jion

Lately I've been playing with the idea of joining a jujitsu club. I actually went and checked one out around the corner that seemed quite similiar to my karate club, i.e. nice people, a non-violent, learning environment. Although I have huge respect for JJ (JJJ in this case) I still couldn't drag myself away from Shotokan. To make a long story short... The reason for checking out JJJ was I am also looking over to what our neighbours are doing more and more. I've reached the unsatisfied stage that I bet a lot of Shotokan karateka get to. The same drills and ineffective bunkai and pussyfooty kumite are dragging me down. It seems after almost 20 years of interest in Shotokan and martial arts in general (I've trained in Aikido, Togakure-Ryu Ninjutsu) I'm left wanting more. I bet a lot of people feel the same way I do.... Why is it when you encounter a dangerous situation on the street you still get that "I can't handle this, no way!" feeling? Despite being called a self-defense martial art, you feel as if you need more training? And I'm not talking Tank Abbott. Why is it when you go to seminars, and you learn bunkai to various kata you think "That would never happen in real life"? Despite being told it does work Why is it when you see BJJ you hope most people haven't heard of it so you won't get flattened if a situation like that comes up in real life? Despite everyone in the world respecting you for your BB? Why is it that you believe in the "one punch, one kill" method, even though you've seen brawling at some club? Despite training for it every week Why is it when some people in the club punch you, they stop 10 cm in front of your face because it too dangerous? Despite a high grade? Why is there hardly any bag training? Why is there hardly any conditioning? Why is there no locks or grappling? Why do we only practise 5% of the techniques that are in the katas? And WHY oh WHY to people get awarded points for katas that look amazing but have zero to do with the original idea of kata? Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come for me to find the truth. I admire people like Patrick McCarthy, that reverse-engineered katas and found hidden (!!??) locks and takedowns, as well as new implementations of the bogus JKA bunkai. So to the actual purpose of this post....where do we go from here? Karate is a wellrounded martial art, or it's supposed to be, how do we go about bringing the fight back into kata, the realism into kumite, the power into Shotokan? Funakoshi and others simplified "Shotokan", now it's time to thank him for all he's done and move on and take Shotokan to the next level. There's no need to break from it like Kyokushin or others, or to start importing this technique from BJJ and this one from Kempo or that one from Arnis. My question to you guys is, without breaking the tradition of shotokan or cross training, how can we get more mileage out of Shotokan, bring it to a new level? -jion P.S.: My first step is to beat the bags more than a boxer would. Shotokan as we know it today is striking, and I'll make my striking skills miles better than I could as a boxer.

Thank you very much for the kinds words!

I'm not 100% certain if it's 90/10 or 75/25, but I know the weight distribution is definitely on the back leg. More importantly is the tension. The hip (pelvis) must be forward, the abs tense, and the inner parts to the thighs as hard as you can get them (similar tension to tsuru ashi dachi) Often you move from kokutsu dachi to neko ashi dachi, so the emphasis should be the hip pulling the front leg back, moving the weight more onto the back leg (even more than kokutso dachi) and the tension holding it all in together. Once you understand this, it's not a matter of percentage, imho. hope it helps!

"Hoping to see karate included in the universal physical education taught in our public schools, I set about revising the kata so as to make them as simple as possible. Times change, the world changes, and obviously the martial arts must change too" "The karate that high school students practice today is not the same karate that practiced even tas recently as ten years ago, and it is a long way indeed from the karate that I learned when I was a child in Okinawa" "Inasmuch as there are not now, and never have been, any hard or fast rules regarding the various kata, it is hardly surprising to that they change not only with the times but also from instructor to instructor." "What is most important is that karate, as a form of sport used in physical education, should be simple enough to be practiced without undue difficulty by everybody, young and old, boys and girls, men and women" That is the essence of Shotokan karate-do, Funakoshi's main ideas of revision and adjustment of what was known as karate, tode, nahate, etc. These quotes can be found is his book, "Karate-do: My Way Of Life" page 36. I think it raises some interesting points. Shotokan was: 1) aimed at reaching as many people as possible 2) changed so the names of the techniques and kata, made it easier for the average Japanese person to adapt to it. He aimed at spreading it as much and quickly as possible 3) an invaluably aid to person fitness, and Funakoshi saw it as a sport Honestly, he was a genius and taught us all an invaluable lesson. Karate changes and adapts to modern society, our thinking and our development as human beings. Contrary to what it might seem like, Shotokan is not a watered down version of karate aimed at school kids and the elderly. It is aimed at everyone, from the most brutally built heavy weight to the weakest old woman. But what we do with it today is the difference. I've only recently started lurking here, and there seems to be notion that Shotokan is weaker or less effective. And there are people that say it's up to the club or the trainer. Honestly I believe when we train once, twice, three or four times a week we are given the tools. We take them home and then we grow. Some say Shotokan doesn't have this low kick or this grappling technique because it's not taught in kihon. But has anyone taken the time to look at the katas? It's an encylopedia of techniques. Just shuto-uke itself has at least three different applications to it. In kihon we train only a tiny tiny fraction of them. What's worse is the almost dance like kata competitions these days. Shotokan's kata are amazing, but like Funakoshi said there are different variations, different ways and "no hard and fast rules". Are we forgetting karate these days? As a karate-ka, I try to take home the katas, think about them. What could they be good for, how can I adapt even the weirdest and most obscure parts to a meaningful and powerful technique? Surprisingly, I've come to realise Shotokan offers more than I ever thought. Every training session we get Funakoshi's idea of karate. But it isn't the whole picture - as I think he'd agree too. Take those ideas, adapt them to your thinking. Once you accept that, Shotokan becomes as watered down as sports TKD or as hard as full contact KK (blatant extraggerations to express my point).