AnonymousOne

Want to develop real power and endurance in your legs? Try body weight squats. Build up to 500 in 15 minutes Just use your own body weight and everytime you perform them, keep going until your muscles burn from pain Try it!!

Find a good traditional Japanese or Okinawan school like Shorin-ryu, Gojuryu, Shotokan, Uechi-ryu, or some of their legitimate derivatives. Go to class Follow instructions

I viewed the video of the kata performance (as listed for download above). Wasnt impressed with the guys performance at all. (sorry if that hurts anyones feelings). When performing Kata it is critical to perform it like you are in an actual battle. Block like you are attacking the opponents arms or legs and counter attack with full power. I have seen Teruo Chinen of Jundokan Gojuryu (lives in Spokane I believe) perform this Kata (in real life) at full speed and full power and its truly spell binding.

All Karate is circular and linear simultaneously

The Best Sensei of All So there you standing lined up in the dojo once again. Your muscles are sore. Your body is weak, you are exhausted, drained, and mentally unfocused. But despite those conditions, deep within you lies a burning desire. Your dreams of being a first rate Karate-Ka overwhelm any temporary hardships you face. The lesson starts and you perform your tasks with a great sense of passion and confidence. All this, because you train under the best Sensei of all. The human mind is capable of all sorts of things. Its untapped resources have barely been tapped. In the last 150 years, man has gone from horse and buggy to space flight. We, as humans, broke the 4 minute mile and surpassed the sound barrier. We have climbed the highest mountain and continue to shatter records in every field of endeavour. But what of you? What are your dreams? We are in the martial arts. Whenever I have asked a student, “Would you like to be a true Karate master? Would you like to equal or surpass your countries top teacher?” Many say “Oh yes I sure would. I would love to be that good. But I don’t think I could achieve that”. What a sorry state the human spirit becomes when inflicting self doubt on our destinies. Self doubt is the biggest obstacle us humans face. It’s a wall we cannot climb, its sea we cannot swim. The reasons we suffer (and I say suffer because we do), from self doubt is something that is very personal to each of us. Our psychologist friends tell us that it comes from our child hood and I personally think that may well be a contributing factor. Maybe our parents were not very encouraging or maybe put us down. Maybe we failed at school and we limit ourselves by worrying we may fail again. Self doubt can come from worrying what other people may think of us. Peers put us down, criticise us or even shun us when we don’t conform to standards in the circles we run around in. Self doubt comes from many internal and external sources. Until we deal squarely with self doubt we are never going to get that rocket off the ground. You have to examine the sources in your life that cause you to have self doubt. This may take a little soul searching. Self doubt is also often caused by a poor self image. You look at yourself at a lower level than your hero’s. They are up there and you have placed yourself down there. However your very hero’s were born into this world with much the same brain. The only difference is that they had different programming. I have always likened a child's mind to a tape recorder. What a parent plays into it, what society plays into it, will play back sooner or later in life. If negative input has gone in, then negative input comes out. We need to go back and re-record some of the negative influences that have been placed into our brains. There are many different ways you can do this. However I am a great believer in self talk. Write down on a 3 x 5 card positive thoughts such as “I am a winner”… “I achieve goals because I work on them daily”… “I can do anything and I am equal to any other human”.. “I want this ____ goal because it inspires me into great action”… “I have faith, courage and enthusiasm. I am unstoppable”. Keep those cards in your wallet or purse and read every 3 hours. Reprogram your mind with new data. For further research on this look up “Auto Suggestion”. It’s powerful stuff. Clean the brain of unwanted negative clutter!! While you are doing this daily, you need to employ a new Sensei. I did not say get rid of the old one, I said employ a new one. This new Sensei has your dreams and desires close to his or her heart. This new Sensei understands your problems, frustrations, goals, dreams and desires more than anyone else. This new Sensei will drive you further, faster and longer than anyone else you have ever encountered. But your new Sensei first of all needs to know exactly what your goals, dreams and aspirations are. So you need to get serious, deadly serious. So sit down with your new Sensei and have a heart to heart talk with them. Take away from your mind any thoughts of obstacles and ask yourself this question.. “If I had no obstacles, how far would I go in Karate? Exactly how good do I “honestly” want to be? What is a goal in Karate, that really turns me on and inspires my heart to soar with exhilaration, motivation and enthusiasm?”. Forget about self doubt. Forget about obstacles. Drop the excuses. What exactly do you “honestly” want from this great and noble martial art called Karate? Do you honestly want to be mediocre? Just get by? Just scrape through your grades? Just be average in your class? Anyone can do all that, but what do you want? Who told you that you have to be average? And why did you buy that story? Because it was the easy way out? Let me ask you… if there was a magic pill that you could take that would instantly make you a world renowned Karate master, would you take it? … Be honest!! So by asking you this I can see already you have a desire for greatness, but the truth of the matter is you are lazy and you are a liar to yourself! You want to be great, for whatever personal reasons you have, but you just don’t want to put the effort in. How do I know this? Because just read your mind about the pill question!! Maybe this dream slips you by because of self doubt, or maybe laziness. Maybe you have majored in Excuseology. But for whatever reason you have, you need to cut that crap and realise you lurking within you is a sleeping giant. The Bible says: Proverbs 6:6 GO TO THE ANT, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! 6:7 It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, 6:8 yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. 6:9 How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? … When will you get up from your sleep O Karate-ka? There is nothing and no one stopping you from achieving your dreams, but you. That’s right, YOU the person in the mirror, are the biggest obstacle you face. It is the decisions that you make today and continue to make everyday, that will determine and steer your destiny. But fear not, because you can change and you can change so much that you will be diametrically opposite to what you were before. I don’t mean just physically, but mentally. I would highly recommend that you spend some of that cash you waste on so many of those trivial things you don’t really need, (yes you know what they are) and spend the money on some good motivational books and audio tapes. Feed your brain with new positive data. So there you are finally with a new goal. You are feeling excited for the first time and taking the first important step and that is knowing exactly where you want to go. Not only do you need to know where you want to go, but why. You need to clearly understand the reasons for your motivation and get involved in the emotional side of a goal as well as the logic. Emotion is a powerful tool. Imagine yourself in possession of the goal. How does that make you feel? Take 15 minutes everyday and lie down, close your eyes and imagine yourself having that goal. I still do this today. When I first learnt this concept years ago, I used to imagine what my technique would look like. How fast I would be, how powerful I would be. How dynamically I would perform Kata etc. Little did I realise I would far surpass my wildest dreams and it all started with an emotional thought pattern controlled and steered toward my personal desires in the martial arts. Ya gotta have goals!! So now you have a written goal and now understand all the emotional and logical reasons for achieving them. Keep your goals between yourself and the person in the mirror. Don’t give some negative person a chance to derail your dreams while the egg hasn’t hatched yet. This is deeply personal and only you can understand it. Many great ideas die at birth because some stupid negative person makes some silly comment and puts you off. Don’t let that happen. Remember also that mediocre people do not want you to have what they cannot have or are too lazy to have. They want you down there with them. They don’t want you to rise above the clouds far away from them. They want you to wallow in the quagmire of mediocrity where they live, because they are too lazy and uninspired to reach for greatness. But you are above that because you now have a powerful inspiring goal. So you have your plans and hopes laid out before you. Now you need to deal with your new Sensei. Oh I forgot to mention, your new Sensei is you!! Because you have taken the important step in classifying, and clarifying your goals, you are now qualified to employ yourself as your own (additional) Sensei. As your skills, mental toughness and abilities grow, you will soon learn that no one can drive you as hard as yourself. How do I know this? Forty one years of driving myself. I have experimented on myself this concept. Once you have your goals clearly defined and understood and the deep desire and inspiration is there, there wont be a teacher on the face of this earth that will make you train and study as much as yourself. Your current Sensei is not emotionally involved in your goal as you are. As nice and as kind as they may be, it’s not the same. They will not be living your goal, you will be. You have a personal interest in achieving and surpassing yours goals, they don’t. Teachers come and go, but you are there for life. So now you have to set a work plan for the achievement of your goal. First you need to understand where you are now. What are you physically capable of doing? You need to set up a weekly training schedule. First you need to determine how much time you have available in the pursuit of excellence. Of course pursuing your goals is going to take a great deal of your time. You have make sacrifices of your time. You have to know how badly you want that goal before you start and pay the price to achieve them or face failure. How badly do you want to succeed? Pay the price! Obviously I cannot outlay here for you a personalised training schedule. When you are writing it out (yes in writing!), you need to take into account the following: You need a balanced training program including: Training in basics Training in Kata Training in Kumite Strength training Aerobic development Anaerobic development Equipment training - bags, mitts, makiwara etc Balance training Agility training Flexibility Reaction time development Correct diet Knowledge development by personal study Motivational support programs (books, tapes, etc) Somewhere to self train This is not all inclusive and you may feel you need other things as well and that’s great. Years ago, my first goal was to do 3 times as much training as anyone else in my local dojo. I was only 17 and living with my parents. My father allowed me to make extra room in our garage and allowed me to mount makiwara’s, bags and other things all over the property. The neighbours thought I had gone crazy. Many may think you have gone nuts, but one thing is proven, they will never fight you over it Haha!! Don’t worry about it, your goals are more important than neighbours gossip right? The best method I can think of for self training is to set a dojo like environment. I, for the last 30 years have used audio tapes to do this. I simply record lessons on audio tape to the count and follow along just as if I was in the actual dojo. I bow, yell “Hai”, kiai and do it exactly as if the piercing eyes of my brutal Sensei were actually there. Make one rule with your tapes. “If the lesson starts, come hell or high water, I will complete it, even if I have to crawl to my bed afterwards”. With practise you can get yourself into the mindset that you are actually in a real dojo. In our school the dojo is cleaned, everything except the roof, after each lesson and that I do also. I never let an exception occur to derail my training integrity. To oneself always be true is my motto in this regard. Making tapes I find is a lot of fun. These days I make mp3’s and use a computer to drive the audio sound in my home dojo. I am continually attempting to make myself do more work and perform more powerfully and faster. As your physical skills and endurance grows so does your mental toughness in completing the tasks at hand. The more you grow, the more determined and motivated you become. I have seen people come and train with me or watch me train and they say I am insane with what I make myself do. I just laugh because it’s a compliment to me. Doing the difficult will always separate you from the crowd. The Warriors Creed I will train with the utmost intensity, dedication and desire I will turn obstacles into opportunities to demonstrate my power and strength No feat is beyond my reach, I will write my own destiny To hell with genetics, I will determine my physical prowess and strength I am an action taker not an action faker I am a leader not a follower There are no magic pills. My strength and power originate from my intensity and devotion There are no shortcuts to the top. The Warrior’s journey is never ending. I will surge forward, improving myself each day. I will rise to the top, overcome all obstacles, and destroy my internal and external enemies. Excuses are weak, Warriors are strong. I am a Warrior!!

200 Gyaku Zuki's every morning, per arm

Thanks I hope your property is very big, like 5,000 square miles Haha

Doing 100 plus pushups is a good goal. The best punchups in my opinion for the MA is plyometric kind, where you push your body right off the ground and land back down again. That takes explosive power. As for injuries.... Not everybody gets injuries from high volumes of repetitious practice. Its an individual thing.

Late?

Q 1. so how often do you recomend this regime? I do this sequence along with a few others at least 3 times per week. Q 2. this regime looks good..can this replace lifting weights?... There are a number of body weight training exercise that can replace weights yes. I have come across many students with limited money who cannot afford weights and I give them a series of exercises that will do the job just as well if not better. Using weights for strength is fine but as you have already discovered a MA needs explosive power. I have met body builders that can bench press 300 lbs but cannot do 100 pushups. They have strength but no anaerobic endurance. Here is another Full Body Workout: Legs 20 Bodyweight squats 20 Bodyweight lunges eah leg 20 Squat Jumps 50 Calf raises Rest 30 seconds, repeat 3 times. Arms and Hands 30 Finger Pushups 50 Knuckle Pushups Rest 30 seconds, repeat 4 times. Core Work 50 Knee Hugs 50 V-ups Rest 30 seconds, repeat 3 times. Strength and Conditioning 50 Burpees 50 Pushups Rest 30 seconds, repeat 3 times. Finisher 50 Close grip pushups 50 Hands in pushups 50 hands out pushups Rest 30 seconds, repeat 3 times. Finish with 1 mile running at fast pce (or 10 minutes of skipping rope) This is just an example. You may need to increase or decrease the reps as per your fitness level. Be careful and build up slowly.

There must be one muscle you can exercise, surely???? hehe

There is a difference between the two. A squat thrust would tend to pull the knees up to the chest while you are airborn. From: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/rossboxing2.htm Not A Squat Thrust At first glance, you may associate the Burpee with a traditional Squat Thrust. Squat Thrusts are typically performed without the vertical jump from Step 3. With a Squat Thrust, you simply "stand up" before returning to the squat position from Step 1. Squat Thrusts are much easier than explosive Burpees. There is no reason why you cannot do this as well as a variety. I do. I vary the exercise also by when coming down from the upward thrust, I do a 180 degree spin (while airborn) and face the other way. I do this rotating clockwise and then anti-clockwise. Its fun to make variations of the exercise. I pray you are healed and returned to good health as soon as possible.

3 styles. Naha-te, Shuri-te and Tomari-te It is said by some past masters that Nahe-te is better for larger people and Shuri-te and Tomari-te is better for smaller people. The school I am in is a mix of all 3

You forgot to add: "Sounds like the workout of a olympic or pro athelete or madman or a serious minded goal orientated martial artist" Personally I complete these exercises and many variations of them on my last day of training for the week before I have a day off. And yes I have been told on many occasions I am a mad man. Its always a compliment for me. There is a saying espoused in motivational seminars "If you want to succeed, do the difficult" or "If you want to succeed do what others are unwilling to do". Apart from my daily training; an interest of mine is studying modern peak performance training systems in many fields of sports. When I find something that is different, effective for my Karate and difficult, I incorporate it into my training after having thoroughly studied it. My personal training is very different from that which I experience in the dojo. I only train in the dojo once a week these days. The daily training I do is a custom made program for my particular interests and body needs. Doing this enables me to advance at my correct rate of growth rather than be limited in any way. I have been training this way for 20 years. I was blessed from my father with a very strong will and brutal Karate training over decades helped develop and grow this mental determination. To some I am a mad man yes. To others I am committed to my goals. I always like the saying "Set a goal to see how far you can go and when you get there, start again, set a new goal and see how far you can go again" I absolutely love seeing how hard I can push myself, and how far I can go. Its a competition with myself. I feel a great sense of accomplishment in challenging myself to reach out for the maximum that my body and mind can perform. Some people enjoy cutting down there golf scores, others getting better at 8 ball, and so on. For me its seeing how far I can go. When I was young, about 10 or 20, my teachers technique and attitude toward training had a deep impact on me emotionally and I wanted to emulate him and other great Karate-Ka. But over the years I have learnt a many very valuable lessons. And one is that humans are capable of performing incredible things when they put their minds to it. I don't train for personal glory, I don't train for competition, I train so that my personal goal of expanding my technique and abilities is constantly being achieved, surpassed and expanded. If I can make myself perform this way, then I can make myself do anything. It prepares me for life in general. As I get older, I am 48 now, people become concerned at what they consider to be my fanatical attitudes and actions. But on the odd occasion some one learns from this. For example earlier this year a young man aged about 25 (a sandan) was telling me how hard they train at his dojo (different school to mine) and how hard he trains at home. To my amazement he said "I guess its something someone "your age" can only look back at, you have to get in while you are young". I was incensed at his slur at my age and my ego got the better of me. So I invited him to come and train with me at my dojo at home, if he could handle the pace. He laughed and said "Sure old timer". Many weeks later he finally showed up. I wanted to teach him a valuable lesson that Karate is not just for the young and that as he gets older he has the ability to keep growing. He asked me what we were going to do. I said "We are going to do an hour of basics, an hour of Kata and an hour of special exercises and sparring. He replied "Oh that sounds easy" Hehe Little did he know. He lasted one hour. At the end of the first hour he asked "Sensei (first time ever called me that), this is too much, can we please stop?" I said you are welcome to stop, but the lesson is for 3 hours and I will complete it. So I made him sit there is seiza and watch me for the next two hours. When I had finished it, I said "Well how do you feel about the geriatric training program?” His retort was “You are crazy” and laughed. Then I pointed out to him that age has nothing to do with anything and that I was able to perform to this level because I had continued training for 40 years and that getting older doesn’t slow you down unless you think it does. The moral of the story is that if you are going to call an old man like me “crazy” or “old”, be prepared to prove it, because you may find yourself challenged to demonstrate your philosophy. "The wise and successsful will always be met with violent opposition by mediocre minds" Author unknown "A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner" "You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims" "In absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia" - Unknown

Hehe. I have always had that comment for years from many students. "Why do we need to train that way, when I train for self defence on the street that only lasts a very short time?" My answer: "Yes, the exercise build anaerobic edurance for sure however what you are overlooking is the fact that these exercises develop overall speed, exposive power, strength, agility and overall mental toughness. All of these factors you will need in that short time you are defending yourself on the street. Even if you were training for a 10 second bout, there is nothing in these exercises you do not need. If you have never had to defend yourself on the street yet, then I can tell you, from personal experience, that the whole situation needs explosive power and all the other factors I mentioned. Apart from this, these exercises will build great stamina for your Karate lessons and enable you to perform your technique far better and far more often, thus developing skill at a far greater pace, you do want that don't you?."

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/henkin18d.gif Alternative http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/wiggy2.gif To perform a Burpee: Begin in a squat position with hands on the floor in front of you. Kick your feet back to a pushup position. Immediately return your feet to the squat position. Leap up as high as possible from the squat position. Repeat, moving as fast as possible. You should maintain a fast pace for this exercise. Strive for maximum height with each jump. Most athletes will average between 12 and 15 repetitions per 30 seconds. You can increase the intensity of the Burpee by altering this step. If you prefer the easy way out, you will maintain straight arms as you kick your feet back. You will end in the upright position of a pushup (arms fully extended). You would then continue by returning your feet to the squat position, and conclude with an explosive jump into the air. If you really want to crank up the intensity, you will… If ever there was a full body exercise, this has to be one. Burpees are a great cardio and endurance exercise From: http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/rossboxing2.htm

Long distance steady state running is not exactly what a MA needs. A MA needs explosive power. Its better to do shorter runs of aerobic work like steady state running and finish off with sprints, plyometrics etc. These days my running never goes over 30 minutes and the rest of the morning hour I dedicate to this time, is doing sprinting and plyometric exercise to build anaerobic endurance. If you cannot run, sure do exercycle work with an emphasis on speed. You can sprint on an exercycle. Try plyometrics and include lots of burpees

Here is an excellent sequence to build up your anaerobic endurance, agility, strength, speed and power - all in one. Warm up thoroughly by a light jog up to about 30 minutes Sprint 100 metres Do 50 burpees Sprint 100 metres Do 50 push ups Sprint 100 metres Do 50 burpees Sprint 100 metres Do 50 burpees Sprint 100 metres Do 50 push ups Sprint 100 metres Do 50 burpees Sprint 100 metres Do 50 burpees Sprint 100 metres Do 50 push ups Sprint 100 metres Do 50 burpees Repeat whole sequence up to 4 times (except the warm up); then cool down for 10 minutes If the 50 reps are too high, start off with say 10 or 20 & build up This is a grueling sequence if you attack it like you should .... hard. This sequence has been designed to work your whole body and it does if performed properly. Have a try of it and let me know how you go with it

I have always considered bunkai as "possible ideas and possible applications from past masters, based on "their" interpretations" Bunkai is open to interpretation in my view. If you can find better and more applicable applications for "you personally" that work, then go for it. Every human body is different. What I might be able to perform, you cannot and visa versa. So get that interpreting frame work going in your mind, study, create and explore.

Ross Enamait has a series of manuals for training in boxing, MMA and martial arts. There best there is in my opinion. http://www.rossboxing.com/ Anaerobic endurance is what you need above all else. Fighting is anaerobic and many MA miss that

Yes and yes. Competitions have rules, street fights don't Many train hard (and this is good) for competition but they are training around a rule system that is limiting. Personally I have always trained on the basis of street fighting self defence mainly because thats why I started Karate. I like the idea of fighting with no rules and no limitations. Sadly you cant test yourself under these conditions because someone would get badly hurt. Right from the beginning competition seemed limited to me even though I was successful at it. I feel the only benefit maybe the motivation it gives people to train hard, other than that, I think its a very ineffective past time, but hey.. some people love contests... I don't, except for constantly competing against myself and thats the hardest contest of all

You have to explain to people that the Sahara desert was once a thick forest, but there was a Karate training camp there one weekend, and now its a desert http://home.btconnect.com/Rhodris-world/pics/sanddunes.jpg You can see the camp at the top left of the picture The guy in the picture walking over the sand that was left is standing there amased at how fast us real Karate-Ka can work. Hes from a local Mc Dojo

I feel that long term Karate provides everything you need, however I also strongly feel that we need to make a list and be aware of the most common attacks one gets on the street and then assiduously practise defense and counter attacks. Strangely enough I asked this same question of the coach of the current World Middle Weight Boxing Champ: "May I ask, what is your opinion in regards to real life street fighting defense and Karate from a traditional Japanese school say like Shotokan Karate, is that really effective? If someone came to you with the specific need to develop themselves for street fighting defense, what would you advise/teach them?" His reply was: I think a mix of stand up skills and ground skills is important. For example boxing/muay thai and grappling/judo. The traditional karate schools are not always effective. It takes too long to get to the stuff that actually works. Many of the katas do not teach what really happens in the street. Also, a certain mindset is required for street fighting. Many of the attacks are unprovoked. There are no rules. You need to be ready for the unexpected. I grew up fighting in the streets and had many unexpected confrontations. I learned to react and sense trouble. I'm not sure how to teach this though. I learned the hard way by living the life.

Here is a description http://www.stumptuous.com/fartlek.html http://www.thefitmap.com/mens_health/features/fartlek_training.htm

Karate was designed for warfare. It not the art that will let the people down, its the people that will let the art down" Karate contains everything you will ever need in a street fight and a lot more besides I have trained in traditional Karate for 41 years and I have been in many street fights (in my arrogant youth) as well as illegal bare knuckle boxing matches and Karate has never let me down. Dont look for short cuts, there are none. Seek mastery. A street fighter simple cannot compete with a properly trained Karate-ka. Its like squashing an ant