ShotoMan

ShotoSam - with a name like that, you must be related to me!! Welcome!

I must admit, I wish there was a lot more about Andy on the web. A very briefe profile of him is available at http://www.loghar.com/preview/kugb/profiles/profiles_sherry.html He has recently been graded to 8th Dan though the web site has not been updated to reflect this.

I just realised I left out the word "not" in my original reply here!! Must have been a Fruedian slip! I have corrected it now!! Just in case anybody who read it thought I was being a bit big headed!!

Thank you folks. It's a tough one as I live a long way away from her, too. So hence that does not help. I could always move address I suppose? She really is something else.

I know he had database problems a while back and had to do a lot of work to recover material. Maybe he was hit by a virus or the such and it caused irrepairable damage? I don't know. It is a pity as I started warming to that site of late. I agree that the Mu section was the best part.

I have been into martial arts since a very young age. I was into Bruce Lee, The Water Margin (remember that!!?) and the Kung Fu series. I used to copy kicks and punches. I was quite surprised to find that all my silly and clumsy versions of these kicks were in fact not far from the real thing when I started training in karate properly at the age of 15. Good memories... I used to strap this chair with four screw on legs, onto a rolled up matress and work on blocking this thing, like it was a wing chun wooden dummy! When I think about it now, I'm surprised I didn't fracture my wrist or worse hitting this thing. The striking area was very hard too, so I tended to place a thick towel over the surface. I was nuts!! Karate is the most important thing to me. I would not say I am a super-duper expert who is a top technical specialist, but I appreciate what I can do and I often make myself proud of things I learn. Good stuff.

I'm new in that I have only been posting for the recent period. I discovered this forum last year while in the land of injury and no training - one of the best finds ever on the web for me.

Okay, here is a totally different subject for you!! You go on a karate day course and at that day course is a person who - without laying a single finger or toe on you - knocks you off your feet! Yes, I am talking about being bowled over by a beautiful face; a perfect smile, etc here! You would think that in an environment dedicated to martial arts, soft and goofy feelings could never ever raise their tiny heads?! Well they did for me. I am due to attend a course in the very near future and I know for a fact this "special person" will be there - you can 95% count on it! Now if life is fair, this very same person will not be single and so the whole saga ends quite quickly BUT... what if that is not the case? Assuming you knew for a fact that "said" person was single, would you dare to ask out another karateka? The whole thought (in my whole lifetime) has never, ever crossed my mind. Weird but true! Isn't life fun?

I don't know if you people know the KUGB's Andy Sherry and Frank Brennan? But what my instructor said to me before Thursday night's lesson was, "If you can punch like Andy Sherry, you don't need to be able to kick like FRank Brennan!" So true. There is so much power in Sensei Sherry's punch and it is the one thing I one day hope to be able to achieve. I work on all my techniques but I always spend most of my time on this one simple things. Every now and then - and I mean about every few hundred punches - I feel like something close happened then. It is an incredible feeling when it does happen. Don't even get me started on his shuto-uke in kokutsu-dachi or his mae-geri!! Everything he does is done so different from anybody else I have seen. After a lesson with him, you feel like a whole new path is set out before you. You want to do that punch like he did. Step into zenkutsu-dachi and kokutsu-dachi and perform the respective technique how he showed you to do it. An incredible man. He is the inspiration of my training. Who is your magic person that makes you give that extra, even when you just think of them?

Yup! Shotokan here with Chief Instructor, Andy Sherry.

Just hit them first Don't attack half-heartedly - go in their and mean it. You don't need to hit hard but punch with the intention of hitting, not immediately be worried about getting your * out of there! What's the worst that can happen? Black eye; cut lip or bleeding nose? It never hurts and when you get the point and the decision, it stays that way. Even if you do get your * whooped, at least you still keep your dignity as a fighter. Easy!

I would echo the fact that modern is very tippy, tappy competition based. I would also say that if you are hoping that karate will make you into a good fighter, then you may have a long wait. Some people are born natural fighters and whether they do karate or not, you still will find them hard to beat in a face off. Against the average *-hole, karate will give you an advantage if not only the shock of landing a good mawashi-geru to their head or keagi to their chin. As you progress through higher grades, you will become very much acustomed to being attacked so can keep your cool in such situations. Most people tend to back off once you knock them on their * from just blocking whatever they have just tried to hit you with. Good fun

Yes interesting reading. I can't say I agree with the muscle training until "failure" as the web author states it. In most people , 70-80% is more than sufficient to see huge benefits. Then again, I am guilty as charged of training until I crawl out of the gym on my weight / running workouts. I love training though and seeing how hard I can push myself

I tend to use a mawashi-geri looking sweep to take somebody off the feet. If the person is stepping in with an attack, I will take their foot out as they go to land using the sole of my foot. That's the whole thing with a sweep to work effectively, is when the person is about to apply their most body weight onto the respective foot. BUT at the same time, if you lunge in with a kizame-suki and force them onto their back foot, the front leg is weak and then the mawashi-geri - type sweep works best.

Thank you Onwards and upwards

Kamikaze red label most of the time. Also have a kamae international weight gi - very heavy duty but also quite hot to train in!

It is always hard choosing between different clubs. You have to go with what is best for yourself. I have just gone through this same sort of issue and have left a new organisation which I wish I could be a part of but it is not for me. You only live once so don't settle for second best - go with the other club.

Yeah all true in this case. I have sent him an email resigning from the organisation.

Hmmm I still can't decide on this issue... Do we really want more sports karate? I suppose it is interesting to watch countries from all over the world competing and to see the standard, so maybe I should open up my heart a bit more to an athletic side to our art. The thing that keeps me awake at night is the thought of team kata to music! And I am talking about that sick and horrid bouncy, pouncy music that so many Russian ice skaters perform to...you know the tunes I mean? All the wee old grannies join in and clap along to it!! Grrrr!! If it can be kept within a certain set of parameters, then maybe but then we are tarnishing karate as being "just a sport" and not a martial art. I don't know.

Hi there. This is my new handle away from ESA-Shotokan. It is a pity as I had 200 posts under that name!! Oh well, I'm sure I will catch up again. I have been studying with the KUGB for some 20+ years and less than a year with the ESA karate organisations. The ESA is incredible but I have found of late that the lessons hold an unacceptable level of painful technique demonstrations, hence I am staying with my parent organisation. Thankfully, I took my Shodan with the KUGB so have kept the continuity there. Onwards and upwards.