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Do your kata alone. Do all your kata in private, with no one present who may be reviewing or critiquing your movements, when you want to reduce stress and conquer inner fear. This is more effective than ordinary meditation in a stationary posture. You release unwanted excess energy and uncomfortable physical tensions from your body through actual physical workout and bring it to a more tranquil baseline, while at the same time focusing mentally on your techniques as you execute them can re-charge faster your mental energies than just simply randomized, unfocused thinking that often happens in ordinary stationary meditative state. Try it. Gene

I guess when people say martial arts changed their lives for the better, they mean that the training and experiences they have had in martial arts changed their way of thinking, attitudes and coping styles. According to cognitive psychologists, what your beliefs are so will be the way you act. You changed yourself due to a change of your thinking and your thinking changed because of your martial arts experience. We may be splitting hairs here, but from the epistemological point of view, one's martial arts exposure do indeed change people by changing their way of thinking. So, in this sense, people are still correct when they say their martial arts training changed them for the better. But, is this objectively and validly true? Or, it is just a personal, subjective and biased experience? Current psychological researches reveal some initial positive findings in the area of self-concept, self-esteem, self-efficacy/self-confidence, anxiety and aggression, but more confirmatory scientific researches are needed to support such preliminary findings. As far as my own doctoral research on related literature in the US and other countries regarding the effects of karate on personality, no psychological study has claimed global or overall change in personality functioning due to martial arts training, but only on some or a few selected traits that have been scientifically investigated. (For those interested, documentary sources can be cited upon request. You can pm me.)

At our organization, we use the following colors in ascending rank order: White (9th to 7th kyu),Green (6th kyu), Blue (5th kyu), Purple (4th kyu), Brown (3rd to 1st kyu), Black (1st dan and higher)

Unlike in a professional ring fight, you know exactly before hand that your opponent is principally a grappler, not a standup fighter, and had former training on ground fighting, so your fight strategy is well-defined from the very start. In the streetfight example I gave, the defender doesn't have any idea before hand if the attacker is a grappler and not a stand up fighter. However, when his opponent goes on a tackling stance and attacks, he has only a split second to determine that he is dealing with a grappler. Since he is not experienced and skilled in grappling defense, the stand up fighter must aim to knock down or knock out the attacker through mid-range techniques like punching, striking, kicking and sweeping before the latter can clinch or grapple any part of his anatomy. Failing to do this, his chances of surviving the grappling attack become dimmer. Unlike in a professional fight on the ring where attacks to vital parts like eyes, throat and groin are disallowed or banned, this is not so in a streetfight and must be the primary targets of the standup streetfighter, inexperienced in grappling defense. The standup fighter's chances of defeating a grappler on the street depends precisely on how successful he is in attacking those vital parts to stop the grappler from taking him down to the ground and disable him first at mid-range. I take the view that in a streetfight where there are no rules and no ban on body targets, a grappler will not necessarily or likely to be at a greater advantage than a standup fighter. A standup fighter knows that his success depends on his long- and mid-range effectiveness and knowledge of vital points, keeping distance and avoidance of a body hold and preventing a takedown. If he knows his weapon well as against that of the grappler, he can effectively use it against the latter. I'm not ready to admit karate being an inferior martial art nor believe that a street grappler is superior to me yet, but I won't fight a professional grappler or BJJ in the ring. Gene

How many people have you KOed? Paralized? This is a very hard thing to do on even a moderate level fighter. Relying on the chance that you will KO someone in one shot is like planning your life based on the fact that you will win next weeks lottery. I have knocked out a grappler, but he was not a professional grappler-fighter at all and I'm neither a professional striker. Ordinary street people fighting, the two of us, just amateurs. So, anecdotally speaking, I wasn't talking through my hat. Professional fighters who fight in the ring are a different breed. They are conditioned and hard. It takes more than one blow or strike to knock them out, though one can get knocked down in the first minute of the fight, if a really solid punch hits a relaxed jaw. Probably, in professional fighting, grapplers will have the upper hand. But when it comes to real street fighting, it may not be the same. Streetfights are usually engaged in by people who are not conditioned to fight through several rounds, like professional ring prize fighters. Now, let me just paint this action scenario you could do: After creating an instant distraction or diversion like throwing down your watch to the ground (or anything that can catch attention) with your left hand and then hitting the nose of the would-be grappler-attacker with a right heel-of-the-palm strike (as set up for a more lethal strike), followed with a solid left foreknuckle blow to the throat or Adam's apple, doubled by a whiplash clap on both ears and then an almost simultaneous front kick to the testicles and two-finger (nukite) strike to the eyes will make a copycat, amateur, professionally untrained "grappler" in the street end his career right then and there. Your successful mid-range lethal strikes against vital parts of the body, which are banned in professional ring fights, but legit on the streets as self-defense against criminal attacks, will preclude not only the chances of the would-be-grappler getting hold of your legs or any part of your body as base to tackling you down, but probably render him out of commission for weeks or permanently so. This may look like a choreographed fictional scene from a movie, but this script is fortunately based on a true action account narrated by one of our BBs who engaged a "grappling" thug much larger than he is in the streets of Manila. Gene

Historically, the JKA which is one of the biggest karate organizations in the world has had its share of bad politics. At JKA Phils.-PTKF, we have our own share of dissensions, desertions and political conflicts through the years, but I would not find it right to wash our dirty linens here nor in any public forum. As for me, I stuck it out with the first commissioned JKA instructor, Sasaki Sensei, who was sent by Nakayama Sensei to teach JKA karate in the Philippines in 1965, come hell or high water. I have already retired from group practice and training 2 years ago with the rank of sandan, but I have remained an officer of our organization. (BTW, we have only 2 yondan so far, the highest rank a JKA Phils.-PTKF member has attained) There is no "official" bunkai for the JKA kata, sorry to say, at least in our JKA Phils. In fact, not much bunkai or oyo practice has been regularly taught or done in our dojos. Our organization is basically sports-oriented, not really SD oriented. That was my frustration too, I have to admit. I learned and mastered my kata bunkai on my own through personal and independent research and though late in the day, I'm still trying to work out a few applications. Better late than never, I often tell myself. I'm now an old fart of 55 years. Yes, I can definitely relate to your sentiments and the thread you started. I have felt and still feel what you feel about Shotokan karate. But, you are still young I believe and you have a long way to go. So, find the right road now and reach a better destination than I did. To be aboveboard, I must say I have always been SD-oriented than sports-oriented. But, in my country, there's not much martial arts choice to select from, and in my experience, JKA Shotokan karate still remains to this day as the next best thing to SD. That would be nice indeed. You have my best wishes. Gene Mata JKA Phils.-PTKF http://www.lampcc.com

I have read the whole clip here and so many people have helpful views to share. I have practiced JKA Shotokan for 38 years. In my limited experience, I know Shotokan have forked into two major roads: sports and traditional SD. Most schools have travelled the sports route and many who went this way have realized that in the end their Shotokan karate has been defanged, enmasculated and become mere entertainment. In both sports and SD Shotokan karate, the kihon practice remained more or less fundamentally similar in training. However, in kata, sports Shotokan has emphasized mainly or exclusively solo kata, where these formal exercises are done by oneself or in unison with others, but demonstrates fighting only imagined and not real opponents. On the other hand, SD Shotokan karate, which is a minority group in the Shotokan world, has insisted on bunkai and oyo training, practising these formal kata with actual opponents, advancing training from cooperative to uncooperative or free-styled training partners. Finally in kumite, sports Shotokan engages in non-contact tournament sparring or what is derisively known as "tagging" competition. On the other hand, SD Shotokan karate, also a very small minority, practices full-contact sparring rather games of tag. So, Jion, if you want to actualize or upgrade your Shotokan training to a much higher level, without abandoning or corrupting your Shotokan style, (which I presume you love above all else like yours truly) by grafting or creating a hybrid style with other karate or martial arts styles, then you should go the SD Shotokan route, rather than the sports route. Your choice, buddy. Shotokan karate offers both possibilities of skill development. You need not be limited by your own formal training, if it taught you only the sports type. You can plan and manage your training henceforth to achieve what you want to achieve with your karate. Find the right Shotokan karate school that teaches SD rather than sports. If you don't find one and you are already a Shotokan blackbelt, create your own training group with your BBs friends. If you are not a Shotokan shodan, you may want to finish it first and then go on your own training for further self-development. The practice of and training in karate ends only when life ends, IMO. In the end, it is not the dojo, karate school, karate style, nor the instructor or organization that will make you the karateka you want to be, it's how you make your karate work for you.

You've got a good fighter for an opponent. Study this bluebelt style. He might teach you a better lesson in fighting than the BBs in your dojo. So many have given good advices. Let me just highlight the good ones and add a few of my own: 1. Side step and then counter. Do diagonal and circular fighting rather than linear ones. Don't insist on backpedalling. He'll surely get you on the long haul. If you wish to risk a little or are brave enough to do so, step forward in to block as he steps forward to attack and then counter. This will be a surprise move and can work to your advance a few times. 2. If you have to back pedal, practice punching or kicking as you step back, e.g. reverse punch while moving backward or step back foot and then do front kick with that same foot. 3. Learn to sweep his foot as he steps forward. If your timing is right, he will lose his balance and that would be your chance to counter as he goes down. 4. Practice "modified" kumite blocking techniques as much and as frequently as the full-blown version (kata or traditional kihon style) during kihon self-practice. Instead of practising the full-blown blocking from hikite position on the hip for the upward or downward blocks for example, practice the modified version of "on-sternum (chest) hikite" position. They are much faster and travel a shorter route to block on-coming punches, strikes and kicks. You will usually fight as you habitually practice, rather than as you intend to, during sparring or actual fight. 5. Train not to fear being hit, in that way you don't need to be backpedalling or running away from an attack in panic as you are attacked. In other words, train to be hit now and then. Gene

If the fight situation is simply a quarrel or misunderstanding of sorts, I would fight defensively, posibbly employing strong blocks and evasion strategies, at the same time admonishing the woman-aggressor to stop attacking. If this doesn't stop her from attacking, I would grapple and try to hold her while trying to pacify. Yet, if this doesn't do the trick, a strong slap on the face or a heel strike on the nose might work and then escalate progressively the lethality of my counters proportionate to the difficulty of controlling her aggression. As a matter of fight principle with a woman in my culture, men don't fight women. If they do, they have to fight to control and not to hurt or kill. I would not normally expect a hold-upper with a gun or knife to be a woman, unless she is with a criminal group. If this is so, then I will treat her as any other male attacker. If it is a hold-up, let her get my possession. If my life or those of my loved ones is the objective, my (our) first option is to escape (always with my loved ones, of course), but as last resort I will fight to the death if I or we are cornered. Gene

Two years ago, I have retired from group karate practice as sandan since I started karate 38 years ago. Since then I have practiced daily solo at my "private" dojo at home. In every session, I see to it that I do at least 5 different kata in addition to my regular kihon and "solo" kumite practice, and doing the rounds of the 26 JKA kata in the week, all in about an hour's daily workout. While kihon practice my be equally intense physically, it doesn't have the psychological effect of providing the practitioner the same deep sense of having accomplished something meaningful. A kata reveals a sort of a short but complete fight story with a particular fight setting that demands a unique or select repertoire of defense and attack maneuvers, sometimes involving weapons, against multiple assailants. Doing kata is not only a good physical workout like kihon, but a fulfilling completely meaningful psychological exercise with therapeutic benefits for the practitioner. Gene

If I have to choose from among the living, for training in kata, it would be Asai Sensei and for training in kumite, Tanaka Sensei. Gene

Hey John, Gene, Angela et al. How are you all doing Jane Fine, Jane. Just vacationing and practicing my kihon and kata outside of the dojo...on the road, lawn, river, beach, under the sun and the rain, in the dark too... quite a revealing experience actually. Hope you're finding your vacation outside of your home country refreshing. In about a month, everything should go back to the way it was for me. Gene

If you are fighting a skilled grappler, this will not work. Not unless you got a lot of luck on your side and he is very sloppy... If you want to stop leg shoots you have to learn how to sprawl, no way around that. No other solution will work, and even with that you will still get taken down. If you are serious about learning to stay on your feet find a wrestling club. But as you are taking karate, I'm just guessing that MMA fighting is not your main priority, so why is this one particular threat such a problem? Pitting a skilled grappler against a skilled striker/kicker cannot be predicted accurately as to who will win. Extraneous variables are simply too many to control in order to predict reliably. Hypothetically however, IMO, if the latter can deal a knockout blow or paralyzing strike first before the grappler who is not skilled in mid-range fighting can get a firm hold on the former, he will win. Otherwise, failing to dominate prior to being grappled, the striker/kicker with no grappling skill would likely lose. Gene

Many karate people are resilient, adaptable and resourceful indeed. But, perhaps they are simply obsessed with karate and enjoy it in all its forms and in every ground they find their feet on. But being with familiar friends makes me nostalgic always Gene

Hi, John! Gene

This is correct. May I just add that you should not exhale all of your breath during execution of the punch. Always retain about a fourth of your inhaled breath while punching. This will give you the necessary baseline or platform to mount your next punch, strike or kick as you inhale to add to it before doing so, in case you intend to deliver multiple strikes. Also, by doing so, you may retaine the needed basic compression to absorb any blow to the body in case you get hit after your first strike or punch. If you get hit in the stomach when all of your breath is exhaled, you are likely to black out cold. Gene

As training exercises, the kata are useful in learning how one can defend himself in an actual streetfight. They teach you alternative attack through the use of the hands, elbows and feet and defense moves such as blocking, parrying and evasion from the genius and fight experiences of the ancient masters who wove them together into classical formal exercises. Kata may be generally classified as solo and bunkai/oyo. In solo kata, one does the exercises against imagined opponent(s), while in bunkai kata, one does it with an actual partner. From kihon to solo kata, from solo kata to kata bunkai, and from kata bunkai to jiyu kumite, one can progressively train to fight a real streetfight. Karate training is not the same as actual street fighting. But, the closer one's karate training in the dojo simulates actual streetfighting, the better the preparation one will have for the real thing. Unfortunately, the only way to become an expert streetfighter is to have actual fight experience in the streets. Gene

Hi, Angela! Glad to know you are already here. Gene

Be sure your fighting stance is low, knees bent . Try to evade being held by the legs. But, if he does catches your legs, use gedan empi (downward elbow strike) to hit the back of his neck before or when he makes contact to free yourself. If you are able to evade being held by the legs, step back and execute a strong mae geri (front kick) to any part of his face and then use your elbow for a follow-up downward strike. It would be helpful if you know some basic ground fighting techniques, in case you are tackled to the ground, otherwise you are a gonner. Nevertheless, whether you have learned effective ground fighting or not, keep on hitting him in every vital area open (throat, eyes, nose, balls) while you are on the ground. Of course, this is done only in a real streetfight, not in sports.