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Sensei Hirokazo Kanazawa passed away peacefully at the age of 88. He was one of the elite karatekas that JKA send around the world to spread and promote karate. He had a great impact on the promotion and development of karate. Condolences to his family and friends and his students around the world.

Very well said Allan, this attitude is not very common in among clubs members. The attitude of helping each other out in sparring, even in its basic form in karate for example. Best help to your sparring partner and yourself is the attitude of "I try to hit you but not hurt you as fast as I can thus by doing so giving you a chance to sharpen your defences and in doing so training my own tools of trade and tactics. A win win situation.

Martial art is a vehicle, you just found the right one you like to take you where you want to go. I found mine many years ago and I am still trying to find its many features and I am happy with my first vehicle.

Blimey! Brad Pitt has not aged since the early 70s! 😍

I agree!! And because he was a human being, he was far from being invincible, as all of us MAists are, however, Bruce had a edge that placed him in a very small percentage of being defeated. Oss sensei! 😍

Bruce Lee is the equivalent of the Beatles in martial arts. He inspired many many people to follow his path including me as a young boy. I don't think he was invincible but he was a tremendous martial artist, there are too many ifs and buts and Bruce Lee was a human after all but a very determined and focused and talented individual.

I trained in 3 different Shotokan associations since 1984.. 84_85 85_87 87_2014 Looking for 4th... still looking.

Achieving shodan grade is similar to getting a high school diploma, you have proved you have reached a level of competency that can't be taken away from you. If you have a lay off you may lose your sharpness and physical fitness but your knowledge is still there and just needs to be recalled and practiced again and within a short period of time you will get yourself back where you were and I dare say even more competent than before. I personally don't mind wearing a white belt for any period of time, as long as I can have quality training and conditioning. I know what I am and what I have achieved, others around me will know my level by how I carry myself in the training hall. It also depends on what you are after in your karate training. Are you looking for advancing in Dan grades? Do you want to become a teacher in karate and become a 5th Dan? Or you are just looking to polish your techniques and train for the sake of it. I belong to the latter. If I find a great instructor in any form of martial arts I would be happy to wear a white belt for ever and happily train there, but that's my way of thinking. I don't care about high Dan grades. There are more than enough high Dan grades in the world through whatever political or financial motives that it has lost its meaning for me a long time ago.

Martial arts rely on speed , the only way that a smaller person can win against a larger opponent to knock him out or end the fight is to produce power through delivering good technique with great speed . ,even with great timing if you don't back it with speed in delivery and movement then you have no chance .

I think it's definitely down to the individual skill and talent. Not the form of martial arts at all. You can have the strongest punch in the world and best looking head kick but if you can't deliver it at the right time then it could be of no use. You can say that to a tennis player, you could have a great backhand but if you don't get there in time and hit the ball at the right time then it all goes wrong. Same with the goalie in soccer or etc..

Timing is important in everything including combat, music, all kind of sports and all walks of life.

Jab punch or kizami zuki as its known in karate is a very useful technique both in defence and offence. Front leg and foot plays a vital role in the quality and effectiveness of this technique. In self defence it can be deployed once an attack is anticipated by slightly changing the angle and stepping forward into the coming attacker and catching them on the chin or other head targets. Like everything else timing is very important. In offence mode it's the lead foot that is the driver of the attack, dynamic push of the front foot and leg is the effective element.

If you are very keen on improving your karate then like any other skill or knowledge you need to practice in your own time as much as possible, if you can do at least half an hour to an hour a day with one day rest then you can improve faster. Most important thing for a new brown belt is to start relaxing more and get more fluid and less rigid,. This can happen with less tention in the limbs, shorter kime or focus. You only need kime or focus at the point of impact, the shorter your kime the faster and more powerful your technique! It doesn't happen overnight, it takes a while to get there, more you continously work on it the sooner you get there, having a good coach or guide is very helpful.

The pioneer and oldest form of martial art which has been going for thousands of years started in Persia and continues to this day in the modern Olympic games is a big miss in that list. Wrestling.

The equation was brought in to show what makes power or energy But good luck finding your way....