Melau

After 2 decades of experience in the standing fight (karate and boxing) I found myself wanting to learn the ground game. Luckily for me most of the 'beginners' wrist and armlocks are similar as done in Wado-Ryu karate. Both my stamina and my flexibility are well trained. Yet when doing randori I find myself facing far heavier opponents. I'm 60 kg which is around 132 lbs, which is light for a 25 year old guy from the Netherlands. Any tips for a beginner in the ground game? Naturally I understand that I will be doing it 10,000's of times and will progress naturally through the proces. But still, any tips will be welcome.

Just an impression of the National Karate Day that is held once a year. Foto's are from the Wado-Ryu style (also Kyokushinkai, Shotokan and several others had their training the same day!). We trained mostly kihon kumite and relevant aspects of karate to kihon kumite in partner form.

I fully agree with this. Also I believe that a BB should be able to keep a relative calm mental state when sparring / under pressure / when losing for instance. This is just something that is difficult to achieve for younger individuals, it is something that comes with experience.

In physics any object that has a velocity is measured in meters per second, it being a bullet (in this example 930 meters a second) or it being a punch (in this case 8.23 meters a second).

To understand the destructive force of a well trained punch, it is necessary to compare it to similar occurences when talking about the resulting amount of kinetic energy. In short, the kinetic energy of an object is the energy that it possesses due to its motion. It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity. Having gained this energy during its acceleration, the body maintains this kinetic energy unless its speed changes. In this example, it would be the acceleration of a gyaku-tsuki from a basic kihon stance. It accumelates a certain amount of energy during execution of the technique and transfers this kinetic energy on the moment of impact. I was curious what a gyaku-tsuki could be compared to. Given the formula of E(k) = .5 * m * v^2 (where v is in m / s) I came to the following calculation. m = 60 kg (this indicates that someone was able to put 60 kg of mass behind the punch. I do not know it his is an accurate guess, but a trained karateka can put a considerable amount of weight behind a fist due to utilisation of the entire body) v = I got this from the following article http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814017571) which calculated the speed of a karate punch in correlation with Plantar Pressure. E(k) = .5 * 60 * 8.23 (which is around 30 kph) = 2032 J, so 2kJ (rounded). This is comparable to a M16 rifle bullet (5.56x45mm NATO M855, 4.1 g fired at 930 m/s) according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_(energy). Naturally, because the kinetic energy is distributed across a far larger area (the fist) than the point of a bullet, it does not have the penetrating force of said bullet. Still, if one were to hit with purely the first 2 knucles of the fist, the amount of 'penetrating power' would still be something to be afraid of. Please feel free to provide feedback, be it in my understanding of physics, use of sources / data or otherwise.

Thinking about this scene, I believe both parties have somehing to learn here. For one, I cannot imagine being so disrespectfull as to do a public scolding of one of your fellow students. If you have problems with how somebody behaves, trains, smells, etc., you try to talk to them respectfully so that your problems are understood. If this does not work, and the behaviour persists, you go to the sensei and try to work it out through that path. Not a public scolding though. On the other hand, respect works both ways. If you are stronger, more energetic, tougher, etc. than you training buddy, make the exercise difficult for him / her. Not impossible. Try to adjust your level so that both parties can learn. She obviously finds the punching too hard (for whatever reasons), it is the responsibility of the opposide side to adjust. Nevertheless, I've had inexperienced individuals go all out on me thinking that because of my physique (smaller / lighter than average) they could, even after being told to calm down. One way to cope with this is going all out once yourself, showing that you damn well know what you are doing. Luckely, this hasn't happened often, plus you gain way more by just being respectfull of each others' limits.

So I came across this: It's still a prototype, so next models are going to be more flexible, lighter, etc. I think this is a very good development. Finally someting you can wear, and not have to hold back anymore. All-out Muay Thai vs Tonfa? Eskrima vs Boken? Medieval Sword vs Karate? Bo vs MMA? All possible, without the pesky "have to hold back because full blow with Bo is lethal" etc.

Though I recon that most of you know the 100-man kumite, here is a short outline: The challenge was devised by Masutatsu Oyama, the founder of Kyokushin. The story goes that he set an example as the first to complete such a feat, fighting a 300-man kumite over a 3 day period. Having set the example, Mas Oyama started to institute the 100-man kumite. To date, only 19 individuals (including Mas Oyama) have comleted this gruelling test of character and endurance. Currently I have been training Wado-Ryu for about 20 years (I am now in my mid 20's) and finally my body and mind are 'maturing' in terms of toughness, calmness, stamina, explosiveness, etc. Wado-Ryu style is 'soft', which suits me well considering I weight 60kg (132 pounds) and am 1.64m (5'4) tall. Still, testing my limits in a 'Kumite' (be it 10, 20, 30, etc bouts of full-contact) is luring. Anybody even been in the same situation, or has experience with a multi-bout kumite (full-contact) and would share some of their insights and experiences?

Up to 1st Kyu I view the color of the belt as a progression of the karateka in their own right. In every Dojo there is an tremendous difference between similar ranked individuals, be it in overall knowledge / skill, stamina or power. I think this is due to the differences found between every individual. As one progresses in the development of your karate, it is reflected in the Kyu you wear. How fast this progression goes depends entirely on the individual. I think it is an indication of where you stand from your starting point (white belt) for you personally. However I think that the promotion to Shodan and higher should be closely guarded. Just like learning to read letters, forming words with them and eventually being able to read books (and thus start learning), I think being promoted to Shodan should reflect your mastery of the basics of karate (both in skill and spirit), and indicates that you reached a level where you can truly start learning and developing because you truly grasp the basiscs of karate.

Working full-time puts a strain on the available time a martial artist has for training. Even though many of us probably want to train daily, this just is not feasible. So how to counter this dilemma? What I have done for a while now is just simply setting my alarm 15 minutes earlier. Get out of bed, and for those 15 minutes just practise kihon, renraku waza and kata. Slowly, deliberately, nearly no little kime. This helped me tremendously in the amount of training time used each week (it easily adds more than an hour each week), plus it helps to wake up the mind and body. While I have never been to China, even here in the West I occasionally spot Tai Chi practitioners early in the morning, so I wondered; are there any other Karateka's with comparable 'morning rituals'?

Solid statements and very recognizable. I come from a place where graduation to BB and higher is done by a central, national organization. Being naive, I thought this was common practise and regarded a BB to have obtained a certain amount of skill and mastery both physically and mentally that is required for obtaining BB at mentioned national organization. As sad as it is, this is often not the case. Which makes it a challenge to train with an unknown BB, for you cannot be sure they are one a certain level of skill, and will often have an incorrect idea of their own skills 'just because they are BB'.

So it is your national association then for all styles? That was my question, as well. How many different styles can you test for, and how does that affect the judges that sit on the panels?The examiners are style specific, so the exams for Kyokushinkai are judged by Kyokushinkai examiners, Wado examiners for Wado exams, etc. They do not "cross-judge". So the exams are judged by experts from that specific style (Kyokushinkai, Wado, Shotokan, Dento Shito Ryu, Inoue-ha Shito Ryu, Gojo-Ryu). Furthermore, there are minimal waiting periods between Shodan --> Nidan (2 years), Nidan --> Sandan (3 years), etc.

What I find most striking in most of the replies / posts here, is that a Shodan or higher is awarded in the Dojo most of the times. Over here (Netherlands) we have a national, central karate 'agency' (in lack of better translation skills) called 'Karate Bond Nederland (KBN)'. THe KBN holds gradings twice a year (for the styles Kyokushinkai, Shotokan, Wado, Gojo-Ryu), where the examiners / testers bold a minimum of 4th degree and have had an additional 3 years of training (apart from their normal karate training) in the skills of teaching, self-defence, karate history but also how to start and run a Dojo that is nationally recognized as a proper Dojo. Success rates of the Shodan exams are around 50%, and grading is not allowed before the age of 17 and karatekas are tested on stamina, knowledge (theoretical and practical) of kata, kihon, renraku waza, kata, kumite (sanbon, ippon, ohyo, kihon), and jiyu gumite (sparring). It must also be demonstrated in the techniques that a proper amount of training has been done, which can be seen in execution of said techniques. Wouldn't it create a certain bias in the examiners / testers if somebody is graded for a Shodan or higher, and this individual has trained in that Dojo for a long time? Isn't it better to have an objective agency test the individual, without prior knowledge on the karateka? So that there is a common degree of mastery between the karatekas when obtaining Shodan?