koryu

I remember seeing this video somewhere before, these guys are amazing on guitar.

I was just informed by my master that I have been recommended for promotion to Sandan. I'll be testing within the next couple of months. I'm so excited.

I am a huge fan of Goju-Ryu (probably since I've been studying it for almost 15 years) It is a very good style. Hang in there for the long haul. If you love the geiki sai dai ichi and ni katas, you're in for a treat later on. Next on your list should be saifa where you start to see some of the white crane influence in our art, and the kata get better and more exciting from there.

suprisingly she was in incredible shape. she had a hip replacement, so we had to be careful with throws or anytime she may hit the ground hard, but other than that, she was able to do everything all of our other students were. She is still training now at almost 90

yes, absolutely right.

I eat a light breakfast, high in carbohydrates (such as pasta). good way to keep up energy throughout the day.

I started at 8th kyu (which was yellow belt). There were several white belts there. I think it's great to get early exposure to other martial artists. You get to meet a lot of people that have at least one thing in common with you. I still compete to this day, but not quite as seriously. I look at is as more of a social gathering of karate-ka than actual competetion.

I had heard of him being that way in the past, although my experience was very good, I have heard of several bad experiences from others. But, as far as his overall knowledge of history and traditions, it is pretty amazing what he knows.

this went all kinds of directions didn't it... in response to the original question. I chamber right around my floating rib area. I was taught that it should be a more natural position and will be different for everyone, that's why you see so many different hand placements when people chamber.

Hakutsuru is one amazing kata, I'll try to find a link to a performance. I enjoy the old white crane katas, very graceful and almost dance like.

though i've never seen the situation arise, I can see your point if someone were to go violate moral standards (ie: murder), then it may be appropriate to "outkast" that individual and strip their rank.

I had taken a few classes when I was very young, 5 or 6. I always remember having an interest in martial arts. When I was 12 I started training at an actual dojo and have been doing it for over 14 years now. I always found it interesting and still do.

I'll go into a little more detail about the meridian (blood vessel) channels. here's one example: The conception vessel meridian channel runs from the lower extrimities of the body up the front in a straight line to your bottom lip and the governing vessel meridian channel starts at the very end of your tailbone and travels up your back, over your head to the inside of your mouth. this you are probably aware of if ever having studied pressure point manipulation. anyway, with correct posture and stance, these meridians specifically should form a straight line, thus delivering maximum blood and oxygen flow. hence the term I used as meridian alignment. hope this clarifies.

Patrick McCarthy is an amazing karate-ka with a very deep insight into the traditions of martial arts and if I remember correctly, he is the only non-japanese person to be recognized by the dai-nippon butokukai as "Hanshi" I have done some training with him, read his books, and attended seminars. He is very good at what he does. You can check out his site at http://www.koryu-uchinadi.com/ for more info.

Wow... Ki or Chi is an internal source of power and cannot be used outside of the body. We used to play very nasty tricks like this on lower ranking students and actually show them how to form chi balls and then walk by and steal their chi ball and place their chi inside of us making us stronger. We let them believe this for a while then we'd let them know it was all a joke. I would never do this as an instructor though. I did it when I was a student, to other lower ranking students.

This thing that you are describing as ki is nothing more than confidence that you will develop over years of proper training. As far as training your body to harness it's internal energy, I recommend the dedicated practice of kata, specifically sanchin (if there is a school around you that can teach this kata correctly)

My opinions: Ki (or chi) will develop over time. I feel it flow through my body every time I perform kata. Correct and dedicated practice of kata will eventually lead to development of ki. There are a lot of things to take into account, including your stance, posture, movement, and proper meridian alignment that must happen before you feel this energy source.

I look at buddhism as more of a philosophy than a religion. I have studied karate for several years and learned a lot of buddhism ways which i incorporate into daily life (meditation, etc...) but I am still Christian.

It's going to be very hard to find. I believe there is another thread on here discussing ninjitsu. As far as traditional Ninja training, they were a very secretive group of assassins in the time of the samurai. I believe there are several styles currently in existance that have the same premise that the ninja style was based on, do a search for the other thread about ninjitsu, they had several good recommendations of places to look and styles to look for that are based on ninjitsu. Good luck, I'm sure you'll find something. By the way, Welcome to KF

The okinawans used several methods of conditioning, and one of those exercises consisted of filling buckets with rice, sand, beans, rocks, etc... to strike with open handed / spear hand techniques to strengthen the tips of the fingers. The makiwara was also used, but to contition the fist. I have used this method of filling buckets with rice and striking with spear hand techniques. After several years, you can actually strike a heavy bag at full force effectively with the tips of your fingers. Start out slow and ask your sensei for specific details on how to train this way. Most old school conditioning isn't commonly accepted or used in the united states, but I think it's great that there's still people out there who do it.

Mizuno's are good from my experience, just a little pricey. There's a lot of other places out there offering great quality without the price. Take your time and shop around. Definitely go with a double weave for the top and the reinforced knees for the pants. It'll last you the longest. I had a single weave tear on me one time, but I had trained with it for several years. My double weave I've had for about 10 years with no problems at all.

We had our JuJutsu training incorporated into our normal class routines and were told that traditionally in Japan it is JuJutsu where in brazil it's JuJitsu. I'm not sure if any of it is true, but that's what I was told. I studied it for the practical application and never really worried about the spelling of it.

A good friend of mine is an Aikido instructor. After working out with him several times, I saw a lot of the positive application of this beautiful art. Although I have not studied it myself, it has a lot of good theory and practical application. Stick with it and you will get it down.

When training in JuJutsu, it is basically the ground grappling, although we did study several different takedowns and so forth, we really didn't incorporate any standing strikes or kicks into the training.

videos will just teach bad habits and wouldn't do much good. If there are no schools in your area, you may even want to post a thread asking if there is anyone in your area that would be willing to give you some lessons in the style that you seek. There's a lot of people on this site, I'm sure there's someone close by that you could learn from.