equaninimus

Wuhl..I is a akadermic, 'n' I ain't had no bad'fcts fum been hitted inder head, nosiree!

ET, I think that is the same incident.

Did this guy train initially in the 1950s, 1960s, or early 1970s? I understand that that sort of thing was fairly common then. Of course, that generation has mostly modified their training method since then. Another possiblility is that he has read of that era and bought into its philosophy. Either way, if you think the contact is excessive, leave.

You...you...you..you shotokan basher you! That is one reason I switched to an Okinawan style.

So, if you live in the dojo, and train all the time, how are you supposed to pay this? Sounds like a scam to me.

It has happened. Solar plexus? Well, during kotekite we do punch each other in the solar plexus. Kick to the groin, why were you not wearing a cup? If that is the case, why are you still at that dojo?

Principal, guidance councilor, etc.. If the PE teacher isn't taking it seriously, that should be addressed as well. We here in the Denver area tend to be rather insulated, still, from the realities of school violence. The over-reaction to recent video projects from Boulder high school demonstrates this odd dichotomy. The fact is, any threat of violence should be taken seriously. It might be hot air, and it might not. Don't wind up in a trauma cubical at DG just because you weren't sure. Similarly, you don't want to end up in jail as partt of the "zero tolerance" policy.

Again, if you read the literature, Gigo was right up there with the other students in agitating for some sort of competition. Gigo would appear to have been one of several students who participated in dojo "challenges."

Er, I would disagree that its cowardly, since we upper ranks hit each other quite hard in training.

For your own self preservation, swallow your pride and get the school involved.

Indeed. Would you like a glass of water.

Apparently the reason Nakamura formed Seido was that Oyama ordered him beaten nearly to death after a tournament in NY in the 1970s. Nakayama's history as a Yakuza "strongman" led to a prison sentence for murder in the late 1940s. This is the experience that supposedly inspired his creation of Kyokishin after performing shugyo on release from prison.

Ahhhh...Aikido!

GO TO YOUR TEACHERS!

Seipai is a Goju Ryu kata, the others are practiced in the Itosu lineage of Shorin.

Ever seen Seipai, Chibana Kusanku, or Rohai?

I would hesitate to limit Uchinaatoudi to four "main styles." Similarly, of the freqently lsited four main styles of Japanes Karate, at least three (Goju, Shoto, and Shito) exist as broad families of related arts, consisting of wide variations in technical execution, as well as philosophy of practice. Even Wado, which only ruptured in the later 1970s, has developed distinctinve substyles in JKF- Wado Kai and Wado Ryu Renmei.

Have you seen the you seen the official oyo of most Japanese karate styles? Block punch kick was the ruling paradigm until very recently. Penalizing someone for acting according to contemporary standards is an intellectually lazy practice.

To be fair, the bulls were scheduled for slaughter anyway. In addition, sympathy for animals is a fairly recent phenomenon, mostly post 1850. Popular childrens passtimes prior to that era included putting kittens in a bag and hitting it with a stick! See Grubb, James, Firstborn of Venice, Princeton, 1996. While there was more sympathy for animals in the 1950s and 1960s, consider that horses and other livestock were routinely maimed in the filming of motion pictures during this time. As for Oyama's karate, I admit to mixed feelings on the subject. I personally thionk that he never "got it" as far as karate technique, howver , if you wish to concentrate on the superficial level of karate technique, i.e. punch, kick, block, then he and his successors are probably the best there are. As far as his personality is concerened, I think he was someone who tried to live down his early reputation as a 'tough guy,"and was never really able to do so. Certainly recollections of Oyama from students of his, like Ninomiya Joko here in Denver, paint a picture of a conmplex and in many ways tortured man who was dedicated to the ideals of budo, in a 16th century fashion, as well as to world peace and understanding. Remember, Oyama was a Korean immigrant to Japan in the late 1930s, and in addition experienced the privation that went along with simple existence in immediate post-war Japan. I would suggest that the clues to his pysche, and understanding its reflection in his karate are best deciphered in this context. My two cents.

I would be cautious about heaping too much condemnation on Nakayama for the long stances and linear theories of the JKA. Most of those innovations are lilely the doing of Funakoshi Gigo. See Harry Cook and Johns Sell's books, as well as the intereviews with Kase Taiji, Nakayama Masatoshi, Nishiyama Hideteka, Okazaki Teriyuki, and Kanazawa Hirokazu in Jose Fraguas' book.

Are you thinking of Oyama Masutatsu, who killed bulls in exhibitions in the 1950s and 1960s?

Fascinating. Thanks a lot.

If the racing world is such a hole, than I am glad I don't follow it. For your edification, I also don't follow football, basketball, baseball, or other sorts of games ending in "ball." What has any of this to do with karate?

Actually, they trained in their loincloths.

I think it may just be the Korean styles that have the pressure to be >4th dan. Many Japanese and Okinawan stylists tend to grade less frequently. In all the "flavours" of Karate I have studied, 10-12 years from 1st to 3d dan is not uncommon. It was ten years for me from 1st to 3d dan in Shotokan, and I took my 3d dan grading pretty much under duress.