Mike Flanagan

How so? If a stance is one leg forward, then any time you have one leg forward, you're in a stance.... I don't understand your statement When you fight, you probably assume a "fighting stance" if you know that conflict is emminent. However, you normally would not assume a cat stance, a horse stance, or a front stance to fight from. You may move into a similar stance to these while performing certain moves, but you will then go back to your natural stance when the transition is completed. I generally assume a front stance, but it is such a short and undemonstrative stance that you could be forgiven for not recognising it as such. But it affords me both defensive and offensive potential and the aggressor will generally perceive that and back down. Mike

Maybe so, and you'll note that I don't say they are completely and utterly without value. But having learn to crawl (ie. one-step) why do high grades continue to practice these drills. Should they not instead focus on walking and running, rather than revisiting crawling on a regular basis? The effect of this sort of training can be seen in many people's bunkai - stilted and artificial, just like they doing formal one-step sparring. Mike

Speed, yes OK. Timing, maybe - but only in terms of working on getting yourself moving as soon as you see the attacker move, but at that point you don't know what the actual attack is going to be. Distance, I'm really not convinced at all. The attacker's distance is generally totally wrong. Usually the defender's distance for their initial counter-attack is wrong too. And as the attacker now stands there sterile and lifeless any further counter-strikes the defender throws at them will likely be incorrectly distanced too. But my real bug-bear is that all those things (speed, timing & distance) can be equally well trained by other drills that don't teach the bad habits that one-step inevitably teaches. Mike

Personally I'm not really a fan of one-step sparring all - other than to learn a few basic principles. This sort of formalised partner work is so artificial it does little to prepare people for self-defence IMO. There are all sorts of other drill you could do instead. I do a lot of stuff around the sort of tegumi flow drills popularised by Patrick McCarthy and find this quite effective. Mike

The more pertinent question to ask, in the first instance, is what do you want to get out of martial art training? The answer to that question should guide you in choosing a style. Although of course, the quality of tuition in any particular school should also be a determining factor. Mike

The thread at e-budo.com will tell you everything you need to know about 'Hanshi' Grayston. Mike

It saddens me that this nonsense is still doing the rounds. Some years ago a famous master of no-touch knockouts offered to do a no touch knockout on me, then retracted the offer before we'd even met. A number of times I've made the following offer - if anyone can do a no touch knockout on me I'll give them £1000 sterling cash there and then (OK, I'm not James Randi - I can't afford $1,000,000). But I reckon my £1000 is pretty safe, so far no-one's even attempted to claim the prize. I think that tells us all that we need to know on the subject. Mike

You may also have a physical limitation imposed by the shape of your bones. For side kick in particular, everyone has a limitation imposed by the meeting of the head of the femur and the side of the pelvis. Admittedly, most people are restricted by soft tissue so they never get near this skeletal limit. So I doubt that's actually holding you back. The key to stretching is little and often. Personally I'm not into ballistic stretching methods. If I wanted to get better flexibility I'd take a leaf out of the book of the most flexible people I know - people who do yoga. They tend to do daily, slow, relaxed stretches rather than all this ballistic stuff or gung-ho partner assisted stretching. Although personally I've got to say that kicking thigh height is quite sufficient for my needs. Mike

I don't teach children, at least in part because I don't think its appropriate to teach decent bunkai to them. The 2 important things we ask of any movement in kata are: 1. What is the power generation principle of this movement? and 2. What (if any) is the tactical principle of this movement? Having come up some possible answers we then look at ways of applying those principles in defences against realistic (ie. informal, non-karate) attacks. Mike

Hi Orient Knee strikes are by far the most used kick in the way that I practice karate. But even when I'm not hitting the opponent with my knee I'm often using it to apply pressure to their stance. Mike

I'd go further and say completely zero. Don't stress about it, you'll be fine. Mike

Wrist grabs are actually more common than you might think. They frequently occur mid-fight, rather than as the opening gambit. Often when blows are exchanged either party (or both) will instinctively try to grab the other person's arm to prevent it from continuing to hit him. Voila, now you can do your defence against a wrist grab. Mike

Hi Richard I confess I find myself unconvinced about breaking a lapel grab like this. I've seen plenty of different styles use this defence against a lapel grab but it only seems to work if: a) the defender is significantly stronger than the attacker, or b) the grab has not yet been secured I'm not that big or strong but I can easily resist most people's efforts to break my grip in this manner. You might find it works better if the attacker grabs both upper arms rather than the lapels, the simultaneous rising blocks will deal quite effectively with this. Mike

I'd say its the principles which come first. The kata expresses the principles and the bunkai show examples of the principles in action. Mike

There can be a world of difference between different systems of Karate. Some are into sport, some aren't. Some do full-contact, others touch-contact. These things will make a huge difference to the techniques that are practiced and the way they're practiced. Different systems can even emphasise completely different techniques. Many focus solely on striking techniques. By contrast, whilst ours places most emphasis on striking it also includes joint-locking, throwing and choking. Mike

So much of this discussion is conjecture. One thing is certain though, as several people have already pointed out - the Shorin Ryu as learnt by Funakoshi had significantly higher stances than modern Shotokan. If you wish to see the evidence of this just look at the different longstanding Shorin Ryu traditions still practiced today. All of the genuine Okinawan Shorin Ryu systems use high stances. The deepening of stances was part of the development of Shotokan, pure and simple. Mike

Its difficult to say much without looking at you, looking at your stances and looking at your knees. If I could do that the problem might be obvious to me, or it might not! Some things you might want to think about: 1. (As someone already hinted at) Don't overextend your knee past your toes 2. In most stances (except Sanchin or Fudodachi in Shotokan) the knee should be in the same vertical plane as the foot with the knee pointing in the same direction as the toes. 3. Your stances may be too deep, or at least too deep for the degree of strength you have in your legs - so its the joints that end up taking the strain. If this is the case try a) making your stances less deep and b) strengthening the legs (eg. by weight-training NOT by doing deep stances). Good luck with it. Mike

It will probably (but not definitely) help with your posture to an extent. You may also find other activities will complement that - pilates for example is excellent for a strong healthy back. Mike

Vertical or 45 degrees. Generally I find that horizontal leads to more likelihood of getting wrist alignment wrong and pranging your wrist as a result. Sometimes however when punching downwards then horizontal may seem appropriate then, depending on the target. As ever, actually hitting something is always the acid test. Mike

I believe that kata primarily teaches principles of movement - specifically moving in powerful ways. Exactly how you apply that power depends on the circumstances. Repeated practise of the kata conditions these methods of movement into your body so that they become unconscious. Which is not to say that you'll be able to pull the applications out of the hat just as a result of practising the kata solo. You also need to practise applications with a partner so that a) they become ingrained b) eventually, with sufficient practice, you are able to spontaneously apply the principles (ie. produce new applications on the fly). Secondary to this I believe that kata also embodies tactical principles, which can provide inspiration when working out how to apply the movements. Mike

TBH I think many karate dojo are not that good at teaching realistic combat skills, but the Kyokushinkai and Goju already mentioned sound better bets than many other systems. But hey, the kid's only 6 years old. The discipline and technique of just about any karate style will put him in good stead for learning something more practical when he's a bit older. Right now I'd be more concerned with ensuring its a good safe club with a capable and responsible instructor - and you sound like you're qualified to judge that for yourself. So just go and try some dojos out yourself beforehand and see which one has the right feel to you. Happy hunting. Mike

Hi innocui I didn't realise that it was a grading requirement in Go Kan Ryu to know any bunkai. If you ask me I doubt there is any realistic bunkai for this movement - I reckon its a modern affectation to the kata, the original will probably have looked quite different so the bunkai will likely have been lost. Mike