isshinryu5toforever

I wouldn't worry about the history or association of the martial art too much. Worry about whether or not you like it, and whether or not it fulfills your expectations of your martial arts training. Most Chinese martial arts are in "families" of their respective art. There are different versions depending on who was responsible for transmission and where they were from. The history of martial arts in China is deep and complex.

Those games, I guess, are more realistic in some ways than say Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat, but they aren't realistic as far as what you'll be taught. I'm an avid video game player, fighting games especially, and I am also a black belt holder in both WTF Taekwondo and Isshinryu Karate, and I'd be hard pressed to say that what I see them do in video games is what I see people do in training. The most realistic fighting games are Fight Night and the latest UFC game. Only because they're based on real people. Virtua Fighter does a very good job of trying to more accurately depict martial arts, but they still have to take video game liberties to make the games fun. Getting back to your original post, This is an excellent video of Bajiquan: Linear motion, close, fast strikes for inside fighting, the use of elbows, these are all things Bajiquan is known for. I'm sure, with the huge number of martial arts schools in Socal, there has to be at least one person that knows Bajiquan in the San Diego area. Someone better versed in CMA's can probably help you more.

Welcome to the forum, it's a good place to ask questions about other martial arts.

Welcome to the forum.

The only way to help your forearm take impact, is for it to get accustomed to impact. There is kotekitai, which is a fancy way to say hitting your forearm with a stick haha. It's a makiwara type practice, where you start lightly and get harder as your body gets more used to the impact. Not sure how this would help you with knife defense. Getting cut is getting cut. There's no way to make your forearm harder than steel. Well, you might make it able to take the impact from steel, but it wouldn't be impervious to being cut.

I think you're going to get a lot of resistance to this idea, because martial art implies something used in battle. At the core of nearly every striking style are a series of simple punches and kicks. These are the basis for the rest of your training, and learning to use them in a self-defense situation should be a top priority. Taekwondo basics include straight punches, the side kick, the round kick, and the front kick. These things can be used very easily in a self-defense situation, and should be learned with that in mind. All other things you can do with Taekwondo come from these techniques, especially the front and rear leg round kick in modern Taekwondo. There is nothing wrong with trying to get more out of a martial art, as far as a balanced life is concerned, but the purely physical aspects of the martial art should be centered around self-defense, unless you belong to a school that is clearly centered outside this idea.

I'm usually good at using a jamming front leg side kick to knock people off balance, or take them off their feet if they're in the middle of a kick. The timing is tricky, but once you've got it down, you can usually use it on people once or twice a match.

That's quite a lifestyle change. I'm sure the dojo will miss you, but they must be happy that you'll get to see your family full time. Best of luck with the transition back and into a new part of your life.

First, I'd say give Google a shot. It's a wonderful tool. Second, don't go by what you see in video games. Go see it live in person. If we could go by video games, then I'd be able to throw a tornado kick and shoot fireball projections of my hands by now.

We haven't done something like this in a while, so I want to see who is involved in Isshinryu Karate. If you don't mind, and you don't have to, please tell us where you train, your rank, and maybe your instructor's name or association. I can start since I'm the one asking, My home dojo has recently, as in the last few years moved to Barron, Wisconsin. That's where I go whenever I'm actually in Wisconsin. My current rank is Yondan. My instructor, Master Lloyd Brown, does not belong to an association. He is currently doing kobudo training with Master Peter Carbone of the Weapons Connection. I'd like us to have a discussion on the current state of Isshinryu Karate, and perhaps what we think may be lacking, if anything, from the style we all practice.

You're welcome. I worked as an intern in the marketing portion of a web company for a few years. I got to learn the ins and outs of keyword optimization, because we were in direct competition with both meetup and facebook in different ways. If I can think of anything, design-wise or marketing wise that could help you, I'll definitely let you know.

I have never heard of them, but there's a lot I've never heard of. The martial arts world is huge. I don't think this particular forum discussion is about outing potential McDojo. It's entirely about our feelings on the matter. Having been on the website for quite some time, I'd have to say that karateforums isn't quite the place for discussing legitimacy claims or degrading another martial arts school. I'm not sure if we've ever discussed legitimacy claims on here at all, and if we did, I'm sure it was over something ridiculous like 'no touch' knockouts. Back to the main topic, I'm not a fan of how widespread McDojo are, but there isn't much I can do about them as a person. As long as they never sell themselves as something they aren't, I don't have much of a problem with them. My main problem comes when they tell their students, and make them ardently believe that they are ready for a self-defense situation when it simply isn't true. I've seen schools that basically teach Tae Bo. It's wonderful for fitness, and it's a great community of people, but a school that teaches realistic self-defense it is not. As long as they're honest about things, I don't generally have a problem with McDojo. They definitely fit squarely into modern US thought that things need to be quick and easy. Why work hard somewhere to get a black belt, when somewhere else will make you work less hard and give you the "same" black belt. From all the times we've discussed what a black belt means on this forum, you get the sense that to us, it definitely means something, but to the general public, it's kind of something cool they can show their friends.

Pricing online is something that I was pretty against as little as a few years ago. However, having moved from New York to South Korea, I enjoy being able to navigate Korean websites and see what they charge. It keeps me from having to call 15 dojang to get quoted on prices. If you're in an area with a lot of martial arts schools, then putting your price online might be a good idea. If you have a few here and a few there, it's not as necessary, but could still be a good idea. I like your website, but you might want to think about keyword optimization. When I did a quick Google search for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Smyrna TN, yours is the very first result. It comes up on Google maps and everything. That makes perfect sense. Most people don't know if they definitely want BJJ though, so if I do a Google search for Smyrna, TN martial arts, your school doesn't come up in the first 5 pages. Most people won't go past the second. If you look up marketing and keywords, you'll come up withe plenty of sites that will give you advice on keyword optimization. Word of mouth is a wonderful tool, but if you live somewhere like New York City, or any city with a multitude of martial arts and martial arts schools, word of mouth only goes so far. That's where marketing comes in. Schools that are much, much older, thus more established in the community can rely on marketing less. If your school is say 20 years old, your instructor probably has very little need for marketing. If your school is relatively new, however say less than 7 or 8 years old, you need to market yourself. Especially when competing with much older schools for the same pool of students.

The two most common forms of advertising I've seen are websites and demonstrations. Demonstrations are a bit easier for the striking crowd I suppose, because they can do breaks and such that the audience likes. A good, simple website can be very effective though. As long as the layout is easy to comprehend, the color scheme isn't ridiculous, and all the answers about how to get to the school, how much it costs, when it's open, and how to get there are readily available, it should be fine. There are also tricks you can use to bring your school higher up on Google searches. You use certain keywords and such. I'd have to ask my friend, or someone who does web design, but I can let you know if you want. A lot of schools have a two week free promotion as well. They offer two full weeks of classes at no cost with no commitment. At the end they talk to the person about signing up for some sort of 1-3 month contract (they're getting very common). Some places even throw in their first uniform free.

I'll go with Jay on this one. It depends on the person, the circumstance, etc. I dislocated ( know, not a normal break) my ring and middle fingers during a match, and I didn't even realize it. I felt pressure when I tried to make a fist, looked down, they were pointing the wrong way, I kicked the other person in the face, backed up, and popped them back into place. I then made a fist, and figured that I could fight the next two rounds anyways. Lucky for me, my fingers look normal today haha. It was a stupid decision, and it could have turned out FAR worse, but it goes to show that your body can do some amazing things.

I edited my post, for some reason I typed Michael Cera, the actor. I meant Matt Serra the fighter haha. It must not have updated when you posted. Oh well. I think venting about styles in a constructive manner is a great thing. I'm glad you posted this, and it shows me that you're looking inward. I think we all need to take a look at the state of our own martial art as well. Not necessarily our school in particular, but the reputation of the martial art we do, and why it exists. It's hard, if you go to a good school (which are getting fewer in number, or at least percentage these days), to hear people trash the style you do. What you (a general you, not YOU you) have to realize, and what I've realized, is that your school doesn't represent the whole. That is sad. What I find awesome about BJJ is the quality control. You can verify who people trained under and how that all leads back to a main person be it a Gracie, Machida, what have you. The people who run their mouths aren't representative of the whole. Most of the BJJ guys and girls I have met are awesome, fun people, who give their martial art a good name.

Most of the older guys, well the guys that have been around for a while, get annoyed at how cocky the vocal people are. There are a lot of people out there, who just want to teach. Matt Serra for one, on here, you for another, but there are too many cocky university students who take BJJ in some university club, and think they can take on the world. That's the most vocal side, and unfortunately for every group, that's the side that gets the attention. I'm pretty sure that's where a lot of hostility comes from. I'm in no way saying that a lot of the cocky guys can't back it up, it would just help if they weren't so vocal about it. I've also heard, from too many BJJ people, about the ills of taking a traditional Okinawan/Korean/Japanese martial art. I understand preaching about the ills of belt factory McDojos, but not all traditional places are like that. The good ones may be in the minority at this point, unfortunately, but not all are like that. I honestly, am not sick of BJJ at all. I've considered taking it several times, it's just opportunity, money, and time. I am sick of the guys with BJJ white belts, who have been doing it for like 4 months, telling me they can take on anybody who has only trained in traditional martial arts.

Haha, JiuJitsuNation I like your answer. It's very true, legal and practical in all situation. It's not like any of us can carry around a tuifa at all times. That said, we're a traditional Okinawan Karate school, so of course: Bo Sai Tuifa We're hoping to add: Nunti bo and Eku at some point in the future. Basically make Kobudo and Karate separate systems inside the school.

I completely agree with the OP. The students that instruct at the dojo I attend when I'm at my parents' place are all at least shodan, a couple of us are sandan or yondan, and we don't pay dues. As long as we teach classes, we don't have to pay dues. If we stop teaching classes, we pay dues. It's a pretty nice system. It's hard up in the boondocks, town is less than 1,000 people, to find a decent place to train that isn't your back yard (this is great, if you have people around you to train with, which my parents don't). If you're running classes, your instructor isn't really teaching you, AND you're paying for it, it might be time to have a little talk.

I am training solo right now. It's interesting, because you have a read a lot of theory to try to figure stuff out. I'm a 4th dan though, so I get to do stuff like that. I mostly practice in my apartment, sometimes on the roof of the apartment if I'm doing weapons. It's not about the space really, but about what you're doing and if you love it. As long as you love it, don't worry about the space.

A lot of people look at themselves as a bystander as well. Half the students in my school took that approach. My initial reaction was two sided like ps1's original post.

I would be inclined to say that the study was unfair. Just as we were discussing the choke question previously posed. People working under certain circumstances make assumptions, not always right, based on the circumstances under which they work. If you work at a mental institution, it is highly unlikely that a completely sane person would go there on their own volition to be committed. Some people might even deem that urge to be associated some sort of mental illness. I do understand the intention behind the experiment, but I can't say it was a necessarily fair one.

He posted it exactly to see what people would say. Most martial artists would say they're they're person being choked, and this is what they'd do. I remember hearing this done at a seminar or something before. All the people they asked talked about getting out of the choke, no one talked about how to maintain the choke. It was done to show that most people are very passive in self defense and not proactive.

Isshinryu Karate, 19 years in August, Yondan WTF Taekwondo, 4 years, Chodan My Isshinryu karate sensei is ranked in Aikido, so I studied it for approximately 7 years, but never gained formal rank. I studied Judo under a yondan for about 2 years, but again, was never formally ranked.

If you have the time, do a few thousand at one time. You'll tire yourself out to the point that you'll be forced to use proper body mechanics. You'll go from clean looking, but forced, to tired and forced, to just plain sloppy and forced, to using your body the right way to make it look right. That's about the time when you start using your body right, and they'll probably be more correct than your first few hundred. Remember the feeling. You'll start punching with your hips and your feet instead of punching with your hand and your arm. It won't "feel" as fast, because you're putting less effort into it.