G95champ

Just differant methods of teaching. We usually try and cover a dozen or 2 dozen basic moves each class. Punches, blocks and kicks. These are done every class. Now in each class I may choose to add a new one or focus more on one of those we do everyday. However I have trained and taught classes where we just do say rising block reverse punch all class. In the fast paced world we live most people get bored and want to see more moves and keep things changed up. So my guess would be your teacher is trying to make class a bit more exciting. Because everyone knows training does get hard and tiresome. Now on that same note we only do things like kata one at a time and don't move on to you figure that one out and test on it. Same is true for self defense and other things that are more complex. You may want to talk to him about chainging up his teaching style because you learn best at differnat rates.

Usually die.... 10th Dans are something there should be only a few of. The rank is traditionally given to the oldest living Master in a given style. However with the modren ideas that we can change an art a bit and call it a new art we have a lot of people in their mid 20's, 30's, and 40's running arround claiming to be a 10th Dan. Again this hurts MA. Most of us avg. people can in theroy only get to 4th, 5th, or maybe 6th Dan. The Dan ranks higher than that puts us over 60 and in the company of the great Masters across the world.

Closed Fists - I think they allow you to jam your wrist or break fingers way to often. Most people who just use fists train in gloves that protects the knuckle and wrist. Sparring or Fighting without a glove is completely differant. Open Hands - Jamming fingers is the only real injury you face. I knife hand or a palm strike is just as good as a good punch IMO. They also allow you to grab and throw much quicker. IMO only

Think of it like driving in a big city. from white to black you can get arround but you still need to watch for signs and follow the main roads. Once you reach black belt you start finding new ways to get arround. Be it the subway or backroads. Pluse you can give directions if asked.

Welcome

Good this is the type of post I was talking about to get people in the chat room as you needed to use it. The only sugestion I would make is post the time and date you are in the room.

We teach all blocks as strikes. This is a 2 fold saying. 1. you can use any blocking motion as a striking motion to an attackers body. 2. you can use the block to attack the persons arm or leg. If you take out the leg or arm he has nothing to hit you with.

IMO that is dangerous and gives MA a bad name. Its going to get someone killed. You don't take shots to the throat and walk away. Even if they have found a way to do it you don't put it on tv where every 10 year old can see it and try it. Stupid.

10 years ago last month (feb of 93) I was 15 o the days.

Palms are great. I almost always use them over fists. When you strike with your fist its dangerous because you can jam your wrist, break fingers, etc. The palm is baisacally safe and the power it has is IMO better because you can work it at full power on things like punching bags more often.

agreed Krav Maga may be the best street art. I would pick MT over BJJ only because going to the ground on the street is not a good idea.

We do kata almost everyday. Some days more some days less. Kata is a nice mix of basics and sparring. So you do get both while doing it. However it can not replace either one. We usually only spar say one class out of 10 with the lower ranks only because they have not picked up enough control and techinques. In other words its to eaisy to get someone hurt before they know what they are doing. In our advanced classes we spar more often but still prob. not as much as we should. I don't know that I can put % on a breakdown cause it just depends. I will spar more when certin people are not in class and less when they are. Meaing older people don't like to spar as much as younger ones do. I still think Kata is the backbone of karate and it has to be the focus of all training. Funakoshi set up the pyrmid where basics were the bases, Kata was the middle and sparring was only at the main top. So it takes less but it is the focal point of MA.

Agreed Pacific The stance has to be wider. As far as hand placement if you doing a sparring clip have them up at the chin like Pacific said or at least one up and one down. No one will fight with that back hand ont he hip not even us Shotokan guys lol.

Welcome

No we don't The physical training alone gets us in pretty good shape but I approach karate like this. People pay for classes to learn to kick, punch, do Kata, etc. Not to do push ups, set ups, etc. I mix in a lot of physical exercises in class like squat kicks and isometric punching and stuff but we will never get down and do push ups before class.

Testing Kata A Kata of our choice suprise Basics and Combos Sparring usually 30 mins General Info on History of Art Ability to teach beginners

I like open hands. I know most guys like fists but Im a big fan of palms, ridgehands, knifehands, spearhands and evan claws. I also like blocking with open hands so I can grab. With that said I still get a lot of stubed fingers.

You only start learing the art once you reach black belt IMO.

Differant Paths to the top of the mountian but once we get there we can all see the stars. I agree 100%

Just me but I would stick with what I was in until I made Dan. I don't belive in quiting anything I start. Now if you dislike your teacher or class times conflict or something like that then well its differant. But like the old saying goes don't change horses in mid stream.

Impressive

Welcome to KF

Welcome

O man its getting ugly for the ex men

An aging Hindu master grew tired of his apprentice complaining, and so, one morning, sent him for some salt. When the apprentice returned, the master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it. "How does it taste?" the master asked. "Bitter," spit the apprentice. The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take the same handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake, and once the apprentice swirled his handful of salt in the water, the old man said, "Now drink from the lake." As the water dripped down the young man's chin, the master asked, "How does it taste?" "Fresh," remarked the apprentice. "Do you taste the salt?" asked the master. "No," said the young man. At this, the master sat beside this serious young man who so reminded him of himself and took his hands, offering, "The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains exactly the same. However, the amount of bitterness we taste depends on the container we put the pain in. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a glass. Become a lake."