Karate4Life

Tuesday, 8th May 2018 Could not make it to the dojo in time due to work obligations, so I worked in my home dojo late at night. Interval training, 10 rounds of: 1 minute continuous boxing on the heavy bag, 30 seconds mellow shadow boxing 3 x 2 minutes kickboxing on the heavy bag, all out Kata, several times each: - Hangetsu - Meikyo - Heian Yondan - Heian Godan - Tekki Shodan Good session! OSU!

Dang, I haven't posted here in ages, so here's an update. I have moved all over Germany due to a new job, and now I am located in central Germany. The last two years have been really chaotic, and I managed to train regularly, but mostly on my own. Unfortunately, there is neither a GoJu Ryu dojo nor a Kyokushin dojo within reasonable distance from my new home, so I joined the central German JKA Shotokan headquarters which is actually only a 10 minute drive from where I live. It is an excellent dojo, and while I still have a lot of difficulties with adapting to what the Shotokan folks are doing, it is nevertheless great fun training with them, and after those few months that I have been with them this dojo begins to feel like home. Great people, great training, excellent instructors, and most important: I was made to feel welcome from day one. Due to my rapidly deteriorating knee condition (advanced arthritis on the right side) I have decided to quit powerlifting about a year ago, and that was a hard decision - I love lifting weights. But well, as years go by we need to adapt to what our bodies dictate, I suppose. So right now it is only Karate, and I manage to get 4 sessions per week in (2 in the dojo, 2 at home in my man cave). I am looking forward to posting my training here more regularly and to enter discussions with you. Saturday, 5th May 2018 The annual dojo seminar There were four groups, kids beginners and advanced, and adults beginners (9th kyu - 6th kyu) and adults advanced (5th kyu - dan grades). The seminar consisted of 8 sessions á 75 minutes, and I was responsible for two sessions with both adult groups. In the beginner's group there were only 10 people (white belts up to green belts), and the advanced group had about 20 people (I forgot to count), most of them brown and black belts. My missions was to teach a GoJu Ryu kata and bunkai to both adult groups. I did kata Gekisai Dai Ichi with both groups. It is a beginner's kata in GoJu Ryu, it is quite simple, and it is short so it can be taught easily within 75 minutes. In both groups we started with light randori for warm-up, followed by a short introduction to two specific stances and some techniques that occur in that kata and which are not done in Shotokan. In the beginner's group I managed to get the kata across so that at the end everyone was able to do it properly, and we even managed to extract three partner drills from the kata that they did in pairs. With the adults we were done with the kata after about 40 minutes so that we had plenty time to put several of the combinations contained in the kata into practice with a not-so-compliant partner. That was great fun, everyone gave their best, people were sweating, the room was filled with kiai and heavy breathing and the last 10 minutes were reserved for pad work where I instructed all of them to put specific short combinations contained in the kata to the pads as hard as they could. A good day. I felt honoured to be trusted with these two sessions. After all I've been in that dojo only for some months. Monday, 7th May 2018 Home-Dojo Some shadow sparring 5 x 2 minutes kickboxing on the heavy bag Kata: - Heian Godan - Hangetsu - Meikyo - Tekki Shodan - Tensho A good session! OSU!

OSU! My heartfelt condolences to you and your sensei's family, Noah. Carry on, I would imagine that this is what he would want you to do. OSU!

OSU! It's a matter of preference really. Find out what suits you and wear it. As simple as that. For me: cotton, hands down. And heavy. 14oz, maybe lighter pants. Short jacket sleeves, long wide pants, almost 70s style. Great brands: - ISAMI (of course). Great quality, but ridiculously expensive. - Kwon Full contact in the 12 oz version. My all-time favourite dogi. - Danrho Mejiro. The latter ones are of great quality, great knockdown look, very affordable, a pretty good alternative to ISAMI. OSU!

OSU! I did so in the past, and I heartily recommend it. Time constraints don't allow me to do this anymore, and I miss it. OSU!

OSU! I don't understand why people tend to be so fascinated by things that are related to war. A warrior kills, survives and dies in the field and gets paid for it. Nothing glorious about this. Now, for how many of us who are doing a MA as a hobby or maybe even on a professional basis can say so? As long as there are rules it's not real fighting, and for sure it's got nothing to do with war. OSU!

OSU! The way it's meant to be!! Indeed. If there's no fun, why bother? OSU!

OSU! I grew up in the GoJu Kai, and this is the style where I hold my black belt and the only style that I feel competent enough to actually teach. I did one pretty intense year of Kyokushin, but I had to quit the dojo due to several changes in my private life which I really regretted, but I can happily say that this has altered my view on Karate significantly. Currently, I am active in IOGKF GoJu Ryu, and I'm happy with that. However, I cross-train a lot, and I actively work out with boxers and kickboxers, and I feel that all these different views on MA in general are beneficial for me. So if you'd ask me today what I'm doing: It's just Karate. It looks somehow GoJu'ish, but regardless where I go and where I train I always seem to be the guy who looks somehow different... That's why my profile says "Hands and feet" - I don't care about styles anymore. I just take in what is useful and discard what doesn't work for me. I'm independent, and I'm pretty happy with that. OSU!

OSU! It does not get easier the older we get, yes. My biggest problem is my right knee. I had surgery on it 1.5 years ago, and I still struggle with it. Before surgery I was in so much pain it was excruciating. It's much better now, but my right leg will never be back to normal. I'm sure that my knee problems were the result of damage that has accumulated over the years. Anyway, I believe that many of us 40+ers have similar problems, regardless if they're martial artists or not. We just need to adapt our practice accordingly. When I was 20 I could jump up, do a perfect split in the air and land in a split position with a grin on my face - without warming up before of course. If I tried this now I'd be dead and you could scrape my remains from the floor. So, before I even attempt to do high kicks I need a lot of warming up, and once my system is running I can kick head height without a problem. This tells me to be more sensible during practice and to accept the limitations that time imposes on me. Further I have noticed that when I get injured I take a lot more time to heal up. As for long-lasting damage, well, beside the knee issue there is none. Sure, I'm stiff and sore every now and then, and my elbows like to complain after weight lifting occasionally, but then I guess this holds for anyone who's crossed a certain age threshold. Summing up I believe that training is good for us. However: Train hard, yes, but train even smarter. If we keep that in mind then I don't see a reason why Karate practice should be bad for us. OSU!

OSU! How can ALL students learn, if no one ever asks any questions during class. Seems to me to be the best time to ask because if one waits until after class, then others are left out of the learning experience. Do it during class, but do it respectfully! If time is consumed in this endeavor instead of drilling, etc, then so be it. The CI still has to manage the time, but the times not a beacon of what's to be covered to the letter. What's not covered in the planned class for that day, can always be addressed at another time. If a CI can't manage time and the curriculum, then that CI shouldn't be the CI. Teaching is learning and vice versa. Imho. My bad, sensei8, English is not my native language, and I think I need to clarify my post. When I wrote "do not question", I was referring to questioning in terms of "not doing what they're told", "questioning the qualification of the instructor", "doing something completely different even though the instructor made clear what needs to be done next", and the like. Quite contrary, I encourage asking questions all the time, for without asking for the "how" and "why" we cannot improve. I would never take that away from my people. The only thing that I do not tolerate is chatter and giggling. The occasional smile and remark during kumite is OK, but only if it doesn't disrupt the flow of the class. People can ask me anything they want, and they should do so openly so that everyone can listen - for every student who asks a question, there are three more students who have the same question but do not dare to ask, so it benefits all of them. I hope I was able to clarify my point. Without interaction but mere imitation Karate remains shallow and without depth. OSU!

OSU! I find it weird to be forced to show respect to someone just because of the colour of their belt. Quite contrary I believe that everyone deserves the same amount of respect as an individual, as a fellow Karateka, and as someone who's on the mat and shows honest effort. Hence, I'll bow as deeply to a white as I would do to a black belt. The militaristic respect thing that is so common especially in Japanese martial arts has always ecaped me somehow. Sure, the instructor needs to be obeyed and should never be questioned openly, especially not during class, for this would disrupt the class, and I think this is also a matter of safety. But to show special respect to a black belt just because he is a black belt? And if they ask you to show special respect because they're black belts then they're idiots who have a personality problem. I've met some of these special specimens over the years, and such people tend to compensate inside the dojo for things that go wrong for them outside the dojo. OSU!

OSU! I believe that my job is to pay it forward. I have had the chance to meet and to learn from some awesome individuals. There will never be the chance to pay it back, there's just no money or currency to do so, so I pay it forward and teach whoever wants to be taught. I'll never have the chance to open my own dojo simply due to many private obligations, but sometimes people join me during my practice, and I freely share what little I know. Some have already stuck with me for a year, and I do hope that this will continue. When doing so, it is my job not only to teach something, but to push and to give an edge to training so that people can get cut. Not deeply cut of course, but in a way that they remain attentive and use all their energy to get things right. I have found that if I do so with a smile and motivate rather than punish, this brings the best out of whoever I am training with. OSU!

OSU! OSU! P.S.: Guidelines??!??

OSU! I like heavy duty dogis, just for the reason that I sweat like an animal during practice, and I need a dogi that soaks it up. So for me at least 12oz pants and jacket. As for the cut I definitely like the typical knockdown look - short sleeves, long and wide pants, generally a baggy look. It's not for the look actually, but I have found that in such a dogi I feel most comfortable. Of course, any ISAMI dogi will do it, but they're so ridiculously expensive. A great alternative for me is the KWON Full contact dogi in the 12oz version. I wear that one almost all the time. Summing up, I want my dogi to be stiff and heavy and to stand up on it's own when it's wet. OSU!

OSU! I have spent my first years in the GoJu Kai, and there it's pretty much as NidanMelbourne describes. I'm in the IOGKF now, and there the Taikyoku katas are not practiced at all. I don't regret it because up until now I have not seen any bunkai behind the Taikyokus that I would find worth practicing, and imo they are tools to get people used to the concept of kata. In Kyokushin there are some Taikyoku katas as well that only include kicks. That was interesting to learn, and going through a 2h session that is entirely focussed on these katas can be quite an experience, especially the day after. OSU!