AnonymousOne

Praise the Lord and pass the ammo

Bon Um which boards do you troll on? LOL j/k Welcome 2 da new guy

I take my upper body routines from boxing and lower body as a mix of sprinter and jumpers routine. I also use plyometric exercises which I think is critical I only ever do 3 sets looking for muscle failure [ This Message was edited by: AnonymousOne on 2002-02-07 20:32 ]

The way we practise Hangetsu is very hard on the knees. We dont use Sanchin Stance but more of a stance half way between Kiba Dachi and Fudo Dachi, called Hangetsu Dachi. Nice Kata though

Binny Hinn for his hair and TV scam

Have a look at the Shotokan Kata on video that you can download free http://ctr.usf.edu/shotokan/kata.html

To hell with either of them , just gimme Catherine Zeta Jones

In my country you dont have to do that. You whip his ass and dont have to apologise. Cool eh?

The hardest Kata is the one you avoid the most

To many people they come to the conclusion that martials arts originally had a component of religion. From my many years of research I have found that this is not necessarily the case. It appears that martial arts got its first imputus with a religious element in India. It is said that the Greeks and Mesopotanians were the first to develop unarmed fighting skills to any degree of refinement, based on scrolls, parchments and drawings we have today. It is said that when Alexander the Great was at his peak that this is how these techniques found its way to India. Its true that the Greeks were great philosophers, but these fighting arts came straight from the battle fields and Gladiators, some 3,500 BC. It is thought that the soldiers of the day had little time to explore religion as the were constantly on the march conquering. In times of peace these techniques found their way into the Gladiator (and similar) rings, where further development and refinement occured. Martial Arts were developed out of mans need to survive, it certainly wasnt created orginally for spiritual enlightenment. From what I have studied it appears that the Indian's were the first to add a real component of religion to it and then the Chinese after having received techniques from India later added their own twist, Taoism or Bhuddism (from India). On the Island of Okinawa when they started developing Okinawa-te again little religion was involved. When Chinese arts were mixed with Okinawan arts this began to change. Personally I am not a proponent of using martial arts for spiritual enlightenment. It seems different schools and different arts have a different slant on this. I feel it should be a separate issue. I have asked many people why they train and some say they do it for their spirit only. Then I ask them why they put themselves through so much suffering in training to achieve this when they could simply sit and meditate or learn Bhuddism, Zen etc etc, then the prime motivator comes out, which is developing fighting skills. Today I see martial artist bhuddists, martial artist Taoists, martial artist Christians, martial artist Muslims and so on. There is no one set slant on in and this shows me that martial arts and religion is a very separate issue. It seems every man and his dog, has left society and gone up a mountain, trained and came back 'enlightened'. I isolated myself in the desert of Western Australia for one year training full time, in 1980. There was no mountain and when I came back, all I had was better technique. No lighting bolt hit me LOL. Maybe I needed a mountain? I think the spiritual component comes down to a personal preference.

If I may be so bold, I hope this triples your efforts to never have that happen again. If you find yourself humiliated by it, then use that as an imputus to greater heights. When you train now you can clearly imagine your opponent. This situation will make you or break you. "In every adversity there is a seed of greater benefit, if you look for it and water it" What will you do?

Well said. Its better to create 10 dumb ideas along with 3 good ideas because you researched, than to have no ideas, BECAUSE ONE STAYS BRAIN DEAD, because one isnt thinking!!

I pull the arms down and push them toward their body as far as it will go. In some cases, some people who have weak arms or dont put any tension in them, the arms hit their body. The only defense against this is to recognise what your oponent is trying to do and get out of the way. If he has just started grabbing your arms and has not completed the movement, you need to turn 90 degrees, either way depending on which side he is at, and side step him to disrupt his flow of movement. (Hmmm I hoped I explained that well enough). In fact our Kancho Sensei has another technique and of course is a 9th Dan and is skilled enough to perform it. He will leap forward, cover your eyes with one hand and pound the hell out of your with the other. He does this so incredibly fast that you dont get time to react. His speed is mind boggling and hes 61.

One thing I do alot in sparring, which works well for me, is to get slightly to the side of my oponent and as I a lunging forward to attack with my right arm, simultaneously I will use my left hand to grab the opponents arm and pull it over his other arm so both his arms are pinned and he cant block. Once you have his arms pinned there absolutely nothing he can do stop the attack. I rarely see anyone else do this until they watch me do it. With my left hand, I kind of do a circular motion, grab his left arm and pull it over his right and then pull down of both arms. As I reach the final point of pinning both arms down, my fist has stopped 1/4 of an inch from his head. I play nice you see I just started doing this in the Dojo about 25 years ago. I have no idea where I got the idea from. Its hard to explain the exact motion I do with my arm that I use for pinning but it does have a decisive start and finish point and I even practise the movement without an opponent. With this particular movement I have to say I have not seen anyone else do it until I show them. I am sure in other arts it must exist, but I have not seen it in the 50 odd Kata we have or being taught formally in any Dojo. Maybe I should patent it? LOL Seriously though, until you actually saw it, you wouldn't know what I mean. Its too hard to explain. But I think its unique. But surely someone else at sometime has done this? I dunno, I just havent seen it _________________ I have no need to make a statement to authenticate my credibility [ This Message was edited by: AnonymousOne on 2002-02-05 00:56 ]

Simple to perform without an opinion, yes

If you sit down for long enough and think hard enough you can think of your own application of Kata movements. Bunkai is only coming from the imagination of your teachers and the developer of the Kata. Dont accept that one movement has only one or two applications, open your mind, explore and create for yourself. Its not blasphemy to do so and you may come up with some great ideas. Your teachers are human and so are you. Look for ideas and try and apply it in sparring. If it works keep developing it. This is how it should be. Human creatively knows no bounds

Do you practise blocking and punching at the same time? This is not a huge thing in traditional Karate and is rarely seen in all the Kata. If you practise it, what do you practise and what combinations do you use?

I am a blues man from way back when

The school is a highly respectable Dojo in Japan and it means the students graded by Demura have no recognition by the World Karate Federation. I might as well have mailed them black belts while they stayed at home boozing LOL

You do the push ups so that you thrown yourself say one foot off the floor, claps hands and then go down again. We never do it in our dojo. I do it at home. If you work with weights long enough you can do them with one arm and even a weight on your upper back. Another good exercise is to do hand stand push ups. Here you have to lift your whole body weight with just your arms. You can also ad weights to this. The point is to build explosive action into your muscles (plyometric). Using a heaving medicine ball is great too

Everyone has their own ideas about Karate and thats fine. We are all entitled to our opinions.

Our school has many fine instructors. I initially stopped teaching because of my work and when that changed again, all the city Dojo's had instructors and I decided it was a great time to explore Karate at a different level. I wanted to spend time exploring and studying modern training methods in sport. I also wanted to use myself as a guinea pig on these ideas. I also decided I wanted to train solidly and hard for about 20 hours aweek. I still train once a week at the Dojo with all of our Dan grades and this really is where I test my ideas. I still get the benefit of instruction and guidance of our 'Dojo Head' who trains more than I do at age 61. That little guy is a man of steel and is an inspiration to me. He is the only man in the country that teaches our special army forces and we get much insight into the training needs and methods of the army. I have attended many of these sessions with the army special forces and these guys by nature and training are tough. And they are totally respectful of us, that is, traditional Karate-Ka. Our special forces (SAS) are as competant as any in the world, we just dont have as many as other larger countries. Believe me these SAS guys will try you out big time and I have many stories about that from over the years, but our strict training regimen has taught them to respect us. Its something we have earnt. Apart from my odd assistance with the SAS I dont teach. From time to time I may visit our local suburb Dojo and train there with a Sandan instructor, but I respect that he is in charge and running the class despite being a lower rank. Although I am asked to help out sometimes but I dont attend very often. I have my own programme tailored made to suit me and I prefer to follow it. Since enacting this programme some 11 years ago, my training and martial arts out look has changed. I stick to traditional karate for the most part but just have added modern exercise techniques as a supplement. My school is someone tunnel visioned in what they do and thats fine, they have produced many great Karate-Ka's but I needed something tailored especially for me and my own body.

I dont agree that weights on its own is enough. You have to develop explosive power into your muscles. Yes weights develops strengths but you need explosive strength. What is plyometrics? Speed and strength are integral components of fitness found in varying degrees in virtually all athletic movements. Simply put the combination of speed and strength is power. For many years coaches and athletes have sought to improve power in order to enhance performance. Throughout this century and no doubt long before, jumping, bounding and hopping exercises have been used in various ways to enhance athletic performance. In recent years this distinct method of training for power or explosiveness has been termed plyometrics. Whatever the origins of the word the term is used to describe the method of training which seeks to enhance the explosive reaction of the individual through powerful muscular contractions as a result of rapid eccentric contractions. Muscle Mechanism The maximum force that a muscle can develop is attained during a rapid eccentric contraction. However, it should be realised that muscles seldom perform one type of contraction in isolation during athletic movements. When a concentric contraction occurs (muscle shortens) immediately following an eccentric contraction (muscle lengthens) then the force generated can be dramatically increased. If a muscle is stretched, much of the energy required to stretch it is lost as heat, but some of this energy can be stored by the elastic components of the muscle. This stored energy is available to the muscle only during a subsequent contraction. It is important to realise that this energy boost is lost if the eccentric contraction is not followed immediately by a concentric effort. To express this greater force the muscle must contract within the shortest time possible. This whole process is frequently called the stretch shortening cycle and is the underlying mechanism of plyometric training. Choose the method to fit the sport The golden rule of any conditioning programme is specificity. This means that the movement you perform in training should match, as closely as possible, the movements encountered during competition. If you are rugby player practising for the line-out or a volleyball player interested in increasing vertical jump height, then drop jumping or box jumping may be the right exercise. However if you are a javelin thrower aiming for a more explosive launch, then upper body plyometrics is far more appropriate. Plyometric Exercises The following are examples of lower body and upper body plyometric exercises. Lower Body Drop Jumping: - This exercise involves the athlete dropping (not jumping) to the ground from a raised platform or box, and then immediately jumping up. The drop down gives the pre-stretch to the leg muscles and the vigorous drive upwards the secondary concentric contraction The exercise will be more effective the shorter the time the feet are in contact with the ground. The loading in this exercise is governed by the height of the drop which should be in the region of 30-80 cm. Drop jumping is a relatively high impact form of plyometric training and would normally be introduced after the athlete had become accustomed to lower impact alternatives, such as two-footed jumping on the spot. Bounding and hurdling: If forward motion is more the name of your game, try some bounding. This is a form of plyometric training, where over sized strides are used in the running action and extra time spent in the air. Two-legged bounds reduces the impact to be endured, but to increase the intensity one legged bounding, or hopping, can be used. Bounding upstairs is a useful way to work on both the vertical and horizontal aspects of the running action. Multiple jumps over a series of obstacles like hurdles is a valuable drill for athletes training for sprinting or jumping events. These exercises are all aimed at the lower body, but a variety of drills can be used to make the upper body more explosive. Upper Body Press ups & hand clap: Press-ups with a hand clap in between is a particularly vigorous way to condition the arms and chest. The pre-stretch takes place as the hands arrive back on the ground and the chest sinks, and this is followed quickly by the explosive upwards action. Once again, to get the best training effect keep the time in contact with the ground to a minimum. Medicine Ball: Another means of increasing upper body strength popular with throwers is to lie on the ground face up. A partner then drops a medicine ball down towards the chest of the athlete, who catches the ball (pre-stretch) and immediately throws it back. This is another high-intensity exercise and should only be used after some basic conditioning. Planning a Plyometric Session The choice of exercises within a session and their order should be planned. A session could : begin with exercises that are fast, explosive and designed for developing elastic strength (low hurdle jumps; low drop jumps) work through exercises that develop concentric strength (standing long jump; high hurdle jumps) finish with training for eccentric strength (higher drop jumps). An alternative session could :- begin with low hurdle jumps progress to bounding and hopping, continue with steps or box work finish with medicine ball work out for abdominals and upper body. Warm up A thorough warm-up is essential prior to plyometric training. Attention should be given to jogging, stretching (static and ballistic), striding and general mobility especially about the joints involved in the planned plyometric session. A warm-down should follow each session. How many ? It is wise not to perform too many repetitions in any one session and since it is a quality session, with the emphasis on speed and power rather than endurance, split the work into sets with ample recovery in between. Where to do it and what to wear For bounding exercises use surfaces such as grass or resilient surfaces. Avoid cement floors because there is no cushioning. Choose well-cushioned shoes that are stable and can absorb some of the inevitable impact. All athletes should undergo general orthopaedic screening before engaging in plyometric training. Particular attention should be given to structural or postural problems that are likely to predispose the athlete to injury. Conditioning for plyometrics Higher than normal forces are put on the musculoskeletal system during plyometric exercises so it is important for the athlete to have a good sound base of general strength and endurance. Most experts state that a thorough grounding in weight-training is essential before you start plyometrics. It has been suggested that an athlete be able to squat twice his body weight before attempting depth jumps. However, less intensive plyometric exercises can be incorporated into general circuit and weight training during the early stages of training so as to progressively condition the athlete. Simple plyometric drills such as skipping hopping and bounding should be introduced first. More demanding exercises such as flying start single-leg hops and depth jumps should be limited to thoroughly conditioned athletes. Conditioning programmes to develop leg strength are detailed on the Lower Leg Conditioning page and the Leg Conditioning page. Young athletes Some authors suggest that moderate jumps can be included in the athletic training of very young children (Lohman, 1989). However, great care needs to be exerted when prescribing any training procedures for preadolescent children. Because of the relatively immature bone structure in preadolescent and adolescent children the very great forces exerted during intensive depth jumps should be avoided (Smith, 1975). Summary Plyometric type exercises have been used successfully by many athletes as a method of training to enhance power. In order to realise the potential benefits of plyometric training the stretch-shortening cycle must be invoked. This requires careful attention to the technique used during the drill or exercise. The rate of stretch rather than the magnitude of stretch is of primary importance in plyometric training. In addition, the coupling time or ground contact time must be as short as possible. The Challenge to you as coach or athlete is to select or create an exercise that is specific to the event and involves the correct muscular action. As long as you remember specificity and to ensure there is a pre stretch first then the only limit is your imagination. Plyometric exercise and weight training can be combined in complex training sessions to further develop explosive power.

Competition limits many techniques and while one is limited one cannot perform at their utmost, therefore the outcome is not accurate

Competition limits many techniques and while one is limited one cannot perform at their utmost, therefore the outcome is not accurate