Shorin Ryuu

I concur with the others that it is less a problem of electrolyte-imbalance and more of a physical fitness issue. All it takes is time and practice...and lots of sweat, but if you stick with it, you should have no problem in the future.

Right, as I mentioned in my other post, it would get tedious to say "rokushakubo" every time... I think if you are really focused on getting muscles, then lifting weights or other things (For my upper body, I use some of the traditional Okinawan equpiment to target specific things) would probably be the most efficient and a lot safer then using a really heavy bo.

Sauzin, I couldn't agree more. The reason why I chose the bo and its variants was because of the most practical principles behind them (and sort of said as much in my post, but not as clearly as you said it).

I demand a recount...there was definitely some voter intimidation or something... Um, what I meant to say, was congrats to all the winners!

Well, there is something they call "mushaburui" in Japanese. This referred to the shaking with excitement that a warrior has before a battle, but I think can nowadays it might be able to mean just shaking with excitement. The characters, by the way, are warrior (musha) and burui (shaking, quaking, trembling). The last part "burui" has three different characters that can be used, depending on how much fear is meant to be attributed, I think.

I would have to disagree with you. It isn't that some kata were longer than others. It has more to do with the depth that a student would take their kata. Furthermore, I don't think there are any less amount of techniques in "traditional" kata today then there were a hundred and fifty years ago. There are only less techniques (or not) if you focus on the technique itself rather than the concept behind it.

Well, I don't know if I quite agree that all martial artists or maybe even most martial artists are more wise or more disciplined than others. For one thing, I hesitate to attribute wisdom based upon martial arts to a large group of people, simply because I think wisdom is a lot deeper than that. Perhaps more disciplined that those that have done nothing at all with their lives, but it is an overly broad statement to say that we are wiser or more disciplined that others. Rarer still is the person who is a true warrior or has a warrior outlook (I held this view before I read Major Forrester Morgan's book Living the Martial Way, and I agree with him on many points). Traditional values are also not necessarily limited and/or representative of those who take martial arts either. I think martial arts can foster these more traditional values (I hesitate to limit them by simply saying "Eastern values"), but despite what I wish the truth to be, I think it is too far of a stretch to place all or even most martial artists in a category apart from everyone else in these respects.

Well, for four years, my dojo was at a converted squash court at my university. This was an open squash court, so it meant that everyone could see you (it was in one of the athletic buildings). Many times, the lacrosse team or football team would sort of congregate by the benches and often make disparaging remarks (which were obviously said loud enough so they knew we could hear them) or the ridiculous mock kiai. At the same time, you also had people just watch out of genuine interest. Rarer still were those that kind of acknowledged how deadly or effective some of the stuff we were doing was. I understand the frustration that comes from seeing people openly mock what you do. I certainly never walked next to football practice and mocked them by pretending to do drills and tackles, nor did I mock the lacrosse team by pretending to catch a ball with an imaginary stick. It's just that the martial arts are often not taken seriously ("Oh, that stuff will never work") and are an object of amusement. You just have to ignore them and understand the ignorance or whatever factor it is that causes their actions. If nothing else, think of it as a concentration drill.

I enjoy watching martial arts movies, but I always get the same sort of feeling that happens when you see a movie about a historical event. Take Braveheart for example. A great movie, but not exactly accurate, but still good. Martial arts movies mostly involve choreographed fights that oftentimes take a lot of skill to do, but are entirely unrealistic and impractical. To make a long story short, don't watch a movie for technique, watch it for entertainment.

From what I remember (I haven't watched it in years), no. Besides, a true Okinawan wouldn't be encouraging others to do a kick to the face, anyway.

His legs were about as wide as the way Nakazato does them on his videos (I think). To be honest, the segment with him doing naihanchi didn't let me see his feet though. I want to say perhaps shoulder-width and a half length, but don't quote me on this. As far as an inward angle, it wasn't really obvious either way. In my opinion, however, the feet shouldn't be really torqued inwards, they should just "feel" like they are inwards.

Well...in the "old way", they didn't have belts, and they would probably spend several years learning one kata. If you truly master only several kata, or even just one, you have all that you need to serve you in a street fight.

I'm just going to go out on a limb here, but the first thing that flashed in my mind was the bo (and any of it's varieties, such as the jo, hanbo, nitanbo). Of these, the nitanbo is perhaps the most adaptable, as you will find more objects closer to this than the full rokushakubo (for ease of conversation...I'll just refer to it as the bo). There are a lot of good grappling techniques on top of striking that work with the bo and it's variants that really make it a good weapon in terms of practicality. I could go on and on, but in a rare moment of not feeling inclined to ramble...I won't.

http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=14428

The large bump in the shureido sai was actually a quality defect (i.e., shureido was getting lazy). The head of my style for North America called them out ono it and they went back to making them without a bump on the center (for him, at least. I got one of these pair of sai that he had requested specifically to ensure that they were doing this). I do not like the large bump on the center because in order to press your thumb against it, your thumb has to increase it's distance between it and the rest of your hand, which makes it structurally weaker. As far as leverage goes, I'm not sure what exactly you are referring to, as I've never noticed anything advantageous by having a bump there.

That's interesting, as Funakoshi's teachers were both disciples of Matsumura (Shuri-te). What aspect are said to be similar? I'm not attacking you, I just never really heard that said before, so I'm curious.

This sounds a bit suspect. Who goes an makes a patch to commemorate the death of an opponent, anyway? If anything, that is just looking for legal trouble. Either it's just a test of nerves, a test of ethics, or just plain made up, in my opinion.

in shuai chiao, the front stance is used in a throw called diagonal cut. In judo, you are in what's similar to a front stance when you finish throwing someone with tai otoshi. Forgive me, I was referring to really deep front stances. Yes, I agree with you on this.

Well, there's always traditional Okinawan karate, since it will give you sparring, grappling, pressure point/joint/muscle manipulation, and kata... But, I say that to everyone anyway. Perhaps a real answer is more akin to the ones already mentioned. The fact that you can't advance any farther until you're sixteen doesn't mean anything. So I have a question for you. You plan on training in some other style and then go back to Shotokan after two years only so that you can get an advancement in rank? That just strikes me as odd, since I would think that you needed to be training in Shotokan for those two years in order to get the rank; it's not just an automatic thing that happens after the two year period is over, you know. So back to the age thing again. That just means that you can't advance in rank, not in learning. Sure, you've mastered the basics, I suppose, since you are a black belt. However, since I am a firm believer in that there is no such thing as advanced or basic techniques, only advanced or basic understanding of techniques, I would argue that you have quite a bit to learn (which is true for me as well, so don't feel like I'm picking on you). So perhaps your official rank won't advance any farther, but your skill can advance as well. And what is more important?

Nah, Shito Ryu has like 50 or something like that... Shorinkan Kobayashi Shorin Ryu has 15 empty hand kata and 13 weapons kata (not including kihon and fukyuugata). There's seven empty hand kata and 2 weapons kata that I care to keep from other styles that I have learned (and even these I practice much less than the others). I can't imagine learning over 50 empty hand kata. After a while, there really is no point in learning tons of different kata, in my opinion, since it isn't so much the individual techniques that are important as the concepts behind them.

Well, according to one book I have (which means the list may vary slightly from school to school), here goes: Gekisai 1 and 2 Sanchin Tensho Shisochin Saifa Sanseiru Seisan Seipai Kururunfa Suparinpei There may be more or less, but John Sells in his book Unante: The Secrets of Karate (There's something about the word "secret" that compels almost every author to put it in the title of a book about karate...) says these are the usual Goju Ryu kata... This book is perhaps the most exhaustive book on karate history, masters, lineages, and random info I have seen out there (In English, anyway...not that I have really looked for books in any other language).

As mentioned, they are not exactly what I would call the same. Bagua, Xingyi and Taiji are the three internal schools of Chinese martial arts. Bagua and Xingyi are supposed to be "complements" of each other (legend has it a master of bagua and a master of xingyi fought each other for several days and became good friends, and would send their students to train in the other's art...regardless of the truth of this tale, it does illustrate a point). I believe Sun Lutang sort of combined Bagua, Xingyi and Taiji in his Sun style of Taijiquan, seeing that many of the principles between the three were similar, even if varying techniques were different or approached differently.

Don't any of you let up on the enthusiasm you all have. The thirst to learn will help you go on to train for the many years, rather than one year over and over again...

Is it a lower back sprain? Those are always the worst. Despite all the advances in medical science, lower back pain is difficult to correctly diagnose because of the multiplicity of factors and possible causes for anything in the lower back...

Now now, you're just being a grumpy old man, Shorinryu Sensei Of course, I feel the exact same way, so I'm not one to talk (but talk I do, and quite a bit)... I think that any of that extra stuff distracts from good technique and skill. If you have that, then anything else is uneccessary. It's kind of like buying an expensive sports car to mask...um, some insecurities or something like that. All you need is the real deal. Now, if the tournament looks specifically for flash, pizazz, and glitter glammer pyrotechnics, then maybe it isn't the best one to go to. Unless that's "your thing", in which case, have fun. I for one will stick to my "boring" practical stuff.