Osu No Seichin

Having trained Kyokushin for close to 30 years i would have to say it is much easier to dial it up than it is to dial it down. In our tournaments we have continuous non-contact as well as knockdown fighting, beleive me there gets to be a lot of contact in the non-contact, you get very used to hitting someone and to just "dial" it down is really hard to do. Not saying it can't be done, would just take some training and alot of discipline. I agree you must be conditioned to take the punishment or you will lose, unless you get in a lucky shot and take your opponent out.

Kihon is the alphabet, kata the words, kumite the sentences.... DaChroniclez-was he really a blue belt or a man who has trained for a long time and is just wearing a blue belt....I think dominate is a pretty strong word, yes he won but to say he dominated well....having corner judged and refereed at a great many tornaments i have seen people dominate, and I have seen people win, he won. Pers- I agree with some of what you say, yes evaison is a great way to fight and yes the Kyokushin fighters tend to stand toe to toe and go at it, but climb in the ring and see how much evaison you get done before he catches you and you can't get away. Want to win then you have to stand in there and fight, simple as that and trust me you aren't going to block them all, no matter how good you are, just the way it is..... I have trained Kyokushin for many years, have seen the TKD guy's the shotokan guy's and all the rest come into the dojo and tournaments to fight and train. It all ends up the same, they lose we win, mostly because they are not used to fighting by our rules and our style. It would probably be the same if we went and trained with them and sparred with them, we are so ingrained in what we do to start point fighting would be a hard thing to do, not impossible but different. Kyokushin is noted for it's knockdown fighting, is it the essence of Kyokushin? NO.... read the books, study with the people who train Kyokushin the way it was meant to be trained and you will find that the knockdown tournament part is a very small aspect of Kyokushin. Kumite is a part, but there is so much more...all we do is connected in some way to fighting, so i suggest to go out expand your horizons and see how much more there is to Kyokushin than just knockdown fighting, because some day...you will be too old to just fight..... And my feeling...if you don't do basics and you don't do kata, you don't do Karate.

From the book "Kyokushin Karate Self Defense Techniques" by Shihan Bobby Lowe. I quote " Of special mention and who was of great consequence and influence to Sosai Oyama was Kotaro Yoshida of Daito-Ryu-Aiki-Jitsu. It is from this martial discipline that a majority of Sosai Oyama's self defense movements and techniques were derived and developed from. It is Kotaro Yoshida who is specifically mentioned by Sosai in his book, "This is Karate" as ' " ...Unrivaled in the fields of Japanese aikido, sword fighting, judo and knife throwing...." Any one can say any thing in print, I agree. My point, if Sosai Oyama trained with a Sensei such as Kotaro how could he not know any thing about judo or throwing????? And on a side note, It was Kotaro Yoshida that sponsored Morihei Ueshida in his initial study of daito-ryu aikijutsu, which he later evolved into modern aikido....this is all documented in the "eimeiroku" registry of students at the Daito-Kan. And as another side note....Shihan Bobby Lowe (8th dan kyokushin) was Sosai Oyama's first uchei-dechi and a Black Belt in Kyokushin when Jon Bluming started as a white belt. You won't find a student Of Sosai Oyama's who has been around longer and stayed true to his master like Shihan Lowe.... I could dispute all of Venrix's statements but there would be no point. It is one mans opinion and we are all allowed our opinions, I would hope..

Try Sensei Tom at the Newton dojo. He offers adult classes three times a week.

I know Sensei Tats at the Kyokushin Dojo well. He is an excellent instructor and does it full time. Go and talk to him and see what he says, get a feel for the class and him personally. A very dedicated karateka....Also check out https://www.kyokushin.ca dojos richmond and go talk to Shihan Stuart Corrigal another top notch Kyokushin instructor in Richmond. good luck and hope to see you at a Kyokushin function in th enear future. OSU

Where are you from? Does your organization not offer Kyokushin gi's for sale? If you let me know where you live I may be able to help you better.

He changed the Pinans to best represent the style of karate he was developing. Kyokushin is based on the theory of circle and point, so the movements in the pinans we do are much more circular,than they would be in other styles.

You should know that this all happened before Sosai declared Kyokushin.That is why Kyokushin is based on the theory of circle and point. I beleive at the time this happened he was training Goju, was a Nanadan and was a Yondan in Shotokan.

We call them knock down tournaments for a reason. To win cleanly you must either knock out or knockdown your opponent. Fights that are close are also decided by the corner judges and referees. That is to say that if a fight lasts the whole 3 minutes without a clean knock out or clean knock down, the corner judges will then render a decision. So beleive me, no one pulls anything. It is full on.

So I am curious. How many Kyokushin tournaments have you refereed, judged or fought in? I would suspect none. So while you are setting up in your nice full Zenkutsu Dachi for your nice hip rotating gyaku tsuki, the kyokushin guy who doesn't kick full force or punch full force or rotates his hip is quietly and very quickly taking your head off and you are lying on the floor unconcious like so many of the people in the video, because you didn't get the time to do this. Beleive me if you don't think those guys are kicking full power or punching full power I suggest that when a Kyokushin Knock down tournament comes to your part of the world you enter and see just how hard and fast they are kicking. And yes we train quite extensively in blocking punches to the body and the head but when you are in a competition and someone is punching as fast and hard as these guys are capable of you are not going to block them all, head punches allowed or not. Funny thing, alot of the top Kyokushin fighters are excellent point fighters, but i have never seen a good point fighter from another stlyle who was any good at Knock Down. Of course I could be wrong but in my experience have seen it yet.

Don't use your age as an excuse. Explain your neck injury to your new instructor and go for it. I am and have students alot older than 40 and as long as you work at your own pace and keep at it on a consistent basis you will be fine. Kyokushin is an all round martial art when taught the way it was meant to be taught. Good luck.

How can you say a kickboxer needs to be in better shape. World Open Tournament last day if you win chances are you will have fought 5 times. Minimum 3 minute rounds unless you knock out your opponent before this time, there can be two 3 minute extensions per fight and sometimes more depending on the referee. You do the math. Not only that but you are fighting different opponents each time of varying sizes and skill level. And this is the third day you have fought. To get there you have already fought at least three times over the last two days and have had lots of time to stiffen up and let the aches and pains take over. And I agree with DaChroniclez, if you have ever witnessed a 10,20,30,40, or 50 man kumite, it requires you to be phyisically as well as mentally prepared. Lets face it most people who undertake this are not professional fighters so to condition yourself to do this is a huge undertaking one that shouldn't be taken lightly. I have been told many times if you can do this kind of kumite you can do anything. Having done it and having witnessed it many many times over the years I am a firm believer in that statement. "OSU"

I know lots of students well over 50 who train Kyokushin on a regular basis and spar on a regular basis. As to tournaments well we have an over 35 class at most tournaments and it is always well attended. To the question of a smaller guy overcoming a larger person, well the whole essence of Kyokushin is based on this concept. Hence no weight divisons in most International tournaments and the World Open has always been this way.

If trained properly and the way it was designed to be trained Kyokushin is the most complete traditional style of martial arts there is. I would say to anyone who says we don't know how to block punches to the upper body (head) that you obviously have only seen Kyokushin in tournaments and have not trained at a good Kyokushin dojo. Yes I agree in tournaments we don't allow head punches, simply because we fight bare knuckle and the injury rate was to high, but in class we train quite extensively in upper body defenses against punches. But if you have seen a Kyokushin tournament then you do know we allow kicks to the head. So having said that, you must realize that we are very adept at blocking kicks to the head and therefore fight with our hands held high, so having our hands in this postion it is just natural that we will also be able to block punches as well as kicks. Sosai Mas Oyama trained to the level of yondan in shotokan, nanadan in goju ryu, yondan in judo, also trained jujitsu and several other martial arts before developing Kyokushin. This is the reason it is so well rounded. As to con's if i could think of any I would tell you. Dr Flem. There are some really good Kyokushin schools in Melbourne and some great instructors have a look and decide for yourself. Use Kyokushin in a search and you will find them easily.If you have any questions please just ask.

June 1 Not my idea...My Shihans....1000 days a beginner, 10000 days a master is a saying of Sosai Mas Oyama, the creator of Kyokushin Karate. As to practice makes perfect, an old saying indeed, but lets face facts, if you practice it wrong it is still wrong... In my dojo, the saying is Perfect Practice makes perfect....

1000 times a beginner......10000 times a master......do the kata 3 times a day for a year, you have done it 1000 times, now you are a beginner, do it 3 times a day for ten years, now you will start to understand the kata . What you have learned in a month or so is the movements of the kata, it takes many years to really and truely know the kata. Do that with each kata you learn and you will start to realize why karate is a lifetime of learning.