Jussi Häkkinen

Tokaido, Shureido, Hirota, Eosin Panther.

It's a martial sport. Having a martial art fighting competition without or light contact really doesn't tell much good about the people doing it. Competitions don't need to be for everyone and not overly safe. I'd rather see a full contact sparring match with protectors than "controlled" tag-match with whining about the contact. In short, I think that even the WKF rules are too strict when limiting contact and leaving legs out of the contact area. If there has to be karate competitions (there doesn't need to be, really), they should portray the karate itself properly - including contact to whole body area (OK, maybe throat and groin may be non-attack areas), throwing and short groundfighting, elbow and knee attacks and other things that are an integral part of karate. Need protectors? Then there should be them. But no "non-contact" karate.

Yes, if there's a sound educational structure in a society. You learn respect and the rules of your society in school, not in martial arts. That way, you can better concentrate on whatever you're learning in MA's, instead of having to study things that you already know - that it's generally a bad thing to kill or maim people in modern society. It's already common knowledge and one doesn't need to study that when studying martial arts. I believe that the overly emphasizes "perfection of the character" -ideology is indeed a lack of understanding from western side, caused by the cultural gap in our ways of thinking. Originally, martial arts are a very much more mundane thing.

Only if the style defines it so. In that case most (I'd be ready to claim 90%) of the Okinawan masters (8-10. dan) are "goofed". They do cross the belt behind their back - and teach their students to do so. And well, I think that they're pretty far from "goofed". There are many ways. Only important thing is that you tie the belt in a way that it is taught in your dojo or in your style.

Like Okinawan karate. Traditional, real and pure. No sports. No big publicity. Better, IMO.

True martial arts are about killing or otherwisely winning your opponent in a physical confrontation. Philosophies etc. are pretty much unessential in this. However, it is generally easier to deal with society if one does have a suitable amount of humility and respect.

I can. But now again, I can imagine it without Shotokan, Wado-ryu and other Japanese styles as well. And the view I see in my mind isn't ugly...

Yes, belt can work like a koshi ita (the backpiece) if tightened up. With hakama, however, the koshi ita itself supports the back, without the help of the belt. Belt is traditionally worn under the hakama and is very different to the karate or judo belt. (Some modern bujutsu schools wear belt over the hakama. That is not a traditional way, however).

It is true and it isn't very sloppy looking - it looks just different, but not sloppy if done properly. I used to tie the belt without crossing it and was corrected into the crossed way. Pretty much every Okinawan master seems to wear his belt in a "crossed" -way in pictures and videos. As well as in live situation. One purpose that has been told is that the crossed area supports the lower back a bit (valid only if the belt is tied very tightly). Other, more practical, reason is that the crossed belt is flatter, being only one layer on spine area. That way the breakfalls don't hurt your back so much. That reason holds water, especially with thicker black belts.

Heh, had it happen to my brown belt back in the times. The expressions on faces of the people in changing room were rather priceless. Hehehe! If anyone asks about it, just tell them that you got tired to the new one. Then take a photo of his expression (if he's one of those "belt shouldn't be replaced" -purists).

Different thing. Side stretching (yokogeri no undo) is done by swinging the leg, but yokogeri keage is a side snap kick (well, that's the common translation for the name). It can be found in a couple of older kata as well. Common bunkai is a low sweep sideways or a groin kick under the attacking leg after a lateral parry/foot catch.

Well, it might be. However, it hasn't been a tradition or anything in the roots of the art - nor here where I live and train. By all means, if it's a tradition in your club, don't wash your belt (please, spray it with antibacterial spray occasionally, though). I'll keep washing mine every now and then - it doesn't hurt my karate, it doesn't offend anyone (as stinky belt would) and it isn't against any tradition in my style and association.

When it comes to "all martial artists", I heard this for a first time about 1 or 2 years before - in 24 fighting chickens forums. It was a surprise for me and I thought that it might be an American habit. It did feel weird, as did the "don't put the belt on the ground" and "don't step over the belt" -rules I heard in the forums. After all, a belt is just a piece of karate clothing. Connecting superstition and unhealthy habits (like not washing it) did seem very irrational to me. I can honestly say that "all martial artists" don't know about it. I've mentioned it to several others here and everyone has thought that it's ridiculous, laughing at it and asking if they weren't joking about this. Why it should be a tradition? It's unhealthy. Being filthy is not a civilized tradition, I think.

It depends. There are some yokogeri in Okinawan Pinan-kata, depending to school (kan). Think about it as a low block/sideways sweep to the kicking leg or front leg. Touching point can be the whole outside of the shin. That'll open the application nicely. Chatan Yara no Kusanku also has yokogeri keage originally, used in combination with a yokobarai uraken.

True. Some instructors do wash the belt, others don't. Some just buy a new one every once in a while. If your instructor doesn't want you to wash your belt, well, maybe it can be cleaned otherwise (wiping it every once in a while with a disinfection liquid might also work well). What I can say pretty certainly is that "not washing" is not a Japanese or Okinawan tradition. Still, even newer traditions occasionally do count as traditions - and if one feels that they are important, they should follow them. I train traditionally, I wash my belt (traditionally) and love karate. But that's just what I do - others may have other traditions.

I recommend ordering straight from Shureido, it'll cost a lot less than $250. (I'm not connected to Shureido by any way, I just thought that I'd recommend a less costly alternative). My wish list: A tailor made uniform (Tokaido or Hirota. I'm currently wearing Shureido, but I think that I could try other high quality do-gi as well). A pair of Shureido sai. A trip to Okinawa.

Durability, appearance, sweat absorbtion, tradition.

Quite a lot. They're a common part of karate training pretty much everywhere I've been to.

So, I believe that now you know where the price of the quality belts comes from.

Neither do I. I know, but I've seen him live. That video is edited.

Well, Goju-ryu is a rather recent addition to Okinawan styles. Kanryo Higashionna brought it from China in late 19th/early 20th century and his student Chojun Miyagi later developed it into a Goju-ryu known nowadays, as well as named the style. So, it's no wonder that there are kung fu -influence. I must say, I have seen the person performing the kata in a seminar. While his karate is OK, it's not that fast - I'd say that the video is manipulated. It's most visible in his stepping.

I've seen Tetsuhiro Hokama teaching and performing live. He's not that fast. He has a "speeded up" -way of performing Goju, but the video isn't real. The video is edited - rather well, but they overdid the speed.

No, it's just a big knife.

Shorin-ryu seems to be covering only Matsubayashi-ryu. There are heaps of others, since Shorin-ryu is probably the widest umbrella name (and has a couple of forms for writing "shorin" -kanji) for styles and substyles ("schools", kan) in Okinawan karate. For example: Wado-ryu comes from Shotokan (and Shinto Yoshin-ryu jujutsu, since Wado is a combination of karate and jujutsu), which comes from Shorin-ryu (Matsumura-lineage, via Anko Azato and Anko Itosu). Wado-ryu could be called as "Shorin-ryu Shotokan Ohtsuka-ha", or "Ohtsuka's way of Shoto-school of Shorin-style". Styles are a large issue to be covered here in a satisfactory manner. If you're interested about Okinawan styles, you can find some light scale info here: http://www.wonder-okinawa.jp/023/eng/ However, it's advisable to read even more, compare and study.

Karate-do Kyohan was written by Gichin Funakoshi, a father of Shotokan karate. It's not same style as I do. Karate is not a style, it's a martial art which has several styles - maybe a hundred of them is a safe bet - with many branches even in those. A generalization about what is in karate or what is not in karate is a very dangerous thing to do. However, people have bragged and done acrobatic things throughout the history. Wheel kicks exist actually in many Chinese martial arts. Still, when distilling the core of the fighting system to the kata/quan, mundane things and specialities are often left without mentioning. While acrobatic kicks may be good for gaining and maintaining balance and body mobility, their practicality is very doubtful (and yes, I've seen and fought many who are excellent in acrobatic and "special" kicks. I love them every time). First off, thank you for calling me "baby". Second: Robert Trias did not have a strong backround in modern karate. It's commonly agreed that "Shuri-ryu" isn't a real old style (it's a creation of Mr. Trias himself). He obviously selected the techniques he did feel important. There are stories of old masters doing jumping and acrobatic kicks (Soko Kishimoto and "Bushi" Tanemura are good examples, as well as Kosaku Matsumora) despite the lack of them in karate kata. Those kicks and acrobatics aren't a new thing - OK, some variations may have surfaced later (such as off-axis flipping kicks and other show competition specials), but the generic idea of challenging own balance and ability by doing something different is very old. Kata isn't an ultimate list of techniques - it just gives you the principles of fighting, which is a completely different thing. You can apply the principles any way you want after learning them - occasionally a good application may include a more special kick (mostly not, usually it's all about practicality).