SenseiMike

I addapted this too, since most of the time you'll have a mouth guard in, learning to breathe thro the nose is now a more practical idea.

What do you guys think when you see a "stand alone school"? I opened with no affliation to any federations or organizations because I couldn't find one I thought was right. I'm joining the USA-IFKK as an affliate, but they're a kyokushin group and I teach shotokan. So far it hasn't bothered my students, but other teachers look down on this I think. But I train different than most of these organizations allow for, and I don't see the point paying their dues & not getting anything in return.

lol Hey, if you come to my school you have to know 2 at purple & brown, 3 at red & black for a total of 14 kata, then there's another 3 up to godan, for 25 total. That includes bunkai for every one. now that's too many kata

The bigest schools my area are wado ryu, so they've kinda jaded me on it. I know it's not a good representation of the style tho. Just that when I hear it, I think commercial mcdojo becuse of my experience. I'd love to meet a good wado school just so I can have a different experience to rely on. My favorite of these is "Bill Taylor's Bushido School Of Karate" here in town. He teaches wadoryu, but constantly refers to his school as a dojang (korean word for dojo) But I really want to meet a good school, I hate that the style is so poorly represented in my area.

Lets pause for a second and examine a good karate stance: distribution of weight, able to quickly redistribute that weight, able to quickly switch stances, able to strike, sweep, or throw from that stance. defense against take downs is key to stance training, yeah it's posible to get taken down, people make mistakes, but a grappler should have to work harder to get you down than a simple single leg take down. The only time that should work is if you're in the middle of a kick, or moving on your feet. My dojo kicks 90% of our kicking techniques at thigh level, they're fast, hard, more practical, and not easy to grab. We don't back up, and we move in "sliding" motion so our feet never really leave the ground. This isn't anything new, it's actually really old. The whole idea of stance traing is ancient. we also do a training drill beginning at white belt, that drill is one student stands in a fighting stance and the rest of the class lines up in front of him, one by one each attempts a take down via the legs, single leg, double leg, even foot ball tackles if nothing else works. That's a vital part of reaching yellow belt. I'm very big on stance training.

What "seasoned" martial artists do you know that have actually trained the defense against a double leg? Not only trained the defense against it, but have ACTUALLY done so against someone who knows what they're doing (i.e. a seasoned wrestler or grappler). A grapple attack (shot, leg pick, clinch up) is like any other attack (punch, kick, elbow). To say that a "seasoned" martial artist is never to fall victim to a double leg is like saying that hes also never going to get hit in a fight. If you square off against someone who has thrown 10,000 single leg takedowns in his career and you havent actually tried to defend against a single leg- you're going down. In short answer to that question Me, and all of my students over yellow belt. I believe that karate has an answer to everything if you know where to look for it, I've also been around this area long enough to have fought a lot of people. Many of those people have become good friends, some are tkd, some kung fu, some JJ or judo. They come into my school atleast once a month to spar, and rule #1 in my dojo is if you go down, you need more work on your stance.

I don't buy the economics issue, I understand it, but it shouldn't affect the quality of the training. example of my own school: Rent: $400 a month Electric: $25 a month aprox Students @ the moment: 7 (since July 15th when I opened) Monthly dues: $65 Testing fee: $10 Hours 7-8:30pm monday-sunday (every night, 7 days a week) 11-12:30 saturday morning Phone: My cell phone Websie: $5 a month Advertising: blood, sweat, tears, & 6 cent copies at office depot. Instructor: Just me Income: $455 a month How I pay my other bills: I wait tables 5 days a week @ a bbq joint. Downside: school only 500 sq feet, but class size is limted in advance to 12 students per class (once i get 12 ) Upside: I sell my school truthfully; "A lot smaller & a little bit uglier than the competition, but the best game in town for a LOT less money" I can drag my butt in there 7 days a week and teach classes, after working a full day at my real job, & still run a fighting school, for $100 a month less than the other guys. My students are arguably the best fighters in the city because of how we train. I just played my cards right and searched the city high and low for a building that was right for me, did all the work my self, didn't quit working my day job, and spent my free time building the school. If i can do it (and I'm really quite lazy) then so can anyone else. You don't have to sell out, you just have to being willing to put in the effort & stay true to the art. Most teachers don't, & thus their students can't fight their way out of a paper bag.

a single leg take down just should not happen to a seasoned martial artist, to a kick boxer yes, but not to a seasoned martial artist.

not true at all. You do see tkd & shotokan guys fighting in the mma, they're just not as common. As I said, it's how you train the style, not the style itself.

every thing is physics

sorry to burst everyone else's bubble there, but yes, it is a form of chi seeing as how the only possible explanation of chi exists within the world of sub-atomic partical, the energy created by the constant creation & destruction of such particals (which is a contstant in nature everywhere in the universe) then that is a perfect example of modern science "creating chi"

chakra work is great for building chi, search under chi-gung too, should pull up some good stuff.

I used to "extremes" like tkd and bjj to make a point, but yes, tkd beating bjj is very posible, all it takes is one good kick to the head. The styles doesn't matter, how you train it does. And why the heck are we talking about guns?

yes working with some one is always ideal, but with the internet at your disposal you can certainly train yourself. All i'm saying is don't limit yourself because you feel you ned to rely on someone else.

there is no traditional tkd, it was founded in the 1950's as a sport. You may be referring to tangsoodo, which was developed from shotokan, but lacks much of the bunkai.

If you took your average karateks and put him into a ring with a boxing student, then the karateka is toast. why? cause karate doesn't train to fight these days. Now if you took a karateka from a "fighting" school, then the boxer doesn't stand a chance. reason being that the karateka would kick out his leg in the first 5 seconds.

I'm not sure. According to NIU, Hapkido evolved from Chung Do Mu Sool Won and CDMSW was, in fact, an ancient art in Korea. Hapkido was derived from daito ryu ju jutsu. the founder of hapkido studied this in Japan from the same master who taught the founder of aikido.

Chung Do Mu Sool Won is a new name for taekwondo, there is no historical korean art. if there was it's lost to history, for the most part they studdied chinee kempo untill the Japanese took the country over in 1905. There was an ancient sport called taekyon, but it wasn't a style, just a competition that scored points by kicking your opponent.

I have 6, maybe 8 soon. Only been open since July tho, I only seek to suppliment my money tho, not get rich. I purposely charge as little as I can. y2_sub, I didn't know you were the sensei, cool beans.

I still see no reason for searching the world over fo a legit master when you'll probaly not find one. What do you want your chi to do, increase your strength, you can measure that, your speed, again easilty measured, healing, levitating, etc...all quite measurable on your own.

Neil, This is normal for a shotokan class, imo. The standard loadout for a shotokan class is stretching out, marching up and down the floor doing stepping basic techniques, doing one step sparring for a while, doing some kata at the end, stretching out, and going home. 9 out of 10 times I bet that is about what you will find in any Shotokan club. The guys who mix in jujutsu are few and far between. Sadly you're correct. But I wouldn't say we're mixing in Ju-jutsu, I'm not, never taken one class in it or judo or any other grappling system. Funakoshi speaks of the grappling aspect of Karate in everyone of his books, I find the moves in the kata, and I execute them. To me that's karate, punching kicking, chopping, sweeping, and throwing are all part of karate. In my opion, if you're not practicing every one of those techniques, then your not practicing real karate.

I don't care who you are or what style you take, it's been my experience that the only person who really beats you is yourself. You can beat anyone if you fight both hard & smart enough. You just have to stay aware of your targets weaknesses while defending your own. That's it, no secrets, no magic, a TKD guy can beat a BJJ guy if he fights well enough, style doesn't matter on bit.

suits me

Wow this post is covering a boat load of topics Alltho I agree with y2_sub 99% of the time, focusing too much on offense against a seasoned grappler will leave your self open to a take down. when fighting a grappler you have keep a constant distance between them and your center-line. Fighting them from a sideways facing stance, and keeping your angles is the best defense.

how do you define real goju? I think of my shotokan as real shotokan, but people from a jka background don't, so we end up arguing over who is more traditional.