Olivier

I have had a lot of bruises, too many to count, but that's really nothing. The usually thumb/toe getting caught in the gi, mawashi hitting the elbow, shin hitting a foot... nothing too special. Here are the most painful ones: Once, while blocking a mae geri, I somehow moved my hand too early and got the full force of the blow on my left thumb. It hyper extended, healed after a year. I was sparring with some skinny dude, 15 at the time, but national champion (for his age of course) so I thought it was safe to spar as usual. I did a take down and he fell on his shoulder. Didn't get dislocated, but it didn't heal until months later. The worse: I was sparring with my very best friend and he threw a fake mae geri to mawashi. At the time, I had the bad habit of blocking with my knee. Needless to say, that was pretty ugly; his mawashi hit my knee cap and a loud "CRACK" resonnated in the dojo. I had to take him to the hospital. Funny enough, my shihan was like 'oh you broke his leg' with a smirk on his face... must've reminded him of some similar accidents when he was younger! Needless to say, I felt very bad.

One of my favourite combinations is to do a front leg mawashi geri (chudan, jodan, whichever) then following through with a punch dropping block (countering an eventual counter-attack) then a gyako zuki chudan or jodan. Another is the classic one two, following with a front leg mawashi using the hip rotation of the last punch.

frank brennan, wayne otto

I've been thinking about that a bit... and i think i found the solution to the problem. Last time in class, my sensei was talking about how when you put your back foot pointing forwards, you have more pushing power. I used to do Shorin Ryu before, and we used Siko-dachi when doing hammi (erm... contracting?) moving into Zenkutsu-dachi (when expanding), using the legs in a different way. Taking that into account, i put my back foot as straight as i can, both toes nearly pointing forward. Now in shotokan, being in Zenkutsu-dachi a lot without going to Siko-dachi puts more stress on this back foot which is always pointing forward. hmm does it make sense to you? Thank you for your replies above =) this forum is awesome!

Hello! I've been practicing Karate for around 5 years now. A couple of years ago, something strange occured: I started getting some kind of burning in my ankles. Its really annoying because the tendons(?) and muscles from my ankles to the side of my calf are all stiff and they burn! I keep getting this burning every time i go to class, doing the basics (zenkutsu's for an extended period of time). I thought that: 1) I might not be doing my stances right. I don't think so... I would've gotten criticism a while ago if that was so. 2) My body's either gotten sissy/My body is getting old. I don't think so either... i'm still 23, very young indeed. Can anyone help me with that? I do warm-up my ankles/calf, it certainly helps, but it doesn't eliminate the burning.

Wow, you guys sure are knowledgeable! Yes, indeed, my So-Shihan is Hoshu Ikeda. Impressive guy indeed. It's sad that i can no longer practice Joshinmon Shorin Ryu, because i moved, but the dojo i go to right now is quite good too! Ah well. This forum is amazing =)

Hello everybody! Does anyone know Joshinmon Shorin Ryu? Before I started shotokan, i was practicing Joshinmon Shorin Ryu. The style's founder is Hoshu Ikeda. Olivier