JR 137

IMO people take full contact too far. It definitely has its place, and is highly effective when practiced correctly. My issue is a lot of full contact systems do full contact every time. Pro fighters (including boxers and kick boxers) aren't going full force every time they spar. In fact, the smart ones who've got a career to think about rarely, if ever go full contact in sparring. Do you think guys like Muhammad Ali, Oscar DeLaHoya or other greats who've had a career beyond a few years at best got their heads pounded in day in and day out in training? Would anyone question their training methods, adjusted for modern times and advances in exercise science? Going full contact periodically keeps you honest, if you will. Everyday or even every week is just absurd IMO. Taking the gloves off once in a while is good enough to see if what you've been doing is effective and make adjustments to it, but day in and day out full contact is just asking for debilitating injuries. Yes, there's people who study full contact for decades. Those are the exceptions, not the norm. I know a ton of guys in their 30s and 40s who've had hip replacements, knee replacements, etc. due to it. These aren't things relatively young normally athletes get. Especially non-professional athletes. A bit controversial, but that's my take on it.

Pretty interesting kata. Simple, to the point, and looks effective at teaching the basics of movement.

Baby powder may help getting them on and off easier. Never wore that type pad, and never tried using it on that type of pad, but during my sports med career, I used it on other stuff like neoprene. Just food for thought if it becomes a hassle.

No. We don't do point sparring nor knockdown. Point sparring is done for people who want to compete in it, and an annual tournament is held, but there's no requirement for it, nor is it part of grading. We do do continuous sparring, like knockdown, only there's not (typically) the same amount of force thrown behind the technique. Yes, Kyokushin is controlled contact, but Seido Juku is more controlled. If Kyokushin is, say, throwing 70% of maximum power without protective gear, we're throwing 60% with gear on. I guess it could be summed up as take Kyokushin sparring, add gear, and ease up a bit on the amount of force you're striking with. Different dojos allow different amounts of force, then different students give and take different amounts too. I can comfortably hit some students harder than others; it all depends on who's in front of me and what they're comfortable with.

There's so many splinter groups in Kyokushin. It's so hard to follow who's teaching what. Unfortunate, IMO.

Tanks again.

This is a very smart (devils advocate) thought process and I can't say enough how glad I am you said it. My response has a different approach though. I teach mostly children and it's very difficult to teach kids to move gracefully, to have solid technique and so on. It's very much about the mental training for them at this point. I find the topic of the "standard" so intriguing. Here's why... If I set my standard to how I want my students to look then I'd be bored because people would leave due to a lack of instant gratification or "frequent testings"! If I set the bar too low then I keep students happy BUT I have lowered the quality of each and every belt my students wear. As a person Wanting to teach, I want the bar high, but as a Head instructor who owns my Buisness and needs to make a living I am cautious of how high I set it because I want to remain open. The standard we hold reflects on us, but also is a very delicate line to our success. Balance is so important here. As to students getting bored doing the same thing to get better, and instructors not teaching in-depth enough because of fear of boredom and losing students... I work by this way of thinking, I trick them into the same techniques by selling them a different drill. Here's what I mean. To avoid boredom I change how I not only rotate and come back to things to keep a fresh feeling, but I change how I teach it, this is what I think the key is to keep people interested, let me explain... If I'm teaching a small kicking combination, such as rear leg roundhouse, set kicking foot down in front, rear leg axe kick, I may ha e them in the back of the class room moving across the gym until they reach the end (kicking drills as I call them)! A few weeks later I will teach the same combination, except I have them stay in their spots and do them with kick paddle or focus mits. Gives them different while practicing the same. For kids, occasionally I even do a relay race, running to the front wall and back to me, when back they need to execute the same combination before they tag the next person. There are three very different methods of teaching the same kicks, and keeping them interesting. I find that it makes a big difference. In the end each person has a standard of their own, and it may change like the day, and that's ok, this is about you teaching what you want. If your happy with the product and the students happy with the product then it's a good product. I agree with what you're saying. To kind of put it into different words, kids are kids. It has to be fun. It has to feel new and exciting to them. They have to be "tricked" into doing what's essentially the same thing a bunch of different ways. When kids get bored with something, you can't hold it against them; THEY'RE KIDS! Them wanting to do the next thing and not having the patience to master what they're doing is a blessing in disguise - that means they're eager to learn! It's hard to see it that way in the heat of the moment though. As for adults, that's a whole other story. They want the instant results. Kind of like why weight loss pills are so popular, along with every other type of pill. Adults sometimes forget about the tale of the tortoise and the hare.

When I first started at my current dojo, 3 guys thanked me for throwing so many front kicks. They all said no one has thrown them in a long time and they're glad to have to defend against them again. It's always been a staple for me - quick and powerful to the stomach, and if it gets blocked, it opens up the head and/or chest. The other two kicks I don't see much of are the inside-out crescent kick and the hook kick. I make the crescent kick look like a front kick, watch the hands drop, then swing it around at the side of their head. I guess if you don't use the front kick much, your crescent kick isn't the same. I use the hook kick more as a kick to bait them into stepping in. I throw the hook kick, which they tend to get out of the way of. They think they've got a clear shot at my back/ribs, and I throw a modified back kick (kind of like half a back kick, half side kick) at their stomach when they're coming in. I caught every single person several times with that one. One by one, they all started to stay back after they got out of the way of the hook kick. I feel like I have to change it up again because people expect that one now, but part of me says keep using it because it'll work in a real situation where the person doesn't know me. Maybe just add another technique after the side/back kick. I also throw an overhand punch to the sternum or collarbone, depending on the situation. People bring their hands up to defend their face, and it slips right under their guard. Saw that one thrown a lot in Kyokushin tournaments so I decided to give it a try. Huge success rate at this point. No one's thrown it back at me yet.

Contrary to popular belief, BMI is really only useful for populations, not individuals. Take 1000 random people (not 1000 athletes), and the average BMI will be a good indicator of the group's general body composition. Take 1000 random people with a certain BMI, and most in the group will fit that body composition. All this according to my exercise physiology professor who did a ton of research into diet and weight trends. Forget about BMI. The mirror doesn't lie. You should have a good sense of how you are from a body weight/composition standpoint. If you're interested in knowing how "fat" you are, have a professional do body fat testing. There's several methods. Body composition doesn't have as much to do with overall health as people think it does. If you've got an ideal BMI but you're sedentary, you're not as healthy as a person with a higher BMI who works out regularly at a good intensity. This is assuming there's no underlying health concerns of course; it's all things being equal. How do you get in better fighting shape? Eat sensibly, train within your limits, and get appropriate rest. Train hard, but don't overtrain. The better you get to know your body, the easier finding that balance will become. As previously stated, Rome wasn't built in a day. It takes time. Work through muscle tightness and soreness. Don't work through pain. There's a difference between the two, and knowing your body better will help differentiate the two. When it comes to health and wellness, slow and steady wins the race. Make too many changes and/or too drastic of a change too soon, and you'll revert back sooner than later. Lose 30 pounds in a month, and it'll be back with interest before you know it. I've seen it first hand and in others countless times. In regards to why you feel how you feel at karate... Even if you were in great shape, karate is new to you. You're moving in different ways than you've done before. Your breathing pattern gets thrown off. You tense up when you should relax. Everything's new, and your body is adjusting to it and learning to become more efficient. No different than a swimmer now learning/practicing soccer (football to the rest of the world). After a while, it'll get easier. When it gets easier, it means you're in better shape. If you're not sweating and getting tired, you're not doing enough and won't get in better shape.

Knowledge is like what an inmate on the show Lockup said about carrying his blade - "I'd rather get caught with it than get caught without it." Some things you learn are like seeds that are planted. You may forget about them, then out of seemingly no where, they sprout years or even decades later. MA aside, in college I learned far too many things I thought I'd never use in the real world; things outside my major and in my major. Over the 15+ years since I've graduated, I've started to see a lot of the "stupid things I'd never use" become relevant in one way or another. With group practice of MA, the curriculum changed. Everyone gets taught the same syllabus. Just because I may never use nor truly understand, say step 5 of Saiha kata (throwing out something at random here) doesn't mean no one else in the dojo will. Doesn't mean that 30 years after I learned it I won't actually seemingly inadvertently use it in a real life SD situation. To get all philosophical on you... Sometimes, the fruit a tree bears gets hidden by other trees (follow that hook kick up with a back kick when the opponent got out of the way of the hook kick and charged at you right into the back kick burried into their stomach) Some fruits don't seem like fruits at all - coconuts and pineapples (Turning and putting your fists on your hips in Pinan 3) Some fruits take a ton of work to eat/prepare - coconuts (a nukite takes a ton of hand conditioning before you can use it in SD; jumping and/or spinning kicks) Other fruits are ready to eat right off the tree - apples (groin kick, basic punches) I've changed the way I look at kata lately. I used to think bunkai - what I could specifically be doing with a movement or string of movements. The deeper I got into it, the more complex it became. The more complex it became, the more unrealistic it became; not intentionally, I think I just got sucked into over thinking it. Now I view kata as several different things, and not anything specific. It could be how to transition from one attack to another, offensively for me and defensively. It could be showing me anatomical weak points, and different ways of striking them. It could be showing me follow-ups/combinations of attacks and/or defense. This also applies to kihon and any pre-made scenario, pattern, or combination training. The fruit I'm reaping now is far more abstract than concrete. I'll quite sure I'll come full circle countless times over the course of my study. If I don't, I think it will get pretty monotonous. As far as seemingly useless techniques goes, "A wise man never limits his options." Just like in every other aspect in life, when I start thinking I've seen it all, someone or something comes along and changes my outlook.

Welcome to KF; glad that you're here!! I wholeheartedly concur!! I believe that you'll be slowing introduced into sparing, and that you'd not be going full throttle until the appropriate time, and not sooner. Please let us know how things are going! Ossu Will do, hopefully my sensei does ease me in gently as I don't particularly want to end up black and blue Fastest way to lose students is to make them black and blue; conditioning is important and a beginner isn't conditioned. Old school mindset was...condition WHILST being made black and blue. However, that mindset, has changed, not entirely, to protect the student and the student body. Not the physical body, but the number of students enrolled in a dojo. I can't emphasis enough, and I agree with JR 137...ask YOUR SENSEI!! It used to be that you were a punching bag for upper ranks from day one. The mentality was that was how you were conditioned and if you didn't come back, you would have quit sooner than later anyway, so no big loss. Hopefully those days are over. My former and current sensei was brought up this way and learned the hard way why not to do it. Tadashi Nakamura (Kyokushin legend and founder of Seido Juku, which I'm in) stopped that when he founded Seido. In his autobiography, he wrote that he wondered how many potentially great karateka he lost because of it. I wholeheartedly agree with that.

Gotcha. Not to get too far into Kyokushin history and all, but in the very early stages (possibly when it was Oyama dojo and not officially Kyokushin), punches and the like were allowed to the head. After too many serious injuries and missed time from training due to it, punches to the head were banned from practice. I read somewhere, possibly Tadashi Nakamura's autobiography or from a Shigeru Oyama interview, that Oyama's students started wrapping their hands in washcloths because they were cutting their knuckles on sparring partners' teeth. They were also throwing uppercuts instead of straight punches to he mouth to protect their hands. The ban on head punches pre-dates competition by quite a bit. Many Kyokushin schools and offshoots practice head punches/defending them with head gear. Kyokushin fighters get stereotyped as not knowing how to defend it by people who've only watched competition.

When did Kyokushin "only allow kicks to the head?" The only techniques allowed to the head in competition are kicks (and possibly knees, but don't hold me to that one); that doesn't mean kicks are only thrown to the head. Kyokushin is notorious for its kicks to the inside and outside of the thigh. Perhaps I misinterpreted what you were saying.

There are dojos out there for everyone, even the instant gratification types. The "McDojos" (hopefully) inadvertently cater to these types - promote every 2-3 months, so long as the account is current and the test fees are paid. No need for mastery of technique (relatively speaking), just physically memorize it. Walk through a kata with minimal mistakes, and you'll learn the next one. No need to know why you're doing it in first place. Walk through kihon with minimal mistakes, no need for power, speed or timing. Just show you can do a high block with 2 hands without someone actually punching or kicking at you, or someone who'll throw the technique at a speed and distance where you'll never get hit. Then there's the places that inadvertently cater to the slow and steady wins the race types. Learn one kata. Learn everything about it. Learn how to realistically use each movement in several different ways. When done with that, learn the next and repeat the process. Then there's everything in between. Want a dojo where you go in and fight bare knuckle every class? There's a dojo for that. Want to never get hit? There's a dojo for that. Want to learn flashy jumping/flipping/spinning stuff that looks really cool? There a dojo for that. Want to compete? There's a dojo for that. There's nothing inherently wrong with any of the places I've mentioned. Everyone's entitled to choose and enjoy their own path.

There are a ton of Kyokushin groups nowadays doing a lot of different things. The only way to know what to expect is to ask your sensei. We'd all be guessing.

Our belt system runs White, Blue, Purple, Brown, and Black. Each belt gets 4 stripes. Time frames vary even within schools. 15 years ago 10 plus years was very common to black belt. That was also a time frame where black belts were few and far between. Now days, times have compressed somewhat. Some purest will argue that this is a degradation in quality. I think one only has to look at the product that is being put out there to realize that this is not the case. Jiu jitsu practitioners are getting deeper and more technical at each rank with each generation of artist. It's due to the number of training opportunities and sheer access to black belts early in one's career. That said, it's still a big time commitment. For us, you can figure about 2 years per rank. So it comes out to about 8 years to black belt. That's about six months per stripe. As I inherited from my instructor, if I'm doing my job as a coach there's no reason you standard student who attends class 2-3 times per week can't attain a full rank in two years. Some schools will use competition as a benchmark, personally, I could care less if someone competes or not. It's just not my thing. But for some people it's important. So you're getting into the Purple Belt rank about the 4-5 year mark that many Eastern arts get you to Black Belt in (so there is some correlation to the offset of rank) but there's a ton of variability there as well. It's important to note that unlike many arts, one does not enter the Black Belt ranks in BJJ at 1st Dan. You go in with a Black Belt. After 3 years (roughly but not before) you get promoted to a first stripe on the Black Belt. So by the time one lands the first dan rank you'll have 11ish years into the system. It's at this point you can make Black Belts yourself (although at Black you can rank up to 4 stripes of Brown in the organization I'm part of.) Hope that answers some of the questions. Thanks for that. I used to work with a guy who studied BJJ. He studied for about a year when I left that job. Being a former Army Ranger and employee at West Point, you think he'd be big on rank. He had no clue when promotions were held and how long the time frames were. In a good way, he just trained and didn't care about it. His teacher/dojo owner was a purple belt. Not knowing the system or rank structure, it was a red flag for me. That CI was also a 4th or 5th dan in judo though. That dojo's policy was only a black belt can promote students, regardless of the students' rank, so they had to wait for the CI's teacher to come in. It was one of the Gracie's system, but I can't remember which; one of the R's, but not Royce or Rickson. Speaking of which... Is there uniformity/standardization among the different BJJ schools, such as in judo, or is it more along the lines of karate where every school seems vastly different in techniques and rank/promotion standards? I only know a handful of people who've studied BJJ formally (non-MMA integrated); most didn't last longer than a year or two. I'm pretty sure the Army Ranger is still active in it, but I haven't talked to him for about 3 years now.

I've thought about this also, and have been tempted to buy some of those martial arts sneakers that are for sale on some sites. I wonder if they are any good? Anyone had any experience with them? My old sensei used to wear them due to foot problems. He had a few surgeries and couldn't spend 6 hours a day barefoot on a hardwood floor. They seemed like wrestling sneakers minus the laces and being low top. Only insight I have into them.

Congratulations to your students, and equal congratulations to you. Yes, it's all about your students, but when your students earn a promotion, part of you earns one too in a way. I've heard a ton of different time tables in BJJ promotions, but I have to ask: how long on average do the different belts take? What's your order of belts (pretty sure brown is the last one before black)? Some BJJ guys like to throw around the phrase that a 1st dan in BJJ is like a 3rd dan in other arts. I think the first student said 6-7 years of study? Just curiosity. I know everyone's different and different BJJ schools do things differently. People always say it takes a long time, but I've never seen anyone say something like a 1st dan usually has 10 years of consistant training.

Completely agreed. I genuinely wonder why most traditional striking arts still practice without shoes. I understand the Japanese/Asian culture of no shoes in the house. We don't have that custom engrained in us here. Wearing shoes while kicking changes a ton of things. The front kick using the ball of the foot becomes quite different in a pair of sneakers. Pivoting becomes different. I think we should wear shoes that are only worn in the dojo. Possibly wrestling shoes. I'm not trying to break tradition, but some traditions shouldn't be done for the sole sake of tradition when there's a more logical and beneficial approach. Not sure about ground fighting heavy systems. Wrestling shoes make sense too, but that's my former wrestling background. Back to my original thought for this post - if you can't pull off a technique in a no gi/t-shirt situation, how functional is that technique truly? If a t-shirt is too light to be able to grab it as part of a throw or choke, how would you use that technique when a t-shirt wearing attacker comes at you? How many attackers are wearing something that a gi would approximate on the 4th of July (or New Year's Day in the Southern Hemisphere)? I have no judo nor jujitsu experience, so don't take that the wrong way; just trying to learn.

Is that like in Heartbreak Ridge where either the entire platoon wore the same t-shirt as Clint Eastwood's character or they all went shirtless? Love the movie, Clint Eastwood, and the intent of the "same t-shirt" ideology. In time, the platoon finally arrived on the same page as their DI!! People get weird about schools that require everyone to buy their sparring gear through them, and I get why. But my view on it is the same as everyone wearing the same gi, or the same t-shirt. Goes along with what you say here!

I think we're mainly picking different parts of the original question to discuss. I think if the original question didn't have as many different things in it, we'd all answer a lot closer to each other than we did. It was s great question because it was very open ended with a lot of different aspects. Other than my response to the morals... A teacher must be able to teach! As Sensei8 has said time and time again, not all black belts can and/or should teach. Teachers must have a solid knowledge of what they're teaching. They must be able to communicate this knowledge in a variety of different ways, so that a variety of people with different learning styles can effectively learn from him/her. They must be able to listen to their students, not just verbally but just as importantly (perhaps more importantly) visually; they must be able to see and hear their students' mistakes/weaknesses/flaws to be able to correct them. A teacher must be patient. He/she must be able to let students learn at their own pace and not get rattled when the students don't understand it and/or need more time than the norm to be able to demonstrate it. If a student or students aren't showing progress, they must be able to change their approach in many ways to get each student on the same page. A teacher must be able to pick apart the students' techniques and find the flaws, then know how to correct them. Each student has different body types and movement types, so the teacher must know how to deal with this as well. A teacher must be flexible in what they expect. People have different mental and physical abilities and disabilities. Expecting someone with a knee replacement to be able to do what a 20 year old can do exactly how they can do it is absurd. Expecting a person with ADD/ADHD to have the same focus and everyone else is an exercise in futility. A teacher must command respect, not demand respect. If he/she is saying "You must respect me!" they'll never get it. How do they command respect? In addition to the above, lead by example, properly motivate different personality types, treat everyone equally (doesn't mean, nor should it mean treating everyone the same), have structure in class, have a solid plan, and be willing and able to change the plan when the situation dictates it. Especially with kids, teachers lose control most often when the students aren't being challenged enough and/or are bored due to many different reasons. I'm a school teacher. I teach middle school science and have taught K-12 physical education. I guess when I was looking for a teacher, it was far easier to pick out a teacher's flaws and know why their class was the way it was. Same thing for coaches for my daughters. My almost 5 year old had a soccer coach she loved, then moved up to the next level with a different coach and didn't have a shred of interest anymore. It was the coach. He was an excellent coach with an older group, and taught the younger kids the same exact way. They didn't respond nearly as well mentally. He couldn't change his approach. My wife (who's also a teacher, but has no Phys Ed teaching experience) got bored after the 3rd thing I said about why the group wasn't responding the way they did with the other coach - too many solo drills, not enough games, not enough praise, not enough enough competitive games, not smiling enough, having his back to too many kids at once for too long, and on and on. Thinking about it, when I was looking for a teacher, I was looking for a teacher's teacher. Yes, he's not perfect. Neither am I, and neither is anyone else. He does all the important things right and any weaknesses he has as a teacher are minimal and insignificant IMO. Then there's personality. 5 teachers can be equally good at the exact same things, but you'll naturally prefer on personality over the others and learn from that person easier. Sorry for the book I just wrote.

I'm in the U.S. and I'm a guy, so take this as you will... Century makes a women's cut gi top. Not sure what that entails other than the blatantly obvious. Several women I train with own them and like them. Gender stuff aside, keep in mind the weight of the fabric of any gi. The Adidas gi you linked to is 14 oz. That's very heavy IMO. Some people like that, but some find that too heavy/hot to train in on a day to day basis. I own a 14 oz. gi and find it too heavy, especially in the summer. I also own a 12 oz. gi and find it better in that regard. If I can find a well made 10 oz. gi that fits me well, I'll be all over it. Gis are just like any other type of clothing. It's all in the fit and feel of it. I hate ordering online because I always have to ship stuff back and forth before I get something that works for me. In a land where there's no local shops carrying any, let alone a range of brands and styles, I'm stuck ordering. If you live a reasonable distance to a big city such as London, you may be able to find a place that sells this stuff. Also, keep in mind what's acceptable in your dojo. They might not like the Adidas logo on the chest or any other logo other than the one on the bottom corner of the lapel. Keep color and pant and sleeve length in mind too. Edit: forgot to add that some women prefer tournament cut gis as well. They usually have the same measurements as the complimentary traditional cut gis, but in actuality they've got more material in the shoulder and chest area, are slimmer in the waist, and the legs are baggier. Kamikaze is a very popular brand of gis in Europe that are all tournament cut. Available in different weights and price ranges.

Train, then train, then train some more. There's no substitute for experience. Sounds like a cop out on my part, but it's genuinely not. The only way to make something that makes you nervous and anxious is to desensitize yourself to the situation. Constantly putting yourself in that situation (under controlled circumstances) will help you get used to it. The adrenaline dump and fight or flight response is a natural instinct. The more exposure you have to this, the more you learn to control the response. The more control you have over the response, the easier it become to stay calm and focus on what you're doing when the time comes to react. If you're constantly being used as a full-contact punching bag and are getting no feedback from your teacher, that's another story all together.

All I know of Andre Bertel is that interview and one other blog post he made.

If they are in fact teaching Ueshiro's style of karate as he taught it, then it should be quite good. Ueshiro was/is very highly regarded in many circles.