FeralFrettchen

Thank you everyone once again for the very pleasant forum welcome! For sure! I read in Nagamine’s book that the essence of Matsubayashi-ryu is mastery of the self so I am quite determined to learn each kata to the best of my ability. Hey there! Thanks for the great offer and the words of support. Of course I wouldn’t mind being pointed in the right direction regarding Uechi-ryu! The more resources I can learn and study from the better.

Thanks for all the helpful answers, friends. Much appreciated! I did indeed get varying answers! It seems like both ways are acceptable and count as proper form, which I find very interesting as well. I suppose it all comes down to style and how one was originally taught? I'm going to try both ways and see which one works best for me.

Hi everyone! I am currently following along with Nagamine’s Essence of Okinawan Karate-do and am a little confused regarding the Morote-zuki in Naihanchi Shodan. When performing the augmented side punch, am I supposed to keep the torso straight or twist it to the side? It’s a little hard for me to tell from the pictures. Thanks for any help you guys can give!

Many thanks for the warm welcome, everyone.

Greetings all! I guess you could say I’m an old timer (is 38 even considered old by today’s standards? Haha!) who’s been bitten by the karate bug. I am unfortunately limited to practicing in my home study due to an intellectual disability but I am trying to learn and study a few different kata on my own as best I can. Right now I am concentrating on Matsubayashi-ryu - following along with Shoshin Nagamine’s wonderful book and any old videos of his original students performances and bunkai I can find on YouTube. I really love the use of natural stances in this style and the elegant movements. I am also quite interested in the arts of Uechi-Ryu and Goju-Ryu. My own history with karate is, I guess, a short one. I was signed up to a Ninjutsu center back in the late 90s, which I suppose is what you would call a Mcdojo? (I’m still a little confused on what exactly that is!) I was signed up for a trial session but because I had an undiagnosed health condition at the time I fell to the ground and blacked out for a few seconds by the end of class from all the rigorous exercise! How’s that for a first impression, eh? Anyway, even if it wasn’t true karate I had a lot of fun with the (very) little time I had there. I always regretted not being able to pursue any sort of martial arts because I truly do love it. Even if I can never exceed the rank of white belt or take a professional class, I hope I can share and participate in the wonderful discussion of martial arts with everyone. Thanks for reading my lengthy post. It’s very nice to meet everybody!