gordosan

I agree with every word, but why do I need karate for doing this(by the way in kyokushin actually I learn how to hurt the other guy...). you mentioned many qualities which are gained in various ways,not necessarily through karate, if karate teaches u this things(i dont see how can it teach u to love and be loved...) only after 10 years of practice, I have got shorter lessons in life which taught me the above. I also learned that some things u learn , u first obey your teacher and only later u understand why u did it(1+1=2, ABC...), so I'll be patient

sorry for my ignorance, I heard many times about spirituality in karate, can anyone explain this to me with examples ? what one means when he refers spirituality in karate ? maybe it is the hard training that teaches you self discipline ? but if so many things in life does and they are not referred as spiritual... I also hear "when you will get there after many years of practice, u will understand", but I am curious now , any hint from the experienced guys ?

Shorin Ryuu : I respect your reason for choosing karate, each karateka has its own reason, for me the self defense is only a benefit, not a reason... It is something extra that I gain while practicing other more important things . I have to admit that I don't see much chance to be threaten by a gun in my surrounding (more likely to be hit by a car or terrorist suicide attack) If it was different I might put self defense in higher priority. about 15 years ago I lived in Sao Paulo in Brazil, and a gun was aimed towards me in a very short distance which a well trained karateka might have the chance to handle ,at the time I was familiar to karate only from movies, I stopped immediately the argument we had, left him with what he wanted and went way. I would have done the same even if I was 5 dan ! what have I lost? my pride? depends on your point of view (I am proud to be smart). what could I lose? probably my life... now , you might have tried to disarm the guy, if u succeeded , u earned your pride (again, depends on someone point of view). if you didn't , and hit the gun and a bullet hit a passing by child ? or yourself if u r not good enough (how can u tell if u r ?) put it on a balance and the conclusion is simple. u might say "it depends on the situation", I agree, but u will be too exited to get the whole picture right and too little time to think about a safe reaction. If you trained yourself to attack when u see a gun u might do a big mistake ! by the way, didn't Funakushi teach to avoid fight anywhere its possible ?

I wonder why r u giving so much importance to gun attack, it is such a rare situation ! If u r smart enough ,u can avoid of getting to places with high risk ,or at least avoid the dangerous hours. If you are the 1 in a million that faced a gun threat after all, you just give the guy what he wants and in 99% of the cases he will leave you alone. it is more effective to waist the critical seconds on thinking how to calm down the guy than how to disarm him. to karatekaikidoist aunt and grandpa: karate gives you so much more than self defense !

To FIREKA : I do have lots to say against my parents and I did in the past, but as I get older (39...) I do it much less cos I realize that they are human and have their own way of thinking which is difficult to match with the new generation of their sons, neither with the different culture (they ,as your parents were born in another country, and if you are interested in different cultures you should understand that it is very difficult to satisfy both people coming from other cultures about some subjects). Today I look at what they did with me as a child/teenager and I respect them even for the things I think are totally wrong, because I know they did what they were thinking is the best for me, and that's what really important ! I respect them for that. I hope 4 u that your children will respect u for your good intentions ,though not agreeing with what you say , and they for sure will not agree with lots of what you will say !

During the fights in the dojo classes ,I use high kicks to the head (mawashi geri) without really touching the head though I can see opportunities also mae-geri to the chest (never to the face) but not with power , I don't want to hurt my opponent, after all it is only training. The problem is that because the kicks doesn't hurt , the opponent can attack immediately and he finds me more vulnerable because in this point I am less stable. So what happens is that a knockdown opportunity for me , becomes the opposite - an advantage to the opponent. This is even worse in the fights during the tests for next belt , because there they hit harder ,but I still can't see myself kicking strong mae-geri to the face. so here goes all my advantage in high kicks in fights (don't worry, in real situation I will kick hard ). Do you face the same problem? how do you handle it without quitting high kicks ? OSU! p.s. I am from kyokushin style