aefibird

Hi ibiza130! Welcome to Karate Forums.

Hi Nick! Welcome to Karate Forums.

Welcome to Karate Forums!

Welcome to KarateForums, Shadow Warrior!

Congratulations on your competition results!

Thank you for sharing your tournament experience with us Dijita! I feel that you really showed true martial spirit in your post - you learned good lessons through your fight, you're philosophical about it, gracious in defeat and determined to keep on training and improving. I'm glad you had a good time. Are you planning on entering next year?

Interesting topic Italian Guy! In my karate dojo it's about 85% men. There's more kids than adults at the moment, but it's roughly equal between adults and children usually. At the freestyle self defence my instructor does it's about 50-50 between men & women, no children allowed. At my (now sadly closed) Aikido dojo I was the only female student, and the only woman student that they'd for quite a while. It wasn't that they were sexist or anything like that, it was simply the club was a very small club and that's just how it had worked out. It was wierd training only with men - I could see they struggled a lot with trying to do the technique properly, like I'd want them to and also with being gentlemanly and holding back for fear of hurting me, a similar situation to what Reklats described.

Unsu is a very tricky kata. Try practicing each part of the jump as a separate component before putting it together (eg the turn without jumping, the jump without turning, the hand position without the jump or the turn,) then try slowly fitting them together. When I initially started learning Unsu I found that the quicker I jumped, the better it was. For me, trying to do it too slowly put me off balance and I would end up with a skewed landing. The best advice I can give is practice... Unsu is an exceptionally difficult kata and it requires a lot of practice to get it right. Good luck with it!

lol, yeah it is a bit of a karate oddity that one. It's like telling them they're wrong then changing it and telling them that, yes, you were right after all...

darkreaper, welcome to KarateForums!

We don't tend to wear any equipment for sparring in my dojo - occasionally a pair of mitts, but that's about it. In fact, I bet I can count on one hand the times I've worn my mitts for sparring in my dojo in all the years I've been there. Men can choose to wear a groin guard and ladies can wear a chest protector if they wish, but hardly anyone does, especially not on a regular basis. When I compete in competitions, I wear a pair of karate mitts and a gum shield. I bought a pair of shin protecters, but I found them uncomfortable to wear and spar in, so I've only worn them a couple of times. Men are required to wear a groin guard for comps. If you need glasses for sparring, then you will have to wear contact lenses or get a pair of prescription sports goggles. Good luck with your sparring, Matt!

Not necessarily. They might have changed them... they might not have. We don't know. As long as practicing traditional kata works for someone, then fine. If tinkering and adapting kata works for someone else, then fine. There's enough room in karate and martial arts for both sets of people. Personally, I'm a bit of both. I love practicing and working on traditional kata, especially when done at 'full speed' as if there was an opponent there. However, I also like creating my own kata or mini sequences of movements. I believe that it helps me to think about how movements naturally fit together and that it encourages me to think for myself and not just rely on what my sensei or other instructors have to say.

Sheesh, I have enought trouble keeping up with which stance name means which stance just in one style! Ramymensa, you finished those push ups yet??

We use that kick at my dojo - called Sokuto Fumikomi too. I'm not sure if it's a regular thing in Shotokan to use that kick, but we probably train in it at my dojo because my instructor has trained in several karate styles including Wado, Goju, Kyokushin and Shorin. We tend to do a lot of things that aren't 'officially' Shotokan, but my instructors veiew point is that if it works, we might as well include it - just because other Shotokan dojo's don't, doesn't mean that we can't either.

As I said in my previous post, not everything in karate is there simply to be tested on. Yes, sit & push ups will help you for testing, but that's not the only reason they're done, or at least not in most dojo's. Same with the dojo's that do mirror/backwards kata. It can help with testing, by helping you to understand a kata more, but that's not all it's there for. Karate isn't a race - it's not about cramming as much as possible into as short a space of time as possible. If it takes a person a year to really learn a kata then so be it. It doing that same kata mirrored helps them to understand it even more, then great. In my dojo we don't practice mirror or backwards kata on a regular basis (that would be a little excessive), but I believe that they're a useful tool for training - for both children and adults - when used in conjunction with other training methods.

Yes, I personally use Sochin stance a lot when freestyle sparring - what I was meaning was do you ever 'officially' practice and work on Sochin Dachi (eg in drills) or is it just used in sparring and the Sochin kata? Champ, I love Sochin kata too. It's a great example of a Shotokan kata IMO.

Hi Chrono, welcome to KarateForums! All martial arts can be physically demanding, but they're also a great way to get into shape. If you're worried about whether you'd be able to cope with Ju-Jitsu (or any other type of martial art) then asking your own GP would be a good place to start. Try starting with a little light excercise before you join a club; even something as simple as walking round the block a couple of times a day will help you to get into shape. If you haven't excercised for a long time then don't rush back into it as you could do yourself more harm than good. Start slowly and build up. Sorry to hear you've not been able to find a JJ club near to you. If you're interested in Japanese martial arts, why not see if you can find a Karate, Kendo or Aikido club? Remember, the quality of the instructor is more important that the martial art - you can train in a great style, but if you have a useless instructor then you might as well not bother training. Why don't you try doing a general martial arts search on the internet for MA schools in your area? Or ask around at work/school/local sports centres to see if anyone knows of any decent martial arts clubs in your area. Good luck with your search!

Hi Picto, welcome to Karate Forums!

Hi TraditionalFighter! Welcome to KF.

I agree with KotegashiNeo. There are plenty of Western Karate dojo's out there that are true to the foundations and traditions of karate, but they'e getting swamped by the 'quick fix' schools and those who are only in it for the money. I've been researching martial arts schools in my area, as I've recently had to give up Aikido and I'd like another art to train in as well as Shotokan. I visited a dojo this morning to watch a class and chat to the instructor. One of the first things that he said to me was about how soon I could get to black belt if I trained at his club. It was obvious that getting as many people to shodan in as short a time as possible, whilst extracting the largest amount of money from them, was the sole aim of his school. Needless to say, I won't be training there.

ah soryr delta1, my mstiake. iits treu us engilsh poepel cant spel...

Lots of posters around town, special discounts and promotions, 'bring along a friend' deals for current members, adverts in local newspapers, see if you can join forces with other sprts clubs to co-recruit for members (eg with a gym). BTW, why do you 'have' to recruit 40 new white belts? Are they gonna sack you if you don't? That seems a bit harsh.

Yes, but it's ten zillion times better than where I live now. Anywhere else on Earth has to be better than Wath-upon-Dearne... :-/

We were practicing Sochin (sp?) kata tonight at my dojo and it got me thinking - how many of you practice Sochin stance regularly? We hardly ever practice the stance outside of the kata - maybe once every couple of months or so we might do some work on Sochin stance away from the kata, but we practice other stances much more regularly, such as shikodachi, neko ashi dachi etc etc. I know a couple of people on here have mentioned before that they don't do much work on Sochin stance - is this mainly a Shotokan thing or does it apply to other karate styles?

We do backwards and mirror kata occasionally in my dojo and it's a good bit of fun. Yes, you can practice balance, techniques etc through basics/kihon, but this is just another way to help students to 'get it', especially if you're taking a lesson full of kids. As for it not being a test requirement - well, it isn't but it doesn't necessarily waste time practicing kata like this. Just because something isn't a test requirement doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. If you go down that route, then you get into the mindset that everything that is done in lessons should be solely for testing purposes. We do sit ups, push ups etc regularly in my dojo - but they are not a requirement for testing. However the majority of people would agree that they're a useful training tool if used correctly. It can be the same with mirror and backwards kata.