ps1

Yes , Samurai were the european medieval knight equivalent in japan.And many knight could atack a peasant just for looking his horse.I know what you mean.But , the samurais had codes of life....and in theory they had to adjust to several rules of the bushido that includes honor and helping other people ( close to ´´ help the opressed´´ of the knights). I understand what you said abot philosphy... but most MA had one. I think that people associates MA with ASIA....so generally speaking the MA are eastern things for the average person. Many person forgets their ancestors heritage . The bushi class were not required to help anyone. Their lives were dedicated to doing the bidding of their daimyo and no one else. I'm afraid to tell you that you are buying into myth. The samauri opressed many people. Just ask the Okinawans. Honor was a matter of three things only: Loyalty, Obligation, and Justice (as it applied to the laws of their daimyo). If the problem in front of the bushi did not apply to one of those three things, it did not concern them. The confusian and shinto theories were forced upon the bushi by the bafuku as a means of controlling them during a time of peace. The Japanese government was afraid seperate clans would rise up and rebel.

I read the entire thing. The guy seems like a complete fraud. Wish I had a dime for every guy like him. I've met many people whose credintials are even shakier.

Well, gender should have nothing to do with it. Period. People with disabilities of sorts are usually given standards that match the capabilities that person has. I would not expect somone who must use a cane to perform a jump kick for example. I would, however, give that person something different to learn. Perhaps cane techniques. Your sensei is probably harder on you because he/she cares for you more. Sensei wants to make sure that, should you need to use karate, you are effective and decisive. It should be your honor to be picked on a little. Now think about it from another perspective. Now you are so&so. You see sensei always helping the same student, who also happens to be a friend of the sensei. Now you, so&so, are wondering, "Why doesn't sensei ever help me like that?" My point is this: Your motivation for talking to your friend about how you are treated in class should not be to loosen the noose on you. Rather, to tighten it on others and ensure their training is as benificial as it can be. That is, if you decide to talk to him/her about it. Honestly, I would not. I feel it would be so&so's responsibility to step up and ask for more nit-picky instruction.

You are being held back. But it is in a good way. As mentioned above, repetition is extremely important. It's good you do the kata well now. What about 10 or 15 years from now? You don't want to become one of those crappy black belts that see a kata and say, "I used to know that one." Few things irk me more than that. I've met far more than I woul like to admit. I know that at this point you can't imagine not knowing the kata, but it can happen if you're not careful. It's natural to be annoyed the way you are. Don't feel too bad though. As you said, you're grading for the next rank at the end of the month. Then there will be plenty new things to learn and challenge you. Good luck and stay the course.

For sparring: It's always going to be difficult to spar someone who is taller and stronger than you. They have alot of advantages and can score points more easily. I think most of the people here have talked about using angles and getting inside your range. The angles are so important because they will limit the weapons your opponent can use. But if you look at most of the winners of point sparring tourneys you'll notice they tend to be taller than most of their competition. Your best defense will be phenomenal speed and timing. I also forgot to mention that another thing that makes sparring a taller person difficult is the fact they are probably trained. So they also know what to look out for. On the Street: Assuming it's one on one, you can easily beat a larger opponent on the street. Just stick to the self defense you are taught. Don't expect something to work exactly as it does in the academy or dojo. Untrained people often do weird things. You can not, however, hold back. You must defend yourself wholeheartedly. If you do not, you may end up severely injured or even dead. In multiple opponents, do the best you can. Your chances decrease exponentially with each additional opponent who agresses you.

I think you make some good points, especially in pointing out the history of wrestling. In the same vein, I would say that any form of combative art that is practiced soley for sport would not be a martial art. Rather it is a martial sport. Wrestling, like boxing, XMA, Olympic TKD and so on all fall into this category. That is not to say they may not be useful in self defense, just that it is not the primary purpose of practicing them anymore, regardless the history of them. A martial art, however, should have the sole purpose of teaching it's proponent the self defense techniques and stratigies necessary for that persons tasks of every day living. That is, if your a bouncer, the martial art you study should be applicable to your line of work. Same goes for police and military along with the low risk jobs such as accounting. The martial art should include all the basic elements that person would need. So, for example, a police officer who never bothers to train how to use the weapons on his/her belt, would not be training a complete martial art. Often times, more than one instructor is necessary to complete what they need to learn. While I am a huge proponent of attaching a moral code with teaching a martial art, it is my understanding that morality is a personal matter. I know of three high ranking black belts in my area that have gone to jail for various offenses. You can tell a person what morality is and means, but you can't make them be moral. Therefore, I don't think it is a necessary part of the martial arts. Even in Japan the philosophical and spiritual codes were not in place until relatively recently (last 200 years or so). A Samauri used to be allowed to behead a "lower class" person simply for being in his way. Big morality conflict there I think. Until Japan came into a period of extended peace, the big spiritual push was to make the warrior class not be afraid of dying. I guess the point of all this is that, yes, you make a good point that wrestling has a strong combative history. However, that does not make it a martial art any more than wheels on a wagon make it a car. It's a combative/martial sport. It can be used for self defense, but that is no longer it's primary mode.

http://www.seishinkan.com/seishin/seishink.htm This is a link to the seishinkan site. http://www.seishinkan.com/seishin/sskstaff/johnvioluchideshi01.html This is a link to another part of the site that has some of his writings from his experiences as an Uchi Deishi. I believe you have to email him to get more info beyond what is on the site. There is a ton of stuff on the site. Enjoy.

I use whatever meshes with what the opponent offers at the time. That's what Jiujitsu is all about. If it's ko soto gari that's fine, if it a flying armbar, that's fine too. I don't care how advanced the fighter is. The only real difference between the beginner and advanced practitioners are the size of the mistakes they make. In my experience, the most basic techniques tend to be the highest percentage (not unlike the o goshi you mentioned).

I didn't realize we were talking about the street! Leg kicks, knee strikes and chokes are your best friends.

I agree to a point. Depends on one's background in martial arts as well as their athleticism. To become a black-belt level BJJ practitioner one certainly needs to get a good instructor at a good school and be prepared to train hard and long for quite a while. However, I learned most of the required blue belt techniques on my own through books and video and my beloved bjj.org (RIP), and when I finally started formal BJJ training, my instructor didn't believe I had never taken BJJ before. After a short time training, I regularly tap out blue belts and I have had much better than expected success against purple belts as well. Of course, no one can learn grappling without a partner to train with. I would usually just grab anyone I could from my karate class and grapple, preferably with the former wrestlers we have. However, someone who has little prior MA experience will likely not have the kinesthetic awareness to avoid developing bad habits, so this probably won't work for them. With respect, Sohan That is what I am afraid of, developing the bad habits. And I definitely notice that I don't have very good kinesthetic awareness. I can never tell what is going on with other parts of my body when I have a lock applied to me. If you can't tell what your other limbs are doing that is a clue that you are trying too hard. That is...your letting your body take control of the situation. That is ok if, as Sohan mentioned, you have developed good habits. Here's my advice in this case. Work on slowing down. Don't be concerned if someone is going to tap you or not. Remember, as I'm sure you know, winning and losing in the academy is not the purpose of training. Slow your body and mind to allow yourself to truly feel what is happening with your opponent and your body as he/she applies a technique. Do this for several weeks or even a few months. Then decide on a game plan that can take advantage of those movements you feel most commonly. Lastly, employ that gameplan until it becomes second nature. You'll soon find that techniques or set-ups that seemed tedius become easy. Good luck

Good Idea!

Chris05, Do you mean in a real fight or during sparring in class? Cause those are two very different things.

Yes. As it's taught within the Yagu shinkage ryu, which is Japanese in history, not Okinawan, they learn all their techniques first. This is to include all the staff weapons, which is where they start, then the weapons that are mixed with blade and staff (such as a kama). Then the sword. Of course empty hand was taught in there somewhere too, but it was all in regard to application. But it was secondary to training in things like fighting wearing armor and so forth. Kata was taught and then related to the techniques he had already learned. In learning this way kata was more used to train the spirit, and the repetitive motions that occur in the arts. He has bunkai notebooks that are hundreds of pages long on each kata. An amazing wealth of knowledge. Keep in mind that he was training in a classical martial family. Everything he learned was geared toward its use on the battlefield. Not today's streets. Don't get me wrong, his self defense is impecible, but it's a byproduct of what he learned over there. If you're interested in more info on him, I can get you a website. You would be able to contact him from that point on.

All martial arts depend on stupid attackers. If more than one person attack you in an coordinated and tactical manner...you will loose. Period. After 21 years of training in standing arts, and just 2.5 years in BJJ, I think BJJ is every bit as viable as any other and has a more confined plan of attack.

Wow!! That's great info Rich67! Thanks.

In the manner I was trained, nearly everything in kata dealt with close quarter combat and they contain far more takedowns than I typically see people teach. For example, the reason we cresent step is to move around a leg for reaps and such. That's just a really basic and small example, but you get the jist of what I mean. Tons of moves are/ can be interpreted as takedowns and locks. There is even theory that all of the Tekki kata are ground techniques from on the opponents back. I've messed with it a little, seems possible.

In terms of physics, as you assert energy into an object, that object asserts an equal but opposite force into you. That's whay you are feeling.

Good job

Whatever color you desire. Assuming your school doesn't have restrictions.

There's also a demonstration of the same guy and his students performing sanshin with sai. It's pretty cool. One student performs it with empty hands while he simultaneously performs it with one sai and a third student performs it with two sai.

congrats Zorbasan

Interesting video. It reminds me of a Sensei I have from Japan. He was a live-in (Deshi) student for 15 years. He was trained in all his weapons and empty hand stuff for the first 5 or 6 years. Then they began teaching kata and how it applied to the stuff he learned. His bunkai was vast. He always had movements from a kata that could be applied to each weapon along with several empty hand things. He was very knowledgable. Great guy.

I have a feeling we have different ideas of what dropping for a single includes. I don't see how you could get hit with uchi, a proper penetration step is going to put the opponent way below the center of gravity and unable to be thrown. I know it's difficult to explain here, but please expand on how you would hit uchi from a single.

One of my favorite.