cathal

I find our techniques adept at disarming anyone with a knife. The crescent kick is quite effective, in my experience.

The belts we wear in our dojo go half way down to the thigh but aren't allowed to go past the knee. But I've seen some Chito-Ryu dojos where they seem to all go just past the knee. Very interesting head shots when some of them to front kicks. :S

Shotokan JC Penny, $3.99 LOL

I started training in martial arts because I wanted to be active to some degree, and at the same time learn self defence and focus.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter if you're defending yourself.

I have not heard anything negative about that organization, aside from the standard politics in the tournaments everyone's organization seems to have.

I saw "Deadly Arts" on IFC today, it was very interesting. It was all about kalaripayattu, and was very informative and the demos were excellent.

When we strike, say with our right hand, the right hip moves forward with your arm. The fist moves to the center of your body, as the desired target would be the sternum or head. Just at the point of contact with the target, you snap your hip back. At the same time you have your fist rotated to the target so you're first two knuckles are making contact to the target. At that point in the strike all of the power is transmitted to the target thus causing damage. In my style we kiai at the point of contact which serves to focus the body's energies and the power of the attack.

I didn't participate in this fight I'm about to tell you about but witnessed my older brother fighting. He was 10 at the time, and had been training in Brazillian Jujitsu for about two years. I myself had just begun, and was just beat up by a bully. I was 8, and the bully was 14, and in grade 6 (he'd failed a few years) and was six feet tall. Some growth spurts I guess. Anyway my brother had noticed me get beat up and was out for revenge. It was a very short fight, he got away from a grab, and kicked out this bully's knee. The bully fell to the ground, and onto his knees. My brother then punched the bully in the neck, and that was it. I'm not sure if the larynx was damaged, or whatever, but the bully left us alone. I was mostly surprised not what happened in the fight but how fast it was.

We have classes that are and hour and a half long. The first 10 minutes are devoted to warm-up. Next is 10-20 minutes of kihon followed by an hour of what the sensei wishes to cover for the rest of the class. This can be kata, kumite, more kihon or mixtures of the three.

Thank you

It is symbolic of "returning to the center".

Good: - Classes are almost every day, so I can train when I want to. - 14 Students, nice and small and 5 are black belts...so student/instructor ratio is great. - Great people, we all get along. - Location is very close by, just 5 minutes. - Every 3 months there is a training session with a master-level visitor. - Good, constructive crituqe of our techniques. Bad: - Sensei is steadfast in her belief that karate should be fors port - Not enough contact sparring

Had to close the browser, hated the constant music.

I certainly wouldn't want to be learning from that "sensei"

I tend to agree that your sensei should be the one making the compaint. What if I am watching a colleague spar, for example, and my sensei isn't watching...and I see a bag call or favouritism-based call? How does one challenge this?

What is the proper method to challenge a judge's decision during competition? Do you immediately request a time out and confer with your sensei/coach or wait until the end of competition? Do you challenge this yourself? Any and all input is appreciated.

Do you have any diagrams available for these two katas, or a link we can view a video of them?

You may want to check out "Ki and the Way of the Martial Arts" by Kenji Tokitsu. He explains several methods to use the ki in your body, in both soft and hard methods. Not sure if Goju-Ryu is a hard style, but he provides a good explanation of using both.

Yeah...nobody cares. LOL Just kidding congrats.

There is a white crane dojo near my dojo, as I recall one of its students said there was a lot of sparring. Not sure on the other questions though.

You've learned escrima and kali for 5 years and don't know how effective it is? How is that possible?

Thanks guys. Oh, and I *think* its spelled wakazashi

Hi, Anyone know where I can learn some good sword maintenance? I am going to be getting a katana in a while I want to ensure it is taken care of. Thanks everyone

The last Shotokan sensei I had was teaching all of those things, so I'm not sure if its the same for all of our dojos. Thank you for all of your advice so far!