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Well, I figured that I could either let my 6 year old with a play knife have some fun, or I could have blocked it, broke his arm, threw him to the ground and choked him out. I didn't think my ex-wife would appreciate the latter so I decided to let him play... lol. You are a good dad, Joe. Who knows, someday your son may play toy knife with Old Fart-you, but don't worry he will let you have some fun too. That's how an aging Sensei is often treated in a friendly sparring match by his able-bodied, young and fearless blackbelt students. Some make good "sons" too even in the dojo

How about demonstrating your awesome karate skills by breaking a dozen boards which have been pre-cut and lightly glued to look unbroken before you slice them with your shuto uchi (knife hand)?

Try hot compress and Ben Gay for temporary relief, or if the pain gets to be more uncomfortable take also an analgesic. But, please see the doctor as soon as possible for your peace of mind and more reliable path to a life without pain.

Me, I had plantar fasciitis on both feet a few years back for practising on cement-tiled floors. My doctor advised me to lay off doing karate until it is resolved somehow. Against doctor's advise, I continued doing my daily karate workout and insisted on doing it on cement-tiled floors. But, instead of doing my karate barefoot as I'm used to doing for years and years of practice, I decided to wear soft sandals, so as hopefully not to aggravate the ailment. I also had to stop wearing leather shoes for work and going out, and instead wore only light weight shoes with soft-rubber soles (Florsheim brand). The chronic and recurring pain lasted for about a year. Then, without medication or surgery, both plastar fasciitis were gone and never recurred since. I'm happy I never stopped practicing my karate then and when the pain was gone, I went back to barefoot karate practice and I'm still at it and see no reason for stopping. I'm now 55 years old and suffer many more physical ailments, but that's another story. I wish you the same luck and full recovery

I suspect girls in general have more flexibility, as in doing a leg split, than boys, but there are exceptions based on my personal observations. Maybe someone can come up with statitical measurements or figures involving larger samples, possibly with corresponding documentation, on the issue of comparative physical flexibility between the sexes.

Do you think persons who can do a full split on the floor when stretching can kick higher and stronger than those who can't do such a split? I'm asking this question to find out if what I have observed in our dojo a few years back has any confirmation here. You see, we had a purplebelt 6'2'' German expat weighing more than 210 pounds who could do a full split on the floor effortlessly to the envy of everyone including a 3rd dan like me, but who can kick only as high as the level of his jewels and Mr. Happy.

Hi, Jon! Yup, Tokaido gis and black belts, to me, are the best quality any discriminating and probably winningest karateka can ever have.

When it comes to attaining excellent fighting efficiency, the best combination is not a sound mind and a sound body, but (1) a sounder mind and a sound body. This translates into superior fighting skills and experience which the mind must be in control as well as the mind set to win against all odds and a well-conditioned body to carry out its commands. Undesirable combinations are the following: sound mind and weak body, sound body and weak mind, a weak mind and a weak body. But the worse of all combinations is a weaker mind and a weak body.

Care to be more specific on what you consider to be "semantics" that is being tripped up, WW?

As to an x-block being a strong block, I must agree. Two wrists or arms are stronger than one. As to its being horrible to use, that's pretty controversial. One major disadvantage is that you tie up both your arms for the defense, instead of only one and having the other free for immediate or simultaneous counter, and the only weapons obviously available for you to use during the moment of x-blocking is the use of your feet. However, the x-block also has significant uses for defense in a certain limited number of fight situations and should not to be totally discarded as an ineffective defense tool.

The Japanese term for X-block is juji uke. It is originally intended to be the uke that it really is (meaning block) and not as an uchi (meaning strike). As a blocking technique, therefore, there is no reason why the x-block can't be an effective block, with the same as or even more reliable sturdiness than an augmented block. Personally, I cannot accept the somewhat "wild" bunkai interpretation of some so-called bunkai experts on Heian 4 and 5 wherein they insist that it is an uchi or strike to the neck or something and not a block to an attacking limb. In JKA Shotokan, such a technique has always been designated as "uke" and not "uchi" in these Heian kata. But, of course, anyone can always interpret or misinterpret it that way if they want to, it's a free country In the x-block, the two arms need not crunch into each other. This would happen if, instead of blocking, you are striking with it. Then the force of the top wrist will exert on the bottom wrist and crunch the latter, if the force being blocked is a harder, more inelastic object or body part. However, in the correct use of an x-block, the force of the downward attacking arm (or to a large extent the upward kicking leg of the opponent) should be equally met with the proper angle created by the two crossing wrists so the impact force is distributed more or less equally both wrists and not only one. The top wrist is not supposed to exert force only on the inner wrist, but both wrists should more or less exert equal force in meeting the attacking limb. Further when using the x-block, one must block as the attacker's limb is just beginning on its attack trajectory, if possible closer to the root/take off point, so less force is absorbed as the attacking limb is just beginning to accelerate and has not yet reached its maximum speed. That means one should preferably move or step in closer to the attacker and not move or step back to execute an x-block as the attack comes in.

I too have continued self-training after reaching my sandan and intend to do so now that I have retired. That is true, if you have a comprehensive and firm grounding on or mastery of the basics of your chosen art, you can practice and learn on your own and even improve upon the traditional style that you have been formally taught. In fact, in my organization, what are formally taught are the Heian, Tekki and 2 advanced kata only, the other 16 advanced kata (to complete the prescribed 26 JKA kata) you will have to learn on your own, which I did and which my Sensei has seen and approved of. Since I have stopped my formal training in the dojo, I have discovered through personal research, field experimentation and correspondence with other practitioners some better ways of defense and attack modified from my formally learned style that I intend to practice continually for self-defense on the streets when the occasion demands it. Learning in martial arts never stops and in the final analysis the most dependable and efficient kind is indeed learning on your own or self-learning, but only after the basics are mastered with the help of an expert, qualified Sensei to teach and check on you.

In a traditional karate organization where the average time for reaching blackbelt level from white belt is about 4 years at regular training of 2 to 3 sessions per week (2 hrs. per session), the number of blackbelts probably would not exceed 20% of total members. If this number is exceeded, either standards have been greatly downgraded and grading requirements relaxed or the organization itself is dying such that the rate of incoming members has dangerously has been reduced and attrition is now greater than retention.

I have an unverified, perhaps baseless bias that as there are dojo operators or owners so are the claims of different styles they practice. There's no legal prohibition for one to claim he has originated or developed a new style of karate or form of martial arts and to put up his own school for as long as he gets a license to operate it, but I'm really bothered by the proliferation of fakes, charlatans and scam artists who prey on the martial arts ignorance of the public. Do you have any laws in your country that control this growing menace? I only wish that the uninitiated public who want to learn real and true martial arts feel the need to check out the credentials of these scam artists and pretenders that now pollute the martial arts world before biting the hook.

So, Joe, you failed to defend yourself from your son despite your multiple rank. Lucky for you, it was just a toy knife. That means I've got to be more serious in my knife defense training too despite my more than 3 decades of karate play because I could not say to my young son who hit me with a knife in practice: "Son, you attacked wrong, ok?"

So, I take it that modern Japanese karate training has become less stringent and harsh as shown by "allowing water breaks and people to go to their own pace". This, of course, implies that previously or in the past, this was not traditional practice. Have the quality of their karate also changed with this apparent trend towards less spartan-type of training that many expats in the past who trained in the JKA Honbu and other traditional karate dojos there used to boast about, which according to them separated them from those who trained outside of Japan? What do you and others say?

You signature quote is the one that really interests me, SM. How do you define or how can one qualify as a "great fighter" in your view? You mentioned that "as martial artists, we must stand ready to fight, even if hoping that such conflict never comes." Would this be then the one important trait, in your view, that distinguishes a great fighter from one who is not, namely "being ready to fight"? Or, would you like to re-formulate or re-state in view of my query? I would like to be clear on your point before I give my 2-cents opinion.

Uke, in Japanese, literally translates "receive". This is its etymological meaning. Its conventional and common usage meaning is "block". I don't see any contradiction or it being a misnomer here because in truth we actually receive or meet or get into actual physical contact with the attacking limb at some point in uke, but the objective in doing so is to deflect, re-direct or move away the attacking limb from its intended line of attack and target. Good explanation. In other words, what differentiate blocks is mainly their vector or directional orientation. Blocks can also be distinguished generally as to whether you are using hand/arm or foot/leg. With hand blocks, these can be further distinguished as open hand (edge, back or heel, etc.) or closed fist types. Also, blocking movements can either be sweeping, cutting, striking, pushing, pressing, etc. These classifications are not intended to be exhaustive, but merely illustrative. Anyway, what is important is that they are all classified as "blocks" because they deflect, redirect and move away the attacking limb from its original intended line of attack or target.

I disagree. I would still much rather prefer to have good sound foundations (principles) burned into my muscle memory, rather than a "technique". Only techniques are burned into muscle memory and not principles. Muscles repeat exact and specific motions or movements and not "principles" unfortunately, since muscle memory is defined as body's ability to memorize, or perform automatically, a well rehearsed motion. There are no core principles that are used in "everything we do". If there are, they must be presented and convincingly demonstrated to work for all situations. The reason why a technique may not work under pressure despite some practice done on it is because it has not become instinctive, second-nature or automatic in response to a defined attack. Maybe. There are a lot of reasons why a technique may not work, but I doubt whether a general principle deliberately thought of and applied under time pressure and stress will even work as fast and efficiently as a habitual, well-practiced and almost automatic specific response. Unfortunately only individual specific or class-specific techniques can be drilled and memorized, not abstract principles, for effective almost instinctive, automatic application to fight situations. Principles are useful only in understanding and learning new techniques or learning them for the first time. I don't want to appear challenging, but could you please identify and explain what the core principle is in all those different blocks you mentioned? Knowing and understanding this one principle, if there is one, is not suffficient or critical for fighting efficiency. But, repetitive and masterful practice of these specific basic blocks will go a long way to make you defend yourself efficiently under unpredictable fight conditions. Instinctive action means you don't consciously think of what you are doing. What happens is that you already have done it before you become conscious of doing it. That's the kind of efficient fight reaction we need to train in a fighter. We muscle-train specific and group or combination techniques that have wide applicability and not abstract principle application in actual combat situations. Understanding of principles of combat are needed only at the learning stage of these techniques, but mastering them to the point of instinct and automatic action depends on repetitive practice without conscious thoughts.

To me, my black belt is priceless because it was achieved with much sacrifice, hard practice, great risk and costs. After 4 years of tireless regular practice in the dojo, demonstrating basic mastery of kihon and kata form and surviving a gauntlet full-contact 5-minute kumite with each of 7 blackbelts in an uninterrrupted sequence during my shodan exam, my black belt has become a prize like no other. It'll always remind me that in karate once I did what I thought was not possible for me to achieve, and given similar challenges in life, I'm sure I can do them as well. Such is the proof that my black belt will always be a silent witness of.

Always fight not to lose during the competition, and think of the next competition in case you lose.

One of the best books written about Shotokan karate training, particularly useful for beginners and intermediate students, I recommend "Karate-The Japanese Way" by Mark Groenewold. You will find reading this book written in easy, conversational style highly informative as well as interesting. Check it out.

If your style is Shotokan karate, most likely Heian 1, 2 up to 3. But there's no standard for all shotokan schools. Like what everyone has commented or advised, ask your Sensei or sempai.

Understanding the principle behind specific fighting techniques is fine and critical indeed when learning them because you will be able to generalize them to a greater number of fight situations you may encounter. However, more critical than understanding of principles needed in learning techniques effectively is mastering through repetitive practice a few basic techniques that have wide applicability in combat situations to the point of making them almost instinctive, automatic and second-nature without the need for conscious thought or problem-solving. Deliberate problem-solving or thinking and conscious specification of general principles of fighting while in the heat of a fight can take too much time and will unduly delay your effective attack-defense reaction.

Hi, Tommy! Looks like you got another belt here to your credit, buddy. Is that a black belt that has worn out until it's white? I Guess not, my new belt seems to symbolize newness or beginner status! Tommy I'm afraid, although you are a master many times over, you are learning a new style here and must wear the beginner's color. Regards