Nidan Melbourne

Gedan Harai Uke is your standard lower block. In Japanese there are some letters that they don't have or use. But this is what I've been told by japanese tour guides and friends of mine that speak fluent japanese (or are japanese). Gedan Uke or Gedan Barai are a lower block. Although some schools will have a different use for each term.

Do you know what style of karate your friends do? It will be tough at first but it gets easier the more you train. I am overweight and 22 so i know how you feel. Your fitness will improve greatly when you train

I'm asking because (naturally) I see differences in your performance and the way I've learned it myself or have seen it in other dojos, so I'd be interested in learning more about the bunkai that you use in your dojo. I have found that even within one and the same style and org there can be minor differences in the way a kata is done, and vast differences in the way the kata is interpreted and bunkai is practiced. Do you by chance have a video contaning your bunkai? Or of any other kata that you do? OSU! The Bunkai for Suparenpei I have absolutely no clue about. Considering it is considered the last kata in the style. I don't have a video of any bunkai that my school does. don't forget to take into account i am relatively new to performing this kata. so Timing was off

Any chance can you make a video so we can check it out to give advice

I think when your selecting a school (& Style) it comes down to what you want to achieve from it. Be it Fitness, Self Defense or Competition (or all of them). For me, originally when I was signed up it was for Fitness & Self-Defense (But I didn't have the mentality of self-defense applications). That was when I was 9. Now I still have Fitness & Self-Defense of things I want out of Karate, but now also I have competition in my eyes of my training. But I know when to focus on Self-Defense and Competition. But for me competition helps with my self-defense, as kumite helps with the pressure of a street attack (if you have an opponent who 'bulldozes') When it came to selecting a school for me, my parents chose a school that I could learn to defend myself. Yet still they chose a style (which they knew nothing of) that Physically I could do without injuring myself (as much). And they did not think of competition experience as important, just how well the instructors could teach me to defend myself. Since I took time off during year 12 and restarted, I chose the school of my old instructor of whom started his own school. I went with him because of the rapport that i have with him, but also because i know that he can teach effectively and also if i ever decided to compete he could train me up.

I don't think politics are really at play here. Even though he (Diaz) admitted it was error, but still the referees deemed it be better than the other kata. They changed the rules to make mistakes like this more acceptable.

Shrine? Not sure what you mean...although I may reconsider a full-size bronze statue of my self or framing the poem that I had written about....myself. Just kidding. Fair point although this is for my garage / training with few if any visitors. It's meant for more of a memento rather than a shrine. For instance, I still have my very first motorcycle helmet that I got when I was 9 years old. Brings back many good memories. I still have my very first BJJ gee - has a few blood stains that I'm very proud of to this day. The belt "display" was meant along these lines. And I suppose I may be brainstorming ideas because I don't want it to look like a shrine. Anyway, food for thought, you raise an interesting point. Will think of something. The training aids idea is interesting.... I love keeping mine because it reminds me to be honest to myself and to remind me why I started training in the first place. Looking at each belt it reminds me to face my fears and to face any challenge that i face in my life. Also looking at them brings back memories for me.

Maybe look it up on google is a good idea. If you can't find a Shotokan dojo (a good one) around the area, find another one that you might meld quite well with. I mention melding with a dojo (if another style as well) then you will be very happy.

My sanchin dachi was a tad off in the video (admittedly), but normally very stable and has been tested a lot against resistance and sweeps. Yes I practice Bunkai, why do you ask?

Happy Birthday

Here is a video of me doing the Goju-Ryu Kata Suaprenpei. What do you all think? It was just me practicing the kata and I still have a lot of work to do on it. It was kindly filmed by my girlfriend.

I agree with you on that point. Here in Victoria Australia we have 4 major tournaments each year and then there are other minor tournaments you can enter. I say there are minor ones because they are either run by well known schools or they are ones that aren't karate-specific (National All-Styles).

Often it is hard to have all schools have a central organisation saying "yes you are worthy of having a BB" because of all the variations of kata that each school may do. Along with the curriculum is difficult. Organisations like the JKA (Japanese Karate Association) that are a Shotokan Organisation can have a national requirement for the standard of black belt that every karateka in their association has to strive for. Although National Organisations like the Australian Karate Federation do run gradings irregardless of school and style but they are normally just for dan grades. Plus these are rather expensive to hold and don't come about all that often due to needing a 'master' (i hate using that word) from each of the 4 major styles (Goju, Shotokan, Wado, Shito-ryu) in the country to be there watching. So it isn't common practice.

Just as an update on the situation. He has become more aggressive and prone to having outbursts at others and at property owned by the center where we train. I'll start with the property that the center owns. He walked into the room and went past the chairs and the bags and placed his bag on the floor on the other side of the room. He then walks back towards the door and walks into one of the chairs. He then proceeds to pick it up and throw it around and started swearing. - Do know he arrived at 6:50 when the last juniors class was still in progress - No one got hit by the chair and there was no damage. Now if the chair got broken or anything major got broken we would have lost our rental agreement with the center and therefore would be able to continue training at the center (or any of the other centers operated by the council). Now the aggression towards others he is starting to become abusive to others, whilst they haven't done anything wrong. For example my girlfriend was at the dojo one night watching us train and she had to have her legs straight due to her severe arthritis (Juvenile Arthritis). Peter walked past her fine when she had her legs straight and when he went past again he walked into her legs (She had NOT moved since he first went past) and became abusive towards her. Now she didn't know he was blind (Basically) and would have moved her legs if she was told. also this wasn't an isolated incident, where he has done it several times to many people

Preparing for Kata and Kumite are different entities in the way that you prepare for competitions. There is no 'on' or 'off' season. As there are competitions everywhere going on throughout your state & country, then also international if you travel a lot or compete with your national squad. For Kumite obviously you have to meet the weight category that you aiming for. This requires a high amount of fitness and strength which you continually have to train to make weight and for your health in general. What Wastelander said that you should use periodization, but it will be very different between kata and kumite. - Kumite you will reduce your training load a couple of days prior to competition to recover (and to reduce the risk of injury immediately prior to competing) - Kata you will continually practice your kata to get timing right and just general exercise will be fine.

Circuit Training is always a good way of getting everything in a short time. My good friend Rhys who I've trained with for a long time, runs us in class through a circuit every week. Doesn't matter what exercises you do as long as your working hard then awesome.

If his school was registered (with a governing body) when he graded through his ranks (up to his current one) then they will be considered valid. If you leave the organisation and go somewhere else, the school you join will most likely either a) accept your childs rank or b) grade your child to see what rank he is at in their school

Don't give up on your training. I have suffered from severe depression for many years and i've had many of the same feelings as you have. But I pushed through it and worked hard. Being a slow learner is ok! You will make a great karateka one day as you have taken your time on the curriculum. I am relatively slow learner but i spend ages to look at everything and karate is all i can think about. That is how i have been helping myself progress

Have a look around at different school. Definitely go to each more than once so you can see if they are legit in the way they teach. Every School will have a focus of Self-Defense but some schools will focus on other aspects. Styles like Kyokushin (Full Contact) can be great for self defense as you get used to getting hit. But since it is a very hard style of karate you may or may not last a long time in the art due to many years of injuries but also it can strengthen your body even more. Shotokan is good as well, another strong one. In relation to competitions it depends on which style you do. Because if you do Kyokushin you will do knockdown and some point sparring. But you won't really compete in other types of sparring at tournaments. All WKF (World Karate Federation) Tournaments you do point sparring. At NAS (National All-Style) Tournaments you can do continuous sparring and point sparring. I train in Goju-Ryu Karate (Go = Hard, Ju = Soft) and focus on Self-Defense (primary) then also on fitness and tournaments. - I live in Australia, so I compete in tournaments sanctioned by my State Karate Association. - I compete in Kata (Forms) and in Kumite (Sparring) I recommend to my students to wait to compete until they train up for some time and complete a number of gradings. But I don't stop them from doing it.

I loved his works on TV, Movie and stand up. He was an amazing person to everyone.

Well Tang Soo Do are Korean Martial Arts, not sure about Chun Kuk Do Though. The others are Japanese Martial Arts. each have their own strengths and weaknesses. Probably go with Shotokan as it is quite a strong style of Karate. If it is a JKA (Japanese Karate Association) affiliated school then it will be fantastic! I am a Goju-Ryu Practitioner and my style is hard and soft. Whilst Shotokan is more hard.

Welcome to the forum! Like everyone has said go check out schools around your area. Was your old school in Germany a JKA affiliated Dojo or not? Maybe go to a Shotokan school and train there? Well if there is one that you can find that is good. Otherwise it is totally up to you and what type of Karate you wish to train in and might interest you the most?

At my dojo (I'm Goju); Ushiro Geri is a back kick (Aka Donkey Kick lol cause its true). Also we have Ushiro Mawashi Geri which for us refers to Reverse Roundhouse Kick And one that we call it sometimes is a yuko geri (we know it translate to side kick) but for us it refers to a roundhouse kick to the body (Mawashi Geri Chudan) Whilst mawashi Geri was for a roundhouse kick to the head

at my dojo we have 18 kata and that is enough for us.

I totally agree with you. I have trained at a dojo for a couple of weeks and they happened to have a time of all students and instructors wore pink. Due to them trying to raise as much as possible for breast cancer awareness If I remember, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Many events with the purpose of raising money and raising awareness through October. We did this last year. All adults trained for the month in pink belts, in our children's class all of the girls received a pink belt they could train in. We also placed a sizable order with Tap Cancer Out, a BJJ related organization that fund raises for different cancer funds and research groups. Unexpectedly almost all of the boys wanted a belt too, but wouldn't have gotten theirs until the month was mostly out. Lesson this time is to check with the boys before ordering! I'm curious, why didn't you order some for the boys as well? I would have asked the month or two prior asking who wants one, and done it for them + extra. You might as well have a bunch more in stock for future events