Gyte

A funny thing is that in Kyokushinkai a stance exists called fudo dachi, but it's not the same stance as the fudo dachi in Shotokan. The Kyokushinkai fudo dachi is the same stance as the hachi dachi in Shotokan. This can sometimes be pretty confusing when you cross train in both styles.

I am a muslim and I can assure you that bowing isn't against the Islamic belief. Perhaps this man thinks that bowing is part of some Buddistic ritual and that's why he thinks it's against his religion. Bowing is off course not a Buddistic ritual. It is in fact a custom of politeness of eastern culture. I have a question for you. Is this man much older than you ? Then perhaps the reason for his behauvior could be that he was feeling superior to you because of his age. A very stupid thought off course, but don't worry that's just how some people are like.

No, he means Sochin Dachi. This is a very different stance than the Sanchin Dachi. Sochin Dachi is also called Fudo Dachi in Shotokan. This stance is usually not known in other styles of Karate and is very unique to Shotokan. I practise Shotokan and I must agree with aefibird that we also don't very much use the Sochin Dachi outside the kata. Shiko Dachi and Neko Ashi Dachi aren't practised much also. For these last two stances this isn't strange, because they are not typical Shotokan stances, but for the Sochin Dachi this shouldn't be so off course. Sochin Dachi is a very good and strong stance. Master Taiji Kase has a strong preference for the Sochin Dachi over the Zenkutsu Dachi. According to Taiji Kase the Sochin Dachi is more flexible. In Zenkutsu Dachi the rear leg is streched, so with the rear leg you can't make a movement anymore. In Sochin Dachi the rear leg is bent, so you have more reserve. The Sochin Dachi is also better for the body, because your muscles act like shock absorbers. It is also better for the joints and the cartilages.

As far as I know only in Shotokan and Shotokai these kata are called Heian. In all other styles they are called Pinan or Pian or Pyung Ahn. Even in styles like Wado-ryu and Kyokushinkai, which can be seen as Shotokan off shoots, they are called Pinan.

Although the Heian kata's are derived from the Pinan kata's, they are significantly different kata's. So the question whether you call them Pinan or Heian is in fact irrelevant.

As far as I know the difference is that Kyokushin is a harder system than Shotokan. The contests of Kyokushin are full contact and the contests of Shotokan are semi-contact. During the training sessions of Kyokushin there is also much more contact than in Shotokan. Another difference is that in Kyokushin kata's of both Shotokan and Goju-ryu are practised. The Shotokan kata's practised in Kyokushin are however slightly different than in Shotokan. The founder of Kyokushin, Masutatsu Oyama studied both under Shotokan and Goju-ryu and later derived his own style. That is how the Shotokan kata's and the Goju-ryu kata's got into Kyokushin.

I used to find 24FightingChickens a good site with a good discussion forum. But I got into argue with Rob Redmond the webmaster and that's why I don't visit the site anymore. I didn't get kicked out but left free willingly, because of the unnecessary harshness of Rob Redmond.

I have some experience with this. In the past I used to go to a Shotokan club, which was lead by a huge guy. This teacher really hurted someone when demonstrating a technique on him. His joint locks were quite painfull. He always said he did this to let the student know the effect of the applied technique. It almost would seem to me that he enjoyed doing this. But when someone try to do something on him he really felt threatened, as I later discovered. I remember one time, when we were practising punches, he punched with an powerfull oi zuki on my plexus solaris. I just collapsed and fell on the ground and it took me a quite an amount of time to be able to get up again. I was under the impression that he was merely testing out the effect of his punch on me, rather than demonstrating an oi zuki. After two years I thought to myself, just what in heaven's name am I still doing here. I quickly changed to another Shotokan club.

Yes, very cruel indeed. What did those bulls do to him that he killed him with his bare hands? Supposedly he was inspired by the story that Sokon Matsumura once fought a bull. Thus Oyama decided to try to fight against a bull too. During his whole life he faced 52 bulls, killing 3 and smashed the horns of the others. All I can say about it is that Masutatsu Oyama doesn't impress me much. Among karate masters I see him more like a macho type kind of person, who didn't contribute anything to karate other than full contact contests. As for the style he created : Kyokushinkai. His style doesn't show any distinctive characteristics. He just borrowed some kata's from Shotokan and Goju-ryu and added these to his style. Of these kata he taught quite simple bunkai.

equaninimus, The guy doing Nijushiho isn't half naked. The guy doing the old Jitte kata is half naked. The comment says that the Okinawan Seisho Aragaki created the kata Nijushiho back in the 1800's. But Aragaki actually didn't create it. In fact he only taught a kata named Niseishi at his dojo, which wasn't created by him. Later this kata got into Shotokan where it was slightly altered and renamed in Nijushiho.

Very nice site. Until now I didn't know that there existed a video of Gigo Funakoshi performing the kata Heian Godan. The comment says that the only real thing that has changed with this kata are the back stances at the end. The back stances are performed in Okinawan style, rather than in modern Shotokan style. I can see more things that Gigo does different. He uses shiko dachi instead of kiba dachi. He doesn't lift his knee up when he performs the fumikomi with gedan barai. I have also noticed the following. After the jump and the low juji uke when he performs morote uke his rear foot doesn't point forward like in a normal zenkutsu dachi, but instead his rear foot points sideways.

I can read German. From what I understand the bunkai presented on this website are elementary bunkai, that is why it's all block and punch. The more advanced bunkai are not shown here, expect the bunkai from the kata Tekki Shodan. If you want to see the advanced ones you must buy the videotapes or the DVD's.

miguksaram, could you describe these awsome TKD schools a little more? How are they like? How is their overall technique performace? Do they use punches during sparring? Do they allow leg grabs and leg sweeps? Everybody is critising TKD so that I wonder what a real good TDK school is like.

Hi all, I have trained in a Taekwondo school that you would call a McDojo (or McDojang). Whether it's a McDojo or not you may decide. The expertise of the teacher was low. The way he taught, I think I could do the same thing also, or perhaps even better. I was just a yellow belt student then. The fees were not expensive but moderate. The teacher even got complaints from some colleagues of why he kept the fees so low. The training consisted of first a very severe training (lots of running, jumping, pushups, situps and squats), then kihon kumite, then kata training and in the end jiyu kumite. Every lesson we would train in this scheme and we trained twice a week. The kihon kumite training consisted of numerous trainings about how to block and counterattack a front punch (oi zuki). We however never did use these techniques in jiyu kumite, because nobody used punches in jiyu kumite. The teacher let us practise kata (hyung or poomse) but he almost never taught the bunkai of it. The only thing I got to learn from the bunkai were a few remarks from the teacher and that's it, nothing else. The jiyu kumite consisted of just kicking, nobody ever attacked with punches. Leg grabs and leg sweeps weren't allowed. The back wasn't considered as a target area. Blocking consisted of no more than just a tap with the hands on the attacking leg of the opponent. Exams were twice a year and mostly everybody past these exams. A strange thing was the fact that we had to break one or more boards during exams, while we never got any training in it. I think this was very unresponsible from the teacher. He should have at least given us a few trainings, before letting us break boards. That's why it sometimes happened that a student would injure his hand during these board breaking events. I know at least two cases of this. So, I want to ask everbodies opinion does this school fit into the description of a McDojo????

No, Hung Gar isn't Lau Gar, but they are related. Hung Gar is also a five animal shaolin style (Dragon, Tiger, Leopard, Crane, Snake). There are plenty of Hung Gar websites. Perhaps you only searched websites in Britain. Try searching worldwide. I'm sure you will find a website about Hung Gar. Yes, it is indeed a popular art in Britain, but outside Britain and Ireland it's hardly practised. To clear things up, take a look at the following site about the history of Lau Gar : http://www.orientalsportsassociation.com/history.htm

From what I have read it hardly exists no more. There are just a couple of schools left. But a style called Hung Gar has incorporated its techniques into a form called Lau Gar. So Lau Gar is still practised as a form in Hung Gar. If you want to know more about Lau Gar look in Hung Gar for a form called Lau Gar.

Before Funakoshi the Japanese already had sumo, ju jutsu, judo and aikido. These martial arts are mostly based on grappling, throwing and joint-locking. However, in some ju jutsu styles kicking and punching is stressed. An example of this is Shinto Yoshin Ryu, which was studied by Japanese Hironori Ohtsuka, the founder of Wado Ryu Karate.

Yes, most Okinawan styles are influenced by white crane kung fu. A better question would be which kata are based on the white crane. Typical white crane kata are Hakutsuru, Nipaipo, Happoren, Hakucho, Haufa, Hakkaku and Shinpa. There are also other kata that have some crane flavour in them like chinto, rohai, wanshu and others. Karate styles that practise these kata are off course the most influenced by the white crane.

Shotokan Karate is just one of the styles of Karate. Karate-Do is Karate with a certain philosophy and/or religion attached to it. The word "Do" at the end of word "Karate-Do" means way or method. It means that it not only deals with the how of Karate, but also of the why of Karate. Karate-Do can be practised in any of the styles of Karate. So there is no difference between Shotokan Karate and Karate-Do if Shotokan Karate is practised with philosophy and/or religion.

I think these two styles are separate styles. On the site http://www.shaolin.com you can find more information about these styles.