Valn

When I look at karate from a holistic perspective, I see that there are more styles than required and things are getting ever more complex. For example, Joe learns wado ryu and uechi ryu and bang you have yet another style of karate. I mean things are only get more complicated as time passes by.

30% or less like martial arts and 70% don't care or hate it. The fact is that if you look around people are more interested in sports than martial arts. How many people watch judo, karate do or taekwon do for the olympics compare to other sports? Participating in martial arts is hard it's not like taking your dog for a walk or something.

When it comes to street fight the only thing that matters is to do kicks that works.

I don't know how good JKD is but I suggest you look at your instructor and especially the advance students and look at their skills. If the advance students are good, chances are that the instructor is qualified and knows how to teach. Being great at something is one thing, but knowing how to teach is whole different ball game. good luck.

Another thing that I would like to add. In one year that I have been at the dojo only 7 new people with 17+ years of age have joined, and now there are only two of them remaining. The dojo has especially a lot of little kidds between 4 and 9 which means that my sensei really makes his money on the little kidds. In my opinion, the kidds class looks more like a kindergarden than a karate class. Anyway, is this the way most karate school operate? A few adults training once in a while and lots of kidds.

I'm going to describe what we do in general, and I would appreciate if other karate students could evaluate the quality of my dojo. *The style is goju ryu *List of belts, white, yellow, orange, blue, green, purple, brown, brown 2degree, red, and black. *the class is 45 mins long. *the class is all in English, no japanese terms. *The owner of the dojo is a 7th degree black belt but in reality 9 times out of 10 it is a 3rd degree black belt who teaches the class. *stretching last 3-5 minutes. *I get the impression sometimes that I am doing aerobic karate instead of practicing my techniques. *For the most part, the class constitute of practicing bunkai which are application of the kata. For instance, take Heian shodan and practice the downblock followed by a punch. *We practice also kicks such as crescent, wheel kicks, hook, front, roundhouse, tornado, turning crescent. Punching are also practiced of course. *The kata are always practiced. For instance we might do each kata 2-3 times. *After the movie "kiss of the dragon" it has become almost mandatory to bring Swahili sticks to practice. (Swahili sticks=two bamboo type sticks, it has his origin in the Philippines). *People in the dojo may have different gi, for instance black and red, all black and white gi. *When I look at brown belt, the quality of their moves don't look all that great. I mean they aren't very clean and smooth. *Sometimes the instructor talk too much and the class is slow to start. The discussion is usually not karate. *Sparring is availlable 2 times a week, and you must be a yellow belt and buy the equipment to participate. ($150). *The sparring doesn't look like karate at all. It looks sloppy in my opinion and the techniques reminds of little kidds throwing punches and kicks but with the karate precision and style. *Because of the fact that the back of an opponent doesn't count for points, the fighting stance looks really messed up and I would never ever use that in a street fight. In fact, I'm afraid of getting in a bad habit. However, my instructor says its very good for practice. *When I started sparring I had to spar with black and brown belt which is anything but fun. In fact, sparring with 7 degree black belt is humiliating and you get hurt, but you can't complain or else the instructor will say you're a wimp. *When I spar I already got hit in the jaw, temple, and teeth even though the rules says no contact at all in the face. It's strange but even as a yellow belt I was able to hit right on the helmet and never the face, while my instructor 7 degree black belt always end up getting me on the temple or near my eyes. *When a referee says point, my instructor continue on attacking even if you have your guard down. His excuse is that "he can't help it, because he likes to fight and its too hard to stop". In conclusion, my instructor seem to know their stuff. You know work the proper angle and they know quite a few things. However, I still wonder because I had karate before, and I have seen shotokan karate in action and it looked far more proffessional and serious. Thanks for reading and I would appreciate some feedbacks.

I started karate with the Kyokushin style which is based on shotokan and goju ryu and my sensei was Zbigniew Pikula from 8-27-1999 to 12-07-1999. There was no belt test which I found unfortunate. Afterwards, I moved to a different city and I couldn't find any kyokushin dojo so I ended up in goju ryu. I'm started practicing goju ryu 9-02-2000 under sensei David Overstreet 7th dan, and I'm still in it. I'm currently a blue belt or 6 kyu. Now, I have started shotokan on 8-27-2001 under Eric Holden a 2 degree black belt. All the blocks are done in a circular motion in goju ryu, but I also know how to the standard blocks because I have learned them in Kyokushin. However, I do have a problem. In my goju dojo the japanese terms were not used unlike the shotokan dojo. In goju we didn't do the 5 steps sparring drills. I know they are not complicated but the fact is that we didn't do any of those drills. This is my situation as it is. I do not plan on continuing goju for my personal reasons. Now, when I look at things it seems that I have been wasting time since I would have much higher in ranks if I had been in only one style of karate. Anyway, thanks for listening.

This is a great website. Have fun man.

I think wado ryu is a style I would have liked to try because of its mix with jiu-jitsu and that it was created by one of Funakoshi best student. Well, it's too bad there aren't clubs close to me.

Under a wing chun reasoning it makes sense that a front kick is better than a roundhouse. Wing chun says the most efficient technique is a straight line because it will reach the target quicker. Note, there are no roundhouse kicks in wing chun for that matter. However, A very fast roundhouse kick below the belt is something that enjoy to do.

It's all good as long as you win

I don't want to be associated with animals, but unfortunately my sensei keeps on telling that once I get my act together I would be a bear. Now, I don't understand why a bear, since I'm not fat or tall. I'm 5'8 and 155 pounds. I lift weight and exercise. I have to say that I don't see the similarity... oh well

It's strange but before I came to this martial arts forum, I had never heard of the san shou style. I'm also having the impression that muay thai school are also kind of hard to find. Perhaps the training is harder than what most people can handle...

A millionaire Martial Arts master had a party every year for his new Black Belts. Each year he would gather the new Black Belts around his huge swimming pool and issue a challenge to them: "This pool is filled with man-eating sharks. Anyone brave enough to jump in and swim all the way across can have one of three things: My lovely daughter in marrage, half of my liquid cash or all of my oil wells." Just then he heard a loud splash and turned to see a young Black Belt swimming frantically across the pool, climbing out the other side with his clothing in shreds. Amazing," the master exclaimed, "You're the first one to ever try it. Do you want my daughter's hand in marriage?" "NO" replied the student "Half of my liquid cash?" "NO" he replied. "Ahh, then all my oil wells." "NO" replied the student. "Then what DO you want?" the master asked. The young Black Belt replied "I WANT TO KNOW WHO THE HELL PUSHED ME IN THE POOL!" PS> I can't remember where I found this joke but I thought it was funny enough to post it here.

I've been exposed to quite a few instructor and I can tell you that they don't care about the students knowledge. Instructors asume the role of the "all knowing person" and look a the student as a total inexperience person. Anyway, this is the way it's been so far.

I think it really comes down to what you want by "different". There are so many styles out there...

In addition, if you plan on trying wing chun keep in mind that it is 75% hand techniques and 25 legs. Also, kicks are almost always use with the combinations of hand techniques. Here is a nice little quote: for the full story go tohttp://martialarts.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wingchun.org [ This Message was edited by: Valn on 2001-08-28 20:07 ]

In addition to my martial arts training I lift weight three times a week, run three times a week. By the way, I didn't come to martial arts to be fit because I was fit before I went to it. I came to martial arts to make use of my mucles and to improve my fighting skills.

In order to do that, I believe you have to have a very good understanding of martial arts and very few people have what it takes. Wing chun was Bruce Lee first martial art, but he only completed half of the training since the grand master stopped teaching him. However, Bruce Lee continued to train hard and he came up with JKD. By the way, if you read the books written by Bruce Lee you will notice that the "center line" concept and most of what he is telling you about is coming straight from wing chun. Also, if you watch Bruce Lee's movies, you will notice that he use wing chun rarely An example of wing chun that comes to mind is Ohara VS Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon. When Bruce does a vertical straight punch and when they play chi sao (sticky hands). Otherwise, Bruce's movies seems to reflect JKD since he is hook kicks, wheel kicks which are not part of the wing chun system. Only three kicks in wing chun. (groin, knee, ankle). [ This Message was edited by: Valn on 2001-08-28 14:09 ]

To Iron Arahat, What you pointed out is extremely true about JKD. Two different school could be teaching the same art but what you practice inside can be totally different. Moreover, I have also heard a conflict within JKD practionner. *Some want to fight like Bruce, so they are in fact creating a style. Remember, JKD wasn't suppose to be a style according to Bruce Lee. *On the other hand, you have those who will use what ever technique they find useful. I think Bruce Lee was on something very good but it wasn't completed.

Yeah, faking an attack can be extremely useful. I totally agree with you.

In a street fight situation, it seems to make more sense that any kicks will be bellow the belt. As a result, I don't really see the importance of having to train high kicks. In addition, I would like to know you guys opinion about the kicks which should be used in a street fight and the one you must avoid at all cost. Do: Stump, roundhouse to the knee.... Don't: Wheel kicks, crescent kicks....

Thaiboxerken, Then, you're saying that it might be wiser to continue my training in karate and wing chun. I know one thing is for sure now. I won't ever be able to do karate the same way as before. The little trainning that I have complete as already changed the way I spar in karate. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I really appreciated.

To Taiboxerken, The advantage of wing chun is that it only takes about 5 years to master. In addition, the whole idea about wing chun is to save your life in a street fight. The art of wing chun also seems far more efficient than karate since in wing chun you block and strike simultaneously, and it trains you in improving your reflexes. Anyway, since you seem to have practiced wing chun, I would really appreciate to hear more from you. I'm considering quiting karate in december and concentrate on wing chun. Thanks.

Welcome Gold Dragon.