Meguro

Osu!. Surely you dial it down when you spar with a child, newby, woman? Even just a little bit. If not, you must have some fearsome students. Perhaps I deviate from the norm. In the dojo I adjust my sparring based on the abilities of my opponents, while others pound away on opponents regardless of their ability to defend themselves. It could be my approach is too paternalistic. Am I doing a disservice to weaker opponents by taking it easy on them? I certainly appreciate it when stronger opponents, who could very well kick me into the emergency room, don't.

You start out with a white belt. Work real hard to get it black. Once it's black, you work even harder to get it white again.

You mean like Batman and Robin?

Depends on if you want fries wid dat. Seriously, if your sensei can't grade the higher ranking students, sounds like he/she is a lower ranking black belt. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Small clubs, and satellites of larger dojo often have lower ranking black belts as instructors. This is not a bad thing if you're a beginner, but once you advance several grades you will notice the disadvantages of not having higher dan at your school. At least your instructor is honest. Some unscrupulous instructors give themselves 10th dan and take your money. You'll be lucky to get fries with these guys.

The reason many Kyokushin fighters stand toe-to toe in a knockdown competition is because there is a time limit. You've got to knock down your opponent in the quickest time possible. You can dance around, evade, and use that deadly "one strike" in point tournaments, and win. In a Kyokushin competition, this strategy will cost you the match. If you aren't conditioned to take the physical punishment your opponent is going to be dealing you, you will lose and get hurt. Of course, a Kyokushin fighter would have to adjust his/her fighting style in a point tournament. Personally, I think it's easier dialing it down than up.

Could be growing pains or it could be her training. Probably best to consult a physician. Don't want to take any chances with your child. For everyone else, I've found the best tonic for getting older is training smarter. Pay more attention to strength training, stretching and aerobic/anearobic fitness, and rest. Nothing like a good night's sleep and time-off for the weary limbs and creaky joints. Eat right. Keep the extra weight off and you should be in business for a little while longer.

It is very rare not to have sparring in a Kyokushin class. Your dojo is an exception. The injuries you can get from sparring run the gamut from bruises on your thighs to broken bones. Fractures don't happen everyday, but they happen often enough to make you wary.

Sounds like nerves, which as you say, will be taken care of with more experience. What was your training routine before the fight? Do any intervals? Running?

As soon as you learn to tie your belt.

I disagree. I don't think you could make this statement even generally speaking. You need spirit and perserverance, not a high pain threshold to suceed in kyokushin, or really in anything. Kyokushin kata/patterns are much more fluid (IMO) than shotokan kata and as someone said before our movements are more circular. We are comparing Shotokan and Kyokushin. Overcoming fear and pain is a big part of Kyokushin, unless you're doing a version that doesn't have sparring. If you are sparring in a Kyokushin dojo, you will be tested to your limits, and sister, it will hurt. But if you have spirit, and perservere, you'll be around for the next class, the one after that, etc. Pretty soon, it doesn't hurt so much. By this time you probably enjoy the sparring. You look forward to it. By this time, people might say to you, "Ivette, you must have a high pain threshold, or are you one of those people who enjoys contact?"

Glad you didn't get hurt. Congrats.

So the donut thing is a myth with leo's? Truth is, by the time you're a senior black belt, your metabolism has slowed down, you're not as active as you used to be/would like to be, you're older, got more responsibilities, and less time and energy to train as the young guns. Hopefully, you've got more to offer your students than a stunning physique.

Shotokan stresses correct form and mastery is of a prescribed skill set. Kyokushin training is geared towards mastery of your opponent (or at least to give you the skills and guts to try), such as is found in a knockdown competition. Kata has a central role in Shotokan karate. Fighting competitions are limited to point-style, the idea being if your technique is good enough, you should be able to take out your opponent with one deadly blow. Kyokushinkai karateka pay some lip service to the one-shot ideal, but stack the deck in their favor by stressing powerful offensive and defensive technique. Generally speaking, if you don't have a high pain tolerance or don't enjoy contact, you won't thrive and enjoy Kyokushin. Shotokan and Kyokushin are just different roads that lead to the same place in your personal journey. Pick the path that suits you.

Going into a tournament with bruised ribs is a very bad idea. You are in no condition to fight. You will be guarding your ribs to prevent further injury and pain. While your guard is down, you open up your head or other body parts to attack. The likelyhood that you end up with another injury, say a concussion, dislocated jaw, detached retina, whatever, is higher. Why risk it? There will be other tournaments.

Leg kickers kick to the head as well as targeting the thighs. Once you've taken a few shots to your leg, you'll be dreading the next one, only that one's going for your jaw. What do you do? Keep your guard up and never assume.

Justice, I can see how your own sparring experience is not a good one. I don't believe it applies to everyone else, certainly not the way I spar. Everyone's opinion is biased by the style they practice. People whose martial arts are very Kata centered and those who do point fighting will have a different training regimen and different training objectives, than practitioners of other styles. This is not to say I advocate eliminating the basics for everyone, I still benefit from them, but for the op's 2nd dan, maybe it's a better use of his time. SevenStar, when quoting me, did you read the quote? Nothing you said contradicts anything I said. Sam, Sam, Sam, that my analogies don't work for you does not mean they're not apt, just that you and I do not share the same understanding of the terms in question. Next time, you define the terms and come up with an analogy.

Read carefully Sam, I think you'll agree completely. A second degree black belt, should already have an understanding of the mechanics (zenkutsu dachi goes like this, mawashi geri like that, ushiro geri like this, etc.), and the muscle memory to do these basic techniques. If this black belt incorporates these techniques in his/her bag work-out, nothing is lost. Unless you're making circles in the safety of your parents' driveway, there's more to bike riding than overcoming fear and learning balance, no mean feats in themselves. Take your bike out on the road and now you're dealing with traffic, pedestrians, changing road conditions and surfaces. Soon you'll find that the little circles on the driveway you made with training wheels on your bike have contributed only a little bit to your riding ability. Perhaps the most valuable riding lessons will be learned after you've acquired the basics. This is true for Karate. In the op's case, I understand from previous posts that his style is Kyokushin, I'm assuming the 2nd dan is training for knock-down competitions or to improve fighting skills in general. In this case, time would be better spent on bagwork and sparring rather than "step forward and punch air" drills.

Presumably, the advanced techniques incorporate some aspect of the basics. How many of us, presumably functional adults, practice grammer school drills? Or consider riders of bicycles. They don't revert to putting on the training wheels to maintain their riding skills from time to time, they just ride. I don't believe yudansha lose too much by not doing kihon as long as they're doing something that incorporates the basics. However, I also recognize that people do basics and kata as an end in itself. This is fine too.

If the new dojo and the old dojo are members of the same organization, where all membership dues, registration fees go to, an all certificates and rank are issued from, there should be no problem keeping your shodan. If you are switching organizations, expect on putting on the white belt and doing things their way. Good luck with it.

I think you'll need to have demonstrated extraordinary talent before a dojo will sponsor you. Are you thinking of entering an uchi deshi program? If so, best contact the Shotokan honbu dojo or the headquarters of whatever style you're interested in. If you're an average Joe or Jane it's best to get a work visa, get a job, and train in Japan when you have somemtime off. Good luck.

Cheradenine, ask your sensei to write you a letter of introduction. Find out where your honbu (headquarters) is and present the letter there or at whatever branch dojo you may find thoughout your travels. It shouldn't be a problem to take a few classes in Japan. Many styles headquartered in Japan make provision for visiting students. It helps if your sensei has kept up his membership in whatever organization you wish to train with in Japan. Good luck.

Kyokushin is very popular around the world, except the USA. My impression is that the hard contact and pain involved were too much for the average customer, who tended to gravitate towards TKD or Shotokan. With MMA, Muay Thai, K-1 getting a lot of media coverage, the market's fear of pain and contact may have lessened and Kyokushin might find more interested followers. Perhaps it has already missed the boat. Kyokushin is also riven into different factions, each denouncing the other, which is unfortunate. It'd be nice, though highly unlikely, for all the different groups to be united under one governing body with a talented, charismatic and market savvy leader.

back kick. not spinning back kick. My bad. Same applies, don't spin.

Until I started training in knock-down karate, I'd never considered "knocking-out" someone with anything other than a head shot. In practice, it's not as easy to do as the video depicts. Your opponent has to stand there and beg for it, like the guy in the video. Poor guy. In competition, and probably the street, you might need to follow-up with 2 or 3 more kicks or other techniques to get the desired effect. For defense against the low kick, I try to avoid the kick or launch my own low kick against the opponent's inner thigh.

At 41, I haven't experienced any appreciable decline in strength, speed, agility or stamina, yet (knock on wood). The problem is my recovery time is way down. I've had to limit the hard sparring days to once a week. The injuries, which seem to crop up more frequently, take longer to heal. The older you get, the more important it is to train in the gym. Building up your muscles, flexibility and stamina will stave off the onslought of age.