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i'd have to say my favourite kata is either ji'in or meikyo. both have a real spiritual feeling about them, a clarity of mind and peacefulness and yet some devestating movements. ji'in's knifehand strikes to the shoulder region are notable. to see videos of these kata check out https://www.karateonline.org some of the performances on this site are truely amazing. especially jonatan mottrams. (he is commonwealth champion now so they shold be!!)

on the topic of horse stance i've studdied karate for 10 years, i've been involved in kickboxing for nearly seven and trained a lot in mauy thai. what i've come across is not so much a stance for fighting in but an ideal, idealy if attacked from the side horse stance provides great stability and allows for the generation of power. obviously most situations are less than ideal, but mastering a good horse stance enables one to use a poorer stance with some effectiveness. few people realise the similarity between the position a good boxing/kickboxing uppercut lands in. the uppercut will land with the body pivoted, legs still slightly bent and side on (obviously it can be done twisted the opposite way) although on the surface not to similar, the bending of both knees, side on body and posture (as little hunched as possible) have similarities. Because the uppercut , ura zuki, is very underused in karate we often fail to see this application, ie explosive upwards punching with the body and knees working together with the hips. check out early footage of mike tyson's career to see some amazing uppercuts and the importance of the bend, the knees generate far more upwards power than the trunk can, which when combined with the hips create the devestating punches tyson used so effectively. also worth checking out is the series of katas in karate known as tekki or naihanchi. https://www.karateonline.org this site has good videos of these kata, illustrating the knee position. think about its potential for explosive up down movement and the horse stance takes on a new and aggressive position. gary[/url]

might wanna check out https://www.karateonline.org in terms of karate this site is exellent. has loads of videos, gives you an idea of the stuff youll be doing and when watching the competition the standard which can be obtained with serious training. i might be a bit biased towards karate but this site will show you some of what my arts about https://www.karateonline.org[/url]