Maybetrue

If you really need to know: -Just clear your mind of "thinking" -Forget identifying" any specific technique. (clear your mind) -Forget blocking.(clear your mind , less things to think about) -LOOK Straight into your opponents eyes. -relax -when ANYTHING( i mean ANYTHING MOVES) punch as fast and hard as you can(TO THE STOMACH as i think you do not have control and accurate as a white belt to punch to the head) going forward with your weight. DO NOT THINK! Trust your body. You will develop a "feeling/anticipation " overtime(decades).

If ippon means 3 points, does a Shodan become a Sandan in a WKF organization by default ?

ippon = 3 points.

If anyone trains correctly, doing ONE PUNCH or TECHNIQUE 1,000,000's of times will have a life long learning effect. That one punch(tech) will have different "stages" of meaning. Just the process of and will of training by doing the same technique will develop patience,will power,trust,loyalty,endeavor,etc.... doing 1000's of different techniques might develop some type of shallow understanding but will be repeating the beginning stages of learning 1000's of times and never reach the higher level of any ONE technique. Doing ONE TECHNIQUE will develop DEEP UNDERSTANDING of ones self or even a student. just an opinion by a random person(me) posting on the internet. PS: for the members that are training. If your instructor is doing something that you do not understand or seems "useless" , Maybe your instructor is actually teaching you something else like loyalty or will power which will benefit you more in the long run or even character development.

Agreed. However, videos of even the most hardcore traditionalists in Okinawa do drills directly related to kata. While they may not be free-sparring, they're going pretty close to full speed with the attack and defense. And there's heavy contact if you don't "receive" the attack correctly. Too many "traditionalists" here in the US think kata alone is what they do. From what I've seen in videos and heard from first hand accounts, it's not the case. In an interview with "the man who inherited Miyagi's belt," (can't remember his name of the top of my head; he was Miyagi's top student), he stated that Miyagi didn't teach students their first kata (Sanchin) for about 3 years after they started. What does this mean? A lot of the so called traditionalists who think kata from day one on is "the way" haven't done their history homework. actually, one is suppose to do stretching for months before even learning techniques. If i had it my way, students would do only a few techniques and only learn new techniques as they perfect the basic one first. BUT.............................. if i taught how i really wanted, there would only be 5 students left since everyone would quit or be injured. I have been to two very well known dojo's(not my style) in Okinawa. Would love to train in that type of dojos. The feeling of wood floors and the history of the dojo was very "sacred". One Sensei actually brought out a very old "BOOK" with the "tree" of students and instructors that were connected to that dojo and got very emotional about some "X" out instructors. The traditional Okinawan Dojo take Karate and lineage very seriously. I'd love to travel to Okinawa and train, but living on school teachers' salary (my wife an I both teach) won't make that possible any time soon. And there's a huge difference between training on wood floors and mats. My old sensei relocated three times during my original run. The first dojo was wood floors, the second was mats, and the third was wood again. We all loved having the wood floor back. As stupid as it sounds, especially for rolling/falling during sweeps. It made it far more realistic and let you know when you made a mistake. And I'm with you when you talk about teaching a handful of techniques, waiting for mastery of them, then moving on afterward. This is how I teach my middle school science students. It drives my boss crazy because she thinks at that level it's all about exposure to the content rather than mastery. I get it and respect that way of thinking; she thinks they'll get the depth at higher levels. She drops her respectful disagreement when the results of my students' standardized tests come back and they've all shown very strong skills. I'd much rather mastery of 10 topics in a year than superficial exposure to 20 topics in the same timeframe. Karate is no different in this regard IMO. Okinawa has some of the most friendly people in the world. Safe place and beautiful. Highly recommend going to Okinawa for any reason not only for Karate.

Agreed. However, videos of even the most hardcore traditionalists in Okinawa do drills directly related to kata. While they may not be free-sparring, they're going pretty close to full speed with the attack and defense. And there's heavy contact if you don't "receive" the attack correctly. Too many "traditionalists" here in the US think kata alone is what they do. From what I've seen in videos and heard from first hand accounts, it's not the case. In an interview with "the man who inherited Miyagi's belt," (can't remember his name of the top of my head; he was Miyagi's top student), he stated that Miyagi didn't teach students their first kata (Sanchin) for about 3 years after they started. What does this mean? A lot of the so called traditionalists who think kata from day one on is "the way" haven't done their history homework. actually, one is suppose to do stretching for months before even learning techniques. If i had it my way, students would do only a few techniques and only learn new techniques as they perfect the basic one first. BUT.............................. if i taught how i really wanted, there would only be 5 students left since everyone would quit or be injured. I have been to two very well known dojo's(not my style) in Okinawa. Would love to train in that type of dojos. The feeling of wood floors and the history of the dojo was very "sacred". One Sensei actually brought out a very old "BOOK" with the "tree" of students and instructors that were connected to that dojo and got very emotional about some "X" out instructors. The traditional Okinawan Dojo take Karate and lineage very seriously.

If one trains and perfects his/her Kata correctly, you should actually not need to practice kumite. I know of one famous instructor from Japan that only practiced KATA and did no kumite practice prior to entering a tournament. This famous instructor won his first tournament. This might not work in the modern times because of the "specialization" of Kata or Kumite by individuals due to rule changes of sport karate. Kata has separated its roots/meaning/attachment with kumite as Kata is more acting and "prettiness" with less focus on power and intent which KUMITE is in general. Even my dojo has multiple ways of doing a specific Kata , Kata for OPEN traditional tournaments, closed tournaments and even Open styles tournament.

Remember before reading this post. I am only a person on the internet. Do not take what i post over what your own sensei/instructor. It is just my opinion. My thoughts on Knowing other martial arts is that if one puts 100% effort and trains to the out most limits of any ONE STYLE, be it one punch, one kick, one throw or basically just on technique, there is less need to know anything else. If a person had a simple straight punch which was the fastest ,strongest and unblockable , that person would not need to study any other "art", the other people that he would face would need to study that person in order to figure out a defense. It would be better time spent PERFECTING ONE TECHNIQUE and executing it 1000000's of times, instead of time looking for that magic technique,style or THEORY of doing many techniques 100's of times and being average. It may sound boring, doing a punch,kick or technique over and over and over again and again. But the final result will be worth everything you put into that ONE technique with results that are worth every effort put into that ONE Technique.

To the bold type above... I fit that category, and by that I mean, I'm of the "OLDER HIGHER RANKS", yet, I sincerely believe that I've not done more damage or any damage to the MA. I've not made any excuses and/or any short cuts during my 51 years in Shindokan; I believe that my integrity remains untainted, and that my students, as well as those that I've had the pleasure of sharing any given floor, can attest to that. Being clumped in with those that have made you feel the way you do feel about older higher ranks, makes me feel ashamed. Ashamed because I can only speak for myself, and in that, I can't speak towards those who've done the injustice that can be found in any given MA. Just a "GENERALIZED" statement. into comparison to "Kid" black belts . Kids just train and could care less about "politics". I have seen a lot of really bad,sad and outright "UN-MARTIAL ART" behavior by higher ranking BB's which really makes me sad and disappointed. PS: Hate to say this, but the Higher rank demographics end up having a higher percentage of bad behavior ..... ouch. You have to admit, just by reading posts, you kind of get the feeling of which members are students, instructors and experienced instructors. I guess becoming a higher ranking instructor a person will have to deal with all the politics and less than fun part of Martial Arts. enough gloom and doom. Martial Arts is great. The positives far outweigh the negatives. Generalized...ok...fair enough! Does your Sensei fit in the category of being an "OLDER HIGHER RANKS"?? In Shindokan, not all older higher ranks deal with the day in and day out operations of our governing body, but just with their own daily operations from their own dojo, and even that, some only sit on a testing cycles panel from time to time...they too, just want to train without the politics. I do agree, that I too have seen the older higher ranks have damaged the integrity of the MA by, for example, rank gouging; they can't be satisfied with the last rank that their Sensei bestowed upon them through a testing cycle. No, they want to be that Judan/Soke and so on and so forth; their MA resume looks like a shopping list of "look at me...aren't I impressive!?!?!?!". That to me is the sadness that's been a cancer to the integrity of the MA. I might even be consider OLDER HIGHER RANKS by my students(instructors) students(kids) at this point. i have seen 3 generation family "tree"training in one of the dojos (parents that were black belts, child that were black belts and now grandchild starting to train). I GUESS I AM OFFICIALLY OLD NOW. a true example of what i do NOT LIKE: One of my own students that i kick out of my dojo is a "master" "soke" "grandmaster", whatever he is call himself now days, of 5 styles minimum with a black belt in over 20 styles. he is physically and capable enough to fool a lot of people in the MA community(he does seminars all over the world). Just sad and disappointed , i still consider him a friend and nice person that never did anything bad to me directly, just had to kick him out because the other members,instructors,parents and even instructors from different organization and styles were complaining about him too much. I am sure this happens all the time with all styles. Loyalty is probably the most important philosophy with martial arts. But that is a whole long debate saved for OLDER HIGHER RANKS. I really hate to be the gloomy person in a MA forum. MARTIAL ARTS IS GREAT! There are way more positive than negative.

10000% TRUE! the only problem i have is that a lot of instructors are feeding the "magic pill" of style to magically become a "killing machine" and being able to defend oneself with a one hour seminar ,NO TRAINING and watching videos of someone else highly trained in a ring and saying "see it works". OUCH.

The future of TRADITIONAL Karate will always be great. Why? The philosophy of TRADITIONAL Karate will always live. Techniques may seem outdated at times, but the philosophy in general applies to modern times and even NON- Practitioners.

1-Goals. 2- I tell my students or anyone that walks in. If all they want is to fight in the ring. Take boxing from a boxing coach. the Karate punch is not effective with a boxing glove on and with boxing you dont have to learn the "art". Also with boxing you learn and get used to getting hit,etc.... 3- Some students want to learn weapons, i send them to the best school that is our area for weapons training. 4- they want ground game, i tell them go the "judo/jj" route. 5- i have no problem suggesting other schools that specialize in other areas to anyone . 6- when talking with the students after class(just hanging around), i explain to the students that Taekwondo has the best stretching and wish all my students could be flexible like the TKD practitioners. The good of boxing and actual contact, judo/jj with inside game,etc... I have no problems with talking to students about the strengths of other styles. Even within our own style i love when students go to other organizations within the same style and train. That lets them know how it is in other dojos/organizations. 7- if they want street fighting/self defense. I first ask them "are you willing to kill or maim someone?" To be a good street fighter, basically all the martial arts philosophy one learns get thrown out the window. I could go on for hours (seminars) about street fighting and self defense and why martial arts is a actually a hindrance a lot of times when it comes to ACTUAL street fighting or self defense. BUT, the final conclusion, do what pleases your students and you is what is most important.

To the bold type above... I fit that category, and by that I mean, I'm of the "OLDER HIGHER RANKS", yet, I sincerely believe that I've not done more damage or any damage to the MA. I've not made any excuses and/or any short cuts during my 51 years in Shindokan; I believe that my integrity remains untainted, and that my students, as well as those that I've had the pleasure of sharing any given floor, can attest to that. Being clumped in with those that have made you feel the way you do feel about older higher ranks, makes me feel ashamed. Ashamed because I can only speak for myself, and in that, I can't speak towards those who've done the injustice that can be found in any given MA. Just a "GENERALIZED" statement. into comparison to "Kid" black belts . Kids just train and could care less about "politics". I have seen a lot of really bad,sad and outright "UN-MARTIAL ART" behavior by higher ranking BB's which really makes me sad and disappointed. PS: Hate to say this, but the Higher rank demographics end up having a higher percentage of bad behavior ..... ouch. You have to admit, just by reading posts, you kind of get the feeling of which members are students, instructors and experienced instructors. I guess becoming a higher ranking instructor a person will have to deal with all the politics and less than fun part of Martial Arts. enough gloom and doom. Martial Arts is great. The positives far outweigh the negatives.

Asai body structure and skill set was different from Kanazawa,Enoeda,Nishiyama,etc... The snapping techniques that he learned from kung fu was great for Asai to incorporate into his karate. PS(dont know if many people know this): -Asai meet his wife before he meet her brother that was a Kungfu instructor. -Mrs. Asai was a dancer that wanted to incorporate a "KATA" into her dance exhibitions and went to the JKA dojo to learn a "KATA". Asai Sensei was assigned to teach Mrs. Asai a "kata"........yada yada... Asai Sensei then trained with Mrs. Asai's brother who was a Kungfu expert, ASAI CONVERTED Mrs. ASAI's brother into teaching KARATE in his home country. Mrs.. ASAI nephew also converted and taught Karate .... yada yada... Disclaimer: I AM NOT ASSOCIATED with any Asai organization. Always believe your instructor first and as more truth than a random person. I AM JUST SOME RANDOM PERSON posting on the internet. take what i say as just one of many possible truths. I think i should right a book..... to correct a lot of "stories" going around. would be interesting...

From Kanazawa "side" , no he did not have any bad feeling towards Enoeda back in the day(it could have changed with time). But Kanazawa did have a "BIG problem" with Nishiyama. DISCLAIMER: REMEMBER, i am just a random person on the internet.

Depends what your goals are. I would not start "cross-training" until you are at an elite level in whatever art your base is. It is better to the best at one art than less than average in 2,3,4,5-etc arts. The only "cross training" i did was wrestling in high school for my ground game understanding. The best fighters are elite in one art and added other arts after. The best instructors are 99% top level in one art. Same as anything else in life. If you had a choice of a doctor that had to do brain surgery on YOU. Who would you choose? #1 The worlds top brain surgeon that does only brain surgery or #2 A doctor that does all types of surgery average at best.

Here is my "gloomy MA" post for today. From what i experienced. IT IS THE OLDER HIGHER RANKS that actually do more damage to martial arts than a 15 year old kid that has a black belt. Kids = Pure learning & effort Adults = Excuses & Short cuts

HERE Goes another one of my "gloomy" MA posts. NEVER take what a book says as the absolute "truth". Even from the "horses" mouth. There is not only "2 sides of the story" .. there are actually 100's of variations of the "story' that actually comes out of the "horses" mouth. here are just a few examples of what ACTUALLY HAPPENS. There is the : - Biography version with a book writer asking and adding his opinion - the gossip version - the 1,2,3,4,5 party version - the acquaintance version - the dojo population version - the general black belt dojo version - the best student version - the family(wife) version - the 10 years later version - the 20 years later version - the 30,40,50,60+ years later version - even a FORUM version... etc etc etc etc How do i know? Because i myself am guilty of having different "VERSIONS" to explain what happened within the Karate World of Politics/Instructors. I would never tell the actual version of a "BAD MARTIAL ARTIST or ORGANIZATION" that would make someone look bad(even if it is the truth) to a "author" of a book. BUT i would tell my top high ranking and loyal students(very few) the "HARDCORE" version on my terms, not when asked. Its sad that many people read books and take an authors translation as "fact". A book is a good guide to start with, but the reader has to read "between" the lines to even get remotely close to the actual "story or event". I really hate to be the person to bring the bad new all the time. sorry! Just train hard and enjoy your "ART". Forget trying to get the "facts and history" it will only take time from your actual goals.

Hate to be so straight forward with this post. BUT HERE GOES. As a instructor , I would teach what benefits the majority of the class. If i have 30 students(kids) in front of me and 29 are training very hard and serious and 1 is crying, fooling around, slacking,etc i will basically worry about the 29 students over the 1. Sometimes even ignoring that 1 "other" student.(barring it is not injury or medical related). Most times a parent or fellow student can take that child(crying) out of class and find out what is going on and tell me later. After class i will talk to that 1 student and parents if needed. there is no way a instructor can be 100% likable and a perfect "match" with every single student he teaches . Impossible. To think one is a perfect instructor is already being "imperfect". what i see in GENERAL: 5yr - 7yr = highest turnover 8-12yr = easiest to teach. teens = best technically but will be going off to college or quit for other interest 18-25yrs= train the hardest, but are the "poorest" demographics. 26yr -35yrs = strongest core for a long running dojo. 45- 60yrs= some higher ranks will expose themselves(egos,rank,envy,etc) very sad and disappointing to see as a instructor. Many instructors would rather be a Chief instructor of 5 students than be a instructor in a large organization. Good luck. experience is the best teacher.

Going to tournaments when nobody knows you is the best test of yourself and skill.... No hype, no back up, no cheering,etc. Just you and nobody you know. For me, the best feeling was winning a huge tournament outside of my state being the only one from my dojo competing. Thru the first day of eliminations i dont think anyone knew who i was, just some random guy(which probably played to my advantage as the more well known fighters from the west coast tournaments were reckless ), .. but i think on the finals day they kinda knew who i was. so that anonymity was gone(which also played to my advantage as to my surprise the finalist were overly cautious , go figure). It is much harder to compete against "unknown" average fighters than "elite" fighters that you fight with every tournament for many years. That "unknown" factor really challenges your strategy and focus. Good luck! Enjoy the various environments of competing and martial arts.

Here are some interesting numbers: stage 1 (110% effort and teaching 4 times a week 4-6 hours total) -Peak membership when i was competing and just retired competing. -150 - 200 students divide between 2 rec centers 15 miles apart. -teaching 2 times a week and 2 one hour classes at each rec center. -Biggest class was about 60 students. Stage #2 - 75% effort(marriage and new child) Teaching 2 times a week , once at both recs with another instructor (highest rank that shows up) teaching the other classes. student membership went down to approx 100. stage #3 - 25% effort(opened a new business,not karate related) teaching about once a month at both dojos, with other instructors(highest ranked) teaching the rest. students drop down to approx 50-70 students. stage#4 - 10% effort(making money in my none karate business) for about 4 years. only go to grade every 3 months , no teaching (appointed a few of the higher ranks to teach assigned days) 45 students average . stage #5 40% effort (sold my NON karate business) began teaching again twice a week 1 hour(advance class) at each rec. (appointed instructors teach other classes) 75 students. stage #6 10% effort(moved to another state) instructors are running the 2 dojos. only go back once in a few years for dan testing. (Appointed BOARD of instructors to run the club as Non-profit) membership is around 50-75 with students that I have not actually teaching making shodan this past couple years. Stage #6a Basically the 2 dojos are now able to start growing without me being there and the true instructors are now taking control(after some turmoil the first few years after i left). Two instructors have separated themselves from the other instructors and now are appointed the head instructor of each branch to do as please. But during kyu testing 4 highest training black belts sit at the front to grade. Teaching is the easy part, it is finding out how to continue the ART when you are "gone" is the difficult part. ALSO, the politics within the dojo is the worse part of Martial Arts.

You should be happy that instructors like me are so narrow minded. More students will gravitate to other schools that teach everything. No student tells me what to teach, i teach what i feel fits the masses of students that are training and what i see as needs to be drilled. I rather have my student perfect ONE kata or technique than the student know 20+ katas or a bunch of techniques average or even kind of good. these are just my opinion and coming thru the internet. dont even take anything i post as serious. for all you know i could be a white belt with no idea what i am talking about. "boku no iken dakedo"

WKF(or whatever the name was prior) i feel had good intentions when first starting off, but has changed into a MONEY MAKING machine at this point similar to FIFA and OIC.

"A wise man never limits his options." (I can't remember who said it, but he was pretty smart) There's a time and a place for everything. Watch a guy like Hajime Kazumi throw a kick at thigh height or lower in the middle of a combination and ask yourself if it would or wouldn't be effective in a real self defense situation. Standing back and throwing head kicks without any preparatory or follow up techniques has extremely limited real world effectiveness. Add a jump or spin to the kick and it's more limited. Will it NEVER work? Nope. Any time you teach someone how to strike properly, you increase their chances of walking away from an encounter. Any time you teach them how to move properly, you increase their chances. Guarantee? NEVER. Martial arts training, or ANY other self defense training will never turn any/every student into some lethal street killing machine, just like teaching someone how to shoot a rifle won't make them some elite special forces sniper. Unless you're teaching Ameri-Do-Te or Rex Kwon Do, you're increasing the student's chance of survival. Even cardiokickboxers who've been taught the right way to hit the bag have a better chance than someone who's never thrown a punch or kick. We can pick a choose "EXCEPTIONS" to the rule easily as likes of Michael Jordan, Peyton Manning, Mike Tyson , Lebron James, Derek Jeter, Messi, Machida,etc.. etc.. etc.. But i tend to see students as the "OTHER" 99.99999% of the population that are "normal". I "ASSUME" that alot of people posting are "instructors" posting here. So be honest when i ask this next question. "A wise man never limits his options." (I can't remember who said it, but he was pretty smart) Is it wise to teach all the Katas,strikes and kicks to everyone so the STUDENTS has the "options" to do as he pleases? I feel it is the instructors choice to teach various techniques and katas when the instructors feels the students are ready. AGAIN i know what is post next is going to rub alot of people the wrong way.... IN MY OPINION, even a great amount of instructors are not even ready for the Katas and techniques they learn.... Just remember, it is just my opinion and a random person on the internet posting this. so please do not get bent out of shape over my posts.

This is why there are different styles and instructors. do what ever fits you. FOR ME, if i had it my way, i would rather have my students have only 3 techniques period(those 3 would be the same for everyone) and only train in those 3 techniques 95% of the time and have "FUN" doing other techniques 5% of the time just to understand the mechanics of the "FUN" techniques. I always stress to students that if they are the "BEST" in the world at one technique they could be world champion,defend themselves,etc..... OR i could teach them 1000's of techniques and achieve nothing.