DarthPenguin

I don't think i have picked any of them up - i will take a look though and if i have i will drop them. No need to take advantage of genuine mistakes!

Sounds like a really interesting project - is it something you would feel comfortable giving us a view of once done? If not totally understand as i am sure it will be a lot of work!

Wednesday 26 April Karate Session Warm ups Standard warm ups though we did also add in some laps of the hall which we don't usually do Kihon Usual grade kihon. As is now becoming common i performed mine and also then the grade up too. Is good practice Kata Multiple rounds of Tekki Shodan. Good practice again. Couple of minor points to work on but was told that it is good currently (or at least tolerable i think) which is good Kumite We did a reasonable amount of kumite practice this session. Mainly in trios; 1 in the middle and two either side working jiyu ippon kumite. Stated attacks first then majority unstated Overall a good class

Glad to hear that you are back at it. Look at the positive - stamina etc being way down proves that they were higher before so no reason that they can't be again as you managed it before!

Tuesday 25 April Lifting Session Bench Press 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 50kg x 5 57.5kg x 5 65kg x 5 50kg x 5 50kg x 5 50kg x 5 50kg x 5 50kg x 5 These were smooth and easy. I have widened my grip again as i realised that i have inadvertantly been close grip benching all the time really. Weight feels light but that is good as am building up volume and reducing rest periods. Doing as a superset with 60sec between each paired set KB Swing 24kg x 11 24kg x 11 24kg x 11 24kg x 11 24kg x 11 KB Gorilla Row (L + R = total) 24kg x 14 24kg x 14 24kg x 14 24kg x 14 24kg x 14 Front squat 40kg x 6 40kg x 6 40kg x 6 these are gradually feeling smoother. will keep gradually building them up a rep a week until i get to 5 x 10 E-Z bar curl 32.5kg x 6 32.5kg x 6 32.5kg x 6 total poundage lifted : 6717.5 kg time taken : 34 min density : 197.6 kg/min

Monday 24 April Karate Session Warm Ups Same as per usual Kihon Grade kihon and also a particular focus on kicks. We were working combinations that should be useful for kumite mainly too Kata Ran through Bassai-Dai again. Don't need to know it yet for grading but the sensei is taking me through it regularly now which is a good starter for when i need to start doing it in anger Did several more run throughs of Tekki Shodan too - seems to be of a tolerable standard at least! working hard at my hip positioning in stances and also my front foot in zenkutsu dachi. i think i have been sometimes allowing my knee to collapse inwards slightly by putting too much weight on inner part of foot. Working hard at adjusting it a little

I decided to look on the positive side - i was actively trying to sit back more in my squat and i must have managed it!

Maybe it is worth having a quiet word with your instructor about laying out what techniques are legal etc at each level. They might have thought you would all be aware. There are likely other people who are unsure and that kind of difference could lead to someone potentially getting hurt

Saturday 22 April Lifting Session Squats 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 62.5kg x 5 72.5kg x 5 80kg x 5 62.5kg x 5 62.5kg x 5 62.5kg x 5 62.5kg x 5 62.5kg x 5 Amusingly i tore the back of my tracksuit bottoms on second set of squats - thankfully i lift in the garage so i wa able to continue but was mildly amusing and slightly offputting and i could feel it get worse with every set! Standing one arm kb press 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 KB Swing 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 KB Rear Delt Flies (weight is per hand weight) 4kg x 10 4kg x 10 4kg x 10 Uses KB for the additional forearm work of holding it out straight Hip flexor lifts 8kg x 12 (6 per leg) This felt uncomfortable as could barely fit the end of my shoe into the kb handle. I have been considering getting some bands and this might be a good reason to do so. Trying to work hard on strengthening my hip flexors to aid with kick height Total poundage : 5473.5kg time taken : 35min density : 156.4 kg/min

Wednesday 20 April Karate Session Warm ups Same warmups as usual Kihon Performed grade required kihon as per usual. Hip movement for the kicks is gradually feeling a lot smoother - is a slightly different way to the way i had been taught it in prior styles so has been taking a little work to adapt eg ushiro-geri : the way i was taught to throw a back kick before was more like what Shotokan would call a spinning side kick Kata Ran through every kata from kihon kata to Tekki Shodan once at least with Tekki Shodan performed a few times. Working on ironing out minor details now Kumite We did quite a few kumite drills. Initially starting in freestyle stance and then attacking with a Jodan strike and opponent has to block and counter, announced attack. Then moved to a new drill : both in freestyle and opponent attacked with whatever strike they like unannounced, with defender to block/avoid and counter. Enjoyed this one quite a bit tbh. Was paired up in a group of 3 with a 3rd dan and another black belt. Got interesting feedback that i should try to avoid a little more rather than block and counter - something i need to work on, though in my defence i am a genuine heavyweight so not as naturally light on my feet as some of the smaller folk. Plus side though i managed to not get hit at all!

Not a weird question : i have trained under people in the past for whom it would definitely matter, people who would tell you to remove the label regardless (as sensei_8 does), and people who couldn't care less. Best approach (as is often the case!) is just to ask your instructor if it is something they care about. No need to risk offending/annoying someone inadvertently which just doing it and trying to slide it by them might do (plus you would be out the cost of the Belt too!)

Definitely, i thought it was quite useful - removes the 'autopilot' that people often get into when performing a kata and forced more active thought.

Monday 17 April Karate Session Warm ups Slightly different to usual, with walking light mae-geris rather than on the spot Kihon Worked through grading kihon. I was really trying to focus on angling my hips for blocks, there was a reflective window in front of me so i could see it looked like i wasn't doing quite enough, felt a different with a small amount more so worked hard on that all evening. Was pleased with my yoko geri kekomi, hips felt a lot smoother in their various movements. The additional hip strengthening work i have been doing seems to be working Kata Worked through Heian Nidan a lot as a couple of the brown belts couldn't remember it well! Lots of reps of that and then got asked to try a mirror version at the end. First time i have tried that but was told it was actually quite good! Class ended before any kumite, but on the whole was a productive class

Valid point! Personally i would just keep it as it is - unless there is a good/valid reason for moving from the status quo then don't think we would need to. Though i am aware that this is running at a tangent to the original purpose of the thread! Sorry!

Update Monday 17 April Another week in the books and the fartknockers are surging into the lead with another fantastic week (no more answering bushido-man's questions anyone!! ) At the other end of the season my penguin legions are cratering, falling down to the bottom of the league on the back of an epically bad pitching staff - allegations that the pitching coach asked someone to explain why the guy was standing on a hill and throwing a small white thing are proved to be unfounded. Though he did say he was surprised to hear that the goal of throwing it was for the opponent to miss it - he thought that was a bit mean! There have been a lot of swings in the standings already so lets see what this week brings!

Yep thats the one we call Kihon Kata. Though i don't think there is any problem with it being taught. We then teach Heian Shodan as "similar to kihon kata but on the way down you do age uke and there is a hammerfist near the beginning" Since there are so many similarities with the Heian's then where do you draw the line : they are smart enough to learn Heian Yondan so why not just learn Heian Godan etc. I have seen plenty of people struggling to learn the sequences with even the beginning Heian's so it is hard to generalise. Not everyone learns at the same pace and karate is meant to be an inclusive activity so i don't see the harm. As a comparison, i used to train in a taekwondo offshoot that had its versions of katas covering 2 grades, so you did the yellow belt pattern when yellow belt and when you were in between yellow and green etc. Didn't really see any massive benefit to there being less patterns tbh. If anything i could see an argument for adding in 2 more kata pre black belt. Since we do Bassai Dai at brown, then could add something in for 2nd kyu and 1st kyu, or delay Bassai Dai a little and add something first.

Am curious, how many more kyu ranks have you seen this add? Not sure how it adds more months of tuition fees either, assuming that someone isn't just training until shodan and then planning to leave, in which case yes it would add a few mths. I'm with the KUGB (which was originally JKA years ago) and we have a sole 'Kihon Kata' which i think is one of the Taikyoku's. It is performed for the first belt (9th kyu, orange belt). Doesn't seem to add anything extra kyu wise. Tbh we could probably add some more katas in pre black belt since we use Bassai Dai at 3rd kyu -> 2nd kyu, at 2nd kyu -> 1st kyu and at 1st Kyu -> 1st Dan

Friday 14 April Lifting Session Trap Bar Deadlift 70kg x 5 75kg x 5 85kg x 5 100kg x 5 112.5kg x 5 85kg x 5 85kg x 5 85kg x 5 Incline Bench Press (slight incline) 45kg x 10 45kg x 10 45kg x 10 45kg x 10 45kg x 10 Not done these for ages but felt good Triceps rope pushdowns 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 Hang Power Clean 30kg x 10 Bulgarian Split squat (L + R = Total Reps) 8kg x 20 Had to stop there as got a call i needed to deal with. The power cleans and split squat were a superset. Got main lifts in though Total poundage : 6197.5kg time taken : 37min density : 167.5 kg/min

So here's what I've seen. My dojo is ISKF, and we don't do the Taikyokus. We start immediately with Heian Shodan. My understanding is that this is also the case with SKIF, and JKA only has Taikyoku Shodan. The Shorin-ryu dojo that I left has five Taikyokus (I hear some places have more), though, my understanding is that beyond Nidan, the Taikyoku katas are totally different between associations. Personally? I think Taikyokus are a waste. Everything in the Taikyoku series is captured in the Pinan/Heian series. With the exception of the hammer fist (which is easy to learn) all moves in Heian Shodan are part of white belt kihon in Shotokan, so I don't see the point in Taikyokus. For myself, in our shotokan classes we do Kihon Kata first (i think it is one of the Taikyoku ones but not 100% on that). I think it is quite useful actually as it is very straightforward and gets the students used to learning a sequence of moves and moving in a particular manner. Then when they learn Heian Shodan they are taught it as being similar with differences of X. This i think is also useful as when they progress through the Heian's they get used to their being similarities and it helps it all join together in their mind. It also keeps it 'neat' with a new kata being required at every grading until 2nd kyu when you keep doing Bassai Dai with one of the Heian's. Personally it is probably quite hard to come up with an 'overall' karate kihon kata list due to the different lineages and origins. Might be possible to do it for those from a Naha-te origin and a separate list for those of a Shuri-te origin. I quite like it that there isn't one single list otherwise (in my opinion) it would sort of devalue all of the different styles. If you learnt the same katas etc. at each then all you would really be learning is a different means of application or ruleset at each one. With everything staying different it is distinct. I like the fact that if i was to go to Shorin-Rtu; Goju-ryu; Uechi-Ryu etc. i would be learning things that were totally different.

I'm relatively new here but is always good to see people being active and posting - the more people doing so the better!

Wednesday 12 April Karate Session Warm ups usual warm ups performed Kihon Worked through usual grade kihon with an emphasis on shoulder turn and hip movement for blocks / punches. We also added in some more practice on kicks, breaking them down into a lot of detail. I am going to have to fight against some muscle memory as the striking action for the mae-geri is actually slightly different to the way i was always taught in in prior styles and i will need to work on it. I was taught to pull toes back and also pull foot back so you come up and hit with the ball of foot that way. We were told last night to point foot out when striking with toes back and hit with ball of foot that way. Kata Lots of run throughs of Tekki Shodan. Firstly breaking it down slowly to the count and then running through at my own pace. Got good comments on it (which is always nice) and a couple of small points to work on (also always nice) Spent a lot of time on the kata so that ran until the end of the class

Yes, I've seen these things before, and in the book, he even demonstrates going through Sanchin with chishi. I see this as an issue of holding onto the past for way too long, and not embracing more modern ideas. For example, I think something similar could be achieved using dumbbells instead of trying to make old stone mallets. Another issue I have altogether is that too many people try to make their strength training look like their sport/activity, in order to make it more "functional." The problem with this approach is that it completely fails to understand what strength training is. Strength training is a general physical adaptation. Lots of people like to think they can get "baseball strong" or "football strong" or "karate strong" by trying to make their "strength" training look like the moves they do in their sport/activity, when they would be better off training for overall strength the right way, using good programming and progressive overload to make the entire body strong, which will then transition into athletic performance. Hence, like I mentioned earlier, no taking strength training advise from Martial Arts instructors. Ok, rant over. there is some really good stuff by Martin Rooney (he used to train a lot of UFC fighters for S&C - not sure if he still does or doesn't) on how silly this approach can be. Jim Wendler goes over it a lot too. I have always agreed that if you train to improve your strength or power as much as possible in the most efficient way possible then the martial arts training then seeks to apply that strength and power to your techniques. As a personal example, the one exercise i noticed that had the single largest impact on my martial art training in the past was the hang power snatch. I almost immediately could feel greater hip explosion when grappling or kicking. Close second was the front squat for core strength.

Tuesday 11 April Lifting Session Was taking a look back through my logs and i (through illness and other things) have been letting the volume slide a little so made a point of making sure it is added back in. Also slightly tweaked sessions to try and make sure that there is one push, one pull, one squatting movement and one hip hinge movement in all sessions - hopefully that works out well Bench Press 20kg x 5 30kg x 5 45kg x 5 52.5kg x 5 60kg x 5 45kg x 5 45kg x 5 45kg x 5 45kg x 5 45kg x 5 Widened my grip here. I was thinking about my bench and realised i have been basically close grip benching for ages without fully realising it Gorilla rows (L + R = Total Reps) 24kg x 12 24kg x 12 24kg x 12 24kg x 12 24kg x 12 KB Swings 20kg x 11 20kg x 11 20kg x 11 20kg x 11 20kg x 11 Front Squats 40kg x 5 40kg x 5 40kg x 5 40kg x 5 Haven't done these for ages so took it easy to work on form. Felt smoother set by set E-Z Bar Curls 32.5kg x 5 32.5kg x 5 32.5kg x 5 32.5kg x 5 total poundage : 6152.5kg time taken : 35min density : 175.8 kg/min

Congratulations!

As bushido_man says, i think that the professionalism aspect is vitally important here. Can't have the instructor just hitting on anyone they find attractive; is inappropriate and creates a negative atmosphere in the class. However, people can (and do) meet people with similar interests and naturally get together. One of these err on the side of caution and be sensible things i think (don't act like Danny McBride's character in "the Foot Fist Way" )