P.A.L

1-the patch doesn’t show anything as I understood it only says “karate” 2-there is no sobayashi ryu it’s either kobayashi or shobayashi 3-you mentioned they practice some shotokan kata bunkai which I think you were referring to pinan kata which is heian in shotokan , both shobayashi ( from Eizo shimabukuru) and kobayashi (from chosin chibana) practice pinan after learning Naihanchi series (Tekki in shotokan), I’ve heard that in shobayashi ryu seisan isa basic kata before Naihanchi. 4-if your sensei learned from Eizo shimabukuru or one of his students then your lineage goes to sensei chotoku Kyan and you can be sure it’s a pure Okinawa ‘te’ (although later shimabukuru corrected his katas in chibana sensei's dojo) 5-if he learned from chibana students then your lineage goes to ituso sensei ,and close to shotokan since funakoshi was a student of ituso as well . trust your sensei, I used to question my senseis all the time to make sure they teach real stuff but now i think that was stupid.

Now we talking Go-Ju , is there a version of Kata "Anan" been adapted in Go-ju schools?

Shorin-Ryuu, if you reffering to sanchin and tensho I was told even in okinawa they don't practice them with %100 power because of health issues, I practice sanchin and i have got very good results ( change in metabulism) but i normally go with %60-%70 power for 2-3 times in a short intervals.

I am a brown belt in shotokan and black belt shorin-ryu Kobayashi here is my thoughts about these two ,I can’t prove them and nobody can disapprove them since our understanding of same karate concepts is different from one person to another and there is nothing wrong with that. 1- Okin. styles are based on Go-Ju (either Naha-te or Shuri-te) at the end of each technique you need to lose the muscles and next move starts from lose to hard at the point of contact, Last week I was in a dojo ( Jap. Stayle low stances , rigid, power full ,very nice looking katas) during a test two Nidan advanced to Sandan, after the test the sensei says “ Now you are Sandan you need to learn loseing the muscles after each block or punch” and don’t think it’s easy try it your self you will see it’s not. I remember at the end of a kata my sensei said “ you can breath now” and he was right I was so tense that I was not breathing. 2- as far as kiai we do have kiai(I only heard a real kiai once and my heart bit suddenly jumped up clearly and funny thing is ,it came from my shorin sensei who never kiai ) but honestly I think my kiai is a joke it’s not gonna work in a real life situation and I am not gonna use it anyway . We have something like kiai but it’s a short and almost soundless when you use it for accelerating a move( my sensei call it hitting someone by lung), and I am not talking about “pis pis “ I can hear all over the McDojos. 3- physical Inner power comes from abdomen and we learn it through Sanchi-dachi or Naihanchi-dachi by rolling up the upper tight and lower abdomen muscles, this way you concentrate the energy at the center of your body , and you have to do this while moving in a real fight. 4- Shotokan already has proven itself, it’s well documented, and organized and if we have a chance to put the karate in Olympic games it comes from shotokan mainly. Old shuri style is a mean to disable an attacker with minimum energy consumption so it Look softer, katas looks not as good as shotokan since it shows you the real fithing stances, that’s why you see lots of shizentai-dachi or nekuashi-dachi , who is dare to Block a punch in Kekutso-dachi in a real fight, who is dare to stance in kiba-dachi in a back to wall fight like we see in Tekki, fighting stance is Naihanchi dachi as sensei Motobu says in his book. 5- you see lots of differences in early years but I guess after 10-15 years they all come together since they have the same goal they just go through different routs. 6- your problem about timing and distance can be solved in shotokan dojo, you realy don’t need another style, I even think a strong shotokan fighter can do better than a kyukoshin karate-ka in a real fight since they know how to protect their head better. 7- if you don't mind ask your sensei what style of shorin-ryu he teaches.

JKD(Chines boxing styles) will take you one way and Karate( Jap.&Okin. styles) to another way. if you can, try both of them for a short time and see which one you enjoy more.

I train Kobayashi shorin ryu under Bob Casar who trained under Kazumasa Yokoyama who trained under Shugoro Nakazato sensei. I also train under sensei Darrel Craig who trained under Eizo shimabuko who trained under Chotoku Kyan although sensei craig teaches shindo jinen ryu now a days but he still use some pure tomari-te katas.(chinto,Kusanku,Gojoshiho,passai)

You are a Green Belt.

Welcome to Shorin ryu, and say goodbye to Kokutsu-dachi and Kiba-dachi.

remember if you messed up in one part just forget it and focus on the next stage, I have seen a brown belt who lost focus because of one mistake at the early stage of the test and caried that all the way to the end so bad that he started his Tekki(Naihanchi) shodan to the left and then blocked to the right. good luck.

if you are interested in Okinawan Karate I refer you to "Mark Bishop" book, on the net ,look for 3 major source of Karate based on Location 1- shuri(TE) 2- Naha(TE) or Shorei(TE) 3- Tomari(TE) Shorin-ryu styles come from Shuri, GoJo-ryu , Uechi-ryu, Ryuei-ryu comes from Naha-te I don't know about pure Tomari-te schools but every time I am confused about a kata I try to see the Tomari version since it's one of the original versions.

Beer-Monster , I think both application you mentioned are valid, at least better than dropping down and then looking at the sky( that may be your last look at the sky), Heian comes from Pinan and pinan from Kusanku kata created by master Kusanku from China or his student Sakugawa. Master Itosu created pinan for PE in schools around 1907 and it seems he used Kusanku kata as a base for his new series of katas. you need to see all diferent versions of Kusanku in order to get a better understanding of the Bunkai.in one version I have seen,you stop a kick from knee and push the attacker back from his knee then you drop and turn for a low shoot kick or sweep, God helps us with all of these bunkai(s).

if one day I quit Shorin-ryu I will go with GoJu-Ryu for sure, as far as kicking/punching/linear/circular... , I would say all the karate styles originated from Okinawa are almost same. Funakoshi(shuri-te/tomari-te) believed GoJu-ryu is more suited for bigger people VS. Shorin-ryu for Smaller men or women. Nagamine(shuri-te) was not agree. Any way if you have a opportunity to practice GoJo go for it.

delta1 explained it very well , in a street situation a vertical backfist is very dangrous( like in Naihanchi but you slid in) I think it's better not to block it (you may try to stop it by palm) at all instead try to shift your body, in point karate a back fist is more like a back hand slap which should be block by palm. if they fully chamber then can try a 45 degree in shift and block which can give you a chance to arm lock or a elbow joint attackt ,if you are fast enough then ram into the chamber at elbow and shoulder. back fist is a very interesting and important topic.

aefibird : "Some people don't seem to want to see past the stereotype, which is a great shame" haaah, I got you. I wanted to see how much steam it can make. peace .

forget it, it's a day care for adults or another McDojo. "students", "bored!!!!!", "shotokan","ground combat","MT","sensei" under one roof we call it "dojo", NO WAY. one more thing, I think for practitioner with less than one year exp. sensei is more important than style.if you plan to live there for a long time then find a real good and traditional sensei even if you have to drive a long way(I hope you got a car). one last thing before I zip my lip, these bored students happen to explain people that the other name for kick boxing is "peanut(Pinan) Nisan(Nidan)".

I think most points come from Uraken and Mawashi.

I think shokukai is based on shito-ryu and there should be some common katas, you may see some diferences in walking and breathing as well. any way good luck with linear world of shotokan(no offense).

sorry to say this but if you practice Shorin-ryu ,you should have at least 14 solid katas to practice and understand before making a new one. correct me if i am wrong but i think it was sukugawa who was told by Kusanku " train with me 5 years i tell you how and 5 more years i tell you why" so kusanku kata was created. if some one from American kenpo design a kata it's accepteble to me but not from a shorin ryu stylist. or may be I am just too old, any way good luck with your kata, one kata i allways think we should have in shorin-ryu is a body conditioning kata like sonchin or tensho although some of us practice Naihanchi with shime.

one word : "McDojo"

I think it's very common in dojo to look at the new students ,they just wanna see your level or sometimes they wanna make sure you donig it right. I am positive it's not a "dirty look". as far as kata you have a life to practice kata , how about 3 years for one sanchin kata? huh! or 10 years for mastery at Kusanku.about wrong turns why you worry? there is no ticket, just turn wrong as much as you want.everybody has done the same thing.

my average weight droped 4lbs from the time i started practicing Sonchin i do it 3 times at night and 1 time in the morning. I also started learning Anan kata from Ryuei-ryu , it is a excellent kata.I wish i could find a Ryuei-ryu sensei in texas to learn this kata from him.

I’ll be in Australia next week, I invite you to a full contact match right at the Gate 27 terminal D. 4:55 AM if you missed me then find me at Gate 15 terminal B 11:55PM After 2 days .

We know that funakoshi was not an experienced grand master of karate and learned it tomari and shuri .So where did he get enough training to incorporate naha-te with tomari-te and shuri-te Is it possible that he learned from sensei mabuni in Japan? that's a good point, about kata and styles , what is it that make a style? what are the key elements or above the styles what is the base behind a philosophy of self defense like naha-te or shuri-te ( help me out here I don’t know a proper term for naha-te or shuri-te so I used philosophy). it just katas?( as representation of physical movements and breathing) or some thing beyond ?

Do you remember in one of the early versions of UFC there was a white tiger figher who reached to final and lost decently to Graice. He was pretty good with a open hand tiger look guard . Graice couldn’t take him down instead he went into guard and choked him.

"The fact you are talking about broken teeth rather than jsut going and bying a gum shield I would say you aren't there." is totaly true, you gotta get over it, I use contact lens and had the same problem in a jujitsu class until I lost one in a rough match and I didn't even realize it at the time.now i don't care and don't even think about it at all, as far as injuries i think we get more injuries during warmup and wazas than sparring.as far as SOBs in class ,they are not SOBs ,They just don’t have a good technique, I divide the class in two groups , monkeys and snakes , monkeys are jerky they jump every where and when can’t get into you they try to use pure power and roughness to overcome, snakes have technique and they open their way bit by bit and use all the weakness in your guard and balance these are mostly higher ranks who posses control and you should learn from. When you practice with monkeys focus on your good technique even if you lose to power in long run it pays off. at the end for your information i have never seen a broken teeth in class or tournaments, We get kicked on side and back of the head and neck.