JR 137

I've always thought that 90% of "blocking" was the footwork/body movement. The "block" part of it is just pushing the opponent's hand/foot/whatever else a bit further away to make a bigger target for my counter. So much easier said than done though! I made myself sound like an untouchable fighter, whereas truthfully speaking, I "block" too many kicks with my teeth lol. I blocked a hook kick with my jaw in class this morning. Good thing he didn't throw it without restraint, because his love tap definitely forced my jaw over to the opposite side a bit more than it likes to go.

From my brief experience with boxing (see my previous post), boxing will teach punching and footwork (can't truly punch without proper footwork) better than anything else out there. You've got to alter the stance a little bit for kicking, but that's where the solid base in karate comes into play IMO.

I've never formally cross-trained. I wrestled throughout elementary school and high school, then assisted in coaching it at the high school during college, and on and off afterward. Coaching wrestling is very hands on; I was on the mat a lot with the guys. We had a martial arts club in college. We had guys from several different arts take us through a class, so to speak; we'd all take turns running class. Just about all of us had at least a few years' experience in our art. Those of us with a good amount of prior experience would get together and spar. It was pretty heavy contact, depending on who you were sparring. We had a great time, and I don't recall a single problem. We also had a boxing club in college, run by a pro (low level) boxer. It wasn't long lived enough to get to the sparring level, but we did a lot of movement and bag work - heavy bag, speed bag, the small speed bag looking one that bounces right back at you, and focus mitts. Learned a ton about movement. A few of the people in the club boxed at the teacher's gym. But my all time favorite cross-training was started by a few guys I used to work with when I bartended at a restaurant. It seemed like the kitchen was crawling with MA guys. We had an American Kempo black belt, two TKD black belts, two karate black belts, and me who was a Kyokushin offshoot black belt. We'd meet up at the Kempo guys house, take all his living room furniture outside (he had hardwood floors), and spar. Most of the time we'd wear boxing gloves and go full contact except elbows and knees to the head. The group grew to about 10 of us on most days beating the hell out of each other. A couple of guys with zero MA experience and thought MA didn't work (my idiot brother being one) would come and spar too. Some friends of ours from our dojos would come by once in a while too. It was right around the release of the movie Fight Club, so it got named Fight Club. No one got injured, and no one ever got out of hand. I leaned the most from that group of guys, other than my sensei. When it wasn't our turn to spar, we'd talk strategy, tell each others' telegraphs, and give each other pointers. There was no hierarchy; it was a bunch of guys saying 'try doing this' or 'how do YOU do that.' No egos, just a bunch of guys in their early 20s having fun and mixing it up. We had a great thing going for a solid year or so. It faded out as guys left the job, moved, stopped training, etc. I really miss that group. I ran into the Kempo guy a few years ago and we briefly reminisced about it. He had a very eye opening comment about it - "Why did we always bring the furniture outside instead of just sparring outside?" Sorry for the trip down memory lane.

I'm of the mindset that cross-training shouldn't be started until you (not the OP personally) have a strong foundation of your base MA. In karate, it's typically black belt. I fully agree cross-training will make a person a better MAist. But without having a solid understanding of the foundation of the the base art, you might be selling yourself short, undoing what you're learning, etc. 1 year of any MA is just scratching the surface (yes, same can be said of the typical 4-5 years to shodan). You're past the very basics, but you're still a beginner in a lot of ways. You've gone from crawling to walking unassisted, and it's not yet time to start training to sprint with Hussain Bolt. I respect those who disagree. I'm not 100% sure that what I've written is the best way to go; it's my opinion based in not seeing it enough times to have a definitive yes or no. And everyone's abilities and learning curve differ. However, I don't think other MAs will disappear any time soon.

I'd love to open a part-time dojo when I feel qualified to do so. That's a ways down the road though. I think the single biggest challenge would be getting students. "Build it and they will come" worked well in the movie Field of Dreams. The real world seems a bit more difficult. Especially when just opening the doors would be difficult financially. What if no one shows up for a while?

"... re-stomp the groin..." - Master Ken

I've wanted to try them, but they seem very expensive for an apparatus that only stretches one way. Seem very limited in versatility, yet very effective in what they do. Maybe I'm getting cheap, but it just seems everything in MA is getting expensive. I think I said stuff was too expensive in the last 3 threads in this section now. Maybe I need a better paying job.

Seido Juku. There are several different karate organizations that have Seido in their name. The Seido I study is Tadashi Nakamura's Seido. Nakamura was Mas Oyama's top student and head instructor at Kyokushinkai-Kan honbu in Tokyo before he was sent to the USA to start Kyokushin here. He withdrew from Kyokushin in 1976, founding Seido Juku. Seido is very similar to Kyokushin in syllabus at the kyu levels. Not as hard contact, and full free-sparring in protective gear doesn't start until 4th kyu. The kata list is very much Kyokushin until nidan, where there's very little similarity in curriculum between us from there on. Nakamura is big on strategy in kumite and nailing down the basics and tai sabaki, whereas Kyokushin likes to spar early, and spar heavy. Seido isn't as circular in tai sabaki as Enshin and Ashihara, but isn't as straight forward and back as Kyokushin. I've worked out with many Kyokushin karateka, and was in a system that was very Kyokushin influenced when I first started about 20 years ago.

Other than perverse stuff, I'll try to answer as honestly as possible lol. 1. What is your favorite word? Love 2. What is your least favorite word? (Phrase) I can't 3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? The desire to surpass my own expectations 4. What turns you off? Excuses 5. What is your favorite Martial Art word? Ren ma - keep polishing 6. What sound or noise do you love? My daughters' laughter 7. What sound or noise do you hate? Whining 8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Orthopedic surgeon (just the surgery and clinical stuff though) 9. What profession would you not like to do? Tie - gynecologist or corrections/prison guard 10. If your Sensei/Instructor has requested that you're to report to the Hombu/Headquarters immediately, what would you like to hear your Sensei/Instructor say when you arrive at the Hombu/Headquarters? My teacher is being honored in a special way for his dedication/dojo is being honored

What was supposed to be 2 years off for me ended up being 15 years. Doesn't matter how long you were away, it just matters that you're back.

Australia and the US are about the same size. The US looks a little bigger, actually... http://m.aboutaustralia.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aboutaustralia.com%2Faustralia-size-compared-to-usa%2F&utm_referrer=#2728

Why does everything have to be so expensive?

I guess I'll join the club... I just started working out (strength training) again, today being the start of my 4th week. Going every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I do a push/pull routine on cable towers. Every exercise is single arm, keeping as correct posture as possible. This way, I train both sides equally (instead of compensating by using one side more than the other), and my core has to stay 'locked in' to keep me from turning. Everything is done standing up. I do one set of each exercise, immediately followed by the other arm; no rest until one set of each exercise is done, and then it's just to take a sip of water. Core strengthening, the actual muscle group strengthening, and cardio all rolled up into one. Single arm row with the pulley set low - 60lbs X 12 each side Single arm press (like an incline bench press) with the pulley low - 60 lbs X 12 each side Move the pulley to chest height, repeat - 70 lbs X 12 Move the pulley up high, repeat 70 lbs X 12 Face pull - 70 lbs X 12 Not sure what it's called - turn 90 degrees to the tower, hold the handle straight out at chest height (keeping the weight from turning my torso) 70 lbs X 20 sec Assisted pull up - 150 lbs lifted - go to failure X 3 sets Assisted dip - 150 lbs lifted - go to failure X 3 sets Takes me about 35-40 minutes. Covered in sweat afterward. I was amazed at how much weaker my left (non-dominant) side is compared to my right. Since week 2, I start everything on my left, making sure I can (barely) get 12 reps, then keep the weight the same for the right side. At the start of the 4th week, I can see results, as stupid as that sounds.

I started typing a bunch of stuff, then deleted it. You'll see (or read) it in the book. It's a pretty good book. Not a Pulitzer winning work, but quite good nonetheless IMO. I think he holds back a bit when discussing the ramifications of leaving Kyokushin, as he still had a lot of love for Oyama, and a lot of it wasn't Oyama personally, but those around him. Had he had a coauthor who sensationalized his story instead of translating and organizing it, it could have been a lot more "exciting," but it would have lost its essence as being his own work IMO.

Welcome to KF, send2coolboy; glad that you're here!! Mortal Combat...that's a game there...I agree. Old school, but still, one of the best!! Too comic book-ish for me, and too many ridiculous things such as babality, animality, etc. distracted me too much from the game. I'm a Tekken fan. Fair enough!! I'm a Scorpion fan, myself, and am drawn to Mortal Combat. I agree it's too comic bookish, but, that's the old school that I like. Scorpion was my guy too! People hated it when I used him. I stopped playing it at around MK3. Then again, Tekken is comic book related too. It gets a bit too silly with Yoshimitsu's appearance, a bear and kangaroo, and robots, but it's still good. Less distracting and more realistic fighting moves and styles IMO.

http://www.seido.com/store/books/book-human-face-of-karate-english Bought my copy from Seido honbu. $25. Cheapest I've found it. It's required reading for Seido students, but quite a good read for karateka and MAists in general. It's not about technique, like most other books. Yes, I'm a bit biased. I think most non-Seido people will lose interest in the very last chapter when he talks about Seido and its current policies, but being in your position, you may find his views interesting, even if you don't agree with them as he gives his justification of why he set the policies he set, such as the move from bare knuckle to wearing protective gear, when actual contact sparring starts, etc. He also briefly talks about being shot by Kyokushin guys after his split. An interesting thing I didn't know before I read it was that he is the one who devised the belt system in Kyokushin. Before he made his appeal to Oyama, they only had white and black belt (possibly brown too, but I have to check).

Welcome to KF, send2coolboy; glad that you're here!! Mortal Combat...that's a game there...I agree. Old school, but still, one of the best!! Too comic book-ish for me, and too many ridiculous things such as babality, animality, etc. distracted me too much from the game. I'm a Tekken fan.

It would only be disrespectful if it was intended as such. Way too many titles out there to keep track of IMO. I'm not a native Japanese speaker; my only Japanese is dojo Japanese, but I believe both are used for heads of orgs. I think technically speaking, kaicho is head of the kai, or organization, whereas kancho is head of the house (aka school) when translated. A lot of organizations use one or the other interchangeably, or different titles altogether. Nakamura translates kaicho as chairman in a lot of places. I'm pretty sure Mas Oyama went by kancho before he took on the sosai title (if he was called sosai before he died?). Nakamura refers to Oyama as kancho in his autobiography. I'm surprised no one has used the title honcho. Most people think it's Spanish in origin, but it's actually Japanese. Means squad leader. I think the yakuza used it, thereby ruining it for the rest of them. Maybe not though. Reminds me... If you haven't read Nakamura's autobiography, it's pretty good. Talks a lot about the old days of Kyokushin, the politics that started to occur after he came to the US, and the behind the scenes politics of the 1st World Open. If you like to read and have time.

Nice...very nice. It helps that Kancho Nakamura supports it; this is evident by seeing him in that video. From what I know, Kaicho Nakamura is very much involved with it. I think he's got more of unofficially an assistant role in; pretty sure he feels the gentleman that was giving the interview of sorts is far more of an expert in the needs of that population. More of a 'here's the syllabus and how I teach normal sighted people, what adaptations must be made and how can I help?' I've only met him once, but by all accounts and everything I've seen, he's the central figure in everything, no matter how big or small. In a good way, not a control freak way. He has also been grooming his son to take the helm at the appropriate time, and his son is doing a very good job of taking it into the current generation. Kaicho strikes me as a guy who takes full command of what he does well, and has no problem delegating to people who would do better than he can when appropriate. Unfortunately, that's not common enough with some of the egos involved in MA IMO.

To further my previous post... Seido's program for the blind.

Any updates?

Luther- People get pretty stupid about standards, especially when it comes to people with various disabilities. I'd like to say it's due to them genuinely not knowing better, but I'm not sure. Seido has a lot of programs for people with disabilities. Tadashi Nakamura (Seido's founder) is very big on karate being for everyone. He practices what he preaches - his program for the blind is very big. Every year at the organization's tournament, there's a demonstration by the people with disabilities. The part that sticks out most to me is that they are responsible for the same syllabus content as everyone else (when appropriate; people in wheelchairs don't have to demonstrate kicks, for obvious reasons). Obviously there's a difference between a blind person doing a kata and a person who isn't blind, but all the movements and techniques are done, and aren't prompted; the only prompts are space/boundary prompts. Before I was a student there, my dojo had a student with Down's Syndrome. It took him 8 years to reach brown belt (average is around 4 years). He wasn't held to the same standard as everyone else, but he had to display every technique from the syllabus without any prompts in order to promote. He didn't have the same power and fluidity in movement as everyone else, but he demonstrated everything he was asked. Rank is such as personal thing. It's all about spirit, attitude, and growth. Anyone else's abilities or disabilities don't elevate or degrade my rank. I know if I put in the work. I know if I'm truly worthy of holding my rank or not. Makes no difference what rank the next guy is holding and if he/she's worthy of not. A school in my former organization offered to let me keep my old shodan rank (without me asking anything about rank) when I was looking into getting back in to karate. All I could think was I have no business wearing a black belt that I haven't worn in 15 years. My current sensei said I wasn't allowed to wear it (without me asking him), to which I responded "I don't want to wear it. All it would be at this point is a glorified Halloween costume." He laughed and said "that's an interesting way to look at it."

That's what vacations are for. Getting away from everything for a few days and recharging your batteries.

That's my daughter, only 13 lol. She spars a lot and likes the more boxing like stance to protect the head, she's been hit a lot haha. Sorry Luther lol! I just saw height and long hair and assumed she was an adult. Edit: Wow, that sounds bad. I don't know how else to put it.

Fight the good fight, and best of luck. I wonder if it's for deletion due to the number of hits it gets or doesn't get? Maybe anything under a certain amount of hits (or people visiting the site) gets deleted. I'd imagine content costs money, and it's probably their way of keeping costs down. Purely speculation on my part though.