Spartacus Maximus

I offer the following time slots for adults: Adults only: Monday's and Friday's at 8.15 to 9.15pm Family (adults + children): Wednesday's at 7.00 to 8.00 pm By adults around the dojo do you mean people who frequent those locations? This might be difficult as my Monday class is at a cricket clubhouse in the middle of a residential estate and my Weds and Friday class is at a dance school on an industrial estate. The adults around the dojo are those who are already students. Hand them an anonymous(no names required) form to fill in asking specifically why they chose your dojo(what they like about it) over whatever else is available in and around town. Also ask the adult parents/guardians of the youths/children the same questions. There will certainly be some useful information from that. Essentially, a customer/client survey like any other type of service oriented business might do to improve their customer relations and experience. Ask them directly and to the point what THEY think would bring in more people.

Perhaps it is the time slots or schedule which might not be optimal. Most adults lead busy lives with time constraints. The better part of their time spent on earning a living or studying full-time. It might help to conduct a casual survey by asking the adults around the dojo and among acquaintances questions about when and how frequently they’ve time for themselves. Also reasons why they may or may not want to join a martial arts or sports club. Then try attracting adult students based on that info

Whether a martial arts school or boxing gym, there are no rules or guidelines that apply everywhere. The way of doing things correctly depend on whoever is in charge of the place and the only way to know what to do or how to prepare is the simplest and most obvious: ask the one in charge of the place about open training directly! Expect to need/bring the minimum gear such as training wear and safety gear. Better over prepared than not at all.

A good teacher knows more than one way to teach. The “Krease” type characters only have one and it is one of the least effective. Another important thing to consider is that different purposes require different teaching methods and approaches. Teaching someone to win a sporting match within a set of rules is different from teaching self-defense. Neither of those two purposes can nor should be taught with the same methods or approach as teaching soldiers to deal with an enemy whose mission it is to kill. The opponent in a sporting match is not willfully intent on maiming or killing. The competition is bound by a set of rules both sides agreed to follow. As for self-defense, the defender cannot and must not deal with any situation as if in mortal danger because self-defense is defined by the law; and also for the simple fact that there are different degrees of violence an ordinary citizen might face. With a quick escape while avoiding serious injuries as the goal, techniques that would certainly kill or maim are neither necessary nor desirable.

In reality an instructor with a teaching style and personality like the John Kreese movie character usually doesn’t last very long. The only thing fear and violence teach is that a bigger stronger person can use them to control others. It isn’t the same as teaching people martial art skills to overcome and use the fear and violence they might face. Skilled instructors know how to do that without being obnoxiously arrogant, overbearing or abusive.

It is unfortunately too common for parents to get carried away with their child’s interests. Especially where some kind of direct competition is involved. There are so many ways for a parent to support and encourage their child in martial arts without interfering with training or being disruptive.

Consider applications as principles rather than specific individual techniques. In a kata/form moving, blocking and striking may appear to be done separately in application all these parts are integrated. There is no such thing as single sided techniques. In Okinawan karate terminology it is called “meotode”, which means “husband and wife hands”. The idea is that hands are always used together and blocking or parrying and striking are done simultaneously.

Instructors who accept teaching minors/children rarely if ever explicitly forbid or oppose parents or guardians to watch. In many cases doing that would be a liability. What should be explicitly and strictly forbidden is disruptive behaviour and interference by said parents supposedly “watching” because their own personal definition of watching includes such things as loud obnoxious cheering, unwanted coaching, interruptions or badgering the instructor with criticisms while the instructor is teaching.

Starting at the beginning should logically be expected if it is something completely new and radically different from whatever one has experienced or trained before. What is difficult for some to do or accept because of ego or other reasons is restarting the same or a very similar martial art under a different instructor.

A lot of martial arts practitioners are known to actively select most/all their everyday clothes based on the range of movement possible when worn. This could sound a bit obsessive, but it makes perfect sense if one’s regular training aside from that done in a dojo/school is in every day attire such as plain clothes or even whatever is worn on a usual workday.

The founder definitely came up with a good and interesting idea. The recommendations of the exercises are very easy to integrate into a martial arts solo training session. It has been 14 years since it was first invented and the variety of moves is great. Have other karate practitioners familiar with shovelglove noticed the striking similarities between the moves of shovelglove and the traditional Okinawan/Chinese strength training? Notably with tool line the chiishi, stone padlocks etc ? Some movements are nearly identical.

Is anyone else out there familiar with the “shovelglove” exercise? What do you think of it as a workout?

One of the more literal meanings of the Japanese term is “pulling hand”. This is to emphasize and explain that the hand/arm movement has an important function which is essential to the effective body mechanics required for effective application of hand techniques.

Looking. No other techniques can work without looking in the right place at the right time. Without it one cannot judge what to do or where to move. One must look to see openings or and seize opportunities to counter whatever attack comes wherever it is aimed.

It could be argued that lineage in martial arts doesn’t matter...unless one actively and diligently applies oneself to learn, practise and thoroughly understand what the teacher offers. Merely being the student of a great teacher and martial art expert, does not make someone also an expert. It takes great pains, considerable personal effort and stubborn perseverance to develop skills even under the best possible guidance.

Out of a total of over 30 kata (excluding kihon kata) existing in Shorin ryu, only between 12 and 18 are taught. Usually a given lineage will have maybe one or two kata that are included because they are favourites/specialties of the instructor or considered to contain important principles or techniques. The number of kata in the curriculum or the style is not really important and rushing into the next kata is not a good way to make any progress. It is very easy to miss important and subtle principles in the kata if one is too hasty or only bothers to learn the “moves”. Many things are much more difficult than they might appear.

One thing that should be worthy of considering is that the psychological state caused by experiencing violence is not necessarily one where one’s life is at stake. There are also situations where those involved in defending themselves only realize how seriously they were threatened until after the fact.

Kata in its simplest form is just a tool to learn and practise correct body mechanics without the need for another person. It is the “mold” or the “model”. This idea is used and shared by all martial arts, even though it may be called by different terms. Kata is not defined by the number of steps or moves it includes. The multiple kata curriculum which are so common across styles today are a very recent phenomenon. It goes back less than 100 years when several Okinawan experts decided to get together and preserve the various martial arts systems practised in their country. In the generations before the founders of the Okinawan styles, an expert knew, mastered and taught very few kata indeed. The fact is that most(if not all) of the Okinawan experts who founded the styles known today had more than one teacher or source for the skills they passed on to every subsequent generation of karate practitioners.

The thing is that although there may be X number of kata existing in a style, it is unusual for every dojo of that style to include them all. Only a few core kata are shared by all dojo and taught across the board. Naihanchi, Pinan, Passai, Kusanku and Gojushiho for instance are included in all shorin ryu, but there are quite a few more shorin ryu kata which are only taught in some lineages. The same can be said of all styles of karate and most Chinese martial arts as well. The reason for this is quite simple and can be explained by the fact that in th past, experts drew their skills from only a few forms. Maybe two or three. That was and still is all that is necessary for personal defense. It is only after efforts were made to preserve the teachings as a tradition that some experts began to get together to compile curriculums of kata to practise and pass on. Before that is was quite common for a teacher to teach different students different kata because passing in skills was done in private. As for the reason why shito-ryu having so many kata, the answer lies with Kenwa Mabuni, it’s founder. Mabuni was one of the few Okinawan martial arts practitioners who dedicated his life’s work to the preservation of his native traditions. He and others were among the first “karate historians” who went around Okinawa in the early 1900’s to record, learn and train as many kata as they could in order to preserve and teach them. In the many documents he has left there are mentions of kata which have been lost and are no longer practised. There are all kata that are only found in Mabuni’s lineage and nowhere else.

From what little information available online through his websites, there is no clear indication that the man has any significant training in a specific established system/style, Chinese or otherwise. It appears to be his own eclectic mix of things he “picked up” from various sources. He is in great shape, but great shape does not equal skill/knowledge in martial arts.

Most people favour their right side and will naturally use that side to attack. This means the first attack would likely be aimed at the left half of one’s body. This also means that most people will be naturally weaker with their left. Those are two reasons why it is a good idea to train one’s weaker side twice as much as the other.

It isn’t necessary for a martial arts instructor to have encyclopedic knowledge of history like a specialized historian , but an instructor should possess a general and solid familiarity with the origin and lineage of the chosen system to pass on. This knowledge of history is secondary, however. Most important is detailed knowledge of the systems techniques, their function and application. The how, where and when they can be used effectively. In short, a good balance practical skills and theory.

If shotokan is the definitive choice for kata, the best way to be certain to have kata shared by most shotokan schools would be to get kata directly at the source. Consider finding someone who trains at a dojo under the main shotokan associations. The JKA(Japan karate Association), for instance. Compare their standard kata with those of other large shotokan organizations and that would give a very good idea of what is common for shotokan in most shotokan dojo worldwide.

It isn’t very clear what the intention. What exactly would be the replacement or change? If the present curriculum is derived from shotokan, changing to official shotokan kata might be a logical choice. It would definitely be easier than learning a entire new system or piecing together a patchwork of kata from different sources.

According to contemporary sources Juhatsu Kyoda and Miyagi began training under Higashionna only a very short time apart. Kyoda was only a very short time ahead of Miyagi. Maybe just a month or so, and later Miyagi was followed by Kenwa Mabuni. Kyoda’s kata, which number only six (Sanchin, Sesan, Sanseru, Pechurin, Jion, & Nepai) does not include Seiunchin. If he did learn it, he didn’t pass it on. He was also known to have trained under several other teachers including Yabu(Shuri-te student of both Matsumura and Itosu).