G95champ

Since Shotokan prides itself on the use of NO weapons I would say the second. You are taking the staff from the attacker. Just like in Jittie. but both can and do apply and prob. many others. Ive only been working Bassai Sho about 4 months now so I dont have much insight on it at this time lol.

There is another Shotokan book called Complete Shotokan written by a guy named Bell that is VERY good as well. On par with both of Funakoshi's IMO.

You don't have to teach but you do have to understand. Being a HS teacher as well as a MA teacher I can honestly tell you that you really learn things when you teach them. Teaching is a nothing more than a sign of understanding. If you can teach me to do something then you know it. So in that reguards yes it is needed to advance.

GrrrArg Just to make one comment on Funakoshi before WWII and after WWII. The Christian Bible is very differant as well in the Old and New Testiments. A God of Revenge vs a God of love. Nice Yin and Yang going on in both cases Im sure. lol

I have it but have yet to read it.... One day I plan on getting to it. Yes I have heard the same about his Pre WWII stance on a lot of things. But like with everything else his style was a work in progress that IMO was not finished till after WWII. Im sure the Gov. of Japan had some say on his teachings before the War.

You should have some idea by now as all have pointed out. Here is a list of stuff we do. I may left a few out but close enough. Basics 4 up and 4 back All Basic Blocks, kicks, and strikes. Combos of Jab, Reverse Punch with almost all... (30 mins or more) Kata Your testing kata may change for association to association but we do 3 usually. The testing kata which is usually Kanku Dai then the teacher picks one from Jion, Bassai Dai, or Empi, and the student picks one from the Heian's or Tekkis Shodan. (15 mins or more) Focus Tests Usually strinking at a pen held by the teacher. Lets us gage control and speed. Sparring Most of the time we don't do 3 step on Dan tests but we could and have. We will do 1 step and Freestyle. The Freestyle session could last a long time and be very hard lol. Mine lasted over 45mins. (against 3 people who were tagging in and out so they were always fresh) Good luck let us know who it goes. Don't worry about that as much as you need to worry about the mental part. 1 Stay focused.... 2. Show strong spirit at all times. Its a test not class go all out.... on everything..... 3. Respect remeber your bows and little things thats the sign of a Blackbelt.

The Shotokan Bible so to speak is Karate Do Koyhan (sp) by Gichin Funakoshi. Its a very good book IMO and is not only written well but explains things very well.

Shotokan does a 5 Dan and 10 Dan scale dependong on the association you are with. Basic Time line we use. 3 years or more for Dan. (16 age) 1 year after that for Nidan 2 years after that for Sandan That don't mean you test it just means thats as soon as you could test. Ive been a Nidan since Oct. of 97 and am in no rush to move up. 3 years to Yodan 5 years to Godan (age of 35 I think) Ranks after that all have age mim's on it. 6 is 42 7 is 50 etc. 8 and 9 and 10 are our of most of our reach only reserved for a few people.

For us Americans we need to take a few minutes to remember the Gipper. President Reagan passed away June 5th. Loved by some hated by others but respected by all. Time Mag. calls him the Greatest American President. Reguardless of your political view you can not deny his impact on the last 30 years of American History. We have lost one of the greatest leaders of our lifetimes. For those who know nothing of the man take a few mins and watch the tv a bit more and see what those have to say about President Reagan. God Bless

Only a sport??? Not at my school nor in many of the books I study. Yeah it can be used as one but to call Shotokan a sport IMO is an injustice. Well when you add the word only anyhow. IMO Shotokan is one of the few styles that allows the person to go both ways. Meaning SD/combat or towards a sport/hobbie. Take you pick but it is anything but ONE its both, each, and all.

Sai We do tekki shodan after Heain Goadan. Then most of the time we do go on to Bassai Dai and the rest of the big 4. (Jion, Kanku Dai, and Empi) However I have always wondered why things are not taught in groups either. It would make sense to do Tekkie 1 2 and 3 before moving on. Then Bassai Dai and Sho Then Kanku Dai and Sho Then Jion, Jittie and Ginn After that you sort of lose the ideas of family but some kata still group pretty well I think like Gankanku, Empi and chintie with one leg moves. Hangetsu, Wankan and Meyiko, and Sochin with differant stances. Nijushishio and Both Gojushio kata for there speed. Unsa is by itself. But we do the basic kata list you can see it at https://www.angelfire.com/wv2/wvka. However we may teach one kata before the other dependong on the person but thats our given outline.

Shotokan uses NO weapons. Thats one of its main ideas. However several of our kata as pointed out like Bassai Sho, Jittie, and others can have weapons applyed to them but no major Shotokan org. does weapon training to my knowledge... With that said I have played with a Bo some. Im no expert but you can apply basic bo strikes to any of the Heian kata pretty easily. Same hold basically ture for the advanced kata but you have to work with them some.

Nidan - Shotokan Karate

Not a fan of McDojo by far but most people outside of MA don't know much about the ranking system. They know black is good and brown is high. I dont have a prob. with telling my rank if asked. I dont like bragging about it but if asked no big deal Im happy to explain it to people. We dont test on a set amount of time but rather with the idea that you can not test till a set amount of time has passes. Usually 3 months. If your ready cool if not then you wait till you are. You are right the rank dont matter as much as what you know and how you use what you know but Rank is one of the questions you cant get arround in Martial Arts. When I see other teachers I know its rude but I want to know there rank. Not because im jelous or acting tuff I just want to learn. But thats me.

Everyone already hit the first move of the kata pretty good. So I won't go into that again. The kata is a VERY offensive kata. The first main sequence is a lot of insideout blocks but think of them as breaks or strikes, From that point on the kata at face value is VERY offenseive. Knife hands stepping forward are not blocks IMO. Stomping the Knee, doulbe fist attacks, Groin attack, Double punches, sweeps, etc. Bassai Dai prob. has less defense in it than most kata. One thing that we all will agree on is that if you do Bassai Dai at full force you are beat. The energy you put forth to make the kata look like is the amount it would take to strom a frotress.....

Hey Sai We do the first 2 moves in a back stance and shift the weight much like in Heian Yondan. The moves where you spin and catch the kick and strike the knee are in a cat stance. The move after the arms come together when you step in twice and prform the pressing block are in front stances. I only picked up Wankan last summer but I really enjoy it. Prob. because its short lol. Na really I just like the flow.

Love hate relationship with Bassai Dai I could not wait to learn it but once I did I found out it drains you if you do it correct lol. It make me prob more tired than any other kata we do.

I have and 8mm film that has Naikayman and others doing kata on it. Durring the Chinte (sp) durring the hops they say this is show the tide comming back in. I generally teach the application as jumping on the downed opponets. (Bruce Lee does ita lot lol) or jumping over a whip or other belt type of thing they may be sweing at you. But the application to be symbolic of the waves washing up on the beach is one that applyes to nature.

I really got involved in karate to help me become a better football player in Jr high and High school. I have no doubt that each helped the other. To be a good LINEMAN in football which I was you have to understand how to use your hips to dirive the person downfield you also need quick hands and feet. My shotokan training was huge in that reguards allowing me to keep the low center of gravitey and be explosive. At the same time my karate was greatly aided by my football in that I got to feel what it was like to be hit. Granted it was not punched like in a fight but its hard to simulate the exp of a real fight in sparring. IMO karate or MA in general will aid any sort of sport you do....

Things in nature.... Ex Gankanku means crane on a rock. The one legged stance it to mock a crane. Ex the 3 hops at the end of Chinte are to show the waves returing back into the ocean. Ex The forarm strike in Empi the name empi means flying swallow so that much like the crane in Gankanku. Ex the swastika in many kata is sometimes thought to be symbolgic of a big cat such as a tiger Ex Kanku Dai means to view the sky the first move to look at the heavens and take it in and the move where you drop to the ground is to dodge attackes that surrond you just before you pop up and attack. Ex Heian itself means a time period in Japan when people focused on beauty no so much what things ment. In other words the frame is more important than the picture. Thus the Heain kata dont really have much hidden meaning just are there to work the basic moves. Several other things ive read and picked up if you have a specific question i can try and answer it. Did not mean to make my post sound offensive and yes we dont know what the founders ment all the time but IMO there is a reason some styles lasted and other have not. So something much have been done right.

My buddy did the same thing when he tested for his Shodan he picked Empi knowing he was not good at it. Our teacher liked the idea that he was pushing himself and even though he did not nail the jump or the kata (looked ok but ive seen better) he passed him because he knew he was trying to impress him. His other stuff was very good. Ive never had to test on Empi thank God lol. On my Shodan I did Jion as my option kata and for Nidan I did all the Tekki Sandan and Hangetsu I think its been a while. But I dont think there is any kata i dislkie just parts of some Im not good at yet. Im pretty good at Jion, Bassai Dai, and Kanku Dai but I hate doing them cause they wear you out lol. Kata is my favortie part of class and prob always will be.

You need to read some Ronald Reagen ideas its called PEACE though strength. Thats what I ment in my post about Martial Arts. Because I can fight or protect myself people know that thus I don't have to.

The Media Hollywood The internet Video Games Mass transportation mini mall sports (little league, AAU, and high school) Bottome line there is a lot more to do today than there was 20 years ago. We can go futher in shorter amounts of time. We see more in a day than we used to see in a year as far as world events. Its a fast paced socitiety with more things for people to do. Karate clubs like dance, or gymanstice used to be the only year long game in town but now you can go to other places and do things. Add to that the net and playstation have kept a lot home. No ones fault just the price of becomming advanced.

The swastika techinque??? You say we don't know what it is right? I say thats where our style is alive. When we do one in our dojo we teaching differant applications. 1. Blocking to attacks from 2 directions. 2. Strike and block either dirction. 3. A throwing techinque sort of like a front sweep just the hand movement. 4. a choke or doulbe arm escape. 5. A ripping mothion such as in Heian Godan. 6. A ready stance aka fighting postion 7. showing something in nature Everything is not told thats where we make our style live..... If we were to take out the swastika today becase we dont understnad it what happens in 100 years we take out the side thrust kick or the back stance????? Bottom line the human body has 2 arms and 2 legs. They only bend and move certin ways. There is not motion we can do today that the founders could not do 100 or 500 years ago. So all we need to know is there. Fighting has not changed has it??? Certin rules apply in NHB events that IMO take away from traditional fighters but what worked them will work today. There may be moves you want to work on and develope but this can be done in one step sparring. I don't think the traditional kata should be changed. Im a traditionalist. Now if you want to make up a new one and practice it with the old thats fine but I see no reason to throw somethign away just because you dont understand it. IMO that would make me work harder to figure it out. We can all find the answers if we ask the right questions. Someone said that a long time ago and I tend to agree.

Bassai Sho lol those sweeps and hand guards at the end are killer. Physically not hard but hard to make look right and time up. lol. Besides that I like the kata but man that part of mine looks bad. Gankanku 1 of 10 times I nail it the other 9 I lose balance somewhere or have to regain it and shake a bit. Again a fun kata but I wish I were better at it. Other than those 2 I dont like jumps. Empi, Kanku Sho, Meiyko all give me toruble as well. Don't practice Unsu yet thank God lol