P.A.L

the difference is very minor. on Okinawa some schools do the sanchin with couple of turns also some schools incorporate kobudo. as for the bunkai, I would say the Okinawan goju has more close fight and clinch bunkai but again bunkai is very personal. Sensei Hokama sees a neck break where others see a strike to a rib but again bunkai has no limit.

I do karate and I love to learn some Chinese martial arts mostly wing chun and anything crane related trying to figure out my options.

search " understanding koshi" in youtube. some years ago sensei Otta invited two Okinawan karate masters for a seminar on koshi. sensei Ikehara and Tajima i think. one of them I guess Tajima showed the Naihanchi shodan. that is one of the best original naihanchi you can find out there. you can see how relax the upper body turns and resets.

thank you very much !

it is effective if you work on it. My shorin ryu sensei could break boards with his fingers and I got toe kicked by Sensei Ron Lindsey and Sensei Hokama. Sensei Hokama constantly practices the toe kick formation while standing by putting his index toe over the big toe.

I always thought you could go high in that organization I didn't know you left. I tested for shodan around 2006 in the same organization and stopped testing at Shodan. I received an honorary rank of 4th Dan in 2015 from my own sensei not from the organization. I think rank is only important if you wanna teach in the same organization. I remember I asked one of my teachers about testing for 6th he said he doesn't wanna pay $600. So stop testing is not uncommon but I mostly see it after 3rd dan.

first of all, I need to say that I love the relaxed execution of Matsubayashi Ryu kata(s). Sensei Nagamine was a great teacher and his letter to JKA is legendary. since you are tired of block/punch karate I would recommend that you focus on not more than 3 katas for self-defense. for example Naihanchi Sandan for the clinch and Tomari Passai for close range. I have seen Matsubayashi-Ryu simple bunkai and never been impressed with them but you can look at them like a karate-jutsu practitioner, look at people like Oyata, Kise,Masaji or Hokama and use the same principle in your bunkai and you would see the Krav maga techniques in there. I do 14 shorin-kan kata plus 12 Goju-ryu kata. I only work on Goju-Seisan to the point of using it in a real conflict that I hope never comes.

very excited about it.

for years I've been looking for a uechi-ryu school and a Yamanni-ryu teacher around Houston. I still can't find a Uechi-ryu practitioner in Houston but I finally found a Yamanni ryu teacher. He is part of Nishime Sensei organization and we gonna meet twice each month. He also got a none- tapered BO from sensei Nishime for me. I really like the BO handling of Yamanni ryu in comparison to other Bojutsu styles like Matayoshi or Matsumura.

Naihanchi Shodan, Tensho and Happoren

Kanzen ryu is a hybrid system mostly based on shotokan and shorinji kemp also influenced by Japaneses Goju ryu. I remember Sensei Varasteh was a famous karate master in Iran before revolution. as you can see in this clip he is doing a variation of Chatan Yara Kusanku but at the end it changes to something else. He did this demonstration in 1974 for Asian games in Tehran. you can see his Sanchin kata is his own creation. his karate was hard. if you are a kumite oriented practitioner then Kanzen ryu the way sensei Varasteh was teaching is great with lots of attacking and sweeps. you need to keep in mind that Kanzen ryu doesn't have a strong root like Shotokan. after Iran's revolution when sensei Varasteh left the country and moved to Canada, he lost all the contacts with his organization in Iran and pretty much had to start over. if you are into basics and kata(s) then Shotokan is well documented. with shotokan you have nothing to lose. with Kanzen ryu you won't have that chain of history if it is important to you.

welcome to the forum, there is an introduction category that you can tell us about yourself ( if you like to, of course ). about your question. I learned it from Sensei Ron Lindsey while practicing white crane with him later I added it to my shorin-ryu . in Goju-ryu( Naha-te in general) it is part of the strategy to begin with.

i don't have anything less than 14 oz but please tell us how you like it . did you get any embroidery ?

wash cold and air dry gives you minimum shrinkage. hot wash and hot dry give you maximum shrinkage.

IMHO: in practicing waza(s) if you' moving outside like 10 o'clock or 2 o'clock then hikite could be incorporated in the block as parrying before front hand comes over. if you jam into 12 o'clock or pulling to 6 o'clock then using hikite for parrying would slow you down and you need to consider the second punch coming. in doing kata, since kata is abstract so it doesn't matter if you use hikite in blocking or not. Shotokan probably doesn't use it as an active part of blocking. here you see sensei Yoshimi(Shito ryu) uses hikite in his kata ( he also uses the same concept in his bunkai in contrast to Shotokan which often doesn't) I use hikite in all the blocks (in doing kata) no matter what (shorin ryu or Goju ryu) but here you see O'sensei Chibana of Kobayashi Shorin-ryu totally ignores hikite in Kusanku sho but notice the body change from front-stance to cat-stance( so it could be an escape). here you see Rika Usami(shito ryu) uses the hikite throughout the same Kusanku sho. here is sensei Kanazawa doing Kanku sho

Happoren form ( eight steps ) is one of the forms that has been mentioned in the Bubishi. it is said that Kanryo Higaonna learned the form in China and brought it back to Okinawa and that the old open hand Sanchin was created based on Happoren. the Happoren in Bubishi is a Ming-He-quan form which means "Eight Steps", 鳴鶴拳 八步連( Ba Bu Lian). there are not many Karate-ka practicing Happoren (Ba bu Lian) anymore. Happoren is a great internal-external form that worth practicing especially by Naha-te practitioners. I have been practicing a form that I learned from sensei Ron Lindsey in 2007. He calls it Tsuru Sanchin but it is actually a Happoren off-shoot. here is some good Happoren renditions that I picked up for anybody interested. this is by Simon Lailey, you can see Patrick McCarthy in the background learning the kata this is by sensei Tadahiko Ohtsuka this is the Chinese version , Ba bu Lian this is a explanation of Ba bu Lian

Good is when I see people in the dojo work hard without being told. Bad is when I see people quit before green belt. Ugly is when I see the politics in martial art inside organizations.

thanks a lot, I appreciate all the support and encouragement.

it may have different names. as a parry, I think you can call in Kawashu uke ( as in Parrying a punch) if going backward. if you going forward probably it is a Osae (as in pressing forward or downward). I also wanna mention that in Some Shorin-ryu styles and in most Naha-te style this hand is the actual black. this motion can change your karate a lot, makes it more advanced and effective. this video is from Matsubayashi-ryu and I saw she does exactly the same thing. I forgot her name but she is a Matayoshi-ryu Weapon expert

I enjoyed your post. I am glad that you found a way to take control of your ego .that could be one of the greatest achievements of your life.

probably off topic now but when i was with Shindo jinen ryu (Ryubu kai Karate) there was a kata with feminine attributes like escaping and protecting the chest area. the kata name is SEIRYU ( not a uechi ryu kata). here is a video of Mina Yamazaki doing the kata. same as your student We had a teenage girl who could mimic any kata in no time. later we found out that she is a great dancer. she didn't last in karate long and moved on with her dancing abilities.

based on what we know about your karate club, if you gonna go ahead with Shotokan then I think Heian Godan is what you looking for. it has the grace of slow moves and the jump. JKA has lots of videos of Heian Godan, as well as Sensei Kanazawa. the original form Pinan Godan from Okinawa doesn't have the jump.

are you doing this out of respect for the previous instructor? if you do, I understand but then, are you still gonna do the old katas, you gonna phase them out or just throw them out at once? then there are parents too. have you talked to them? you may have to face some Monday morning quarterbacks.

I think it is great that you gonna correct the past and create a solid program for the kids. sometimes (on youtube) I see young teenagers doing Sanchin kata completely different and being tested (sanchin shime) in a sadistic way, I feel depressed. Since you do Shuri-te and close to Shotokan. pick up the fundamentally (and historically ) important kata(s) 1 Kihon Kata 5 Heian kata from Shotokan ( well documented ) 3 Tekki from Shotokan. 1 Passai like Matsumura no Passai from Shotokan 1 Kusanku like Kusanku dai from Shotokan I think it is important that you put your kata in line with reputable organizations even if you don't do all the katas in their curriculum. if you are flexible not to follow Shotokan all the way, I would replace the Tekki series with Naihanchi series from one of the Okinawan Shorin-ryu styles.

I use ibuprofen,ice bag, light compression or brace. No snapping blocks , no elbow locking. I have lots of elbow injuries, If you didn't hear a pop most likely it is not a tear.a light elbow injury takes about 4-8 weeks to heal.