jaymac

Hey cathal, how did your team do?

Shotokan-kez, you can find great representation of all shotokan kata on https://www.japanesekarateacademy.com. It is also a great website for their school. Just scroll through it to find the kata section. by the way, use it as a guiding tool only. Do the kata as taught by your instructor.

Wow, you have an awesome website!!

I am very proud to be affiliated with the instructor that I have. He is great at what he does and encourages greatness from all his students. I am even more proud now knowing that their our school is not falling along the lines of other "traditional" shotokan schools and teaching competition karate.

Another point to make, if you dont have permission from your instructor to learn a more advanced kata, do not do so. Makes them mad!

You will be back in training before you know it. You can still practice at home. Do kata without moving lower body-just upper body movements. I practice that way all the time.

That is a nice kata. I love to watch it. I think that is the one my instructor is going to show to me next. I can't wait.

This is a good thread! I have gone to tournements that were attended mainly by TKD practitioners. I was surprised to see the flexibility. Awesome! However, the force behind the kicks and the strikes were lacking. It seemed they always kicked to the head area. By the time it got to my head, it had slowed and weakened. I was easily able to duck under and counter strike or sweep the opponent. As for the kata and self defense, most of the TKD students did not participate. They held out for kumite. The ones that did, showed that their schools do not heavily focus on those areas in their training. I am sure that their are TKD schools that are as the older schools were, but they are becoming far and few.

Looks like they use redirection of the opponents momentum somewhat well, but their strikes are poorly executed.

I think they will compliment each other to a certain degree but feel as others, it may be confusing. Try it out and see how you do. You may not need any of our opinions at all. Good luck.

My suggestion would be to have the other instructor teach the breaking technique and let the kids know why you arent doing it. You would be a role model to anyone in earshot who may be a diabetic. One of the major problems with those fighting diabetes is that they forget to look at their feet and inspect for any Foreign body that may have embedded itself. You take good care of yourself and shoud set the example for others. On the other note made by someone about diet pop, Diet drinks contain aspartame which is being discovered is a very bad ingredient and can lead to many harmful things including cancer. It is found in any drink or food that is their is an absence of sugar. Also many chewing gums now have it.

Martial Arts I believe helps not only in other sports but in all aspects of life, even in the work place. It helps ease stress and keeps you focused and more calm in situations where you could easily be angered. In sports, I see it help in the same areas but also is great for coordination and reaction time.

We are not affiliated with any organization. Our lineage goes back quite a long ways off the JKA tree. Until reading others views in the recent past about Shotokan being a "sport", I always thought most Shotokan school were run like ours. Definitely not a sport MA at our school at all. Thank goodness!!

Terminology can be easy if you make flash cards. It is alot easier to learn it that way and can be somewhat fun.

After long hard thought, I think that I would like to fight that guy from the Karate Kid who fought the last fight with Daniel Russo. Punk

Sohan, only those of you who normally wear gi's will find it odd to see little kids wearing belts without a uniform, but to them---> it will be the coolest thing in the world. As for stripes, it can work. Pick a color you do not normally place on the belts at your dojo. For instance, we give rank stripes out and put them on the left side of the belt. If a child does something really awesome that is not related to rank, we give them an orange stripe (a color we do not use for rank) on the right side of the belt.

Not getting to be on the forum in awhile, I just happened across this thread. I would like to add something about my training. I have trained in Shotokan for years. No our dojo is not affiliated with JKA. We absolutely do not train at anytime to compete. If a student wishes to compete, it is his or her own choice to go. The dojo or the instructor does not hold competition classes for the whole dojo so that one or two can compete. Most of those (including myself) who have gone to competitions, were greatly disappointed in the "sport". Most of the weapons kata, hand kata, and self defense were flashy and ineffective. People were scoring points in kumite by just touching the top of the head gear. Needless to say, it took only a couple of tournaments to realize that our training at our Shotokan school was not comparable to what was being represented at the competitions. Maybe that is why our instructor doesn't teach or promote tournament style practices and only focuses on what has been handed down to him by his instructors and theirs before them.

I believe it takes awhile for a kyu grade to truly understand the concept of learning kata and any new material. It is exciting to get that new belt and look to the next one, but really practicing studying what you have already learned is extremely important in MA training. Learning new kata will come in time. Master Funakoshi spent years and years only learning and practicing the Tekki katas. Imagine only doing 3 kata over and over and over for years. I think I was probably 5th or 4th kyu when I realized that I had only been concerned about learning more to advance. Then I slowed down and tried to get better at what I had already learned. I didn't want to become a black belt that could not show the example.

Hangetsu is an awesome kata. I love to see others do it. The timing has to be so perfect. I scrolled through and didn't see this website listed as a source (a good source) for shotokan kata. japanesekarateacademy.com Just log on and look for the kata section. They have great representation of all shotokan kata available on video.

Seriously though, 2 sizes too big, may be alot to try and shrink. If you can't return it, sell it to someone larger and get a new one that fits. I have had alot of gi's and some nice ones too that definitely have never shrunk 2 sizes.

Brandon, you are a great instructor and you will have a great school. Treat everyone as you would be treated - right? No problems for you. Good luck and have fun!

There is nothing wrong with making a small profit from having T-shirts. You will lose money in the long run if you do not charge over cost just a little. If you are truly interested, ask the students what they would think about sporting dojo t-shirts. I think you will get alot of enthusiasm from them and it is a fun way for them to promote the school and the art.

You know Brandon, years ago (and I mean years), many instructors taught that way because they were treated the same by their instructor. I remember being struck by my instructor ---hard--- and I was a child. I didn't think anything about it because he did it to everybody. Years later as an adult I joined Shotokan. I expected the same treatment from this instructor that I had in the past. I didn't even worry about it. I questioned when he didn't treat me that way. He told me that schools shouldn't be run like that anymore. He too had been in a dojo where the instructor was physical with his students. He, however has taken a different approach and I am thankful. I thank him for his advice, the hard work out, the kata technique..., and I don't wake up bruised because he felt it necessary to use physical abuse against me or any other student.

Sohan, too follow up with schools that do not do what they say. Here is one my biggest pet peeves. Tae Bo. Don't get me wrong, I think Billy Blanks is a very good martial artist. In fact, I used to (several moons ago) attend tournaments (when tournaments were good) that he used to compete in. He was awesome. I think that his exercise program is also effective. My pet peeve is the infommercials. I have seen more women state on those infommercials "I love TaeBo and now I know I can defend myself." WHAT!! He isn't teaching anything close to self defense and he should be telling his students that. He is basically running a high impact aerobics class using MA movements and good for him. He is making millions showing people how to lose weight and exercise, but he is not teaching MA.

My suggestion is just keep doing what you are doing. You instructor is watching I assure you. He/she will approach you on his/her own time when they would like you to take a more definitive teaching position within the school. No matter what, you are a role model to others (even older students) in your school, and I bet you are a role model outside of the dojo too.