ShotosChaos

Great article, this helped answer a few questions that I had. I'd never really thought about bowing or meditating as being religious, just as gestures of respect or focusing your energy to perform better. I'm a Christian but never bring my beliefs on people in class, and I believe that knowing the ways of self defense is alright as long as you don't intend to hurt someone with what you learn.

Excellent article, I agree that kata is more than a performance art. Kata is something that you can do whenever you find time, but you must know the proper application of the kata before it is of any use. Once you've discovered all things that you can do with it, the help it gives when sparring or defending is great.

Sorry I haven't been around for a while. Glad to see everyones welcome, and yea G is my teacher, a great one at that. Hopefully I'll start using this more now.

Hello. Glad to be a member of this site now, my instructor just introduced me to it. Hope to meet some interesting people and get their views on the Shotokan style of karate. I'm currently ranked at third kuy.