Conqueror

Hi everyone! Glad to find an active community of martial artists online! Many forums I had tried before were lacking in membership and sustained activity. Brief notes about myself - Name's Jason, I train in Shorin-Ryu Shorinkan and Okinawa Kobudo in Hendersonville, NC. I've been training since I was 7 and hold Sandan in both arts. Nice to find you all!

Very wise.

Forgive me for bringing up older topics, but I just registered and am finding some very interesting threads a few pages back... For me weighting of the neko is technique-specific. If, for example, I want to throw a hard gyaku-zuki from neko, I will weight my front foot more heavily, especially during the technique. However, heavy hand techniques benefit from weighting the opposite foot, so striking downward with the "frontside" hand would benefit from more heavily weighting the back leg. If you simply asked me to stand there in a neko, it would be maybe 75/25 to the rear. My heel is also close to the ground, rarely over an inch off the floor.

A bad strategy in my opinion. The person across from you is not your oponent; s/he is your partner. If they get hurt, YOU are responsible. I regularly scold our students who get more and more aggressive as they get hit - the mark of a good fighter is to remain calm without letting his emotions escalate during the fight. My advice is as follows: find a higher-ranking student, or even a black belt, who is experienced in sparring. Tell them you've been having problems in kumite and you'd like to train them out. Practice sparring with this individual. At first, you should be the only one throwing punches or kicks. Let the more advanced person do nothing but dance around and receive until you are comfortable executing the basic techniques of kumite. Then let them throw soft techniques, and you may only block. This will accustom you to receiving, and the advanced person should have enough control to keep from hurting you should you make a mistake. One you are comfortable both attacking and receiving, begin to escalate your sparring until you reach the intensity level of kumite you desire.

In our dojo, time and continued training are key. Our tests are by Sensei's invitation only, so really the day you are promoted is the first day of your next test. Increased proficiency in the kata, learning the few kata that we reserve for yudansha, etc. are important as well, but that comes with increased time in training.

Sam is awesome. I doubt you'll remember me individually, but I was the young blonde guy that came in on (was it Saturday afternoon I think?) to work with you guys before you left. It'll be good to see you again.

Addendum: upon reflection I think one almost needs high rank in our dojo to appreciate Sensei Perry as a man rather than as a a fountain of karate. It's only since I made nidan (or thereabouts) that I've really started appreciating him outside the dojo - going to his house to help him in his (spectacular) garden, scolding him for not being more careful after his recent surgery, etc. Once one starts appreciating him outside the karate classroom setting, the hero image really starts to melt away and you start to see him for what he is: a really, really good person who just happens to also be good at martial arts.

Agreed, wholeheartedly. It's his manner which has won him the most popularity on a local basis - he's well-known throughout the community just as a wonderful person. And it strikes me that, no matter how much we say we know we're lucky, those of us that have trained with him since the beginning really can't understand. "Desensitized" is the perfect word, I think.

I've met Sensei McIntosh a number of times, good guy. If I'm thinking of the correct Robbie, then yes, I know him, but I haven't seen him in a long time - call it 3-4 years? I know he was having some health troubles which forced him to semi-retire from the art. If those troubles persist then I doubt he would be capable of teaching at this point. I assume you're using Nabil Noujaim's directory at karateshorinkan.com? I'm not sure if that's completely up-to-date, there may be some dojos closer to you (maybe Winston-Salem or eastward).

Thanks for the kind words, but I'm nothing special. I didn't rise especially fast or do anything amazing, I just started early.

Are you one of the USAF gentlemen that were here last year? If so I do seem to recall one of you was headed for CA.

As a student in Sensei Perry's dojo, maybe I can offer a bit of context. Much of the "hero worship" that a visitor to our dojo may experience is likely a mudansha (underbelt) phenomenon. I see this even more frequently at our annual Camp in the summers. I believe it to be caused by a lack of understanding. Perry Sensei's karate is certainly outstanding - you don't reach 8th dan by being a slouch. When watching him do bunkai, many less-experienced karateka are awed by his techniques because they don't fully understand the concepts behind the techniques and can't yet mentally link the bunkai to the kata. Our yudansha class asks him a great many questions and I've only observed a couple of people that were genuinely unwilling to question him. I would also say that members of our dojo tend to worship him less than outsiders, because (unfortunately) we tend to take him for granted. Most karateka are lucky to have a kyoshi within a hundred miles of their dojo; we have two at our dojo (Sensei Perry and Chris Estes) and another 15 minutes away (Kevin Roberts). Students here tend not to realize what a great privilege it is to train with such martial artists and so I've experienced much greater "worship" of sensei Perry when we travel than when we're at home.

Our dojo has no set standards for black belt test, although we do have a pretty solid 14-year-old age limit for Shodan. Our philosophy is that your entire training career is your test - we watch you from the day you first walk in the door. To that end, all levels of black belt test are by invitation only direct from Sensei. By the time he asks you to test, you've already passed. The tests are certainly tough, but they are nothing like the 6-day grueling painfests that some on KF have described (although they used to be in the older days). I agree though - whether the test be a 1-time painfest or a long watching period, I sincerely doubt the faculties of any 7 year old yudansha. Except for absolutely extraordinary cases, a 7yo will lack the maturity needed to wield the authority and responsibility that come with the possession of a black obi. I concur in the opinion that any dojo with a 7yo black belt likely promoted the child for commercial reasons rather than karate reasons.

I made Sandan at 18 in a legitimate Shorinkan dojo. While I admit that most people who have "rank beyond their age" are likely not legit, it is certainly possible for someone to achieve rank the old-fashioned (read: correct) way if they started young. Judge by skill, not by birthdate.

Long ago in our dojo we had a guy put his head through the wall.

Gordon Shell is a good friend of mine, I was actually training with him last night at Perry Sensei's dojo. He's a great guy and a great teacher; if it's a manageable drive I highly recommend training with Gordon.

I'm going to miss camp for the third year in a row due to college. Before I started school I taught there every year, I really miss it very badly. As one of Sensei Perry's yudansha, hope to see/meet you both this summer if you do visit.