bushido_man96

Go get 'em, and good luck to you.

You really show how much the study of martial arts means to you in this post. Glad to see the history of the arts means something to you. I love everything about the martial arts. I love learning about all of the styles. I like hearing other people's takes on art and style. If you lived near by, I would call you up and hope to work out together, not practicing karate or TKD, but practicing martial arts.

If I could, I think I would like to try Kyokushin. Also, I would give Shotokan a try, so that I could look at the forms and try to figure out how my current forms were derived from them. History study is great! And, I can accept the fact that TKD is not 3000 years old. That don't bother me one bit.

Nothing wrong with that!

I disagree with you here. If a black belt is "just the beginning," then why should it take a lifetime to attain? And if that was the case, then we wouldn't have dan rankings, either.

I have never got to see anything on Benny the Jet, but I hear the name says it all. I also never got to see any of Lewis' fights, either. I did see a picture of him sparring Norris in a point fight, and man, he was HUGE. I mean, Norris is average sized, but Lewis was THICK. I would not want to mess with that guy. The Master and Jr. Master instructors at my school got to meet Lewis in Atlanta, when a former Master of our association was fighting someone that Lewis was in the corner of. They got to meet him after the fight, and they have a picture with him. Man, he is still a beast. I'll bet he still lifts regularly.

There's a saying among boxers and highway patrolmen: speed kills. And it is true!

I think the only time it's purely for show is in the XMA arena. In other styles they have many reasons for the extra athleticism, such as trying to develop good health first, technical proficiency second. It isn't just in the XMA arena, it is just more noticable there. If I was to teach the self defense applications of my form, some things like kick height, stance length, and so on would be different than if I was teaching my form for a tournament performance. Self-defense = practicality. Tournament performance, i.e., kicking high, showing flexibility = athleticism.

This post is in response to the idea that karate is not meant for fighting other skilled martial artists. My response is: Why not? Don't you (karatekas) train with other skilled karatekas? If this is the case, then any karate practitioner should feel somewhat comfortable in an engagement with another skilled martial artist. Saying that training in the art will only prepare you to combat an untrained "street thug" is a little demeaning to your own style, in my opinion. Now, there is the detriment to the lack of ground work, but that is to be expected, and it can be changed. But claiming that it is not intended for combating skilled martial artists is another incorrect assumption, I feel.

Usually, after a black belt testing, I would go eat a great big feast of a meal, and then crash. After award ceremonies, I never really celebrated much. Maybe, if there was a bunch of us that would have passed at once, we could have. Good idea, though.

That is too bad to hear. I was thinking of renewing my subscription, as I have not gotten it for a while. I always liked that articles that had some training aspect to them, with different drills to do and stuff like that. They should add an "instructor's section" where various instructors can submit some ideas they use to spice up a class, different kicking routines, or stuff like that. I always liked the consistent articles they had from guys like Dave Lowry, and Rickson Gracie. They were always good reads. Maybe its time for someone else to start a martial arts publication.....(It could be US!! ).

This is a very good idea, and a good way to start training some higher ranked students for teaching. If I had a little bit more freedom with the classes I teach, I would consider doing this. Great idea. Really good for advanced classes. Another good idea for a black belt class that just popped in my head: tell each black belt that will be at the class to prepare an exercise and drill set or something like that, and tell them that they will have to spend 10 minutes of the class time teaching it, and helping the others to understand, and spend time correcting and directing. Man, I love this brainstorming stuff!

This is so true, and I like your ideas here. When I started teaching full time 5 or 6 years ago, I noticed that I was starting to lose a few things because I was so busy teaching and not training. So, I started getting to the school early to start working out myself. It is definitely easier to work yourself into the adult class than it is with kids, in my opionion. Also, the higher the ranks of the class, the more you can work with them, because they are a little more independent at learning.

I don't know why he didn't do any punching. And I think that TKD guys could do plenty of damage with low kicks, if they would just attempt them.

Well that would depend on the standards and expectations of the school. I realise in the west things are not as high a standard as it is in Japan in many cases, I am very sad to say (I lived there for 2 years). A child simply doesnt have the muscular abilities to performadvanced Kata as what our school expects. Today many schools are happy just to have people perform the movements in order with little consideration of the bigger picture. But that is the way of the world.... Hearing that Americans water everything down, and are not as disciplined as other cultures, don't have high standards, and yada yada yada, gets kind of offensive to me. My wife drives an hour to work everyday, puts in 8 hours, drives home for an hour, and then gets supper on the table, takes care of our 8 month old and 10 year old, and then does homework to work towards her college degree. That is work ethic and discipline. We are a different culture than the Japanese, and that is the way it is. Saying that kids are not capable of things like performing this form is rediculous. Look at kid wrestlers. Or Pop Warner football players. Oh, and the Little League World Series. Kids can perform in all of these athletic endeavors, and at very high levels. Everyone has a different level of ability, that cannont be argued. Limiting someone because one simply thinks that they are not old enough is, in my opinion, a very inaccurate assumption.

I agree that children should have the opportunity to be advanced students, if they are capable of the task. As far as having to fight 3 people to earn a black belt, I am not sure about that. Are there rules to the fighting? Do they fight all at once?

after the meiji / tokugawa (always forget which, that's why I put both) there was a time of peace. Samurai were not needed anymore. MA were taught mainly for fitness and for preservation of the art. That was the end of jutsu and the beginning of do. The wartime styles were considered koryu - classical martial arts. peacetime arts were more for enhancing your way of life, hence the term do. Yeah, that is kind of what I meant.

Alrighty, it sounds like you have a good start already. On the Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I would take time to make 2 seperate workout sessions. The first, you should break down your form into segments, and work on perfecting it. Practice the segments at about 75%, until you have all of the little things down pat, like foot placement, targeting, stance transitions, and all of that good jazz. You should spend around 30 to 45 minutes on this segment work, and towards the end of it, do the whole form, full blast, concentrating on the aspects you practiced. The second segment you should do is specifically fight training. Figure out what the rules of sparring will be, and how long the matches are, and how many rounds, if applicable. Then get a partner to train with. Have your partner attack you with certain techniques, and work on countering strategies, and also work on combinations and offensive strategies. Spend about 30 minutes on this. After that, fight rounds with your partner with nothing premeditated. If you have 1x2 minute round per match, spar 3x2 minute rounds (thanks from elbows_and_knees for the insight here), with a 1 minute rest between. This will help build your fight stamina. Hope this helps, and good luck at the tournament!

That is an excellent deal. I wish our instructor would have a black belt class for advanced training, but when we do have it, it never last long. What is sad, is that between kids and adults, we have around 12 active black belts. And half of the time, our 'black belt' class turns into low rank forms review class. That is ok, but from time to time, we need something different.

To get more power, increase your speed. This will help with your power. The equation for power is: Power = 1/2 Mass x Velocity squared. Therefore, increasing speed will exponentially increase your power, whereas increasing size will not increase power to nearly the same proportion. I am not saying that you should not increase your size and strenght, but I am saying that power is a direct result of speed. Get the books Speed Training and Fighting Power written by Loren W. Christensen. These books include invaluable training material that will benefit your speed and power training.

Here is an interesting article that I found about how martial arts practitioners go through certain cycles, and how they relate to quitting/changing styles. Its a good read, and hope you enjoy it. http://www.shotokai.com/ingles/essays/iao-western-alchemy-martial-arts.html

yeah, and its a serious problem. this is essentially why i stopped doing shotokan formally. i came to learn about the original nature of karate, attended a few seminars and stuff. then i asked the senior instructor at my dojo if we could practice some of it. to cut a long story short, the answer was no. also as a nidan i did a bit of instruction in classes, and it got to the point where i just couldn't do it anymore. i couldn't stand there teaching lame blocking techniques that could get people killed in a real fight. unless you're very lucky and find a school that teaches combative karate, you'll probably have to take your training outside the dojo in an informal setting as i and another guy from my old dojo have done. I don't understand why some instructors can be so single-minded; have a my way or the high way attitued towards teaching. It is frustrating, in my opinion.

Yeah, it was a site on someone's thread, looking for a place to study. I remember it, too. I noticed a lot of 'money making' opportunities on it. No worries. If it is a McDojo, I would stay away. However, sports martial arts are not bad things, so you may want to see what is offered.

I am hoping to start picking up Combat Hapkido here again shortly. I have learned a lot of the curicculum, but I want to start working on more applications.

Quote from Sohan: Hey bushidoman, congrats on the "black belt"!!!! Thanks, Sohan! I am so happy! This is the first rank I have gained in years.