Shorin Ryuu

What in the extremely deep front stance is proper body mechanics? EDIT: This question is meant to be direct, rather than rude, by the way.

In the rolll roster according to skill, he was ranked last... I agree completely. A student of his, James DeMile said in a published interview that he went to Hong Kong to visit his parents and show his teacher Yip Man how much he had improved. "His progress was zip. He came back from Hong Kong shattered. He could hit the good Wing Chun men maybe once out of every three times they could hit him." He never studied the orthodox Chinese boxing of either the harder Shaolin types or the softer bagua, xingyi or taiji. He was not introduced to any of the advanced concepts such as pressure point manipulation. Nor did he study jujitsu or wrestling. All the stories you hear about his fights are always from students and fans, there is hardly anything verifiable from one to the next. Simply put, he was a bright package produced by Hollywood. As Donn Draeger said it "he's the richest guy in the graveyard." Did I mention his movies flat out stank? I was briefly in the Bruce Lee craze, until I read more of his books and watched his movies...

I have some health concerns with Goju Ryu...I don't have time to discuss it now, but I promise I will post some stuff later on.

Hehe, since Shorin Ryu is such a common way to romanize my style, very few people catch that...(the Ryuu was supposed to be a play on "dragon" and "style" as they have the same romanization...but if I put Shourin, then everybody would be confused)... Good catch!

Rice + [fill in the blank]. Although since I'm living on my own, I have been making more Italian food as it is relatively simple to make (and leftovers are easy to store). I enjoy using my crockpot... All the same, my diet is still pretty Asian in composition (I enjoy using my rice cooker more). Besides, using a wok is pretty fun as well.

Distance for distance, swimming takes more endurance simply because the amount of structures used in greater. At the same time, it places less stress due to impact upon the body (as running is merely continuous jumping, in a way). I used to be on a swim team and ran cross country and track in high school. They both have benefits, but swimming is probably the safest in terms of long term health (barring drowning, I suppose). Walking long distances quickly increases the amount of structures used as opposed to just running with less impact effects.

You see the 10th degree black belt title thrown around everywhere...in judo, I believe it was posthumously awarded to Jigoro Kano, but since then, most heads of all styles just have this rank. In Okinawan karate, there was no 10th degree black belt rank (seeing how Funakoshi promoted his first black belts on the Japanese mainland in the 1920s, I believe, the system in karate is very young, anyway). Chosin Chibana became the head of the Okinawa Karate-Do Association when it was formed in 1956 (Okinawa was still relatively new to the whole rigid, structural "ryu" system of Japan, most styles weren't...they were just what one instructor taught and many students would have many teachers who were most likely friends with other teachers). As Chibana was a 9th degree black belt (which was just as arbitrary as the following...), he was just summarily given the 10th degree rank, since he was the president in charge of the organization (a chain of command deal) which included several styles. Therefore, the 10th degree rank was merely an arbitrary affair, even more arbitrary than the belt system itself... He promoted 4 people to 9th degree black belt...but after Chibana died, they sort of gave themselves the 10th degree ranking anyway. Even if this example is only for Okinawan karate (and for one organization, albeit probably the largest of the time), it goes to show you the trend in development of the 10th degree black belt title... In other words...I just think it is funny how you can go to websites and see karate lineages with 10th degree black belts all over the place...it really is a new innovation... Don't get me wrong, I respect my 10th degree style head as well as Chosin Chibana...but I still think its funny how all that politics works (a bit sad too)...

Jujitsu was basically one of the many disciplines that a samurai (I'm talking Kamakura period type samurai, not the later, Tokugawa period samurai during the 1600-1868 time frame) would study, from horseback riding, to tying a captured opponent. Jujitsu was employed to enable a samurai to dispatch a foe if you happened to be unarmed or perhaps only have your dagger with you. The emphasis on the joint manipulations makes sense, as an opponent would have armor (despite stories of Okinawans punching through samurai armor when the Satsuma samurai annexed Okinawa, none of these probably actually happened) and it would be hard to punch them. They'd practice to unbalance the opponent and most likely cut their throat or otherwise finish them. Jujitsu later evolved into the sport Judo, which is what we know today (do just means "way" whereas "jutsu" means martial or combative pursuit). Ninjitsu on the other hand is the all-encompassing term for the ninja. Legend has it that they were taught by the Tenguu, a sort of mountain spirit. Obviously much more likely is that just in any culture's history, spies were employed, and could be used for information gathering all the way to assassination, which is what most people see ninja as. The image of the ninja has been somewhat glorified due to movies. Somewhat less glorious would be a recorded example of how a ninja was actually used. During the unification of Japan by Tokugawa Ieyasu, a ninja hid in the cesspit of the castle of Ueshiba Kenshin. When said lord did his business one night, he was speared by the ninja through that end of the body that most of us sit on...Nowadays, most ninjitsu schools (legitimate or otherwise) focus upon the combat techniques or more just plain interesting stuff to the average person (like smoke cloud bombs or weaponry). In other words, the ninja did the dirty work that the samurai would not do (but paid the ninja to perform). Of course, such ridiculous scenes like in the Last Samurai, where hordes of ninja attacked the camp of Saigo Takamori (I forget what the character in the movie was actually called, but that is who he was based on) never happened.

General Cho would say that...its more of a Korean pride thing, really. He trained in Shotokan before he founded TKD in the 1950s... Not that I'm a big fan of either Shotokan or TKD, as their approaches both tend to emphasize muscle over technique and proper body mechanics.

Well...the Japanese borrowed the Chinese characters for their written language to form the base meanings for their words (they have a different script for foreign words and conjugation/participle/all those kinds of parts of speech). The spoken languages have nothing to do with each other, but the Chinese characters (Kanji in Japanese, which literally just means Chinese characters) share the same meanings. For all we know, the word in question should be properly romanized as Kyoushinkai (meaning the "o" sound should be long), which adds more difficulty to this problem... Kyoshin means "Impartiality" (in terms of open-mindedness or frankness) Kyoushin could mean: religious fanaticism, resonance, strong heart, severe earthquake... Alternatively, making "kai" not to mean organization, but part of the word instead...kyoushinkai could also mean competitive exhibition or prize show...(this may be the most accurate, as this was a car ad or something) That being said (my favorite phrase, if anyone reads any of my other post), sometimes people will just throw random kanji together with the meanings they like to form a cool-sounding name...

There have been clinical studies demonstrating that the increase in speed by most people who train in weight resistance exercises (whether it is sprint drills for track runners or whatever) is mainly a psychological increase. Namely, that you feel faster rather than actually become faster. I used to punch with hand weights (5 lbs each) and have observed the same phenomenon (and I would do it a lot, maybe 1000 times a day, back in my young and reckless days...). That being said, there is a lot be gained from weights in low-stress situations. Back in high school, I walked around with 5 lb. ankle weights on both legs all day long. I never ran with them (I did for a brief period of time, until I was told it was bad for the knees...I was dumb at the time). However, in the span of 7 months or so, I was able to increase the diameter of my ankles by 100%, meaning it doubled over that time period. Due to real world impracticalities in my life, I have stopped doing that years ago, but have never had an ankle injury since... Take it for what it is worth.

I've had several instructors recommend jao as well (not surprising as Radok takes the same system I do...)

I was going to leave that photo alone for a while until other stuff sank in...but yeah, that jumped out at me as well. I've trained in both Matsumura Shorin Ryu and Kobayashi Shorin Ryu, and they never do any of those stylized high kicks, especially not with the upper body going down so low to compensate...such a trade off between height and balance is something you would never see in traditional Okinawan karate...

Don't believe everything you've seen on that movie...if you've actually read his biography (endorsed by his wife), he injured his back due to a training exercise (he was lifting weights that targeted the back and did a little too much). Hmm...it doesn't take a great martial artist to make a great martial arts movie star... I'm not saying that there aren't great martial artists that are movie stars...I just don't think Bruce Lee was really a great martial artist.

Don't know if any of these are good, as I'm not from Cleveland The Okinawan Karate Academe 16814 Broadway Cleveland, OH (216) 587-4044 Oshirokan Budo-Bujutsu Muhammad I. Sallahudin 2829 E. 116th, Cleveland, OH 44120 Home: (216) 231-5306 EMAIL: oshirokan482@aol.com

I've had a few teachers over the years, and they usually taught kata in this manner: Force you to go through the whole thing once or twice with them just so you know what it looks like and where it is going. Then, they break it into little pieces and just go through it a few times, adding a piece at the end after the last couple of times. Then they do a little explanation of the pieces, and add a little more, etc. One teacher of mine would then do something totally unrelated and visit the kata once more (he said it helped transition it to long-term memory by breaking up the introduction into several periods rather than one long session of it). I forgot to mention this, but this is a word of warning. When I learned kata, I would break it up into movements based upon what I saw as a particular "set" of movements to be performed without stopping. This "phrasing" of the kata of course changes constantly as my interpretation changes, but don't get stuck into a metronome kata! By this, I mean don't get too worked up into the "one count, one move". That is really more for the beginner and the instructor, who has to watch a whole class and make sure they are doing the individual parts correctly. When doing the kata, make sure there is a coherent timing, as kata is not only placement, but timing as well. If you find yourself just doing the kata as movement, movement, movement, movement...than you are missing out on a whole lot.

Last year, I trained in both Matsumura Shorin Ryu and Kobayashi Shorin Ryu. It did nothing but help me to have a broader experience. Now, as I can't seem to find other legitimate schools in my new area, I plan to take jujitsu and maintain my karate. As long as you don't get stuck on techniques (although they are useful) and focus instead on concepts and principles, it should enhance your learning. With that in mind, it is good to have at least a foundation in an art before you study others. Once that foundation is there, it is easier to branch out.

I'd tell you to go for Shorin Ryu, because it teaches you offense and defense at all ranges of combat and incorporates weapons, joint locks, muscle and pressure point manipulations and it doesn't matter how your body is built as it relies more upon efficiency rather than pure muscle power (although it does try to strengthen the body). As the principles in JKD are merely repackaged principles present in all true traditional martial arts, I'd say it is not that special...

I think what both I and White Warlock mean is that the back is perfectly straight and the entire body moves as one unit until the back goes lower than the plane of the bent elbow (the chest just gets real close, but not touching, the ground). Then when you go back up, the back is still straight and the body moves as an entire unit up until the arms are fully locked out. The arms are not ridiculously far apart (some people try to cheat on this) and the face is forward rather than down. Most people who haven't had this military training (nothing against them, but just something I've noticed) usually have some bend up or down (even if it is small) in their back and don't usually go all the way up or down. Worse still is the tendency of some people to merely bob the head up and down...

Perhaps you feel that there is a lack of "inner strength" in the Shorin Ryu kata...I've find your phrasing interesting, as the inner strength you mention is described as a full range of body muscle usage... Inner strength is present in Shorin Ryu kata, although there is much less reliance upon pure strength and more reliance on simple body mechanics. Simply put, there is less muscle and more technique, which allows the smaller guy to beat the bigger. When your teacher said for you to not wear yourself out, I don't think he meant that you were relying too much upon muscle strength rather than optimal body mechanics.

I mentioned I wanted to take an Chinese Internal art, but it seems like the only legitimate school I've found yet in this immediate area is a jujitsu school. In the end (as I mentioned before) it just boils down to concepts, and anything I learn in this jujitsu class will help me in my karate training (and vice versa).

The Samurai came first. Jujitsu was merely one of the many martial training arts they practiced. They did everything from fighting on horseback to grappling in the water. For more info on this type of stuff, read Classical Bujutsu by Donn Draeger. Jujitsu was a way of helping the samurai fight with little or no weaponry on the battlefield if he (or she, as there were several famous female warriors) encountered that situation.

That is incredibly odd! What style of Shorin Ryu do you take and who is your teacher? For me, the amount of grappling, joint locks, pressure points and applicability to ground fighting is one of the biggest pulls of Shorinkan Shorin Ryu...

I'm an Air Force guy (yeah yeah, insert Air Force joke here). That being said, I used to be able to do about 110 pushups in under two minutes (correctly done, especially by Army standards...by the way, there is no "rest position" in the Air Force pushups... ). At any rate, I will concede that the Air Force physical fitness test is a joke... Sheesh, where was I...I do probably about 80 or so pushups under two minutes now, as it is no longer a focus of my training... Its been a long time since I've actually just done them straight to exhaustion and beyond (and then it was hard to count, during Basic and Freshman year at the academy...)...so I wouldn't even know the max number straight. There was that one day when we did 2004 pushups (class year) in sets of 400...

I wouldn't say they are just movements...if they are, then I don't think you are doing it correctly. In the beginning, try to stick with a very simple interpretation of what you are doing (kick, punch, block etc.). Once you've memorized the basic pattern and have a decent feel for it, go for a more advanced interpretation of what the movements mean. Remember, practice doesn't make perfect....practice makes habit. Perfect practice makes perfect! With that in mind, repetition of kata while you are concentrating on what you are doing is the best way. It is one thing to simply "go through the motions" and another to actually do the kata. That being said, make sure you don't tense up as you concentrate! RELAX and it should be fine. Good luck.