Monkeymagic

Maybe that 60% you see is her 100%.

So does breaking more boards or concrete make you better than someone who breaks 1?

Thanks for your opinions. I am just trying to see whether people really think karate belongs to a nation or whether thay have another opinion.

Some very good and useful responses here. Please keep them coming. All your opinions are valuable about both kata and kumite.

Could you be clearer for me, thanks. Blue Devil. What aspects of 'Hero' influenced you? Was it the dramatic moves or because there was something 'eastern' in the martial arts that they were doing that you wanted to learn? Thank you everyone for all the responses, please keep them coming.

So kumite is more important because it is more valuable on the street, than kata is to the practice of karate?

Thanks for the replies. I have re-named the thread to make it more specific to what I am looking for. I am interested if anyone was actually influenced by karate's ancient eastern roots before they joined a karate club.

There is a thread on this forum called 'coloured belts' here is a link to it: http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=12114&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=50 Basically, there are so many forms of the belt system. Some only have Black and white or Black, brown and white. Others, like mine (as you should see here) have 10 belts grades before black. Some people agree with the system, others don't. I beilive it is a way of giving those starting an incentive to continue and something to aim for. make your own mind up.

I always work on all the ones I know. There are 13 katas in the Seiki Juku up to black belt, without weapons. White - none 10th kyu Red - none 9th kyu Blue - Taiki sono ichi + ni 8th kyu Purple/white - Taiki sono san 7th kyu Purple - Pinan ichi 6th kyu Yellow - Pinan ni 5th kyu Orange - Pinan san 4th kyu Green/white - Pinan yon 3rd kyu Green - Pinan go 2nd kyu Brown/white - Geki sai dai + Skino kata 1st kyu Brown - Saifa, Sanchin, Yanshin - Bo kata ichi, ni & san I think you have to keep practicing them, to perfect them and remember them.

I did say use the term 'belong' loosely. I wanted discussion of what this meant to people in the karate world. How can you proove that Europeans, who do kata better, understand more about spirit, fighting and training?

No offense, but you are sparring improperly. sparring is a training tool - don't think of it in terms of win / lose. When you do that, you fall into the mode that you described - you don't try new techniques and strategies, because you are too focused on not losing. When this happens, your progress will stagnate because you are no longer learning and experimenting. When I spar, I spar with a goal. If I want to work slipping, then for the entire session I will slip. It doesn't matter if I get hit or not - I'm going to keep slipping, as that is my focus at the present time. When you spar with a goal, you will find that you make much better progress than if you just spar blindly. I understand what you are saying but I was trying to link what we learn in kata to what we do in kumite. I find that the techniques I have learned in kata, I forget. Maybe this is because I am concentrating on defence. But the better you are at these techniques, the better you should be in kumite. You can learn kihon then go into kumite and use kumite experience only to improve your fighting technique. I don't know too much about thai boxing but I know it is mainly about attack and are there any kata in that MA? If not, how can you refer to what I was trying to explain?

I joined (Seiki Juku) because of several reasons. I had done judo, shotokan, wado-ryu and touched on other martial arts before. I wanted to do well and progress as each of the other martial arts I had not continued for reasons beyond my control. I was influenced by film when joining the previous martial arts but this time I had more of a spritual interest and was interested in the east and wanted to learn something connected to it. I now live in Beijing and can't find a karate club. I am frustrated but am teaching karate as part of my physical education curriculum and so keep up the practice. I have posted severaal threads on this forum. All are there to help me with my research dissertation which I am now re-writing (I have been doing this for a year and a half - far too long) All your comments on these threads will help me tremendously. thanks

We're you influenced to join karate because you knew of it's ancient eastern roots? Did you understand why and how it was practiced before you joined? If not, have you become influenced by it and is this the reason why you continue?

Dodgy?!?

Thank you for all the responses. I realise that this is a karate forum and that many have an opinion about this issue. believe it is an issue and that clubs do either focus on either kata or kumite. I have also researched that kumite is promoted more in the western world. The winning of trophies, competitions and championships is something that the west looks upon to prove it's worth. I have often found that in kumite I loose my training techniques and concentrate on defence and atatck of that particular fight. I think that with constant practice of kata and it's hidden techniques we can only truely know how to fight in any situation. I am far from this level and am sure many of you are too but as someone said, this is the origin of how practice for fighting was done, through kata then apply in kumite. Your opinions are highly valuable to my research, please keep posting them.