Zaine

Lol indeed it will.

If you desire to have one go up the chain of command for your system. You might have to prove yourself once again but it would be worth it if it is something you desire to have. It would be required if you wanted to be recognized in the hierarchy of your system. However, start teaching now while you're waiting, it's not until black belt students come along that having a certificate would become as useful as it could be, although throughout the training it does have it's many uses.

I am patient, and the style of Shorin Ryu I got to learn was traditional, and I fell in love with traditional karate through him and he was never hesitant to tell us that the way he taught us a use for a technique was just one way, and that there was a plethora of other ways that were just as effective, but this was the way we did it. I have trusted whole heartily every instructor that I have had, because I chose the right ones. Every single one had the trust in me to confide where every kata was going and where every technique fit. A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing, but in my opinion lack of it has the potential to be infinitely worse.

You'll have to excuse me if I find no respect for the people who claim that there way is the "true way" to do things. There are many ways to do things, it's one of the things that I love about martial arts. Luckily for us, for every stubborn master there is an open-minded one.

I find that Naihanchi changes it's meaning from system to system. None of them are wrong, to be certain, but don't tell stubborn masters that. The Naihanchi I learned, for instance, was to be take as you were backed against a wall, slowly fighting your way forward, and where as there was grappling, it was not predominately a grappling kata.

You'd be covering a lot if you went over defense from a standing grab. Whether it be choke, headlock, grabbing the wrist or anything else you can think of. Muggers like to feel dominant in situations against women, what better way to do that than grabbing them?

I can't even begin to tell you how many times my teacher would say "What did I tell you that move was? Oh, it's also this." I have a deep love for these katas because not only are they beautiful, but the knowledge that they trapped inside them are seemingly limitless, I like the pinans for the same reason. I remember a another student telling me that the naihanchis had not practical application once, and later in the class we sparred. Needless to say that I believe that I did a good job in demonstrating many of the finer point of it's bunkai to him.

It would actually make an excellent grappling kata. Right out the gate it would be a break, grab and elbow to the face. Reload to throw them off balance and the throw them over to your left as you punch their face. Side step as you stomp on their face, block, double block, punch, throw them to your left. It's not exactly how I imagine it works while going through it but it certainly could work beautifully that way.

It's all about what your body can handle. I work out six days a week, regardless of whether or not martial arts is part of the work out. All of the work outs I do are intense enough for them to count, and I always feel great after. Every workout for me is pretty intense, and I don't usually go for high intensity unless I'm trying a new work out, and then generally that is going to be of a higher intensity because it's different and my body isn't used to the kind of things that I am doing. I would say start at a high intensity one or two times a week until you can do more. Once you get to the point where what you're doing isn't pushing you as hard as it was, move on to another kind of work out so as to not plateau and reach a stagnant point in your exercises.

To each his own I guess. This is just about personal preference and I've seen good and bad black belts come out of both ways.

My pleasure

I actually have a knife, but I can't ever see it being used. I can certainly maim somebody without any weapons and my first reaction is never to reach for my pocket. I keep it on me for two reasons: (1) it's a pretty cool looking knife and (2) if it's a situation in which I would prefer to scare away an opponent rather than face them (i.e. they keep getting back up or someone else, say a friend, is also with me and they're at risk as well). I hate pepper spray as well though. It really does taint the air around you, and there are varying laws on carrying it, so a knife is just easier.

It's not elaborate. I study before I check schools out. When I say that I literally mean the techniques of the system and whether or not they seem to be doing them correctly. Other than that I look for teaching techniques.

I have to agree with you, part of being a martial artist for me is being humble. Buying your belt before your test just assumes too much and if I figured out a student did that I don't think that I would pass them.

Like a hot knife through butter!

This is actually fairly common thing. I had to do one, although I can't remember the page requirement. I actually like this requirement because taking a martial art is a journey, and it does change your life. Being a black belt is also a responsibility, and not something to be taken lightly. It not only speaks to what you've accomplished, but you become a representative of the school, it takes maturity to be a black belt and the instructor needs to make sure that you can handle it, and that this journey has actually made some sort of impact on your life. Good luck at your test, it's a big one.

Make sure you're warming up fully, and by this I don't mean just static stretching. Make sure you're loosening up those hips, along with everything else. The best way to do this pretty effectively is a good 5 minute jog, just to get everything moving after a good stretch. After that it becomes a cycle of rinse and repeat. Repetition, repetition and more repetition. Also, look up some stuff online for warming up you're hip in particular for when you're practicing your kicks. Warming up fully before any work out is uber important and I cannot stress that enough, and it's not only static stretches like the ones you do when stretching legs. Always remember that a 5 minute walk will always get you more warmed up than static stretching ever will.

In life. I was never so out of whack in my training then when my life got chaotic. Martial arts is honestly part of an enlightenment, and it's hard to focus on where you're going as a martial artist if you can't manage your life outside the dojo. In this sense the instructor also becomes the therapist, not only do they need to be able to recognize a student who is struggling personally, but be strong enough to talk it out and suggest that they take some time off to get their affairs in order. The truth is that if you come into class angry you're going to end up hurting someone trying to take out their aggression, and while martial arts can be a great outlet, it should be through solo training, and not sparring (doing kata always helps me when I'm stressed or angry, it helps me focus). Everything has a balance to it, whether it be a basic jab to a tornado kick (if your system incorporates those). Proper balance is as essential to any martial art technique as going to class to learn it. This is one of the many reasons why kung fu has such hard stances, so that you create a foundation as such that you will no be moved. Intensely, but I think asking how foundation affects one's balance would be a better question. Without a solid foundation there is no balance. It's always our fault. As my quote says: 70% of martial arts is solo training, and this includes balance. It is not the teachers responsibility to make you balanced, it's their job to harp on you until you become so. Any lack of balance or sloppiness in technique comes from an unwillingness to put in the time. Martial arts takes dedication, and if you don't have that all it becomes is a pretty good work out 2-3 times a week.

It is sad that people do this though, but you can't blame someone for not knowing any better. If more people did some research on what a good school is and tried to find a school that was going to teach them self defense and drill the correct things and how to be humble we wouldn't have the negative that martial arts has now. Not that sports karate isn't bad. It is a great exercise and there are clubs out there who teach both sides, but being the traditionalist that I am it does irk me when in a sparring match I see someone do a double gainer.

Excellent video for getting in the importance of a good chamber!

Fair enough, but the problem with that is that you have to be careful about pigeon-holing yourself. That is to say, sometimes with one-steps we do them so much that it's hard to imagine any other way to defend against the thing that we've drilled a certain move for, and when they effectively counter that move, we become stuck because that's not part of the training, and that's why I like katas so much because once I know the kata inside and out I have a new set of moves that I know will work against his jab, his counter to my counter and so on.

Make sure you're chambering properly. A big mistake a lot of practitioners make is that in their roundhouse there is no chamber, but in every other kick there is a chamber. Make sure you're bringing up the chamber before you extend, and the re-chamber before you put the foot down. If you can find an instructional video or even a youtube video of "Superfoot" Bob Wallace that could really help you.

If it works it works. A system doesn't need katas to be a good system, look at krav maga for example, an excellent and very deadly system and it doesn't have katas. That being said, I personally believe that katas are worth it because they work for me, but this is just a preference. In the end it's gonna be about what works for you the best. If that works for you the best then do that, if it doesn't then try something else out until you find the best way for you to drill it in successfully. I don't know if Bruce Lee said that, but I do know that it is in an excellent book called "The Book of Five Rings" and Musashi isn't talking about kata, he's talking about fighting. The full quote is "Learning how to fight without fighting is like learning how to swim on land." I'm sure Bruce Lee wasn't to ecstatic about kata, since it generally doesn't show up in JKD, but he certainly would have know a plethora of them and he probably saw the advantages of knowing them, he was pretty smart.

Well I suppose that explains it then!

I've really never known either of those systems to be all that graceful, beautiful absolutely, but the Shorin Ryu I took was all about the quickest way from point a to point b. It was brutal, short and extremely effective if used correctly (all martial arts generally are, so that's not saying much). I'm curious as to the particular style you took, maybe that could shed some light on the differences of our systems.