JR 137

The term Osu is a shortened form of the term Oshishinobu... http://uskyokushin.com/osu.htm I found it quite annoying when I first started watching and then training. Now, it's second nature. I trained briefly with Okinawan karateka (Seiyu Oyata's RyuTe). They said hai just as often and in the same context, for the most part. I Osued a few times out of habit, and the Sensei just chuckled (he wasn't Okinawan). Several students had no clue what I was saying. I found the level of hai just as annoying as Osu first was to me. As far as Osu vs hai, do whatever is expected at the dojo. Don't be "that guy."

Or a thank you for answering his survey.

As Karate John mentioned, Tokaido and Shureido are usually universally recommended. Hirota is a newer company (than the other two) that comes highly recommended. Hirota doesn't have the presence outside of Japan the others have. Shureido is the unofficial official Okinawan karate gi, whereas Tokaido is the unofficial official Japanese karate gi. Both are equal in quality, but they're cut differently. I'd be surprised if you can't find a store that lets you try them on. Probably both in the same store, but you never know.

My 5 year old daughter doesn't fight like that. then again, neither my 5 year old nor 3 year old daughter fight. My 3 year old will throw a hammer fist or an instep kick every now and again, but there's not much intent behind it.

That's what I was thinking, probably wanted a quick fix for a problem kid. If that was the case (which it very well could have been), shouldn't it matter who's fixing it and how the kid is dealt with? Still shaking my head.

I finished taking class, and was watching my daughter take class. My CI was teaching when the phone rang, so I answered it for him... Me: "(Dojo name), can I help you?" Caller: "How do I sign my kid up for at your school for karate?" Me: "The gentleman who handles that is teaching right now, but I can give you some information if you'd like." Caller: "How do I sign him up?" Me: "You can come before any scheduled class appropriate for his age to talk to our chief instructor and watch a class to see if it's a good fit for your son." Caller: "How do I get him to your school?" Me: "I don't understand your question." (Thinking to myself 'you get in your car and drive him') Caller: "I don't want to watch, I just want to sign him up. When do the 4 year olds have class?" Me: "We start at 6 years old." Caller: "Huh?" Me: "6 years old is our minimum age." Caller: "That answers my question." Click. I was going to offer some friendly advice about selecting a school, but she hung up on me right after "that answers my question." I told my CI about the conversation. He smirked and said "I get a lot of those calls. Is this how the masses choose a school? Do they not care about who's around their kids? About what they'll do while they're there? What if we did full contact MMA cage fighting at 4 years old? What if my CI was a convicted sex offender?

Me too. I know it's more our issue than their's, but something tells me it's wrong to intentionally hit a woman in the chest. If I told women it was ok to hit me in the groin, I'm sure they'd have their reservations too. I tell myself to not let it bother me, but I definitely hesitate and ease up. Then add to that that I'm sure a few don't want to be hit there (but no ones said explicitly do or don't) and it's a no win situation in my mind. Yes, the problem's mine, and I'm making more out of it than I should, but it is what it is.

It's a very good book. I like short books like this one. It also gives good insight on the way things were in Okinawa and Japan during his era. On a side note, I see you won the auction on a picture of Kaicho. We have a similar one in our dojo that was given to my CI by one of the students. If it's anything like that one, they're quite nice.

Exactly. Too many people feel they should make the rules as to what is truly worthwhile to everyone. Ever read the Bull shido forums? Some people think the only way is to go all out, all day every day. Anything less that that is a waste of time and a joke. Everyone's path is different. Even McDojos have their worth, regardless of what the naysayers say. I follow my path because it's where it's taken me. My path is what's best for me; it doesn't matter if it's the best path for everyone or no one else. That doesn't make my path better than everyone else's or no one else's. Competition is a good thing. It forces people out of their comfort zone, puts them under pressure, gives them different people to experiment on, and puts them under their own microscope. But that doesn't mean it's required to be truly effective and/or validate one's MA existence by any means.

Very good post. I'll take it one step further and say it's also the instruction. I used to heavily look down on TKD. Every TKD place I saw was McDojo. It was all competition based - point fighting and forms for tournaments void of any application at all. My uncle who was a TKD black belt in the 60s and early 70s in Beirut, Lebanon joined a TKD school here about 15 years ago. During sparring, he was constantly told "Why are you punching? Punches don't score points!" His reply - "I'm not here to score points." Then I went to college. We had a MA club that was run 100% by students, with a faculty advisor who was never there nor had any MA experience. We all took turns teaching class, and the couple TKD guys brought it. They did flashy kicks to develop physical skills like balance, flexibility, and coordination, but they weren't hopping around with their hands below their waist and acting like they've never heard of punching before when it came time to spar. They didn't wear gis (dobaks?) with patches and ads all over them, nor did they set forms to music and glow in the dark weapons. I took back every bad thing I've said about TKD after an hour with those guys. I've visited every TKD school in my area. Unfortunately, what they're teaching isn't what I think they should be. But then again, who am I to criticize? When was I put in charge of the rules of MA? Of all the MA styles, TKD pretty much gets the worst rep. I guess people see a place or two, and a fighter or two getting embarrassed on YouTube or the like and think they're all like that. No different than when you hear of certain religious zealots doing something shameful and thinking they all support that, or when a few people of a certain complexion get arrested for a drive by shooting and think they all do that. Pretty much everyone thinks what they're doing is the best. If it wasn't, wouldn't they go elsewhere?

I'm not an instructor, nor do I run a dojo... Where I currently train, our CI uses a wirebound book that's some sort of ledger-type book. I pay him at the beginning of the month, he stamps and a initials my card, and writes the payment in his book. At the dojo I trained at 15 years ago, I mailed a check to his house every month. Neither one use a MA specific computer program. They use a Quicken type program that they input money received and money spent.

This is an important point. Whether you have a minimum number of lessons or not, it is only fair for the students to have this criteria properly laid out in an accessible place so that both students (parents) and instructors are on the same page. I would also say that if you are going to stipulate a minimum attendance, that you also make a point of recording this properly in the form of sign-in sheets or a register of some sort and not rely solely on memory. Good point. We have a sign in sheet; on it we write our name and the number of classes attended since last promotion. I can never remember, so I always flip to my last class and add 1 to it. I think a computer spreadsheet would probably be a neater and easier way. Our honbu dojo has several hundred students. They reportedly have key tags they scan on their way in.

I think the biggest benefit is the pushing and pulling aspect of it. A ton of fights start out this way. Knowing how to stand your ground and how to let someone push in order to throw them or simply get them off of you. The ground game is important, but wrestling doesn't have the submission and chokes like Judo/BJJ/JJJ have. It also teaches you to expose your back to your opponent while going down rather than keep your back on the ground. A wrestler wants to fall forward onto their hands and knees/stomach rather than fall onto their back and pull an opponent onto them when they know it's appropriate. However, all's not lost... It'll teach how to avoid going down to begin with, and how to get off the ground.

I think one of the best things a teacher can do is give a syllabus which tells what the student is responsible for for each rank, including minimum number of classes attended (and what type of classes, if applicable). If it's in writing, it's far easier to point to than to say "remember when I told you..."

The dojo I attend (Seido Juku) has a minimum number of classes to be eligible. They work out to approximately 3-6 months for kyu ranks if they attend regularly. Black belt takes around 5 years on average. Regardless of if the student has enough classes or not, the chief instructor decides if and when the student tests. The policy is students are allowed to ask to test; the teacher will inform them when they're ready to test. Students rarely fail a test; if the teacher isn't fully convinced they've earned the rank, then they don't test. Kyu ranks are tested in-house by our chief instructor. Dan testing is done at our honbu by Kaicho Tadashi Nakamura. Kids and parents get tricky about promoting. You have to lay the rules and expectations out very clearly. If you make an exception, be prepared for others to expect it for their kid too, justly or most often unjustly. Everyone's kid is the best, hardest working, and most respectful one in class. And they'll all be scared for life if their friends promote and they don't. Make the expectations to promote clear and why they're not promoting clear when applicable, and it should take care of a lot of problems. It's your dojo, you set the rules, not your "customers." If you let them tell you when their kids are ready, you'll have a circus.

A cup and a mouthpiece are typically the only protective gear allowed in Kyokushin.

But as to the true intent of the topic... I don't think it's truly as bad as some make it out to be. With the right teacher teaching the right drills the right way, the "no free sparring until yondan" could be more a matter semantics than anything else. Did guys like Funakoshi, Miyagi, Chibana, Uechi, et al did free sparring as we're defining here, or did they teach situational sparring? I'm not quite sure/convinced they said "ok, attack however you want, and have your partner defend however he wants for 2 minute rounds." They had the idea (justly or unjustly) that the karate they were teaching was too dangerous for competition. Uechi reportedly stopped teaching for quite a while after one of his students killed another man using techniques he taught him. It makes me doubt those guys let anyone other than their senior-most students square off and really go at it. They most likely did a wide variety of full contact uke drills as seen in the documentary Tee: The Spirit of Okinawan Karate. Remember, Mas Oyama broke away from the "traditional" style of teaching/practicing karate and brought in full contact free sparring. He wasn't very popular among the core group of teachers for doing so, and he learned from several of the first generation of teachers after the founders, such as Gogen Yamaguchi, So and Funakoshi's son (and possibly Funakoshi himself). If it's true that he was the first to openly do that and with all of his students, what was going on beforehand?

According to my former Sensei, his insurance stipulated that sparring could not be done without a black belt instructor present. There was a brief time period where another student and I ran classes on Friday night as brown belts. Class sizes were pretty low on Friday night during that time, so my Sensei ran classes at his other dojo where it was a popular night. We were allowed to do kumite drills, hit pads, etc., but not free sparring with gear on. The first Friday after I was a shodan, we turned it into a full kumite class. Numbers went up pretty quickly, my Sensei took it over (supply and demand), and it eventually turned into "Bare knuckle Friday," which became several of ours' favorite class.

You beat me to it. For that hour or so, there's no kids whining, no wife nagging, no boss being unreasonable, no bills that need to be paid, and so on. It's pretty hard to think about anything other than the punch that's coming at my stomach or the kick that's coming at my head. My CI said his brother used to call it therapy. I agree; it's therapy from the outside world. And there's the feeling I get watching my daughter train. Watching her handle her successes and failures the right way is priceless.

I wrestled and coached wrestling. As sensei8 said, waste of time is in the eye of the beholder. Wrestling is a highly skilled sport, and success doesn't come very quickly for 99% of the people. And because it's not a team sport in the sense that you're on the mat alone against an opponent, there's no place to hide and there's no place to sit back and watch your teammates play and cover your mistakes while you figure things out. All eyes are constantly on you, and you can't pass the ball when you get nervous. Some thrive in that, others fold. I've had a lot of new wrestlers come from different sports (and several from karate and TKD). A good athlete will pick up on it quicker. Other than that, there's no distinct advantage. The ones who are at an advantage in starting wrestling IMO are judoka/grappling MAists and football linemen. Those athletes typically have a very good understanding of pushing and pulling. They have a wrestling sense of balance. It's not the same as balancing while throwing a kick or punch, it's balancing when you're body to body; knowing when to lean on someone, push them, or when and where to bend and let their own weight help throw them. Those same principles apply while on the mat for nstead of standing, but that's harder to put into words. Great wrestlers have great hips. I say try it. Even if he has very little success in the wins-losses area, it'll make him a better karateka. The biggest thing a beginning wrestler needs IMO is mental toughness. Ask any multi sport athlete who's wrestled what's the toughest/most difficult sport, and they'll pretty much all tell you wrestling, hands down. So many "tough guys" don't come back the second day. The ones I respect said "sorry, this sport just isn't for me." If getting thrown around and forced onto their back doesn't get them, the conditioning usually does. Sorry... I love the sport and miss it a lot. There's something about the intensity and that exhausted feeling afterwards that I haven't gotten anywhere else.

From your OP, I took the hidden meaning of what was trying to be done was take some power away from the Kaicho (you or your successor, but not making it personal). I don't know the power structure of your organization, and nor am I asking it. In taking different parts of your post, in some ways it seems the Kaicho is just another voice that coordinates the various departments, yet in other ways it seems like the Kaicho has absolute power. I'm assuming it all depends on the topic. I think avoiding a lifetime appointment to the position is a good thing. The only lifetime appointment to that position should be the founder IMO. Not having terms (regardless of if they're eligible to serve consecutively, how long, etc.) creates quite a few problems. And just because something isn't broken doesn't mean it can't get better with some tweaking. Change is good. In fact it can be great. But change for the sake of change doesn't make sense. From this thread and the various posts you've had in the past, it seems to me the the board is looking to take the organization to the next level. It wants to get out of the dark ages, technologically speaking, and make their name and what they stand for known to anyone who wants to know, without compromising the product on the floor. That's a great thing IMO. The organization also probably wants to expand without compromising their integrity. That goes hand in hand with technology/presence. It seems like there's too much "paralysis by analysis" in the organization, and they're looking to shake things up a bit. You've alluded to it many times. Sorry if I'm rambling without focus. I forgot... What was the question?

It all depends on the size of the pool of prospective leaders. And the depth. Are the same 2 people going to take turns being in charge? Are enough people qualified to make it more than "I guess it's your turn again?" Rather than make a 2 year term limit and then be ineligible until the successor is no longer eligible, would giving others more power/more of a voice be better? Perhaps modeling it after our government, where stuff from the Kaicho has to be approved by a certain number of board members, and stuff from the board that gets vetoed by the Kaicho can be overridden by a certain number of votes. 2 years and mandatory out doesn't seem like it's conducive to continuity. I could see a 4 or 5 years and mandatory out being a bit better. But I don't see a mandatory out being the best option. If you've got someone really good and they're really steering the ship in the right direction, a mandated end of term is going to hurt more than help. I think a 2 year term is fine if the incumbent is allowed to be reelected, but counterproductive if they're not. Perhaps cap it at 5 terms or so. Then there's the rank issue. Are you going to promote a 7th dan to 9th dan for solely for the sake of a 2 year term? I'd imagine the 9th dan rule would have to be repealed. What if you have 5 or 6 different Kaichos in a row? Or do they vacate their 9th dan after the term is up and go back to their previous rank? While the rank issue messes things up, I think that's the least of the concerns, and it's potentially a big one IMO. Who wants an influx of karateka being promoted to 9th dan over the course of 8 - 10 years? If the current system ain't broke, don't try to fix it. If the organization needs some new fresh voices to improve, give the fresh voices more power. As Mr. Miyagi said, balance is very important.

Yes and no, DWx. The study I was citing was actually referred to in that article though... "Research conducted by Burson et al. (2006) set out to test one of the core hypotheses put forth by Kruger and Muller in their paper "Unskilled, unaware, or both? The better-than-average heuristic and statistical regression predict errors in estimates of own performance": "that people at all performance levels are equally poor at estimating their relative performance"." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect

I'd like to find a link to that study, but I can't. It was posted on another forum, and it was a study published in a psychology journal. I think we definitely underestimate and overestimate our skills at pretty much everything. In MA, some things feel right and flow. We get comfortable, it works, and we keep doing it. We think we're doing it close to perfectly, say 9 out of 10, but people around us see the flaws. Since we're moving and can't see it accurately in a mirror while it's going on, or we're focused on other details, what we overlook, everyone else sees in real time as it's going on. Kind of like when an instructor says "you're dropping your hands when you do X" and we genuinely don't think we are. Then comes the video proof, and the student sees it front someone else's point of view. Then there's situations where we don't feel comfortable with something, no matter how much we practice it. We feel the lack of stability, tightness, perhaps pain while executing it. The onlooker doesn't see nor feel that. They see the technique being performed as it should be. I came back to this thread because of what happened in class the other night. I'm working on Pinan 4 and Gekisai Dai for a tournament. I'm still undecided on which one I'll do. I feel Pinan 4 flows better for me, and Gekisai Dai is choppy. Everyone in the room (3 of them have judged tournaments) said they flowed equally well. But to me, Gekisai Dai's start-stop-start-stop doesn't feel as smooth to me. Everyone's opinion was that my timing and pace in both were exactly where they should be. I thought my front kick/elbow/backfist/low block/low punch part of it was my strongest point; most thought that part needs the most work. I could keep going, but I think that's enough. For most people it's not an arrogant nor insecure thing; it's that we can't step outside ourselves and see what others can see. I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. We can sense a lack of balance that can't be picked up by others, but it's not as far off as we think. We can feel that solid contact during a strike that onlookers can't (other than the opponent), but they can see how to make it more effective. Trust your instincts, but also trust your teachers/peers. You're both right and wrong at the same time.

On the surface it seems quite odd. Perhaps he covered the kumite aspect by doing unchoreographed step sparring (1 step, 2 step, etc.). Watch the documentary Tee: The Spirit of Okinawan Karate where the British guy who's training in Okinawa is going over his Uke (receiving skills) with partners and isn't coming along. While not exactly jiyu kumite (free sparring), it's highly effective training. While what you're saying is highly suspect, the teacher had better by legendary in order for his no free sparring until yondan to work.