G95champ

Full Contact is a over used word. No one goes true full contact because we would kill each other. With that said we do light to mid contact. If the person is dazed we back off. This is Shotokan BTW

if they were to fight neither would win.

I guess your proud.

We have a saying in our womens SD class that is G.E.T. Groin Eyes Throat then get out of there. I myself like striking the knee but unless you can bring some power your prob. wasting your time.

everyone pretty much hit the nail on the head. 1. I would look at the quality of the black belts. If you don't know what a good black belt looks like go to another school and watch one class. When you see a BLACK Belt you will know it. 2. High testing fee's or ways to make money without teaching. 3. A lot of high ranked kids. IMO and Ill go to my grave preaching that no one under 16 should have a blackbelt. As far as being eaisy on low ranks on tests I think we all do that from time to time so we don't tear them down to much. If that happens on higher tests then you have a prob.

I use the Kenneth Funakoshi video series a lot to refresh on kata and application. I really don't figure there are bad films just people that misuse them. Use them as a aide not a method.

You don't remember kata you learn them. They become second nautre like you techinqe. Give it time and lots of reps. Soon it will be like riding a bike you wont forget. just keep working it.

My take on all videos They are a great training aide. Meaing if you work the move in class and then use the video to study it or refresh on it thats great. I also think you can learn how to do things from a GOOD video However no one should ever watch a video and think they know a given move. It takes reps over and over and no matter how many times you watch it, it can not replace asking questions and doing it yourslef.

So ture. Im guilty myself of slowing down on some people or when Im tired but if you watch people who truely practice one step sparring at full speed its unreal how good they are at freestyle. Your reaction time becomes so quick.

From my exp. in larger cities it is so students don't jump from school to school. Just make sure you understand all the aspects of it before signing.

simply put good decision making thus you will not have to fight

Being both a Martial Arts teacher and a HS football coach there is one thing I have picked up about sports. You can not force kids to do it. They may love it but they are KIDS first. Let them be kids. If you force them into somehting be it karate, football, band, chruch, take your pick they will almost always reject it. My advice is for you to keep training. Don't make a point of trying to get them to. That way when they do they will be doing it for the love or fun of it and not just to make dad happy. Old saying you can lead a horse to water but you cant make him drink is very true here. Let the kid be a kid and play if he wants to do karate thats fine if he dont thats fine too. Hopefully he will get back into it later on when he gets older but IF YOU FORCE it on him he will learn to hate it. NO QUESTIONS!!!!

Again I want to point out that one step sparring should be very close to free style. Espically when you get to one step semi free. The key to it is both people have to go as hard as they can. All to often I see people do it half speed and yes it don't work if you slow it down that much. You get what you put into it. One other note on high blackbelts. 5th and 6th Dan's IMO are an oddity. Not saying there not but to be that high you SHOULD be arround 50 or older. If you got guys in there 20 and 30's wearing a 5th Dan then its prob. should be a red flag. Again Im not taking anything from the class just trying to give you the heads up on some things. Best of luck. BTW us Shotokan guys are die hards for our style lol

The perfect style is the one that allows you to never be involved in a fight.

Always a student lol Try my best to be a teacher.

In our Shotokan classes we usually do kata last so we can wear ourselves out lol. There is a few ways to do kata. You can do them relaxed and just focus on techinqe then once you get that down add the speed and emotion. Your teacher may be doing that. Dont pass judgement to quickly. The lack of good black belts is a scary thing. You can about always judge a teacher by his Dan ranks. You said you wanted to do this style to learn distance and stuff. Did your Shotokan teacher not do one step and 3 step sparring?

We usually do the round elbow, rising elbow on the white belt leval. We add the side elbow or elbow thrust from a side stance somewhere betweent the next 2 color belts just depends on the person. Same is true for the downward elbow. Blocking with elbows comes much later. As to other Elbow combos but the elbow as a strike is taught very early. In fact I usually include the round elbow strike on my white belt exam.

Well Im the other way. Shotokan teaches you to do it picture perfect then when you stand up and go for real you will be so fast and powerful its unreal. Shotokan came from Shorin Ruy so the change should not be hard. Just dont look for the simple way out. Hard training is good. The harder you train the better you will be. Bottom line style dont matter.

Are you trying to land a step behind side thrust or just piviot into it? Really dont matter. As far as power goes but the step behind should be faster. Good advice above on the heavy bag. Kicking shields is a good idea as well. If you never hit targets you will never learn power. I don't know how much weight equipment you can use but a good leg press works greats. The side kick is about hips and the leg press really works the hip flexors. One thing I try and tell my guys about the side kick is don't let them block it. I mean sure they are going to try to but kick though the block. If they do block it or try to make sure it hurts their arm. lol. The side thrust kick is not a every move kick you will use. Its more of a finishing move that is set up off other moves or when you got them rocking backward. You prob. don't want to lead with it because it is a bit slow and it does leave you open somewhat espcially against a good fighter.

First thing not many side kicks are made to go high. Its more of a rib smasher lol. At least thats the Shotokan idea. Secondly there are a few differant types of side kick. The snap - striking with the blade of the foot is not a strong kick but is pretty fast. The Thrust hitting with the bottom of the foot is a VERY strong kick and is slower but at the same time should be landable if the target presents itself. Other variations like lead leg, stepping in or spinning. Which one are you working on.

Vitor Belfore (sp) is the man. Best fight prob. the Kieth Hackney beating the big fat guy in one of the early UFC's. The one Hackney broke his hand on the guys head.

BTW I do understand the point made above about others not wanting make up on their Gi or to smell your perfume. Again there is a diffeance is just going like you go to school, the movies, or store, than like if your going on a date. EX you dont have to wash your hair before karate class. Its going to get dirty but you prob. do need to take a bath before karate class you will stink. LOL Good luck and just train hard.

Nothing wrong in careing about your appearence. People will take you serious as you show them you are working hard. Like it or not the world passes judgement on everything and everyone. We have to alway prove ourselves to people like it or not. Give it a few weeks or a month and if you train hard and show you are really into it they won't care how much makeup you have on.

well the first move in Kanku Dai is ofen said as one looking at the sky. But we were talking about application not nature relationships. The application is breaking a front choke for the first move. Funakoshi hid a lot of stuff in his kata and teaching of them. We prob. will never know and IMO both are correct but a few other things to keep in mind. Funakoshi belived in the 5 elements. Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Void or Space. These are shown in the 5 Heian kata. Shodan is a very basic and powerful kata with the power comming up the legs from the earth. Nidan flows like water from one move to another and is very graceful. Sandan jumps around. Differant moves up the and the stomps comming back it jumps like wild fire. Yondan is a bit softer and uses a lot of motions with the arm like flags in the wind. Godon obviously leaves the groud so aka s the Void. Point is Kanku Dai is a combo of the 5. We're not sure which came first the Heian's or Kanku Dai. But its simple to see they are very related with the same moves. The most prominate feature in midevil japa n and even today is the SUN. The Sun god was the key to their socity so to view the sky or to view the sun and all other elements are beneth the sun. Sounds like good nature interpation to me. lol

I disagree I think the jumps in Dan grades are huge or should be. This is sort of our differance not necessarly trus just how we explain it. Shodan - you have a basic understaning of all techinqes and kata. Nidan - the big thing here is you can teach and test. Sandan - IMO Sandan is the rank you hit when you are at your best. I think a good third degree should be about to go one on one with anyone and do ok. Yondon - More knowledge. Godon and up basically are age ranks based on exp and the place you hold in a give org. But from my exp. we see a huge differance in first, second and thrid dans.