JusticeZero

^ This. That said, I teach a few joint manipulations - I teach them in the manner of "Here is a bonus that you might be able to get to happen if the defense that you should already have been doing happens to end with their wrist falling into your hand. Don't go in planning to use them."

This is true - but there are no shortage of "Karate", "Gongfu", "BJJ", "MMA", etc. teachers who are equally qualified.An agreement of "There is no longer a single top person, and we have been told in no uncertain terms that if someone claims to be the top person, that they are not it - we agree to splinter peacefully into a number of loosely affiliated schools" would work fine.

Oh, I agree. I have never understood the "but they're eeeeevil.." angle to the objections to their legitimacy. Nor the "but they didn't just fight people" angle, since it hasn't really been sold as anything other than a few pieces of a whole.

Sure, but whether or not you "approve of" the methods of a historical group is more or less irrelevant. That's a little bit like the question of whether or not anyone today "approves of" trench warfare tactics in WWI while discussing combat techniques developed for trench warfare. Unless you wouldn't approve of capoeira, either?

I don't think it will affect that, actually. Ninjutsu is considered legitimate my many people - it's a Japanese art with some history, and there are a couple practitioners who teach what they remember of it. It is not considered legitimate by others. I haven't seen any shift whatsoever between those groups in a long time, and having the lineage come apart isn't going to affect any of that. If people keep their ego in their pockets and downshift their claims to grandeur into a bunch of equal high level sub-lines, it might even help because the claims will be faintly more humble.

Well, yes, I would agree that some form of sweep wouid work well; my response to a round kick at that level would be to use cruz to go under it and lift it on the shoulder, or at least esquiva to go under and with it to set something else up. If your torso needs to stay relatively static though, these aren't really options available to you when faced with a kick moving laterally toward your abdomen

the other thing is that you don't have to offer a rigid structure as the block; if your limb comes down and contacts the incoming kick, then travels with the kick slowing it on the way, it is more akin to a breakfall than a change of target.

Well, the unfortunate fact is that everyone has abs, but any fat they have covers the abs first. The only real way to get a 6-pack is by reducing your body fat below a certain level. Lose weight and at a certain point, the abs suddenly appear. It isn't even a terribly high body fat percentage, either. Just do the usual safe and slow weight loss stuff - cut sugary beverages, use a smaller plate, etc. etc.

OK. And you are studying the Japanese Karate? Or are you studying several styles? In Karate, as well as in most styles, you have the "style", which is the art as a whole, and then you have the lineage - with Japanese martial arts this is the "Ryu" - which is the particular style inside of the style as a whole. Some examples of these would be Shotokan, Goju-ryu, Isshin-ryu, Kyokushin, etc. Now and then you will find people who are dodgy about the ryu, often because their personal training has deviated from the root ryu a ways, but if you ask about who they were trained by you will usually be able to get something like "First I trained in Isshin-ryu, then I trained Goju-ryu, then my teacher died and the only people I could practice with were Shotokan, and then.." This history is still important. This isn't a particularly exotic idea. If you have two boxers, and one of them studied under a coach who empasised being light on the feet and lots of fast light hits, but the other focuses on a solid guard punctuated with heavy, punishing blows, then you would expect that their students will probably fight a lot like their teacher, too. Mr. Bouncy's students will have learned a lot more about how to float around and snap out fast punches, and Mr Thump's stable is going to have a much more practiced guard and straight. All those tricks of the trade to fit the strategies, and all the traditions and philosophies of teaching that Mr. Bounce does differently than Mr. Thump are in the lineage, and their students' students are going to carry that all over too. When those students meet someone else, if they say "My teacher learned from Mr. Thump", then people know that you most likely learned a lot more about having a very tight guard and a hard punch than they learned from their teacher, a student of Mr. Bounce; Bounce's grandstudents' characteristic light floaty footwork actually takes away from their ability to punch as hard as Mr. Thump, but Mr. Thump's grandstudents can't bob and weave like the Bounce-Ryu guys either. =) We were actually looking to find out the ryu, but we often forget that for people who aren't used to thinking in terms of lineages, the question isn't always obvious to people who weren't clear on how lineages work.

Isn't that a bit like saying "I haven't actually taken a karate class yet - I want to be able to do a good board break and have all my katas down first"? I can sympathise with the money thing, but you become fit by doing, not before doing.

I hope the OP posts again. This was a bold post to make, regardless, and it is valuable to see people willing to make bold statements.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2231867/Former-Army-boxing-champion-71-floors-6ft-4in-thug-Mark-Pearce-punched-face-Torquay-attack.html This showed up somewhere, and I like to post self defense incidents here for discussion, since they might have good lessons in them.Pretty straightforward incident. The UK's culture being how it is, this looks like it may have been closer to a drunk uncle problem than boxing is really set up for, but that is arguable. Any thoughts?

First step: get control of your schedule. Chunk everything into manageable pieces and lay them out. Build in time for yourself. If I don't exercize, my performance goes down; in a week where I get several hours of cardio, I get more done than I do in a week where i don't. I have some basis for this in a study of performance of kids who walk to school, if you care. Work smarter, not harder. Learn to be comfortable with "good enough" and to double up your productivity. Learn to use productivity tools like Zotero and the like. Learn about mnemonics that you can use to memorize key material. Work in 50 minute increments. Then stretch and move around for 10. Get lots of sleep. You think you need the extra time. You need the performance instead. Search for Anti-Role-Models. We know, you want to look up to your hero. This is a good thing. Take lessons from the best. BUT. That idiot down the hall? The one who got lost in his own apartment and made a comment that he hadn't actually read any of his textbooks because the words were too big? And he graduated! Take a few lessons from that guy. If they can pull it off, so can you.

The classes i've seen let you buy a gi off the street for the precise reasons you are worrying about. What's the worst that can happen? You'll have bought a new heavyweight gi that you can use elsewhere? Go with your karate gi and tell the instructor that it's a bit lightweight for grappling and you don't want it ripped. Either you will work things that don't strain the gi, or you will be offered a heavier gi.

Wonderful! I look forward to hearing more from you.

First, eastern martial arts aren't "proven" so much as "well known". There are martial arts all over the place that have good track records that just aren't as well known.Second, BJJ is actually a descendant of Jujutsu, from Japan, with a substantial amount of development put into it in order to develop it in specific directions. Third, in BJJ, a black belt is a really big deal. If you see a BJJ black belt, it means that they have been training hard for like, ten years straight. Their 1st degree black belt is equivalent to a moderately high Dan rank in Karate. They give a BJJ black belt a lot of respect. A Karate black belt not so much, because the typical Karate black belt has what they consider a trivial amount of experience. Fourth, they are grapplers. You went in expecting something totally different from what they are actually doing, and proceeded to be very disrespectful. It sounded like he was being pretty polite, all things considered, in response to someone "showing them up". How would your Karate teacher respond to a highschool wrestler coming in, discovering that they don't have a lot of competitive coaching victories in a sense that is only relevant to a wrestler, and deciding to 'show him up' with a takedown, just to have the teacher demonstrate applications of reverse punch on him?

Are your friends martial artists? Do mountain climbers consult with their dentist, who doesn't even climb stairs, about their equipment and choice of slopes? Here's the next question - what does your teacher think you should do? Maybe he recommends a teacher, or some such thing. Really, it's not so much "Do I need to leave forever", it is "Do I need to leave for a month and a half until everyone forgets anything ever happened". I assure you, two months from now there will be no real controversy, and it sounds as though other students are just going to ride it out too. Low grades leave all the time for silly reasons, so don't worry about them.

I would say the opposite. Most of us wont be in a serious 'ninja' attack and will only be affected by the health effects of our training. Hits to the head do not discriminate between where you are when you get them. The damage is permanent and insidious in tiny little nicks and chips at your mind, like a 'trick knee' in your soul. I don't want to infliat that on myself for a several layer deep 'just in case'.

'I'm teaching a martial arts class, want to try it out?' 'You? Teaching a martial arts class? You don't seem like someone who does martial arts.' 'I've been doing them for years, ail sorts of interesting things to iearn in it.' 'Well, okay. What art are you teaching?' 'Capoeira.' '...OK, now I know you're pulling my leg.'

"Some controversy". So vague.. Was it harmful to a student? If it harmed a student, or demonstrated that students were in danger, then I might look at following a senior student elsewhere. On the other hand, if it was something like 'they got caught sharing a bed with the dentist' then i'd think that people really are being petty. I'm there because that teacher has knowledge and skill mentorship that I value and want to learn. I'm not there to bask in the moral righteousness or to kneel at the foot of a saint. And I would explain that to anyone who asked, with an air of bafflement at why anyone even thought this was an issue.

Maybe you can do some breaking with the boards being located at the low target levels you are favoring, then?

That doesn't mean you shouldn't spend a bit of time keeping your skills fresh, even if you aren't competition-ready.

Pleasure to meet you, look forward to seeing your questions and comments.

How do you view the application of your kicks, then? Boards are a proxy for bones on a live target for application of peak impulse based strikes.

I think you are making a good decision. I'd agree that you should try to find some other Shotokan training with others, but you seem to already be trying to do that. Maybe now and then you can slip off to another city and pay a mat fee at a school there or some such thing, maybe over a weekend every few months just to touch base and stay in touch with the rest of the art. Also, in doing so you would put yourself under someone with a bit more of a role in Shotokan than you would hold with a shodan; after helping you to touch up a few things they might decide you are able enough, and advise you to work with a study group in your area. You will be fine with self training during this period of not having others to train with; you already have enough understanding of the material to be able to self-correct and to cover the whole base library of technique.