Osu! When I learned Kyokushin I never had to learn to last a long time in a fight. Endurance is out weighed patients. “One Strike, Certain Death” was the lesson we learned, that was 18 years ago. The old masters and Sosai Mas Oyama gave us karate and within it was ultimate power. From Shuri-te and Naha-te came karate in small schools and large organizations they all divided into either the hard tradition or the sports fitness types. Factor in insurance and legal costs and it is harder and harder to find karate schools today where that kind of hardcore training is encouraged or even allowed. When I got my Shodan I worked hard and I earned it, I paid my dues in tears, blood & sweat pure liquid pain. When sensei retired I went to a new school and continued to train as hard as I could. But it was no match for the experience of Kyokushin. Years later I earned my Yondan and I opened a school and closed it I could not keep students. Some time latter I opened another, and split it into hard and sport and it is the sport that pays the dojo’s bills. I still run a hard school the last class of the night is hard core and the students I have are great. My Sensei (Shihan) is thrilled to know that there are still hard training students. The problem is that everyone wants a ten minute training montage and some cool music for training. Not years of hard work and tradition. For those who can not go to a Kyokushin dojo I recommend World Seido Karate with Kaicho Tadashi Nakamura. Osu!
