Zaine

Most dojos spar with gloves. Some don't, and some dojos will abandon the gloves at higher levels but most dojos use gloves. This is so that new people don't stray away mostly. Getting punched hurts even with gloves on and this can be discouraging. Gloves don't point to a dojo being a McDojo, but to a consideration of safety and newer students.

First off, welcome to KF! It is true that weight training slows you down due to the added weight in muscle you're putting on. However, this perspective comes from people who weight train without working to much on speed. If you want strength while speed in exercises geared towards karate I can make a few suggestions. 1: Do your basics in water. The resistance is will help you with both speed and power 2: By weighted wrist and ankle bands and do the basics. This will help you very much in the same way. 3: Work a heavy bag. It's not only fun but it will help with speed. 4: Do the basics. Basics are important and they not only help you get better technique but they also help to develop speed. All this being said, don't over do it. You're a white belt and it's awesome that you want to put this much into your training. This level of commitment is very admirable and I think every Martial Artist should strive for your enthusiasm. What I think the best thing for you to do at the moment is take up that Monday class and enjoy it. Make a light regimen for the in between and as you learn more in your system add more to your additional training. Invariably you will learn additional techniques and kata that are going to demand practice for mastery so leave room in your regimens to practice that. Most importantly, welcome to the world of Martial Arts. I hope that you find as much fun and fulfillment as I did and still do. The path ahead is not an easy one but it is very much worth it.

Webster often doesn't do it for the more technical lingo. Freud gets closer to what we mean by ego. This is to say, the idea that we are so good that we need no further training or critique, there are none better than ourselves. Coming up to the 21st century I think there has been a philosophical/psychological breaking apart of self and ego. Whereas "ego" means "I" in Latin, we no longer think of it in that context. In other words, our language has evolved. When relating ourselves, we much more use the term self, while leaving verbs like "being" to represent some essence of life. This is all to say that when we think of ego we think of a person who is prideful and hurtful to the people their around by being as such. The Maharshi quote I think posit something similar. He seems to be seperating the idea of "self" from the idea of "ego." He seems to be using these terms in a modern kind of way in that he wants to say that ego is bad, while at the same time recognizing self is good.

Agreed.

Isshin-Ryu karate is an Okinawan system and, if I'm not mistaken, hold a lot of the same forms that other Okinawan systems do, the difference being in technique, flow and power. It is considered softer than other Okinawan systems but this is just a technical thing. The vertical punches are called shorinji punches. Matsumura punches being horizontal the should employ both. To warn you, I know some of this second hand and there is a not a little induction going on for my part. If you're curious I would go to which ever school has it and talk to the instructor there, they will be able to answer all your questions and more.

I've never been a fan of heavy weight gis. For starters, the hamper on your conditioning and they also are really terrible when it's hot. At your level I would stick with your light weight gi. When I was a 2 kyu/gup I bought a middle weight gi and I really liked that one. To answer your second question it took me about 5 years.

I agree. Of course, I may be a little biased.

Ego is always a big deal in the MA community. It becomes especially corrosive when an instructor is like this. Regardless of what they teach students will absorb that this is what a Marrial Artist should be like. We constantly adapt to the teacher as a subconscious way to match what their doing. If they have been successful why wouldn't emulating them turn out successful for you? MA will always have big egos and hopefully there will always be someone to check that ego but this isn't always the case when you're running your own gym. This will always be a problem and all we can do is either slam into their dojo with humble guns blazing looking to take of their heads or hope that the students will choose better attitudes and teach our students humbleness and its stark importance in our community.

I'm with you Bushido. I started to take martial arts because I was getting beat up and I needed to be able to successfully defend myself. I took it as self defense and through that understood it as an art and whereas I came to view my doing Karate as an art my primary goal was always to further my knowledge of self defense. I think the author of this book either fails to see this or is trying to sound enlightened and quotable about Martial Arts. It seems to me that he doesn't quite know how to philosophically break apart Martial Arts quite yet.

I spent some time contemplating this and there is room for speculation that the ninja, as they were in their "prime," still by much exist. I remember taking a Bujinkan class and hearing that ninja trained in such a way that any weapon around them would be accessible for use. This is all to say, who's to say that they didn't upgrade the tools of the trade with the times. Instead of swords they use guns. Perhaps we just simply call them assassins instead of ninjas. It seems to me that in a world as hi-tech as ours it wouldn't be too terribly hard to eliminate information about this, especially if one is as crafty as a ninja. Again, this is just some fun speculation. Had a couple days to let my mind wonder on the fact.

To that I would add wisdom.

I'm simply regurgitating some studies that were done over the theory.

I like the approach here. Overcoming obstacles in training is as much a looking back as it is a looking forward moment. Moreover, you recognize the need for knowledge and contemplation within the process and finally add the importance of patience when you say: I feel that a lot of Martial Artists, myself included, have failed at the patience role. We won't so much to ascend to the next level that we (1) don't allow ourselves the enjoyment of the level that we're at and (2) we don't allow ourselves time to heal. Inspirational post.

I find the whole "they're evil" approach odd. First off, there are so many competing opinions about their goodness/evilness. If this article gives anything to that debate however, it's that ninja were widely neutral.

Of course. Martial Artists should know more than most that knowledge is power. We need not only train our bodies but our minds. In the end, it is our ability to think that will make us stand out, not our physical prowess. When it all comes down to an end, we remember the philosophers better than the world champions.

My schools had these for the children's class, although it wasn't pay (to be fair, we weren't charged for regular tested anyway). For my instructor they served two purposes. First, they kept the kids happy in that they knew that they were progressing. Second, it helped my instructor remember which ones were getting closer to the next level, so they acted as a halfway point.

Laughed a little to hard in a public place at that one. That comment is awesome.

My instructor was very overweight, yet he still did all the exercises and demonstrations and was an excellent teacher. Herein lies the deal, as Martial Artists we very much stick to certain workouts because they create muscle memory and good technique. You might notice that most dojos have basic exercises done every class. What this creates is a plateau effect, our bodies get used to doing the same exercises so they stop affecting our bodies in the way that they used to. Suddenly bag test burn less calories and work your muscles as hard as they used to. While there is certainly nothing wrong with this, this routine can affect our bodies in a way that make the pounds stick to us a little harder. Don't judge a book by its cover.

Sometimes it is, that really depends on the instructor. I would just talk to them, but remember that just because they don't approve doesn't mean you don't have to do it. If you think that it will further you in what your do go for it.

You make an interesting point here. Martial arts often teach weapons such as a sword due to tradition, or in my case, because one could not really understand how to defend against a sword until they knew how to use it. I think the interesting point here however, it the correctness. Despite a sword being the easiest thing to emulate from a stick found on the ground in a confrontation, it is starkly differently from handling an actual sword. It causes me to wonder if sword fighting has fallen into the realm of tradition or if there is practical purposes. Face value I would argue for both. One finds that the control over their own bodies increases as you learn to make something an extension of said body.

I name my weapons, always have. There was never a reason, just a sentimental thing. In the long run I respect the weapon more. As humans we grow attached to things we name and therefore attempt to take more care of them. Consequently this is a big reason we name our pets.

When I started the home stretch to my Black Belt I started to pick up a lot of books on Martial Arts philosophy and reflected on that. If you're not a reader, or you simply don't have time to do that or that idea just seems boring to you I would suggest looking back on conflicts that you've had during that particular day and how you solved them. After that, ask yourself if it was the right or wrong solution, and if your journey as a Martial Artist shaped this decision. Part of being a Black Belt is how we handle ourselves in the day to day, regardless of situation. We represent not only the body of Martial Artists, but ourselves. Are you conducting yourself in a way that befits a Black Belt?

Speaking as an often time stressed Husband, Student and expecting Father, I can really relate to this. A beloved teacher once told me that we go to school because that's what makes life after 5 o' clock worth it. At face value this seems like he meant that the jobs our education will get us will give us enough money to go out. What this really meant, I think, is that we'll have the education to actually enjoy what it is that we do on a deeper level. In this sense, you can use the education that you currently have to do this. I would also recommend taking less hours and sitting down a physically writing out a daily schedule for yourself. It's super tedious but it will help you maximize time and once you get use to it the routine become automatic. De-stressing isn't an easy task, but for me it's the little things that help.

Zen is a fascinating concept that Western minds often have trouble wrapping fully around. One of those things lost in translation. Western philosophers have always paralleled this concept of Being differently. We very much want to say that our way is better than this way of Being, which is interesting considering the fact that most followers of Zen will tell you that there are many ways to get to Being and Truth, this is there way and is useful for them and you have your way which is useful for you. When it is useful to use a Western way to get at Being and Truth, a follower of Zen can easily adopt it to explain something or get at what lies underneath the surface of the world. It's fascinating stuff.

I think your umph factor comes from proper technique. When an advance students refine power, it is usually in the realm of technique. Proper technique generates power regardless of brute force behind said technique. The trick to power is how it is distributed throughout the user's body. All techniques have a point in which they generate power first and it all follows into the part of the body making contact. This is where Kung Fu differs slightly from Karate in that they've taken the time to name the different kinds of power generated.