stuey-san

hrm......wasnt it like you would start of with a white obi and then over the years your obi would get so dirty it would be black (like 100 odd years ago in okinawa etc).......tbh i think coloured belts are good and useful, like you can distinguish between a more senior grade, like someone who has been there for three years but is not yet black or whatever, than sumone who had just started, and if they were all white belts there wud be like, no distinguishment (have i just made that word up?) like for the more senior students, altho like at all the comps i go to youre pretty much split into to groups within weight and height age etc, either brown belt and above (or equivalent) and then everyone from white belt to purple belt are grouped together to compete against each other, which kinda does make you wonder the poin if you can compare a purple belt to a white belt.....but yuh tis my two cents

im completley indifferent to breaking, we rarely break in our club, maybe for demos or as a bit of fun at the end of the year before christmas break (no pun intended)and its fairly enjoyable......but i found tal's remark quite amazing, loads of people have knocked breaking in this thread, but hes right you're never gonna attack sumone with a sword (unless its an extremely rare occaision, sumones trying to kill you, family get together etc) yet loads of people practise iaido and kendo completley legitimately without anyone knocking it, granted it obviously promotes speed, balance, concentration (as do all martial arts) etc, but why learn a sword martial art when it can never really be used in reality? instead of studying an empty hand MA which is probably more beneficial for self defense. i mean dont get me wrong, i do kobudo and i like weapons martial arts, and if i could afford kendo id take it up in a heartbeat, but tal does raise an interesting point about breaking not being inproper practise. (imho the jury is still out for me on the benefit of breaking, but he does make a good point)

Gaijin ryu....white foreigner style?

films all the way.....i just wanted to be able to kick really high and punch through 5 foot thick concrete walls, obviously ive learnt different about martial arts now, but it was definatley all the kung fu films etc that got me into it

TreeBranch im not saying the bo is sluggish, thats what gonnusuke sed (or thought apparently) when he had to fight the dual swords of musashi, he just needed a shorter lighter more close quarters weapon.

tbh i didnt know traditional karate fought with weapons, i know that the name has been translated to empty hand from chinese hand, but the fact that its empty hand doesnt that mean that like u dont do weapons?

our club name chikara translates to "strength and ability"

sorry for grave digging, but i just thought id share a slightly humourous story that probably has little or no releveance or value to anyone, but ill force it upon you anyway, i went to stay with a guy down south that runs a zanshinkai dojo, just before christmas, and it was the last session of the year so he asked if i wanted to participate, he was doing tamarawashi (sp?!) with a load of roofing tiles, and my only previous experience with breaking was boards for demonstrations at school summer fairs and stuff. so everyone was just doing either taesho or geiakuzuki, and i kinda wanted to show off, so i did a yokogeri that broke it cleanly in two and i got a few claps, after everyone had had a turn, there was a spare tile, and as the guest i was asked if i wanted to break it, and after the elation of having broken the first tile with a quite good kick, i decided to go for a mawashi geri, except with out thinking to do it with the koshi, i did it with the top of my foot, and the tile did break but it wasnt the only thing that cracked, and an entire class of perfect strangers all cringed and sed "ooooh" in unison, i tried to put a brave face on it and hobbled over to the corner, needless to say i still had a limp at new years oh and ti, whilst it is an experience, breaking isnt all that

what exactly is a mc dojo? i realise its a bit like a chain or something, but our club was founded as a shotokan dojo, which incorporates kobudo (seperately to those who are 8th kyu and above), and one of my sensei's first black belts opened a club in the midlands, using our clubs name (chikara) and then a goju ryu club joined us about 2 years ago, and in the past month a judo club has joined us all under the chikara name, and its really helpful as we're going to get together in summer for a day long session and learn each others styles, and everyone always comes to the christmas party...........we're most definately not a mcdojo, but what is the difference between one and say a club that incorporates different styles under its name? oss

my sensei is mark d'arcy (4th dan) and our club president was dougie phillips (6th dan, who passed away aged 83 last september) and we're with the bka whose chief instructor is brian seabright (6th dan)

i appreciate what everyones trying to say, but my point is that, WITHOUT such as work, family reasons or whatever, and they leave for no other reason than they cant bothered then they should have to resit their gradings, in the case of blackbelts, so many people go through 4 or 5 years of karate, just to get their black belt then give up, and come back for maybe the odd competition it happens so much, im referring to the type of people that go to karate to only attain a certain grade, and once given it, they decide to give it up, but can still retain their grade, i know alot of people do disagree with me, but its my opinion, if youre heavy weight champion of the world, you only have that title for one year maybe less, before u have to defend it, its how it should be for black belts especially, if the dont fight to keep it, and like i sed with out good reason for not training, the shudnt have it, and i know theres thousands of blackbelts who disagree an im sorry for offending u but it is my opinion

just wondering where do u wear the belt, like you have to purchase a gi seperate, so i presume you wear it when ur going out to dinner with the missus, or if theres a work conference on u can tie it round ur pants and show it off

in no partuclar order tae kwon do shotokan tai chi let whei drunken boxing aikido kobudo jiu-jitsu muay thai

wether or not they forget the kata is regardless, the person has not attended karate for so many amount of months for a reason other than they can not be bothered, a huge aspect of karate is respect, they have no reason to not turn up, they dont retain what is expected of their grade, i have been doing karate for only 18 months and i realise this, if you dont wanna train dont, fair enough but dont come and go as you please

i do agree, maybe my sensei is more leniant than i would be, he let a guy who was first kyu come back and train from 5th kyu after 2 years, my point is delta, that its a responsibility, after say you earn a certain grade and to give it up with no real excuse, and then come back in my opinion it is cheeky and disrespectful, ive seen ppl come back after a few years and maybe they where brilliant at the time, and then to come back and expect everyone to think that theyre brilliant, but the people who were at the same grade as them when sed person has left have excelled past, the person still thinks theyre as good as them, even thoughb theyve been training for years and the other person hasnt, imho it is just a matter of respect, respect your sensei, respect your dojo, respect your style, and dont leave for ages and expect to come back as same grade

i appreciate all youve sed jerry but, still i doesnt escape the fact that anglicanized or not, all qi or ji is that same thing, nor that most martial arts utilise it, also isometrics no, aerobics yes as it is, or at least the clubs that ive been in contact with mainly concentrate on breathing...yuh better translation is appreciated, grand ultimate fist is the only translation ive ever come in contact with, and i fully agree with the incompetency of the majority of sifu's, i dont study tai chi, but i can tell a bad instructor a mile away, the only guy i know in the uk who has ever studied real tai chi had to give it up, as his instructor was chargin ppl for gradings, and as he was being paid by the health club in which he was teaching, the sifu was fcired and he had to give it up, again thanks for like the info jerry, but id still like someone who knows of a decent tai chi club in the north west of england to reply, urs in budo, stuey-san

i dont want to disrespect anybody for my ideas, so please dont be offended, but i think that during any kyu grade if you do not train for 6 months you should start again from white, unless of course you have a good reason(illness etc), if you gain at least shodan or higher, but not train for at least one year you should on regard yourself as 1st kyu not a dan grade, and if anyone wanted to train in another style, regardless of grade in other style, then they shud start at 10th kyu or whatever is the lowest grade, i study shotokan but say if sensei kanazawa wanted to take up shukokai, and i was a shukokai sense, i wud expect him to start at white belt, regardless of the fact he is a 10th dan shotokan..........i am sorry if i have offended anyone, but this is my view, your grade is not a right it is a responsibility, when my sensei trained at the red triangle club, brown belts and above where expected to sign a waiver so that they behaved like senior grades should, a responsibility, however say if someone was a 3rd kyu shotokan from england and moved to america, and took up shotokan there, even tho they are training in a different dojo i would expect or at least hope that they where allowed to keep that grade, as i beleive in unity in at least styles, regardless of associations..... 3rd kyu is 3rd kyu in any given style, they move clubs theyre still 3rd kyu, agsin im sorry if i offended anyone, oh and martial arts politics sucks

tbh i dont study chinese martial arts, but virtually all martial arts use chi/ki (same thing just different languages), but if its what martial art utilises it the most i wudve thought tai chi, its an art that ive really wanted to take up, but all the classes in my area are just basically aerobics, nothing that emphasises on discipline or nething, just a bunch of middle aged women in lycra prancing about, hardly the "grand ultimate fist" that i hoped for, altho having attended a few classes it does use quite a bit of breathing exercises, chi gung and all that......still if neone in the northwest of england on here knows of a traditional tai chi chuan kwoon, i wudnt mind hearing from you

i think semi-contact helps training better than full contact as its got so much more emphasis an control, for example anyone with the flexibility can do a reverse hook kick to the head and follow through as you would in full contact, but it takes so much more control just to tap them on the head and bring your leg back down (incidently, no i cant do this )

actually it was the jo that beat musashi, it was smaller so gonnusuke could get closer, because musashi beat gonnusuke when gonnusuke's trademark weapon was the bo, and musashi had his two swords, this is the actual story of why the jo was made because gonnusuke found the bo to be too sluggish when up against musashi, so on a return match he fashioned the smaller stick and thus beat musashi, however has musashi had spared gonnusuke's life the first time round, gonnusuke returned the favour

yeah the story of the 47 ronin goes something like asano and kira who were 2 daimyo's (lords) were called to the emperors service, and thus were supposed to present the emporer with gifts, they gave the emporer gifts of equal value, but afterwars kira gave gave the emporer an extra bag of gold to be viewed more heavily in his favour, angered at this asano drew a knife on kira but in the emporers presence, and for this shame he was supposed to commit seppuku. a ronin is a masterless samurai, and as their lord was dead, his samurai (47 of them) became ronin, seeking revenge on their masters death they went to kira and forced him to commit seppuku, but because of this act the samurai also had to commit seppuku, like the hugest act of loyalty whatsoever, and i think they celebrate it every year on the 14th of december in japan........some of this story might be in accurate as its all from memory so if anyone has a more accurate verion i wudnt mind hearing it

yeah i agree, more options should be made available, mostly we use semi contact point sparring, sometimes continous and sometimes not

no, but theyd be waiting to be used in a pub...

hey, just thort id introduce myslf outta boredom im stuey from liverpool in the uk, i study shotokan karate and traditional okinawan kobudo

I see that a lot of people are more familiar with the Bo than Jo or at least its the staff size that people are taught most commonly, for those that dont know a Bo is about 7 foot and traditionally kiln dried wood, and a Jo is about 4 foot and traditionally left to dry in the sun for 3 months (both are supposed to be Japanese Oak i believe) but in our kobudo classes which are taught within our club as an offshoot of karate, every other sunday for one and a half hours my Sensei chose to teach us the Jo over the Bo because he said that you're more likely to come across a Jo sized weapon in real life, pool cue, broom handle, broken tree branch etc.....i appreciate that a Bo has a longer reach than a Jo, but what does everyone else think? I'm going to choose Jo i know its biased but its what ive been taught and it does make sense that you're going to come across a Jo sized weapon in a real life situation as opposed to a Bo