evilgollum

I suppose we could also go all Bruce Lee (or any other intelligent and skilled martial artist, which is more than I can really say more myself) and say "no stance," allowing us to be mobile and flowing, moving from one to another without any resistance. I just personally like to have my legs bent more in order to have pressure which I can use to shift or do drive my entire weight into an attack. I don't mean I stand there still, I just mean than the whole 'bounce around' thing is more like 'shift around' for me, because I don't want someone to catch me when I am not feeling the floor well, because then I wouldn't be able to shift without sinking down in order to push. I apologize if anyone understood me as saying "root strong and sit there," that's not what I meant.

I would disagree that the higher a stance is the more mobile it is. It is like a continuum. Different amounts of leg bent/leg straight are good for different situations, with a solid "standard" somewhere near the middle of the continuum. If you are standing too high and your legs are too straight, then both your mobility and you stability will be weak (stand with your feet together, feel mobile or not?). Conversely, a stance which is too low and too wide is past the point of being well grounded, and becomes weak (how many of you feel strong and rooted while doing the splits?). It takes more to understand the dynamics of stances than just a "high stances are good for mobility, low stances are good for balance" statement. My fighting stance, what I usually use and am fairly comfortable in, is somewhat like a loose rooted stance. Having my legs fairly bent allows me to use a springing actions for very quick and unexpected shifting.

As far as I am aware, In shotokan the ball of the foot is the striking surface. I have seen the top of the foot in TKD style kicks, and the effectiveness of each can (and probably will) be debated endlessly without sufficient evidence, testing, and scientific proof. In other words, the shotokan way it with the ball of the foot. When you are free-sparring it ends up being your own personal preference. Pro-instep kickers warn about how you can break your toes if you don't kick with the instep, but if you pull your toes back (which might take practice to de enough) no harm will come to your toes. I have found that kicking with the instep hurts my ankle, because the intense shock bends it back farther than is comfortable, but this is only my personal experience, and is probably due to my poor technique with instep kicking. I'm sure a practiced TKDer would have similar qualms about kicking with the ball of the foot.

First class was tonight, so if any of you are interested, here is how it went: I have a grid sent to me by a central office of Young American's Schools of Self-Defense (I wish I could just teach whatever I wanted, but that is still several years down the road) telling me what I am supposed to teach for each week. Week 1: High block, front kick, straight punch. Also: Run, Yell, and Tell. I taught them the basics of making a fist, rising block, front kick, and a basic punch, but I also talked about what to do if someone comes up and attacks them. I talked about throwing an arm up to reflexifvly block (something I did once, not on purpose but reflexively, that saved me from getting punched), and about how running away is always better than fighting. I ended up lecturing about the importance of running away as opposed to punching back quite a bit. Next week's "teaching grid" is the same thing, so I think that I will run some more excersizes where the kids are just walking along and they have to block someone who throws a punch and run away. It is really different working with kids so young. Teaching karate classes I had grade school kids before, but I had forgotten how poor 3rd and 4th graders are at paying attention. I know that I am unable to give them as good of self-defense training as they could get from a trained self-defense specialist, but I am going to teach more than just karate punches, kicks, and blocks. I will stress escape techniques and mindset a lot.

Thank you very much for the excellent feedback cross. You bring up some great points. I must confess, although experirenced in karate I have no real self-defense training. I am unable to refer the children to anyone else, since due to the small population of where I live there is no onw else able to teach. I understand and agree with many of the points you made, and I will make an effort to unclude this mental/mindset training as well as the escapes (most of the lock/grab escapes I will be teaching are very simple first-week-of-jujitsu kind of techniques, just things like twist hard and fast toward the thumb.) I will make an effort to stress shouting out, calling attention to yourself, and avoiding dangerous situations.

Perhaps I should have been more specific. This is not going to be a one-time class, but a once a week class which will go on for about 8 weeks. I do indeed plan to repeat simple and easy-to-remember phrases, as well as focus on a few weak point of the body. The philosophy is this a bit rough still (I don't want to encourage the kids with the shotokan philosphy of 'hit them first, but only if they are going to hit you,' becuase it is a bit tricky to get the details of it, and it could easily be misunderstood and used to initiate fights where none would otherwise occur.) but it will be focused mostly on a, evade/break the grip and escape concept, with offensive techniques used only for distracting an assailant (or of course for damgin him/her if it is a very serious situation). Conincidentaly, while my self-defense class will be on Mon evenings, I plan to be taking aikido on Wed evenings. From what I've heard of it, I think I should be able to use quite a bit from the aikido class in the self-defense class. Thanks for the advice, and please, keep it coming. Just looking for whatever general tips you all have.

I would reccomend to anyone just starting out to teach martial arts as a part-time job, relying on another source of income to help you pay for rent and food and other things. Unless you already have lots of connections and a good number of students who are sure to take your classes, I imagine that it would take a while to get the ball rolling. I would be satisfied with a miscellaneous part-/full-time job as long as I was able to teach martial arts in the evenings or on the weekends. Over time you may find that you have enough students that you can rearragne your life and become a full-time instructor.

I'm going to be teaching a self-defense class to elementary, junior high, and high school kids. I've done shotokan karate for several years, but I have learned bits and pieces of kung fu, jujitsu/judo and taichi. I imagine that I will rely mostly on a combination of jujitsu and karate techniques, heavily favoring the jujitsu. I was just wondering is people had some general advice for me. This is my first time teach a self-defense seminar (I'm a first year college student) and, although I have taught kids before in karate classes, I don't think I have ever taught such a diverse crowd age-wise. Any tips?

Shui Tora is right. It is likely that you are shortening your stance because it is too long. When you step into the position from which you will do the uche uke, make sure that your stance is small enough that you can do the next moves without having to adjust it. I have a similar problem with the kata enpi.

Without watching you do the kata, and being able to see for myself wher you need improvement, I can't give you any real advice on it. I am 18 and a 1st kyu myself, and although legally an adult, I still feel very much like a child. Just make it clear to your teachers that you want to exell as much as you can, and ask for their help in pushing you to be the best that you can be. Good luck.

I, too, would love to read the thesis you read. If you would be willing to post it, I would really appreciate it.

I applaud the attention you give to perpetual and mental speed. I have always considered the mental speed to be far more important than the physical speed (I just never had these nice, scientific names for them). I have never given any thought to what you call perpetual speed, but it is a very nice "pre-action" speed to consider. I loved your article.

"Morality is completely subjective" I agree. It may be sad, and too much for some people to accept, but the fact of the matter is true. Bushido was not "be nice to everyone and help the weak." It was "do what you're told." If you're told to go kill babies, and you spare them, then you are dishonorable. The concepts of honor, chivalry, and right and wrong vary from culture to culture, due to differences in priorities, beliefs, and values. To me, universal rights and wrongs are, in reality, nothing more than romantics spouted by people who haven't seen the reality of it. I suppose you could say I'm a realist.

Is 500 nonstop pushups even realistic? I could do about 115 earlier this year, and I thought that was amazing.

A good excersize for doing alone that we did in class today (Sensei Nishiyama visited today! it was really neat): Rising block with the left leg forward, pull back, rising block on the right side, downward block to the left (90 degree turn), pull back, downward block behind you (to the right, 180 degree turn), pull back, inside block to the front on the left side, pull back, inside block on the right side, pull back, outside block to the left, pull back, outside block behind you, pull back, knife hand on left side, pull back, knife hand on right side, pull back, knife hand to the left, pull back, knife hand behind you. Basically, a series of blocks going front, front, left, right. Be sure to pull back with the inner thighs each time.