aurik

I'd qualify that with "MOST" Okinawan and Japanese styles of karate. Uechi-Ryu does not practice either of those katas. If you're talking about Uechi-Ryu, the 3 kata that could be considered "kihon katas" would be Sanchin, Seisan, and sanseiryu, because those are the 3 original kata that Kanbun Uechi learned in China, and form the foundation of the style. All of the other kata were developed as "bridging kata" to help students learn the main 3.

I think that as long as the relationship is consensual on both sides and is handled well it can work. For example, my CI married a student last year. Of course, they had been dating for a number of years and I suspect that their relationship predated her joining as a student. I imagine things get a bit tricky when promotions are involved though, being her instructor of record. However, that is also tempered by the fact that all dan-level gradings at our school are evaluated by a board of certified instructors of the student's grade or higher. It also helps that she regularly (once or twice a year) trains with the head of our organization, so he can and does evaluate her performance then (keep in mind he has final say over any dan level grading). In the end, as long as the participants are both of age and consent, and they keep things discreet in class, I see no problem with it. However, I would also suggest that instructors be somewhat cautious about this for the same reason that dating a coworker could be tricky. If the relationship goes south, then it could cause friction in the dojo. Just my .02 worth.

I know so little about baseball these days that my fantasy picks would be an utter joke. I just catch the headlines from time to time but don't really go much deeper than that. If the Cardinals happen to make the playoffs I might follow them then (I was a pretty big Cards fan when I was a kid). I may go to a game or two from time to time, but I don't have enough interest to join a fantasy league. Sorry

The last few months have been pretty challenging for both Zach and me. I've been fighting issues with my back and a herniated disc. Zach has been having motivation issues and trying to balance school, Boy Scouts (which he just graduated into last month), Karate, and his other interests. Fortunately we both were able to get all of our ducks in a row, and get Zach caught back up on classes so he was able to test last Friday. This month's testing cycle was so large that they had to split the candidates into two groups and use both dojos (upstairs and downstairs). Zach was in the downstairs group, which was primarily white and yellow belts, along with himself and one candidate for sankyu. As the only advanced brown belt (aka nikyu/ikkyu), there were segments of the test he had to perform alone, such as hojo undo (randomly, in Japanese), Sanchin (including shime testing), sparring (he got to spar our CI), and the bunkai for his rank kata. Our CI had reached out to me wondering if he might want to wait a month when there would be other candidates for his rank testing, but Zach had put in all the effort to get ready for THIS test, and honestly I thought that being the only candidate up there would be a good preparation for when he tests for Shodan-sho -- in that test you are the only candidate performing at any one time. Since the test took place just after his Friday class (that I was helping teach), I was still in my gi and sitting on the side like a proud papa. He stumbled on one of the hojo undo techniques (the techniques were fine, but he had the vocabulary messed up on one of them). He looked REALLY strong in the kotekitae section and the sanchin testing -- I could tell by the redness on his forearms and the way he was reacting that our CI was not being overly gentle with him. And he handled it like a champ. At the end of the test they announced all of the promotions for the candidates, and the very final promotion they announced was Zach getting ikkyu! I was so proud of him, and I was able to put the tip on his belt again. And for the obligatory pictures: And here is Zach doing his Sanchin testing.

I'd say you're pretty close. We don't perform bunkai for Sanchin -- the understanding of Sanchin is evaluated very differently. From time to time the instructor will test the student's understanding of Sanchin by trying to unbalance the student. This usually starts with looking at the student and offering critique on their stance and their form. At higher ranks, an instructor may push or pull on the student to try to unbalance them. At brown belt ranks and above, the instructor will strike the student in different locations to evaluate how well they are resisting change and using tension to protect themselves. In the advanced/black belt classes, we usually perform sanchin individually or in pairs with an instructor watching and evaluating.

I think of the relationship between Sanchin and (other) kata similar to the relationship between your kihons and yakisoku kimite or sparring. Sanchin teaches us the fundamentals and forces us to work on those fundamentals. In our Sanchin, we practice the shallow, circular breathing you'd want to use in an actual sparring session or fight, which keeps you from getting the wind knocked out of you. By practicing our strikes, stepping, posture, and balance deliberately in Sanchin, those motions become second nature when we practice other kata, kumite drills, or sparring. In Uechi-Ryu, all of our stances, kimae, and even sparring postures are derived from Sanchin. For example, our neko-dachi is formed by starting in Sanchin, bending the rear foot and lifting the front (maintaining the "tilt"). When we spar, we are taught to keep the hands in a position that roughly approximates Sanchin. This is why we practice Sanchin separate from our other kata.

When I see statements like this, I almost immediately take issue with it. There are a few points I have problems with here. First off, is the use of the term "bodybuilding." Bodybuilding became a term to describe anyone that chose to pursue the increase of strength through lifting weights; it became a catchall term for many who didn't understand the concept of what they were describing. Secondly, this feeds into the idea that being strong is detrimental to the Martial Artists in general, and Karatekas specifically. I think it is irresponsible and dangerous advise to give anyone to avoid seeking out strength training as a way for people to improve their interaction with the physical world...because it is a physical world. Based on what I've seen as an instructor and martial artist in general, there is no indication that being strong is detrimental to martial arts performance; in fact, like any other physical activity, being strong is beneficial. A very strong man can learn to perform with the same mechanical efficiency as a weak man. The third issue I have is with the idea that there is no historical information that indicates that samurai lifted any kinds of weights. So what? I'll bet they didn't drive cars either....because they weren't there. This statement is not an indication that strength training would not have been beneficial to the samurai. I have a number of (different) issues with this as well. First of all, Sanchin was not introduced to Japan until well after the Meiji Restoration (aka the end of the samurai class). Kanbun Uechi first opened a dojo in Wakayama province in 1924, and shortly thereafter Gichi Funakoshi opened the dojo that would be known as Shotokan in 1930. Comparing the studies of Sanchin to the Samurai has no bearing here. Second of all, traditional Okinawan masters DID use weight training to get stronger. They frequently used Nigiri Game (clay jars which could be filled with sand or water) to increase forearm, grip, and upper body strength in Sanchin. Likewise they used chi ishi (stone mallets) to provide weight training as well. Look at some of the master instructors like Shinyu Gushi that would train sanchin with clay jars. Lastly, strength training and bodybuilding do not necessarily reduce flexibility or speed. Intelligent strength training can in fact enhance both of those. Selecting the right weight for the right number of reps, and focusing on an explosive eccentric motion can certainly help develop speed and power. The reason that you hear about bodybuilders losing flexibility is because too many will focus on, say, the chest, (front) shoulders, and biceps and ignore the lats, rear shoulders, and triceps. When I was powerlifting, I followed the mantra of "every push should have an equal and matching pull". If I did X sets of heavy bench presses, I'd do X sets of heavy rows to keep the muscle groups balanced. Likewise, I was sure to warmup before every session and stretch as a part of my cooldown afterwards.

Well, it's been awhile since I posted in here, but the updates are pretty good. I decided to get a steroid injection at L2/L3 and L3/L4 -- this provided quite a bit of immediate relief, and I have been doing physical therapy twice a week since the injection. The first day of physical therapy I could barely bend over at the waist, and my waist was very limited in the movements I could do. Each session I've been trying to push myself a little further than the previous time. If she had me do a set of an exercise with 30 pounds, I'll ask her to bump it up to 35. She has had me working mainly core strength and mobility. Some of the exercises have gone really well, some of them I tried once and just said "nuh-uh". Not because I didn't like them, but because my back/leg told me it was a PATENTLY horrible idea. And she'd see the look on my face and say, "Yeah, let's not do that one". But the good news is that at my last evaluation 2 weeks ago, I've regained almost full range of motion on the back, and the leg, while still a bit weak, is getting better week by week. I've improved enough that I decided to try out the saturday all-ages class last week. I knew that I'd need to take things easy (and I did), but the important thing was that I was able to get through the entire class and other than being tired (from not trainign much for 2 months), I felt pretty good afterwards. So this week I'll be trying more than just the one class. I'll play things by ear of course, but I definitely want to get back into the swing of things. Other good news -- Zach got the news that this coming Friday he will be testing for ikkyu. I'm really excited for him. He did last Thursday/Friday/Saturday classes and has been putting forth the effort he needs to, so I'm hoping he'll pass with flying colors.

This is the interpretation that my CI (and I to a degree) ascribe to. As students rise through the colored belt ranks, they are given "training wheels" for performing techniques. For example, at a white belt level, they are expected to perform techniques by rote memory, mechanically, getting the fundamental movements down. As students rise through the yellow and green belt ranks, they are expected to perform the same set of techniques (and new techniques) with more speed, power, and fluidity. By the time students are at the brown belt ranks, they are expected to be performing genuine attacks at their opponents, so their partner can properly practice their defenses. However, even at nikyu and ikkyu ranks, students are expected to use "training wheels" in many cases. Blocks are still expected to be one-handed, and there are a number of concepts, such as "flow" and energy transfer they aren't taught. Once our students reach shodan, they get a whole bunch of new concepts dropped on their plate. We get introduced to the concept of maintaining energy through a kata as we perform it, and how we can choose to do a kata focused on speed/pwoer, or focused on flow, or somewhere in between. We are also now expected to use both hands when blocking in hojo undo and katas -- one hand guides the attack in, and the other hand performs the circle block and grab. From my perspective, I haven't really experienced any of the politicking when different dan grades are discussed/compared. I have never felt the need to give someone more or less respect simply because their grade is higher than mine. There are a number of students far more experienced than I am and I will frequently ask them for advice or suggestions if I'm struggling. Likewise, I'm free in my suggestions when I see other students struggling, even if they may be of a higher or same grade as I am. Also I guess it probably helps that in our school we don't have any adorrments on our belts to (directly) indicate dan gradings. We are encouraged (but not required) to have our belts embroidered with our name and/or style. However, the only rank-dependent adornments are for shogo titles (pne stripe for renshi, two for kyoshi, three for hanshi). So unless you know the individual, you don't immediately know what grade they are. So, if you interpret the black belt as just another step on the journey, I think there is still a lot of value in gradings beyond shodan, presuming they are used and not abused for political or other reasons.

I was living in Atlanta when Mario had his comeback (early 2000's). I made a point of going to a Thrashers/Pens game to see Mario at the end of his career. The thing I remember most about that particular game was that there was a period of time when the Pens' penalty box was full (4 guys, maybe), and on the jumbotron they put up a photo of them captioned with "More penguins than at the north pole". It was pretty danged funny. Fun game to watch though. Mario was a LOT of fun to watch. Now of course the players I find most fun to watch include Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid. There are just some times they will embarrass 2, 3, or 4 opposing players and just single-handedly defeat the entire other team. It's amazing to watch.

Congratulations, Fractured. If the testing pushed you to your limit, it was a good testing, indeed! Going forward I hope you can now push past your (old) limits and keep improving. Well-done.

I'm sure you've trained hard and well for this test. Go out there, do your best and let the results speak for themselves. Good luck!

Welcome to the Forums, Fractured!

At our dojo, when (adult) students spar, we generally only wear handpads and mouth guards. We are expected to practice good control and not injure our opponent. Our sparring rules are set up with those things in mind. For example, the head is not considered a valid target unless your partner is a brown belt or higher. Leg strikes/sweeps aren't permitted unless your opponent is over 18, and if you ever take your opponent down to the ground, you're expected to help them control their fall. We generally don't do "point sparring", except if we are actively preparing for a specific tournament. We more do a 'freestyle' sparring where you are expected to combine sequences of attacks and defenses. The goal isn't to hurt or injure your partner, but to practice your techniques in a more fluid environment. I, for one, wear MMA style gloves, because my usual technique is to let the opponent strike, then grab his/her weapon on the way back out and use that against him. For younger students, they are expected to also wear headgear and foot protectors. Some also wear shin pads as well, however I find shin pads to be more of a distraction, since we should have already conditioned our shins to a certain degree. The key though is we are expected to spar in such a way as to respect our partner. One thing our CI frequently says is "you're more likely to get hurt sparring against a white belt than a black belt". There have been a handful of incidents over the years where one student injured another, but those have been pretty rare (and usually ended up happening on belt tests when emotions are running a bit hotter).

I sent you a PM with some contact information. It may be out of date, but it is at least worth looking into. Welcome to the forum, and good luck on your search!

There is a West Ottawa Uechi Ryu dojo. It will be considerably different from the Chito Ryu you are familiar with, but we do have very effective self defense techniques. Of course some of the techniques do require quite a bit of training and conditioning to do well…

So I have noticed that we have threads on baseball and football, but we don't have one yet on what is (in my humble opinion) the most exciting sport to watch: ice hockey. Unlike football or baseball, hockey's action is (mostly) non-stop. In baseball and football, you have a single play that lasts a few seconds, followed by the teams planning for the next play. In hockey, the play continues unless a goal is scored, the puck goes out of play, the goalie "freezes" the puck, or an infraction of some type occurs. I have seen games where play continued for 5+ minutes non-stop. Oh... and fighting is legal, provided certain conventions are followed. Some say that fighting needs to be removed completely from the game, but it does have the desired effect of dissuading opposing players from dirty play. Right now is an exciting time in the NHL -- the trade deadline is tomorrow, and teams with players who are going to be free agents after this season need to decide whether they are going to be buyers -- do they plan on making a serious run at the Stanley Cup this year? If so they will look to fill any holes in their lineup with pending UFA's (unrestricted free agents) in exchange for prospects or draft picks. Other teams that know they aren't going to make the playoffs will tend to be sellers -- trading away their unrestricted free agents hoping to get assets back to help them retool for next year. Of course then there are teams that aren't sure what to do, and will stand pat. Sadly, my team, the St Louis Blues haven't done nearly as well as their roster suggests they should. They traded away all of their (marketable) pending free agents, but at least they did this earlier than most and were able to get some decent return on those trades. However, this also means that the team is now trying to re-establish its identity and has lost the last 6 games. It's sad I know. Of course, since I moved to Colorado, I can appreciate the Avs. They are actually doing really well right now, and just added a couple of new UFA's so hopefully that will help out somewhat. Until last night, they had won 6 games in a row... and last night's game was a really good one, even if they lost. So... as I said, the second most exciting time of the NHL season. Of course, the most exciting time is the playoffs, which are just around the corner!

I don't know of any dojos near Pittsburgh (and I've looked -- my wife's family is near there). The only information I have been able to find (so far) is on Bill Mattson's Uechi-Ryu dojo list: There is one listed in Greensburg PA. I don't know if he is still actively teaching, since Mattson Sensei doesn't update his site very often. I do know that Mattson Sensei (like many instructors since the pandemic) offers an online program, I cannot speak to its effectiveness, but Mattson Sensei was one of the first Americans to earn a shodan in Uechi-Ryu and one of a handful of Americans to hold a 10th degree. So that may be a way to go. One of the things I like about Uechi Ryu's katas is their consistency, but that also makes things more difficult at times. As you learn new katas, you'll see the same sequences in different katas. For example, we have a sequence that consists of circle block-hammer fist-boshiken tsuki-nukite. You see that sequence in slightly different expressions in at least 4 katas (I haven't learned the last 2 yet). It sometimes makes things more difficult because you'll sometimes find yourself starting one kata, and finishing another. This is likely due to the origins of Uechi-Ryu. When Kanbun Uechi studief pangai-noon in China, he only learned 3 kata - sanchin, seisan, and sanseiryu. After he died, his senior instructors created the additional 5 kata to flesh out the system, and break the 3 main kata into more manageable chunks. Also all of the hojo undo we do (our version of kihon) generally come straight from our kata, and you practice those every day.

I've been training Uechi Ryu for just under 4.5 years. The reason I started training had less to do with the style and more to do with the instructor. When we moved to Colorado, I started looking for a place to enroll my son (and eventually myself). When I started looking at instructors I did some research on them -- what stood out to me was the fact that my CI is still very much a student, even as a 5th degree master instructor (at the time). He still travels to Michigan to train with his instructor a couple times a year, and he travels to Okinawa regularly to train with several 10th degree instructors there. While there may be a number of different governing bodies in Uechi-Ryu, the heads of the organizations all know each other to one degree or another. For example, when my instructor travels to Okinawa and a senior instructor asks "What organization is that?" All he has to say is "It's Master Thompson's organization". Each organization teaches the same hojo undo and the same kata. Some of the kata may be slightly different, but it's one of those signature things where "If you do it this way, I can tell you learned it Master so-and-so's organization". Some of the two-person drills are different, but that's not a bad thing. In Uechi-Ryu, there is one core tenet that crosses all organizations, "All is in Sanchin". And as I learn more, I can see that is definitely the case. One reason that Uechi-Ryu may not be as popular is its conditioning. I can certainly see that. When I was a white belt, I attended a seminar given by the head of our organization. I learned some new conditioning techniques, and my partner for those was my instructor's younger brother. I was still very inexperienced and he was used to training with other advanced students. The result was that I had bruises on my shins that took months to heal. However the goal of conditioning is to start slowly and learn what you can tolerate and go just to that point. When I work with a new student I tell them "Figure out how much you can do so that you're mostly recovered in a day or two". Bruises slow down the process. A good instructor and experienced partner will help ease student into things. Another possible reason for the lack of popularity is the limited number of kata. However I see that as a strength. In several styles, by the time you reach shodan, you will have learned as many as 10 different kata (one for each kyu grade). In Uechi-Ryu, you only learn 5 kata (of the 8 total in the system). Our kata aren't as flashy and showy as some other styles, so they may not do as well in tournaments. So that may be a detractor. For me I find it a strength though - you work each kata long enough to get pretty good at it, and the number of kata is small enough that you can run through the entire set at the end of a 1.5 hour class. If you are interested in trying out Uechi-Ryu, I am familiar with a number of the organizations in the USA and can try to steer you in the right direction. Or I can try to answer any other questions you might have. Feel free to drop me a PM.

Funny thing is... there is a shop that I have taken weaponsmithing classes at, and one of the classes they teach is the Rondel Dagger. I've been wanting to take that class, but never had the time (it's always been offered during the week). Maybe someday!

There are indeed colleges and universities that provide a degree in Martial Arts. However, I am not sure what additional credibility that will give you that an instructor's license from a recognized style would not. What I would look for would be a university degree that will provide you with capabilities and knowledge that your instructor's license won't. I would imagine kinesiology would be a very good choice. Courses in business would also be a good choice if you want to run your school as a business. The idea of a university education (at least at the undergraduate level) is to provide you with both breadth and depth. Your martial arts teaching license will provide you with plenty of depth in your style(s) of choice. Use the university education to broaden your knowledge and complement it.

Congratulations Fat Cobra! Thank you for all of your contributions.

I'm glad you were able to have fun and realize that you don't HAVE to do both events if you don't want to. I personally hate points fighting too -- I'm not quick enough either. I tend to be more reactive when I spar. I'm the guy who lets a guy get the first strike in, and then I'll grab the arm/leg on the way out and pummel the heck out of them. Very effective in free-form sparring, but not so effective in points sparring. I love kicks to the thigh and calf, leg sweeps, and other grappling moves. As a bigger guy, I'm all about closing the distance and using my weight against the opponent. Whenever I sign my son up for a tournament, I tell him 2 things: "Have fun and do your best". I don't care if he wins or loses, but I just want him to go out there and show me the best he can do. I've not done a tournament in a long time, but that's my philosophy as well. I don't care about winning. I just want to go out there and show the best I can do. It sounds like that's what you and your daughter both did, and I applaud both of you for it.

So there hasn't been any training going on for the past 2.5 weeks. A couple weeks ago I started having shooting pain and weakness in my left thigh. Walking, standing, and sitting became very painful. I have been seeing a chiropractor for the last 2 years due to back pains, but at this point I decided that this was way beyond what I would trust to just a chiropractor and sought out an appointment with a spine specialist / neurologist. He did an evaluation and determined the weakness is limited to the left quadriceps - the hamstrings and right quad seem to be okay (at least for now). I had an MRI last night and they found a herniated disc in my lumbar spine. I have a followup with the neurologist on Monday morning so we'll see what he says. I actually had a similar problem 11 years ago that required spinal surgery, so this is not a new issue. I hope it doesn't require surgery, but if that's what is required to get me back to normal again, I'll take it.

When one teaches, two learn. I agree 110%. When I teach something, whether that is in martial arts or teaching something to my son's Cub Scout pack, or when I was a Teaching Assistant in grad school -- it made me learn the material that much better so I could communicate it effectively to another person. Also, it makes you learn to present the material in different ways, since everyone learns differently. Presenting material in one way to student A may not work for student B. When you have different ways to present material, you can be a more effective teacher.