AnonymousOne

Extremely foolish idea indeed!!

After having been training for 41 years I have come to the conclusion that all Karate grades ought to be totally merit based. Despite having to work within my school system, I disagree with the ranking system. They put some many months between kyu grades and so many years between dan grades. My attitude is that if someone can perform the criteria in terms of technique, what does it matter how many years they have trained between grades? Years wont advance you, only hard training will. In our school and other schools as well, I have seen Nidans far more advanced than Yondans. Why? Because they outstrip them in terms of work out put. One student might have been training for years at 3 per week and the other for a few less years but at 25 hours per week. Naturally the greater the volumn of training the greater the capabilities. Back in the 1970s one of my teachers was graded to SanDan at the same time as 5 others, and yet he was our countries undefeated national champ 5 years in a row and was light years ahead of the others in skill, fitness, knowledge, power etc etc. But the system does not take into account his harder training because its fixed into a time system.

Excellent to see a planned work out like that Venrix!! Tell me, in your "jogging training", are these steady states runs or do you incorporate interval training into it as well? Also.. do you do weight training coupled with plyometric training (complex training)?

I have taught Karate for over 30 years and have been training for 41 years. I did not mean to make a class deliberately boring but there is a tendency that in order to attract and retain students a class has to be "made fun" in the modern sense of the word. Karate is a martial art. Many people want to practise Karate and have strong links to its traditions, except when it comes to the manner of training. I have spent a lot of time in Japan over the years and once trained full time for 2 years in Tokyo. I can tell you that the traditional way of training in Karate is not fun. Its hard, its brutal, its arduous, its even humiliating at times. The Japanese train in the true Samurai spirit. To them its war. In the Dojo in Japan one was not corrected by a nice encouraging word, no! You found yourself lying on the floor in a sprawled mess after having your feet kicked out from under you, with you teacher yelling "Mae Geri no good! faster faster!". As much as I hated that at the time, I realised that by only have a stern teacher could one grow properly. A soft teacher will only ever develop soft students. Us in the west for the most part do not understand this. The Japanese dont seem to care about sizes of dojos, student rolls and money for the most part. When they train, they train you fiercely to help you develop and indominable spirit. Only by severe suffering and want can you get to stare into the abyss and reach a point of really finding out the limits of your soul, to start to build a solid foundation with the ultimate goal of achieving a unconquerable spirit. Our Karate forefathers knew this principal well. Karate came from war and the need for self preservation. Life is hard, life can be brutal and of course an enemy is never forgiving. Life can be a little easier when we are tougher on ourselves. Given a choice of a brutal teacher and a teacher who would compremise the traditions of Karate training and be soft, as much as I hate the hard system; I would take the brutal training any day, because I know its the only way mastering Karate can be achieved. In my mind a true martial artist will stand tall and enter his/her lesson in the dojo with enthusiasm and optimism knowing that extremely hard work will pay high dividends! I love this "Warrior Code": 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!!

* Current Schedule Overview Monday to Saturday 6am - 5 Mile run (30 minutes) followed by various sprint and plyometric exercises.(30 minutes) One hour Total. Monday, Wednesday & Saturday 3pm – 5pm Basics, Kata, Equipment training (Various). Two Hours each (* Note basics cover an awful lot of things) Tuesday & Thursday 3pm – 5pm Weight training, Interval training including plyometric and body weight exercises. Two Hours each Friday 7pm – 9pm Training at Head Dojo Two Hours Sunday - Rest

I have read many scientific tests on body builders and they all say as far as levels of "fitness" goes, most of them are in poor shape. Body building does not require aerobic capacity. They train their bodies with very heavy weights and very slowly which develops the slow twitch muscle fibres. Most of them are so bulked up, they are slow and couldnt run very far at all. Running is an excellent measure of actual fitness. Body builders bodies are trained to a point where their capabilities are incompatiable for many fields. They would be no for running, agility type activites, or other long endurance type sports. They get as mad as hell when you point this out to them but when was the last time you saw a body builders win a marathon, win a boxing or karate contest, or gymnastics? Body building doesnt have a lot of use apart from looking good, assuming you think body builders look good. As far as martial arts go, body building is incompatiable. I said body building not weight training, there is a difference.

Why does a martial arts class have to be entertaining? You are supposed to be preparing yourself for combat which is very unpleasant and very hard. Imagine if you had to practise the same Kata for the next three years and nothing else? Mastering a martial art is not about entertainment, its not about enjoyment, its not about having fun, its about preparing your for the worse that life may send at you. I am sorry, but its a pet peve of mine to see the whole decline in standards of martial arts because a teacher changes the class curriculum to apease students. It infuriates me that students can control the overall standard of a school because they will leave if its too hard or not enough fun. Lets get back to real arduous training where the men stay and the boys leave.

Spirituality depends on your world view and religious persuasion. It also depends what your school means by "Spirituality". Best ask your teacher

I have been in a lot of street fights when I was young. In 90% of the cases they all tried to hit me with a haymaker. I learnt from very early on, that when a confrontation starts that they try and get close to you. You can tell they are going to attack you by their verbal onslaught and body language. So when this starts keep your distance and keep your hands up by your head. Its a good idea to keep scratching your ear so your hand is up ready to protect your head. Keep calm and watch their every move. Be on the ready to side step. Don’t step back as this allows him and easy path of attack. Its straight ahead. What I often did was if he was punching with his right was to side step to my left which is his right. This puts his left hand out of the way for a combination punch. As he punches, side step the attack and counter attack. The most effective and successful for me in street fights was to counter attack with a backfist strike to the head or a low level side kick to his legs. The kick to the legs was most unexpected by them. By now he is to your right and often his right foot is leading. This puts him in a very precarious position. Your initial counter attack should at least stun him and now he is in a prime position to have his feet swept away from underneath him. Taking a street fighter down this way is incredibly humiliating for them. Once he goes down I found all that happened after that was verbal abuse and threats as he moved away from me. If you are well trained and really want to humiliate him, after he is on the ground, bob up and down (kind of in the spot jogging) like a boxer does preparing for a fight. I personally believe in 2 eyes for an eye. If someone wants to be vicious enough to attack you, then put them down hard and humiliate them especially in front of their friends. Maybe they will learn a lesson. I have had situations where I have blocked and countered with a punch or groin kick in classical Karate format, so I know that works. I have also, as he was punching me, countered with a front kick to the stomach before his punch actually hit me. That stopped him pretty quick. To my shame I also once got into a fight with a cop that was trying to arrest me. He came up from behind and tried to put a classic police wrist lock on me from behind. I didn’t know it was a cop as this was happening, so I broke the lock, jumped up on a wall, turned around and put two front kicks into the cops face. He dropped like a led balloon. This was outside a night club where there was a huge brawl. When I realised it was a cop, I freaked. I just jumped down from the wall and apologised and explained that I thought it was someone from the night club. The cop wanted to arrest me for assault, but his sergeant came over and I explained things to him and he was really cool. He had watched the whole thing and said the cop should and spoken to me first or at least yelled to get my attention. The sergeant said it was likely I could defend the case in self defence and that I would likely win as the cop never spoke to me nor read me my rights. So there you go, I got away with kicking a cop in the face.... twice. I am not proud of this and what I learnt from this was to first find out who and what I was attacking. To think before I react.

Sure You can get McDojo teaching online. If you want a black belt, I can mail you one. But ... gettibg a belt is not what MA is about

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You can do medicine ball exercises. You can do plyometric pushups.. that is the ones where you thrust yourself off the ground during the exercise and land back down again. Ross Enamait has written extensively on this ... see: https://www.rossboxing.com

Simple! Just keep doing them with proper form daily and keep attempting to do more!! Problem solved

In our school you go right back to white belt and work your way through each kyu grade. However with past experience you may be allowed to sit kyu grades faster than normal. We have very high standards and a different curriculum to most schools and there is always that farmiliarisation process. But think of the fun! You can be a white belt that beats brown belts in sparring!! Haha

From what I have seen of my mothers Hatha Yoga, they do fixed positions that remain still or they move very slowly. Yoga (Hatha) is about flexibility with some strength exercises based on body weight. However, in my opinion, and dont misunderstand this, for my needs, I need exercise that is aerobic and anaerobic that matches what is needed under the heat of actual combat. Personally I dont see that in what I have seen from Hatha Yoga. In combat the muscles move very fast (fast twitch muscle fibre) and the lunges work flat out thus needing aerobic and mainly anaerobic capability. I dont see that type of training "goal end" in Hatha Yoga and thats why I dont personally practise. I am not saying others cant derive benefit from it, I am saying I dont see benefits for me.

My muscles are constantly sore, everyday. My day off each week is Sunday and by time Monday comes around the pain has long gone and I am fresh to start the week again. I always train when they are sore. Exercise soon floods the muscles with blood and eases the pain. However if they are obviously too sore, I dont train those particular muscles. I use weights only twice a week. I feel that is enough for me

In most endeavours in life where people are required to excel in their chosen field is major contributor to peoples success was self confidence. If you study great people like the mountain climber Edmond Hillary, or the great businessman W. Clement Stone, or Henry Ford, Mohamed Ali or people that have been successful in all sorts of endeavours, a major component was self confidence in their abilities. They didnt look at the glass and say "Its half empty"... they said "Its half full"!!! You have to be positive. You have to believe in yourself. You have to have the confidence to know you can win. From the great Karate Master Shoshin Nagamines book "The Essense of Okinawan Karate-do I quote: "When we are ready to practise kumite there are important things to remember. Once confronting an opponent, we must forget the difference between dan and kyu in each other and believe that nobody can be stronger than us as long as we concentrate our senses and minds on finding a way to defeat the opponent , fully utilizing the physical power, intelligence and karate technique we have so far achieved. This seems to be simple and ordinary yet it is sometimes neglected and discarded even by experts". The longer you train, the more confidence you can have in your skills. I dont mean in an egotistical way, but a deep quiet confidence within yourself. With regard to Funakoshi's punches. He said that in his autobiography "Karate my way of Life". He didnt mean his punch was ineffective, he meant it took him 50 years to perfect it.

Thank you Shorinryu Sensei you make several excellent points. For me personally I gave up going into contest some 25 years ago. All my MA training has been pretty much focused on self defense. One thing I have learnt over the many years is that the greater your physical endurance, the more training you can do and the more training you can do the greater your skills grow. I have been in a multitude of street fights and yes they dont last very long at all. You dont need aerobic endurance for street fights but anaerobic endurance or in other words - explosive power capabilities. You have to go from 0 to 100% super fast. I have found that being able to endure high output of work (aerobic and anaerobic training) allows ones reactionary skills, power, co-ordination (and all the other vitals needed in a successful street fight) to be developed at a far greater rate. That was really my original point. I wasnt meaning all MA should prepare for 15, 3 minute rounds, but to develop the ability to endure long training, practising the development of necessary skills. It seems to me, in ages gone by, that was how the old masters trained their students. Reading how Funakoshi, Miyagi, and many others were trained makes me realise how different Karate training is today. Certainly from the records of Funakoshi and Miyagi, they were trained to failure & utter exhaustion, to the point of feinting; seemed to have been the norm. I found this philosophy of training much more acceptable to the Japanese mind in the times I have been there, compared to the western mind.

I agree to some extent. When I first went into Karate in 1964 you were expected to train very hard. By the 1980's there came many schools and easier training systems. Our school was heavily effected by these "easy training systems", in terms of student numbers. Only the geniune hard core students stayed on. People either dropped out or went for the easy way to a dan grade by joining a McDojo. It saddens me to see such a noble art being destroyed by lazy money grabbing "persons". In the 1960's Karate, in our country, had a reputation of being a fiercely tough martial art. Now the general public views Karate through Hollywood eyes. They see a high kicking Jumpin Jehosaphat punched out by a one hit boxing wonder. But all is not lost. There are still true hardcore practitioners out there that train like hell, like they used to. One of the reasons I stopped teaching years ago apart from the logistics of it, was because people would come into the dojo and soon leave because it was too hard. The western mind is lazy. They want a fast way to the riches of fighting and/or fitness. This can be clearly seen by the success of * exercise equipment sold in informercials. "Get a ripped body in only 5 minutes per day". Soon I expect Guthry Renker to be advertising "Be a Black Belt in 5 minutes a day and become a karate killer". Still, I cannot change the world, but I can change myself.

After you have had enough street fights (I have had plenty) and have been training long enough maybe you will come to see the difference. I have utter confidence in my abilities not to lose to any street thug. That may sound arrogant, but I have been training long enough and hard enough to have full confidence in my technique.

My teacher is a brutal, demanding, perfectionist SOB, but I love him anyway

I also have that book. Excellent read but far better to apply it

Martial Arts were founded by people studying by themselves. I guess its ok for the likes of Bruce Lee, Choki Motobu, and many other greats of the past to have developed themselves by themselves, but us mere mortals must be supervised. "Give me a man with a real goal and I will give you a man with real power"

I am now 48, I am fitter, faster and stronger than I was when I was 18. I have been training for 41 years. Age is in the mind. Study the modern research on age and the athlete. A man reaches maximum strength by age 22 and will only be down by 15% at age 65 if he keeps training. There are countless case histories of older people performing incredible feats of speed, strength and endurance. Age is in the mind

Bas Rutten practises Kata