Angus

Okay, i'll accept that, but for argument's sake i would say that there are more EFFECTIVE ways of doing these things and that kata is an outdated and near useless tradition. Only my opinion though. Angus

Heh, yeah, i tell myself how wonderful i am every day! :brow: I try to believe that i see things the way they truly are. I'm the kinda guy who watches martial arts movies and tries to figure out what the people do wrong in their scenes, and i watch taped kickboxing and all that and just watch what goes wrong for the guy who loses. I emerse myself in a style for a short time and concentrate on its perspectives on realism. That's why i got crappy with a particular form of karate, there were too many bad points outweighing the good. I don't buy all the bullcrap that people try and tell me. Overall though i'm pretty easy-going, and i'm nowhere near as fit as i should be cos i drink too much beer and eat too much, and i'm not exactly the best person to pass on advice, but hey - i haven't lost an important fight yet, so i guess what i'm practicing in the martial arts must be working for me. Angus

No problemo bro. Angus

Actually, i took the credit for something that i shouldn't have. The guys were not as big as me, they were poot fighters, and the only advantage they had was that one had a knife... Angus

Hahaha, that wasn't anger, it was frustration. Big difference. Anger would have been me smashing my computer with an ironing board or something. Angus

18 to train? WTF? That's nuts!! Crazy!! Lunacy i tell u! Yeah, i did a crash course in BJJ/ground defence and it absolutely rox0rs!! It's a lot better than Judo from a realism/efficiency perspective cos Judo's more of a sport nowadays. It still teaches u to grapple though, and that is VERY important. My BJJ training was kind of a 4 day a week, 2 hour a day thing for 3/4 months. I'm no expert but all i seriously wated was some ground defence, and i learned that after the first week. Angus

Well man, all karate has kata. Kata is basically the essence of Karate. I'm in Albury, right on the NSW, VIC border. Hmmmm..... i met a bloke called David Bell who runs Zen Go Shu Karate, and he's based in newcastle with a 5th Dan in Goju Ryu. Zen Go Shu is a pretty hard style. It WAS actually a part of the Zen Do Kai/Bob Jones organisation up until about 15 years ago when Davie split from the group due to some 'political' reason. Are u sure that the bloke ur friend goes to is 6th dan in Goju? Cos this could be the same fellow running Goju Ryu classes. Otherwise the instructor of the class has obviously come to his senses and abandoned the traditional ways of Goju Ryu but kept the name. Angus

Um... righto, where to start... Firstly let me tell u that this was probably not a McDojo and was in all actuality Goju at its best. I was studying under the highest ranked Goju Ryu instructor in Australia, whose name is Sal Ebanez. He's a 7th dan bloke. right, these aren't in any specific order, they're just here to help me count. 1 - kata was done every night except the one sparring night (in which we also did sanchin kata) per week. 2 - i never once did bunkai. 3 - the sparring was largely non-contact, low guard, and no kicks to the legs. 4 - the higher ranking belts did not know how to do effective wrist locks/escape techniques/rolls/breakfalls 5 - the stances were extremely outdated, and there was no set self defence syllabus 6 - there were 12 year olds with black belts, also expected to teach some classes. 7 - When drilling kicks we were to have our hands by our sides, and no guard. The sensei (second in charge) told me that u don't use your arms when you're kicking. I could have started an argument but it would have been pointless. 8 - i let some black belts beat me in touch sparring, and they walked off. Afterwards i could hear them in the change rooms bagging me and saying stuff like "so much for being a kickboxer, he spars like a girl". I would have smacked their butts but i was outnumbered and some of them were BIG. Plus there was no point. I would have liked to have put a face to the voice though, cos i couldn't make it out properly, and then ask him to put on the gloves and mouthguards for a full contact elbow/knees/leg-kick NHB spar. 9 - not only did they use outdated workout techniques, but some of the stuff was dangerous, causing haematonins (patches of internal bleeding) on the arms and doing weird pushups which could, if u slipped, break your wrist. There, i think that's about it. Angus

Sorry man, i don't study it anymore - i got sick of its unrealistic approach. I suppose it would be an effective fighting system if we were living in 18th century Japan or something, but it's got no place in today's society unless u wanna do kata competition. Angus

My bag is full of rags, compacted really hard so hitting it gives a nice impact... Heh, why don't u buy a banana tree, plant it, and when it's big enough u can kick it like the Thai Boxers do. Hahaha. Angus

Well, the thing with the roundhouse (thai style) is that we don't hit with the foot, we hit with the hard piece of shinbone above the foot - so if the kick is hard enogh you quite possibly could go thru the knee joint like a knife thru a melon, with the roundhouse. It's unlikely that you'll break it first go though, unless it's a super dooper hard kick. Angus

Oh yeah, that post above wasn't having a go at kata or Joe personally, just the system of Goju Ryu. I don't make judgements (full on judgements) until i have either sparred against or participated in a particular style. Seriously Joe, if u wanna be a fighter then i suggest u get out of Goju Ryu. I hear Goju Kai is harder than Goju Ryu, but only marginally. They believe that to fully memorise something u need to practice it 2500 times. Something to do with muscle memory. Laterz, Angus

I agree with Ken's one, except for the never entering a fight u can't win part... I'd enter a fight with someone better than me if they were evil or something, kinda like Danny Glover and Mel Gibson facing off against Jet Li in lethal weapon 4. He was a bad guy, and they wanted to see if they could win. It shows the opponent that, although stupid, u r not afraid. Therefore he might get a little less enjoyment outta kicking the crap out of u. But hey, that's just me, and i'm a crazy Ausy. Angus

JOECOOKE, i noticed that u said u do Goju Ryu karate. Have you ever done anything else before? I found that almost all of the people that did Goju Ryu (when i did it for a couple of months) had had no prior martial arts expereince and were constantly fed the line that the kata they were learning could be applied effectively in the street. Also in Goju Ryu when drilling our kicks we had to keep our hands by our sides, and we weren't allowed to kick to the legs. You said in your last post, and i quote, "I for one believe that kata is extremely important in the street. It shows you combinations that you may not have come up with on your own" - spoken like a true deciple of the outdated and ineffective system of Goju Ryu Karate. I'm sorry if i offended u with this post man, but i thought i should let u know that the style u are studying is going to give u a false sense of confidence and u r gonna get your butt kicked if u come across a half decent fighter, even if u'r a Goju black belt. I hold nothing but a 7th Kyu in HapKiDo and i could outspar these guys (probly cos i've been doing freestyle since i was 6). If u like kata and want to learn to fight (effectively) then do Kyokushin or Shotokan Karate, or Shi-to Ryu or anything but Goju. Goju Ryu's for old guys with bad backs (as many of the iunstructors were). Take my advice as a fighter, if that's what u wanna be, get out of Goju and do something else, anything else, boxing, taekwondo, jujutsu, but stop wasting your money man. I wouldn't care if Goju Ryu was wiped off the face opf the earth over night and the style was never practiced again, the people who i met there were so closed minded to other styles. I did a basic commando roll on the floor and one of the brownbelts (mind u, this guy was ready to grade for his blackbelt) asked me "doesn't that hurt?" I laughed at him for half an hour cos i didn't think that he was serious. Gees i hope Goju Ryu is the style u study, i'm sure i read it somewhere on ur details. Later duders. Angus

Nah Joe, that's a load of crap... A myth made up by little guys to make themselves feel better. I'm not a big dude, i'm only 6 feet tall and 85kilograms, but saying the little guys are faster than the big guys is not right. It all comes down to the way u train. I can throw faster and harder punches than some of my little friends who train in the martial arts. Don't buy the myth duder, it'll only get u hurt. Angus

I do believe, and correct me if i'm wrong, that Bruce Lee's entire quote about water goes as this... and i quote: " Empty your mind " *clicks his fingers and sits up* "be formless, shapeless, like water... Now u put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, u put it into a tea pot it becomes the tea pot... Now water can flow, or it can craaaash - be water my friend" *procedes to smile with the knowledge that he has just said the very thing hat will immortalise him* I've watched that single part of the interview perhaps a thousand times or more. Angus

The key to training on your own is consistency. Since i moved to a farm from a major city (Sydney), i have basically been training on my own, and it is SOOOOO hard to keep a focus and to keep motivated. Some people can stick to a set routine, doing even something different every day of the week but doing it week in and week out. I can't do this. I do whatever i want, whenever i want - but i am consistant in my exercises. I do bagwork, weights, running, skipping, calisthenics (including my patented microwave warmups), i do plyometric workouts (with weights and clap-pushups) etc... Plyometrics, for those who don't know their Greek, trainslates into explosion/power time. They help develop explosive power in your muscles. Whatever you do, make sure you aren't bored. You need to keep entertained otherwise your workout just won't work for you. I like the old saying: anything physical is 90% mental. Remember to try and keep a focus, watch the odd martial arts movie to get yourself pumped up... In all honesty though mate, nothing beats training with a partner. Catchya later. Angus

Yeah, uh, hi, my name's Angus.... and i'm a chronic idiot. This seems to be one of my drawbacks in my training - that is that i'm sloppy with my guard sometimes and i tease the bigger guys, who then proceed to belt me around the room with their huge trunk-like legs and arms... But seriously, my brother had really bad athsma and he did Kyokushin Karate amoungst other things. It was good for him i guess. He's got athsmatic bronchitis at the moment, so i have to go and pay him a visit to see if he's okay. There's no REAL limitations, just the ones we imagine. Angus

I did write a message about the samurai doing jiujitsu instead of karate but the message didn't seem to want to come up, it was too late at night, and i really couldn't have been bothered typing the whole thing again. Ah well, at least someone else picked it up. Angus

Yeah, i suppose. That's probably one of the drawbacks of not doing the proper 'school' teachings. A lot of my stuff has been gym, garage, backyard, school yard type setup and u don't get the whole noble atmosphere. U just learn to fight. Ah well, Angus

Ouch man, the truth sucks! I'm lucky too that i live in the country, cos they don't care so much about brawls as long as nobody gets killed or seriously maimed. Ah well, if the good old ego gets me into trouble then i'll have to cop the consequences, but i trust myself to not go overboard unless it's warranted. Angus

"Start a fight andf i'll kick your ass, walk away from one and i'll kick your ass" - a very cool movie i saw once, i think it may have been Roadhouse. I'm gonna tell my sons this. Angus

Ahhh, kinda like the movie 'best of the best'... I gotchya! Hey, someone wish me some luck too, i gotta go and sit my final psychology exam in 1 hour 55 minutes.... and i still haven't had a shower. Angus

Good luck dudes.... But what's team fighting? Angus

I agree, that's why i'd go all beserk.... there's not much of a chance of getting out of a headlock when tehre's a knife to ur throat.,.. if he intends to use it he'll kill u straight away.. Angus