Maybetrue

For those that were not lucky enough to see the 1970's open tournaments a quick run down: - You could see ALL styles compete with minimum protections. not even a cup. - You could see MONKEY Style Kungfu vs Karate, Kenpo vs Tkd, wushu vs tang soo do , joe shmoe vs combat trained , etc. - Top "point" fighters could crossover to full contact successfully(i cannot imagine WKF/sport karate of the 2010's doing anything close to crossover). - NO JUMPING AROUND and yelling after a point, - - no holding your jaw if you got tapped looking for a foul. - no weight divisions. - 50 to hundreds in ONE DIVISION. - ONE CHAMPION - best of all, everyone partied TOGETHER after the huge events.(Now days the people from the SAME STYLE HATE EACH OTHER, LOL crazy)

What makes a good instructor? THE STUDENTS! for kids: I have seen horrible technical Head instructors(good people) put out numerous Ivy league students,business owners and overall great citizens to the community. On the other hand i seen GREAT martial arts practitioners produce a lot of criminals or even teach how to "Unarm Law enforcement" classes. I rather have a kid that is average but successful in other aspects of life applying what they learned(hopefully) from martial arts than a world champion ending up a criminal . PS: yes i seen this happen

I agree with you! When I first encountered the slapping techniques as a score...I was befuddled, to say the least, because to me, and others, the slapping techniques lacked penetration, or the appearance of dynamic penetration. A hit was a hit and a slap was a slap, and a hit earned a point, while the slap shouldn't have. But, tournament arbitrators back then saw a way to make a slap worthy, and I believe that that was possible because the tourney was theirs to do with as they please. In that, a slapping technique became a point. So, whenever I entered tourneys that amplified and encouraged the slapping techniques over the penetrative techniques, it was hard for me to adjust right away, and in that, I ended up being disqualified for the dynamic penetration as being a technique that lacked control, and that became a safety issue for that tourney. Change is inevitable, but at times, not all changes are good, imho!! You must have loved how competitors gained 4-6 inches of reach by stretching there "FOAM" century hand pads . classic.

Yup, if someone comes to me and says "i want to learn to fight". i tell them go box and learn judo. My friends ask about fighting and i just laugh and dont even talk about martial arts. I explain to a lot of people that a Highly ranked martial artist "can" get smashed in a street fight by a guy that never had formal training. yada, yada. Karate or any traditional martial is a long process. Kicking is fine, IF you feel the person is capable of never screwing up the situation. But IN GENERAL, if i watch a 1000 average everyday students in a gym i would say 5-10 could be capable of handling themselves in a real street fight(not drunks or bullying stuff). So if i say "NEVER KICK" i am talking to the 990 people that are not up to standards or not street fighting material. As for "MACHICA/UFC" , they are kicking on a mat in competition. I think if you put any UFC fighter in dress shoes, skinny jeans, polished marble floor,etc... kicking will be minimal.

probably end up visiting once in a while after i get heat for posting my opinions. Fun reading and great points of view.

First of all, listen to your instructor over a random person on the internet(ME). It is just from my experience , i was the best or one of the best kickers in class. Probably a top tier kicker in open competition. BUT, never used a kick in a real street fight/situation. ever. MY OPINION is that in a real life situation, a person needs to be as safe as possible. Kicking outside of the dojo has too much variables when executing with shoes,lose flooring,situation,NO WARM UP, etc. I never train with shoes and jeans, rarely on carpet, gravel, hills ,dirt,sand,etc. KICKS CAN Be devastating in a real life situation, i know of 2 instances locally (1 due to chest impact and the other person hitting his head on the ground when he got knocked down) when a Kick killed someone in a street fight situation. BUT the 2 people that executed the kick were very high level practitioners in there prime fighting ages.

Just trying to get as close to the truth as possible. From the first handed experience (not from a blog or instructor that read or heard about it). DISCLAIMER: I am in no way affiliated with any ASAI organization. Just personally knew the Asai FAMILY outside of the Karate.

Not sure if that was Asai original intention. How did you get this story? No, your right but I don't know if any of us are sure of Asai's original intention. The JKA's stated intention for him going to Taiwan was for him to teach Shotokan. Check the story in the link below. Regardless Asai's intent it seems like he trained a good bit in Kung Fu well prior to starting his own federation. From what I've seen of Asai Karate it sure looks like something other than JKA Shotokan rubbed off on him. http://asaikarate.com/why-does-asai-senseis-butt-stick-out-%E6%B5%85%E4%BA%95%E5%85%88%E7%94%9F%E3%80%81%E9%AA%A8%E7%9B%A4%E3%81%AE%E4%BD%8D%E7%BD%AE%E3%81%AE%E8%AC%8E/ Take what you read on the internet and books as "almost" true. That blog has a couple of timeline mistakes. Mrs Asai was already with Sensei Asai when in Hawaii. Mrs Asai herself was a great MA/Dancer including weapons,etc,etc. Asai Sensei was a great if not the greatest innovator and had great vision of what Karate/MA could be. Personally , i think nobody will be qualified to teach "ASAI" karate because he had Mental and physical abilities that no one else can duplicate. I cannot see how instructors that take "seminars" a few times can actually teach what "Asai" did. It takes everyone a lifetime to just do standard shotokan katas, i cannot image perfecting "Asai" techniques.

I have to strongly disagree, I would highly recommend very much limiting high kicks, but a kick is a weapon and to not use it is a bit silly.. Very few people expect a kick also. On a perfect floor in a point tournament i still tell everyone DO NOT KICK. on the street, never kick period. Line up 1000 MA, maybe 10 can actually kick "GREAT". now add some everyday elements jeans, shoes/leather shoes/, polished concrete parking garage, loose gravel, grass, hills, carpet, lighting,confined space,No warming up, no stretching ,etc.... It is tough to KO someone with a kick. A football kick to a person on all 4s works great, but that is just dirty.

Good question. Because i seen 15 year old brown belt kids that teach better than 50-70 year old "head" instructors that are "regional" technical directors of huge global organizations.

Not sure if that was Asai original intention. How did you get this story?

the more complicated the bunkai, it is probably more far from the original bunkai. Bunkai is becoming a demonstration/exhibition/show recently with the addition of bunkai into competition. fun to watch though, great show.

Ippon is 1 full point!! not according to the WKF.... they think ippon means 3 points. WKF does not understand that if they are trying to get "KARATE" into the JAPAN GAMES, they should change some of the crazy terminology they have. Example: Japan should take a sport like bull fighting and change all the traditions and terminology and try and approach Mexico/Spain with adding it to the olympics if mexico or spain ever host the olympics.

just my opinion. at this point, alot of technical things are just habits and will be hard to correct. You could spend more time on the tempo(not rushing) of the kata and executing each individual movement with more "feeling" and "commitment". Technical corrections will only correct "ONE/PART of ONE" movement and a kata has thousands of corrections. If you improve the "commitment", tempo and feeling you will be improving on "every" technique not just "one" of thousands.

for me(my opinion) the 1960's the open karate tournaments were still in the raw stages. the mid 1970's was the golden age for open fighters. PS was it great when the urquidez family could field a team by themselves.

First of all Open tournaments in the 1970's was still hardcore with traditional and open styles competing in the same tournaments with true blood all over. but in the 1980's it became touch,slap and theatrics(similar to the sport karate olympic style now). 1980's open style and current "olympic" karate similarities: - front leg kicks, reverse hook kicks to head with LEAD LEG and with TOES as impact scoring. - Touch with strikes and TURN AROUND And raise your arm and look at the judges..lol -specialist, only kata or only kumite competitors. -jumping around and tapping your "gloves/hands" -points are basically unlimited to win. -weight divisions -etc.. etc.. and etc.. -etc....

stop over thinking. Just train with a open mind and relax. thinking and being tense are the two enemies of technique. everyone goes thru these stages of doubt. Even champions have doubt.

sad. all the theatrics in sport karate now days. reminds me of the open style tournaments in the 1980's.

i used to think like that when i was younger. just train,etc... but when you lose that physical aspects due to age you begin to realize that the true instructors are the one that can pass knowledge and continue the art. IT DOES HELP with credibility that the instructor was a great technician and kumite man when he was younger so you know that instructor is teaching thru execution and experience. just my non 2 cents.

work on flexibility first. never over extend your limitations. if your instructor does not understand(especially a beginner) that you are in your 40's and cannot kick 10"s over you head, you might want to change schools now. take it easy, enjoy the art.

Sensei: "NEVER KICK IN A STREET FIGHT" that will stick in my mind forever. If a person(instructors included ever got in to multiple street fights , they will tell you the same. If you are fighting a drunk or total goof, you can spice up the theatrics and throw some spinning wheel kicks to impress the people watching.

We did unlimited man kumite(until you could not get up) for dan initiations . It was discontinued in the 1990's because too many people got hurt and the liability. Huge crowds would show up for the initiations . it was a blood bath , but it seems that the "initiations" are the most fond memories people that trained have and still talk about till today.

Nice site here. Just discovered this site today. Probably post a lot and disappear . Keep up the good work and keep traditional Karate going strong!

I did not know what rank my instructor was, but he kicked everyones(including the schools best competitors) butt and had the best technique. that is all everyone needed to know.

ippon means 3 points . Japanese would be confused .