italian_guy

Quite similar in my school White learn Taichioku (jodan,chudan,gedan) Yellow Gakisai (Ich, Ni) Orange Sanchin and Tensho Green Saifa Blue Seyenchin Brown Shisochin 1st Black Kururunfa, seipai 2nd Black all others.

I think yes because the international language of karate is Japanese. It is also good that mawashi uke is called like that throughout the world.

I think what you describe resembles more shotokan then goju. The stances in goju are not that long and the movement are both circular and linear. It has powerful hard techniques and soft block-and-grab techniques to initiate grappling... and it's not even completely Japanese it is mostly okinawan even if there is also Japanese GoJu.

I fully agree.. btw watching a 76 y.o. sparring with success should be amazing.

Great pics and a great master...

Yes, they may be confusing karate and boxing punches are different, but being careful it is a good combination.

Karate is a mixed martial art which includes grappling, throws, locks, chokes, strangles. As well as strikes. It always has been. If you're not practicing it that way you're practicing kickboxing, not karate. I agree that Karate does contain grappling, throws, locks, and so on. However, since training in an art that specializes in those techniques (Aiki Jujitsu and Brazilian Jiujitsu) Karate's way of applying them uses more energy than is necessary sometimes. Afterall, traditional Kodokan Judo contains punches and kicks...but it's still the weak part of the system. Karate teaches the throws and whatnot...but they are still the weakest part of most Karate systems. I do not agree, karate is 70% striking and 30% grappling, we may not have all the option that a Jodoka, BJJ or JJJ has but we have our thows/armlock and ground work arsenal and we practice it.

Sorry I didn't notice that it was for shodan, in this case: 3 Taichioku, 2 Gekisai Sanchin, Tensho, Saifa, Seyenchin Shisochin.

Yes I agree, the game with germany was better. The final was somehow a victory of the tenacity more than the technique. France played better in the last 20 min of the second half and for the entire extra time but Italy withstood all the attacks and showed more calmness in the final free penalties. They looked at the cup with the eyes of the tiger.

I'm studing GoJu since april 2004 and I'm very happy with it. I think is the MA that suits me more. I've also studied kickboxing, Tai chi chuan (yang) and JKD but GoJu karate is the one that I found better for my body, my age group and my expectations.

We have the 12 GoJu kata plus 3 beginner's kata (taichioku jodan, chudan, gedan)

Yes Zidane behaved very badly, I was not expecting that from him. Rumors says that Materazzi called him terrorist but they are just rumors....

.... and finally we won. You cannot even imagine how the squares and the Historical centres of the italian towns looked like last night.

I'm not very leg-flexible but I like to use front kicks (Mostly snap but also push). I'm not so good with the other kicks

Aslo mine.

Congratulation aefi!!

Congratulations, this is a great sign of consideration. Keep us informed.

My advice is... start learning them piece by piece, when you have an idea of the various pieces start to do it in one go, first go slow. Another good advice is practice your kata in your mind whenever you can, train/bus stops, toilets, in bed before sleeping, while you eat alone etc. any moment that your mind is free. Just imagine you going through the movement. The first thing to do is having your kata in your mind before executing with the body.

Uniformity in katas and kihon is a good thing. It make you feel part of a big family spread all over the world. I practice goju karate and I'm glad that the word Sanchin or Tensho means the same thing for me and for thousands of people everywhere. Unfortunately there are some differences and non-uniformity within the same style. I think the a re-unification within styles would be a good thing.

Congratulations to Patrick and to the present (and also past) staff.

I agree with most of the previous posters here. Books and videos are good supplements, but you need to have good teachers to correct your mistakes and good schoolmates to test your technique and grow in MA knowledge.

Morio Higaonna, Bruce Lee, Dan Inosanto, Bill Wallace, Chuck Norris in this order

It depends why he splitted and what is going to do next, but most of the times I would stay with my instructor.

Congrats to belasko and best wishes to aefibird.

Belts are not a bad thing if properly hadled by the person who wear it. Expecially belt exams help you to focus on your program and train harder for the final price you get. I think that the grade itself does not mean a lot, just a measurement of experience and time spent training. In my school we train all togheter and most of the time we do the same thing... only when we study new katas we split in ranks... and the BBs help with the teaching.