Rick_72

Why do you have to prove it?

A lot of good points here. I don't know if I'd disagree with it, but I'd question one of your bullets....-Does not think his/her style is better than another....I think believing your training in the best system is essential to giving it your all. If you don't believe that what your doing is the best way, why would you be doing it at all? However, you don't have to be cocky or obnoxious about it to believe your style is the best.

No you know what.....after thinking about it, I goober'd that up.....its Pinan Shodan that has the punch, kick under on the backside....duh! Nidan has forward hand punches going back.

Yeah, I wouldn't try to do a kata in competition that I didn't know extremely well. Its better to do a lower kata and nail it, than strugle through a higher ranking kata.

If you Pinan's are anything like ours, I would suggest Nidan because it has more kicks in it. Our Pinan Shodan only has one kick in it. The punch kick under in Nidan is a good technique. Pinan's are kind of short for competition though, do you know any longer kata's that use both hand and foot techniques?

P.A.L., not trying to hijack your thread, but I noticed that you train in Kobayashi Shorin Ryu. I train in Matsumura Seito, and I'm getting ready to move (military orders). I've spoken to an Kobayashi school near my new duty station, because I'm not sure if Matsumura Seito will be available in the area I'm moving to. Do you think many of the techniques and katas that I already know transfer well to Kobayashi from Matsumura Seito?

Do you realize that there are old guys on Okinawa that are "master's" of different disciplines of Karate that were made to study and practice a single Kata for 10 years before they were allowed to learn another one? What does that tell you about modern day thinking in the arts? What it tells me is that I have a lot more deep thinking to do before I've unlocked the bunkai of any of the Kata that I practice. If Kata is useless that why should I train in any martial art at all? What does practicing any technique whatsoever do for my skill in fighting or self defence? I submit that while the fighters that you speak of may not be practicing Kata in the form you and I understand, they most certainly are practicing pre arranged technique's to counter specific attacks. And what is Kata? Kata teach's balance, concentration, discipline, and helps with conditioning and flexibility. It takes the basic technique's of your particular style of maritial arts and applies them to situations so that you build muscle memory of that particular body movement. For a technique to work does it have to be executed flawlessly? Heck no, it just has to be executed with good timing. But the more your actually practicing those technique's the less you have to think about which one to perform. Try this: Stand in front of someone and let them throw strikes at you, any strikes they want to. See how you react. With your background, and the years you've been involved in training you should be blocking and countering almost simultaneously without thought about 80% of the time. I enjoy practicing Kata, simply because it allows me the ability to train in Karate alone. When I'm on a deployment, or if I'm sitting in my house bored I can jump up and practice in any room of my house or hotel and practice those aspects that I mentioned above. Martial arts that have no Kata are nearly impossible to practice without some sort of special equipment, or a partner. Martial arts are about reaction without thought. Which comes from muscle memory, which is built through repetition, which Kata provides.

Don't step backwards away from front kicks, your just giving your opponent time to set back up for another one. Use your side step, however, move forward at the same time (preferably towards whichever side he threw the kick from, that way your behind his leg). When your fighting a kicker you want to jam him up, take away the legs. Once your close he's going to be off balance because his kick hit nothing but air, and your inside of his legs. Go to work with your hands, and as he attempts to back away, use your kicks. Back leg round kicks are just about the slowest techinique there is, besides spinning techiniques. You can either move out of the way, or you can step into your opponents body (this won't allow anything that hurts to land on you, maybe his thigh), and go to work on his guts with your hands.

I always fight belly to belly (same side as my opponent). It makes no difference which side to me, although I'd prefer to have my strong side (right) back. By having my strong side forward, I'm not landing my hardest blows on my opponent because I'm now using my strong side as my set up. I prefer to use my weak side (left) for quick set up techinique's (jab's, front kicks, etc. etc.), then level off on my opponent with my strong side once I have them off balance with quick techniques.

That sounds like the way things are now! LOL!

Are you sure it was a sense of "entitlement" and not just realizing their goals? Shouldn't all martial artist's young and old have goals of making black belt? I always say "when" not "if", because if I think there's a chance I can't make it then I never will.

I believe it is a leg sweep. We use that step when stepping into Sanchin Dachi and Naihanchi Dachi (the bunkai in Naihanchi kata's is definately a sweep) stances, but not when stepping into a Zenkutsu Dachi.

I notice your in Tampa....what about McDill Air Force Base Gym? I'm in the Marine Corps, and at several of our base's, mostly in Japan, we have Karate class's at our gym's. You won't get rich, or make a ton of money teaching there, however, you can make a few bucks and you'll be teaching adults. Just get in touch with their community service's people (I don't know what the Air Force calls it), and see what kind of deal and space you can strike up with them. All military gym's have aerobic's classroom's, and their not always filled up with class's.

What business expense's are you referring to? As far as travel cost's for the "Master's", those are covered by the students receiving the training, or seminar. Those guys don't shell out money from their own pocket, or the organization's bank to travel to their schools abroad. The organization may host a web site, or something of that nature, but those cost's are low and are bringing them in more money than their costing them. You're very correct about martial arts in Japan and Okinawa before the war. However, martial arts training was outlawed in the surrender agreement after WW II. It was revived, and ultimately became main stream again after the war by the desire of those foreign military personnel (which were overwhelmingly American) stationed in Japan. I mearly said it could have been lost forever, it may very well have caught on again, but it took the relaxing of the occupation law to get it back into mainstream. I'd rather not elaborate too much on the details of my trip, I'll just say I found it rather disturbing, and looking back on it now comical. As a mere student of a specific martial art, I shouldn't have to bear the burden of someone else's political problem, however, that's how I was received over there.

I was going to start a new thread for this, but I'll go ahead and post what I saw on my trip to Okinawa (that I just returned from a few days ago) here. First of all, Martial Arts is killing itself as a community. No one from the outside is doing it for us, its an inside job. There are so many "organizations" out there that are so disparaging to each other, not openly, but disparaging just the same, that its no wonder none of us can see things on the same sheet of music. Everyone has their own organization, and they are all taking in profits from their "sanctioned schools". The reason I say profits, is because those parent organizations really don't have to do anything taxing (short of loaning their name, the occasional picture, and listing all of the organizations students by grade in their master logbook) in the training of those other schools students, yet they receive money from them for belt testing, and kata seminars. All profit. While I enjoy my training, and miss it when I'm not able to attend, I'm starting to think the entire premise of martial arts is a big money grab. I'm not going to elaborate too much on that, I'm sorry. I don't need the kind of political pressure that could come down on me from spelling out that statement, that is, if I want to keep training. I will say this, Okinawan martial arts in particular could have been completely lost had it not been for American service members wanting to learn it sometime after WW II, because the practice of martial arts had been outlawed in Okinawa after the surrender. It was American Soldiers and Marines stationed on Okinawa that comprised the first class's being taught by Okinawan master's after WW II. From that time it spread to the rest of the world, via many different means. The politics of martial arts oranization, and money is the reason all of the different martial arts will never get the same respect level. Someone from one style will never get the respect they may very well deserve from people from another style when they walk into the school. There is no real oversight on martial arts schools, short of the specific organization that they belong to. If there was one organization providing overwatch, like a board of governors, comprised of "experts" from all of the different styles than maybe. Will that ever happen? Doubt it. As far as belts go, what difference does it make really? I'm still Kyu graded, but there are several black belts in my own school that I can run circles around, in kata, kobudo, and bunkai. Not to mention what I could do to them in a fight. That doesn't mean I don't show them respect! Just because I'm more athletically inclined, stronger, or faster than them, doesn't mean I should feel superior to them in the study of martial arts, because they've put in the time and effort to get where they are. Its up to me to put in that time and effort if I want to be where they are. That's my outlook on belts. I respect, and listen to every black belt that walks through the door to my school, whether or not they're a Dan in my style or another. I'm quite certain they have something to share with me as far as training goes, regardless of the style they came from. If everyone had that attitude, martial arts might be a better place. Black belts in my school that come from different styles to train with us wear their black belts to class. They still have to test through our ranks, and rarely give teaching to senior Kyu grades regarding our style, but they absolutely have things to share on techniques common to all styles, like fighting. If you can't tell already, my trip to Okinawa really discouraged me on marital arts. I got a chance to see the ugly politics of martial arts organization. Frankly, I suppose if I wasn't under contract (which I do agree with in a martial arts school by the way), I'd probably quit training in martial arts all together. I want to train, and thats it.....no politics, no money talk, no "my organization is better than yours, and your teacher is no good" crap, just training. I want to go to class, sweat my brains out, feel like I learned something, and go home feeling good. Not go to class, sweat my brains out, wonder if the stuff I'm learning is going to be respected at another school of my same style or another style, and be ticked off when I get home. Unfortunately, more often than not its the later....and my trip to Okinawa only made matters worse.

I started when I was 31, with my sons. I wouldn't discount competition because of your age. Most tournaments have an age bracket 18-34 for under belts, and its usually some pretty good competion. The sparring is really fun to watch, because the under belts lack good control, so they really tend to be very physical. I enjoy competing, its a fun experience because you get to see so many different disciplines of martial arts.

Actually the arm posture has a very good use...unfortunately the movie didn't really show its bunkai. Your bringing your hands up, in a fan like motion, to defend against someone grabing ahold of you. Once your hands make contact with your opponents wrists your grabbing them, pulling them down to your sides, while at the same time executing a front snap kick to the groin or knee. Its executed while your opponent is trying to grab you, not after they already have. Try it, its a pretty simple technique.

Yeah, in Shorin Ryu we have a kick from a similar crane stance (similar looking to the famous "Karate Kid" kick), however, one of our feet is still firmly rooted to the ground when we execute it.

Name: Rick 2nd Kyu Shorin Ryu Matsumura Seito (Kenshin Kan) 2nd Kyu Kobudo

There is plenty of real, applicable bunkai to different stances....its really up to you to see them. On the other hand, consider the conditioning benefit of those "animal" stances. Ever sit in a low tight "cat stance" for any amount of time, while your instructor is explaining things to you? If it ain't burning, you ain't doin it right! Consider all the things you do in a normal class, and think about the conditioning application of all of it. I don't know about you but after class my entire body is tired. So that must mean I'm working hard right?

Strategies and tactics are common sense. However, it takes a good instructor to begin the thought process. Meaning, due to experience someone who is instructing martial arts is normally able to immediately see the openings and such, that a less experienced practitioner will not. A good instructor will explain things in such a manner as to get his student to start thinking more clearly, to where their common sense starts working.

Sweet! Very interesting video with Hohan Soken!

Really neat gymnastics.....super strong, athletic students.....great training facility.....not a stitch of applicable bunkai. I'm too old to do flips! lol.

Prior to injuring my back I would train a minimum of 8 hours a week. Occaisionly I'd go to the dojo 10 hours a week. Lately I'm lucky to get in 4-5 hours a week. I'm going to Okinawa this week fora couple of weeks, and will do some training there. When I get back I plan to get back to 8 hours a week.

Well I plan on training in martial arts for a very long time....my oldest son is 10, and my youngest 6....they'll also be involved for a very long time. I'm very protective (maybe to a fault) over their long term health, maybe because I've done so many things to jeoporadize mine over the years haha. I have to say though, over my years I've punched many a hard object, and have some strange looking knuckles (that sometimes ache when I train) to show for it. I really don't see any a purpose in punching wood to be honest. Break enough boards and it becomes expensive, I can beat the snot out of a floor bag all day long and don't have to replace it for years. Plus boards don't counter, or make you all that tired. I say spar against rotating opponents, its more fun, tiring, and gauge's your skill better.