Spartacus Maximus

If recent memory is correct, within the "kobayashi" or Chibana branch of Shorin-ryu there are at least 5 perhaps as much as 8 "kan" or organizations founded by direct students and disciples of Chibana including Shorinkan. After Nakazoto Sr ceded to his son and retired a few years ago, further splintering occurred due to direct students of Nakazato Shugoro wanting to do their own thing for a variety of reasons known only to them. The kata are the same throughout except for very minor details or interpretations. The training methods and focus may also slightly differ.

Being hard on everything all the time eventually takes its toll on a person's life and health. Having a placid, calm nature and pacifist personal philosophy in no way contradicts being involved in martial arts. Neither does the practise of a specific spiritual or religious conviction. What matters and is of vital importance is to maintain balance. Personally, it involves cultivating the mind by reading and studying different subjects of interest. Usually university textbooks borrowed from the library. Mental exercise is the point. Anything that works the mind as hard as training karate does for the physical part. Drawing and watercolours are great and so is memorizing passages from English classics such as Shakespeare, Latin and other Foreign Classic works. Also music from classical composers.

Agreed. Charlatans, con-artists and frauds exist in any field, and some people simply lack the judgment to see the for what are and recognize or accept that these bad apples in no way represent the entire field.

It makes sense, so there is nothing to deny. One who is truly great, will be recognized as such and called great or expert or master of this or that but will never say "I am great". Keeping one's feet on the ground is good advice, not just from a technical point of view. Being modest and humble about one's skills no matter what one's abilities and talents is but one reason to be called a great martial artist, instructor, friend etc..

On the physical performance level at least, what makes a great martial artist is not just understanding and accepting that one's body does not allow this or that; it is knowing how to work with what one has and make the best of it by finding how to adapt and develop skills further based on that.

The man in speaking(his name is in the YouTube channel) in the video is well known on youtube for similar videos and in each of them he describes his experiences with several martial arts schools. After watching just a view minutes of these videos, it is obvious that this sad man was the victim of a martial arts cult. The saddest part of this story is that he seems to blame martial arts for his own poor life decisions and lack of judgment. Then because of this he and undoubtedly many like him blindly condemn all martial arts due to having been cheated, lied to and taken for fool by a charlatan who used his own twisted interpretation of East Asian martial arts to manipulate the weak, naive and gullible.

Lineage is important to some degree to anyone training, but it becomes even more so when one has the responsibility and honour of passing on knowledge and skills. It is very important for an instructor to be able to say with pride and confidence "my instructor was X, this is what I learned from him and thanks to him I can teach this to others" it also applies to other things, not just martial arts. Those who have taught a valuable lesson and made a difference deserved to be remembered as much as the lessons themselves.

Talking too much or too long about something very few people understand or are interested in is not a good idea. In social situations it is usually avoided unless the person are known to be interested or themselves martial artists. If the people in question were not family, they would certainly not know about involvement in martial arts. Following the old fashioned custom, training is kept very private and as secretive as possible. The less people know, the better it is if it helps spare from annoyances. It gets complicated when the annoyances come from one's own house. It is less a matter of changing their minds than getting them to quit worrying about the supposed salvation of a relative who does not share nor care for what they believe.

This is one reason why it is great to be training in an area where, although people are not more nor less informed about martial arts, these are native to the culture. When it is a stranger, it is easy to say to oneself: "this person is an ignoramous fool and what he believes does not bother me" However it is slightly more delicate and somewhat difficult to do when it is one's own family members who seem to have taken it upon themselves to preach about a subject they know nothing about, except for what their credulous minds have blindly accepted from dubious sources such as this gullible sucker(the cult victim hosting the movie) in the aforementioned movie who obviously cannot tell the difference between a charlatan's martial cult and a dojo. It is easy to tell a zealot stranger to go and eat some hay, not so much when it is a family member who is family despite their misguided attempts at saving those who do not need to be saved and have asked for nothing.

While it isbcertainly true that many diseases and pathogens are spread through saliva, it is highly unlikely that infection could actually result from being spat on or urinated on. The sheer volume of fluid required to infect another person is much more than that contained in a few millilitres. Even a dangerous virus such as AIDS would require prolonged contact with a high volume of saliva to result in infection. One would have to practically ingest(yes drink! Gross) litres of infected saliva to be infected. This is the reason why a serious charge based on that would not make sense. What does make sense and what happens usually is a charge of assault or something more serious if it is done against a person representing the law. Spitting is a universal insult and one of the worst provocations a person can do to another, regardless of culture. Spitting at anyone in any country or culture is probably the best way to start a fight. When someone spits, fists or handcuffs are usually not far behind. That is why it is so seriously considered.

A certain group of zealots, fundamentalist christians have convinced themselves that somehow martial arts are "of the devil", "dangerous for the soul" and otherwise "evil". These people have recently produced a so-called movie titled: "The Dragon Revealed, the true story" Obviously none of these people involved in producing this movie know anything about martial arts, or they had the unfortunate bad experience of a charlatan or cult leader take advantage of their gullibility. This movie was sent to several acquaintances who are martial artists and from family members. Has anyone heard of or watched enough of the movie to possibly have ideas on how to dismiss it? It would be preferable to be a polite and courteous as possible, because the rebuttal is addressed to close family members who insisted on the recipient watching the movie.

One of the guys from Black Eyed Peas(?) did/does train in wushu or Kung Fu(which kung fu?). Olympic figure skater Elvis Stojko(?) again kungfu of some sort. It would not be a surprise if other Olympic athletes train in some sort of martial art in addition to their specific sport. As far as major celebrities it may be harder to find. Samuel L Jackson has a high dan grade in some form of karate and perhaps others

Nothing wrong with making training a habit. That is exactly what one is supposed to do! How else do people think somebody can keep training for decades? Why is it that a 70 year old expert can easily beat people less than half his age? Habit! When training is a daily habit, one no longer has to think about doing it or plan it because it is a natural part of the day. Like getting dressed in the morining. Nothing wrong with that at all!

Children are always watching the adults around them, especially their parents. Even more so when said adults are not aware or do not think they are watching. The best way to get a son or daughter to try something that one enjoys is to expose them to it. Talk about it and let them watch training as early as possible. When a child sees their parent passionate about an activity and really enjoying doing it, they are far more likely to develop an interest than if they are thrown into it or pushed. The rest is up to the child to decide.

It is probably more reasonable to earn a degree from a recognized accredited university in something that will be useful in a martial arts related field instead of martial arts. There are so many other subjects to study that would yield much much more rewards than just martial arts. Before making a choice, one would do well to answer this: what do I want this degree for? personal interest or marketable qualification? A degree in martial arts may be interesting, but it will never be as useful as one in physical education or something similar.

The same principle ought to apply to everyone, regardless of position in or outside the narrow circle of whatever martial art one has chosen. When training at another school, one must behave with courtesy and respect. Be friendly, polite and focus on training with good honest effort. If after all this one still does not feel welcome, finding somewhere else to train. However if one is there by invitation, train seriously and forget about what anyone else might think.

At first the idea that more time spent training translates to greater skill seems to make sense. It also makes sense that someone who does it professionally must be better than a person whose living does not depend on training. To say that it is the only way to train and that anything less is not effective sounds more like an excuse. The "long hours=greater skill" idea is to simplistic because it fails to consider training methods. To be effective, training must be focussed on specific goals for improvement. In addition, there are plenty of highly skilled martial arts practicionners who do not make a living from martial arts, are not professional athletes or have ever served in the military.

There seems to be a common opinion that to gain any significant and worthwhile skill in martial arts, it is necessary to spend hours training everyday requiring as much time as a regular job. Does this make sense or is it a kind of misconception? Does it mean that those who for any reason are unable to make martial arts their entire life cannot expect to ever reach a high level of skill?

Between one hour and two hours is fine for older teenagers(16-18) to adults but, anyone younger will have find it difficult to continue longer than 45min. This time length is identical to an average class in primary and secondary school. The total time can be over an hour, but how much of that time is taken up by direct instruction depends on a lot of things. In a 2hours period, 45 minutes could be spent on instruction and guided training, with the rest spent on individual practise of whatever was just covered.

It is true that people have a tendency to think that things were better in the past. Everyone does this, and it must have something to do with human nature. Looking at the exponents of the past generations and their training methods can help modern practicionners understand how they trained to achieve and develop their skills. Comparing also gives a good idea of how one might get similar results with what is available in this time.

Lineage allows one to know where and whom one's skills came from, but it is just as important to know where one is taking these skills and what one expects to achieve. At the individual level, the importance of lineage depends on personal interests. When one begins to seriously instruct another person, then it ought to be the responsibility of an instructor to know the lineage in greater detail and be able to explain it as best as possible.

Effort. Good honest effort and dedication are what makes a great martial artist or whatever else one endeavours to become, for these two qualities enventually overcome any hardship and compensate for natural ability or any other factor that might be an advantage in the beginning.

Lineage does matter but in the end, what is really important is not so much who one trained under but, what one has learned and how well. Lineage is valuable information to understand the origin of a system and its development. It is also a way to remember one's instructor and the previous generations with the respect their efforts deserve and thanks for their dedication to sharing and teaching what they; in many cases spent a lifetime learning. Of course all this only means something if the feelings and thoughts motivating them are true. Lineage is meaningless if it is reduced to nothing more than a reason to boast or exploit names for profit. Any fool can drop names or even make claims of being anyone's student. It is so incredibly easy. A lineage is where one comes from, but it does not and must not determine what or whom one will become. That depends on the individual alone and the decisions and choices made. Being the pupil or the son of a great man does not automatically make one a great man.

The average session in most dojo is probably around an hour to an hour and a half. This is sufficient for youth and children, but a worthwhile session ought to be at least 2 hours.

The expression was popularized in the West and elsewhere outside Japan starting from the Kyokushinkai. Nowadays it is used in many dojo teaching different Japanese martial arts. In Japan, however, it is mostly limited to Kyokushinkai and offshoots because of the cultural significance it carries in Japanese society. Originally "osu" is a very rough expresion and it has militaristic and underworld connotations. In Okinawan karate circles it is never used and some sensei will explicitly speak against its use. Of course, most people are ignorant of this and it would be unreasonable to expect people who train or teach outside of Japan understand.