Charlie

I'm moving to western Kanagawa in September (Yamato-city area). I wrote to the Daido-Juku organization to ask if they had a dojo in that area, but their response was kind of vague, I think because of language difficulties. Do you know if there is a Daido-juku school in that area (near Atsugi Naval Air Station?). If not, do you know of another "full-contact" style that has a school in that area?

Does your dojo belong NIKO, AKI, or neither? I'm moving to Japan in September to western Kanagawa (Yamato-city area) and I've heard that there's a NIKO dojo in that area, but don't know for sure. If so, I hope to train there.

Sure, the website of the dojo I go to is: http://www.virginiakarate.com/. I've never been to the honbu although I would really like to go sometime. I'm going to Japan in August and hope to train in one of the Enshin dojo while I'm there. My instructor here is Sensei Nima Mazhari. Your sensei probably knows him since I understand all of the Enshin teachers have met each other at one time or another. Osu!

I train in Enshin which is centered on the Sabaki method. I haven't really been in a "street" fight or heard of any stories of an Ashihara or Enshin student being in a street fight. However, I've seen or experienced several times an Enshin fighter in a match or practice kumite with Kyokushin fighters. If the Kyokushin fighter isn't accustomed to the Sabaki moves, I've seen them get put on the ground. However, Kyokushin fighters do often compete in Sabaki tournaments and often do well, even winning their weight divisions. I think in those cases the Kyokushin competitors have familiarized themselves with Sabaki techniques so they won't be surprised and will be able to counter them.

A member named "Feels" posted, several months ago, a good clip showing Kyokushin tournament knock-outs. That post is probably still on this forum somewhere if you'd like to search for it. Here's some other good sites for Kyokushin info: http://www.australiankyokushin.com/ This site has good info on notable Kyokushin practitioners. The Wikipedia entry for Kyokushin still needs some work but it does have some information and links to other good sources of info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyokushin Some entries on Wikipedia for notable current or former Kyokushin practitioners: Mas Oyama (founder of Kyokushin): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mas_Oyama Bas Rutten: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bas_Rutten Katsuaki Sato: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katsuaki_Sato Miyuki Miura: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miyuki_Miura Hideyuki Ashihara: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideyuki_Ashihara Joko Ninomiya: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joko_Ninomiya

I normally train in Enshin Karate, however for two months I'm going to have some extra time so I plan on training in a local BJJ school (2 or 3 times a week) and a community activity center Judo class (one time a week). I understand that my Karategi probably won't be able to stand-up to the stress that grappling would put on it. Thus, I want to buy a plain, white, grappling gi to use in both classes (Judo and BJJ) and was looking at the Mizuno line of uniforms since they appear to have a good reputation. Does anyone have any advice on what type of material, weight, or weave would work best for a uniform to use in both types of training?

It seems like the best way to find knockdown tournaments is to check the websites of the full-contact styles' organizations. I was trying to make a list of all of them I could think of. I hope others will add those that I missed (these are Karate, not Muay Thai, Jujitsu, or other full-contact styles): Organizations that sponsor full-contact, knockdown tournaments in North America: - IKO(1)/IFKK - World Oyama - NAKO (North American Kyokushin Organization) - AKKO (American Kyokushin Karate and Aki-Jujitsu International) - Seidojuku - Kyokushin Union/Kyokushin Canada - Enshin - Shidokan Knockdown tournament-sponsoring organizations outside North America: - Ashihara (NIKO) - Ashihara International - Daido Juku - Satojuku (Odo) - IKO (2), (3), and (4) - IFK (UK) - AKK (Australia) - Seido-kaikan - Kyokushin-kan I'm sure that there's probably some European and west/central Asian independent, Kyokushin-related organizations that I'm missing.

I've only personally witnessed one Sabaki event so far so I'm reserving judgement on whether that is true or not. I suspect that in a Sabaki tournament match if neither fighter is knocked-down or if the match ends in a tie on points, then many of the judges might be more inclined to choose the fighter that they think used more Sabaki method than the other fighter, no matter how many kicks or punches the other fighter threw. Nevertheless, in our tournament, several of the divisions were won by non-Enshin fighters who defeated Enshin fighters by judges decision.

I guess that leads to the next, obvious question...does anyone know of a company that sells martial arts plastic face shields that are made with anti-fog material?

I've heard that those plastic face shields Daido Juku-ka wear give them better peripheral vision than other types of head and face guards. However, I've also heard that they're susceptible to fogging-up. In fact, in the video clip, it looks like some of the competitors might be having this problem. Is it true that fogging is a problem with plastic face guards? If so, is there a way to mitigate the problem?

There's a short, but fairly good definition on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_contact_karate

Where in Tokyo is your Daido Juku dojo located?

I don't know if you've seen this Daido Juku compilation circulating currently on MA forums, but one of the clips appears to show a KO from a head butt: http://youtube.com/watch?v=RMjGQk-k2ZA

Use of the word "osu" is sometimes a controversial subject in the martial art's (MA) community, as shown in this thread on another MA forum: http://www.budoseek.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=14059. From what I understand, in Kyokushin and most Kyokushin-related styles (like Enshin) in the west or in Japan, "osu" is the preferred word for "yes," "I hear you," "I understand," "no problem," "hello, fellow karate-ka," "goodbye," etc. I've heard that it is short for, "Oshi shinobu" which means what Sensei Mark says in his post. It seems that many Japanese and others who aren't aware of where the word comes from for Kyokushin practitioners believe it's a contraction of "Ohayo Gozaimas" (good morning) or "otsu-kara-sama-deshita" (good job/it was nice doing something with you). Therefore, they believe that it's use in that sense is unmannered and crude.

In addition to the three IKO organizations headquartered in Japan, several other countries have their own Kyokushin organizations: Australia- AKKA UK- IFK USA- IFKK In addition to all of these, there are other separate Kyokushin organizations such as Seido Juku, World Oyama, and Kyokushin-kan. As far as I know, the karate taught in all of them is fairly similar and most of them allow members from each other's organizations enter into their tournaments. However, they probably don't recognize each other's belt ranks. I don't think that's such a big deal but if it is to you and/or your son then you might want to find out which Kyokushin-based organization he wants to "stick" with and train only with it. There's a good, Australia-based resource on the Kyokushin world at: http://www.australiankyokushin.com/sitemap.shtml