weaponless

I just used one in my last kumite. After planting several side kicks into his gut, he turned sideways to avoid the sidekick so the next time I started out the same way and when he turned to avoid the side kick, he was shocked to find that he turned his body right into the reverse roundhouse. Unfortunately he dipped a little at the same time and instead of hitting him in the upper chest, I hit him in the head, and gota talking down from the sensei as we weren't supposed to make head contact. So yes it can be effective. As for help with the execution, I'm not sure what your problem is, so I don't know if I can help you. For me, I find it easier to do than alot of other kicks. For me, it's an easier kick than a normal roundhouse.

Short answer..... not a chance. Eight months is nothing in Karate; however, eight months is more than enough time to get hooked . It also depends on the individual how far you can go in eight months. For some people, in the first eight months, they're still struggling with the more basic stances, while someone else might be doing spinning flying kicks. But no one can master karate in such a short time. But you should have an idea on whether you like it, for some, it will already have become a part of their daily routine. Karate is a life-long journey, so don't be rushing through it or you might miss the point. Eight months of training in Japan though will be a great experience for you and will definitely be worth it, and when you return, you can always continue your training at a school where you live. By then, you should have a grasp on some of the basics, which will be your foundation. Work your basics over and over and you'll be fine. I like how Mas Oyama put it.... Kihon (basics) is like the letters of the alphabet. The kata are like words or sentences. Kumite (sparring) is like a conversation. Your first eight months will basically be you learning the letters of the alphabet. Don't worry, it won't be boring like taking 8 months to learn your ABC's, lol. Welcome to the world of Karate... I know that you'll love it. Tell us all about your experiences when you get back from Japan.... I for one would be interested in how the beginner in Karate is taught in Japan.

White Yellow Orange Green Blue Brown Black There are a couple extra belt levels for the kids though. For my jujitsu, which isn't the same organization, there's only white, green, brown, and black. And, of course, there are more dan levels.

One exercise that I find is really goood for my balance is to stand with your feet shoulder width apart. Lift up one leg (knee bent) until you can grab the bottom of your foot. Now, without letting go of your foot, starighten your leg and bring it out to the side and hold it there for several seconds or more, or until you start losing your balance. Now, alot of people try it when I show them, and alot of them say after failing at first that they can't do it, because they're too tall or their arms aren't long enough or whatever. That isn't the case.... I learned it from a guy who was 6'6". If you find that you can't hold on to your foot as your leg straightens, it is only because you aren't getting your knee up high enough. Your knee has to get up there high or you won't be able to straighten your leg and not break contact with your foot. This is the other advantage of this exercise. It helps teach you to get that knee up there, which I don't have to explain is important in Karate. So it helps with keeping those knees up, is great for building and mantaining balance, and by bringing your leg out to the side, you get a nice little stretch out of it too. Change legs and repeat!

You will always encounter that. I'm sure there's a no-gi BJJ practicioner that is telling your Judo friend the same thing about her Judo. It's just the way of things, don't worry about it. Her beliefs in Shotokan or his belief in the superiority of Judo is irrelevant to you and your training. A huge part of Karate is the development of the character, not the muscles and fighting prowess, though that is also a part of it as well. There is no one superior style. It doesn't exist. Don't limit your mind in the way that your Judo friend has. Besides, my brother practices BJJ, and he cannot take me down. Now I'm not worried if he ever did as I have a strong background when it comes to ground fighting and he knows that but that's what he knows and he knows full well that he cannot stand with me, the strikes of a grappling art normally can't stand up to a striking art. But I help him with his training... with trying to take down a man that both doesn't want to go down, is hard to take down, and very dangerous on his feet. So I wear foot gear and gloves and he tries to take me down and he put me in a favourable position on the ground....and it stops when I get onto the ground, we get up and do it again.... well he very rarely takes me down. He can't get anywhere near me, and when he does manage to get into close range.... well Goju is geared around in-close combat, and even without using any of my other jujitsu and aikido training, my Karate is combined with Daito-Ryu Aki jitsu, so alot of the time, it is him that gets thrown. I can tell you that he now has great respect for Karate. Meanwhile another Judo or BJJ practicioner could have me on my back and squealing in pain before I knew what was going on.... there is no one unstoppable style, just individuals with calm minds that make their style work for them. A Judo man still has to get in close in order to throw you.... when he gets there, make him pay for it, it's really as simple as that. Try to understand what the Judo person is going to try to do, then you will be prepared to stifle it. Know yourself and know your enemy and you will be victorious in a thousand battles. Judo is a strong discipline, no doubt about that... but don't sell yourself short.... Karate isn't the joke that people may think it is..... they probably have a picture in their minds of Ralph Machismo doing ugly ugly kicks and washing cars, painting fences, doing crane kicks and drum techniques and figure, "WOW! Karate is some kind of Joke!" Let them think how they want. What they think has no impact on your training, on the development of your character, with your personal journey in the martial arts. For one martial artist to insult another martial art....well, maybe he or she just doesn't get it yet, and some people never get it. Some people learn to fight....Learn Karate and you will be able to win the battles in life that have nothing to do with punches, kicks, breaks and takedowns. Somewhere in my Katas, I get lost in them, and in losing myself inside the kata, I find myself....Maybe that doesn't make sense.... but anyway.... Whatever it is that you take away from your training, no one can take from you..... They've tried that before, and we just learned how to use farming tools instead, LOL.

All the best of luck to you. If you are only 14, well then without getting into a silly puberty talk, your body is going to be going through some changes right now.... don't be dejected if it somehow feels that your techniques are getting sloppy. Your still growing into your shoes, so to speak, and sometimes it can be a hard thing thing a young man of your age to be graceful on his feet, so don't feel that you're not cut out for karate anymore if things get tougher for you over the next while. Besides, everyone goes through a phase where it seems to them that they're taking 2 steps back. You are still moving forward.... Just think of it like you're walking backwards for a few steps, you are still heading in the same direction as you always were. Don't let the search for a black belt blind you, it is the journey that karate ( and for that matter life) is all about, not the destination. Honour, integrity, and time....... If doing karate was easy all the time, then everyone would do it and all those cats you saw wearing white belts beside you when you started would all still be there. Being 30, I grew up on Star Wars, and quite frankly, I'm still a junkie ( I build EL and LED lightsabers and everything, LOL), so I'm going to relate a story about Yoda I read in a book once. Yoda was sitting by the river with one of his pupils when the darkness came. There was a latern a few feet behind him, and Yoda reached and reached for that lantern, trying to hook onto the handle with his cane and pull it to him. He tried and tried for several seconds until his student, using the force, levitated the object and it floated into Yoda's hand. As Yoda let out a sigh, his student asked him, "Master, you could have easily brought it right to your hand. Why struggle with it, when you could have done it the easy way?".... Yoda responded by saying, "It was exactly because it was easier that I didn't do it!" Anyway...... May the Force Be With You.... P.S. Killer Miller had some really good advice. I don't know him at all, but in reading through all these different posts since I've been on this site, it is clear he knows what he is talking about... Plus, he's a Shotokan guy too. Osu.

I've found my knee problem has gotten better through karate. Now, I'm not a Shotokan practicioner, but the stances in the Goju that I take has very low and deep stances, so I can relate to having to do low stances. I had a serious knee problem (I turned it over while wrestling with a 200 lb man up on my shoulder years ago). I had problems with everything. A simple hop in the air could buckle my knee, stepping off a stair, anything. When I first started karate, I was constantly worried about my knee and "buckled" it several times early in my training. I wouldn't go to class if I didn't have my brace, I just wouldn't go.... I was too afraid of hurting my knee without it. Then the best thing happened to me.... I lost my brace for a month. So I went to karate anyway, at first very tentatively. Then, after kumite, it occured to me. While I was sparring, I wasn't thinking about my knee at all. And after several side kicks, including a tobi yoko geri, and worry free footwork, it occurred to me that my knee wasn't that much of an issue anymore, at least so long as I didn't make it one. I was told by my sensei when I began training that the karate would be good for my knee, for strengthening it, etc., and I didn't think it would ever happen until I turned around one day and realized that all the kicks and stretches did, in fact, strengthen my knee, and without the worry of hurting it, it doesn't get hurt. I found the brace a month later, but never put it back on again. Now it sits, unused, not needed. My knee is no longer an issue, I won't let it be. One of my peers a long time ago said to me one day when I was worried because I couldn't find my brace right before class ( I found it when I got home) and I was planning to take it easy and was worried about hurting it, said to me when I said I couldn't believe I lost my brace... "Maybe you lost it because you no longer need it." His words ended up being prophetic, as when I would later on lose it for a month.... that was the month that I needed away from the brace in order for me to realize that I really didn't need it anymore, that the karate had made it better. Now I don't know if your knee is starting to act up because of some kind of flawed technique... I can't speak to that. But I can offer up that if the techniques are done right, it should make your knees strong and put you a leg up ( so to speak) on the non-karate practicing population.

What you are saying was what I was trying to say. Thanks for explaining it further. I guess maybe I didn't explain it well, and I agree with you that the point is missed by many. I, personally have never had any problem with hip rotation ( I was taught to box before I hit puberty) so I try to explain it in a way that seems to make most sense... I don't know, maybe it isn't really an explanable thing. Bruce's analogy seems to make perfect sense to me, but I can see your point on how it can be misconstrued and can lead to improper technique based on a poor understanding of the concept. And I really didn't mean that they should be thinking about it when they are doing it, I guess I chose my words poorly. I agree completely that if you have to think about what your doing, you've already lost. I completely understand what you mean when you said, "mentally cutting off the arms, etc.".... it was kind of what I was getting at when I said to practice throwing punches without using your arms at all, letting the hip rotation carry your shoulder to the target, and by default your arm which is attached to the shoulder. I think I just confused things again... Oh well.... Miller, I think you have an idea about what I'm trying to say.

It is an excellent style for in-close fighting, and I find it an excellent compliment to my ju-jitsu. In fact, my Goju is actually taught with Daito Ryu Aki-jitsu. And it is excellent for promoting a strong body. Sanchin training everyday will turn you into a piece of rock. The more you study, the more applications will reveal themselves from the katas. It is an excellent traditional style and is good for personal growth and the development of character. I love the give and take of it all, the marriage of the hard and the soft. It has become a part of me. It is tsune. It is always with me in everything that I do. I enjoy ju-jitsu, I enjoy aikido.... but Goju.... well, that is in every breath that I draw. Best wishes in your training. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a grading in 4 hours so it's kata time for me. Osu.

Practice throwing punches etc., using only hip movement. What I mean by that is don't throw the punch...have your hands in postion, but when you throw the punch, keep your elbows in and just feel the rotation (think of a boxer who warms up and his trunk seems to swing left and right yet his arms don't extend into a punch). Then, slowly start adding the arm movement and before you know it, the hip rotation will be there without you having to think about. On top of this, I have often seen in the dojo that when students are working out certain sequences, etc., and are doing them at half speed, that they simply toss their arms out, that because it's half speed, they throw their punches in a lazy fashion.... When you' re doing the techniques at any speed, do it with the full rotation of the hips. If you half-* it when things are done at a moderate speed, the likeliness of the rotation being absent when done at full tilt is much greater. I like Bruce Lee's idea on this. Think of your centre as the centre of a circle, and when you strike, envision it as tracing the outline of the circle to the target. If you can do this, then your hips are already doing the right thing.

There isn't one way of kicking and everything else is wrong.... that's why there is different styles. Although I have said and will say that there is a great deal of power to be found in a karate style kick, I would also conceed that there is even more power to be found in a Thai style kick. However, such a kick does sacrifice some balance for power. Now I'm obviously not saying that a Thai fighter is off balance all the time, but there are times when a missed Thai roundhouse kick will leave the practicioner spun out of position and slightly off balance, whereas the same is typically not true of the karate roundhouse. Is there less power in the kick, yes... but, more balance. Plus, I feel that it takes alot more work to develop the power of a karate kick, but it is there... waiting for your technique to catch up with your body and once they become one, watch out, it can be thrown fast, hard and with little upset to balance (or as little as can be had standing on one leg).

You want to be careful when trying to learn a kata outside of class from an outside source. Katas are often done slightly different from school to school for different reasons. And though the general idea may be the same (and should be), the differences can be more than enough to cause you problems. I can't even count the number of variations I've seen on the Gekisai katas within different Goju schools. The variations would surely cause a raised eye from your sensei. You don't take a sensei and then learn from a book or an internet video instead. Let yourself learn the katas as they are presented to you, by your sensei, in the right time. He may teach the kata a certain way, with certain nuances and emphasis on certain things and that's the way you'll be expected to perform it. Now, even though you shouldn't be turning left when he's turning right, lol, the little differences are enough to mess things up for you. It is much easier to learn something right the first time than to unlearn something and then re-learn it right. You don't want your mind and body to develop the wrong memory if that makes any sense. I understand your desire to learn new things, but don't rush things, let it come in its own time. Don't rush through the forest to get to the other side, enjoy each tree that you pass. Don't let a final destination blind you from the journey. In Karate, there is no final destination.... Karate is the journey. Enjoy it. Cherish where you are now, and take the extra zeal you have to learn new things and place it into training what you have already learned. You will find that the foundation that you have built will be stronger and when you do learn that kata that you've been eagerly waiting for, it will come to you easier, you'll understand it better and quicker, and your training will progress all the more because of it. The strength of Karate is the perfection of character. You certainly have the zeal and the passion for what your doing which is most important. I am reminded of Yoda..... Keep your mind on where you are now, what you are doing now. Tomorrow always becomes today.... tomorrow is an illusion... tomorrow never comes... there is no tomorrow.... Hey that, " there is no tomorrow" just reminded me of that scene in Rocky IV when....anyway, I digress...lol... Remember.... honour, integrity and time....

A karate style kick can be fast and powerful.... It's all in the technique..... and practice, practice, practice. Once you can turn the chambering and kicking motions into one big "snap", the power will come..... ....Think, the snapping of a towel. I don't know if this makes any sense, but it is a little hard to explain.

The whole idea of visualizing your opponent/opponents is to help you understand the movements that you are doing.... and they should help you to figure out the bunkai without having to be shown... If you can visualize the "fight" you can see the techniques, you may see some that others may not see, while they might see applications that you do not.... If you approach the kata with the mindset that everything you do has a purpose, things will become clearer to you. For example, you may easily be able to visualize that someone attacks when you are doing a block, then as you transition to a strike you can visualize that you blocked the attack and counter-attacked....that's easy enough.... but soon enough you will begin to see more, like when after you block you might re-chamber your blocking hand before striking with the other... this is a possible application as well. The hand that chambers itself becomes a grab after the block pulling the person to you (as the hand pulls back into your body) and into the empi that you are performing with your other arm.... this is a very simplistic way to look at it but it gives you an example. I have often seen bunkai that even my sensei never thought of (which is very gratifying), and have often had others pointed out to me that I never saw..... there is soo much in the katas if you open your mind to the possibilities and the best way I know to do that is to actually visualize your opponent/opponents. You might see a block, I might see a strike, both are valid.... sometimes a block is easily turned into a strike to the bicep, etc... My sensei has often said, "even a low block thrown with intent can have devastating effect".... Just ask the guy I sparred with at my last grading who kicked me continually... and I blocked him continually.... I only got a chance at one offensive move (it landed but)... he was on the attack the whole time, and though he didn't really land anything he pressed me the whole time and so I chalked it up as he got the better of me..... After the grading he gave me all this credit like I did great or something that I didn't understand until he showed me his leg 3 classes later ( as he wasn't at a couple)....the reason he wasn't at a couple was because his whole shin was mangled, cut up and bruised....."low blocks with intent" my sensei said.....hmmmmm, that's why he's the sensei. Also when I visualize during kata, I also try to visualize what kind of opponent.... for an example of this I will go back to a taikyoku Kata I learned at white belt (I don't know if you learn taikyoku katas but since you've only been in two months it seemed the better example). In this kata there are three blocks, followed by an oi tsuki that immediately turns into a soto chudan uke and (being a taikyoku kata) this pattern repeats itself into finally at the end the kata is ended with with downward hammer fist (tetsui)... so for this I would visualize that my opponent is a small, fast, boxer type guy that is always on the attack, always forcing me to block, when I try to punch he is so fast and relentless with his attack that I have to abandon my oi tsuki and turn it into a block again... this continues to the end of the kata, when, finally tired from the non-stop attack, I get my chance, and being a smaller faster opponent (I'm a pretty powerful guy), and one hammer fist and he's out.... I find visualizing the opponent as well as what the opponent might be doing helps me as well. Finally, visualizing the kata has one last advantage, at least for me..... it focuses me.... kime and kiai are essential in kata, and getting your focus can sometimes be as easy as picturing yourself in that fight.... If you're in a real fight you wouldn't take time to make eye contact with people around you that are watching would you? I hope this all helps, and don't worry about your sensei not showing you the bunkai yet after only two months. Everything will eventually come into place and you'll soon get more in to bunkai as you are too new to be bombarded with everything yet.... and a time will come where the bunkai will reveal themself to you on your own.... Give it time, it's a long road, and the journey is more important than the destination.

I'm not sure that it's a very good idea, for soo many reasons many of which have already been mentioned. If you and your friends want to compete with each other, that's one thing. When I was in high school, me and a few friends would go to my house on lunch and box...but we were also usually drunk too, and there was gloves involved and no money.... money makes things a little different. Heck, when we got drunk, we would hockey fight each other full force just for the thrill of it, and if one guy got the upper hand, someone would yell, "toe to toe" and we would just start slugging at each other again. But I had * for friends, we all knew that if we got hurt, it was our problem, and we actually liked bashing each other, and then hugging after a really great fight. When we boxed, whoever wasn't fighting would be the judges, and since we were all friends, what the judges decided was never questions, and there were no sore losers. But I wouldn't wish that on anyone....too many times one of us would have to explain how we left school one way, and came back from lunch with a black eye, lol...... Alot of questions that you won't want to answer. If you like the competition of it, get a few friends, and join a boxing club..... I look at it like street racing.... do it at the track, it is much more gratifying. And though I think you could get some friends together and do something like this without anything happening... it only takes one bad thing to happen to change things, and a guy who you thought knew what he was getting into and took responsibility for himself, might change very quickly once his arm was broken, or his pretty-boy face was scarred badly..... Too many things can go horribly horribly wrong..... It's definitely not worth it...... I was lucky enough to escape my Viking days.... It was all luck, I wouldn't lie and tell you anything different about how we carried ourselves back then. Or simply roll with each other.... no strikes, just positional wrestling and submissions.... but submissions can be very tricky and dangerous as well, especially when being used by an inexperienced person with little conrtol....when your putting a submission on a friend, there is a fine line between the amount of power needed to cause a little bit of pain and letting him know that he would be beat, and slapping on the technique full force and breaking something.... If you ask anyone in BJJ, I'm sure most will have stories about the student that had no control or little regard for their training partners, and ended up hurting people..... It's a very dangerous thing you're planning, either way. Be careful and stay safe.