armanox

I mean this respectfully, but you do NOT need somebody's permission to video or photograph people as long as it's in a public place. Also, I have never heard a complaint when I have done it. I mean, if I'm taking a picture and 70 people are in the photo, you can't insist I get permission from 70 people right? If you are saying that taking them is fine, but posting them is not, again I can't imagine getting 70 people to ok a video I make to put online. I also can't imagine having great video of something but I can't post it because 3 people out of 70 left before I got through them all for approval, now I'm stuck. Something a good deal of people don't probably think about is that when you use things like YouTube, Google owns this and it is almost certain to show up in the first page of a search on Google. Part of the advertising isn't just the video, but getting your name/school out there. I have had issues with people in the past. Not all of the karate photos/videos that I have taken were done in public places, and I at one point received a complaint from the owner of a school that I took video at asking (well, demanding) me to take down video that was taken at his school. Side note: I've seen tournament and seminar forms that specifically outline that by being there you consent to photography and video recording.

Maybe, maybe not. Many schools do not push students to compete or to spar (I was the only student out of the three (five depending on how you look at it) schools in this area for my organization that competed in tournaments in 10+ years (and I haven't competed since 2013). To be perfectly honest with you, this is why you are a beginner - because you are still learning. This is one of those things that comes with time, and your next test will become more important because of this. Knowing that you need to work more on certain things and putting the effort into improving is what you should doing. And generally, for your next test, they'll want to see improvement. Not always perfection, but improvement.

As a rule of thumb, if you are posting video you should have the approval of all of those involved in the video (same goes for photographs - it's the law in the US). The biggest problem with trying to use online video is indeed quality control. Make sure you trust the source of the video. Also, trolls are plentiful (although my videos seem to be mostly troll free, with one exception that I thought was absurd (even if the video did suck). The user said "malo pero muy malo es el peor kusanku sho que he visto te doy un 10% de aprovacion, debes ser degradado a kyu 9,por no saber ni la esencia del shorin ryu ni menos del padre que es el shuri- te pues de este linaje biene el kusanku sho y claro tampoco sabes del tomri- te ,adios"

Back on topic - we simply require a white gi. School/style embroidery on the left chest is allowed. Our cousin schools, under Sensei Iha, do not have a brand/cut requirement, but do require the style on the left chest and the orgainizational logo on the left arm

Ah the Gi of my friend the KarateNerd, Jesse Enkamp - they are good Gis, I own 3 myself. I would recommend one. Can you compare it's cut to anything else - ie Shureido or Tokaido? I looked into it, but I'm so limited in what fits right. Traditional cut gis cut like a Shureido are the only ones. They are similar to Shureido, good snap effect, look extra thick but are like wearing a super light weight, thats why I love them. You can pick them up new for less than some Shureido's. Viper is also of a similarity but not near the quality of the finishing. They are traditional, shorter bottoms and elongated top endings. I was looking at that as an option for me just last weekend when I was picking out a new gi to order. However, since up to that point I hadn't seen any remarks about it from someone outside of the creator's circle, I went with one that I'm familiar with ($200 is not the smallest pill to swallow, but at least it's not just markup like Shureido USA does (the main reason I don't buy Shuriedo!))

Martial arts and fitness goals for 2016 (which I try to begin after Christmas, so that by the beginning of the year I'm able to just do it) 1 - Return to training. I've been in dojo limbo for a bit now, and one way or another I'm going to get moving again 2 - Gain about 20-25lbs 3 - Avoid injuires 4 - Work towards (and hopefully achieve) the rank of Nidan

Different ideas about how training should go I guess. Some of our cousin schools overseas (from what I've heard) just do kata and conditioning until shodan, after which point the focus changes to bunkai and oyo. I've heard that Katsuya Miyahira didn't teach sparring until Yondan. Perhaps they felt that the students needed a certain level of physical and mental training first. Perhaps they didn't want to just give away their "secrets" to anyone and you have to earn their trust first. Just different philosophies. (Then again, the idea that shodan is a high rank is more a western thing in my experience too. The whole "Now you're ready to start training" at shodan saying means a whole different thing in some schools).

I like it!

Why not both? We have a set of 'official' bunkai for all of our kata, but they are by no means meant to be the only use of them.

It does annoy me, but then again a lot of things annoy me. I once had a student (I at one point taught Sunday School for 6th graders) tell me I was too old for karate. I think their head started spinning when I looked at them and said I was the youngest person in the karate school.

My first tournament was as a white belt, after I had been in for about 8 months and with my instructor's okay to compete (that particular tournament kata was all underbelts grouped together. I took third). Generally for kata based competition you want to be comfortable in enough kata that you do not need to repeat if you end up doing multiple rounds. In NASKA (used to be true in SKF and MASMAL, but I don't know if they still exist) you are allowed to repeat the same kata, but I have never seen someone score well who did. Remember that rank advances differently in different styles. You may have a tournament that says no underbelts, etc; and some are open to all. You have some styles that have 10+ colored belts (the kyu system kinda leans towards ten in theory), and some that go white => black or white => brown => black, so that's not really a good metric to go by.

I agree. Seems that the landscape has been altered over quick results, no matter the quality of those results, it's for the quantity instead. Imho!! Why learn and try to perfect one kata, when you can learn the movements of 10 kata Why exercise and change your diet to reduce blood pressure when you can take a pill for it Note: I'm not stupid enough to believe that exercise and diet alone are enough for every single person. No, but it is the over all additude of "I want it now" that prevails in today's world.

While we might not do as much as some schools do, I see plenty of people in their 50s-70s still pounding the makiwara and bags without issue to their hands.

Depends on how you define the system For Shorin Ryu schools there is a common set of kata that says "We're Shorin Ryu" - they tend to be Naihanchi, Pinan, Passai, Kusanku and Gojushiho. There are quite a few other kata that commonly appear in Shorin Ryu schools, such as Seisan, (some sort of) Kihon, Unsu, Wansu, Jion, etc. That makes breaking it down sorta hard. Outside of the Shorin kata, we teach Seisan (doesn't appear to be a Shuri version), Fukyu (Matsubayashi Ryu), and Tensho (Goju Ryu)

Shorin-Ryu Shorinkan is a pretty large system, as far as the number of practitioners worldwide. Our style originates from Chibana Chosin, but the Shorinkan, itself, was founded by Nakazato Shugoro, one of Chibana's senior students. We practice all of the kata that Chibana learned from Itosu Anko, except for Itosu's Passai Sho. Chibana learned the Passai that was passed down from Matsumura Sokon through the Tawada family, and Itosu told him to pass it on to his students, instead. We also practice the three Kihon Kata that Chibana created, the Fukyu no Kata and Gorin no Kata that Nakazato created, and Gojushiho, which Nakazato learned from his first teacher, before he became a student of Chibana. Shorin Ryu Shidokan - an organization equally as large as the Shorinkan, the Shidokan schools decended from another one of Chibana's senior students, Katsuya Miyahira. The group I am part of (seperate from most of the Shidokan schools in the US) is under Takeshi Miyagi, who is over in Okinawa. Kata wise we practice Chibana's Kihon kata (plus two more that Miyagi created), Fukyu, Naihanchi, Seisan, Pinan, Passai (Itosu no, Matsumura no, and Kopassai sho), Kusanku (Sho, Dai, Chatanyara no), Gojushiho, Jion, Unsu, Tetsho (Miyahira's kata), and Tensho (Goju Ryu kata), as well as include kobudo (bo, sai, nunchaku, and tonfa) in our curriculum.