Tal

i strongly disagree, and what is lost can be rediscovered.

by 'real' bunkai, i mean the bunkai the original formulators of the unmodified kata would have applied. i should have said 'original' rather than 'real'.

i use a lot. they all come from karate kata and involve pressure points. usually if i get the first move of the combo right, the pressure points i use will ensure my opponent is in the right position for me to use the next move.

someone started on me once because i looked them in the eye. i wasn't staring at him, we just happened to glance at eachother at the same time. he was on his own, but was the sort of person who will make a fight out of anything. he walked over to me shouting abuse and he swung a punch at me. i grabbed the punch, imobilised him by manipulating pressure points on his wrist and elbow, hit him with a backfist in the face and then knocked him over with a kick. the combo i used was from a karate kata. once he was on the floor i just told him to f*** off. he got up and walked away. the second real fight i was in was a pretty big brawl in a nightclub. it was crazy. a lot of people like myself got caught in it. i managed to throw a few people to the ground and then get out of it. pressure points were again useful because nearly everyone was bigger than me. i got hit several times from several directions, but i only recieved bruising. the last fight i got into was a 2 on 2 situation. me and my friend were attacked, seemingly for no reason, by 2 drunk men. i used combos from kata and pressure points again and floored both of them. me and my friend than ran away. i got out without being hurt. my friend got a broken nose, and i think i knocked one of them out.

i am 2nd dan in shotokan karate, 1st dan in jujitsu and 1st dan in kendo.

martial artists who have never been in real combat situations may not necessarily have misconceptions about them, but there is no substitute for experience. i think fighting multiple opponents is a vital part of learning to defend yourself, and it is sadly lacking in most MAs. serious one on one fights are pretty rare i think, although they do happen (i've been in one myself).

yes. not only i would, i have. when i got into my first serious street fight, i applied part of a kata, heian nidan. fortunately i was not ambushed, and had time to think before the fighting began. i went through the first few steps of heian nidan (why heian nidan, i don't know, thats what i thought of at the time) in my head and thought 'i am going to apply this'. i did, and i defeated my opponent easily, who was considerably bigger than me. since then i have focused more and more and kata, and i have used it in all 3 street fights that i have been in. most of the bunkai i have learnt in karate dojo i would never use in real combat. it is too slow and inneffective. i believe that you need to know the real bunkai of kata to make them effective. the bunkai tought in most dojos today is ineffective or plain wrong in my opinion. i started learning what i think are the true bunkai from a book called kyusho-jitsu by george dillman. dillman explains the pressure point attacks hidden in karate kata. i followed that up and continued to study pressure point fighting and how much of it there is in kata. i believe now that every single movement in a kata involves pressure points, and by practicing to manipulate these points properly the kata become very effective. i used dillman's principles in the above fight that i described, and i will use them in any future fight i am involved in.

i practiced karate and jujitsu at the same time for 5 years. i liked karate because it was very athletic and energetic, but i wanted something more complete as well, so i started jujitsu. because they are two fairly different arts, there was no real problem in practicing both. currently i practice karate and kendo. they are completely different styles so again there is no problem with practicing both of them.

major motoko, i started at 7 and i understood fairly well what i was being tought, and i was being tought with adult white belts. my understanding improved as i grew older, but it was never just fun and games for me. this is why i think it is down to the individual student and the individual sensei. there certainly are many young students who simply don't get it. i think this is either because those students don't have the mental maturity to learn (this varies between people of the same age) or don't have the right attitude about it, or their sensei simply dosn't have the skill to teach very young students and explain to them what is going on. traditionally, students didn't just enroll in a club. there weren't any age limits. the sensei would select what students that he/she felt capable of learning, and the he/she felt capable of teaching. this would often include tests prior to actual training to see if the student was worthy. age wasn't an absolute barrier; the potential student was either worthy or not. of course, you cannot have this system in modern society because parents will complain about discrimination and stuff. this forces senseis to adopt age limits, which will leave out younger students who are perhaps more capable than odler ones. if a modern day sensei opts to have no age limits, he/she will end up with students that aren't capable of learning (or that the sensei isn't capable of teaching, whichever way you want to put it).

we learnt breaking to help us understand chi and learn to apply it. breaking has helped me to focus my strength when i strike, and my strikes became a lot stronger when i started breaking. sure, there are alternatives to breaking. its not necessary, its just one way of doing things. not everyone will benefit from breaking. if it doesn't do anything for you, stop and do something different. perhaps you already have the skills that breaking is meant to teach.

it depends on what style of MA, the individual student, and the sensei. some people simlply cannot teach very young children effectively, while to others it comes naturally. if i was a sensei, i wouldn't want to teach anyone under 12, yet i started karate when i was 7. i don't see anything wrong with 5 year olds or even younger training as long as they and their instructors are capable of it.

i started shotokan when i was 7, although i was very nearly 8. the most recent art i took up, kendo, i started when i was 18. been doing that for just over a year now.

the word style means 'a manner of doing something' according to my dictionary. in asking 'what style of MA do you practice?', you are essentially asking 'in what manner do you fight?'. i see nothing misleading about such a question. the names of various MAs are just quick and fairly precise ways of describing what style or manner someone fights in.

this is my first post here, so, hello people Icetuete, what you are describing could be almost anything. to me it sounds like ryukyu kempo or some early form of karate. ryukyu kempo has a lot of karate type strikes, many of which sort of flow into throws and/or joint locks. it also involves some improvised weapons such as bo, nunchaku and tonfa.