: Tonight is Youth Class; lesson plan includes Kihon to develop stances, Kata, plus room for ad lib from my instructor (chief instructor)

So true! Couldn't agree with you more! Too many MA instructors in my neck of the woods have the attitude "you will respect my belt, no matter how well I teach or treat my students"... Our approach is, yes, we observe traditional ranking hierarchy with kyu students showing proper respect to yudansha. However, that doesn't give us freedom to treat them like dirt; they're still human beings. If we, as instructors / yudansha, don't show them respect as humans, not only is this unethical, it's bad for business (they'll leave, we lose money, won't be able to keep dojo running...) On the other hand, as many here pointed out, it's Karate class. We do our best to conduct our training in a safe manner, but, as bassaiguy said, injuries come with the territory... I'm not saying to simply ignore a fractured foot; only that as soon as you're able to train again after healing, TRAIN... TRAIN LIKE YOU MEAN IT As for communication issues, as others have mentioned, you should have notified your sensei as soon as an issue arose. Any good instructor with a decent sense of professionalism and respect will listen to a student's concerns. Any issues will be resolved by said instructors, however, you might not receive the exact resolution you're looking for For example, we had a new adult student join class last year that was a fairly timid person and had never really done any sort of hard physical fitness. This adult student found our workouts / training very difficult and needed a lot of encouragement. We did; we always give positive encouragement. However, this student's means of dealing with adverse, daunting exercises was to goof off during class. Since our adult classes range from fairly hardcore to extremely hardcore, this student was always goofing off. At first, we talked to this student alone, after or before class when no one else was around, about the goofiness because we know for some people this is a normal response to something stressful. We worked out a plan with this student to improve this behavior. After 3 months of working through this student's goofiness, there was no improvement. So, we discussed it with this student again (after class, no one else present), and this student didn't have a legitimate excuse. We told this student politely, but firmly, to knock it off; it's a distraction and disrespectful to everyone. We let it go another 3 months (maybe too long?)... During class one day, we told this student, again politely but firmly, that this student needed to take things more seriously. This student immediately became all huffy and stormed off the deck (no bowing off or such) and left in a hurry. We don't feel sorry for this student's actions, only a little sad that this student wasn't able to overcome self even with our help and a plan. We found out a week later that this student was even more angry at us because we didn't immediately chase after to stop this student from leaving... I apologize I'm so wordy...lol I'm glad to see that you found another dojo and continue your training. Karate / MA is meant to be a lifelong journey...

We have a pretty balanced regimen between kata, kihon, and kumite, but most of our training during a given lesson probably falls under kihon. Our kihon is structured in two main ways: 1) standing or walking drills that combine elements, waza, bunkai/oyo, movements, etc from kata; 2) standing or walking drills that "warms students up", usually to get them ready for a particular set of moves that we want to cover for the lesson. In either case, we utilize bags, target mitts, striking shields, etc to help develop full power execution and get a feeling for what it's like to strike a resistive object with full power. After going through standing or walking kihon as individuals, whether the kihon was type "1" or type "2" from explanation above, we pair them with partners to practice the moves just performed during kihon. These "partner drills" are first practiced slowly with controlled power to develop proper technique. As we work through these partner drills, we gradually speed up and apply more power. This approach makes a good transition into step-sparring or Yakusoku Kumite, depending on which way we want to go for the lesson. Sometimes we substitute step-sparring or Yakusoku Kumite with kakie-like drills (I wish we did true kakie... ) We train in kata only a little less than kihon. There's two avenues we take for kata training, also, both equal in training value for us. First, we have our students perform kata for purposes of observing their accuracy, development, and endurance. We like to have them perform kata in succession without much downtime in between to see how well they still do when they start tiring out (do they stay true to form, power, etc, or do they get sloppy?). Second, we have "kata days" in which we, as a class or in groups, do in-depth instruction in bunkai/oyo. I suspect this way of kata training is common with a lot of dojos. We train in kumite the least (unfortunate IMHO), and we have several approaches to this. We don't divide it into step kumite, jiyu kumite, etc (step-sparring and Yakusoku Kumite are more like partner drills / kihon for us, so that's where we put them). Our kumite could be placed in three categories or methods, with the third being a combination of the first two: 1) kumite / sparring using all stand-up waza, elements, movements, etc with purpose of simulating a real situation (NOT tournament sparring) and to develop ma-ai ; 2) "no strikes allowed" kumite using elements of the traps, locks, bars, throws, grappling that we train in to develop these skills (gleaned from both bunkai/oyo from Matsubayashi-Ryu kata and my instructor's skill in these elements); 3) kumite that combines methods 1 and 2 - "no holds or strikes barred" kumite executed with some control to work on the "full cycle" of real situations / fights. This "full cycle" starts from the usual stand-up distance sparring, then using skills developed with ma-ai, move into opponents to in-fighting (Iri kumi) techniques (elbows, knees, short-range punches, shutos, or other strikes), then finish with locks, bars, takedowns, grappling, etc (tegumi / tuite). It does take several months to a year or more for our students to really start using waza in kumite according to bunkai/oyo; it may only be a few waza here and there at first, but that's the way it starts for them. Our advanced kyus might be able to perform half-a-dozen or a dozen waza as shown from bunkai/oyo. Key in all of our training, we instruct our students to keep a simple question in their minds whenever they're training: Does what I'm doing make fighting sense? When bunkai/oyo get too complicated or tedious, or to look cool in a tournament, then chances are they don't make fighting sense and will not work on the street (i.e. they'll get their rear-ends handed to them). Simple is better, simple is more direct and will work in a real situation.

"Dojo Disease"... That is a great way to describe it... IMHO, this is one of the biggest threats to true martial arts development, that which may save your life or the life of a loved one on the street. Dojo Disease may not be much of a problem to students that just want to look cool and win trophies at tournaments, or those that are in class that just "go through the motions". IMHO, this "Dojo Disease" and "just going through the motions" are related, but may or may not be the same thing (this may be a subject for a separate thread discussion...) I also opine that Dojo Disease, particularly those infected that turns into "Tournament-itis" or "Tournament Bug" in which they just want to look cool and win trophies, has contributed to the stigma that Karate / traditional MA are useless versus MMA (this could also be a separate thread discussion ). Instructors can "inoculate" most students, but not all unfortunately, through various training methods (the experienced instructors here probably already know and use). For instance, when working through Kihon, instructors in my dojo will step in front of students as their targets. Our students know to strike with power against us, and we will take a few to gauge a student's power development, technique, targeting, etc. We're not totally stupid though, we carry target mitts or striking shield so that, after the first few power shots taken to our bodies, we have the students continue against the padded surfaces . For our new adult students, it may take several months or more for them to mentally overcome their innate mental block of not wanting to hit anyone. For our youth students (9 - 15 years old), we have found it's actually easier to get them to start hitting us hard than for our adults, at least for the youth students that want to learn true martial arts development - at the same time, most of our students that "just go through the motions" are in our youth. Maybe someone here with some more insight can relay their experience as to why this is (easier to "inoculate" youth students that want it, but at the same time, we have more youth that "just go through the motions" than adults)? I may start a separate thread discussion with that question if it changes this thread too much. Just my two pennies...

I know I'm speaking basic history that everyone here probably knows: Master Gichin Funakoshi brought Karate to mainland Japan, he was an Okinawan, Karate was originally Okinawan (yes, influenced by Kung-Fu ). What's this have to do with throws? Native Okinawan Te (Ti) has, as part of its roots, Okinawan native form of grappling / wrestling known as Tegumi (perhaps torikumu depending on where you look, who you ask, and also contributes to Tuite). So, as part of its roots, Okinawan Karate already has built-in throwing / grappling foundations. Where the branch of Shorin-Ryu I study (Matsubayashi-Ryu) comes in, and our grappling, throws, locks, bars, etc training with it: In addition to all the Karate greatness ( ) that was / is Osensei Nagamine, he was a Judoka. He was in a perfect position as an Okinawan Karate master (with built-in throwing / grappling foundations) plus a renowned Judo practitioner to glean the most effective ways to analyze and apply throwing / grappling waza in the Matsubayashi-Ryu Kata. We train weekly with grappling / throwing / locking / barring / takedown techniques with partners. Many of our kumite sessions are "no strikes allowed" to specifically develop these aspects. Our advanced kumite sessions combine striking, kicking, and grappling to put it all together (in a controlled environment).

While we do not have a formal "Level 1, Level 2, Level 3" structure, the Matsubayashi-Ryu Kata training / development in our dojo has a structured approach. The development phases are dependent upon age (maturity level) and individual progression of our students. Progression isn't just based on how well a student can perform a Kata, but how well s/he can connect the movements / bunkai of a Kata to real world situations and other areas of training (Kihon, Kumite, bag / target work), as well as development of Te (Ti) concepts like Shimei, Tanden, Tenshin, Gamaku (more than just Koshi), Iri kumi (in-fighting, not "continuous sparring"). Novices - 10th Kyu to 7th / 6th Kyu, basically from beginner to 1 year or more of experience: Novices may learn up to the first four Kata in the Matsubayashi-Ryu system, Fyukugata Ichi & Ni, Pinan Shodan & Nidan ("Heian" for those of you from Shotokan / Japanese styles). During this phase, the Kata are basic, the waza teach the students to move their bodies in natural ways, but forming technique. The bunkai & bunkai-oyo are very basic: a punch is a punch, chamber is a chamber, block is a block, etc. Basic concepts of Shimei and ma-ai are introduced. If a student shows particularly good progression toward the end of this phase, we may show them intermediate or advanced bunkai-oyo. Intermediate - 7th / 6th Kyu to 4th / 3rd Kyu, basically 1 year or more to 2 - 3 years experience: Intermediates may learn the remaining Pinan Kata, and then Naihanchi Sho (perhaps "Tekki" in Shotokan / Japanese styles? ) if their development / aptitude is good enough. During this phase, students learn more in-depth concepts, bunkai, bunkai-oyo, etc for the Kata they already learned during the Novice phase (FI & II, Pinan I & II). Also during this phase, the concepts, bunkai, bunkai-oyo for all the Pinan Kata are meant to develop dynamic / intermediate / transitional movement (while keeping Shimei and Tanden), combination waza, introduce them to more applicable fighting sense bunkai / bunkai-oyo, and developing ma-ai to transition into Iri kumi. Yakusoku Kumite Kata (partner Kata) are excellent for developing ma-ai. Advanced - 4th / 3rd Kyu to 1st Kyu, 3 - 5 years experience: Advanced students learn the remaining Naihanchi Kata (Ni and San). During this phase, bunkai & bunkai-oyo are meant to establish root to the earth for development of Gamaku, as well as more advanced bunkai / bunkai-oyo for real-world fighting sense (combos, combos, combos... always block / strike multiple times simultaneously). Ma-ai is continuously developed through kumite and Yakusoku Kumite Kata, as well as Tanden, Tenshin, etc. By this phase, the connection of dynamic / intermediate / transitional movement to ma-ai is more understood, thus leading to a connection of Iri kumi (and subsequently Tegumi / Torikumu (grappling, takedowns, etc)). Once Naihanchi San is developed well enough, we may show them Ananku, which is the Kata requirement for Shodan in our dojo. Additionally, for our adult students, we begin training them in traps, grabs, locks, bars, takedowns, control, manipulation, grappling, etc from their first day as a Novice because they're able to understand quicker and most likely going to need it if they get into a real situation on the street. Whereas our youth and kid students do not learn these concepts until their skill and maturity level prove they can handle it. For us, chambering also becomes hiji ate (elbow smash)...

sensei8, we absolutely do practice shuto uke with the bottom outside edge of our hands; that part of our hands has tougher bones. We train shuto uke against bags, makiwara, and partner drills to develop use of this part of our hands. This issue comes up frequently with our novice adult students because, as you pointed out, it seems illogical... We demonstrate a shuto uke inside against a full power haymaker to show them how it's possible (but not necessarily ideal). We also demonstrate a shuto uke to the outside of a haymaker by combining it with a barai and a side-step (thus making the shuto uke more of a strike). Shuto uke is not executed with just wrist "whip"/"snap"/"flick" alone... Gamaku must be factored in! When facing an opponent that's considerably bigger and more muscle-y than me, it becomes an issue of drawing upon different bunkai/oyo and changing my tactics, rather than just attempting to force-stop his punch; if he's that big and strong, it may or may not do damage when force-stopped. On the other hand, I agree with your explanation of using the forearm as another way of using a shuto uke as a strike. I can see how it would be effective... We do have a bunkai/oyo that shows the use our forearm with shuto uke when used as part of moving into and through Iri kumi (in-fighting) to exert control, manipulation, force, etc to produce locks, bars, takedowns, etc... all still with Gamaku, of course And from: ps1, good find, good share! Great demonstration of bunkai/oyo of shuto uke... I totally agree with you and mal103; absolutely, blocks are also used as strikes (I'm new to the community here, but from all that I've read, it seems a lot of folks here think that way, which is good!). We do several partner drills showing this and how it would be used to make fighting sense in a real situation. mal103, yeah, executing shuto uke with our fingers hurts I did it many times in the past, but not so much now, thankfully. That's one of the reasons, the main reason really, that we stress target practicing our shuto uke against makiwara, bags, and partners. We have the students start off easy until they get the technique / flow / mechanics of it down well enough to practice harder. Once they have it well and good, we have them target practice against makiwara and bags / target mitts full power, and against partners with controlled power (of course). That's just my little two cents...

In our dojo, we allow our students to wear whatever undershirts they want with a couple of restrictions: cannot have any profanity or obscenity to minors on it. The only requirement of our lady students is that they have a sports bra or similar undergarment under their gis. As for myself, I typically wear Under Armour or similar wicking compression shirt because I'm a sweat ball... For our students that have built up their endurance and want to sweat more, we encourage them (but don't require) to wear a thicker t-shirt or similar undershirt, or purchase a heavy gi.

Great find, great share! The side-by-side-by-side-by-side comparison certainly evinces a connection of Sanchin to Fujian White Crane, no? "If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck..." Alas, Sanchin is not a part of the Matsubayashi-Ryu (Shorin-Ryu) system of which I am a practitioner, but I am familiar with it through many observances at seminars, tourneys, Internet, etc...

baiheshifu, While I am no expert on history, it is my understanding that He Quan is related to White Crane but not the same thing; specifically, that the Minghe Quan (Crying Crane) branch of He Quan has its roots from White Crane. In my experience with Hung Gar (Tiger / White Crane), which of course is a Southern Shaolin (Siu Lum) style, the stances, body shifting and moving, and hand techniques are very similar (but not exactly the same) to Matsubayashi-Ryu. I understand that you are making a specific comparison to Fuzhou-based styles; you may be on to something there, but Hung Gar / Southern White Crane was (is) present in the Fujian / Fukien area, which would be consistent with current historical records relating Okinawan Karate to Southern White Crane. I'm not saying that Karate specifically derived from Hung Gar, only that Hung Gar is a form of Southern Shaolin that's been in the Fujian / Fukien area for a long time (which would also be consistent with your suggestion that Okinawan Karate has links to other Fujian White Crane). And from: Remember the Te... The Okinawans had their own native art before melding with the Kung-Fu techniques to make To-Te / Tote / Tode (take your pick of romanticized dictation of the word). It wasn't known / labeled as "Karate" until the modern era. Karate without Te is just the Okinawans' version of Kung-Fu... with Te, Okinawan Karate is their own thing.