shortyafter

Yeah I heard him say that somewhere I think. I'm 26 and I have never moved like that and never will. But I think that'd be like asking Mas Oyama to move like Hotton or vice versa... I'm far, far off from being either of these two (lol) but the point is that I have to work with my own body/style to find what works for me. I think Hotton's just got a natural gift to be able to move like that. But I still think we can learn a great deal from him. Even if my snappiness and fluidity never quite reach his level it's certainly something to strive for.

Yes I've seen him. Hard not to believe he's legit just based off the way he moves. At least that's my impression. Every time he moves or does a technique you literally hear a loud "snap"... crazy speed and power, and great use of the whole body. I also like that he focuses in on the spiritual aspects of karate. Something he said was that, Funakoshi at age 80 is still the master in spite of inevitably having poorer technique, and that's because it's what's on the inside that counts. I really like the guy.

Last night my instructor called to an attention an error in the way some of us move, me included. It has to do with the heel. When we move, we shouldn't rise up on our toes, but rather keep our heel planted through out the motion. And pivot into place at the last second, I believe. It feels a bit awkward to me still and I'm not sure if I'm overdoing it or doing something wrong. Or maybe I just need to get used to it. So I don't know. Not much to say. Just going to throw this out here and see what you all have to say about it. (I am referring to kata/kihon, not necessarily kumite although I'm sure the principle is similar). Thanks.

We drilled this a lot at my old dojo, we called it "cut to the corner defense". Apart from tall guys, it also works against any guy who is scary and you don't want to face straight up. I like it.

Lol! That's what I told my instructor. "No competition? Well, that changes absolutely nothing! The training goes on." Yep, gotta love the MA.

So no competition for me after all. My instructor just informed me that there's no adults at all for this tournament. Last year there were a few black belts and brown belts, but this year literally none. I guess because I'm from a small area and most active karate students are kids/teens. I was looking forward to it, but I'm not totally disappointed. I will still go to help my instructor out and coach the kids a little bit. On another note, there's alcoholism in my family and I just got some bad news about my brother this morning. Everything is OK, for now, but it's certainly disheartening any time we get this sort of news (although it doesn't really surprise me anymore). I myself have made it out of that world and I'm coming up on 5 years now. I started doing karate in part because a good friend recommended that I do martial arts as part of getting my life back together. So what karate means to me is about fighting. Not fighting people, necessarily, but rather fighting against the challenges of life. Life ain't easy, and in the past I always had a tendency to give up and self-destruct. With karate I've learned the opposite way - persistence, patience, perseverance. A little bit of grit. Humility and gratitude. Now I don't give up anymore. I fall on my butt sometimes, you bet I do. But nowadays I always get up. And I don't plan on changing that any time soon. So I don't get to compete. But hey, that's not really important to me. I'm upset about my brother, obviously, but it does feel good to look in the mirror and say - "you're a fighter, shorty"... as far as I'm concerned, I've already won. Thanks folks for being here.

Just wanted to highlight that quote. Good stuff. Our senpais should challenge us but they shouldn't make us feel stupid or dumb or inferior. At least that's not what I'm in this thing for.

Thank you very much! The only backstory is that I am a foreigner. I will think about another dojo. I am a foreigner, too, and at my current dojo people treat me with care and respect. I feel at home here. Funnily enough, at my dojo back home the feeling was the opposite. So don't worry about these guys... it has nothing to do with you being a foreigner, and everything to do with them being jerks. Talking to your chief instructor as sensei8 mentioned is an option. However, if you get a bad vibe all around and don't really have much attachment to these guys, I'd just get out while you're ahead. That's my 2 cents. Take care and welcome to the forum.

OK, unless there's some backstory I'm missing here, this one seems to be real simple: find a new dojo. Karate is challenging but it is never abusive or humiliating.

Shizentai, thanks for the insightful and well thought out post. Good stuff there. Part of me wishes I had your flexibility problem! But you'd probably advise me against it. Which just goes to show that the grass is indeed greener on the other side. So I'll take what I can learn from the rest but at the end of the day I'm going to continue focusing on my challenges and my karate. Thanks!

So there will be kumite for me after all. This is Shotokan point sparring. I don't have any experience with this really... my school is not a sport school and we don't train for competition, except at a time like this when we actually have one coming up. The only experience I have sparring is full contact from my Kyokushin days. I had one fight. It was against a white belt, mind you, but I myself was only a 9th kyu at the time. 30 second bout. I really did a number on the guy. Not to toot my own horn or anything. It's just that I was going through a really rough patch in my life, and I was sort of scared to fight, but I said to myself - "this is your first fight, but it isn't really your first fight. You've been fighting hard your whole life, and especially these last 2 weeks. You've got nothing to worry about." So I went in there with this super calm attitude. Not resigned or lazy or anything. The opposite actually. But calm. And it was amazing. Now I know that that's the kind of head/heartspace I need to be in when I do karate, and when I fight. My teacher says there will be guys who are dedicated sport karateka at this event. Gonna be hopping around a lot and that kind of madness. He told us to stand firm and not play their game. Also recommended we pretty much stick with the gyaku-tsuki. I can jive with that. Wasn't there some famous karateka who won a lot of competitions with just that technique? Lol. Anyway. I know I'm a novice at this particular thing, but I feel I have some good karate-sense that will help me out here. I'm going to give it my best. Maybe I'll get completely wrecked, who knows. But as JR said, it's not about going beyond the competition... it's about going beyond myself. That much I can do. And I'm going to fight for it. Thanks folks.

Hi JR, that's a cool story and great advice. I will continue to focus on what I can control - myself. Thanks.

There's a tournament on June 16 this year, it's an event that happens around here yearly. This will be my 3rd year with my current teacher, but in the past I've only helped him out with organizing the kids - I haven't ever participated. I asked him if it would be possible to compete this year and he said he thinks so. In fact he is pretty sure. Unfortunately where I live there's not a lot of adults doing karate... the ones that are are already brown belt or higher. So then there's little old me with my green belt. He said he will sign me up for the 16+ white - blue division. I'm not sure if that means mostly 16 and 17 year olds, if that means nobody, or what. But it means I get to compete! I'm referring to kata but come to think of it I will mention kumite to him next class. Although I think it's probably unlikely. I have never competed, so this is exciting for me. Honestly I don't understand people who are all about winning and stuff... I really don't care. This for me is just a new experience, and a good way to put my karate to the test under pressure. I'm not sure what changed between this year and last... maybe because last year I was an orange belt, maybe because my teacher is happier with my karate, maybe because he just doesn't want me to be left out. I don't know. It comes at a good time. After class I ran through my Heian Shodan quickly (this is the kata I will be doing, at best maybe a Nidan or Sandan). I felt really good about it. There's a lot of things I've been working on and that have been coming together lately... namely using my feet correctly and getting my force from there. It just feels, I don't know, strong and correct. The worst looking part is the last 4 movements, the kokutsu dachi with shuto. Obviously because I'm more used to zenkutsu dachi. But I will take a look at that in the next 2 weeks. And hey, I've even been feeling better about my yoko-geri (would only need that for the Nidan really). It's funny how this stuff goes. There's been moments in karate (and life, really) where suddenly time stopped and my karate (or whatever I was doing) just flowed beautifully, powerfully and effortlessly. Will I be in that head space when I step into the ring? I don't know, I don't have any illusions about it. It seems like it's something that just happens to me when I don't expect it. But here's the thing... I know that, when I keep fighting for it, when I keep persevering, it always comes at some point or another. Maybe not exactly when I wanted it. But it always comes at the right time. Not when I wanted it, but when I needed it. It's never really come so that I could look good in front of the masses... it's always come so that I could learn something about myself, and become more graceful, more peaceful. So I'm going to keep fighting for it, and I'm going to keep fighting for me and for what I believe in. Let's see what happens. No matter the result, this will be positive for me. Feeling grateful. Thanks folks.

Congratulations!

Sensei8 - Yes, that is what I try to remember. I don't plan on giving up, so, I must say that time is on my side. Thank you for the reminder and encouragement!

Today we did a bit of training for kumite. I guess it's not the first time but I had a mini-"aha" moment where I really got into my body and out of my head. It wasn't just like, "make these look like real techniques". I mean, I've said that to myself a million times. But tonight something just clicked, I stopped saying it to myself and stopped trying to make them real, and just made them real. Something about them being unique to my body, too. Like, I wasn't just trying to imitate the instructor. I was more trying to imitate the principles I've learned, and the karate just kind of happened. Still not sure about that yoko-geri but it will come. If everything was a breeze I think my karate training would lose something of great value. Let's see what happens...

Hey all. I have read and considered all of your responses, as well as watched some of the video resources you have provided. Everyone has a slightly different angle but it appears that the consensus (or at least the one I'm taking from this) is that slow and steady wins the race. As for achieving those kicks, it seems like technique seems to be most important thing. I am not the most flexible cat but I am also not one of these tin-man type guys, lol. I think I am doing OK in that department. And with patience and perseverance I only see improvement in my future. Thank you.

I'm a beginner but this seems to fit with my intuition. When I try this brutal stretching method I can actually feel my body tense up. It's like I'm working against myself. Which really makes no sense. Thank you for chiming in. I will continue to stretch frequently and gently. As well as continue to work on my technique. And let's see what the rest have to say.

My instructor says there's a difference between stretching for a warm-up and stretching as flexibility training. I do the former every day, even if I'm not actually going to do any karate training. Just some light/moderate stretching to keep the body greased up and loose. Flexibility training would be something like, where you stretch really vigorously for 30 minutes or so and push your body further and further. I don't really do much of that. My instructor seems really into the latter, and has even suggested something like setting up a pullie system in my home to crank up my legs. Honestly, to me it doesn't feel right, so I haven't made a huge effort to do it. It feels like I'm contorting my body in ways it's not really meant to move. But hey, I'm willing to admit it if I'm wrong. And on the other hand I've seen instructors on YouTube who say that they don't stretch at all - the positions we use like zenkutsu dachi, kokutsu dachi and kiba dachi already give us a nice stretch. The weakest part of my karate is my side kick and round house kick, and my instructor thinks it's a flexibility problem. I'm not totally sure. Because there's days where I've been able to pull it off and days where I haven't. I think it's more to do with the fact that I haven't got the "knack" of it yet. But hey, again, I'm willing to admit that I'm wrong. So I wanted some more experienced opinions from you folks. What do you think about this sort of vigorous flexibility training? Do you do it? Is it necessary? How often do you do it? Any other tips? Thanks.

Interesting stuff. Someone actually told me I'm being too analytical about this. Which I realized that he was sort of right. No need to analyze every little thing and track my progress inch by inch. That said, I'm glad you find value in what I'm doing here. I also think this is an important part of my journey. Know thy enemy, know thyself sort of thing. I suppose there's a balance. Analyze, but don't over-analyze. And above all, finding a balance that works for me. Not for anybody else. It's all a process I suppose. Thank you for chiming in.

This seems odd to me. Sure sometimes it sucks to accomplish something only to realize "oh crap, I can't rest on my laurels? There's more?" but that's something I'm learning to come to terms with. If you're in it to learn and all those other things, isn't black belt just the next part of the learning process? I like to imagine that if you learn proper karate, you will achieve black belt at some or another. The learning is what's important but the black belt acts as a symbol of your continued learning. The two go hand in hand. I don't know. Those are my thoughts. Maybe people with more experience can chime in.

I live overseas, I teach English. As part of our end-of-year celebration, we had some guys come in and teach the students a bit about American football (they are part of one of the only teams in the area). These guys are a bit younger than me, early 20s, and they are built strong and clearly athletic. We had a lot of fun. One of the drills they showed us was a blocking drill. One of their guys blocks, and one student/teacher is the QB and the other student/teacher tries to "tackle" (by tagging) the QB. It was my turn to be the defense and I had to get around this big strong blocker. Honestly, before I started doing karate 4 years ago, I would have not been confident about this at all. But today I went in with it this attitude of like "yeah this is nothing. And try to have a little fun with it." I'm the only American at the school so naturally I already had a bit of an advantage. But football is really not my thing. So as they were teaching us the proper way to throw, catch, etc. I understood that these guys, with a lot more experience than me, are going to be better at this than me. American or not. And that's OK. I don't have to act tough and act like I know how to throw the football perfectly just because I'm American/a guy/strong or anything like that. I am what I am. Just listen to the instructions and do it the best you can. This to me is why I do karate. Because, on the one hand I'm able to identify my weaknesses, as well as the strengths of my "opponent", without my ego getting in the way. And secondly, I am confident in my physical strength. These are two qualities that would serve me well in a self-defense situation. Or even better, in an attempt to avoid one. I have my karate training to thank for this. Thanks folks.

As Sensei8 says, hard work pays off. And, as they've taught me - persistence! Congrats, and good luck!

I had a change of heart on this. I actually think this is really good advice for me. I suppose I'm learning to trust with my heart instead of analyzing with my mind all the time. Thank you. Good training tonight. Thanks folks.

Just had a pretty big breakthrough. Didn't have last night's class because of a national holiday so today I did some Kihon at home. I just realized how important the hikite is. I mean, intellectualy I'm sure it's been described to me before. But today I felt it. The hikite isn't just some sort of arbitrary motion you do with your pulling hand. Nor is the technique itself in any way arbitrary. It's all connected. The snap back of the hikite is directly equivalent to the snap forward of the technique. Patience, patience. These little things will slowly and surely keep adding up.