Dark Shogun

How did Saifa and Sanchin come to be in Shito Ryu? Mabuni trained under Kanryo Higoshiana correct? Did he also train under Miyagi? Thaks for the link P.A.L, I've read it before tho. What does everyone else think of this article?

Just a coupe of questions: P.A.L, What sort of Aki Jujutsu influenced Shuri Te? Would it have influenced Naha Te? Master Jules, Where did Saifa come from?

My mum taped the programme for me. "I taped a karate show for you dear" "Thanks mum" I cracked up when I got to the kata competition, man that was lame. I liked the way the main chap that the show followed (Matt I believe) was made out to be 'traditional'. The guy with the katana in the kata comp was a laugh too. He talked about his 'push-pull' method of cutting and proceeded to jerk the sword back and forth. And if you flip sideways in a sword fight your so going to get cut. I must admit tho, he had the best flips of all the 'martial artisits', he didn't seem to bend his legs he just seemed to levitae and turn upside down. All the show needed was smoke bombs.

I agree, traditional karate has everything you need. The only thing wih it is it will take more than a few months to become effective.

Point tournaments are not Shotokan per-se, however, Shotokan seems to be most suited to point tournaments because (IMHO) they practice more point kimite and work more on making their kata look good rather than understanding the bunkai(application). You get all sorts in point tournaments like TKD and Kung Fu sometimes. Also, the outlines I have given about Goju Ryu, Shotokan, Shito Ryu and Shukokai above do not nessarily hold true for all dojo. Some may be quite different. For example, I once visited a Shito Ryu club that trained twice a week, one session point kimite and the other competition kata. As for Goju Ryu in point tournaments, some Goju Ryu clubs do this but I don't think they put much stock in it. There is a style call Goju Kai which branched off from Goju Ryu. They may do more point kimite, however, I did visit a Goju Kai dojo once and they seemed very application based. So, you can't always judge a dojo by the name of it's style.

I have trained in Koryu Uchnadi. First I trained under one of Sensei McCarthy's senior students. He was unable to keep his dojo open so I started training at the Hombu Dojo in Brisbane. Sensei McCarthy taught there during the day and the after hours sessions were generly run by his students. Few people attended the after hours because they trained for most of the day. After that I took up Goju Ryu although, my Sensei also tained under Sensei McCarthy so he does teach some of the Koryu Uchnadi kihon. There is also another black belt in Koryu Uchinadi who traines with us in Goju Ryu.

I was a black belt in Shito Ryu and my dojo closed down. There were no more Shito Ryu dojo here so I tried Shukokai which comes from Shito Ryu. I didn't like that as much so I went (eventualy) back to Goju Ryu whcih I had studied for 2 years before my Shito Ryu. No not much Shito Ryu around here, but I hear it's big in Europe.

I have trained in Shito Ryu, Shukokai, Shotokan karate styles in addition to Goju Ryu. In Goju Ryu we concerntrate more on breaking kata down to applications or bunkai which we pratice with a partner. We don't enter tournaments becasue the point of kata is to understand it, having someone watch a judge the appearance of your kata and not knowing what you know about bunkai is pointless. We don't often do kimite but when we do we try to have as few rules/limitations as possible, anything goes as long as we don't seriously hurt our partners. No points are scored and usually no winner is declaired. The goal is not so much to win as it is to improve. I found this to be in sharp contrast to Shotokan. In Shotokan we basicly just practiced the solo kata until we could do it well enough for a gradings or tournaments(those deep Shotokan stances really impress the judges). We did alot of point kumite and associated drills. Shito Ryu, I found fell somewhere between the two. If there was a tournament comming up we would do a lot of kimite and work on our more impressive kata. Otherwise we did self defence training and some weapons. Shukokai (which come from Shito Ryu) was much the same as Shito Ryu but leaned a littel more towards competition. Otherwise the classes seemed to be similar in length, bow in, warm up, uniform, terminology etc.

What abot training with a bag or a backpack? I carry a bag to most places I go. I used to carry a sholder bag but I thought it would get in the way fighting, so I switched to a backpack. The backpack stows nicely out of the way so you don't have to worry about losing all your stuff whether you fight or flee. I could always have just dropped the sholder bag but it would be inconvenient for me to lose all my stuff.

True, some of the more complicated kata movements take more time to master than punching and kicking, I guess it depends on what you spend more time on. It all mixes in well tho. I'm happy to help out with any Goju Ryu questions you may have. Good luck with the research.

y2_sub, Kata is all basics applied different ways. The kata simply shows how they should look and feel when you practice them. However, you must apply the movements to another person to understand them. If you do not practice the applications in this way you will not understand the movements and they will look non-practical. All kata moves can be effective but, some kata moves are effective for some users but not for others. It all depends on your preferences. No one person will find all techniques to be suited to them. When we practice, everyone practices all techniques because you do not know if a technique is suited to you until you practice it. Any given movement in a kata may be unsuited to you but well suited to people who prefer that kind of technique. There are certainly kata movements which I would never use becasue I am not suited to those movements yet I've seen other practitioners pull the same movements off quite well. So what looks fancy and not practical to you may look quite practical to someone else and vise versa. As for info on Goju Ryu, our web site has some information on Okinawan Goju Ryu history, list of kata, goju philosophy. https://www.rembuden.com.au There's a lot of Goju Ryu on the internet tho and some knowledgeable people on the 'karate' section of the forum. Also try https://www.gojuforums.com

Y2 sub, Many of those great moves you see in kata will not work in the ring due the rules. They will work in the street if you practice them. In order to practice these kinds of moves, we use kata. Why? Because thoses kinds of techniques can not be practices freely against a resisting oponent because the oponent will be seriously hurt. And we don't want ot hurt our fellow training partners. These movements we designed to cause terrible injury to the human bady and that's exacly what they will do if you full employ them, practice or street. So how do we practice these thechniques and not cause terrible injuries to our traing partners? We use kata. This is somthing kata can give you that slugging it out in a ring can not. Hitting hard and taking hard hits is best practived through hard kumite. Kata does little to develop this. So you see, kumite = increased power and conditioning. Kata = improved techique. Both have their uses and some styles lean more towards one than the other. It's important tho not to lean too far towards one.

It's probably all over by now, so tell us how it went.

Different MAists build fighting spirit different ways. Hard kumite is an exelent way to build fighting spirit. Kata can also build fighting spirit. I'm not talking about competition kata, I'm talking about kata training where you perform many kata to the best of your ability, when your too tired do another one. You can build fighting spirit while doing your basics, in fact you should start building fighting spirit from the moment you bow to start you training session. It is also possible that one can build fighting spirit with point fighting, although it dosen't do it for me. One thing my sensei says is "never give up". If you give up you are guarenteed to lose. We do kumite continuously and get up not matter what happens. We are awarded no points and usually no winner in declaired. Just keep fighting. PS, about grappling, you would never let someone grapple you but they might do it anyway. I certainly let no one grapple me.

Grappling will not help on the street? What if someone grabs you? It would help then. Flash technique? When did I say flash technique? I said grappling and attacking soft targets. I do not consider this to be 'flash technique' rather, I consider it to be 'effective technique'. Flash technique in my opinion is impractical technique that looks impressive. I do not question that kyokushin is hard training. However, hard training does not necessesarily make effective street MA. Fighting spirit largely makes effective street MA. Anyone of any style can have fighting spirit, whether thay be hard fighters, point fighters, grapplers, kendoka, whatever. Fighting spirit is not limited to any style.

A typical attacker will not attack your soft areas but you should still train to attack theirs. Years of hard conditioning can be felled by a simple attack to a non conditioned area. I think that hard kumite is great and it should be done by all unarmed MAists every so often, but it's not the 'bees knees' of MA training as some make it out to be. You would be much more effective if you have the other elements of MA training too. However, you may have these elements, I've never seen a kyokushin training session before, I've only seen tournaments on video.

That is true, real combat is about taking and avoiding hard hits. But hard contact fighters practice this with a limited target area and without grappleing. Hard contact fighters have a better chance of enduring hits to their usual target areas. What about other target areas tho, do they condition their groin, neck etc? In real combat are you going to bother pummeling someone's torso when you can attack a soft squishi area?

Informer: Again, who cares? Why would a fat sensei do that. It make no defference to their ability to teach MA. But if that's what you want to do then go your hardest.

Oh I agree. Hard contact kumite better relates to real combat than point sparing, but hard contact kumite is still far from real combat. Kyokushin knockdown tournaments still limit one to the bludgoning of only a few targets. Now don't get me wrong, hard contact fighters (kyokushin, MT etc) are great at hitting hard and taking hard hits. But it seems to me that they are limited to this.

Hard contact kumite is good but that alone will not replicate real combat. In real combat you can be hit anywhere including neck, groin, limbs, you can be grabbed, taken down, bitten, pushed into walls... How can it be said that hard kumite will prepare one or combat by being as colse to real combat as possible? All hard kumite teaches is to bludgon your opponents head and torso until they submit. There is more to combat than that. It will result in good conditioning tho.

The goal of martial arts is not to get fit (except in taibo or 'boxercise'). However, getting fit can be a side effect of martial arts training. Some people experience this side effect to a high degree than others. Most people will experience it less as they get older. Sensei have spent years training, therefor they are older, therefore they experience the fitness side effect less than most and therefore they may hae a bit of a gut. Big deal! I says, a chubby experienced martial artist will still teach you more than a chiseled supermodel. If it's fitness you want you've chosen the wrong art.

Old elektra says that a sai is no good for defending ones self because it is an offecsive weapon. All weapon are used to cause physical damage to people and thus all weapon are offensive weapons. Name one non-offensive weapon. All weapons are defensive because they are all used to defeat one's enemies thus stoping them from attacking you. Also most weapons can be used to block or parry. When Elektra said that the sai is an offensive weapon she could only have ment that the sai is less suited to blocking, parrying, disarming etc. She couldn't have been more wrong. That's the whole point of the sai. Never trust a superhero. Holy crap Batman!

How would body hits stand up on the fat guy. Will all that fat offer any protection? I guess one way to find out is to get really fat and give it a try, I'd rather not tho.

I was once confronted by a guy with a knife, I ran like hell, and it worked. My 2 brothers were with me at the time. I told them to run first while I kept the gyu at bay by keeping a bush between us. When my brothers were out of sight I followed suit and ran. This thread reminds me of a kyokoshin video I saw once where at a demonstration, a karateka catches an attacker's sword by 'claping' his hands on either side of the blade then pulling the sword away from him and kicking him in the torso. (this was all done from seiza)

A big fat guy in the street. I don't mean big, I mean big and fat. What are the pros and cons of fighting a big fat opponent. Does all that fat offer any protection? Is the extra weight very useful? God help you if one gets on top of you! What does everyone think abot fighting a big fat guy?