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I think you did ok. If it was my daughter I would of put him in hospital.

Do you maen Heain oyo? This is a kata made up from all the Heian Katas, its very long and quite tiring to perform. It was invented by Sensei Kase (9th dan?) for his own Shotokan offshoot/association (shotokan Rya Kase ha). My sensei learnt this from Kase (who recently died). Although it is not officially part of our standard Shotokan syllabus, he teaches it to black belt students out of respect for Sensei kase so the kata wont be lost. EDIT: Although its made up from all the heians, all Zenkutsu dachi moves are done in Fudo dachi!!!

In Shotokan alot of animal style technques can be found in the chinese origin katas. i.e gankaku (crane), Jitte, Chinte, Jinn have elements of tiger style I think. Even Empi and Unsu have White crane elements.

Bunkai is the direct application of the kata, in the same order and context of the kata in question. Oyo is when you take moves from a kata and apply them out of context of the kata.

10. knifehand strikes starting at the head or from behind the head. The opposite hand blocks the attack and then you grab with the same hand. The striking hand has to come up high so as to come above the arm you have grabbed, so as to strike to the neck while pulling the grabbed arm. nice post btw.

Shotokan. What you do?

Did mine in '91. Was going bad with basics, slippy floor and all that(so I thought), but I redeemed myself in the kumite. I was up against this other guy going for his black belt too (there was 8 of us grading at the time). As soon as sensei (dave Hazard) said begin I feitned a sweep followed by a jodan mawashi geri, obviously I used the instep of my foot (not full contact), The slap from the kick on his cheek was so loud it echoed around the dojo! Ippon!! We started again and i did exactly the same move! SLap! Ippon!! I felt really sorry for the guy I was fighting,his cheeks where looking pretty rosy:) Anyway the guy I obliterated and myself where the only 2 who passed. Sensei Hazard then said I should try and vary my technique a bit more but also commented on how well controlled I was. To this day i dont think Ive ever pulled off such a good roundhouse!

It takes alot of skill and experience to block effecively in sparring, not to mention speed and conditioned arms.. I find inside-outside blocks and gedan-beari style blocks to be most effective, becuase they can be combo'd easily. My tip, Think of the block as a strike to the opponents arm. After a while they just wont want to punch you:)

Beacuse the rules in most tournaments dont allow open hand techniques i.e strikes and grabs which utilise 'chambering'. Also people conditioned for the knockdown tourneys tend to take the punches rather than block them, this is for the same reason as above plus the fact you would be using some form of boxing gloves which hinder effective blocking. The only excpetion I have seen is Kyokoshin tournaments which are knockdown but with no punches to the face. These fighters dont always stand like a boxer, but again kyokushin fighters train to take hits rather than block them. In conclusion its basically down to adapting to the rules.

I like Meikyo.

Depends what you mean by 'ugly' and 'pretty'. The way you have changed your emphasis on your kata wiht visualising an opponent is correct imo. If all the techniques are correct then it shouldnt ever look 'ugly'. If you mean you change the techniques to show the bunkai more clearly then I believe that is wrong. What I dont like is competition kata where kata is often performed at double speed with no focus on various techniques with ludicrously large athletic jumps that take away from the original feeling of the kata. If this is what you are refering to as 'pretty' then I dont see it that way. If I was to guess at your meanings then I would stick to the 'ugly' way.

Why wouldnt you want a 100% cotton gi?

Well street/bar fights are usually won by who gets the first hit in. Usually this will be a surprise blow from behind possibly with a beer glass or chair etc. People who start these fights are the kind of people who can stab someone and not lose any sleep over it. I would lose sleep over it and I think most MA's would to. Yes I could stop someone with a strike to the throat or finger strike to the eyeballs but could I live with the consequences? In a life or death situation yes but in a meaningless drunken brawl? Im not sure. Remember trained fighters, boxers, UFC etc still fight in a ring with rules. It dosnt matter what style, how big you are etc. If you get jumped from behind with a baseball bat or stabbed or maybe your in a 2 on 1 situation. My advice is to get away as fast as you can.

Just found out that this kata is a shotokan version Nipaipo Kata. So basically suparenpi and nipaipo are being brought into the Shotokan sylabus by kanazawa. Cant wait to see the Shotokan versions as both of theses katas are very different from any other kata I can think of.

Ridiculous IMO. Should take 5 years absolute minimum with training at least twice a week. I assume its a junior grade anyway like the previous poster suggested.