Hobbes

The principles of the whip (ie the towel) does occur in karate. Techniques are classified as "push" or "throw". A front snap kick is a throw techique, utilizing the summation of forces or large (shortened) masses (levers) rotating around a central point (generally the hip region), when this motion is halted the forces are conserved (conservation of angular momentum) in the smaller lighter segments of the lever producing a much higher velocity. The damage of the weapon is determined by the over all mass of the moving object, its velocity and the contacting surface area. Basic biomechanics 101 If you like I can supply some excellent references that explains these principles in as much detail as you like.

Well, here is my take on this. I lived in Japan for most of the 90's so I can only tell you what I did on a day to day basis. This is, of course, colored by the opinions of my sensei and others (japanese) I've trained and lived with. I addressed my teacher as *name sensei (8th dan as well as Shihan) inside and outside the Dojo as I also did with my Japanese language teacher, my university professor and my dentist and doctor. This is part of the normal everyday use of the language. Usually it announces to others that the person with the title is a professor or doctor, which is a person of distinction and deep study. There is also body language which demonstrates mibun. This is evident with the clinking of classes before consuming beverages such as beer and sake, or the height of the class as its raised,( if classes do not permit clinking ). Bowing also takes on a similar importance. A person of substantial mibun will nod or dip ever so slightly or not at all where subordinates, depending on status may go as far as to nearly bounce their foreheads off the floor. I have encountered the use of Kiyoshi in north america for 7th and 8th dans etc... and I thought this odd. Kiyoshi in japanese means teacher (literally, context not withstanding of course). In Japan, this title is implied, and understood but I can not once ever recall it being spoken. This does not make me an expert on this topic in any way. Conscientious about my ediquitte, I have asked my friends(Japanese) and teachers how to show my respect for their position. I have on more than one occasion received the comment that I was extremely polite and respectful. Perhaps this was more of a reflection of my efforts rather than correct iron clad ediquitte.

One of the essentials that I've learned as a scientist is the need for supporting evidence to a statement. Simply stating that something is so, does not make it correct. There are pros and cons to most things we do as well as exceptions to nearly everything. One of the things you will not find in my posts are statements without supporting evidence. Have I been wrong, absolutely, but this is a sign of growth. What I don't feel is appropriate for instructors are statements like the one "The Animal" just made, (void of any supporting evidence and rationale). If you are going to make a statement, and you plan on teaching, you had better have a good answer for the question(s) "why" and "how".

Keep in mind that under normal state of rest the lower 1/3 of the the three lobes of the lungs are readily available for oxygen / carbon dioxide diffusion not the upper third. I'm assuming that this was just a slip up - my friend. Why not use all the lungs... heh.. well we need a reserve capacity in the event of greater work loads. At rest the tissues in the upper portion of the lungs aren't fully perfused with blood so gas / blood transport is not efficient. We only have about 6 liters of blood in our bodies for a average male less for a female so its the rate that it gets pushed around that is important combined with appropriate degrees of vasodilatation. If you kick someone in the thigh and cause them severe shock, vasodilatation can occur and a significant portion of the body's blood pools in the lower legs causing the person to lose conscienceless. Usually when a person panics, they over ventilate which feels like you aren't getting enough oxygen. Panic is your enemy. when you feel the rush of adrenaline, train your self to become familiar with this and make it your friend. Good training for Karate is public speaking...

Gripping the floor... I will relate some experiences with this. I don't know of any techical reason why you would want to do this, but I will say that it was emphasized in sanchin, tensho kata (which are recognised as GoJu-Ryu kata, but are core kata in Shito-Ryu also). I've trained on a lot of interesting surfaces including, for example.. side of a gravely hill, sandy beach, stone covered beach, in the water, on dry sand, wet sand, deck of a ship(rough seas), commuter train(that was interesting), grass, pavement, crushed stone and ice(standard ice rink) and -30 degrees C, which makes the properties much different. I will say that in all instances where I trained on uneven or slippery surfaces with or without footwear, I gripped the ground very instinctively. When I was instructed to grip on a smooth level floor, this was helping me train my toes and small muscles in my feet so that I would not tire as quickly on unusual surfaces. I recall training on volcanic soil on a 6 degree pitch and my feet would cramp up over the training session. When I went ice skating, the same thing occurred, my feet would get tired and I cramped. After a few weeks of effort gripping, I found that I tired less quickly and cramped less . After some time, I no longer cramped at all. Bench press for the toes? Now I'm not saying that this is the reason, but the toes are major players with balance and force distribution on changing surfaces. One could hypothesize that gripping is the best one can do on an ideal surface such as a dojo, so to prepare for the outside world. Just my thoughts.

Now now NidaninNJ give the youngin' a couple more decades... could be that he's only up to Peian Shodan. I don't know any dan ranks with a decade or more on their blackbelt that would ask the question he did... do you? Heh, I can remember when I was a yellow belt if I practiced every day really hard would I be as good as the blackbelts in 8 months. I had no idea how long it would take for my karate to be integrated into your DNA. How many of us can remember what it felt like before beginning training? I can remember asking almost the same question when I was deciding to learn to program computers. heh... Again a good grounding in the basics makes picking up stuff later really easy. Still takes time and effort, but... Karate is more about the learning... its the voyage along the way that's important not the destination... Heck, I don't want the journey to end.

I've seen some crappy belt jobs in the lat couple of decades. I think the worse one I've ever seen is a slightly off white cotton twil belt with back course silk covering. The silk starts to degrade really fast pulling off in long threads leaving a worn old belt look in about 1 year. My belt(s) were a gift from my sensei stitched with my name and his prior to being put together. My favorite one is silk covered and has had a lot of wear (now 10 years 8~12hours/week) and its showing its inards in only one spot where the knot is formed and its on the underside. I think this has to do with the silk used. Its very very fine and when a thread lets go there is black material under it. I will make a point of getting my buddy in japan to translate the lable and I will post the company. I've also seen student razor their belts to start them falling apart faster. Its really funny seeing blackbelts in class that have been shodan for less than a year with belts that look more worn than mine with a decade on it. I plan to keep this belt for a few decades so by then I suppose it will look like I have some experience... Anyone have any thoughts about his.. Personally I like a broken in belt like anyone else... but let it happen naturally with training..

I think that for me, knowing several kata allows for bunkai possibilities to synergise between kata. This is a hot issue around my neck of the woods since I have 68 kata kihon in my syllabus. I've heard others in my style "brag" to others about this fact which I find ridiculous. More isn't always better. I personally feel that I've reached the maximum number of kata that I find reasonable. that's 28 kata and 9 kihon. How many can I honestly say I have mastered? I don't know if I can say that I've mastered any of them, but I've gotten really good at a half dozen, which I practice on a regular basis. When I was practicing karate full time, I could spend three hours a day doing kata, but in this day and age when we have to work and we get a two hour class three nights a week, its easy to see people get overwhelmed with too much "stuff". I would much rather see students learn a few things really really well than try to cram a lot into a few hours out of every week and get lost in all the stuff they need to know for tests. I just spent the x-mas holidays training in a friends dojo (shotokan) a style I started in. Its amazing how much your body remembers of the SK kata. Its been 14 years since I practiced any SK kata, but it there and I can only attribute that to my sensei of the day, for drilling a few kata over several years. I have to reluctantly admit that it was this sort of training that allowed me to move into Shito-Ryu as easily as I did

This question is like asking: what's more important, the knife, spoon or fork? I think the set is important. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts?

Please provide references to at least three research articles that demonstrate a strong correlation between "loosening up" and its effects on causing injury such as torn muscles within the above mentioned 12 hours.

Well, if you think about it we transfer skills and experineces all the time regardless of the activity. With MA's it just so happens that one of the "sets of skills" happens to be Karate (in this case) so it just stands to reason that the framework or construct that one is familiar with will be applied to a new skill. It speeds learning in a lot of ways. I had a student who only thought of karate in terms of dance (initially at least) until she was brutally attacked. The new experience shifted the context of her training. Very different MA after that. I think some instructors fail to really appreciate the power of skill transfer. Yes, it doesn't transfer 100%, but some transfer is better than none. I've heard too many instructors say "forget that, start fresh", meaning to forget what you learned before and start from the ground up. Frankly I don't think this is possible and certainly isn't reasonable to think this way. As a physical educator and coach, I can't help see the sports and other activities in terms of (psychology aside * for the moment) bio-mechanics, machines with leavers and the forces involved in motion. It concerns me that some will state that "karate is unique compared to other sports", and this is said in terms of motion, not philosophy or any such thing. Our bodies are very adaptable multipurpose machines. Despite the subtleties in motion the gross movement patterns are repeated over and over and over gain in almost everything. If the context is the same and the strategy and tactics employed are similar, then the resulting technique will be virtually identical regardless if its wacky-fu or karratta-do-do or firefighter-emergencydoorkick-do. While many will jump up immediately in vigilant opposition to this idea, I can put you in front of a camera and record you at 200~500 fields-per-second and show anyone that this is the case. You know, some will say that you are stripping the art from Martial-Arts when you break things down like this, but really pure bio-mechanically executed techniques are rarely executed. How each of us utilize motion-reduction and punctuate our techniques to achieve results is personal and requires flare and style. This is the art part. The technical part allows us to express the art. A lot of argument is over style, and flare and its often not recognized that they are arguing from a different context to begin with. I took to TT very quickly because of my reaction/response time was good, my tracking skills were finely honed, and I was used to shifting my body weight and I could concentrate for extended periods properly using internal broad/narrow and external broad/narrow focus. K Jack, TT is cool! but I like squash better. your mind is like a parachute it only works well when its open... hard to deploy inside a box.

If we keep the load on the muscle as a constant, then strength has a significant impact. I'm not in anyway suggesting that by using "constant" I'm satying static. what many people think of as "stances" are really snap shots in a secquence of transitions. Now getting back to the example. If I load the biceps with a 40Kg weight and ask the person to hold that at with an elbow flexion of 90 degrees, with time they will tire and the weight will lower involuntarily. With strength conditioning, the muscle has greater capacity to do work under the same load. they will tire but it will take longer. Weight training is one of the best ways of gaining strength. If you look at someone who "just" does karate and test them and then have them weight train for 6 weeks and test them again, you will see noticeable improvements. The transfer is very significant and very real. weigth training is an excellent suppliment

Gotcha

Hey, no worries... water is just as important.

Can you identify the pro's for not turning the foot in by 2 or 3 degrees? I would like to hear your take on this. Cheers...

Whooooza dude... H20 must enter your blood/lig..... Are you staying stay hydrated? Just curious, as most don't even think about hydration and connective tissue synthesis. "dehydration may compromise integrity of connective tissues subject to mechanical loading. Considering that many connective tissues such as in articular joints require a relatively high water content for optimal functioning under stress, dehydration may increase incidence of injury or jeopardize healing and repair of injured tissue." Ruberg RL. Role of nutrition in wound healing. Surg Cl No Am 1984; 4:705-714. Berg RA, Kerr JS. Nutritional aspects of collagen metabolism. Annu Rev Nutr 1992; 369-390. This is one of the reasons that I insist on water breaks during workouts, not just during hot weather. I remember "in the old days" teachers restricting water as a means of making us tough. I think they had water restriction one too many times.

Unfortunately it isn't as simple as that. Heh, sometimes... if only. phffft.

simplistic. Hey Jack, didn't you know? Karate is unique and other sports movies do not apply. Information can not be transferred from one to the other... Your table tennis has no effect on your karate and vise versa...

there are a couple of thoughts for the foot position. One of the most interesting is that by slightly rotating the foot so the outer aspect or the blade edge of the foot is straight (as the previous poster explained) causes a slight rotation of the femur on the tibia. It is though that this gives the adductor muscles (Gracilis *which is also a flexor of the knee) and the semitendinosus a better angle of pull. Its been suggested that the satorious muscle is placed under a bit of a stretch( this is a mucle that rotates the leg outwards). Its well known that the popliteus muscle is invloved in unlocking the knee, but whether it comes into play significantly is unknown for this purpose, but it is thought to be the primary mover for the tibial/femur rotation. What I can tell you is that by moving the foot slightly inward (very slight) one's knee is much more resistant to lateral forces. We've seen this with soccer players when they slow or stop rapidly with video footage. All I can say for sure is that there is a lot going on there and I feel firmly about a slight turning in. who knows maybe we're wrong. Perhaps the postion of the foot also has a role in transmitting forces into the ground in a particular way. Until we had high speed cameras and force plates, most of this was speculative and based on old wisdom and most of it still is. We are finding that what we though was happening wasn't really happening at all when we slowed down the motion using 200 fps video. My 2 cents. I would be really interested if anyone's done biomechanical studies on like movements.

There are some very good tools to develop core strength and balance. We've used wobble boards for years. One product I really like is http://www.fitter1.com/exercises_wb.html?mtcPromotion=Exercises%3EWobble you can make your own if you want.

Hmmm.... stances do little good when you are on your back. Hopefully then can help you make a controlled decent.

Was witness to a similar situation. Three people were testing and one was very smug and has a very distorted perception of his abilities. The testing instructor made no gestures asked them to stand at attention part way through the test and busied himself writting notes... this went on for about 10 minutes all the while the three stood their wondering what the heck was going on. He took a sip of his o'cha and and without looking at the students rose and shook hands with their instructor and handed him a sealed envelope and left never looking at the students. In fact it almost seemed that the students where non-existant. Very calm and matter of fact action. Teacher didn't have to disipline the student.. the others did. I wasn't privy to what transpired after that.

While we all differ and our bodies respond to training at differnt rates, by and large we all go though the same stress adaptation cycles. While holding a static stretch is not, useless ( I would never say such a thing), it must be coupled with other co-operative training methods that combine to produce real results. A key ingredient is patience and the other is persistance. It was once believed that a gymnast stretched and then performed but as it turns out the performace has as much to do with the attainment of flexibility.

I had the opportunity to speak with Thomas Kurz back when I was doing my undergrad with regards to pnf and dynamic stretching. His book, "stretching scientifically seems sound and its a step by step guide.. I guess in the scheme of things it wouldn't do much harm. Thomas sent me two of his books at the time and I conducted trials at the university using myself and two others in one group and three others in another group using static passive stretching Vs what he outlined in the book. After six weeks we all improved in our flexibility. I saw the least improvement because I was already very flexible using his method, but the group using pnf showed significant improvements. The techniqes aren't new, Thomas just packaged them better than most. Frankly, I haven't seen pnf used outside of high performance sport.

There are several thoughts about flexibility in the exercise physiology world and its generally felt that a combination of things works best. PNF is the best overall techique ( proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation) look it up with google. Problem is that it fails 90% of the time because people don't max the contraction. You also need to just do your techniques to thier maximum range or near maximum range such that they can be executed safely. Passive static stretching is also another technigue. Personally I really enjoy the feeling of statically stretching on the floor, but I intermix it with pnf. The passive static is more like a rest. The true key is consistancy. 10 to 15 mintues every day. The muscles need to "learn" how to relax as well as attain the conditioning to stretch to their max. 10% of something is better than 100% of nothing (victor navarsky 1933~2004) Some people will not attain the flexibility of a gymnast...