legkicker

You can have a rank taken away, at least in some arts. It's done as a punishment, and in extreme cases. Usually what happens is more of an expulsion out of that system/organization. Unfortunately, many of these individuals that are expelled often go into a "lesser" organization. I have only known one instructor that has actually had his rank taken away from him. I do know of many individuals that have been "kicked out" and have gone into another organization.

I do know of some that go on https://www.e-budo.com, but rarely. I know of some that have gone on https://www.sherdog.com, too. I think one recently has gone on https://www.kyokushin4life.com, too.

This is funny to me...Ryota claims Karate as his style because of who his father is. I recognize Shotokan and a gyaku tsuki much more than you probably realize. I wouldn't call a left cross a gyaku tsuki...If you really want to call it hidari ashi gyaku tsuki, go for it. I definitely wouldn't pass a student for a rank if they performed punches this way but would in Muay Thai. This fight was also in 03...If you saw Ryota's last fight in the WFA you'd see that his striking is even evolving more. Franklin has been more active and if they rematched I doubt the results would be the same. Ryota has delved into Muay Thai much more after this fight, and into BJJ, even competing in BJJ tournaments.

The jump is watered down by some, and I say watered down because they can't do it the way it's intended too. Not that I'm saying your dojo is watering it down but the way it's done in both of these videos is the original way it was intended to be done. BTW, there is a kick...or two intended in this jump, if you look closely.

Yeah, I realize that but remember comparing my Chinto with a TSD instructor's Chinto many years ago is why I brought it up. It was near identical to how I peformed it, more similar than Shotokan's gankaku.

I even once saw a fighter do "drunken Muay Thai" before. Meaning he would do the drunken feints/evasions and counter like in drunken boxing but use muay thai techniques. BTW, he was doing this in MMA and I haven't seen him since, go figure.

Most TKD today is very different from Shotokan so that's normal. I'm a Sandan/3rd dan in shito ryu and wouldn't expect to go into a TKD school as a higher rank.

I just got back from a 5.5 mile run that I do every other day while I type this. Tomorrow I run a hill right outside my apartment, up and down. I slowly go down it(it's a steep hill)and sprint up it as fast as I can. It's a very steep(I live in Seattle)and long hill. I spend an hour on bag work every day, which can be varied focusing on knees, boxing, body kicks, leg kicks, and working combinations. For the last few months I have been focusing on Aoyagi, trying to make it "mine". The last few years I focused on Paiku. I just recently gave up teaching about twenty students at an ecclectic Kempo dojo(I'm not a kempo stylist) so most of my training comes from training by myself or with a few others that are black belts. I'm pretty much retired from competing, only doing Kyokushin tournaments once or twice a year now, but all the others that I train with compete at least every other month, if not more. I don't count teaching as training, because it's not the same. I learn a lot from teaching, but I don't really get a work out from it. Unless I'm holding 30+ rounds of Thai pads, that does a number on your arms.. I won't be back on here after thursday for a while as I will be headed to Ft. Jackson in North Carolina on active duty for a while. I probably won't get much martial art training for a while

Chinto was the first Kata I really felt that I made "mine". I placed first in '96 USANKF Nationals with Chinto. I've had good success with Unsu in tournaments, as well. I have only tied once and used Superenpei to win with. I haven't competed in kata competition since '97.

I'm part Japanese(mother was half) and was in a relationship with a Korean female for a few years and never had a problem with her regarding my ethnicity. Her grandmother, however, had a problem with my ethnicity. Even though I'm only a 1/4 Japanese. Tang Soo Do has more of a shuri flavor to it...more pre Shotokan, if you catch my drift. They even perform "chinto" in TSD, not calling it gankaku(shotokan, Japanese, not Okinawan).

you should have posted this in a chinese/kung fu section of the forum.

Why did you repost the video that I posted and what do you mean, weird? There are different variations of this kata. In this video it was done a "few years" back. I'm not sure what the current JKA way of doing this Kata is, since you're shotokan you should know. I know the Shito Ryu way of doing this kata but it is near identical minus a few differences. The strike goes to the inner thigh in the way I do this Kata and how I've seen other JKA shotokan practitioners do this kata in the last decade. Kanazawa is doing this kata more then a decade ago. I can't answer you why but that maybe shotokan tried to break away from the Shito Ryu way of doing it? Shotokan did get this from Mabuni, not Funakoshi, so that would make sense.

Lyota Machida is/was a Shotokan practitioner and his father is a Shotokan instructor in Brazil but...I wouldn't call him that anymore. He has gone to Thailand to train in Muay Thai, trains in BJJ now, too. He was with Team Inoki for a while, and yes, he was a great shotokan competitor when he was younger. Like anyone with common sense that fights in MMA long enough that wants to win, they switchover to Muay Thai, BJJ, Wrestling, Boxing, etc. Look at Lyota's more recent fights and tell me where you see a gyakutsuki..I haven't seen him fight Franklin in a while but will review the fight again. Wasn't that fight on the Inoki bom ba ye card? Ok, I found it and don't see what you're talking about? perhaps you saw a different version of this fight that I didn't see? Did they fight somewhere else before? I'm pretty sure they haven't: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHtSB2Z0olM BTW, Machida has also trained in Sumo and I don't see him performing Sumo techniques in MMA neither, go figure. I still don't see a "traditional" gyaku tsuki that KO'd Franklin..hmmmm.

this kata is Unsu and it's in Shotokan.... I do this kata and it's in my top 3, my other 2 favorites are Paiku and Chinto. I learned the kata while in hayashi ha shito ryu kai, though. It's usually not learned until you're a shodan or nidan, sometimes, even sandan. here's a "somewhat well known" Shotokan practitioner performing Unsu:

From what I understand Seagal went from Shodan to Godan rather quickly and took over his father in law's dojo. I don't think his father in law was the one that graded him, though. This might be the case but is peculiar to me if so. Seagal's first wife, Miyako Fujitani, has been quoted saying something along the lines as: "The person that graded Seagal was drunk and asleep during his test". I have no idea if what she says is true or not because I'm sure she has ill feelings towards Seagal. I don't think Seagal was ever a sandan is what I'm saying. Grading is a tricky thing. In Some associations you can grade one rank below yourself and in others I even know of you having to be at least a yondan/4th dan to grade someone to shodan. Anything higher than shodan in some associations has to be done in front of a board of other high ranking instructors.