kataman

in my stile of katate shotokan , we learnded 1 kata belt up to brown than 3 from brown to black. first white belt heian shodan,yellow belt heian nidan orange belt heian sandan,green belt heian yodan,blue belt heian godan,brown belt kanku sho bassai sho tekki shodan,blak belt you have to do them all.

it always good to be a well rounded fighter but you got to keep in mine that street fighting it often the result of self defense ,often a non matial artist attaking a martial artist so at that point grappler or striker don'T make any difference you got to get out of there.Plus if I am a grappler on the street would I go on the ground on a one on one attack? Maybe but if it a multiple opponents attack I would try to stay up and alive.what is going on in a ring is not always the same thing on the street.Do you train for the ring or to protect your self or your family in tine you need it?

2 waya i look at ,first in the begenig japanies were so cauth up in who was the best and who the sensei would choose to be the next in charge,juste like Jesus and is desciples who was the great one,so they needed a stucture just like the army and in a way it was the best think to do.but Ihave to admit that some school have sell there black belt regardless of the hability of the personne and it show on the matt in a tournement.But for my self I think of the belt stucture of more like short time goal cause sometime if you look at the overall time that you have to spend to get a black belt you sometime get discourage,but when you lookat next belt and you don't forget about the work to do you will eventuly reach you ultimate goal.

My Sensei told me one day that if I keep practicing kata it will eventually help me in my fighting cause at that point I had a lot of probleme in my fighting especialy in tournement,It true tournement is no street fighting but I did became a better fighter cause of kata. last year I did 6 tournements and I finished twice first place, once third place,once fourth place that why I belived in kata.

Angel a snap side kick is called a yoko-geri-keage and a thrust side kick is a yogo-geri-kekomi.THey are both called yoko-geri yoko mean side and geri mean kick.

Thank you all for such imput,let me take to you about my last tournement. It was in Val D'OR Quebec first round of fighting i had a free be (didn'T have to fight cause we were fifteen ) my first fight i meet a guy 6 foots 5 280 pounds but it ok it only pin point fighting,till he hit you on the nose but it was ok the guy was a doctor. but it kind a cool me down for the rest of the tournement.

September is around the conner and in my part of the world it tournement season.LET TALK ABOUT EXPERIENCE GOOD OR BAD IN TOURNEMENT.

when to used a snap kick or a trust kick,for my point of view you used a trust kick when you want to create a distance with you opponent .you used a snap kick when you want to kept you opponent closse and want to combine with something else. snap kick is a real good kick in tournement.

I started karate in 1984 and i got my green belt in 1985 today i'am still green belt but i am 35 years old insted of 16. after a bit of judo and aikido i am a better fighter today and i have more control ,but someday i will be black belt.

SASORI TE thanks for you input that what i belived and by the way you are wright about kobudo,sorry my mistake.

first you have to look at how many years the school have been there. it doen't matter the number of years but it will give you a clue of how many black belt stayed whit the sensei

what would you find is a good age to be black belt.

searcher:It good to know that other poeple love and practice kobudo,i am in a groupe of kobudo that learnd bo and other weapons,in our line of bo kata we have 1st shoun no kon if i remember it wright they are 4 diferente form that the one i do in tournement,2nd we have shushi no kon dai 54 moves,shusi no kon sho it a smaler version of the other one 26 moves and we have sakugawa no kon which is 63 moves

In my dojo the black exam is in 3 parts, 1st you have to do everithing you've learnd so far (kata all of them plus all the techniques) 2'nd you need to teached a whole class see if you are abble to transmit what you know to others,3'th like in every dojo you need to do the kumite part which is to meet all black belt for a 2 minutes round which is sometime over 30 minutes long.

Does all martial arts comming from asia? I am from Canada and there a new stile going on bassed on the north americain indiand. When you look down at the origin of martial art we all have commond threat,after all a kick is a kick where ever you are in Canada or else where in the world we have differents styles of karate today because of where people would lived (boat farms mountain etc..

yes we pratice bunkai at my dojo it even part of our exam when you are going for your blue belt you need to do 5 bunkai from heian shodan end 5 from heian nidan and so on for your future exams.

thank you all so far it been helpfull.Remember that my code name is kataman,so i belive in the use off kata to learnd karate or the others style or other martial art that use formes.How about the bunkai for self-defence instaid of taking techniques from others martial arts such as ninjitsu,ju-jitsu etc.

what do we learnd from kata,knowing is so far from the reallity of street fighting.

I know what you mean but if it true black belt beeing the begining of a new stept perfection is far from from a black belt. What make a real good black belt ,is the way he teached or transmit what he's learded Mario

I'am bus driver from Canada and just before new year 2003 i had a fight in my bus. the guy started to punch me on the head while i was still driving. When i got up i started to punch himi was abble to grab him by the head but at one point he seemed stonger than me so i had to take him to the ground where i took the adventage again that why i belive in mixing martial arts even if you only do a little of ground defence or a little of striking it always good to mixte.