Rick_72

You can buy hand/wrist wraps that have velcro built into them (so you don't have to use tape everytime you use them), and heavy bag gloves. I suggest using them combined when working out extensively on a heavy bag. Without some form of wrist support, and knuckle protection you do run the risk of damage to your hand's and wrist's over time, even on a heavy bag. However, I don't think working out with the proper protective equipment will cause any long term damage. My oldest son (10) had a floor style heavy bag in my garage. If you trying to toughen your knuckles (which I discourage, because of long term damage), your not looking for a heavy bag anyway.

I saw a guy break one once, on accident during his kata. I remember thinking to myself that if he did that at every tournament how expensive it would get, at $20 a pop. At any rate, unless your going to be spending a significant amount on a bo, you really should ask your instructor, because more often than not he's ordering lots of equipment from some company and paying for shipping in bulk. Chances are your bo is going to run between $15-30 and if you order it yourself you'll end up paying $5-15 on shipping along with it. I've ordered equipment from karatedepot.com, and they have really good prices, resonable shipping, and my stuff gets to me very quickly. So if I have to order something myself, I usually go with them. If you want to buy a really high quality bo, plan on spending between $75-150 for it. With that said, shipping isn't going to make that much of a difference to you. You can order directly from Shuriedo USA, who will get them from Okinawa for you. I'm not sure of their web address, but its searchable in Google.

I don't think its really all that normal. Most parents I talk to really don't know much about the culture, and aren't all that interested in learning about it. Normally, they just want their children to have a fun, safe activity in which they can burn some after school energy, or help them get into shape (for those couch potato kids). Although later on many get very interested in the culture, if they start to see what they were looking for from their kids. I'd look at them with an open mind, could be a diamond in the rough for you. If the mother and daughter are both interested in not only Karate, but also the culture behind it, they could turn into a really good family to have in your dojo.

I started wearing a black gi as soon as I was allowed to. Not for looks, for practicality. White ones just show dirt and become stained too easily, at 150-200 bucks a pop it just stinks to have to replace them so often. I still wear my white one occasisionally, but mostly black. I don't mix and match though, because I'm really not trying to make a fashion statement, but I don't fault others for mixing and matching either.

Nice to meet you too! Sorry I left town for a week after you posted that.

Shorin Ryu Matsumura Seito, Okinawan Kobudo, and Tuite here.

Once again, I don't know where you train, or what you've been taught concerning Karate (or TKD, I can't speak for TKD because I have no TKD training), but where I train, and what I pass on to junior students is to kick and/or punch through the target. I snap back my kicks when I'm conducting kumite, or point sparring, simply to use control not to hurt my training partner. However, when I'm training on the bag for actual fighting, my intent is to put the bag through the wall, and if I get into an actual fight my intent is to end the fight with every strike I have to throw (with a certain amount of control, so I don't throw myself on the ground if I miss my target). I challenge you to find any fighter (MMA, boxing, Muay Thai, or otherwise) that doesn't use control when their training with a sparring partner....in other words, their not trying to take someone's head off when their training with a live target either. Cross training is what I meant by moving on to other arts. Not just simply never training in that art again. Very soon I'm probably going to take up Aikido, but I'm not leaving Karate for it, I'm just expanding my horizon's a bit. Moving on, cross training, call it whatever you want. Also, I don't recall saying that "most" MMA fighter's have a TMA background, I just said there are "plenty" of them. Which there are. I'd be willing to bet you that if you dig back into a lot of those MMA guys early history's, that their young interest's in fighting began with something traditional. And who said Muay Thai wasn't traditional? What about boxing? Those didn't start out as sports did they? My uncle was a college wrestler, and part of his wrestling training was Judo class 2-3 nights a week. That is what I'm getting at. Somewhere in SEVERAL (not all, or most) MMA fighter's background's you'll find TMA roots. Although, it could be argued that all fighting arts, sport or otherwise, stemmed from a traditional fighting style anyway. All I'm getting from your post's is that your trying to tell me that Muay Thai, Brazilian Juijitsu/Juijitsu, boxing, wrestling/Judo, etc, etc. aren't traditional martial arts, and I think your wrong. Just because their now used primarily for sport by professional atheletes doesn't mean that their not traditional, it simply means that a traditional fighting art has been adapted for the entertainment of others. Not to mention the money making aspects of adapting it to sport.

I don't know what style of Karate you trained in, but I've never learned to kick "at" people. When I throw a round house kick, I want to touch spine. When I throw a shin kick, or a knee kick I want to fold that leg like a steel chair. When I throw a side kick, I want to feel ribs snap as I'm trying to hit my opponents heart. Point sparring is a demonstration of technique, that's all. Its controlled striking for several reason, not least of all insurance cost's for a full contact tournament, but also because you can demonstrate good technique and speed without crushing your opponent with all the power you have. I happen to think its harder to land a controlled strike than a full power strike, simply because it takes a good amount of skill to throw a strike fast enough to get through blocks yet hold it short enough not to K. O. your opponent. As far as why you don't see many TKD, or Karate stylist's in MMA....there are plenty, but most of them started in those arts and then moved on to Jujitsu, or other ground fighting type arts after they established a good basis in martial arts to begin with. Just like the boxers, and Muai Thai guys do. Anyone that frequently watches MMA fighting can tell you that 90% of them end up on the ground, and it pays to have that training and those skills even more than striking, because if you don't you can get submitted in a heartbeat. On a side note, there's plenty of wicked and skilled striking that takes place on the ground in most of those fights as well.

What is Shukokai made up of, style wise?

Rohai is a great kata. It takes a lot of practice to get the dynamics down though.

Shorin Ryu also! <------

Have fun with it. Controlled sparring is just that. No one's supposed to get hurt. Your just demonstrating good technique at about 30-50% power. It can be tough, because generating enough speed to actually land technique's while putting strong controls on your power takes practice. I'm sure the black belts you fight will probably be very controlled.

Exactly! Any technique that takes both of your feet off the ground inevitably will make any technique that your attempting, or following up with off balance, and weaker. Once again, there is far too much that can go wrong with an aerial technique to make it worth attempting in kumite or a real fight. Heck, the only time I even use spinning technique's is when I'm trying to back an opponent off, and only when I know I have enough distance to match my speed of getting all the way around before he gets to me. I rarely ever make contact with a spinning technique, because I'm rarely ever trying to. Its wasted energy doing flashy techniques, unless your a movie star .

I'm sure there are situations where you "could" use jump kicks, but why would anyone want to. One, a kick from a solid stance, that you can turn your hips into, is going to be faster and more powerful. Two, there so many things that can go wrong, in kumite or a real fight when you leave your feet.

It is kind of funny that you mention this, because kara-te used to mean China Hand, until the Japanese changed the idiogram(??) to make it mean empty hand, to try to break its ties to China, and make it Japan's own, which is kind of what TKD has done with Shotokan! Wow, the soap opera of the martial arts! We took that one full circle, didn't we? Actually didn't "Tode" mean China hand? Seriously, I'm drawing a blank right now.

All types of Karate have grapling/realistic self defense technique's, at least they should if the instructor is teaching it correctly. What I've learned over the last few weeks, as I've started getting more involved with my Tuite, is that much of our kata is chalked full of grapling type technique's, that become extremely apparent the more Tuite you learn.

Our kids get stars for A/B Honor Roll on report card day. Never seen the worksheets though, that might be a good idea.

I wouldn't say their useless, however, if your tournament fighting, and not in the black belt division, your just making another target for your opponent. Most point tournaments don't allow face contact for Kyu grades, unless their wearing a face guard.

Whenever I practice kata I visualize an opponent....I block out everything, and everyone in the area I'm practicing and actually put myself in a fight. Its not hard to do with some good concentration. When your not demonstrating, just doing kata alone, you can slow down and actually visualize bending limbs and such with the tuite in your kata.

I've never even seen Hakutsura lol. Its a Hachidan kata (pretty sure). The only black belt in my school that know's it is our Sensei, and he's a Rokudan in Matsumura Seito, and Nanadan in Okinawa Te. I'm sure it's gotta be cool. I don't really have a favorite kata. What I like to do when I'm practicing on my own is start at the bottom and work all of the 13 empty hand kata's that I know in order one after the other without stopping....then try to keep from passing out .

I don't disagree with the humanity part. I'm sure you know this, as anyone that's ever worked in a instructor/student type organization where there are children involved, regardless of what's being taught, in this day and age (probably in any day and age really) not all parents are giving their children what I would call (and what many others have stated over and over) a model for success as far as moral fiber goes. Humanity, is a learned behavior. Someone that has never been given the proper teaching in morality won't know the difference between acceptable human behavior and barbarianism. I just think we as a community, martial artist's, to properly pass on our war-like arts, must also pass on some degree of moral's to go along with the potentially life threatening training that we're giving to our students. If not we could simply be arming a high school bully, or building a future criminal. There are those kids out there, that could be training in some martial art right now, that haven't, and won't be taught any morality, possibly because their parents are negligent in that area. Or they learned their morality from watching professional wrestling, or UFC, and don't understand that those are entertainment, and there's a certain degree of showmanship in them. Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock probably really dislike each other, but their not going to go into some back alley and pull knives on each other, because their professionals. Young people without moral fiber don't understand that those are professional sports, and could very well thinks its ok to throw someone in a rear naked choke in the hallway in school until they turn blue, because they saw it on tv. Is that the kid you want sitting next to yours in high school? I think we have to agree to disagree on this subject. As a parent of a very mature (for his age) by still very young son, that will be receiving his Junior Shodan very soon, I've often been torn between two answer's when my son had an incident where he was picked on at school by an older punk kid. He said "I just wish I could have used my art to stop it, but I understand why I can't". He wasn't being beaten up, and wasn't even being struck. He understood at the age of 8 (this was a few years ago) why it wasn't ok to use the things he learned in Karate to pound a kid into a pulp when the kid was just saying bad things to him. Some of that restraint he learned at home, however, he learned much of it at class where he was also learning how to beat someone to a pulp. I'm very thankful for those mental skills he received with his physical skill, because when I was growing up it was a different story. I would have ended up suspended from school, and possibly facing legal action, because I was brought up with a different standard. Like I said though, I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this point though, because neither one of us is really willing to budge an inch on our point of view.

I've seen that documentary. I guy I know has it on tape, its pretty good. The style that she's working in is Goju. It was pretty cool because she actually filmed about a dozen of the Okinawan Karate master's practicing their kata together. Also cool was the beginning of the show when she was practicing kata on the beach. She was doing an old Matsumura Seito Shorin Ryu version of Fukyu Gata Ni, which isn't even practiced by the head organization any more. What was really pretty neat about it, is that she was doing it with different dynamics than we use, she was using more of a Goju breathing technique with her middle blocks, that reminded me of what I've seen of Sanchin.

It seems to be very MMA centric. Who know's, if your in to that sort of thing, it may be worth the green for 3 full days. If nothing else the 3 days at that resort are probably worth close to that anyway, then the training is just icing on the cake.

Ah ok. We only do two of those, one in each direction at a 45 degree angle (and only two series of middle block double punch combo, the first of which doesn't have the kick punch following it). Then we swing into a horse stance (instead of an L-shaped stance)with an elbow smash, followed by a back fist....then pull back into a cat stance going back the other direction.

Hit "upcoming event's" the flyers there with pricing. Looks like $165 a day, or 3 day seminar $395 without accomidations $585 with accomidations. I used to be stationed very close to there, that resort is really nice, or used to be.