RichardHangHong

It depends really. Provided you're not taking your main focus from learning your grade kata I don't see any problem with learning the basic floor patterns to other grade katas. When I was 6th kyu I knew all the floor patterns for the grade katas up to shodan bar one kata that I just couldn't get to grips with. I wasn't any good at them by a long shot but it certainly helped when it came to working on each one as I went through the grades. I didn't have the tedious task of learning the general floor pattern, I just had to tidy up and (greatly) improve the techniques I was using. It kinda helps when you've got a knack for picking up routines visually though. I can usually watch or go through a kata 3 or 4 times and I've got the floor pattern, then it's just a case of sharpening up, which as anyone knows takes a lifetime!

I've only seen Gankaku done a few times but it does look really nice. Especially the parts balancing on one leg.

For our school we have t-shirts, polo shirts, sweatshirts and overgi jackets. Unfortunately we can't get jackets in the kids sizes that are the same as the adults. Can get fleece jackets though but who'd want to where that over their gi? yuk!

Badly written, very poor quality. A bad attempt at making something obviously meant for anime into live action.

NAKMAS - National Association of Karate and Martial Arts Schools. Been with them nearly a year with my club and for 3 years prior to that with my old club. Thinking about changing to Karate England (aka EKGB) though. Got a topic running on it here

I would say don't talk about the other clubs you train in when you're in their club. Mostly out of respect, you don't want to be seen advertising the other clubs in their classes. I can see how they might get a little annoyed at that, especially when as you said, they don't particularly like each other. I train in 3 other karate clubs beside my own and I always where a gi without a badge so not to seen advertising my own club in their dojo.

My club is currently with NAKMAS, but after looking around, Karate England/aka = EKGB is getting very appealing. I'd really like some advice from people who are members of either body as to who they think is better to be with.

You must have some funny coloured water in your washing machine KarateK

I've had a nice lazy weekend. Did loads of ippon jiyu kumite in my saturday class then katas with jumps on Sunday. Got to relax in the sauna and steam room after and chilled out with a cold beer to finish with. I'm being a lazy sod today and just putting my feet up.

Ong Bak is good film, slightly different from the norm and yet covers much of the same areas as many other MA films out there so you get the familiarity mixed with the newness (is that a word? lol!) of what you've not seen before.

I'm sorry but I don't know very much about kyokushin. In relation to sabaki vs linear I think it all depends on which you've trained in more and what the situation is. If you never practise side stepping or tai sabaki then you're not going to use it in a self defence situation. Same goes for linear movements of stepping forward and back although it is far more likely that people practise that. I never really got to start practising sabaki movements until a few years ago and it's been even more so in the last year as I feel it's an area I'm weak on, regularly leaving myself exposed. The environment indeed makes a great difference in how you react. If you have things blocking your path you have limited movements available to you so instinctively you want to get to a point/area where you have more available to you. Hence why trying to get through a gap would be the first response. This depends on the fight/flight response though.

It depends on what tsuki you're using. Sometimes starting from the hip, sometimes from the guard. In kizami tsuki, uraken and fura uchi I strike straight from the guard. Pulling the hand up or back to prepare justs wastes valuable time. I think when I do the first two the hikite comes back to my hip and the fura uchi I leave the hand covering my body. But when I use gyaku or oitsuki I'm comfortable pulling the hand back to my hip or up to the side of my face as a block/guard. Generally for a guard position I have the rear hand across the body and the lead hand out and slightly bent. Pending on whom I'm sparring with and if it's jiyu kumite or point sparring I have both hands in close or further out. I think it all depends on the body position and where your target is from there really. If you need to change the angle or circle the punch slightly to get a scoring technique in then you should. But you need a solid foundation of kihon waza to be able to vary off from them and to adapt to the situation.

Well done! Just another step closer to shodan!

Chronic tension = It essentially means that the last few years I've only been doing superficial stretches that work the very top layer of muscle. It's very easy to miss the calves when you're stretching. The guy that does my sports massage told me that I was also only working one-half of my hamstrings when I stretch too. He's given me some stretches that make sure I work both sides of my hamstrings on each leg and that I stretch the top, middle and bottom parts of my calves. I'll admit though that I've been really slack and not been doing them recently. I felt the how sensitive they've become when I attended a pressure point seminar with Professor Rick Clark on Wednesday. OUCH!

I can't see how being in a dojo, regardless of how hard you are training that your belt could get that dirty. One of the dojos I train in has black mats and my gi gets stuff on it all the time but not that much. If I was doing some outdoor training and ended up getting covered in mud and god knows what else (although for the life of me I can't imagine how that would happen) I would wipe off the muck from the belt with a damp cloth.

Yeah, I think that front page has been that way for almost a year now. The subscribe link still works though

If I come out of a really sweaty training session I hang my belt out to dry instead of leaving it to fester in my bag. But I could never EVER wash it.

I tell all my students to never wash their belt as it's a cheating way of looking like you're more experienced. Especially if one were a black belt. But by that point they've matured and know better than to do something that silly. The same goes for silk/satin black belts. People just get them because they wear quicker and create the same impression.

I have Meijin and Tokaido heavyweight gis. I put them in 40-60 degree wash with softener. When they start getting covered in grime and it won't come out I put it on a hot wash pretreated with oxi-clean. I don't have a tumble drier so usually hang them on the radiator. If I'm in a real hurry I'll take them to the launderette and use the driers there.

Just found the Traditional Karate Magazine address. It's https://www.martialartsinprint.com

I can't remember the link off the top of my head but do a google search for Traditional Karate Magazine or Combat Magazine and you can subscribe online so they'll deliver it to your door. I don't have any shops near me that stock it plus it's really convenient getting it posted in case I forget to go out and buy it. Another excellent Shotokan mag is Shotokan Karate Magazine. Go to https://www.shotokanmag.com It's £12 per year for 4 quartley issues. They only put decent stuff in there and there's no political rubbish or junk in the articles. I've been a subscriber for the last 2 years now. Regarding your initial question about dvds. £18 is about the norm to pay for a decent dvd. Actually, it's slightly less. Most of the ones I've bought I've paid about £20-25 for. The only downside is that because Shotokan is so huge there's a lot of watered down rubbish so ask your instructor what he would recommend you buy as I'm sure he/she has seen quite a few dvds in their time.

Shotokan kumite is generally neater and therefore better suited for tournaments as the judges can see the techniques more easily IMHO

If you're a little fella like me (5'5") with long arms and short legs we can make a great team if we can find a 3rd! We could call ourselves Team Hobbit! LOL!

It's a hook kick. I struggled with it for years. Then I got a good tip that helped me loads. This works from either leg but I'll explain it from a right foot back fighting stance kicking off the right leg and your partner in the same position. Perform a yoko geri to a 45 degree angle to the left of your partner (their right side), remember to keep your guard and head towards your partner. As you reach full extension, pull the foot back so it comes back into your partner at about a 45 degreeish angle (err more to getting the kick behind them than kicking to the side so you get around their guard). If you're kicking with the heel, make sure your foot and toes are pulled back, but if kicking with the sole of the foot for jodan, point your toes so there's a straight line from the knee down to the toes. There are some variations of this but that's the basic jist of it. Hope that helps

I must admit I'm not too fond of Hangetsu, mainly because it really kills my ankles. I have chronic tension in my calfs so when I go into hangetsu dachi it pulls on them a lot. It is a good kata to learn though as it doesn't require the suppleness of youth to complete it.