Zaine

To your point here, when I was doing Longfist, the CI didn't use a rank system. He just taught you the next thing when you were ready. Sometimes, he would teach you the next thing if he thought that it would help you understand and become proficient with something that you were currently struggling on. It was a really refreshing thing to be a part of.

When I moved away for college, and then back home to find that my teacher had closed the dojo and stopped teaching, I struggled for a long time on whether I could call myself a Martial Artist. I learned from people outside the dojo. I took up Longfist and Southern Mantis so that I could round out my training, but looking back, a large part of it was to feel like I was still a Martial Artist. I don't regret my experiences, but the reason remains. I now know better. I was practicing (and still do) almost daily (I take Sundays to rest), and when I'm not practicing physically, I'm thinking about it constantly. Being a Martial Artist is a mind set that comes with training. To your point above, Bob, I love talking about Martial Arts. I've talked to a lot of people who got to some kyu-rank and then quit for whatever reason. Every time, they always feel regret, or a sense that they aren't a "real" Martial Artist and every time, I tell them that they are incorrect. Once or twice, these conversations have led to them going back to the dojo. It is absolutely enough to have been in it. To have loved it, even momentarily. To still think about it from time-to-time. For some, Martial Arts is temporary. For others, an endeavor that we know will never be truly finished. It's allowed to be different things for different people. Great post, Bob.

Agreed, and they're my preferred. I've tried a lot of different gis, but I always come back.

The issue you run into with this is that bunkai serves a very different purpose than a bout does. We can mold our understanding of a bout via kata and bunkai. We can shape our fighting styles around bunkai (I certainly do). However, to actually employ bunkai in a fight is a tall order. On one end of the spectrum, if we take the opening of Pinan 1/Heian 2, a lot of schools interpret this as a break. On the other end, the speed of a bout has a different cadence from self-defense. I don't necessarily want my other hand above my head. We can change these to be more suited for a bout, but at the end of the day I'm not sure that we would want to.

There are competitions that do continuous fighting. It's still based on points, but there isn't any stopping. Then, of course, you have Kyokushin tournaments. I don't think that Karate as a whole will ever get away from the point fighting system. If the idea of Karate as self-defense is to throw a technique or two and then walk away from an opponent who is incapacitated, then the idea of points fighting is a pretty good one. The issue we run into, then, is that from a sports standpoint, this system of sparring promotes making contact with the opponent instead of throwing a technique that is going to have stopping power. I don't necessarily see anything wrong with this from a safety standpoint, but I do wish that judges would score people based on a little heavier on whether the technique was thrown with power and intent than whether it made contact. However, all this said, I think KarateCombat is the answer you're looking for here. A full contact, Karate specific, sport that has the continuous fighting that you're looking for without losing the karate aspects of fighting. I would love to see more KarateCombat style smaller competitions.

Mugen is the "high quality" version of KI International. The Lexus to the KI regular Toyota Camry. Higher quality parts and a look that you recognize. They're good GIs, and when someone is looking to upgrade for the first time from their light-weight one that the dojo provides I usually recommend Mugen. Good quality without being a burden on the wallet. DarthPenguin mentions Tokaido, and I would put them on par with that. Not quite the prestige of Shureido, but still a very solid experience.

I've heard a lot of reasons to break away from an organization, from things as noble as "The head is abusive and I can no longer support them now that I know," to "The head wouldn't let me wear blue gi pants with a black top." As long as I'm floating somewhere above that then I think I'm good.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe I read that John Hackleman, Liddell's trainer, had kata removed from his curriculum that he taught at the Pit. Apart from donning gis and belts, it is difficult to tell it apart from some sort of kickboxing at this point. I couldn't tell you. I had to Google what kind of Kemp Liddell learned. I don't follow celebrities much.

Kempo is an odd phenomenon to me. There are so many versions of it and a lot of them (this one included, it seems) does that thing where in their 2-person work they throw all of those strikes, do a take down, and then once again throw a lot of strikes. I'm too unfamiliar with Kempo in general to understand why they do this? That said, the founder seems to have the experience and resume that I would expect. A few placements at state and national tournaments. You likely find the kata awkward due to his background in Kajukenbo, which tends to take more inspiration from Chinese Martial Arts than their Japanese counterparts. It seems that the founder's teacher in particular added a lot of Kung Fu into the system. Overall, it's more comparable to Liddel's Kempo, they both come from Hawaii. Parker Kempo, on the other hand, tends to be more Japanese in it's inspirations.

I love seeing these positive updates, Bob. It really warms my heart, you're often in my thoughts.

You know, the idea of a free market is that when someone sees a gap that they have the opportunity to fix it. I recently started taking some new medicines for my ADHD and have found that I have a lot more time on my hands recently. Maybe it's time to make my million dollar idea into an actual million dollars.

There's a Shoshin Karate school in Albany that looks pretty good.

I mean, the title says it all. I've been thinking about this a lot, and I'm ready to rant. I've been thinking about the lack of pockets in my gi for quite some time now. I want them, and a lot of people that I've talked to also wants them. There's no reason that some company isn't just flooding the market with gis with pockets. I know that Century has a pair that is perpetually sold out, and I'm sure that there are other companies out there that have the same, but I don't have them. I'm also not very good at sewing. So it's not like I can just sit down and take care of this problem myself. I have a Master's in English and Creative Writing. I'm an ideas guy, not a sewer. And I know that there are reasons that we don't, but those are in the past! But John, you say, why would you want things in your pockets during an intense class. I don't! I want to be able to have stuff in pockets as I walk up to class, or to a new dojo where I'm not sure that there is a changing area. I want to be able to use them in informal classes and lighter training at home! I want functionality! I want options! But John, you say again, you could snag a finger! I won't! My gi top usually rests over where pockets would be, and my hand does not often go to where my pockets be unless chambering in which I have a tight (but relaxed) fist which means that the closet finger I have to the pocket is my pinky; safely curled into the palm. But John, you say, tournaments don't allow you to have pockets when competing. I know, and I think that's silly! Am I going to reach in with a gloved hand for some pocket sand? That's a DQ even if I got the sand from the ground! Even so, I currently own 3 sets of gi pants. I can just have a separate pair for when I'm at a tournament. Or, I can protest this oppressive, no pockets climate that the tournament elites have created. It's would be my choice if there were pockets. Look. All I'm saying is that gis with pockets are an easy win. They could even just make them custom for each order and get more money. All I know is that I want to keep my personal belongings in my pockets and I wear a gi so much in my life that it seems insane that I can't do that here.

My current dojo does something similar. There are 3 kyu ranks in the white belt that is separated by a certain amount of knowledge. Each bit of knowledge gets you a yellow stripe. When you learn the punching drill that we do and can do it on your own count with no reminders, you get a stripe. Learn our blocking drill in the same way, and you get another stripe. Afterwards, once you can do Taikyoku Shodan with proficiency, you get tested for yellow. However, this only applies to the kid's classes. Kids are motivated far more by progress they can see, and the stripes at white belt help them stick through it. It's that easy shot of dopamine that cements the kids into coming back. For adults, there are no stripes. Your first test takes you straight from 10th to 7th. It's a good system.

That only accounts for 6 kyu ranks. Assuming that Brown is going to be three of those ranks, that's still only 8 kyu ranks. Are you doubling up on other belts?

I have a couple of friends who do something like this. Teaching karate very, very rarely is a viable full-time job. I've trained with a lot of people in the past 20 years, some of them with very successful dojos, who still had regular jobs. My first Shodan is a guy who started teaching me and a few people in the community center of the trailer park he lived in. From there he grew. I wouldn't worry to much about being only a Shodan. If you're still attending your other school(s), you will likely hit Nidan before you able to promote someone else to Brown Belt, much less Shodan. New people take roughly 3 years on average to get to Brown belt, and then another 2 from there for Shodan. You could either just pick your favorite variation, which is something that I am planning to do, or teach them all and let the student decide which one they are going to focus on. I would suggest just picking your favorite variation; too much choice for someone new to Karate can be too overwhelming. I like to collect kata, and I find different variations fascinating. For example, the version of Pinan Shodan I learned is incredibly different from anything I've seen anyone else do, but my favorite version is the Shotokan version, which is not even a style that I've ever done but I've watch videos of Shotokan Pinan Shodan enough that I can do it. On the other hand, the Naihanchi I learned first uses Uchi Hachiji Dachi and I don't like doing versions with Horse Stance, but I'm currently going through a system that does a version with Horse Stances.

I've seen this done a few ways. My current dojo combined two styles and awards ranks in both at testing. My first dojo eventually added enough other things that they felt it warranted calling it a new system and just created one with Shorin Ryu as a base. I've seen others do something similar and still just call it what they learned first. There's a great dojo near me that teaches Goju Ryu and also adds ground fighting into the mix. For me, I eventually want to start my own system. I have a lot of variety in my experience and I want to take what I know and create something that is greater than its parts. Will I be good at that? I sure hope so. In my first dojo, after the switch, the CI explained the history of the system whenever he talked to new people about it. Essentially, he was very upfront about what the system was made of, and why he had made the decision. I imagine that if I get the opportunity to design my own system, I would do the same. Lineage is still very important, even if you are the beginning of a new one. Yes, and I think that we do a disservice not only to the students, but to ourselves, when we don't. Karate, like many things, is meant to evolve and grow. There's a reason new systems keep popping up. I think that a mistake that a lot of people make when starting their own system is that they cut themselves off from organizational support. Sometimes, this is because their previous organizations want nothing to do with new systems. Sometimes, it's due to that very human tendency to want to strike out on our own with no help. My first teacher was in the latter, but networked with other schools in the area to hold tournaments and seminars, creating his own organization. At the end of the day, as Bob likes to say, the proof was on the floor. It didn't matter who his lineage was, people could see clearly the effectiveness and legitimacy of the system. For me, I have a desire to maintain contact with the people and organizations that I've built relationships with. I'm a millennial, and therefore love freely accessible information. I think that, at the very least, any non-classified information should be readily available. In that, I love the idea of Martial Arts organizations, especially inclusive ones. I want to learn and help others learn. My biggest problem with organizations, as they stand now, is that they often gatekeep knowledge and information. Not just things like kata videos, bunkai demonstrations, etc., but things like histories and philosophical information.

Congrats R5ky! Well deserved!

Yeah! That second trailer looked great. I know I should curb expectations, but I'm hyped.

I'm with Bob on this one. I've been thinking about this for 2 days. 1: Not only receiving my Shodan after an arduous, painful test, from my Sensei, but one from a grandmaster in their style as well. 2: I've recently started creating Karate educational content. It has only been week, but I have found it to be incredibly fulfilling and fun (if not a little silly at times when I take photos at the park). 3: Starting the belt journey over. It has caused me to have perspective changes. Re-evaluate the Karate I learned first in a more objective way and has made me a better martial artist all around. It humbled me not in temperament, but in intellect; and I'm grateful for that.

What's the title of the book?

The most consistent advice that I have been given from dieticians is the best way to get macros and micros is to eat foods in which those things occur naturally. I have protein powder because I take Adderall and that kills my appetite so it's a good way to get extra calories, but overall if you're looking for more protein, or energy, or anything from a supplement, your best bet is to eat more food with a higher density of those nutrients.

We don't know your body, and so the best we can do is recommend what works for us. Your best bet is to sample a good range of products and stick with what you like best. That being said, the thing that gives you focus in pre-workout is mostly the caffeine. If you have a favored energy drink I would suggest going with that instead of trying something new so close to the tournament.

For those that do not want to purchase a book, The Bubishi is in Public Domain, so you can get it for free. Just not with all the fancy analysis from McCarthy. My favorite part, as is usually the case with these types of books, is the history sections. I love knowing where things came from and the philosophical underpinnings that made it what it is today.

I was so obsessed with Power Rangers when I was a kid that during a play my parents were in (I was in also, Carousel requires a lot of children extras) I would do Power Ranger moves instead of bowing.