karate-ka

white yellow gold orange green purple brown probationary black (shodan-ho) black (shodan) For us when you have your shodan, you act as an assistant to the sensai, no official teaching... Rather annoying, the whole probationary thing. Sometimes it can take a year or two before you are allowed to test for your shodan. My dojo makes you work for it in every way shape and form.

Rick E .... about the protein powder. Whether you want to get really big, or really lean, or what have you... Taking whey protein is in general nothing but beneficial, I would suggest its use regularly in association with weight lifting

On what mikS said... Many forms of MA take a good while of practice before they can be used effectively, especially any showy techniques. You never mentioned how long you were practicing there, because it sounds like you are simply new and have no idea what the heck you are doing. My advice to you, learn the basics somewhere they TEACH you the basics. And if you were taught the basics there, then you should have been wise enogh to use them instead of an advanced technique. Double kicks are something I happen to favor in certain circumstances, but they are not something to be used regularly.

If you want to improve dodging speed effective, try this: Find someone who can throw (I used my friend who happens to be a baseball pitcher) Take a bunch of tennis balls and stand 5-7 yards from each other. Give the balls the thrower, and let er rip! You will not only have to block them (depending on where they throw to) but you will have to dodge certain ones in order for them to miss you. It is an excellent excercise for speed.

Junino? What form of karate are you taking exactly? (Ive never heard of that either)

You just described exactly what I was going to. Good call except when you break out, you said to step forward. I have found it is more effective after you have raised your left hand, to step across your left foot with your right, THEN turn trapping the arms. Its is quicker, making it far easier to turn, and you wrap the your arms around their elbows, forming a lock and possible break. then of course you have your free hand at close range to do whatever you want

Exactly! One of my favorite counters to a roundhouse (although you have to be able to take a bit of punishment for it to work) Is actually move in and take the kick close to the knee catching it in your hand/arms and simultaneously roundhousing THEM. Its very quick and powerful, the second they roundhouse they are exposing themselves to your attack

The main reason they would not want to do knockout is danger potential. Just imagine two highly trained BBs going at it full tilt trying to knock the other out... Can you say bloodshed and broken bones?

What I find to be even worse than holding a horse stance, is holding a 1/2 pushup ... after the end of an intense class. We go through the class then make two lines, one line in a half pushup, the other line does kata...we hold the pushup until the other is done with the kata! *shudder* its just nasty thinkin about it, especially when they forget the correct movements!

When you say jugsaw mats you are referring to the soft-ish foam ones right? Those things are nasty when it comes to burns!!! ouch!!

In many cases, a belt means almost nothing. Unfortunately, many dojos simply promote people to earn more money. And even more unfortunately, these mcdojos are everywhere. Even in the straight dojos, often times the blackbelt tests are far too easy. In my two dojos, the difference is extremely obvious. In the one dojo, where your cat stance is not low enough on one middle block in a kata, you are denied your BB even if the rest of your test is flawless. Then you have the 2nd dojo, where if you put the wrong move into a kata, but make it look GOOD, they will still give you your BB. For a BB test the 2nd dojo is stretching it reallly far, and as a result there are a good number of mediocre BBs. But everyone is going to be different, there are also a decent numbers of incredible BBs - it all depends on individual effort. I can easily say, however, that some BBs dont deserve them, and especially the ones that flaunt their shodans-ho's, and even many shodans. Oh, and take it easy on tournament fighters, they tend to be poor on average... As a white belt at my first tournament I took Grand Champion white through green in kumite. Admittedly I had a decent bit of MA experience before this lol, but its still not very impressive of them.

what traditions were you referring to? Traditional training has hit an all-time low since many of the MA teachers have become 'americanized' and are now teaching to suit people so they can best keep an income. Hence there is no longer the ultra conditioning very often, or much full contact sparring. (Im speaking in general) Traditions as in dojo etiquette and such, isnt quite so bad, although that has slacked off many places as well. There is no longer the strong spiritual aspect most of the time, and the respect between pupils has changed to more of a respect for the belt than respect for the person. Is that what you were looking for?

Am I the only one here that DOESNT feel anything from these energy drinks?? Ive tried things like Sobe, Amp, Red Bull, and Snapple, but havent recieved any kind of 'lift' or 'boost' in energy... I just drink them for the taste. Maybe it they run along the same lines as other caffeine-products with me... no effect. But that doesnt explain things like sobe.

Im about 11% body fat, 6'1 170 lbs all that good crap, I find that if you are at the point where you can obviously see a 6-pack (like myself) then you will be in similar condition throughout most of your body, and there will be a general promotion of muscle and lacking of fat. To test my current conditioning, I had two kickboxers, both about 20 lbs less than myself punch and kick me in the torso as hard as they could. It was very easy to take the puches and most of the kicks, they simply turned me a bit red, and their punches basically bounced off. That doesnt mean a solar plexus hit wouldnt take me down, but through all the conditioning and natural physique advantages, the high muscle % really has made a difference in how much punishment I can take in comparison to most people.

Here is an question for anyone who can answer... I am about 11% body fat, 16 male, 6'1 @ 170 lbs. My top abs are plenty visible, but for some reason my lower section has fell far behind in the progression. As far as I know, there actually are no "Lower" and "Upper" abs, its one string of muscle. Are there any particular excercise routines that could target that lower section? I have tried a thousand different excercises and I diet correctly, but all I have achieved is reduction of the fat. I just cant seem to bulk it correctly. Any suggestions?

Interestingly enough, we never learned to fall when I started trainiing under shudokan. One of the first things we learned were 5 different sweeping techniques. 3 were actually sweeps, and 2 were defense after you have been sweeped by them. Most were just ankle trips from kumite position as mentioned, but there are some more advanced ones I have learned since. Ive just had to wait a while. Sweeps can indeed be used in Kumite, if the opportunity is open, I will almost always take it, usually jsut enough to knock the opponent off balance and finish with a reverse punch or two. Full on sweeps arent the wisest choice in standard kumite unless both you are your opponent are aware of exactly what you are doing. If you were to do it wrong it would be a good way to get injuries going. In tournaments, generally you are allowed to sweep, the most common method is an ankle trip/reverse punch follow. If you are good enough, you get to the point where you go double leg, and follow immediately with a finishing punch from above. If you dont get that punch in quick though they wont count, and always ask whoever the authority is if it is OK to sweep.

Is anyone familiar with Shihan Akio Minakami? Out of any instructor I have seen to date, I must admit he takes the cake as best everything. He teaches here in Washington, but has Dojos around the world. (He is Shito-ryu style) Also, is anyone familiar with a man called Shihan Mack? He is one of my other top picks. Once again located in washington. (Shudokan style)

I wear it outside the dojo, but usually only before and/or after class in the travel period. Sometimes i have to walk places and sometimes I have to drive, and there is nothing wrong with wearing your Gi when you go there as long as you are wearing it of necessity and not to show off.

green in TKD *no ranking used* in Ninjutsu Green (testing up) in Shudokan And 3 years of wrestling! W00t!

exactly...Until I get some Tokaido Gi...I dont care much about it as long as it gets to the laundry

The self-training method is often misleading as to its accuracy... When I started Shudokan at a new dojo, I started at white belt of course- and there was another white belt with me. He had 'self-trained' himself in Goju-Ryu for around 3 years, thats the amount of time it took in this dojo to reach Shodan. I thought it was interesting that he would (and could) teach himself for that long, but I soon found out that he was more puff than punch. We did some full-contact sparring, and even though he knew what the basics were, he didnt know how to apply them, and I consistanly beat him successfully, without a single successful counter on his part. He was lucky if he got the blocks. As further evidence to the differences in self-training and Dojo training, I was promoted specially 3 ranks higher a month later, while he remained a white.

I could just as easily say a 10th dan in Shudokan could beat a 10th dan in Shito-Ryu...but the reasoning is missing!

Surprisingly, I have found a lot of female martial artists in my area, and many of them are quite interested in what I do Just today even, I was waiting for a family member and a female friend of mine (who I had no idea knew anything whatsoever about MAs) saw me doing a random knifehand block, and started talking with me about forms of Aikedo and karate out of nowhere!

I dont think disqualification would have been necessary there- its always possible to miss, get your kick thrown off, or have your opponent move in an unfortunate direction, but just because it was too low the 2nd time doesnt mean disqualification Although I must say, if he had to be carried off that would be grounds certainly for a loss

how do you figure that a Goju-Ryu practicioner would beat the Kyokushin...it could swing either way