Spartacus Maximus

To everyone in general and Sensei8 in particular, let’s say you have been graded up to 2dan under the head of a traditional Okinawan karate association, a 9th or 10th Dan. That governing body has different different associations that are run by others of equal experience. All of whom were taught by the founder(who was taught by Chibana Chosin Is it possible to approach these other instructors to pursue your training without ruffling any feathers or stepping on any toes if that is the only way to continue because life happened and it is no longer possible to train under your original instructor more than once a year?

Has any one reached out to different associations or groups within their own martial arts lineage to train together?

Do you or does anyone you know teach for free or almost free such as not making any personal profit? For example if any money generated is spent to maintain the school running(rent, basic utilities), buy training equipment, etc. This is obviously less than ideal for anyone who wants to make their teaching primary income. But there must be others like myself who would be happy just to have a place to train themselves and share martial arts with others. Outdoor public places like parks are not an option because eventually, any decent training will require at least basic equipment or training tools that might not be practical to carry or use outdoors every time. Weather is also constantly an issue if it means not having access for months. If you are or if you know such a teacher, what kind of location(assuming it is indoors and isn’t your own building)do you teach from and how did you find it? What sort of agreement (rent, membership, exchange of services etc) is there with the owner party for having access and using it? Maybe it’s somewhere uncommon or unexpected that is different from the obvious places one might look such as public sports gyms or community centre. Anyone’s ideas and experiences are most welcome. Hopefully someone out there has thought of some type of place to run a school that I have never did before.

The exact wording is different, but in the first movie Mr Miyagi says something like “trust the quality of what you know, not the quantity”. This perfectly describes the idea of karate as it was in pre-war Okinawa. When an expert knew two or three complete forms but in the finest detail.

For those of this forum who started training in martial arts in their youth or even in your childhood, how have you adapted or tailored your personal practise/training to your age? It would make sense to assume that once a practitioner reaches their 30’s or 40’s, it requires some sort of change as a 40 year old must train differently than someone in their 20’s, even if the person has been training since their childhood or teens. There are things to take into account such as recovery time and other important fact that affect the body as someone continues to train past their physical peak.Certainly there are exercises and methods that must change with the person’s age. How else did/do the old timers keep it up after decades? it would be interesting to know what others experiences are like.If you have been training since your teens or 20’s, what if anything have you tweaked in your training to keep it up into your 30’s, 40’s or beyond? It is highly doubtful that, my Okinawan instructor in his mid 70’s, trains exactly the same way as he did when he was I his 20’s or 30’s. The reason for my inquiry is that I have been trying to get back into regular training solo, after being out-of-condition due to a nearly two year illness which left me nearly unable to do any kind of physical effort. Essentially stuck to a bed for most of that time. Recovery is still ongoing, but from a medical point of view, there should be no problems provided the intensity is slow and gradual.

This question is for everyone, but especially for anyone who has tried and tested the idea. What type of wood would be best to build an outdoor makiiwara board and post(round type). Hard types like maple or oak or soft types such as cedar or pine? it also seems obvious that weather will determine how long these would last, which probably not as long as it might in the semi-tropical climate of Okinawa. Construction will have to be adapted to a northern temperate climate with a long cold snowy winter and much rainfall in Spring and Fall and a relatively short but very hot summer.

People quit karate and a lot of other things they might have been doing for years because life happens and other things become priorities at different points in their lives. It is no small fit to continue for years or a lifetime and only a very determined, stubborn and lucky few manage to balance their entire life around it. Jobs, love, mariage; careers opportunities. Take your pick. It really is really hard to do and takes a cast iron will with top notch self organizing skills.

As far as discussing training the only of any value was with family. A distant relative but still close enough to trust and his involvement with Chinese martial arts was quite similar to mine. Both of us began or got involved in martial arts around the same age. Him in Chuan fa, mostly Hung Gar; and I in Japanese and later Okinawan karate. Never met often, but whenever he was around, we talked about martial arts. If there is one thing I can take away from this is that those who don’t train don’t know and cannot ever understand. The ones who do may have something to share or worth listening to, but always, always let them mention the subject first. Everyone and anyone else will just be dumbfounded by what they cannot understand and respond with ignorance and stupidity or awkward silence. If you want to go through that, good luck. I’m not loooking for students and Life’s too short to try to convince anybody I haven’t gone completely in insane with what I love to do with any free time I can get.

Been there. Regraded in the same stile from zero and nothing up to second Dan so far. Different instructors, different standards and different organizations. Logically speaking re-grading for third dan should have been possible a while ago, but it’s the teacher’s judgement and up to him to say when. Also Covid-19 restrictions has caused a lot of plans in that perspective

That sounds really lonely. What experiences have lead you to that conclusion?It may seem lonely, but martial arts has always been something very personal Thant only those who train as seriously as I could possibly relate to. It didn’t take long that mentioning or discussing it with anyone else was just a waste of time and could even give people impressions that I do not need. I go as far as avoiding the subject, denying any involvement and even knowledge beyond what the average person thinks they know about martial arts. It isn’t too far from the truth that for the average person, the martial arts are either a children’s game or entertainment to show off and appear in cheap things shows or movies. At worst they’ll think you must be not right and ridiculed for it, or that you’re some kind of thug begging for the opportunity to beat someone up; worse still that your “fancy nancy” moves won’t work on them. I have no time to waste correcting that kind of idiotic thinking and not at all Interested in changing anyone’s mind or convincing them of the “good” it gives me. It’s none of their business, dagnamit!

Personal experience has taught me to avoid the subject of my training, keep to a strict minimum those who are aware of it and keep it completely secret from everyone and anyone else.

Pride always gets in the way, even when you make every effort to let it go. Somewhere in the back of our mind is that part of ourselves that’s keeps overestimating or overdoing what we do. Either to feel good about a skill we have convinced ourselves cannnot be further sharpened or to impress others who either are interested in others parts of our training or just aren’t impressed because they’ve seen better.

The reason I mentioned kobudo is that it is a separate system on its own, but has come to be taught entirely or most commonly in parts in most Okinawan styles. Although it might take some searching, it is possible to learn and grade in it separately from karate. There at at least two maybe three kobudo only dojo’s in Naha, Okinawa. And there are also a few others in the USA and Europe focusing on weapons. And yes they do actually spar weapon vs weapon empty hand vs weapon. Scary stuff when you know that if one misses by even a hair, it could cause a visit to the ER.

It is absolutely possible to train and teach without any belt system, but it would mean that everyone knows exactly what skill and knowledge they have; as well as everyone else’s who trains with them and their instructor. This just isn’t practical with larger groups and it was one of the many reasons the belts came to be in the first place. When pondering the pros and cons of this system, we ought to remember that styles that have it were never intended to be taught to very large groups. Quite often it was just the instructor and one student who usually was unaware if there were other students and how many. For a long time martial arts instructors had no need for marking a student’s progress. They would just see it at a glance each time they watched their students training. It stood out more because the student had all the attention focussed on them instead of having five or ten or twenty different students with different levels to check or make corrections with. My dojo has exactly four belts, including black. How long it takes to progress to shodan depends completely on how and how often the person trains as well as how much effort they put into it outside of dojo hours.

I was thinking about striking pads, mitts or shields. Things that could easily be carried every time they’re needed as nothing can be left/stored at the training area due to use by other groups for different purposes.

Assuming one had a couple of students and a place to train. What would be considered the minimum essential training equipment to have? Let’s also assume that the place is rented and nothing can be left there. Everything just be portable or easily removable after each session is done. What items would you get and why?

That sounds a lot like many Okinawan karate dojo where kobudo is also taught with its own curriculum. The two used to be taught separately but for economic/profit reasons many if not most Okinawan sensei will also teach some kobudo. So it is possible to have different ranks or the same rank in both if your dojo teaches a full kobudo curriculum besides karate and you started at the same time. In my case the dojo is strictly karate and my instructor does not teach weapons/kobudo although he is highly proficient in several weapons.

The example of Fumio Demura is a good one. Grades and ranks will come eventually, but it is important to continue training and practising while staying focused on improving in skills, rather than gaining the next rank. There are still quite a few people out there who are still training and/or teaching with many years since their last “recognized” formal rank/grade. And it absolutely does not make them any less skilled or any less of a teacher because of it.

Awesome. Someone tell me if I’m wrong but I reckon I read somewhere that the makers were trying to speed up production a bit compare to the waiting time between the last two seasons. The newest season may be available around October at the earliest. Can’t wait. If I had students of my own I would make them watch at least one episode.

Now, that’s creative advertising for sure! I’m sure it gets at least a few people to pop in the front doors. And that’s half of making the sale. People who see it are at least going to be familiar with the reference and be somewhat interested in the first place so the target audience is already determined. And a wide age group too since it includes those who saw and were influenced by the movies who now may likely have kids of their own, and those younger who just discovered the new series. This dojo definitely knows how to exploit a popular trend. I guess the cobra Kai series isn’t just good for karate nutters and hardcore fans, after all. Has anyone else’s dojo tried surfing that wave for getting people to sign up?

There are two styles called shidōkan that usually one up in searches online. One is Okinawan and is basically traced to Miyahira Katsuya and his successors. Miyahira had many students and never really designated a single one as sole inheritor of his teachings, which are basically exactly what he learned from Chibana who taught exactly what his only teacher, Matsumura Sôkon taught. The other is a type of Japanese knock-down fulll contact organization similar to and possibly related to kyokushin kai or one of the many out shoots that came up after Oyama´s passing in the mid 90’s.

All the karate styles known and practised outside of their area of origin can be traced back to Okinawans and Japanese teaching their styles abroad or their students teaching it after returning to their countries. Mostly American military men for the Okinawan styles. We must also consider that the available recorded information on older karate styles is quite lacking, and of what has been written down or recorded in some way has never been translated. The are, however two well known and recommendable authors for sources of history and research into the different styles. Look for any publications by Mark Bishop or Patrick McCarthy.

The tip of the toe kick and other such small , narrow surface striking techniques are nowadays thought of being specific to certain styles such as uechi ryu, but not very long ago it was widely practised by in all forms of karate and Okinawan martial arts. Uechi ryu is usually mentioned because it is the only Okinawan karate style that still actively and purposefully trains those techniques. With the othe styles, it depends on the lineage and instructor. My shorin ryu instructor is one of those exceptions and, just as uechi ryu students we are taught and expected to learn to kick with the big toe and do much of the same type of body hardening seen in uechi ryu. On asking if it was style specific, my Okinawan sensei replied that it used to be universal. So it isn’t just the uechi ryu guys, they just stuck to it longer.

Personally, teachers have always been more important than anything else. As a novice I belonged to, and that was it. After starting over in the same style, organizations don’t count for much at all. All that matters to me is that I found the instructor who can teach me what I had been missing. As far as I’m concerned, if one cannot benefit directly from training under the headmaster of a martial arts governing body on a regular basis, there is no reason for being part of said governing body. I would rather follow one instructor who knows me, than some sage somewhere far away who may or may not know what his representatives may be teaching in his name.

Hosting one’s seniors and instructor is one of the ways that might be possible to pursue training if opening a dojo/school.