Ripper

It's allways the same with people that do full contact. Many of them think they are better fighters because they do full contact instead of semicontact. Total *. All the sparring in martial arts, boxing and so on are just games in which you allways have a lot of rules. In that way it doesn't matter what game you are playing, it's the person that makes the difference. Talking about the better fighter in a streetfight is something totally different. In a streetfight there are no rules. At that point it makes no difference what kind of game you play. For example, if someone unexpectedly grabs both of your wrists and you are a boxer you will have a problem. If you are doing aikido probably less. Streetfight are just very unpredictable.

Wow, this is heavy stuff! I admire your perseverence. I hope you have more luck in the future. Great that your grandmother recovered. I hope your father will too.

To me this is not having more confidence. To me this is having too much confidence. In 9 months of training you still don't know a thing about fighting. That's something completely different then sparring in a dojo. An attitude like this could get you in a lot of trouble.

What I was asking is; how do you know that (for example) you are MORE aware because of MA? You don't know what would have happened if you didn't do MA.

I didn't know you could get taller by doing MA. All bad jokes aside, I can't believe we are on page 15 still discussing at a level of yes,size matters, no size doesn't matter. I haven't read the other pages but I hope (and I assume) there was someone smart enough to explain that size matters. So I guess people who still can't get in their head are.........hmm I shouldn't go any further.

And how do you know this is because of the martial arts?? You can't compare it with a second you not doing MA.....

Having fun in doing it.

Please reread my post without the red cloud in your eyes .......Maybe it doesn't look that way but I'm on your side. You say "We can all find the answers if we ask the right questions." O.K. You give some applications for the technique, but as I said, we don't know what the original intent was. Maybe there was no application at all and was it something purely symbolic. So again; no, we don't know what the technique is for and we will never know because we can't talk to the founders anymore, but we can make some nice suggestions what could have been the original intent. Speaking of nice suggestions, you got me curious about nr. 7. Could you clarify that?

You may, but we don't know what the intentions were of the founders. So if we don't know what a kata was for, how can we lose that? We can re-engineer a lot but we will never know the original intent. For example, the swastika is used a lot in shotokan-katas. We don't know if it is a certain technique to maim an opponent or if it is a symbolic movement (or anything else). If you decide to put another technique into it so you can create a good flowing explanation of a kata....why not? It doesn't make your style incomplete but it makes it alive. For training that's a good thing. It does however, make it a lot trickier in terms of tests and so on, but that's a whole other issue. So you are right with the next quote about losing your style. If we change or add katas the original style will dissapear. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Why train katas when you don't know what the original intent was? I like to re-engineer katas, but others might find it a lot more interesting to make up their own katas with their own goals and train them. Why not?

My point exactly. I'm having trouble with this part. In what way can walking backwards/mirror make you understand a kata better?

I think you use it a lot more than you think. When I'm sparring or doing a drill with someone else I always stand in fudo dachi. It's not a deep stance as in Sochin, but when I'm sparring in a left stance my right knee will be bent to the outside (fudo dachi). My knee isn't facing the front as in a zenkutsu dachi. I'm guessing you do the same.....

I don't mind variety in a training, especially for kids. I was talking about adults trying to improve their katas almost always in limited time. Variety is a good thing for kata, but it can also get too much, when you are talking about mirror, backwards, etc., etc. As I said, every now and then is OK. The best way of 'getting it' is to break up a kata in pieces and work on a specific theme, be it speed, technique, or something else. Focus on that instead of walking backwards. Sit and pushup aid your body to get stronger and quicker, so indirectly they will help you at your testing. Walking a mirror kata won't.

If you do it just for fun every now and then, I totally agree with you. However, your other arguments I'm not so sure of. If you want to work on other sides of your body you can use kihon. Testing your knowledge of the kata.....hmm....best way to do that would be just the normal way. Furthermore it is not a test requirement, so why waste time training this way (other than for fun)? As you say, there are allready so many katas, so why not focus on training them the regular way?

Great Andy, but why do you do that?

That's what kihon is for.

As I said in another thread; it is better to know a few katas than to learn as many as possible. Why? Because otherwise they just become dances without meaning. KNOWING a kata is something else than doing a kata. When you know a kata you can understand the concepts of that kata (allthough we will never know the original intent, because we can't talk to the ones that made the katas) and can come up with a practical bunkai . At least that is my explanation, because maybe there never was a bunkai.

We don't train the takki yakkis at all. I don't see the use in them either. Heian Shodan is easy enough so why make it even more simple? It is not required to get a belt, so why train that 'dance'? There are enough other interesting katas so why learn even more? It is better to know a few katas really well instead of knowing as many katas as possible.

You're right, Warlock.

Just curious.....are you still in the kneebar or did you get out of it already???

Wow, amen Warlock. Well said/written. Couldn't agree with you more, but if I would have written it down it wouldn't come out the way you wrote it. But hey, that's just my weakness. It is also one of the reasons I'm on this forum; to learn how to put things/ideas, etc. in words.

So your argument would be that giving titles keeps things organised? Does this mean that if you didn't use titles, things would get out of hand? I don't think so. At any other sport they don't use titles and it also goes well. If I did for example swimming as a sport I wouldn't call my trainer a master. And this would be another argument? Because it is the chinese way? Well, you don't live in China, and I take it you are not Chinese, so would it be really necessary? Couldn't you do without? I couldn't agree with you more, but that's also my objection against a title like master. It's because of these (mis)conceptions I dislike this term. When someone insists on being called master, to be honest, my respect for that person diminishes. It's just vanity.

Nice thought but I have to disagree with your conclusion. Your question is; what drives a martial artist. If it would be social interaction you could pick up any other occupation. Heck, I think a martial artist (I don't like this term, but that's another thread) is rather antisocial. Instead of having a drink with your friends or family you lock yourself up in a dojo. I think most of us start for all kinds of wrong reasons. You mentioned some already. Because the need of some physical exercise, self defense, perfection of character, and so on. If you manage to stay a few years, you will find out that for most reasons there are actually better ways to do this, and if you didn't find that out you just keep on fooling yourself. But hey, you invested so much time in it already, you don't want to quit. So you try to find something that you like doing and emphasize your training on that. And besides that if you still think it's fun to do; that would be the biggest reason.

why and when would you teach on a formal basis? and what do you mean by formal basis?

You are confusing two things here. With exercise your bones might get a better structure, but when you put more stress on it, your bones will get weaker. It's the same when you would keep on hammering on a wooden board. It will get weaker and weaker.

Someone here saw too many cartoons!