Sohan

Welcome! With respect, Sohan

Welcome to KF! With respect, Sohan

Welcome! With respect, Sohan

Welcome! With respect, Sohan

I find Master Itosu's above quote often interpreted in a way I don't think he originally intended. I don't believe he meant for kata to always be performed with fighting rhythms, but rather with a budo spirit. As far as how one should perform kata, I personally derive great benefit from varying the pace, intensity, and focus of my kata in training. Particularly I find doing my kata very slowly at times provides me with great precision in movement, and improves my balance tremendously as well. Doing kata quickly all the time is a common mistake, in my experience, because one may miss errors in execution of technique that become glaringly obvious when the kata is slowed down. I see this constantly in my dojo, with karateka who perform kata with the objective of speed and power, yet they aren't generating their effective potential due to inefficient and unbalanced technique. Besides, kata should never be performed at the same pace or intensity all the time anyway. If you train for a particular rhythm and pace, you will fight at that rhythm, and when your opponent is not in sync with your fighting pace, you will be sorely at a disadvantage. Kata is simply not a static form with only one way to interpret it and must be explored through a wide range of applications to derive the greatest benefit in a fighting situation. With respect, Sohan

Wow I train under Grandmaster Brock here in St. Louis would love to chat some time Jason Cool. Small world. With respect, Sohan

Get thee to a powerlifting gym and ask for the nearest deadlifting platform. Don't delay. You have a world record deadlift somewhere waiting to be discovered.... With respect, Sohan Cool. Is this because it allows the legs to be engaged more?Nope. Long arms and short legs=less distance for the bar to travel. It's like you putting the bar on a rack and lifting it. I could deadlift over 600 from the floor, but if I put it up 4-6 inches I could add up to 75-100 lbs more. Just simple biomechanics. Now, when shotochem sets his first world record, I want full credit. With respect, Sohan

Glad you enjoyed it. They sure look like some rough and tumble folks. I've had that as a favorite for awhile, and I'm glad I could finally direct someone else to it. With respect, Sohan

Nice to meet you. Do you have a website I could visit? I'm interested in learning more about what you do, as you and I seem to be in the same field. I gather you are not in the US as I am but rather from the UK or Australia? With respect, Sohan

Get thee to a powerlifting gym and ask for the nearest deadlifting platform. Don't delay. You have a world record deadlift somewhere waiting to be discovered.... With respect, Sohan

Gee, your neighbors must LOVE it when you practice at home.... With respect, Sohan

He teaches in his own school now. Here is some footage featuring him and his students: With respect, Sohan

Yep. Traditionally, "wingspan" was indeed what was referred to as "reach" (at least it was when I boxed), and it could certainly be influenced by wide shoulders and a broad back. After doing some research, I realized that today reach is being measured more by the length of the boxer's lead arm (jabbing hand) from the tip of the knuckle to the armpit, which certainly seems more accurate. Doing it that way my measurement seems to be about 26 inches, if I did it correctly. Still curious about both measurements, if anyone wouldn't mind posting their data. With respect, Sohan

Savedbygrace's thread got me thinking. I've always thought I had short arms (I do have a shorter inseam for my height) but the more people I talk to the less sure I am of this. I was a pretty darn good bench presser but a modest swimmer so I figured my arm length was a factor. So I was curious, what is your reach? From fingertip to fingertip, stretched out to the sides. Also include your height as well, please, for comparison. As for me, I happen to be 6' tall and have a reach of about 73 inches. With respect, Sohan

I see it in my dojo, though we don't compete. Sort of like having a fancy sport car to make up for certain deficiencies, I see excessive kias as a way to make up for deficient power or technique. We have a fellow in our dojo that continually grunts, hisses, and kias loudly to everything in our class, but forgets his techniques and falls apart terribly in two person free sparring. The quietest guy in the class is probably our most dangerous. With respect, Sohan

You'll know because when you stop doing the exercise, the training effect disappears. And you should always perform a variety of ab work anyway, from bicycle crunches to straight crunches to reverse crunches, knee raises, etc. Sky's the limit. With respect, Sohan

Actually, I believe you have at least 5 or 6 more 29th birthdays before you officially turn 30... A belated happy birthday to you! With respect, Sohan

Jaymac, I feel the same as you. I don't feel ready to start a dojo of my own, though I teach students on my own as an extension of our dojo. However, my sensei started his first school in 1983 as a brown belt in karate-do, and 23 years later is still going strong. I have always heard that the best way to learn about something is to teach it or write a book about it. I feel the same way about my karate and seek as many opportunities as possible to teach? But a dojo of my own? I've owned my own fitness studios, but a dojo is still likely far off in the future. With respect, Sohan

Great post. I couldn't have said it better or more succinctly. With respect, Sohan

I didn't see this comment until now. I really appreciate you saying this, jaymac, especially since I haven't been here very long. I enjoy and respect your posts a great deal myself and always learn something from you as well. With respect, Sohan

Just don't fully extend the punch. Pull it slightly before full extension with a tight/relax feel upon extension. This takes practice, but it's how I do all my punches, and I still execute with significant power. No elbow or wrist pain that I can remember in my training. With respect, Sohan

SK, there's not too much you can do about the ultimate shape of your rectus abdominis, the muscle you are describing. The shape of this muscle is determined by the parents you chose at conception, so training will usually have less influence on it than you might desire. Look at pics of bodybuilders. Abs are like fingerprints, no two people have the exact same pattern of muscle development. However, I will say this. If you are performing an exercise that places a disproportionate amount of stress on some muscle fibers over others, those fibers can grow larger than the others. This likely may be what is occurring. For example, if you spend all of your time doing upper crunches only, the superior fibers on your rectus abdominis will develop more than the inferior fibers. If you have noticed this effect after picking up a new exercise, try doing another movement for a while and see if your muscle development "evens out". If it does, then problem solved. With respect, Sohan

In our system, it is considered very disrespectful to look at your opponent as you bow, though I've learned the opposite in other systems, and I personally prefer never to keep my eyes off of my opponent. However, eye to eye contact with a potential opponent can certainly be a sign of aggression and intent to dominate. With respect, Sohan

....provided Chuck gets past Babalu first. I'm a fan of Chuck Liddell, but there's something about Babalu that I've always liked. He's got an tough attitude and a grittiness about him that I enjoy seeing in a fighter. I think Chuck will probably beat him again, but Renato certainly has had some interesting fights over the years. He's beaten Mauricio Rua and lost a decision to Fedor. He hasn't lost since Chuck-Babalu 1, and he's beaten some decent competition since then. As a master of submission, he's only gotten better at the ground game while Liddell prefers to stay on his feet. Chuck's theme for his title defenses have been rematches, but this is a dangerous one for him, as the tables could get turned. Gonna be a good one! With respect, Sohan

It would make for a good fight, though. If anything, it would be a slugfest. I'm just not all that impressed with Tim Sylvia as a top heavyweight. Arlovski was slowed down in a big way when he injured himself checking one of Tim's kicks early on, so he lost his base of support on that leg for the last 3 rounds, according to Sherdog.com. They say his leg swelled to four times normal size following the bout. Perhaps AA would have had better chances with two good legs, but even so, neither fighter was terribly impressive from the get-go. Each fighter's strategist should get spitbucket duty for their next fight... Sapp is a medocre fighter at best, but he is SO strong and massive(regardless whether its pharmaceutically enhanced or not), I think he makes up for that glaring deficiency somewhat. However, if a fight went too long, though, Tim would have a distinct advantage in conditioning. I'll concede that Sapp-Sylvia would be closer than I probably imagine, but I'd still go with Sapp. But I also thought Arlovski would destroy Tim last time and this time and was dead wrong, so there you go. With respect, Sohan