G95champ

ISAK is a Shotokan Karate Org. The ISKA was fromed out of the JKA. I really dont much about it Im in the FSKA now although I trained ISKA but I never knew the details. Bottome line its just and org. for Shotokan.

Well Funakoshi did change the name but why did he change it to that. I mean there is a lot of Japanese words he could have chosen.

Even though most kata have a certin speed they are supposed to be done at. We practice our kata very fast and even very slow for conditioning. The very fast kata we say do it as fast as you can and frankly it sucks. The slow kata we hold each postion for 30 seconds get a good leg burn and works balance.

I have never done GoJu but Shotokan was developed from it. Yes your pretty much correct. From what I understand its very rough training. A lot of conditioning done to the body. Very powerful style. Good luck and good choice.

extreme as in flips, jumps, break dancing, type of karate. extreme as in video game moves. extreme as in if you try and use what they do in demos you will get beaten up extremely bad.

Look for an ISKA school in Philly. Its a shotokan school ran by master Okazaki. One of the great teachers in Shotokan.

Pretty good call. Let me try and make it even cleared in simple terms. Linerar - the shortest distance between 2 points is a strait line. Linerar MA are comming right at you with all they got so you better get out the way they are going to end it quick if they can. Circular - Its not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog. Were not going to trade licks but see openings and hit where you are not.

Several ways you look at hard and soft. 1. Closed hands are hard and open hands are soft. 2. The force at which you block. If you crash arms or legs its a hard block if you redirect attacks by barely making contact its soft.

One of the more intresting applicantions I have heard is the idea that your are surrounded by many attackers at night. When you drop you disapper for a split second. Kanku Dai means to view the sky while you are down you look at the attackers profiles against the sky line. Then you pop back up and attack one. I have also seen the application that afther you punch the attacker just before you turn into the fall you are grabbing him and throwing him. Body Slam if you will. I have also used the idea of dunking a stick or bat strike. I have never taught it as a shoot simply because the knee comes up. But I will look at that application. Because of the name of the kata I think the first application I listed sounds good. Honestly I do not think it is really a good idea to drop to the ground when being surrounded but it does sound like some good NINJA trick lol.

Well a Bo is a long Staff and a Jo is a short staff. My guess is its an art that teaching how to use the staff.

Based on the tv thing I saw its a team name/sponser. Its for show more or less a lot of fance kicks and flipping kata. IMO a bunch of junk.

Stick to the basics. Don't try and show off by teaching advanced moves and combos. This will help you do 2 things. One it lets you focus on somehting you know well and if a student has a question you should be albe to answer it and prob. answer it well. Secondly it impresses your teacher and will reconize that you know its important to do the little things right and not the big. You have to walk before you can run much less fly. If a person has good solid fundamentals they will do pretty good but you MUST have a base.

Shotokan mixes or take well with other styles because Funakoshi himself understood long before Bruce Lee ever thought about it that there is no style. Yeah Shotokan students get grouped into a traditional bouring art but we are really very diverse in our applications and techinques. We have a lot of throws, takedowns, locks, etc. and you can pretty much leave shotokan and go into any other style and do well I would hope the inverse is true as well

Shotokan mixes or take well with other styles because Funakoshi himself understood long before Bruce Lee ever thought about it that there is no style. Yeah Shotokan students get grouped into a traditional bouring art but we are really very diverse in our applications and techinques. We have a lot of throws, takedowns, locks, etc. and you can pretty much leave shotokan and go into any other style and do well I would hope the inverse is true as well

I would use prob. a upper leval knife hand block or some sort of palm pressing block.

I remember very well being about half way into stretching and thinking, "o man i've went and done it now." lol prob. the best choice I have ever made however thank God.

As pointed out differant belt systems for differant styles and differant belt systems for the same styles but differant schools. In the end it basically comes down to the ORG. or Assoc. your with and your teachers ideas. General rule of thumb go from light colors to dark. RED being the excepton that it may fall anywhere.

If they are legit then I think you need to belong to one. However if you don't it really don't matter. I think if your going to teach it gives your students a sense of this guy knows his stuff but you may do that reguardless. IMO its a personal thing. I joined the FSKA 2 years ago and it has not changed my teaching style any but I do feel better now that I have a major org. over me. I guess its a personal thing. (Most are money deals however)

Yeah application of the move. Like you said usually used in kata because thats what everyone wants to know. WHY ARE WE DOING THIS LOL... Application can be used in everything like you said. A rising block can be a block or a strike under the chin, or an escape or break. To each his own. Like I try and teach my students there is no wrong in Martial Arts only more right and less right. Its an art not a science.

One lol. I can't do 2 lol. Much to dangerous.

Bassai Dai - very strong kata and Power though hip movement is what you always look for. The more power you use espically early on the better this kata looks. Heian Godan - has a few spots you can really leave an impression. The jump for sure is key in landing the kata but I think the entire kata is such that its slow and smooth then explodes that you can turn heads in a few spots. Good luck.

I don't know one could catch a staff that way. I mean its not something you want to do a lot but I think its the idea of taking it away more so than catching it. EX both of you have your hands on it and you pull it away from him. Reguardless of that we all know many Shotokan kata look as though they need a weapon. I too have done Jitte with a Bo and as pointed out above it dose flow pretty well but I do not think it is a Bo kata. I have also done all the Heian with a Bo, Numchurck and Sword. Some were a reach but with work you could make the same argument. Point is Shotokan is a empty hand style. The beauty of Shotokan as I have stated in MANY other posts is it has everything in it but lots are hidden. Such as the weapons aspect we are talking about here. The Grappeling as in the Tekki Kata, the wrist locks and throws as in many higher kata such as Kanku Sho and so on. Shotokan is as close to being a complete style as any other MA IMO. But unlike a lot of OTHER styles you have to uncover the hidden aspects. Remember Funakoshi had 2 great teachers and spent much time with Kano the Judo Master. Its not all low stances and lunge punches. lol

tufrthanu Agreed on the techinque thing. You have to do whatever strike your doing properly. Just to clarify my post I ment techinque not in how good you do a move but WHAT move you do. (Palm vs Punch, spear hand vs ridge hand) some are more powerful than others.) But again I agree 100% that you must have your hand in the correct postion as well as the rest of your body befor you add speed. Again point I was making is speed makes power.

Kim Pacific Just search that name. He does all styles of writting and all colors if you have a special color he will use it if you send him a copy. To get both sides done it costs about 50-60 bucks. Not bad and its a very good belt.

Power is a odd thing Speed first and formost Techinque second Then its where you hit Keep with it and you amaze yourself