Jade

I've to improve mostly stamina in kumite...and since i'm a woman i'm training to put more strength in my moves. About the recent kata training....i'm tring to do my best to master Kanku Dai...one of the three katas that i need to show to my next test...first dan.

That's ok.....i'll try seraching in some book stores... Thanks anyway.

Does anyone know a website that show how the shotokan katas must be peformed in time and rhythm? I'm interested specially in Kanku Dai. I'm not looking for videos...something like schematic pictures. A huge thanks!

10th dan in shotokan??? Wow...

Shotokan, Brown Belt.

I forgot about Tekki Sandan.....i like the quick arms movements that are required....i guess is one of the hardest.

I have many........Empi, Bassai Sho, Chinte, Gangaku etc...... I love doing katas as watching performing them by others....i hope i'll have the chance to learn them all in the future.

Well...of course that change from an area to another.......i was talking about where i live...and even if there're some good dojo i heard instructors in person saing they don't have the same good number of students as 10 years ago....

A Shotokan kata with bo i believe it's Bassai Sho... btw....here you can find the best Shotokan katas videos performed by Hirokazu Kanazawa!...http://www.shotojukukai.com/kata/kata.htm

yes...now i can't remember exactly......but that's not the point.

Dedication....and the willing to improve always your moves.

True...once, during a lesson centered in basic techniques, i heard an almost 3rd dan black belt saing "Master.....i'm bored...why we still practice Heian Shodan....at my level, if i haven't learnt it now i'll never learn it..."

I agree smr......certain persons don't have time, money or have more important thing to do....but my question was another...i personally heard people that they would rather do nothing that wasting their time doing karate.....they don't say that because they don't like it but there's a certain lazyness these days that if you try to say karate need sacrifice and patience they immediately think its not for them.

THanks for the answers guys....yes i agree too with most of your comments...the various madia are confusing people mind with crazy conception of the martial arts and that's really sad. I wish people here were different.....i heard only few persons that said they love karate because it's "karate" in the whole meaning of the word.

I mean...at least here in Italy the dojos are not so full like 10-15 years ago.......i trained in two different gym since i started practicing Karate and after few years there were lack or persons...why that? May it be they didn't get the true spiritual essence of karate? It happens often when i mention that i practice karate people ask " oh...how many * have you kicked? You're dangerous".......they immediately think you could do unimaginable things....and that's a wrong view...specially for a beginner... Thinking to go to a karate school only to demostrate you can kick other * or tring to imitate Van Damme is the main reason i believe people are getting sick after few months. There's a very low percentage of people that understand that practicing a martial art mean an hard sacrifice even if you are an expert. What do you think about?

I'm italian too! I started practicing Shotokan three years ago...i'm brown belt now...i think your english is better than mine lol

As i said before you don't need to take the test because of your instructor...just feel when you're ready. In two weeks of not training you can get tired faster at the first lesson but...what kind of stuff are you forgetting? Me...last year i didn't trained for three months and i forgot sequences of some katas...but after few lessons i turned as 3 months ago. That could depend of your regular training...or how your teacher spend time to get the basic stuff in your head...i don't know...what i'm tring to say that in few weeks you shouldn't have lost so much...

Three years ago when i started Shotokan the first thing my instructor asked me was: "if you want i can make you graduate until blue belt quickly(about one year), several students of mine did it to get quicker the black belt"......well of course i chosen the other way...by passing every test with the required time...not because i didn't feel ready...but since all martial arts practicing is infinite...your first achievement shouldn't be the black belt...but rather your personal feeling that you're improving to become a good esperienced black belt. Why i'm saing that....because in that dojo you couldn't notice the difference between a black belt and a lower rank...brow, blue and in some cases lower... You practice only for yourself...so even if you'll spend one more year or month to graduate don't worry....it will be better for you, not for your instructor.

yes, that's what i experienced as i said in my first post with a 5th dan black belt Sensei. It's very sad because his knownledge was great, one of the best if you asked around, but he didn't plan the lessons. I'm brown belt now and my new istructor indeed has noticed that some of the basic techniques that i perform has been rushed....and i remained surprised when he said "even the easiest moves like age uke or the simplest kata as heian shodan can be the hardest things to know at its fullest".

Thanks for the answer.... well...sorry if i posted this here...yes, i figured out now that this could be a general martial arts discussion but since i practice karate i was guided in this section.

Hi everyone..... I wanna know what do you think about instructors? If you have met great, poor or average ones and what do you think a good teacher should have. I known at least two good instructors that apparently are very different each one. One is an experienced instructor that know almost everything but have the bad side by not having a regular teaching....i mean...they are lessons in which the training is hard and intensive with even 10 different katas in one hour:o... and others(the most) that are soft and too relaxed. The other instructor instead is not experieced(it's obout one year that he started teaching) and he didn't trained in the latest years.....indeed some time he doesn't remember some ot the haghest ranked katas or moves....but....his training is addictive because you have the feeling he's enjoying the lesson with his students making the lesson very confortable and well programmed. And you, what kind of teacher did you know?

If you're asking which are the katas required to pass each test in Italy you need the followings: For brown belt: you have to know all 5 heians, Tekki Shodan, Bassai Dai and Kanku Dai(optional) For first dan black belt: You need to have mastered Kanku Dai, Bassai Dai and Jion.