orionryu

I meant to qoute you but I have no idea how :: Interesting video. It reminds me of a Sensei I have from Japan. He was a live-in (Deshi) student for 15 years. He was trained in all his weapons and empty hand stuff for the first 5 or 6 years. Then they began teaching kata and how it applied to the stuff he learned. His bunkai was vast. He always had movements from a kata that could be applied to each weapon along with several empty hand things. He was very knowledgable. Great guy. End qoute. When you say he studied empty hand and weapon stuff for five to six years, what do you mean exactly? Just kihon and he didn't study any kata till after that? What empty hand stuff did he study before kata?

My former sensei was a student of Armstrong's. Maybe if I can get in touch with him, I can get us some news. I'll get back to you after I find his number.

hahaha, thats ironic. if i had room for a heavy bag i wouldn't need a personal makiwara...oh, and did someone say they use it in the doctors office? lol. the psychatrist office maybe.

I see where you could condition the hand that way. But isn't part of the makiwara to develop a lethal punch? In which case, with the personal makiwara is it even possible to use a full powered technique while holding it? Maybe it is, but I would imagine it would be cumbersome.

That makes sence, doesn't look like something that should be used in free kumite without a lot of control. My confusion came because certain aspects of the technique looked like it was used commonly to change direction with a strike. Does anyone else see this? It almost appeared as though the technique was best - if not only - used when fighting multible opponets.

well, the warriors journey is his own. I do not share your views of a shodan being a beginer to that extent. I can simply say that is what I would do. I don't think - or even expect - his orginization would remove him from his rank. But I would hold myself to that standard without a sensei's demand.

hai, it does very much. thank you. could you tell me more about this personal sized makiwara?

Apologize, then take off that black belt and go find better training. You lack control. Your sensei apparently did not teach it to you, or you didn't pay attention. I feel more comfortable fighting qualified shodan's than yellow, orange, green, purple poka dot whatever belts because that black cloth should mean you have control over your techniques and your enviroment. If you do not, make it the next step in your training to master the tactic. As far as apologies go, if I broke someones bones after they tried to kill me, I'd apologize to them for there pains. Why? Because it's part of my code of honor. Warriors are a cut above the rest, you no longer have the right to claim things like 'he did it to me I can do it to him.' A warrior is not a child. You can demonstrate your superiority to your non-warrior peers only by demonstrating compassion, mercy, kindness, and honor in ANY situation. Your aggression earns you know respect and you are beggining to be defeated by exploiting it. Also, I'd like to state I am a biker. lol, and while I understand where the stereotype comes from, biker rallies are not full of drunkard fist fighters. Thats actually where the term 'one percenters' comes from. Only one percent of those of us intrigued by the sport are the stereotypical 'outlaw biker' type.

I would love to build a makiwara, unfortunately I am living in a rental house and i don't know how the land lord would feel about that. I will find a way. My question about practiceing finger tip strikes through conditioning is, can it be that necissary to condition shoto strikes to the point that it could cause pain or discomfort? As I recall, the finger tip strike was meant to target soft, difficult to reach locations on the body, Such as the front of the neck on either side of the adams apple, as area that would be exposied even with most samurai head gear. If the targets are soft areas why condition your fingertips to a point of any discomfort at all? I understand some conditioning, if nothing else just to get mentally used to the idea of striking an object with this relatively fragile part of the hand. But if you want to hit something harder on the body, why not use your fist? Also, can you not break objects such as concrete blocks without painful hand conditioning? I was under the asumption that to break an object was a formula based on velocity, mass, and centering mass into a concetrated portion of the body, i.e. the first two knuckles. I know this isn't the exact formula but I hope it made you remember what I might be talking about. lol. Where the knukle pushups are concerend. Do you think lanolium would be good surface as well? Like in a kitchen?

oh! I'm very sorry. It's typically refereed to as a cross or stomp kick.

I am having a lot of difficulty understanding, applying, and performing this technique? Can anyone help? any video clips i could study or just general advice? how do you perform it personally? when is it effective?

This is hard to say. Remember there was a time when colored belts did not exist. White and black. You knew your stuff or you didn't. Personally I'd like to go back to that. But since the issue isn't 'how long till blue' or 'how long till yellow' I'll stick to the topic. To which I think the answer is still vague. It doesn't matter how long you study if you are capable physically, mentally, and spiritualy of handling the responsibilities of the title 'shodan'. To which unfortunately many pracitioners who wear the dark sash are not ready for it and do not honor what it represents. You must remember that going to a dojo twice a week will not prepare you with the speed that someone training 30 days a month will. Not that any course is wrong. I'll say this... You are ready to wear a black belt when your understanding of the art is so firm you can begin to teach it, when your understanding of honor is so strong you live it, when you are capable of meeting the demands set by your art for wearing the cloth, and when you no longer have to fight. I'll leave this last one up for interpretation. Since the journey of the warrior is personal, it really matters very little what anyone else thinks is a 'reasonable time frame'. After all, no matter what style you study someone has probably bashed it. It didn't stop you from studying.

Where I study, we learn very early in our training a thing called "The Seven Pillars" These pillars all hold up one thached roof, I won't bore you with the details of this philosophy, but the first three are Kihon, Kata, and Kumite. The tao of technique, the tao of forms, and the tao of combat. The problem with people who argue against kata is that they don't understand what kata is meant to teach. Actually, many people who enjoy kata don't understand what it was meant to teach because it is certainly applicable, and yes can be a relaxing spiritual exersise as well if you practice it that way. It can also be very physically demanding. The things it teaches are strategy, execution, the full possible range of motions in any technique, movement, perception, reading of intentions, just to name a few. Kumite teaches t's own set of stadards and in many ways 'tao of combat' is a misnomer because kumite is not like combat at all. They are right when they say many techniques in kata are not used in kumite. Thats why you do the kata, because without it you would not learn the techniques. And Kihon has it's own set of principles. You can not be complete in this art without all three. You can be very good at any one of them, but not complete without all of them. If one of the pillars is missing, the roof will cave in. It's human nature to pick a favorite aspect of training, but to be a well rounded warrior we must balance our training in every aspect.

Hello. I look forward to meeting all of you and learning what I can from your experinces. I hope I have something to offer your community.