JR 137

I think so too. Oyama only reportedly spent 2 years under Gichin Funakoshi. The rest of his Shotokan time was spent under Gigo Funakoshi. Gichin Funakoshi reportedly promoted him to 4th dan, but I wonder if he was Oyama’s day in and day out teacher. This was at Takshoku University and not at the Shotokan that was built for Funakoshi towards the end. So it makes me think Funakoshi was more active in everyday teaching at that time. Another question I have is how advanced of a rank 4th dan was at the time. There was one of Funakoshi’s direct students teaching here in the States that died not too long ago. He would never accept a rank above 5th dan because he claimed 5th dan was the highest rank under Funakoshi and 10th dan was made up later on. So was Oyama comparable to what we view 4th dan today, or was he one rank under the highest rank possible? And how long was Oyama in Shotokan total. 2 years under Gichin Funakoshi, but how many under Gigo Funakoshi? Was there anyone else in between? A single biography or autobiography with specific dates, locations and names would be wonderful here. The only thing we have is bits and pieces scattered through Oyama’s and several others’ books. You’d think there would be a more definitive single source book written about Oyama’s life and training. Looking at Kyokushin and offshoots’ numbers, he’s easily one of the most influential MAists of all time. And he died in 1994, so it’s not like he wasn’t around when people started keeping more detailed information. It’s just very odd to me that no one way down with him, thoroughly interviewed him, and wrote a book. Most things written about him that I’ve seen are secondhand accounts rather than from Oyama himself or through an actual biographer. I think he enjoyed the legend and mystique surrounding him. A lot of the stuff that was claimed about him didn’t come from him directly. It was typically someone around him saying things and him silently nodding.

I just don’t get the whole resistance to weight training. I honestly feel like it’s used as an excuse not to do it more than anything else. There’s just zero logic in saying a stronger and fitter MAist isn’t a better MAist when all else is equal. Of course technique is a huge part of power. And having perfect technique doesn’t mean anything if you can’t hit your target. But if you’re capable of great technique, timing, and connecting cleanly with your target, more strength will only make you hit even harder. Same goes for grappling. Being stronger will enhance your effectiveness.

Excellent question. My guess says it’s all about advertising. Why a gi without the logos anywhere wouldn’t be allowed* is beyond me. *I’m assuming a gi without them wouldn’t be allowed. I haven’t read the rules and nor do I care to, but everything I’ve seen states what you said.

Wado Heretic’s post is pretty much what I was going to say, only he said it better. Oyama reportedly trained under Gichin Funakoshi for 2 years. The things Wado Heretic says that Oyama said have been quoted in several places. But I don’t think Gichin Funakoshi considered Oyama a “fair weather” student. Oyama reportedly earned a 4th dan under Gichin Funakoshi. Gichin Funakoshi didn’t live long enough to see what Oyama eventually became. Gichin Funakoshi died in 1957. Oyama started his first dojo in 1953, but it was more or less a bunch of guys training under him in an outdoor vacant lot. He opened an actual school in 1956, calling it Oyama dojo. Had Oyama been the Oyama we associate when Funakoshi was alive, Funakoshi probably would’ve felt the way Wado Heretic says. I don’t see it really going any other way. There’s bits and pieces of Oyama’s training scattered around the internet and books. The problem I come across is there’s no one book that documents everything. Most notably his Judo training is typically a paragraph at best. This website puts what I’ve seen in many places together quite well: http://the-martial-way.com/the-early-martial-arts-training-of-mas-oyama/ No idea how truly accurate it is, but he’s using a lot of sources. The problem I’ve come across with stuff about Oyama is once someone says something, everyone copies and pastes it like it’s the absolute truth. For example, everyone copies and pastes the origin of Gekisai Sho kata without thinking twice. IMO that claim of origin of it is completely wrong. Hanshi Steve Arniel was the first to publish it and everyone takes it as scripture, being that it came from Arniel. I’d love to ask him if Oyama claimed that was the origin of Gekisai Sho or if that was Arniel’s assumption.

I’m forced to stay focused. If I lose it, I’m going to catch a kick with my face or a punch with my stomach. During solo stuff like basics and kata, I pay attention to how the technique feels and how to improve it. Karate is the only workout (for lack of a better word) that I’ve never once been bored or lost focus. No idea why. I’ve even lost focus during wrestling, which is a big no no for obvious reasons.

Welcome aboard!

Agree, too close to TKD, there's plenty of Olympic "combat" sports already. I think that in this day and age of "all violence is bad", "diversity" etc it would be very difficult to imagine the IOC accepting knockdown karate, especially for the female athletes. Boxing for example, I bet they would love to get rid of it too. I think this reeks of politics, how can a sport get dropped from the olympics before it's even debuted? It has absolutely nothing to do with politics. Each host nation is allowed I believe 4-6 “demonstration sports.” I don’t know the technical term nowadays though. Those sports are temporary, meaning they’re one and done by design. If a demonstration sport does very well, the IOC will contemplate making it a permanent sport. There’s a ton of factors in that though - viewership numbers and revenue generated, how well the sport is organized, how well it fits into their views of Olympic sports, etc. And there’s only so much room, so it’ll end up replacing something; what should it replace? And there’s a lot more to it than that. Host countries typically include games/sports that are native to them and also sports that have a ton of national popularity. Karate being an Olympic sport in Tokyo is a no-brained under this criteria. I’m sure Paris has some stuff they want to include. Why should they do karate any favors? They’ve only got a handful of sports they can include that’ll suffer the same fate as every demonstration sport Japan has included. No one’s “dropping” karate. Karate was never on the slate for Paris to begin with. No one said “karate won’t do well, so let’s replace it with X.” It’s simply a matter of the IOC saying “These are the sports to be played. Include any 5 other sports you choose.” Of course there’s far more to it than that, but I think you understand what I’m getting at. You can’t cut something that wasn’t there to begin with. And that’s my issue with the above linked article. They’re trying to cause drama when none existed.

I honestly don’t think it’ll have that big an impact if it went to a regular event rather that the demonstration event it currently is. Karate is well rooted and the history is pretty deep. There’s far too many traditionalists to just go away. TKD wasn’t nearly as rooted when it debuted. And there are still many “traditional TKD” schools out there. Many use the “Korean Karate” name, Tang Soo Do, Moo Duck Kwan, etc. rather than outright calling themselves TKD. And if sport karate really takes off, I highly doubt any of our dojos will be under any realistic threat of disappearing. I could be wrong, but I don’t see my teacher changing what he’s doing to bring in more students.

Agree, too close to TKD, there's plenty of Olympic "combat" sports already. I think that in this day and age of "all violence is bad", "diversity" etc it would be very difficult to imagine the IOC accepting knockdown karate, especially for the female athletes. Boxing for example, I bet they would love to get rid of it too. Funny thing is Matsui (Kaicho/Kancho of Kyokushin IKO1) backed the WKF and their rules. Every other Kyokushin IKO and offshoots was very angry about that. IKO1 is the Mas Oyama lineage that didn’t break off; the ones who hold the biggest Kyokushin open tournament. Very, very odd that they back the WKF over knockdown rules.

I hate to be that guy, but I don’t get all the heartbreak from the organizers. Karate is not a permanent sport in the Olympics. Every host country is allowed a few sports that aren’t permanent, and Japan choose karate as one of them. The organizers know this better than I do, yet they’re complaining that a 1 time temporary addition isn’t becoming more than that? Especially before it gets its initial shot? It seems to me like they’re insulting people’s intelligence and hoping a public outcry will sway the Paris committee. They have no leg to stand on. Now if it does ridiculously well from a viewer standpoint, the Paris committee might take another look, but it’s highly unlikely that they’ll want to include it even if it goes well. If it does very well in Japan, the WKF (or whoever’s in charge) will have lobbying power and should go after the IOC to make it permanent and not worry about France being nice and allowing it even though they’re under no obligation. France has their own stuff they want included, and that’s the right of every host nation/city. Think about it: the WKF knows full well it’s a temporary event and is upset that the next host doesn’t want it but instead wants something else. They haven’t proven anything yet to anyone as far as its viability. A bit absurd if you ask me. Sure it’s their job to promote and market karate on a worldwide stage, but this sounds more like whining than anything else. They know the rules. Instead of complaining about this, they should focus on making sure it’s viewed by the maximum number of people so it can’t be ignored. Furthermore, they really messed up by making it point fighting rather than knockdown like Kyokushin. Knockdown would’ve made differentiating karate from TKD far easier to the layperson IMO. What we have with the WKF rules is TKD without the emphasis on kicking in the layperson’s eyes at best. There’s not enough room for two sports that appear on the outside to be so similar.

All of these gels and creams, including stuff like Tiger Balm, Ben-Gay, Flexall 454; are what is pharmaceutically classified as counter irritants. They irritate the free nerve endings on the skin to give a sensation of hot or cold. Some are stronger than others, feel deeper, and so on. They don’t go down much further than the skin’s surface. Maybe 1mm or so. Certainly not far enough down to actually get into muscle tissue. The sensation you’re feeling is a mind trick. Kind of like if your hand hurts, I stomp on your toe, and suddenly your hand doesn’t hurt anymore but your toe does. Your brain isn’t perceiving the tightness in your muscles because it’s bombarded with the stimulus from the chemical you put on your skin. You’re not actually getting any heating of anything, let alone the muscles. You may get a negligible amount of vasodilation (arteries opening up) at the skin’s surface, but definitely not in the muscles themselves. Ever notice that rubbing alcohol feels cold on your skin? Same phenomenon. The alcohol isn’t cold, it’s room temperature unless you pulled it out of the refrigerator. It feels cold because it irritates the nerves a bit and more so it naturally opens up the pores on your skin. And thing with the sprays doctors and sports medics use before an injection or when a soccer player is rolling around on the ground and they spray him with that stuff. That stuff is typically ethyl chloride, which is a counter irritant. Ethyl chloride feels ridiculously cold, yet it’s actually the same temperature as wherever the can is. If this stuff helps you feel warmer and gets you moving around better, then by all means use it. But it’s not actually warming anything up. It’s all in your head. And nerves.

Do you want me to tell you how these gels (known as counter irritants) actually work? I don’t want to ruin it for you if you don’t want me to let you know.

If you’re just going to use it to see how many steps you took or to monitor your heart rate during lifting, it’s really just a toy with very limited actual use. If you’re going to do heart rate driven stuff like hitting a bag, running, etc. then it’s a great tool. Although... My brother is a mailman. He was curious about his walking and heart rate stuff during his route. I let him borrow my older one. He bought a new on mostly for the caller ID and text alerts on his wrist so he doesn’t have to take his phone out of his pocket while carrying his bag. He gets calls from work that he has to answer and other important calls mixed in with random calls and texts. Having that information on his watch is worth it to him. I liked it for that purpose initially while at work, but after a while I went back to my regular watch. I like my automatic Swiss Army and Hamilton watches more. I only wear the Fitbit during workouts now. I missed being able to tell who was calling while I was driving, but my Alpine car stereo has Bluetooth and caller ID on it, eliminating that need.

I’ve worn my Fitbit during karate class a few times, but always took it off during sparring. It was genuinely a curiosity thing. I wanted to know if the workouts were as hard as I thought they were or if I was being soft My heart rate was actually consistently higher than I thought it would be. The watch style heart rate monitors aren’t the most accurate things out there. They’re accurate enough for a general idea at higher rates, but they’re not nearly as accurate as the Polar chest straps. Those are the exercise physiology standard. They measure the heart’s electrical activity rather than using light to see blood flow. They’re EKG accurate. They’ve got their own inherent flaws too though, like everything else. I’ve used them in the past and would like to get a current version that uses a phone to transfer data rather than a watch, but I haven’t pulled the trigger yet. And I wouldn’t want to get hit in the chest while wearing one, more so for my sake, but for the monitor’s sake too. I keep telling myself I should buy one and tape some padding to the front of it to wear it during a sparring session or two, but I haven’t gone that route. If I buy one it would be to wear it while I hit the bag. The Fitbit isn’t the most comfortable thing to wear with boxing gloves on.

It’s not just some gimmick to get people to buy and act like idiots. Many won’t use it for what it truly is but most will. The GPS function is designed to give runners feedback on where they ran, the exact distance they ran, their time, and other stats like that. Runners love knowing these things; it makes their workouts more efficient and can lead to better fitness gains if they want them. I despise running so I have no use for it. The heat rate monitoring is a fantastic tool. I use a Fitbit for this purpose. While working out, my goal is to get my heart rate up very high for a period, then down to almost resting rate for a period, alternating periods. It’s called interval training and/or HIIT. It’s a very efficient and effective way to work out and get results. There’s countless ways to exercise using this principle, it I use it when hitting a bag. During rounds, I want to keep my heart rate up high, and during rest periods between rounds I want to get my heart rate back down to just above resting rate as quickly as possible for the entire rest period. The Fitbit has my pulse showing at all times, so I can check it while going and make sure I’m not overdoing it or I’m working heard enough. Looking at my heart rate tells me I’m fading a bit and to pick up the pace at times, and tells me to back off a bit so I won’t be too exhausted to finish in the late rounds. It’s essentially like a musician using a metronome for pace. And that’s while I’m working out. After I’m done, it’ll send information to my phone. It’ll show me a graph of my heart rate for the entire workout, time spent in each zone, duration of the entire workout, and calories burned among other things. It gets confused with the steps and mileage because it’s most likely counting punches as steps (it gets step count by arm swing unless you’re using GPS). With all that information, I can tell how intense my workout was and do different things on different days. Looking at it, I can say I went really hard yesterday so I’m going to go lighter today and tomorrow, and go really hard again the day after that. The Fitbit and the like can be nothing more than a toy, or it can be a very useful tool. Sure there’s the crowd who just wants to count steps and caller ID on their wrist. And there’s the crowd who’s actually getting their money’s worth and using it to its potential. I don’t need the Fitbit. It certainly doesn’t motivate me to work out. I haven’t worked out in quite some time due to a back injury and other things. But it definitely enhances my workout by giving me the feedback I want. I can easily work out without it and did for decades. But it’s easily worth the $125 I paid for it and then some. My wife bought me my initial one as a birthday present. I was having some sleep issues and it has sleep tracking. I was also curious how much I was walking a day; I’m a school teacher and I’m constantly walking while working. Add to that I can discretely see who’s calling and texting me while I’m working without looking at my phone. If it’s a truly important call like my daughters’ school calling or the like, I can excuse myself and take the call at times. Just for those reasons I really liked it. Once I started working out with it on, I fell in love with it. I bought a newer version of it about 2 years later because it had better features on it.

It’s been a while but it’s totally appropriate here... I wish my neighborhood would get together and burn all the Christmas trees in some sort of get together. Or even just burn them. February 20th, and there are still Christmas trees out near the road waiting to be picked up by the city garbage guys. Seriously. And several of them were put out there on December 26th.

Immaterial - I tried watching your video but it doesn’t open for me.

Brian’s advice is what I was going to say. I’ll add... It’s a touchy subject, really. If you know the standard techniques the school is teaching, then by all means help. Sometimes a different explanation of the same technique will click. My daughter was training at my dojo for about a year. I’d have her practice at home and I’d give her tips and help her. I know the system well enough to do so. I also understood to back off a bit when I got the inkling that I was going too far with it. If for no other reason than I fully trust my daughter’s teacher. Why would I send her there if I didn’t? Why would I train there if I didn’t? Let’s say she was taking classes in a different style and/or organization. I’d give some input, but it would be very limited. It would be input on the basics and it would go along with what I’ve seen taught and heard being said by her teachers. I’m assuming a TKD roundhouse kick would have some subtle variations from the way I’ve learned it at my school. My niece took Shotokan for a while. She had a difficult time with Taikyoku 1/shodan. Her issues were the turns. Being the same kata I’ve known for about 24 years, I had no problem with helping her out and giving her some pointers. I went through it with her and my daughter who was also struggling with it, and it helped them quite a bit. I wasn’t fixing stances or chamber hand position nor the like; I was just working with them on the footwork and memorizing where to turn and when. They both did really well with it afterwards after we went through it on two different occasions. I guess it took a different person explaining it differently and doing a new drill* to help them. *I drew a capital I in the dirt the approximate size of the kata and had them look at it first and then follow it. That really clicked for them. I then messed up the lines and had them do it a few more times visualizing the I without it being there. If you’re doing stuff like that, it doesn’t matter what style you’re coming from. Other things I did with my daughter we’re focus mitts, a kicking shield, and one of those blocking bats. She got the concept of a proper fist, proper foot positioning on kicks, and how her arms should travel when blocking. Just doing the stuff against the air wasn’t doing much for the details that make or break the techniques. She hit pads in the dojo, but not as often as she needed to really drive home the proper alignment of the weapon(s). That’s not a knock on the instruction in the dojo, it’s just that I wanted to really stress the details. And she had a lot of fun with it. And so did I.

Happy birthday, Devin!

I did it during kihon in class. Felt odd but after a few it was fine. Tried it in kumite. Yeah... not so good. I didn’t catch my toes on anything, so that’s a plus. My distancing was off for it. My preferred range is closer than most people’s, and I’m used to trying to bury my lower shin into my target; it’s a bigger adjustment than I thought it would be. Hitting a bag with it is one thing; hitting a moving opponent who’s trying to hit you back or hit you before you hit them is another thing.

Why are you not a fan of it? Good question. You really got me thinking why I don’t like it, and the honest answer is because I’m not good at it. It’s one of those things that you don’t like what you’re not good at, so you avoid training it because you don’t like it. My feet are very flat. My toes aren’t flexible. So the ball of my foot doesn’t stick out very far when I do that kick and front kick. I think because of the angle the roundhouse comes it at, it would be pretty hard to use the ball of the foot with shoes on. A front kick, at least my front kick, rises upwards on contact, so wearing shoes doesn’t hinder it much. My roundhouse is hindered by shoes. I’ve hit a bag with both kick while wearing shoes many times; roundhouse with the ball of the foot isn’t a good kick for me, but front kick with the ball of my foot is perfectly fine. Even if it was a good kick for me, I’d still prefer the lower 1/3 of the shin. It’s a lot bigger surface area and therefore I don’t need to be as precise. It’s like swinging a bat vs a hammer IMO. Sure the hammer will have more pressure, but the bat won’t miss as easily. As for breaking your foot by using your instep to the head vs shin or ball of the foot, I don’t think that’s a real world concern. I’ve seen countless full power instep to the head kicks in competition, and I haven’t seen a broken foot. I’d be willing to bet less people break their foot off of someone’s head than break their hand off of someone’s head. I say that percentage-wise because obviously less people kick the head than punch it. It would be an interesting scientific study. Do you really need to pull back your toes though in order for it to work? this guy doesn't... http://shitokai.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Sensei-Tanzadeh-Performing-Mawashi-Geri.jpg I’ll try it tomorrow morning in class and report back. Hopefully I’m not reporting that I broke or dislocated a few toes in the process

I generally punch above my waist and kick below my waist. That doesn’t mean I don’t kick above my opponent’s waist and don’t punch below it. And every rule has an exception. I unfortunately had to kick a guy in the chest a few times, but he was on the ground. Only time I ever kicked in a true SD situation.

Why are you not a fan of it? Good question. You really got me thinking why I don’t like it, and the honest answer is because I’m not good at it. It’s one of those things that you don’t like what you’re not good at, so you avoid training it because you don’t like it. My feet are very flat. My toes aren’t flexible. So the ball of my foot doesn’t stick out very far when I do that kick and front kick. I think because of the angle the roundhouse comes it at, it would be pretty hard to use the ball of the foot with shoes on. A front kick, at least my front kick, rises upwards on contact, so wearing shoes doesn’t hinder it much. My roundhouse is hindered by shoes. I’ve hit a bag with both kick while wearing shoes many times; roundhouse with the ball of the foot isn’t a good kick for me, but front kick with the ball of my foot is perfectly fine. Even if it was a good kick for me, I’d still prefer the lower 1/3 of the shin. It’s a lot bigger surface area and therefore I don’t need to be as precise. It’s like swinging a bat vs a hammer IMO. Sure the hammer will have more pressure, but the bat won’t miss as easily. As for breaking your foot by using your instep to the head vs shin or ball of the foot, I don’t think that’s a real world concern. I’ve seen countless full power instep to the head kicks in competition, and I haven’t seen a broken foot. I’d be willing to bet less people break their foot off of someone’s head than break their hand off of someone’s head. I say that percentage-wise because obviously less people kick the head than punch it. It would be an interesting scientific study.

Why not train it? It’s another option available to you if you can use it. I’m not a fan of it, but everything’s got its place. We use the instep mostly. I prefer the lower shin. Which part I use (instep vs shin) depends on the target and how close I am. The head is higher typically, so I’d never reach with my shin. Ribs and lower, I’m using my shin. All that being said, I’m not throwing a roundhouse above my own waist in a SD situation. I’m not flexible enough and it’s a pretty risky move for me. If I had the athleticism, timing and speed and power to make it a fight ender, I’d use it when the opportunity presented itself. If I’m being attacked my some oompah loompahs or little kids, then jodan mawashi geri time I’ll kick an opponent in the head practically every time I truly need to in SD if his head is on or near the ground. It’s not a head kick I’m opposed to at all; it’s reaching too far for it and leaving too good of an opening that I’m not going to do. There’s better far les risk/high reward stuff. But I’d throw a roundhouse to the head before a nukite/spearhand. If I did the old-school hand conditioning that would be a different story.

Congratulations! It’s a great feeling when it’s all over.