Kyonovice

Edited link in original post so should work

Add small amount of starch to wash load? http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_5989871_add-rinse-cycle-washing-machine.htm]

Starch the thing. Seriously, when I started out in Shotokan many moons ago, it was expected (especially for grading) to have the dogi starched

That bold bit, I really like that concept and think that this is exactly where we should be going, back to the "routes" of the art.

I did do a google search for "New Karate Kata" and this list came up: Junro Series (Shodan - Godan) Hachimon Kitei Kakyoku Series (Shodan - Sandan) Does anyone out there with a bit more knowledge of this than I have (I got to Jin/Jion when I trained before leaving) know anythign about these kata's - where they originated from etc? I know that there was once a website dedicated to Shotokan karate who were trying to "invent" a new kata for modern times, sadly that website has gone now.

Here's the thing, for instance what is a Shotokan Traditionalist ? Is a Shotokan traditionalist a practitioner that only practices what Gichin Funakoshi taught, or is it what was taught by Masatoshi Nakayama? At what point do you say the tradition started, because there is a bunch of difference between what was practiced by Funakoshi and Nakayama and even what is practiced by traditional JKA Shotokan today. I know many traditional Shotokan instructors that think they practice exactly what Funakoshi taught, then show them pictures of Funakoshi teaching weapons, throws, and tuite and they are dumbfounded. Was tradition started with Tode Sakugawa, the Mastumoras, or was it in 1960 something when some American GI was stationed in Japan or Okinawa? Tradition is a very vague and arbitrary term and I also think it's often misguided. Many of the modern day so called "traditionalist" don't even know that Karate is a blended martial art to begin with, do they think it started exactly like they were taught? I would also dare say your going to find it hard to locate any technique in any modern fighting art that wasn't used in some way or fashion, by some old school karate practitioners, at some dojo, at some point in time. Solid post and I think it can be related to kata quite easily. Look at the development of kata, the pinan series was developed by Anko Itosu to pass his fighting methods on, Bassai/Passai developed by someone else etc. They all put their own views across in the kata that they developed based on their own fighting style. I wonder what a "modern" kata would look like today.

Cheers, I will see how it goes. The padding is certainly good though, I threw a couple of low mawashi geri's to a tree in the garden hitting with the shin and didn't feel a thing!

So I've been looking at shinguards lately and found that it is such a huge area with so many different types and designs! Anyway, I had a specific wish, I wanted to have a "sock" style as the velcro fasteners just don't suit me. After a lot of looking on the internet, I went with these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00GTRWH2C?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00 They seemed to offer the level of padding I wanted and have a neoprene sock rather than the velcro. I was also tempted by the fact that it wasn't a huge cost, £20 is far more palatable than some of the others! Took delivery today, first impression, very comfy, great level of padding and easy on (not so easy off). Only issue is I don't know if there is a left and right (does the longer bit go up the outside or inside of shin if that makes sense). I will let you know how I get on with them when I start sparring in class.

Its part if something called the world independent budokai who they are, I do not know.

Wow, thank you for such an in depth reply! In regards to the "guy", I was not referring to Oyama in that, according to my sensei, another Kyokushin practitioner had become disillusioned with how Kyokushin sparring had gone. A better explanation is probably that he (whoever it was) looked at Kyokushin and saw that it had gone too much towards a "this is a contest to see who can hit hardest for longest" and realised that technique had been lost to a degree (does that make sense?) Due to this, he introduced points for clean techniques but with the ultimate aim being to knock down your opponent.

I think it's a lot of factors. You can't just throw people at the local Y, you need some pretty pricy mats. Even if you have your own facilities, that price may be too high if your style is striking focused anyways. It also means the students will either have to buy a Judo/BBJ gi, or replace their karate gis more often. The training is pretty specialized, as well. An instructor with limited grappling training could lead to some seriously injured students. And then there are the McDojos, as wel. You can "punch-kick-air" all day long and never have a student question you by avoiding sparring, but you HAVE to pair off and work moves in grappling, you can FEEL an effective air bar or a hip throw. That's a truth there...realised that cheap karate gi's just don't hold up to grappling.

I honestly do not know why other karate clubs (in my area at least) don't do more grappling....Funakoshi did!

I have worked with lots of kids with ADD, ADHD, Autism, Aspergers etc (they are all a part of the same "spectrum" as I understand it). Having worked very closely with these kids, a lot of them (I am talking probably 90%) get a lot of benefit from partaking in a form of sporting activity, not necessarily a martial art, just being active. My young nephew (although undiagnosed), is on the spectrum somewhere (well, actually everyone is to a degree apparently). He plays rugby and does so to a good level as well as maintaining an interest in cadets, this keeps him occupied and engaged. In this way, martial arts can certainly be a huge benefit to people with ADHD, ADD etc. It is a great motivator, it challenges people to excel and justly rewards them for progression, setting clear goals for participants to achieve. All the time it is doing this, it is teaching a valuable life skill in how to control temper and project a confident, yet humble attitude. It helps with self discipline as well as help to encourage a higher level of self esteem. Where I live, there is a guy who set up his own association, it started many years ago as "just another school", but he has developed the junior lessons in such a way that he sort of promotes it towards aspergers. I don't know if I agree with it to the level he has taken it to, but he has got a family history with aspergers it seems and has certainly done a heck of a lot of research: http://www.kentkarateschools.co.uk/home/4579501155

I agree, Karate should be/could be/is more that just striking. And this school does incorperate throws and sweeps a lot, plus if it wasn't for the fact that the Karate class is temporally taught in a church due to landlord issues, there may be more grappling here. I don't necessarily agree with the BJJ logic that "90% of fights go to the ground" but a large chunk of fights will result in some form of clinch as some point, and having some experiences dealing with that would be very useful. ESPECIALLY with the popularity of MMA, people are far more likely to grapple with you than in the past, when Boxing was the most viable combat sport. But doing randori into class, and grappling all class are 2 entirely different experiences. I totally agree, however, a little bit of something is better than doing nothing at all. I do feel that I am benefiting from the randori stuff and it is opening my eyes to different elements of my art, making me think of my body position more etc and where I can go after (arm lock and so on)

This is true BUT the calorie deficit should not be extreme. You still still consume the recommended daily intake of 2500Kcal for men, or 2000Kcal for women as just normal every day activity you can burn around 1000Kcal and I've seen myself burn 900Kcal in a single class, so straight away thats 1900Kcal, so going by that you would actually have to UP your calorie intake so you have enough to fuel your body. It's about eating the right foods too and getting the protein/carb/fats ratio right for you. For me it's 40% protein 30% carbs and 20% fats but everybody does it different. The biggest thing to cut down on is sugar, most folk think fat is bad but it is in fact sugar that's the worst thing. See a nutritionist, or better yet, a sports nutritionist. They would be able to personally tailor a lifestyle plan to suit your needs. But as you stated you've only been at it a short time, results will come soon. Mo. Thank you, that is excellent advice. I am a little confused by the calorie thing. Using the My Fitness Pal website, it says I need to aim for around 1200 calories per day, but this appears to be the remainder if you like...my goal is to "average" 1200 calories so basically inputting my food/drink consumption AND my activity for the day and the 2 subtracted from each other should leave 1200 calories (make any sense?) Anyway, at the moment, my exercise outside of my karate training is not much, basically it is limited to walking with the odd bit of push up and sit ups. I monitor my activity using a Xaoimi Mi Fit band which basically records my steps etc and has a function to record the amount of sit ups done as well. I enter this data into the website on the evenings, it's the best I can do. I did notice that 90 minutes of martial arts apparently burns 1100 calories according to that my fitness pal site!

Speak to your instructor and explain the concerns you have over your son appearing bored. Put it across to him in a way in which you are asking for advice on how to engage your son more etc, I am sure it won't be an issue. You say your instructor has some background in judo, this is not that unusual. My instructor builds randori into my karate sessions, we grapple a bit as a warm up and we have been looking at how you can bring things like osoto gari and other judo throws/techniques into the karate world (so basically how to implement a throw from a block rather than from a "typical" Judo hold). This I find quite amazing and engaging as when I studied karate before, the instructor had been very much karate is karate, we looked at sweeps in a small way but certainly nothing like what I am doing now. To me, karate should be an all round self protection thing (certainly from my experience and readings anyway - I do not confess to knowing all there is to know!). As such, surely as karateka we should be looking at all techniques from all arts and not being single minded in our ways of karate being purely a striking art?

Thank you, had no idea that website existed!

Only ever done points sparring before so not much experience at anything else. I will let you know how the points knockdown stuff goes once I've done some.

I've recently started Kyokushin training, I am only 5ft 5 and weigh about 79 kg whihc apparently puts me in the obese range of BMI scale! Looking at my figure (even with a hyper-crytical eye on), I can't see where the weight is! I do not look fat (at least not that fat - no 6 pack but no major muffin top either), I am not full of muscle or anything either. Together with the training, I have cut out take-aways and started to eat better in general, my only vice it appears is red wine! Anyway, during training, I don't exactly go at it half hearted and seem to sweat immensely during my 90 minute sessions to the extent that my gi is dripping wet by the time I am 45 minutes into the session. What am I doing wrong? Am I that out of shape? Or is it a matter of wrong/improper technique that is wearing me out? My sensei does tell me to relax more, use my body more rather than my arms etc but I can't seem to do it (in fairness I have only been training for a matter of 8 weeks now!) HELP PLEASE

mine does

Certainly in the UK (under certain associations at least), the Ridge Hand got banned some time in the early 2000's for some reason I know not why. As for other techniques not seen/rarely seen now. In my studies 15 years ago, we used to train the single knuckle fist (Ippon-ken I believe it was called), this is something we don't seem (or I haven't seen) lately.

I will speak to him on Friday

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

Only ever done "semi contact" before which watered down to pulling the technique before impact.

Thanks, I will speak to him when I next go training. I am little apprehensive about it to be fair, not done full contact before!