hammer

Thanks for your contributions.

Didn't see this before... All I can say is wow. Congrats on a fantastic accomplishment.

Question I have is that, for ranks beyond 4th Dan, how should technical skill weigh in comparison to the contributions made to the art? The impression I have had of some higher ranks is that they got promoted more because of their contributions to the school/organization than any skill improvement. Not that those people didn't have skills, it's just that their promotions didn't seem to be based on getting any better technically.

Thanks for posting the pictures...didn't realize that there was that much of a difference. The Shotokan stance is closer to the L stance I learned in TKD.

Might be difference in styles, but when we do kata we always do Taikyoku sono Ichi and Taikyoku sono San (we do Taikyoku sono Ni sometimes but not always). While they seem basic on the surface, there is a lot of good stuff in them...I'm still working on getting all of the stance transitions right. Just curious...how is the Kyokushin version of Kokutsu Dachi different? That's all I know at this point, my previous style (TKD) has an L-stance which I keep going back to when I get tired or lazy.

I said I am extremely resistant, not that they don't work. I spent several years at university in China (Shanghai & Xi'an) and my colleagues took me to a couple of Dim Mak schools but all I saw was ultra-compliant students falling over, nobody managed to make it work effectively on me. The effects of the strikes were no more than any other strike of that power, aimed at prominent bones or weak cartilage, such as the xiphoid process. I also went to a dentist who used acupuncture, give me novocaine any day! My own take on pressure point techniques is that they make for good demonstrations but are not practical in real life situations for the following reasons: The practitioner needs to be really good to hit the right spot consistently The right spot varies by individual and some people do not react anyway

IMO the reasons people don't lose weight after being on the treadmill for so long is because they usually either don't change their eating habits (guilty as charged) or they eat more since they exercised and feel entitled to it (sometimes guilty as well). Simple matter of input vs output... I'm in agreement with the stretching approach we take in class, which is to make sure we do a warmup before any significant static stretching, and to also make sure we do some dynamic stretching before working on any high kicks. I also run and I never stretch beforehand. It's possible that doing some dynamic warm up stretches would help, but I usually just go a bit slower for the first .5 - 1 mile and that ends up being my warmup. I would like to improve my flexibility (gets harder when one is of a certain age) but fitting something structured like yoga into my schedule just isn't going to happen.

When my wife saw "Osu" in an e-mail from my Sempai all I told her is that it's a Kyokushin thing...can't speak for other styles.

Current weekly workout schedule: Sunday - long morning run (6 - 7 miles) Monday - 90 minute evening Kyokushin class Tuesday - morning run (4 - 5 miles) Wednesday - 90 minute evening Kyokushin class Thursday - morning run (4 - 5 miles) Friday - morning run (4 - 5 miles) Saturday - 2 hour Kyokushin fighter's training class Run pace is on the slow side (9:00 - 10:00 per mile) so the total run time is anywhere from 40:00 to over 1 hour on Sundays. Been trying to add in some pushup sets on Mondays and Wednesdays and I'd like to work in some burpee sets on Thursday night. All depends how I feel at the end of the work day. Got sidetracked for a few weeks in June because of a lower leg injury, was concerned I had another stress fracture but it cleared up in about 10 days. Bought some new running shoes which I think are helping.

In my 14 years of TKD experience, we didn't do sine wave, but there was a rise/fall that we used in conjunction with a hip twist to get power. The end result, however, was that the body was square to the target at execution (at least on techniques in a front stance). We didn't wind up per se, but in transitions we did use opposing hip and shoulder positioning to create tension which added power. In my Kyokushin experience, I have had to make some changes...when executing techniques, there is no rise/fall at all (we are told to imagine a ceiling right over our head), and the power comes from a combination of tension in the stance and hip and shoulder movements. At least that's what I can grasp at a 7th Kyu level... Not sure I see either approach as being better than the other, just different ways to achieve the same means.

I'd agree with just the statement in bold. There may be schools that do care about student development and improvement in the style being taught, but the teachings fall short as far as practical defense skills. If those schools do that and don't emphasize the business aspect too much, then one might not consider what they teach to be effective, but I still would not call those schools McDojos.

I started in TKD in my mid 30s and studied for 14 years. While we did the occasional board breaks, the sparring was non to light contact and we never did any kind of conditioning. I switched to Kyokushin just over a year ago and I'm now trying to do some level of conditioning. My concern is that now that I'm in my early 50s the body doesn't rebound from training as much as I'd like. I'm not sure if I'm holding back too much, however. The best example I can think of is hand conditioning...I've tried some knuckle pushups and we do heavy bag work, but I don't feel like my knuckles/hands are getting any better. It could very well be that I'm not hitting it hard enough but in all honesty I don't want to risk actual injury. Is this an area where at this age I should just manage expectations?

What kind of heavy bag do you work with? The one I work with at the dojo is plenty strong to handle kicks...my instructor has a very powerful gedan mawashi geri and he's never concerned about breaking the bag.

One issue that I see is when someone branches off and creates their own way of doing things but doesn't change the name, or even worse, claims that their way is the "correct" way of the style. I have seen that twice in my MA experience...once from the head master of the school I went to for many years (claimed his way of doing TKD was the "correct" way even though it was different from any established organizations) and again from a student who learned under someone in what they thought/claimed was style A (kyokushin) but was really closer to style B (shotokan). The bottom line is that if one can teach effective MA than it doesn't matter if it fits into a particular style. Even in established/traditional styles I think there is some flexibility and discretion for students to focus on what works for them. Just don't go to students and claim that your way is the "correct" way or the "true" way...

We have a heavy bag but it's mostly used for boxing/cardio type workouts. For class-specific technique and power drills we tend to use pads.

We do burpee pyramids on our Saturday AM long workouts...this old guy is up to a total of 25 (1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1) so far. Been good to get back to running, up to about 22 miles/week (4 days, each run 5.5 to 6 miles). Want to be faster than I was last year, but I have to be careful to not mess up on running form and get injured. With Karate workouts the other 3 days (2 regular classes and long class on Saturdays) I don't have a down day, but so far that's been OK.

Good stuff! Just reminders to block/defend for next time...

I find this discussion interesting...in the past few Kyokushin classes I've been to, the instructor has discussed options for creating more space from one's opponent without actually moving backwards. The assumption is that once one starts actually moving back, the opponent has the advantage. I have yet to incorporate this into my sparring but it seems like a valid approach.

Congrats! How many rounds of kumite did you do? I had three for my blue belt...was interesting.

Echo what others say about seeing a doctor. One other question...do you make sure you keep hydrated during workouts? I can get light-headed after a longer run or more intense karate workout but it's usually because I don't hydrate enough.

I started in my mid 30s and now am new to Kyokushin in my early 50s. Never too late...

We do fitness and strength exercises for warm-up (15 min or so) but unless I try to do more on my own my fitness doesn't improve. We do have a special workout once a week where we focus more on fitness but that alone isn't enough either. I spent many years at a school which didn't do specific fitness training. We'd get some benefit in the methods of exercise portion of the workouts, but for the most part I felt like I was an out of shape person who may have been technically proficient. I think the fitness training should be included in workouts but not at the expense of learning MA techniques.

Thanks for the questions, Bob, they're good ones, and applicable here.Its important to remember how young a style the ATA is, and how and why the forms were created. By and large, the ATA forms were created to help students develop TKD techniques as the student advances in rank. They were not laid down with bunkai-style applications in mind. They were designed to challenge the practitioner at that rank with the techniques of that rank. I hope that makes sense, and answers your question. Just wondering, do TKD practitioners of any association get into bunkai-style applications? I don't remember having any significant exposure to applications when I learned the Chang Hon (ITF) forms.

This has nothing to do with any style but is more of a personal opinion on what would work for me. I believe the main kicks I'd use in a self-defense situation would be low ones like foot stomps, knee kicks, and snap or back kicks to the groin. Any kicks above the waist would be best used at greater distances where I'd rather run away in self-defense then exchange blows...

Maybe other Kyokushin karateka can speak better for this, but in my 1 year experience we actually do a decent amount of kicking. Might be because knockdown kumite rules allow kicks to the head but not punches and because low kicks are used a lot as well. I have also found that the kicks are more challenging than in TKD because the distance to the opponent is smaller.