pers

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.

This is how critiques in art classes are carried out, which are part of developing students to develop critical (not criticising) thinking skills.

In this way, it is a group effort "to help each" other as opposed to being negative and hurtful.

As long as everyone is in agreement that this is done in an absolute positive manner, then everyone will benefit from this type of encouragement, with helpful suggestions and explanations from all.

Then it is a great idea having sparring critiques.

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! 😍

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 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.

Personally I like speed in techniques, not just for the sake of it but it give more opportunities; as being slow can be effective also,

With all martial artists, the best moments are those that were well timed.

A martial artist is most valuable when attacking as putting one's guard or defenses down, this could be part of the self defence aspect.

Usually timing not from luck but focusing on what mistakes the opponent is making and creating one's own opportunities, then timing one's self to make them work.

As with the saying.

"No use Closing the barn doors when the horse has bolted"

"Buy low sell high"

The best use of timing is being in the right place at the right time doing the right thing.

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 .

Best timed counters in MMA, what do you think?

https://youtu.be/KXGBy611of4

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 trick is to make speed and strength as effective and as useful as possible.

When push comes to shove or a tug of any kind, I am sure that while physics is present, it will be my qualities as a maist that will decide my fate and not Mass x velocity = power, equations.

The equation was brought in to show what makes power or energy

But good luck finding your way....

Law of physics.... Mass x velocity =power

martial arts is not tug of war, you don't need power like weight lifters, you need speed to produce power, doesn't matter if you are point scoring in competition or going full contact and penetrating with your technique and releasing the energy produced by speed into your opponent.

Most effective move is to put your opponent in a disadvantage and yourself in advantage to score or end the fight.

Bruce Lee said "Never sacrifice power for speed"

Speed is power, the faster you deliver the more powerful is the effect.

This is going to sound like I'm trolling... but I'm not.

Bruce Lee: when you actually look into him.

Ya end up questioning everything about him.

At 5 foot 3 inches... weighing at his bulkiest at a whopping 115lbs

his ability to knock anyone out let alone an average male was extremely small (like 5%)

A female light welterweight boxer (132lbs) would have gone toe to toe with him.

Joe Lewis (the kickboxer) in an interview (it's on Youtube) said he once saw BL extend a barbell with 70lbs "free weights" horizontal and hold it there.

Speed and good technique is what enables a smaller person to knock someone much bigger out and Bruce Lee had that.

I have seen quite a few examples of that in action, one such person was my own sensei.

I am learning shotokan karate as a beginner in a dojo in London and I find the sempais there are not friendly. For example, the black belts deliberately ignore me during the kumite, making me standing alone there. If someone comes to stand opposite me, they start to laugh at him/her. The sensei is an excellent Japanese karate master, but I really dislike the atmosphere in the dojo. How could I deal with it?

I guess you are either in Kawazoe sensei or Ohta sensei's dojo.

They are both excellent teachers.

Ignore the treatment and stay put and train hard, eventually they will change their mind about you give it time and be courteous.

You are in good hands with any of Those two instructors.

If you have years of martial arts training then your body will adopt very quickly and you pick things up quick ,how various techniques are performed and timing in kime and stances and so on .

If I go to a new club and style I would go and stand at the bottom of the pack and even wear a white belt and show lot of respect towards the master and his students .

I just watched this clip of him talking about stances ,pretty much what I have been saying here ,notice his front foot and hill off the floor .

and even when he is at the end of his technique you may notice his back foot with his hill just a fraction off the floor meaning more weight on the ball of his rear foot.

I saw couple of clips, didn't see him pivoting on his hills but using ball of his foot.

Very capable karateka.

I was mainly interested to see the shindokan karate pivoting on their Hill as mentioned above.

your hill should never touch the floor but there must be a little space like a thin sheet of paper between the hill and the floor .

Toes touching the floor and moving and twisting and turning on the ball of the foot .

Styles of the MA have different methodologies and ideologies. As I've mentioned before, we, in Shindokan pivot on our heels when it's necessary; primarily in our close range and Tuite.

We've many techniques that the heel MUST be in contact with the ground; for the most, at the very end of said technique.

Who walks only on their ball and/or heel?? I don't. I use the entire bottom of my foot whenever I go from point 'A' to point 'B', like whenever I'm walking to the store or to the inside of the store or when I'm walking around inside the store.

I like to those moves you refer to if possible, are there any clips on YouTube you can direct me to?

Hello all, long time lurker / newly registered here!

I am a low-level (green belt) practitioner of Goju Ruy Karate Do, and I am looking for suggestions and insight on how to spar with someone much taller.

I am myself quite a short guy (~5' 6"), middle-aged and not very strong. In our dojo there are several guys of the same level who are around 6' 4", and I am always totally incapable of sparring with them. Their legs and arms are so much longer than mine, that they can easily reach me before I am close enough on them. Next December we're all going to the blue belt test and sparring will be a part of it (it has been a part of all our belt tests, it's just that those tall guys weren't there at the same time as me). Our sparring isn't really any serious yet, but at least I don't want to be totally clueless by then, about how to handle the situation.

On one hand, I thought about trying to do some takedowns. Unfortunately I am not that good yet with such techniques, so the risk of failing miserably is quite high. Also, I would still need to get pretty close to them first.

Another idea often going through my head is to "attack their attacks", such as trying to grab/capture their arms as they punch me, or hit their legs as they kick me. These ideas too require some pretty confident techniques tho...

So what would you normally do, when you have to spar with someone much taller?

when fighting someone bigger and taller avoid direct attack as they will catch you nearly every time ,instead you have to move in towards them in an angle ,try to manipulate them by switching from left to right changing your stance and catch them while they are in transition and in between stances .

and the important factor that smaller guys can deploy would be superior speed .

as you are a green belt you are going to need lots of training and gaining experience to find your perfect timing ,distance and angle of attack ….take your time the more you do it under a watchful eyes of a good instructor who can correct you the better you will get .

All of the above I mentioned will not happen over night ,takes a long time to develop so be patient and persevere .