pers

Depending on what you are looking for in martial arts kyukoshinkai is a style founded by late oyama sensie who has a back ground in shotokan .a very hard and brute style which demands a high level of physical conditioning .Personally I don't like their concept of fighting as I have seen in competition the competiters face each other and exchange body punches without body evasion and blocking and see who can hit harder and better,my idea is to hit and not to get hit by not being there ! (hopefully !) and the fact that there are no face punches limits one's ability to fully condition itself to complete defensive attitude.

Dr.Flem ,There is a magazine published called Australian fighting arts ,read that and call them if necessary to find out his address I read an article about him in fighting arts magazine published in UK in late 80s. I think his first name was stephan but not sure ,but he had excellent pedigree of karate and had world tytles .If I ever find that mag .I will let you know.

DR.Flem ,if you live in Australia there is a very good shotokan instructer by the name of ... I think "kwak" of german origin ,I read about him in a mag ,I followed the link to check the sensie you mentioned but it is not really possible to make a judgement .You see I have had this experience of spending 2 years at a club where I thought at the time that I was getting new grades easily so I felt good only to find out that at the new club where I joined I am not even good enough to wear the white belt around my waist ! so at Brown belt level, I started to do basic class all over again for the next 5 years together with the advance class which followed the basic class to grade for shodan. What made it harder was I first had to forget the way I had learned to do things and then learn to do it correctly ! so it is important to make sure you are in the right place.

Shotokan uses less techniques and may look less sophisticated but no way it is easy and it emphesises on perfection of the technique which takes a lot of effort .Interpretation of its katas depends on the quality of the organisation and instruction of the individual club .Learning the movements and the sequence of the kata may look simple but mastering it takes a lot of dedication and effort.

What ever style ! it is a great kata ,one of my favourites ,like speaking a language with diferrent accents ,we may do it a bit diferrent but the meaning is the same !

Dear Dr. flem I see you are interested in shotokan and I wish you luck in finding a good school of shotokan . shotokan is a dynamic ,fast and powerful style of karate that uses relatively less techniques than other styles but concentrate more on the quality of those techniqus with the concept of finishing the conflict with one technique (ideally).In a good club you will find (like all of us !) the basics difficult and confusing at first but gardually things improve ,but shotokan and gojuryu are both very good martial arts and the only thing you must remember is that in the world of martial arts there are lot of people claiming to be lot of things as public in general don't know much about it ,so it is to your benefit to find a good teacher is more important than the style !maybe you have a great master of goju in your town and a micky mouse guy claiming to be a shotokan 8th dan ! then my advice is to go to the first one.Good luck

Both these styles are good and having trained in shotokan myself I disagree with the statemant that shotokan is more a sport than martial arts . There are great many clubs of any style including shotokan that are of poor quality which may not seem that obviuos to novice and public but that is not the style's fault , that goes back to the club .The best advice I can give you is to make a research in to the club and the instruction,you are gong to hopefully devote your time and effort and money in to this club so you must know if it is woth it .the shotokan that I have trained in is very close in its free fighting form to street combat and even kata training involved extensive application training with partner. But all of this is only possible after a few years of devoted basic training .There is no alternative and no short cut to mastering basics and mastering stances and moving with fluidity between stances.By buliding strong foundation,later on you can switch to any style you want and blend in easily ,or experience that for example your basketball has improved ! that foundation will serve you a lifetime!

Well it is good to be confident but being aware and vigilant and quick decision is also vital ,some times you don't get the second chance and after all peaceful efforts failed the ultimate skill is the ability to influence your opponent to react to your moves in the way you want thus presenting you with the opening to beat him ! now don't get me wrong ! I don't claim to have this ability but I would like to !

MissG, like yourself I am new to this forum and it is a good way to talk to so many people from any level in the whole world ! your post was good and I think every one agrees with me that no body gained the skills in any art including martial arts the easy way . There is no short cut but train and train with a good instructer . In fact like any other art , like playing the guitar ,it is blending your mind and body parts in to one ,I don't play the guitar but I know that after years of playing it is like the fingers have a mind of their own when playing !

MissG, like yourself I am new to this forum and it is a good way to talk to so many people from any level in the whole world ! your post was good and I think every one agrees with me that no body gained the skills in any art including martial arts the easy way . There is no short cut but train and train with a good instructer . In fact like any other art , like playing the guitar ,it is blending your mind and body parts in to one ,I don't play the guitar but I know that after years of playing it is like the fingers have a mind of their own when playing !

Dear all ! An average student spends about 5 to 6 hours in the dojo each week hopefully under the guidence of a credible instructer ,this period should be devoted to learning martial arts techniques ,sure we have warm ups and sretching as small part of the class but the time in dojo must be for karate ,you want to get fit in doing karate then do karate ! I know people who can not bench press 150 ibs but can knock out a horse with one punch ! outside of dojo one can compliment his training with what ever ways of strenght training one thinks necessary for his own benefit and accoarding to his age and body type.

Dear all ! An average student spends about 5 to 6 hours in the dojo each week hopefully from a credible instructer ,this period should be devoted to learning martial arts techniques ,sure we have warm ups and sretching as small part of the class but the time in dojo must be for karate ,you want to get fit in doing karate then do karate ! I know people who can not bench press 150 ibs but can knock out a horse with one punch ! outside of dojo one can compliment his training with what ever ways of strenght training one thinks necessaryfor his own benefit and accoarding to his age and body type.

As soon as I know that attack is imminent I will attack first ,or work out a favourable position to opponent and let him initiate ! but only after all other ways of avoiding physical conflict have been exhuasted.

This photo maybe taken during a basic class ,it is not a free fighting stance .regardind hand positions obviously karateka has to cover all his body and not just the face like boxers ,therefor one hand at chest hight and the other slightly lower cover the body and we are constantly moving ,they change with every foot changes.

Dear friends ! hello and merry christmas ! I am new as you can see but pleased to join and give you my humble opinion . What "there is no first attack in karate" means is that you don't go looking for fight and start trouble but if you sense that you are in danger of attack you don't need to wait for him to hit you and once his motives are clear to you ,you attack first with 100% commitment ! the more training you do ,the more experience you will have in analysing the situation.

May I say that they are both execellent fighting styles but to choose between them really depends on the quality of the instructer .I have trained for several years in shotokan under an excellent teacher but I was lucky and had he taught goju ryu then I would have done that ! Important thing is to get the basics right and then you can bulid on that foundation anything you want ,and I believe that after years of training ,all good martial arts reach the same point ,it is just that the way getting there maybe diferrent ,and don't believe a word about shotokan being rigid and slow ,this maybe the case in some or too many dojo's but there are people out there who teach the true form of shotokan which I interpret as speed ! & power ! and aim to finish with one technique !