G95champ

welcome

Let me add Bon if you are just in the Martial Arts to fight you are here for the wrong reason. Martial Arts developed more along the lines on nonviolence. Like Pat Miritia said in karate kid. Fighting is never good but if you must fight win. I know a lot of people who just pass kata off as a time killer in class. Howver when I was a student and now as a teacher we do anything but kill time with it. As one studented preforms his or her kata the rest of the class watches. I will say ok Bobby what did that last set of moves in the kata represent. You never get the same answer which is the right answer. Becasue as you said kata is differant for everyone. EX a rising block Bobby says to block a punch Sue says to block a stick Dave says strike to the throat Wendy says to break an arm Jason says to escape from a choke hold Frank says to stop something from falling on you Mary says to block the sun out of your eyes Point is with kata you are free to think and expand. If you miss the importance of it you are missing the true goal of karate. [ This Message was edited by: G95champ on 2002-05-24 23:07 ]

I think kate teaches you everything. One its really the only thing you can do alone. I mean you can do basic moves alone but you feel sort of dumb. It works, balance, breathing, timming, stance, power, speed, mind, etc. There is not subistute for actually sparring but I think kata practice is as close as you can get. If you want to call it shadow boxing this is fine. No there is never a fight that flows as a kata does but almost every combination used in kata can be used and is used a lot by us without knowing it. When I teach sparring I will say stop or pause and ask a kid if they know what they just did. I will say that is the same move that you do in Heian Shodan, or Bassai Dai. Kata practice don't have to be working your traditonal kata either. You can as you say shadow box and move arround working moves in the air as though you were being attacked. Kata for me clears the mind and trains the body. IMO the good Martial Artist are good at kata. There are a lot of good fighters that can't do kata at all. The true Martial Artis can do both well but is super in his or her preformance of the most basic kata. If you want to really know how good someone is ask them to do then teach a kata and you will know if they are a quality black belt or not.

We do knife a lot. As well as bat, stick, and other swing type weapons. As far as gun I don't teach how to defend. I say do what they want. Be calm and talk to them. Only try something if you know your dead anyhow. Plus I only do those with my advanced students.

I agree with the post above grappeling on the streets not a good idea. Too many things can go wrong. Such as his friends, wrestling on black top is not the same as padded floors, weapons, etc. Grappeling in a controled fight is great and one one one is hard to beat if you have not trained in it. However for the streets you better learn to stand and move.

Amen preach it brother. LOL.... I really hate the kid black belt thing. I don't test them until they are 16. I made mine at 18 and at the time I felt I was a bit young. I think 16 is a good age becaue it goes hand in hand with your drivers licenes. If you can kill someone with a car then you can with karate LOL..... Im also with you on point sparring I hate it. You learn by getting hurt IMO... If you keep doing something and don't fell pain then you think its good. I slightly disagree about the kata thing. I love kata and think when it is done correctly it is just as good as actual sparring. But I understand your point.

They are just some people out there who are not as good as they think. They are not ****y but are just not arrond enough quality people to know better. When they go to compation they see the real world. I konw this is a rare situation but it happens. We had a kid in class back when I was in the mid ranks comming up who went to a touranment and got his head smacked. LOL. Well it turs out that the guy he was fighting was a higher rank fighting in a lower class. Stuff like that happens a lot in WV I don't know about other places but every tourament I have been to with my club or went too with another club someone came away from it with a bad expierance.

Nothing beats a big heavy bag.

Well I just speaking from the 2 arts I hold black belts in. In both cases we were shown basically every move before black belt. Yes their is kata and things like that are new but the body can only do so many things. Jump this way, bend that way, arms only bend in one direction, etc. Being a black belt dont give you a bunch of top secret moves no one else knows its more a deeper understanding of the moves everyone else knows.

BlackBelts do a few things. One it provides closure. Lots of people don't realize that you can go futher. Alos once you become a black belt you dont really do any ne moves you just learn about the ones you know and how to apply them better. Alos as pointed out many use black belt as a way to go on to another style. A solid base before picking up some other bit and parts of other stylers. Also and sadly many teachers don't really know what to do with blackbelts. How to test them, what to teach them, how to train them etc. Again go check out all the mcdojo stuff. Speaking for myself I have learned so much more after becomming a black blet than a I ever did before. It also takes a special person to keep going. One reason American went to a colored belt systerm was to keep intrest up. Once you get your blackbelt thats it and people loose intrest becasue their is no goal of change to work towards.

I posted on this before somewhere. I think its ok once yo make black belt in one style. Once you have an understanding of a base are by all means look arround and mix and match. However if your new to the game and are being taught differant things at differant schools I think it may harm more than it hurts.

hello its the sites Birthday by the way....

Glad I was here to see it. Patrick seems to be a good guy and runs a great site I hope this thing keeps going for years to come. Happy Birthday karatefourms.com....

I agree with you. I think your mind can make up for any physical loss or disadvantage. If you think you can you will. IMO.....

Just to let you know the lady I spoke of was back tonight. She said she wanted to rest last week. LOL....

Shotokan is to Karate as Mustang is to car its just s specific type. I knew those SAT's would pay off LOL....

Although I do agree with yoru point however I think they can do more to build your image of yourself that hurt it. I know way to many people who have placed in a tournament and think they are the best thing since sliced bread. Im not a fan of point fighting sorry.

Like Forest Gump said "it happens."

Thanks KickChick. Yeah I do a gree a lot of teens slack. Heck I slack when I get a chance LOL. My point was as you saw that the lady in question just did not put forth max effort mostly because she looks at herself as older and not as physical. If you think you are goign to loose you will. Thats what Im trying to get out of her. I have class tonight I expect she will be back. Just took a week off to celebrate. Plus Star Wars came out TR the last class date. LOL.

Im a big guy and I do shotokan karate. It works well for me. I have done some kickboxing and enjoyed it.

I did not give her the belt. I put a lot more on the mental than the physical in my tests. She knew the moves and knew the knowledge to go with it. The thing she lacked was the speed and the power to really defend herself. I think most have had an lady in their 40's who fits that discription. I dont mean to say she was really slow or really weak she like most mid aged women just dont put the emotion into a test that a teenage boy would. That was the point I made to her. Again based on my grading system she passed. However I will not lower a grade. I will not add to a grade. In the end I go down the list add up the marks and what you get is what you get. She passed actually she passed pretty safe becasue her knoweldge was so good. I just wanted to make the point to her that just becasue you know it dont mean you can do it.

I don't know what kata that style uses but almost every style as you pointed out has a kata much like the first Heian.

I am new to the term mc dojo I assume that is a referance to mc donalds LOL. It is really simple to be blinded by money. I have set in on a lot of differant karate schools and I will agree that a large part of them are crupt. Last week I advanced a women to green belt from blue. In my heart I wanted to fail her but I passed her and told her this. IMO when you get tot he mid leavle belts you should be ablte to defend youself. I told her I did not think she could. I went on to say this is the last test I will give you for some time. I do not want you to quit I just want you to realize that at some point its my repuatation on the line and not yours. I don't give rank away. She has not been to class sicne her test. She may be mad and have quit. I really hope not becasue she was a joy to have in class however at some point we as teachers must draw the line. I hope your new schools works out better.

If SaifightsMS is right the kata is Taikyoku Shodan from Shotokan. The first Heian Kata starts much the same as well with the escape added.

The way I understand the belt color development is that a long time ago you were only given a white belt and once it tured black from Dirt, sweat, blood, etc then you became a black belt. Then if it ever turned white again you were a Master. Don't know the actually referance to that logic but it sounded good to me so I picked it up. LOL.....