ShaolinShorin

I'm not sure you understand what I'm saying. Sorry, I'll clarify. The instructor says jodan mawashi geri -> all ikkyus and above fail to kick anywhere close to head height except one person injury cannot account for 14/15 people not being able to do a jodan mawashi, neither can the style i.e. it wasn't a CHOICE or strategy, they just flat out weren't able to do it.

Hi all, Since the beginner of my karate journey, my sensei has encouraged us all to crosstrain in different styles to optimize our fighting style. Aside from Shorin-Ryu / Shotokan (JKA), I've done BJJ and some MMA also. I have to say I've enjoyed them although I'm not an expert by any means (I'm only a shodan in my "native" style of Shorin-Ryu!) I train in Shorin-Ryu, so I visited another Shotokan Dojo at a university a while ago (not my usual JKA affiliated dojo) They were fortunate enough to let me in, although I'm only 17. I went in with some high hopes, since I figured I could learn a lot from a university dojo with adults (esp. since my previous experiences with BJJ and MMA have been nice, so I always look forward to new stlyes). However, I was in for a bit of a surprise. I wore a white belt in to show my respect for the style. I quickly spotted a shodan that was quite solid in his technique, and I was excited since I assumed that every other yudansha was as good or better than he is). Unfortunately, in the next 2 hours of class, I have to say I was disappointed. Except for the one black belt, everyone else had questionable techniques. This is not to criticize Shotokan - it's more like the roundhouse kicks of 1st kyus and even some shodans could not hit the head level. in the 10-15 advanced level belts, only the aforementioned one person could do a mawashi to their own head height. The intructor was in his 30s, and he had quite a sloppy mawashi too (he tripped and fell quite a few times?) Once again, I am not attacking the style. I've trained JKA before and I know that good practitioners of the style are very very proficient. My questions is, should I travel A LOT LOT farther to go to my previous JKA affiliated dojo where i cross trained, or should stick with a questionable dojo where ikkyus and shodans can't even do a proper mawashi or yokogeri? Sorry if this came off as arrogant, as my kicks are nowhere near perfected either, but I figured that shodans should kick to their own head height with near perfect technique?

Hey, I'm a karateka from the USA. I am a shodan in the shorin-ryu style. I received this quite recently. I am 17, and I have trained for 2.5-4 hours, 3 times a week, for 9 years ( since I was 8 ). Breaks were only two times a year - one week in christmas and one week after the mid-year grading. Gradings were always 2 times a year. Other than these breaks, I have only missed 2 weeks of karate ( 2 weeks total in the 9 years) due to vacation. However, I am skeptical as the the legitimacy of my belt level - is 17 too young? (Since my sensei has made it clear that my shodan was not "junior" in any way - since we didn't ever give junior black belts - I believe the youngest shodan was 16 and he was definitely better than me). Jitte, Bassai-dai, chinto, wanshu, ananku + all the heian were the datas performed at my grading. Bankai for all the kata, Kumite and kihon were of course also present. Thank you =] P.S. Looking for someone to comment on the legitimacy of a shodan under 18. While I understand a shodan is a beginner level (literally beginning-dan or first-level), I still do not feel comfortable as I feel that I am not as good as the other shodan are in my dojo (although they have been shodan for 3 or 4 more years).