G95champ

Feb of 93 to May of 96. So a bit over 3 years to make first Dan.

You can pick up moves but you can't learn from a book. Books and Videos should compliment your training. Funakoshi has some excellent books and they teach kata and stuff very well but its not the same as working with a teacher. However thats better than nothing just don't run arround saying your a black belt after you read the book.

I disagree I think a lot of American like Bush. They realize he is not the sharpest knife in the kictchen but they also realize he knows that as well. He has put together and outstand group of advisors and his dad is always at his side. Bush is a religous man who speaks to the common man. Although he is tied to Big Oil and the "rich" he is a president that the poor tend to love. Look at the last election. States like WV and Ark who always vote Democratic go for him because they see him as being one of us. Im a History person I love it. Bush II gets a lot of bad press because the media is so far left its crazy but the common man on the street loves him. Because he is not much differant than any of us, despite his family ties.

Hard question. Most are very good fighters but IMO Martial Arts means the development of the mind, spirt, body, as well as learing manners, history, traditions. If you just learn to fight you are missing out on a lot. That traditional martial arts allow.

Sounds like a good into to me. Welcome to KF.

Welcome

Sounds like a plan good luck

Welcome to KF

Welcome to KF

I understand what you are saying 100%. The Low Satance you train in serves a few things 1. Builds muscles so you kicks have much more power. Shotokan preaches one punch one kill. Its a power style. 2. The work in a low stance helps you get up. Meaning if you slip and get off banance and you are low you are more able to recover because you are used to being there from training. 3. The stance helps set throws like hip tosses. To do most throws you have to sink you hips and working in the low stance helps you step right in and pick that stuff up when you get to it. 4. Again anyone can work from a freestlye stance. Being a football coach we say the low man wins. Karate is all about leverage. So the lower mans hips will generate more power and speed. Again like you said its just 2 schools of thought. Its 6 one way and half a dozen the other. For each good reason I give someone else can give a bad one and vice versa. The Shotokan, Judo, Aikido mix shoulds like a great mix. The 3 styles were once one and the same. They were broken up so they could be taught to the Japanese militay quickly. However always be careful about doing more than one style at a time. The third school you mentiond is TKD, Hapikido both Korean arts and Ju Jitsu which is either Japanese or Brazilian. But they call it American freestyle. I would be careful of that just by its name. Good luck

Let me say I think this is a great post iolar. This will help explain a lot of the debates we have have in the style vs style posts. SHOTOKAN KARATE 1) 0.5 Groundwork 2) 2 Trapping, Throws and Takedowns 3) 1.5 Infighting - Elbows, Knees and Head 4) 4 Punching 5) 4 Kicking 6) 0 Weapons

I don't know if it looks like a good club I don't see what real harm it could do. However if he wants to meet you in the street well then stay in the car. LOL. I think I would meet him fist. Maybe just stop by his club and watch classes and get to know him. When you cross styles you run into problems when sparring. Some don't teach leg kicks other do, some don't throw others do, When grappeling some usee PP others don't. Bottom line its a good idea to know who you going to train with. However finding sparring partners on line is not a good idea. IMO.

Welcome

Yeah thats what Im saying. Shotokan was very much like Judo before WWII. Everyone one attacks it as being a stand up art. Which it is. However once you break down the kata you find everything from wrist locks, to body slams. Now I have been at Shotokan for 10 years it was not until 2 or 3 years ago I started to see all these hidden techinques. Let me be clear that you will never get in a guard and mount postion in a Shotokan class. Well next to never. But to say it is not part of the style is false as well. Talk to the the Sensei and you should be able to tell if he has the insight to teach Shotokan application from his kata. That is where all these grappleing things are at. As far as being a well rounded stand up art Shotokan is. Its about 50/50 punch kick ration maybe 60/40 punch to kick. We use both high and low kicks but normally we work all kicks at stomach leval. Shotokan has stong blocks, we basically teach blocks as strikes. So from that aspect it is very balanced. If you can find a teacher that brings the grappeling and throws it will do well with it. Shotokan is also ofter looked down upon for its low stances saying you can't spar like that. Don't get hung up on that because is for conditioning and no true Shotokan teacher would ever spar much less expect you to spar that low. Again I think Hapkido would get you more balance from day one.

thats only a question you can answer. I have over 10 years of training and I still wonder that. Thats why I keep training. Belt color don't mean much more than you have put in X amount of time. That goes for a lot of black belts today as well. They don't make them like they used to. LOL. (self included)

Nope, not the way I was taught. You take care of your belt. You don't let it touch the floor, you don't leave it laying arround. You always fold it up and put in where ti belongs. If you were to spill something on you belt only wipe it off with a damp rag. I guess differant schools do differant things but we DO NOT wash our belts Ever.

Congrats kickchick on 3000.

A mix of everything is hard to find. Hapikido may be the best fit. Shotokan is well rounded for the stand up fighter but it takes a lot of training to get into its ground game and locks.

Its all up to the person. I mean if Mike Tyson attacks you it don't matter if your a black belt. LOL. Like everyone said don't make your training public knowledge and if worse comes to worse and you can't walk away do what you can do.

By send off do you mean a way to end class. I start and end my kids classes just like the adult ones with mediation and the dojo kune. Cant teach respect soon enough.

I hear ya. I have had my black belt since 96 and it has some loose strings on it. But I have saw people do what you were stying to all of their belts. I teach respect for you belt. Never to let it touch the ground and stuff like that. None of my students have done it but I have seen many who have.

I have very poor vision 200/20 and 400/20 in each eye. Don't make it an excuse.

Welcome and like KickChick said just ask and someone will help you out. Good luck...

No it depends on style. Its a nice way to judge power but any joe on the street can break no big deal. And the FBI don't really care they got Saddam and UBL to worry about.

We call tests - tests Some will call them grades Normal testing at first ranges from 2 months to 4 months. I base mine on 30 classes plus being good enough. However this can change. Some schools make testing optional other say you have to. I don't test anyone I do not think is ready in fact I tell them a few weeks before that they are ready to test IMO. If a student asks me when do I test. I usually say not for a long time now. As far as passing. Very few people pass early tests. Part of it is because they are simple and part is because well we don't want to run off people. LOL. However I am very picky about my tests from say 4kuy up. However this is up to each teacher.