Mike Flanagan

Lose fat & increase muscle volume/density = no weight change. That in itself shouldn't be a problem though. Its alright being 'big boned' if the weight is due to the density of your muscle and bone tissue (bones also increase in density as a result of weight training). From what you describe of your knees there could be a number of problems, including ligament and/or cartilage damage. But you need to see a doctor (if not more than one) to get a proper diagnosis. It may well be that physiotherapy may help, depending of course on the nature of the problem. It helped me enormously with my knee problems. You may also need to reconsider activities which aggravate the knee problems. High kicks, deep stances and running are all things that can put strain on the knees. That's just one reason why I practice an art that doesn't involve these things. For cardiovascular exercise I use a cross-trainer rather than running - anything that's low impact has got to be an improvement on running. Whatever the problem, if you are offered an alternative between physiotherapy and surgery, I'd recommend trying the physiotherapy first. Mike

Its a simple, basic example, but yes its a step in the right direction. Remember though that these drills need to vary in form (rather than just the same one all the time) and must constitute a significant portion of your regular training to be of any real use to you. Mike

Take it easy on the bagwork to begin with, especially if you start to experiment with hooks and uppercuts. Just build up the intensity nice and gradually over a series of months. Rushing it can just cause unnecessary injury. The no-contact issue is quite peculiar with regard to GKR I think. On the one hand you’ve got a complete lack of bag/padwork within the syllabus. In the UK at least, any teachers that do introduce it into GKR classes are doing so off their own back and contrary to the instructions of their regional managers. It seems fairly apparent to me why GKR take this approach - pads cost money and teaching people to hit them properly and safely requires a degree of skill and understanding that would be beyond the vast majority of kyu grade instructors (or even dan grades who haven’t done it themselves). On the other hand you’ve got the sparring, which is theoretically no-contact. However, from the discussions I’ve had with a number of GKR students its apparent that in many GKR dojos there is a significant risk of injury during sparring, unacceptably high in some cases. I know of a woman in her 50’s who had ribs cracked in ‘no-contact’ sparring by an over-enthusiastic kyu grade instructor. Not an isolated incident either. The problem seems to me to be largely due to a complete lack of controlled partner drills. Again, like the padwork, such drills are not part of the standard syllabus. So students mostly do solo basics, kata then free sparring. Its no wonder that they can’t control their distancing when it comes to sparring. There are many drills you could do, some formal some less so. But even the most artificial, formal drills would teach students something about distancing. Without this training students are simply not sufficiently prepared to practice free sparring. Mike

Its by no means my only gripe. However, focus on this particular issue.... Impact training of some sort (eg. bag/pad work, makiwara etc.) is an absolute MUST in karate training. Without it you're karate techniques can only lack power. However, you don't want to be continually bashing your training partners. Karate should therefore (IMO) contain a variety of different training drills, some with partners some solo. Any one drill should enable the student to work on specific skill(s), building good, appropriate habits. Any one drill also has a potential disadvantage in that it can build bad habits. No-contact sparring, for example, if over-emphasised will teach students not to actually make contact with the target. But semi-contact and even full-contact can build habits, for example limiting participants to a small set of techniques in order to ensure reasonably safe practice. For this very reason I'm not a big fan of any of the standard 'striking only' competitive formats. Each can provide valuable lessons but each certainly can ingrain habits that are definitely not appropriate for self-defence. So the answer is to vary your training appropriately, working on a variety of different drills and not focussing on any one of them too much. Mike

Its impossible to say what any one Shorin Ryu club might be like. Some you'll find very similar to Shotokan, almost indistinguishable in fact (I would argue about whether they should be really be called Shorin Ryu but that's another story). Others might seem virtually unrecognisable as karate to someone with a Shotokan background. Best thing you can do is give it a go and see what you think. As with trying any new style, try not to continually make comparisons with your old system, but judge it on its own merits. Mike

It matters simply because it is a commonly accepted rough indicator of a persons skill. It is a fact that GKR routinely has people of green belt standard (ie. about a year's training), and even lower, teaching classess in their own right. The vast majority (ie. 99.9% or more) of martial arts would consider such people as beginners, not teachers. That is why GKR hides their real grades behind the smokescreen of the 'black and white' belt and the fictitious etiquette that it is rude to ask an instructor their grade. Mike

One tip not to do: If there's just one of you don't simply grab one person and pull them away. All you've achieve by that is to restrain them so that the other person can hit them unimpeded. In that situation I'd interject between them and simultaneously shove both people with a palm-heel in their chest. They will almost inevitably both come straight back in so you have to deal with the one who is closest and push them away again, then immediately turn to do the same to other. Its not as dangerous as it sounds (you might expect them both to want to have a go at you) but in the heat of the moment they're generally more interested in simply getting past you to have a go at the other person. Be wary of adopting this tactic though if you're working entirely alone. I used to do this as a bouncer, to split up fights on the dance floor, but I could be fairly well assured that one or more of my colleagues would only be seconds behind me - at which point I could focus on one person and let them deal with the other. Mike

I've always kept a paper attendance register on which I tick people off in class. More recently I set up a database which holds the same information plus anything else I need to know about students (demographics, membership renewal date, etc). It also allows me to analyse trends and patterns in attendances. Mike

Personally I like kicking the knee from the side (inside or outside) with the sole of the foot. It should feel simply as though you're stamping down through the knee. Not a competition technique though obviously. Mike

Sadly no, you will be unlikely to 'step it up'. Modern understanding of neurology, sport science and my own hard-earned experience all point in the same direction: if you condition your body to react a certain way then that is the way it will attempt to react under stress. To condition it one way then to expect to be able to readily and appropriately modify that conditioning under times of stress is to invite disaster. Chillindan, I can't give you an unbiased opinion of GKR - I am a vociferous critic of the system. But my opinion is formed by many years of Karate training in different styles, real-life experience of violence, a great deal of conversation with current and ex-GKR students, and even a visit to a GKR club to check out what its all about. What's my main beef? The system is dumbed down in the extreme. Dumbed down so that, theoretically, even someone with only a few months training can teach it. But don't take my word for it. What colour belt does your instructor wear - black or black and white stripe? Has anyone made you aware that the black and white stripe doesn't signify that the instructor has achieved black belt rank? It is not at all unusual to see GKR instructors as low as green belt, and even orange belt. The organisation hides this behind a smoke screen - its 'bad etiquette' to ask an instructor their real grade, or you're told that you can learn from anyone. Would you send your children to a school where all the teachers have no more than a few months training? I suspect not. Not only does GKR instruction do little to improve your self-defence skills (one could argue that it actually worsens them), it is not unusual for people to develop knee and back problems as a result of the inexpert and frankly incompetent tuition provided. Like I said, I'm a vociferous critic. But I'll be happy to discuss any aspect of GKR or martial arts generally with you in a sensible and mature manner. Mike

I don't have much to add in terms of advice on what to do. But rest assured that its often difficult in any endeavour (not just martial arts) to go from being one of the gang to being the instructor/boss/leader or whatever. Its challenging enough learning to teach. But its doubly challenging when the students were recently your classmates. There will inevitably be some who resent your new status and will try to challenge your authority. Whatever strategy you take it will take time for things to settle down. In the meantime: - try to lead by example, rather than by discipline - never get angry, or rather never show you're angry - the disruptive influences will know they're getting to you then and crank up the pressure - be patient with disruptive students but make it clear that progress will only come with hard work and effort Mike

MizuRyu has what are called hypermobile joints. Hypermobility can affect a single (or a few) joint(s) or it can be systemic, ie. affecting all your joints. This is often due to ligaments being more elastic than they should be. The role of ligaments is chiefly to protect the integrity of joints, holding them in place. A small degree of elasticity is necessary, a lot renders them ineffective. Similarly, when you sprain a joint it usually involves overstretching a ligament so that it becomes permanently overstretched (you've taken it beyond its elastic limit). The solution: strengthening, so that the muscles develop the strength (and control) to do the job the ligaments are supposed to do. But how you do strengthen the muscle around damaged or vulnerable joints? Slowly and incrementally - measure progress in years rather than months. Torguta12, you may find this approach is helpful for you. Its certainly worked wonders for me. Mike

Apologies. I thought you'd moved on from discussing the initial case to the more general idea of people coming in from other systems (whether or not after a long break. I'll clarify. At the point in time that grade is awarded it should IMO (roughly) affect skill level. But grade to me is not an absolute measure anyway. If one student has to work really hard to overcome some physical limitation and shows tremendous spirit in doing so I'm not necessarily averse to grading them to a level that would normally require greater technical skill. That said, I still stand by the idea that it should roughly correspond to skill. When it comes to higher dan grades, OK we all know this is a bit of a game anyway. Whatever integrity the system may have had at some point, it has been made a mockery of now with people grading themselves to 10th dan or even 15th dan. And of course 25 year old 5th dan masters are ten-a-penny. Personally I take no notice of what dan people are, I judge them by their ability on the mat. I prefer it if they judge me in the same manner. One thing I do feel strongly about though is that practitioners should be improving their whole lives. This seems appalling to me. Why on earth should a practitioner continue to train the same thing repeatedly ad nauseum? Should they not be continuing to make their skillset & knowledge both broader and deeper? Of course a 60 year old can't train in the same manner as a 20 year old. Nor should they, they should be training as a 60 year old with 40 years more experience and understanding. All the teachers I train with are getting older. They're all getting slower and less fit (at a cardiovascular level) but they're all still developing their skills and knowledge, and all improving in their ability to teach me. In such cases it seems entirely appropriate to me that dan ranking should go up. If, on the other hand, a teacher merely contents himself with his current level of knowledge and makes no effort to improve in any way then I don't see any reason for new rank to be awarded. I'm not suggesting that at all, see my comments above. I don't grade someone down because their skill deteriorates, rank reflects skill (ish) at the point in time the rank was awarded. On another note, we avoid the whole ego related measuring of belts by lining up in a circle with no grade order. Sure confuses the hell out of people who've trained elsewhere when they try jostling for the correct position in a circle. Mike

It was directed at 24, I just quoted him quoting you as it gave (or so I thought) the appropriate context for my reply. It does and I find myself in complete agreement. Yes I think I would (although I would reserve the right to make a judgement in individual cases). My likely course of action would be to ask them to wear a white belt for a while then ask them to put their old belt back on after they'd been training for a little. It would likely be some months though before I would consider grading them for a higher belt. But it does really depend on the individual case. Mike

I appreciate your point of view and agree that this sort of training obviously has value. But putting gloves and head gear on doesn't mimic what actually happens. Such practice requires a multitude of rules if serious injury is to be avoided. It also changes the nature of the practice drill - gloves and head gear inevitably change the techniques that you're using. In addition, I don't know about you, but I certainly wouldn't want to be receiving full contact blows to the head on a weekly basis. Headgear & gloves or not, this is a recipe for brain injury. If I was into that I'd just become a professional boxer and make money out of it. Free-play has its uses. Fixed drills have their place. Varying levels of contact have value in different training drills. But none of these is the whole answer in themselves. Actually I'd guess that you probably do, when it comes to practising specific skills. But I'm sure that you don't see formula 1 drivers practising at full race speed day in day out. Mike

I don't see any reason to take someone's rank away from them, either. I find all this a bit bemusing. If I come along to train in your club/style and wear a white belt, does that mean that my current grade has been taken away? Of course not. I hold the rank(s) I do in the art(s) I practice and nothing you say or do can take that away. But I don't hold rank in your system and so shouldn't expect to be acknowledged as whatever kyu or dan in your system. I don't agree. Dan grades must accept that their youth, speed and strength will fade over time and so should be developing their skills in other areas (assuming we're not talking about a strictly sport based system). If they're not improving in some way then, fair enough, they shouldn't expect to go up the ranks. I personally do want my students ranks to (more or less) represent their skill level. That's why I invariably make people start over at 9th kyu regardless of their previous grade. There's a simple reason for that, thus far I've not had one student come to me from another system who was able to quickly and easily pick up the material necessary for them to be able to slot in at anything like their previous grade. Those from a karate background have invariably had little or no skill in grappling, joint-locking or throwing. Even their striking skills are sufficiently differently that they require significant modification. Likewise the grapplers have an awful lot to learn about our striking syllabus. I currently have students who've been graded to brown belt and even 1st dan in Shotokan. Within a few weeks of joining they realise themselves that they need to work through the syllabus from the very start. None of them has had a problem with doing so. What will happen though is that they generally grade more quickly. When they know the material necessary for each successive grade, then they can take that grade without any time restrictions being imposed. Sorry, have to blow that one out of the water. I agreed with my student who has a 1st dan in Shotokan that I will only charge him for every other grade (at least for the first few grades) - given that he should grade fairly quickly. I'm probably making a loss on grading him. Mike

Think of the final position of shuto - the blocking arm partially extended and hand held palm down. This forms an upside down triangle. The base (upside-down) base forms a horizontal line from shoulder to hand, and the elbow is the vertex. If you keep the hand at shoulder height (so the base line is always horizontal) you can lengthen or shorten the shuto by moving the hand along that horizontal line - the internal elbow angle will increase/decrease as you do so. What I'm suggesting is that you do a 'long' shuto. The horizontal base line will be quite long, rather longer than the length of your own forearm in fact. If you block the incoming elbow with that shuto then, in order for the person's fist to come round and hit you anyway, their forearm must be longer than your shoulder/hand baseline. So as long as keep that shoulder/hand baseline quite long their fist cannot hit you. Does that explain it any better? Another way to think about it, if I turned my hand palm-up rather than palm-down the movement would feel like I'm throwing a frisbee. Mike

DO NOT do that!! Might work on a straight punch, but definately not a swinging punch!! If you do that, the elbow stops, but the fist keeps going, ultimately stopping when it contacts your head. If you want stop a punch coming in this manner, you need to block below the elbow. A shuto lower down the arm, perhaps to the radial nerve might be a better option. I suspect you misunderstand me Jiffy. Although I said shuto I did not imply the 'traditional' 45/45 degree angles of the upper and lower arm. This would indeed, as you say, get you clocked in the head. But if the angle at your own elbow is much shallower (lets say 140 rather than 90 degrees) the block will work just fine. Blocking this way has several strong points: 1. If you catch their elbow crease with your distal ulna and your elbow angle correct their punch cannot possibly swing round and hit you. All you need to do is to make sure that the distance from your distal ulna to your head is longer than the length of a forearm and a fist. Even on wildy divergently sized individuals the length of the forearm is not terribly different (so your elbow angle will require little adjustment). 2. If you miss the elbow crease slightly, because of its shape your forearm will tend to be 'funnelled' in to the elbow crease anyway, then it catches there (ie. there is no tendency for your block to slide either up or down the arm). Catch the arm anywhere else and there is a rather greater possibility of your block sliding along the arm inappropriately. That said, I'm not totally averse to catch the incoming bicep, which has an impressive effect, but the elbow crease is safer. 3. It isn't really a block, you're just striking the incoming limb. The harder the attacker punches the more it hurts him, the less inclined he is to want to punch you with that arm again. IMO this is a far safer option than trying to block the forearm and does much more to disrupt the attack rather than just parrying one incoming blow. As for catching the incoming radial nerve, well that can be fun, but not something I'd want to rely on in the heat of battle. Mike

Shuto to incoming elbow crease or Rising block but let it glance over rather than trying to stop it dead and allow the other hand to come up from underneath to control (ie. mawashi-uke) Possibly same, but more likely just ease back slightly out of range. Mike

So just go with the flow. As long as you're getting appropriate training that's all that counts. Mike

Before answering questions 1 & 2 do you mind if I first ask what style you do? Q3. Knuckle push-ups. Many people avoid having children do knuckle-push-ups as they believe they can damage growing bones/joints. Personally I've been doing them on and off since I was 11 and my knuckles are absolutely find. However, maybe better to err on the side of caution there. As an adult I can't see that they'd cause you any problems unless you have some pre-existing condition or problem with your hand which they could aggravate. Mike

Sorry to take so long to reply, but this one deserved a relatively detailed answer. I use a combination of a number of drills, some fixed some with varying degrees of spontaneity. These include: 1. Tactile/Sticking drills. Begin with 'sticking hands', where one person simply leads the other, enabling them to practice the basics of sticking to an opponent: relaxation and sensitivity. Next comes what we call 'pushing hands' - not the same as what other people may call pushing hands but no doubt having some similarities. One person throws very slow but strong punches whilst the other sticks to both limbs redirecting and/or avoiding the incoming blows. This builds up into 'sticking sparring'. The exact rules can vary depending on the experience of the participants but it is essentially a free-form, spontaneous sparring exercise (not usually practiced at full speed) intended to hone the skills of sticking (muchimi), trapping and unbalancing (kuzushi). It can decay into grappling but that's OK to be honest. 2. Tegumi (McCarthy style flow drills) - the short ones not the long convuluted sequences. Regardless of their origin I find these drills very useful. We do them, for straight, round, down, low & uppercut punches combined with a variety of arm-grabs. Having got the tegumi drill well practiced the next step is to break out of it with various techniques. These can vary depending on your focus. You could focus on bunkai for a particular kata or focus on particular joint-locks or whatever skill-set you're looking to train. The important thing is that you're starting from the 'non-thinking' starting point of the flow drill. 3. Spontaneous striking drills Starting with a simple drill where the attacker starts out of range, then moves into range throws any hand technique, then moves out of range again. Repeat ad infinitum. All the defender has to do initially is block the attack. This sounds really simple but the beauty of it is that the attacker can use formal karate attacks (eg. oi-zuki) or much less formal & realistic attacks, or silly attacks (eg. totally telegraphed haymakers, spinning backfists or whatever). This way the defender gets used to dealing with all sorts of difficult attacks. The intensity is set so that the defender is slightly uncomfortable with the drill. Conversely the attacker can try attacks that they would never normally try in sparring, because there is no attachment to winning and less danger of injury (as the drill is only partly informal). This of course can develop in many different ways. The defender might be required to counter (with the attacker staying in place initially, or doing their best to get in and out). You might have two consecutive attacks or might require the defender to simultaneously counter, etc. etc. 4. Bunkai Straightforward. Simply practice bunkai against realistic attacks. That doesn't mean that the attacks have to be full force (at least to start with), but it does mean the attacks should not be artificial and stylised. Of course, one could be practising bunkai in any of the drills already mentioned above. I could go on, but the principles are simple IMO: 1. Where appropriate make the attacks realistic 2. Start with a low intensity and build up to a point where the defender is uncomfortable (but not too uncomfortable) 3. Think of the drills as cooperative, not competitive (its not important to get one over on your partner, but it is important to help him/her learn) 4. Vary the rules. No drill is perfect in itself. Learn to take what is useful from any drill but don't become transfixed on it. The drill is simply a tool and not an end in itself. Hope that makes some sort of sense. Mike

Fair point, but I think there's a confusion here between basics and fundamentals. To hark back to the earlier analogy of learning to crawl before you learn to walk before you learn to run.... If I want to get good at running I would prefer to focus on the fundamentals of running rather than go back to practising crawling. Crawling was just a stepping stone towards learning to run. So I too continually revisit fundamentals, but to me that doesn't mean one-step sparring. Mike

Its not formally GKR policy for everyday members but they are strongly discouraged from training outside GKR. I think it is actually company policy if you're one of their door-knocking 'self-defence consultants'. bushio_man96 said: Unfortunately that probably isn't an option. They generally don't allow people to wander in off the street to watch a lesson. They don't even advertise where and when they train - all new punters are brought in via door to door sales of memberships. I've even heard of clubs that lock the door so that nosy martial artists can't come in to have a look. Best to just go along, wear a white and ask if they mind you training. Just say you've done some karate before but be circumspect about the fact that you currently train. Ultimately Mike I think you did the right thing to point out to your friend that some of what he's learnt simply doesn't work. Its much better to find out that way rather than down a dark alley on a Saturday night. Will your friend ever listen? That's up to him. Remember, he's been subject to months if not years of GKR propoganda. All you can do is continue to expose him to good quality martial arts. But he needs to make the realisation that what he's learnt so far is a total crock. Try to shove it down his neck and he'll only stick his head in the sand. Mike

Not sure of the exact name of the thread. If you search there for 'Grayston' I would think you'd find it. Mike