Zaine

The reason that gi pants don't have pockets is likely due more to tradition than deterrence. This is conjecture, but pockets became a popular choice in clothing for Japan during the Meiji period, but mostly with the aristocracy. Kano Jigoro was alive during the Meiji period, and he is the progenitor of the gi. However, Jigoro was not aristocracy, though he was a politician. It likely didn't occur to him to add pockets, as this was a new trend to hit Japan at the time. Perhaps he was against the new Western influence in fashion. Maybe, like you, he was worried that people would use the pockets as an excuse to wear them elsewhere. Maybe he just didn't think about it. We can't know. We'll just have to agree to disagree here. I don't see the issue with people who lack the discipline to change their clothes before they go out to hang out with friends. That just means, to me, that they will need to be more thorough in their cleaning of their gis, or face the consequence of having to purchase more gi pants. Personally, I don't find gi pants any more comfortable than what I usually wear. Pair this with the fact that I just sweat in my gi after a class, I always take my gi off the moment I get home and shower/change.

Let them mess it up. It's their money. The gi isn't a sacred symbol of some esoteric order, it's the uniform we practice various martial arts in. Also, is it lazy to want pockets, now? I certainly wouldn't think it was cheap? I'm not entirely sure I understand your point here. Should clothing, regardless of intention, not fit the use of the person wearing them? For me, gi pants aren't as functional as I would like them to be. It's not about being lazy, it's about wanting an easier place to put my phone, wallet, and keys before I put them up before class. This is what I do currently. It all goes in my training bag. However, it does make things inconvenient to retrieve should I need them. At best, you have a pocket specifically for your personal items. At worst, you're scrounging through a bag to find your items. What if you need to stop by the store on the way home and went to the dojo in your gi pants, like I do? It's not fun to carry around phone, keys, and wallet around in my hand or keep track of them in a cart. What if I want to stop at a gas station before hand for a pre-workout snack or drink? I live in Texas, so when it's cold, which isn't a lot, a jacket works great. However, it's not an option for me for most of the year. The argument I am making, also, isn't that I want to carry these items in class. No reputable dojo/studio is going to let you train with items in your pocket, just like you have to take off rings and watches before class, or glasses before sparring. The pockets aren't there for during class, they're there for when you're not in class.

You know what? I'll add it to the list of demands. If I can have pockets, then you can have a built in holster.

I'm happy to hear that you are safe, Patrick! This tragedy has been on my mind.

Congrats!

Sure, but I don't want a fannie pack. Fannie packs are an additional piece of clothing. I don't want that, I want my gi pants to have more functionality.

I still want pockets in my gi pants, if for no other reason than that it would make changing a lot easier. If I could just put on my pants at home and put my cellphone, keys, wallet, etc. into my pockets that would be ideal. I would take them all out before class, but it would make my life more convenient.

Welcome to the club!

Likewise, I have never suffered a serious injury from training. I have been very lucky. However, the worst injury I have received was during my black belt test. We were in the sparring portion and my sensei and I were doing Kyokushin style fighting. He got a really nice punch right to my sternum and I ended up with a contusion. I couldn't lift my arms above my shoulders without pain for a week! My sensei asked if we needed to stop after he had delivered the punch, but he also told me that if I stopped the test at any point that I would fail it so I kept on going. He told me later that if I had stopped at that point for a small break that I wouldn't have failed and apologized for hitting so hard. Mistakes happen! Still, I got my shodan and it's a good story so many years later.

Something important to remember is that you're not alone. Everyone has gone through periods of feeling overwhelmed and disappointed. It can be tough looking at people who have already gone through what you're going through and think that they somehow were better at learning than you are. The truth is that they weren't any better, they just stuck with it.

I have thought about it, but I don't think so. I don't know what I would do with the medals, it's not really what I collect. Plus, the price, while fair for the quality, is a little too much for me for just walking/biking.

That's an excellent idea!

I don't have any martial arts goals this year. The only goal I set is to intentionally travel, by foot or bike, the distance from The Shire to Mordor, about 1779 miles (2863 km) over the course of the year.

I wonder to what extent the availability of information plays into this phenomenon that you are seeing. We often run to the internet, for better or worse, to find out whether something is legitimate. Most of what I find about Kishimoto-Di, for example, comes from you, even when I Google it. On the other hand, I can Google Shotokan, Shorin Ryu, etc., and find a plethora of information including dojos in my area (I live in a large metroplex, so finding dojos isn't exactly difficult). With this in mind, do you think these systems have become too bespoke? When we relied on word of mouth, there was a sense of mysticism around these rare styles. Now, I think that the general public, while absolutely wanting some amount of mysticism and secrecy, values empiricism far more. If someone whispers about a secret style, my first reaction is to look it up online and find out just how secret it is. If I find very little about it, my interest is peaked, but I hit the wall of no more information really quickly. Also, I think the issue is that you have to seek these out. The people who know about these systems tend to be already enfranchised within the martial arts world. This can lead to 2 paths. Either they are happy with their own system and they don't care to cross-train, which seems to be the vast majority to me, or they are interested and have trouble finding instructors who can teach them due to the scarcity of the system. Some in the second bucket will find people like you and be in the right circumstances to learn, but those will be few and far between. I, for my part, find myself in the second bucket. I have seen your videos about Kishimoto-Di, both the historical and practical videos, and find myself very interested in learning it. However, you and I live far apart (although if the INKKS still intends to hold the Gashuku in July then trust that I will bug you for Tachimura no Naihanchi). When it comes to promotion of a style, that becomes difficult. The internet seems to be the obvious option, but how do you set yourself apart from the millions (billions?) of other videos about martial arts and kata in the world? Then we hit the part where some rare systems will intentionally shroud itself in some secrecy so as to prevent others from just learning the materials online and making false claims of proficiency. Kishimoto-Di itself hides Tachimura no Passai for that exact reason, if I recall. I have mixed feelings about this, but at the end of the day it's up to us to hold on to these traditions and pass them down in what way we can. I feel this way about Matsumura-Seito sometimes. I know it's a fairly big branch of Shorin Ryu, but it is on the smaller side when compared to Kobayashi, Matsubayashi, and even Shobayashi. It's nice to see people do kata the way that you learned to do it, but the market is saturated with videos that focus on different branches of Shorin Ryu than my own. The question becomes, for me, do I evolve and change the way I do Shorin Ryu, or do I stick with tradition and push Matsumura-Seito. Largely, I have decided on the former, but I still preserve Matsumura-Seito where I can.

Happy New Year!