P.A.L

since we have to cover the kicks too, we keep the front hand low in kicking distance , in punching stance both are up , although in bare hand fight you gotta protect your ribs too, we punch right from up position, not chambering at all,

my chinese girl friend read the two character on the top of this page " kon"(empty) "sho"(hand), which is same as "kara" "te" (empty hand) she couldn't anything related to "china" or "taang" in this character, unless they have changed the Kenji but i can't find any old picture showing it, what i found later is another kenji of these to character in "Pat McCarthy" book "classical kata of okinawan karate" , now she reads this "taang"( refer to taang dinasty in china) "shu"(hand), so it seems the original kenji is "taang shu" means China hand or something related to china. of course Funakushi was not able to present his art as "chinese hand" in 1920's(not sure) japan.

first of all ,how could you call your Mandarian chinese martial art , KARATE??? i read the newspaper interview with him, i just got confused more than before, got his first degree black belt at 17.5 (i don't think that in 1943 there were belt system in kongfu), study in China for 2.5 years and become a master of 7 animals???? being a full time engineer for 10 years before atarting to teach, i don't know. he is a good martial artist no doubt but for me the lineage and originality of the art is very important, may be it just me. second time i met sensei Lindsey i asked him about the history of each katas he teaches, although a master like Lindsey who charge $30 per month is not comparable with a comercialized studio.

there is a basic form in white crane karate called Nijuken, lots of wipe kicks and spear hand strikes.

if the post can sit back 1 inch it's good enough, although i don't like the idea of 45' brace unless you don't hit at around brace area since there is no movemenot on that sopt.

this is great,

i was talking to a customer this morning when one of my guys called me inside the shop he asked if i read on the customer's t-shirt, i said 'no', when i came back to the front office i read this on his t-shirt " I don't think of myself as a ugly person, i think of myself as a beautiful monkey".

pay them $20 and wait forever.

i practice in sensei lindsey's lineage here is some of our katas 1-Ni Ju Ken 2- shu tsuru ken 3- shorinji sanchin 4-hi tsuru ken 5- ru shu ken 6- matsumura hakutsuru sho 7- pai hok 8- umi niyagi .... Hakutsuru (spl?) 9- tsuru sanchin 10- matsumura hakutsuru dai i think there are 14 main katas in the system ,i only know first 9. the idea is attack like a wave, it goes up and down, if we hit under arm, then we hit down to the rib,then the lock comes in, to set up. the final hit is a crane open hand mostly , or a shuto, mind set is defensive, first block is a back hand same time leading hand strike to eye or rib,both hands are up most of the times. i've seen the Sandoval's web site , i heard he and Mr. lindsey are 2 top masters in white crane karate.

we use the wider natural stance,

i am looking around and can't find too much 1 katana 1 bo 3 longbows that's all

did you ask what school of shorin ryu?, from your input("as far as TMA go, there isnt much else in my area but TSD and TKD. There is no Shotokan karate schools in the area which I would really like to take but maybe Shorin Ryu is a little betterthan TKD for self defense") i guess you are not familiar with karate the lineage goes like this shorin ryu ----> Shotokan -----> TKD it seems you are very practical ,i think okinawan karate which is combat oriented with it's body conditioning serves you better than shotokan karate, just my 2 cents!.

i won't touch her at all , i'll back off.

may be in your style they changed the name from pinan nidan to shodan like some japanies styles of karate. in this case the kick we been talking about is part of pinan nidan. There have been changes in our kata. Our Pinan shodan is all ,gedan barai, lunge punch, rising blocks and shutos. I'm told this was most likley pinan nidan at one point. that's right, it is pinan nidan, sensei funakoshi changed the name after he represented his karate to japan.

on the top area we practice punch with seiken , and elbows from the side we do shutos , on the mid section of post we kick (shin conditioning), we have a pad on close to floor for toe kick, now we talking about makiwara i'd like to tell you my story on makiwara and conditioning, i was practicing in a shindo jenin ryu dojo for a year , very solid ,traditional dojo, makiwara workout was a must, every single session, front long punch, and all the kicks X25 times, then i moved to another dojo where we practice on makiwara on and off, but here forearm,shin,leg,abdoman conditioning are important , each pair do the drill by hitting the forearms and shins together, it was very painfull at the begining but i feel a big difference now, in my shin kicks and blocks, last week i had a guest from my old dojo. a nidan ,very good karateka ,practicing makiwara for at least 10 years now , he was shocked by the blocks and kicks he recieved , couldn't withstand at all, so i just wanted to bring this to your attention the importance of this kind of conditioning, you don't have to put too much pressure,i am not talking about breaking bats with your shin just little by little very soon you will see blocking a Bo hit by forearm is possible , you never know, maybe one day you have to go shin to shin with someone.

may be in your style they changed the name from pinan nidan to shodan like some japanies styles of karate. in this case the kick we been talking about is part of pinan nidan.

Here is an example of a Seibukan (Sukunaihayashi) kata: http://www.uechi-ryu.com/videos/tc_videos.html (Go to the Zenpo Shimabukuro clip) With the exception of the sidekicks it is almost exactly like all the other Shorin Kusanku I've seen. Kyan O'Sensei learned a lot of his karate from Kosaku Matsumora. These Tomari versions were often wider and deeper stanced. He also learned directly from Sokon Matsumura, so many of his Matsumura Kata are very similar to the Kobayashi versions. As for the original kick seen in Pinan Shodan, it was always a front kick. There are very few instances where a side kick is used in kata, and if the version you're doing uses a sidekick where a front kick should be then you're doing a gendai variation or a version that is non-Matsumura or Itosu derived. Side kicks are less balanced and leave one side of your body pretty much ineffectual. shorinkan uses front kick in pinan shodan while many others use side kick, one thing that makes me confused is the relation between kusanku dai and pinan shodan, shorin kan uses side kick in begining of kusanku dai while pinan shodan (which could be a simple form based on kusanku) use front kick, from other hand i've seen one of the chibana sensei student in okinawa also use front kick at the beginig of kusanku dai, anyway not a big deal. one troof how close are two pinan katas of matsumura seito with pinans in shorinkan ? talking of side kicks, the only one i know in white crane katas is shu tsuru ken is there any more , since i only know 9 katas, i heard of sensei lindsey there are 14 main katas(not sure)

I think Sensei Debroah Keller is the highest female(in US) in shrin ryu shorinkan(kobayashi ryu) she is 6th dan going for 7th soon.

i like to have a female in the dojo, since guys stop chit chating , i hate these dojo chats, waste of time.

it's possible , i'v never seen a book that shows the diffrences since it's not that important, for example some people say in chibana lineage some of the side kicks(pinan yondan) changed to front kicks. for each kata you have to go deeper and see what the roots are, let's say tomari chinto, it come from tomari-te so kyan's chinto should be close to original then Nagamine got it from kyan so the Matsubayashi shorin ryu version should be very close to tomari chinto, i've never seen shobayashi chinto but i can guess it is close to matsubayahi ryu. In shindo jenin ryu we use side kick in pinan yondan same as shito ryu and shotokan , since this all goes back directly to itosu , i would say the original version of pinan yondan had side kick , how we (kobayashi and matsubayahi) ended up with front snap kick,i don't know, may be itosu changed it later or chibana changed it? in general the diffrences are not that important among shuri te katas, with one exception which i can't tell you due to respect for other styles and practitioners.

Really? What for? We had TSD folks there, Shito Ryu, Shotokan, TKD even Shuri Ryu. That's odd. Later. same old story of ray keller,

it seems this school teaches long fist , here is one of the animals: http://www.lemonzoo.com/picture.php?i=520

Korean school looks boring to me, i would go with kung fu school,

as you said this is a touchy subject but right or wrong higaonna's name mostly comes along Naha-te while Miyagi's name along with goju ryu, here you can see where the goverment of Okinawa stands: The founder of Goju-ryu was Chojun Miyagi (1888-1953). He became a disciple of Kanryo Higaonna (1853-1915), the founder of the Naha-te style, when he was 14. He endured harsh ascetic practices and in 1915 went to Fujian Province in China to perfect his skills in the martial arts. He also undertook a lot of research on noted Chinese warriors. As a result, he was able to take over and organize karate techniques and the principles of the martial arts that he had been taught. He consolidated modern karate-do, incorporating effective elements of both athletics and the martial arts in addition to the principles of reason and science. Chojun Miyagi's most promising disciple, Jinan Shinzato, gave a demonstration at the 'All Japan Martial Arts Tournament Offering Congratulations on the Emperor's Accession' held in Meiji Jingu Shrine in 1929. Afterwards he was asked what school of karate he belonged to. When he returned home, he told master Miyagi about this and Miyagi decided to choose the name Goju-ryu (the hard-soft style), inspired by one of the 'Eight Precepts' of Kempo, written in the Bubishi, and meaning 'The way embraces both hard and soft, both inhalation and exhalation. The main characteristic of Goju-ryu is the 'respiration method' accompanied by vocal exclamations, emphasizing 'inhaling and exhaling'and 'bringing force in and sending force out'. The kata of Goju-ryu are broadly divided into: Sanchin (basics), Kaishu-gata (open hand forms), and Heishu-gata (closed hand forms). The traditional kata passed down from Kanryo Higaonna to the present include: Sanchin, Saifa, Seienchin, Shisochin, Sanseiryu, Seipai, Kururunfa, Seisan, and Suparinpe (or Pecchurin). In addition to such traditional kata, Goju-ryu has added Kokumin Fukyugata, a series of kata created by Chojun Miyagi for the nationwide popularization of the school-Gekisai I, Gekisai II and Tensho-which complete the kata of Goju-ryu for Tanren. ref.: https://www.wonder-okinawa.jp

Hi One troof no i wish i could ,i really wanted to be there ,but we were kind of baned,