SPX

It's basically a situation where I'm not getting everything I want at my own dojo and I want to take my training down some paths that they are not able to walk with me on. These guys have been doing karate for a long time (30+ years) and are serious about it, and they have taught me some good things for sure, but it's not a very competition-oriented dojo and the types of training methods they use are very old school. (I've heard people say that an SKA karate class is like getting into a time machine and going back to the 1950s.) I want to start competing both in and outside of my organization, and I also want to do some stuff that falls outside of traditional karate competition (like some light contact kickboxing stuff, for instance). The truth is that there just aren't schools around here that cater to this sort of thing. You basically either have to go with traditional karate or you have to go with sport karate with a bunch of kids running around and very, very few adult students. The school I chose was the one that I thought was the best under the circumstances. So I'm trying to learn as much as I can from my instructors, but for the rest I'm on my own.

Well, as I said, I'm not training totally on my own. I do belong to a dojo and usually train in class twice a week. And we do spar in class, it's just that competition is not a huge focus of what we do. So I'm basically looking to supplement my in-class training with some stuff I can do on my own to improve my abilities and understanding of karate. I'm looking for solo drills that will help, but it's also my hope that I can find a few karate companions with similar goals who will want to get together for some out-of-dojo training to work partner drills and spar and whatnot. Hopefully I can figure something out on that front. Thanks for the well wishes.

Ah, thanks for the explanation. I actually looked for a school that did some stuff kind of like that and I just couldn't find one. The closest was a sport karate school that competed in the NBL a lot and it was almost exclusively full of kids with glow in the dark nunchaku and the like. I think, personally, what I'm really looking for is a hybrid of a traditional school and a school that employs some more modern training methods and competition styles. But there are none to be found in my area as far as I can tell.

BTW, wagnerk: I noticed that you said you have a BB in "freestyle karate." What exactly is freestyle karate, out of curiosity?

You know, it's interesting you bring that up. A few years ago, when I was training with the Wado group, I started a forum called the Salt Lake City Martial Arts Connection. The purpose was to give local martial artists from different schools and disciplines a way to interface with each other, discuss martial arts, and arrange out-of-dojo meetups. I passed the info out to all the members of the Wado dojo and then e-mailed a number of other martial arts schools in the area with the link to the forum and a note about what I was trying to accomplish. The result? I think I got two people who signed up, neither of which posted more than a couple of times. It was pretty disheartening. But I do agree. That's the kind of thing that needs to happen. I just don't know how to make it happen.

Thanks for the response. The Shotokan instructor I mentioned is actually a member of my dojo. He used to teach a special sparring class on Fridays but life basically got in the way. Not only is he just busy with his family of five but he also got punched in the throat a few months ago at a tournament and almost died (true story, according to the doctors) so he's had to take some time off to recover from that. Now he's trying to figure out how to start integrating his training back into his life and I asked about his sparring class and he said he's been talking to the other instructors and right now it looks like it might be something he's going to start doing again "once or twice a month." So, basically, everything is up in the air and I have no idea how it will all shake out. I don't think it's going to become a weekly thing again any time soon, though. You mentioned doing another style or another art. I have investigated everything that I can find that's local. Multiple styles of karate and TKD, a couple of Muay Thai gyms, a Kenpo place, etc. For a brief time I was training with a Wado group but I didn't quite fit in and eventually landed where I landed. The truth is that the martial arts scene here in Salt Lake City simply isn't the best but I think, of my options, this is probably the best place for me. (I was pretty set on ITF TKD at first but just couldn't find a good local place that didn't feel like a daycare.) I hear you on needing to have a physical partner to train with. I'm trying to work that out. In fact, I'm trying to put together a small group of people who want to get series not only about competition but also about pushing the limits a bit with our sparring. (I'm thinking getting some head gear and light gloves and allowing face contact.) I already have the name for this not-yet-existent group: the Karate Combat Club. The problem is that most of the members of my dojo are older guys. Most of the younger people are an hour away and train with the group on the BYU campus. So I basically need to entice some of those guys to make the trip up here more regularly, or I need to find some local people from other dojos who would be interested in getting together and doing something. In a lot of ways, it kind of sucks being an adult and wanting to be a serious martial artist AND wanting to stick with a traditional style. It would be no problem to find the type of guys I'm looking for in an MMA or MT gym. But alas, I'm trying to make it work.

It's always seemed to me that a martial art that has more hand techniques than kicking techniques is undermining itself by placing no emphasis on those hand techniques in competition. This is how judo became known to the outside world as a throwing art only. People who don't do it have no idea it also includes submissions and ground work. In fact, I think even a lot of judokas have forgotten this, just like a lot of TKD practitioners have forgotten that they're also supposed to learn how to punch.

Really nice vid. I like how the music fits in with the footage. I'll see your vid and raise you one. This one also has perfect music I think, and it even uses some of the footage. In fact, this video right here is one of the main things that got me interested in Shotokan in the first place. It all just looked so cool.

Hey guys, first post here. So I'm training Shotokan and have a big interest in competing in the coming year (at least four times). It will be my first time competing in karate and I'm trying to really get a handle on the specific skills it takes to win these sorts of matches. The biggest problem that I'm running into is that the group I'm training with doesn't place a great emphasis on competition. There is one other Shotokan school in the area, but they have few adult students, and the adult students they do have are not interested in competing. They are just in it for the fun and fitness. There is one instructor at my school who has a big focus on competing, and I know I could learn a lot from him, but he has so much going on in his life that he only runs his class once or twice a month. Long story short, there are no competition-focused schools in the area that really cater to adult students, so I've basically gone with the best that's available. However, it's become clear to me that I will need to pursue a lot of self-guided learning. I'll have to be a lone wolf of sorts, picking up as much as I can in class while also acting independently. I think this independence is going to extend to me traveling to enter a lot of tournaments alone with little actual support from my instructors (I don't say this in a derogatory way toward them, just matter of factly. Especially since when they do compete it's exclusively in tourneys put on by the school's organization. They never enter open tournaments or compete in rulesets that don't follow the standard Shotokan stop-point format.) So, for those on here with experience in competition karate, I have two questions: 1. What advice do you have to give me regarding pursuing this ronin path of semi-self-guided learning? 2. I was browsing around, and found this promo for George Kotaka's "Kumite Academy." It looks like there might be a lot of useful vids on there and I'm thinking of subscribing and trying to integrate some of his stuff into my training. Thoughts? EDIT: Tried to embed this ^^^ but the video tags didn't work. What am I doing wrong?