gspell68

My biggest obstacle has been relocating. I started out in Shotokan and did that for five years. Moved to Colorado Springs. The only traditional karate around was Seibukan. I wasn’t thrilled about it originally, but I did that until the Army made me move again. Everywhere the Army moved me over the next 20 years seemed to land me in a karate desert, to include my last duty station where I retired. There’s a few MMA and McDojo places around, but no plain ol’ simple traditional white gi wearing karate schools.

Doing kata slow without power, fast as possible without power, mirror image (starting to the right instead of left, gives a chance to exercise complicated moves on the other side that may only happen once in a kata).

Maybe it has something to do with the coronavirus? I know that I would not be thrilled to be inhaling someone else’s hot dragon breath at point blank range. Socially distanced kata practice seems pretty attractive given the current pandemic situation! I’m not exactly sure that we ever saw a good matchup of “elite athletes” in the early days of the UFC since I seem to remember it essentially being a Gracie promotional campaign. It would have been nice to see someone of the caliber of a JKA instructor or the son of an Okinawan master that was eating/breathing/living karate like Royce did with his father and BJJ. I don't know about that. Dan Severn was an elite wrestling talent. Art "One Glove" Jimmerson was a professional Boxer at the time, and a former Golden Gloves Champion. I think there was plenty of talent in the early UFCs. The sport just hadn't evolved yet. My bad. I was referring specifically to karate. Even more so, there was a dearth of traditionally trained Japanese karate-ka. I only remember one Japanese guy that was like a nidan that let himself be taken down way too easily by Royce.

Teaching karate is awesome. It’s where you really start learning karate. You start holding yourself to a higher standard because all eyes are on you. You have to justify every move you make and be sure you have a reasonable answer for every question. Oh, and how did it go?

One of the guys that I trained under as a teen in the 1980’s had gotten a lot of hard knocks in the JKA in Japan in the early 1960’s.He imparted his philosophy to me during one session both verbally and physically: everything is a target. He’d punch your arms and hands until you could no longer physically hold them up, he’d intentionally and constantly step on your feet instead of the floor, or whatever it took until you’d finally break down and give him the target he wanted. It was really a conservation of energy on his part as his every move landed with intent to steal from you either physically and/or emotionally/psychologically. Probably the best strategy I ever learned.

Maybe it has something to do with the coronavirus? I know that I would not be thrilled to be inhaling someone else’s hot dragon breath at point blank range. Socially distanced kata practice seems pretty attractive given the current pandemic situation! I’m not exactly sure that we ever saw a good matchup of “elite athletes” in the early days of the UFC since I seem to remember it essentially being a Gracie promotional campaign. It would have been nice to see someone of the caliber of a JKA instructor or the son of an Okinawan master that was eating/breathing/living karate like Royce did with his father and BJJ.

I agree. There’s a very fine line between conditioning and permanent damage that sets you back for months. I’ve crossed that line a couple of times! So, I’ve just kinda cherry picked the way that keeps me out of trouble. My first job as a teenager was a grocery store stocker and I had a specific duty of breaking down all the stockers boxes for the crusher. I eventually perfected a middle knuckle punch/peck (nakadaka ken), unintentionally, from opening and breaking down a couple thousand boxes a night. At the time, it was funny when the other guys tried to imitate it off-the-cuff and just got bloody knuckles and unopened boxes.

Yep. 1944-45 saw the passing of masters like Motobu, Funakoshi (Gigo), Hanashiro, Tokuda, and Kyan. A couple of them never got to really formalize their knowledge into a “style”, yet their students did.

Get accustomed to punching with the old-school, Okinawan fist. There’s a reason it’s done that way. Speaking from experience, if you actually punch a target like a bag or makiwara with any force, you’ll sprain your index finger(s). Likewise, you should have a slightly “knuckles up” feel to your punch, too, like these guys in the photos or your wrists will fold under hard impact. https://www.google.com/search?q=karate+punch+jka+nishiyama&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjRn7Th95T1AhUz8VMKHYzpBtYQ2-cCegQIABAC&oq=karate+punch+jka+nishiyama&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzoECCEQCjoFCAAQzQI6BQghEKsCUJUcWIRVYJ9yaABwAHgAgAF0iAGUCZIBBDE1LjGYAQCgAQHAAQE&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=I5XSYZGCH7PizwKM05uwDQ&bih=1063&biw=834&prmd=ivsxn&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS966US970&hl=en-US#imgrc=dytw5FsbE9JOBM https://www.google.com/search?q=karate+punch+jka+enoeda&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwii876T-JT1AhUUMFMKHVeLBBcQ2-cCegQIABAC&oq=karate+punch+jka+enoeda&gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzIFCAAQzQI6BAghEAo6BQghEKsCUMaODFiO-w1gx4gOaAFwAHgAgAFfiAHVCJIBAjE2mAEAoAEBwAEB&sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&ei=jJXSYaL9IJTgzALXlpK4AQ&bih=1063&biw=834&prmd=ivsxn&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS966US970&hl=en-US#imgrc=U-w3F3KewCjXTM&imgdii=Q19ygL3K9ON59M