SLK59

Of course, The Magnificent Seven was itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 classic, Seven Samurai.

꧁ HAPPY NEW YEAR ꧂. Best wishes for a great - or at least better - 2021.

High standards, nothing to apologize for.

Both of those appear to be paraphrases of classic Taoist/Daoist teachings. The best advice I can give would be to read through good translations of the Tao Te Ching/Daodejing and the Chuang Tzŭ/Zhuangzi, along with one or two reputable books on Zen Buddhism, and see how many parallels you can find.

Merry Christmas!

GS718Trek - According to your profile, you have trained in Shotokan, Shorin Ryu and Judo. There is going to be a great deal of variation in grading policy within each of those styles and their various organizations, individual dojos, etc. For example, when I trained in JKA Shotokan during the 1970s-1980s, all kyu exams were graded by the Regional Director (ranked Godan), together with the Chief Instructor of the dojo (ranked Shodan or above, depending on the location). The dojo CI had input during the exam, but the final decision was that of the Regional Director. Thus a Shodan could not award any rank on his/her own, even if he/she was a dojo CI. For dan exams, the grading panel included the Regional Director, at least one other Regional Director, the National Chief Instructor (Hidetaka Nishiyama), and often an additional high-ranking Japanese instructor. As others have wisely said, your best course of action is for you to consult your own CI, and ask him/her about the policy for your specific group. Cheers, Scott

Meaning absolutely no disrespect, I think that you may have inadvertently reversed those. Tsuki = “Moon” Mizu = “Water” On the other hand, the descriptions themselves are spot on. Cheers, Scott

Agree 100% with bushido_man96. Whether you train in person or online, nothing beats live feedback from an experienced instructor. If you absolutely cannot train in person, my advice would be to find a dojo in your area that you like and that offers Covid online classes, join it, and follow the guidance of your instructor. Far from ideal, but better than nothing.

I have trained in two traditional Shotokan karate-do organizations. For both of them, the practice was/is to wear a plain white dogi. In both, members also had/have the option of wearing the organization’s patch or embroidery on the left chest of the gi. My 45-year-old JKA patch features the red and white Inyo (Rising Sun/Yin-Yang) symbol, with “J.K.A. International U.S.A.” overlaid in black. My current SKA embroidery is the Shotokan Tora no Maki (Tiger Scroll) symbol created by Hoan Kosugi, with “Shotokan Karate of America” circumscribing the Tora no Maki - all in blue.

This two-part series from The History of Fighting website appears to be as thorough and balanced as any single-site source I have seen: https://www.historyoffighting.com/shotokan-kata-history-part-one.php https://www.historyoffighting.com/shotokan-kata-history-part-two.php Best of luck in your continuing search! Cheers, Scott

So, is it just me, or does this sound like some talk of a another you in a parallel universe or something? And we need to basically purge this kind of thought from our thinking? I kind of have an inkling as to what karma is; the idea that "what goes around, comes around," that universe will balance itself out in the end. I've usually heard karma spoken of primarily in the sense of someone who has wronged us "getting what's coming to them," but I imagine that in the Eastern sense, there is more to it than that. I believe that Lee is simply ‘rephrasing’ the classic Chan/Zen Buddhist concept of Non-Attachment, i.e. dissolving the illusion of an ego-driven Self, totally separate from the rest of the universe. In Hindu, Jain and Buddhist religious thought, karma (Sanskrit: action or deed) includes the idea that each soul experiences countless births and rebirths, becoming a higher or lower being in the next life based on the thoughts and actions made during this life. Good thoughts and actions lead to good karma and happier rebirths, while bad thoughts and actions lead to bad karma and rebirths. For Chan/Zen Buddhists, the only way to escape this endless cycle of birth and rebirth is to emulate the Buddha and dissolve the illusion of Self through meditation, and thus achieve Mushin (No Mind) - see my earlier post above.

I practice a traditional karate-do style, and the dogi is an important part of that tradition. Wearing the dogi links me with that tradition and with my fellow traditional karateka. I don’t see any of that changing anytime soon. While training at home on my own, I always do so in my dogi. It helps me get into the right frame of mind for training seriously. Could I just train in some old sweats instead? Sure. But for me, it just wouldn’t be the same. Cheers, Scott

Belated welcome to the group, Moegster! Cheers, Scott

Welcome to the group, BeekcaketheBarber! Cheers, Scott

Thank you for your post, and welcome to KF, BeefcaketheBarber!

In addition to the differences between different types of punches as discussed by bushido_man96 above, much also depends on which muscles are used to connect your punch to the rest of your body, and that varies greatly from art to art. For example, when I trained in JKA Shotokan 30 years ago, we were taught to focus (kime) by connecting primarily through the pects to the belly (hara) and downward. This tends to produce a punch with a full 180º rotation. JKA punch - see pic at top of page and pic labelled ‘Step-in Punch’: http://www.jkaboston.com/ In SKA, kime is instead accomplished by connecting primarily through the lats to the belly (hara) and downward. Not only does this result in a very different feeling focus, it also tends to produce a punch with a 145º-180º rotation, depending on the person. I haven’t noticed any reduction in power using this method. SKA punch - see pics 2 and 5 in the sequence at the top of the page: https://foothill.ska.org/about-practice/ In both systems, stress is placed on rotating the fist at the very end of the punch, ‘corkscrewing’ it into the target. Bottom line, whatever degree of fist rotation is used in a punch, the important thing is to maintain the proper connections as they are practiced in your art, so that your entire body is behind the punch, and not just the arm alone.

Wow, totally unexpected! Thank you very much, Patrick and everyone.

Yep.

I an not really certain what Lee was saying in that JKD quote, but I have spent a lot of time studying Zen and its relation to the Japanese martial art that I practice. Here is what it means to me in a nutshell: In Zen Buddhism, “enlightenment” (Satori) is the achievement of Mushin, which literally translates into English as “No Mind,” but actually means a free, dynamic mind, unhindered by ego-driven, self-centered blocks. The purpose of Zen meditation (Zazen) is to help remove these blocks from the mind and achieve Mushin more and more often, until one can do so at will. One is then considered to be a Master (Roshi), which usually takes at least 20 years of intensive daily training. In the martial arts, Mushin is that moment when everything flows and “the technique does itself” without conscious thought or effort. If you have been lucky enough to experience that, it is an amazing feeling! Mastery in the martial arts means ultimately being able to remove all physical and mental blocks, and thus perform at the highest level at will, without conscious thought or effort. Not surprisingly, achieving that level of mastery usually takes at least 20 years of intensive daily training. Edit: In looking through the entry on Chan Buddhism (the Chinese ancestor of Japanese Zen Buddhism) in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, I came across this interesting quote: Fazang made metaphorical use of a traditional, timber-framed building that is held together without any fasteners by the compressing force of gravity on all of its parts (Huayan wujiao zhang, in Taishō shinshō daizūkyu, Vol. 45, no. 1866). Removing the clay roofing tiles and their immense weight would destabilize such a building, eventually causing it to collapse. But the roofing tiles are placed on top of purlins that are placed perpendicularly on rafters resting on a central ridge beam and on rim joists that are themselves resting on columns placed atop individual foundation stones. Since removing the roofing tiles of such a structure would cause the entire building to collapse, the tiles can be said to be the cause of the totality of the building. But the same is true for all of the other parts of the building. Similarly, each particular in the world (shi) consists at once in causing and being caused by the dynamic patterning (li) of the totality of all things. Each thing ultimately is what it means for all others. (Emphasis mine.) I suspect that this is what Lee might have been getting at in his JKD quote. Here is the link to the full Stanford entry on Chan Buddhism: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/buddhism-chan/

While preparing to (re)start dojo practice, I am using this excellent warmup (junbi undo) video by SKA Godan David Altman as the basis for my own daily stretching routine: https://karateglobal.blogspot.com/2016/10/shotokan-karate-junbi-undo-warmup.html# My workout routine also includes the following to strengthen my support leg and improve balance for kicking. I begin in the appropriate basic stance, then with the best form possible I do ten half-speed repetitions with each leg for each of the following kicks: Front kick (mae-geri) Side up kick (yokogeri-keage) Side thrust kick (yokogeri-kekomi) Round kick (mawashi-geri) Crescent kick (mikazuki-geri) Stamping kick (fumikomi) Rear kick (ushiro-geri) Being 61 years old, I do this three times a week to allow for recovery time. As I become stronger, I intend to gradually increase the number of repetitions per leg over time.

Japan Karate Association International USA - 2 Shotokan Karate of America - 1 From 1974-1978 I trained at St. Cloud Karate Association in St. Cloud, MN under David Becker (Nidan). Then from 1979-1990 I trained at Midwest Karate Association in Minneapolis, MN under Robert Fusaro (Godan). My current club is the Chapel Hill Shotokan Karate Dojo, located in Durham, NC. Chief Instructor there is Rob Clark (Godan).

I am glad that you found it to be of interest. Cheers, Scott

Once again, thank you all for the warm greetings.

There is a small amount of hip rotation involved, as described by Journeyman74 above. However the primary source of power comes from directing with the eyes and exhaling while dropping the hips and concentrating one’s weight down into the legs - especially the back leg - and simultaneously shifting the hips slightly forward and using kime to create force from both sides of the body that is projected through the relaxed punching arm and the fist, and ultimately through the opponent. Mind, Breathing, Body. In this video clip, SKA founder Tsutomu Ohshima demonstrates gyaku-zuki for a group of black belts during a year-end training session held at his Santa Barbara dojo in 2007: https://kc.ska.org/members/technique/kihon/gyaku-zuki/ Cheers, Scott

Congratulations to both you and your son, aurik!