Spartacus Maximus

When teaching or discussing self-defense, it is useful to have a few stories to use as examples to illustrate what to do or what to avoid. These can be from personal experience or accounts of situations witnessed. Here are two of mine: #1 while out enjoying the nightlife and on the way to the next stop a violent drunken incident happened at the first place. Several locals were injured and that business's property front heavily destroyed. Believing I was the culprit, a group of 3 aggressive locals suddenly approached. All were firmly convinced that I was to blame. As soon as the first and most aggressive individual was close enough, a single strike to the nose was all that was needed to run, find a taxi and get as far away as possible. Lessons learned: avoid seedy areas, reasoning does not always work and hit-and-run is a good strategy. #2 An acquaintance asked for advice on dealing with violence at work. A group was constantly threatening and one day cornered him with intent to rough him up. After managing to escape, he finally called the police because despite reports, the management would do nothing about the situation. Nobody was seriously harmed, but the management and the police blamed him for causing trouble. This man was a combat veteran quite capable of defending himself but he was a foreigner and double standards applied. Furthermore, the situation was a social setting(workplace) with people whom he dealt with regularly. Eventually after convincing him he did the only sensible thing to do, he followed my advice to find a safer place to work. Lesson learned: Escape is the best way to deal with social violence. Sometimes it is the only solution. Not every situation is, nor should it be treated as do-or-die. Who else has stories useful for teaching about self-defense?

Maybe starting by clarifying the request would help others help you. What do these accronyms stand for? Assuming the K stands for karate, but at a loss for the rest.

Any kind of executive position demands a great deal of time and work. So does being the head of a very large governing body. There is no difference, aside perhaps from the salary, between the two. Head of a governing body overseeing thousands IS an executive position! In fact, as far as work load is concerned, it is akin to being president of a large company! There are not very many people who could manage work two high executive positions simultaneously and with equal attention. One of the two is bound to fall behind the other. Something will give and it will be either one of the positions or the person in charge. Maybe the wisest choice is to pick just one and think it over with much caution. In which position would one be most content? How would one continue training?

In case it may be difficult to imagine a governing body with more than one hombu, here is what the structure looks like: The most senior students of an instructor are asked or chosen to be responsible for teaching their martial art in different wide regions(ex: by continent or country). These senior instructors answer only to their common teacher for any advice. As far as administration, they are free to manage however they see fit. So instead of a pyramid structure, it is more like a network. The heads of each hombu may meet and train together as often as feasible but none has any authority over another as far as administration or dojo management is concerned.

This realization came up after hearing the instructor reminded everyone to move into the attack, stay close and move the feet into one another making the stance narower. After all this time, the meaning of this suddenly started to make perfect logical sense. Understanding this principle improved every application learned so far. It still requires much more work, but at last how it works is clearer.

The larger a governing body is and the more branches it has, the more complicated politics get. Combined with personality and financial issues it is a recipe for conflicts and dissolution sooner or later. There is very little that can be done to avoid it completely. It probably is not common but sometimes there is more than one hombu for a style. Being smaller allows for closer cooperation and better management of administrative work. It also helps to minimize the adverse effects of petty, tedious political bickering.

In a fairly recent moment of karate enlightenment, it became obvious that there is one very important, yet subtle fundamental point about kata application that is often overlooked. That is the role of distancing and range or how close one must be to the attacker to effectively apply a given technique. Every single technique in kata has an optimum range and if it is too far, even by a few centimeters it will not work as intended. Only after practising application drills did it become clear. Whenever something did not work as intended or felt off, moving closer into the attacker made a very significant difference.

The best answer to the original question of what constitutes a vote of non-confidence should not be overly complicated. If a chosen person to make important decisions within the governing body in anyway loses the trust and approval of a majority of those by whom that person was chosen, said individual is no longer fit to hold the responsibility of that position. Knowledge, technical and administrative skills and the like are important but for a position requiring the trust and approval of peers, character is equally significant. Someone who abuses their authority or exploits their position for their own benefit to the detriment of everyone else by behaving dishonestly is probably more deserving of a non-confidence vote than one who has a minor inadequacy in administrative skills.

The list of kata taught is this: Kihon kata 1-5 Naihanchi 1-3 Pinan 1-5 Passai Sho Passai Dai Kusanku Sho Kusanku Dai Chinto Gojushiho There many other excercises and a variety of drills, but they are not on this list. Also, the order in which the kata are taught will vary depending on each person. Only the kihon kata are taught in their numerically logical order. Once a student has learned all 5 kihon and the first Naihanchi, the next kata taught can be any of the Pinan series. This is possible only because the dojo has very few total members, and most training days there are no more than 5 training at one time.

It depends what the meaning of training and martial arts are to the one involved. For some people it is just a physical activity, a sport or a hobby. For others it may be a lifetime endeavour with goals of personal betterment. What ever the case, it is rarely sufficient all by itself to truly make a fully happy and content life. Everyone needs other people to interact and have social relationships to be in good moral, mental and spiritual health. Countless other intangible things are also very important and will be different according to each person's background and personality.

Q1: needed an advantage to get through harsh times and constant physical bullying by larger people. Also a way to stay fit alternative to team sports commonly taught and played in school. Q2 and Q3: karate because judo was the only other thing available and the idea of being able to strike was more appealing. Specifically Shorin ryu because it was the most accessible without requiring a bus or car ride. Stayed because the good dojo atmosphere. Q4: Formerly a 3dan, restarted from scratch under a different instructor with different methods teaching the exact same "style", now a shodan. Considered a novice. Q5: urban exploring and outdoors activities of all kinds. Q6: Century(first supplier ever dealt with), Shureido, Budo(probably defunct) Q7: Shureido for everything because the owners are good personal acquaintances. Q8: Not very often because the quality is excellent and supplies last a very long time.

The most significant aha moment yet besides realizing how much was lacking is one that is quite recent. It happened no more than a month ago before being evaluated to shodan. The essential point was how much distance plays an important part in wether or not a technique will be effective, and that karate is meant to function from very close distances.

Shureido makes very high quality belts, but they can be expensive as obtaining them is only possible from Japan or a the outlet in USA. Only a few manufacturers produce belts of a comparable quality. What is much more difficult to find is quality embroidery work on belts, which is very hard to do considering the thickness of the belt material and how intricate writings can be.

A couple of former instructors knew Mr Shiroma back on Okinawa where he seems to have had a certain reputation depending on who one listened to. Okinawa is a small place and back then just as now, karateka knew each other and were all at least aquainted with one another. Anyway, sometimes young men or US soldiers would try test one of the local sensei. Invariably they would get taught a lesson, which was usually dependent on the mood and character of said sensei. Most did infact leave embarrassed never to return, but some had the courage to come back, apologize for their jackassery and ask for training.

Sports and martial arts are two separate and unrelated things for some people but the two have one point in common which is intense physical activity. Personally, martial arts are the only physical activity of any sustained interest. However, anything that can be done outdoors in a natural environment is very enjoyable whenever the weather and season allows it like: cycling, jogging, rollerblading etc..Also anything done on or in water like wind-surfing and swimming/diving/snorkeling

Thanks to those who read and everyone who helped or shared ideas.

For incidents such as challenges and the like, an over-litigious society can definitely be an important thing to consider when making decisions. Nowadays absolutely anyone can make use of and access all kinds of virtual media to make a legal claim against anybody. This is probably why the more aggressive types of challenges are much rarer than they might have been 20 or more years ago.

The rotating curriculum seems like an idea better suited for larger groups with a single instructor supervising everyone.

So far only one moment worth mentioning. All it took was switching from one school to another and starting over from zero in the same system, but with a different instructor. Going from being sandan back to novice was and still is an eye opener. It is very difficult to not feel regret about not having known sooner about how much the original training was lacking.

Everyone has had different experiences but really negative ones are not commonplace or easily preventable with a little good judgement and common sense. What is possible in one locality, might be foolish and reckless self endangerment in another. For example, an empty vacant lot or park between 9pm and 6am is perfectly fine in Okinawa, but maybe not such as good idea in South Africa.

Teaching larger groups of people who are at different stages can be difficult to manage. Especially for the new instructor starting out. The rotating curriculum is one solution. The concept is that the curriculum is divided into cycles. Each cycle is made up of a predetermined number of training sessions, and all the students train the same content for that time. After completing all the cycles, everyone reverts to the first one. Here is a very simplified example: First month: basic techniques and fundamental principles(punches,kicks,stances etc). Kihon kata, solo and two-person drills. Second month: in-depth coverage of first 3 kata with basic bunkai, oyo kumite and drills for each. Third month: same as second month but covering the next 3 kata or series of kata. Fourth month: Repeat material from first month. Does your dojo/school use a rotating curriculum? What do you think of the idea?

No, the name of the person the quote in the OP is from.

Sooner or later there must be a point in one's training where one finally starts to understand an important aspect of the system one has been training in. What was your first "aha!" moment and what was your rank at the time if applicable? What was the object of your realization?

After an initial spurt of laughter from the unusual name, perhaps in some ways that gentelman may have a good point. The biggest issue with this idea is that the law and authorities often find it difficult to distinguish the good guys from the bad guys when each side is armed. The situation is even more confusing when bullets start to fly.

Before, during and after sleep. There cannot be any higher level of martial arts obsession if one finds oneself regularly dreaming about it or actually doing it in one's sleep. Some people sleep-walk and others sleep-fight/train.