Shorinryu Sensei

JJ is an excellent self-defense art if it is available in your area. It's biggest downfall is if you have to defend against moret than one opponent, as the majority (and feel free to correct me on this people) of it's techniques are taking your opponent to the ground, which leaves you vulnerable to his friends that are watching their buddy get hsi arm broken. What else do you have available in your area besides Kungfu, JJ and TKD? As dinesh stated, and I concur, Shorinryu is an excellent system, but not nearly as widespread as many other systems.

Of course, everybody will have differing opinions on this, so heres's mine: Take the TKD for this. TKD is a good workout and will give you great flexability. Skip the TKD if this is what you want. My personal opinion is that TKD is very poor in practical self-defense applications. They have lots of "flashy" techniques that looks real cool, but won't work in a street situation unless your opponent is very unskilled or stands there saying "hit me". This is, of course, my opinion, and not shared by all. There are some good TKD schools that teach the older version of TKD (less flashy), and I guess they are much better and realistic towards self-defense. Check out the school and look at what they do from a realistic viewpoint. What system of kungfu are you looking at, and do either of these schools have a website that we can take a look at? It would help us if they did.

Actually, I did know a self-promoted "Master" a number of years ago that would kick long time instructors out of his association (American Korean Karate association--now defunct I think) for daring to disagree with his policies and methods. It might help if you we knew what system you are practicing/teaching? He might be able to pull the school out from under you, and probably a bunch of the students also, but he can't take your skills away. Find another organization if you think yo uneed to affiliate with one, suck it up, and start all over again. With 20 years experience, you should be able to start fresh again with little problem. some of the students went with you? Good, that gives you a starting base core group taht you can build on. Also, if you ran the tournaments for this other guy and made him money...why not have one of your own down the road a bit? Invite your former "friend", but I'll bet he won't go to it. Other participants should still attend if they aren't affiliated with this other guy. Don't you think it's about time that you and your wife started seeing some fruit from your labors?

If I expected perfect techniques out of ANY of my students, regardless of the rank they are testing for, then no one would make it past white belt. I haven't seen anybody, including myself, that can do a kata perfectly, and I've been working on some of them for nearly 30 years now. In my opinion, there is no such thing as perfection of a kata. As Fish just mentioned, the lower the belt being tested for, the more leniency I give to the person being tested. The higher they go up the belt chain, the more i expect from them. I will be testing my senior student for his sandan in the middle of next month, and I know he will make mistakes. I hope they will be tiny, relatively minor ones, but I have total confidence that he will pass. At this point, he is already where I want him to be with his knowledge and skills. I expect him to do a very fine job, but I do not expect him to be perfect. The past head of our system, the late Sensei Yuichi Kuda once told me that he didn't like people videotaping his kata because of the mistakes he made in them. To have the top person in the system say that just reinforces that there is no such thing as perfection in a kata, an no two people can do a kata exactly alike. To untrained eyes, they may appear the same, but to an experienced eye, you can see subtle differances. Coco, you sensei has you run laps if you make a mistake on a kata and other physical penalties if you mess up something? Son, that is WRONG! That is not being a good teacher, but rather an overbearing, power hungry person. Since you choose to defend his methods, even after numerous times admitting that he is running a McDojo, then you get what you are paying for. You are also, I suspect, being brainwashed by this guy. It's unfortunate that I don't live in your vicinity so that I could sit in on some of his classes and see this sort of behavior for myself. I'd gladly drive a hundred miles or so to see that sort of a class for myself.

I wonder who would win a fight between Yuichi Kuda, Ken Penland, Greg Ohl or Ron Lindsey? What? You've never heard of those guys? *tsk* Now, if you would have posted this... ...in your origional post, I would have had some point of reference and had some idea who they were. This also would have helped in your origional post.

Welcome Yukimi Ajikuro, it's good to see another Shorinryu person on here.

Hi Sean, welcome to the forum! I lived in Houston (know where Traders Village is?) for 6 months back in 1999, and in my spare time I visited numerous dojo's around the city. My biggest suggestion is to AVOID any dojo that advertises "Master" or "GrandMaster" so-and-so. I'm not going to name any names, but I went into at least a dozen dojo's around the city that had "Masters" in them, and I wasn't very impressed by them, or their black belt students. They sure wanted me to sign on the dotted line though, especially when they learned I was an experienced instructor of another system and had just moved down there. Just my opinion.

Pardon my ignorance here bud, but as I stated before, I've never heard of either of these guys. Why do you say neither would win? Just curious.

Question: At the end of your question, you put this --> (sp?) I assume you're putting that there because you, as a brown belt (according to your signature) in your system, aren't sure how to spell the name of the system which (again assuming here) you have been training in for well over a year now? Is that correct??? Where's the "head-up-your-*" Emoticon when you need them?

Well, if I had any idea who either of these people were, maybe I could make an educated guess. Are they the two new busboy's down at Chinatown restaurant?

I'm seeing a definite pattern developing in the two different posts of yours I've seen tonight. This forum is for martial artists (and non-MA's) to DISCUSS and ASK QUESTIONS to the world at large. You are not doing that. Rather, in this post, and the other I saw this evening, all you are doing is pounding your chest and telling everybody how good you are. This is NOT a good attitude for a martial artist IMHO. Have you ever heard of the saying..."Walk softly and carry a big stick."? Simple words with very deep meaining behind them.

They height of your stances makes no differance in your punching power. However, a loose, sloppy stance will weaken punches because you won't have as solid of a base to transfer the power of the punch to the object you're striking. I'm not sure if balanced is the correct term to use though. Stonger, yes. More solid, yes...but balanced? But as you said, lower stances sacrifice mobility.

Tonfa are used and learned in pairs normally, but can certainly be used individually. I begin teaching them to a student with one in each hand because they are just an extension of the arm, and at the point I teach the weapon (sankyu) they already have a solid grasp of the system. With slight modifications, the basic blocks and strikes of karate and kobudo are the same in our system, so the transition from empty hand to weapons training is pretty smooth. As with any weapon, proper instruction to get the maximum benefit from each weapon is important. It's very easy to teach yourself bad technique, and then have difficulty unlearning that technique when you begin learning the weapon properly.

You said it yourself. You're in a McDojo. The fact that your sensei percieves Americans as lazy makes me wonder why he lives in this country, and why he's taking Americans money under false pretenses by operating a McDojo? SHAME ON HIM! And I'd say you're just as bad if you stay with him after coming to the realization that you are training in a McDojo. Look, nobody has forced your sensei to teach inferior techniques, charge HUGE test fees and be soft on his students, did they? It was by HIS choice, and nobody else's that he does so. Right? Then who is at fault here? Us lazy Americans? Or a Greedy foreigner that see's easy pickings from the martial arts public that is paying his bills and assuming they aren't getting ripped off..which they apparently are!

$130/week? Really? Wow, I didn't know that..sorry. Well, it is still worth a shout to the guy to see if one of his people is teachign in Houston. Trust me, you're not going to find anything more authentic or that works anywhere. I don't know Sensei Lindsey personally, as in I've never met him, but I know "about" him through instructors I have worked with, and I have a couple of home made videos Sensei Lindsey sent me years ago. The man is as good as it gets in authentic Okinawan martial arts, and he is incredibly knowledgable. I'd say he's easily in the top 5 in the US, possible anywhere outside of Okinawan itself.

Of course, everybody will have their own opinions of which system/instructor to recommend, myself included, but if you contact this gentleman, Sensei Ron Lindsey of Bastrop, Tx, I believe he has students that are teaching in Houston, and in my opinion, there is no better system for a good, authentic, effective martail arts system anywhere! This is a link to his website. I HIGHLY recommend talking to him and seeing if he has one of his students in Houston. http://www.houston.iapc.net/~kmap/styles/whitecrane.html

Try approaching your sensei with a 6-pack of his favorite brew in your hand. It always works for my students! OK, you need to quit worrying about if your sensei will get mad or offended. You are paying him for instruction, and you have every right to ask him questions about training. Be respectful of course, not demanding. Unless of course, he's one of those "Me God, you pond scum..do what I say and don't ask questions" instructors? I've seen some of those in Korean and Japanese dojo's. I'd walk out the door real quick with those people. On the insurance/liability question. I know that everybody is paranoid as hell about getting sued, and I am NOT suggesting anybody take the approach and attitude that I have about it, but I have never carried insurance of any kind on my dojo, nor will I. I have my students sign a release form (almost worthless, I know) and give them my standard lecture before they take their first class on "This is karate, not square dancing, and the possability of injury is always present, so you do this at your own risk.", and then they sign it. As a lawyer explained it to me, yes, they can still sure me, but they have to prove neglience on my part in court, because my laibility form uses expressed, instead of implied liability. Also, I have been an instructor since 1978 teaching people from ages 6-70+, and I have a pretty good network of fellow sensei scattered around the Northwestern US, and not one of them has ever been sued, nor has ever known any other sensei that has ever been sued for injuries recieved during classes. Not to say it can't happen, but most people go into the arts realizing that we're not just doing pretty moves here, but rather that we are learning to hurt people, and they accept taking the chance of getting hurt themselves. OK, I've said my piece, and you're certainly welcome to support the insurance companies if you wish to, but I won't. Someday, it may prove me wrong, but I think as long as you teach a good, reasonable safe (accidents can happen in any activity) class, I think the chances of a lawsuit are minimal.

Some states, I think New York and California, they are totally illegal outside of a dojo, while others, like Montana, it's perfectly legal to own them. Heck, we can carry a unconcealed gun on our hips just about anywhere and it's legal. Getting a concealed gun permit is real easy also. I know the cops will take nunchaku away from kids if they see them swinging them around on the street, but I've used them in my class while teaching in a city park, and they never said anything to me about it. I believe that all (most?) states don't allow them concealed on your person

I don't know about the laws in the UK, but in the USA, if you're going to pull out a pair of nunchaku or carry them for protection, you might as well carry a pistol instead. The police and courts view them much the same, and a pistol is far deadlier.

I'm a very defense oriented fighter and prefer block/move/counter techniques as opposed to aggressive, offensive techniques. As to the amount of force used, that would depend on the situation. If the opponent is larger or stronger than me, I would use more force. Same with multiple opponents, massive aggression, or if weapons are apparent. If it's just some drunk that can hardly stand on their own two feet without falling, I won't do much other than misdirect their force and drop them on their butt a few times. I have no desire to hurt anybody if it can be avoided, but I won't hesitate to drop someone if the situation warrants it.

Sorry, can't help you. Some vidios that I would recommend avoiding however are by George Alexander. They are expensive, and very poor quality. I used to make kata videos for my students that wanted them, but I loaned them all out to students and didn't get them back. My camcorder died, so they're out of luck until I get around to buying a replacement.

As to which I prefer, it didn't really matter now that I think about it. I think it's good to be on different surfaces because they each have their own strengths and weakness's. Of all of them, the one I disliked the most would be the tile floor. It gets slippery when the sweat starts running, and slips and falls happen because of it. One of the cement surfaces I trained on was also very slick cement..not a rough surface at all. It was slippery also. I have think carpet over padding over cement on my dojo floor now, and I like that. Good traction/footing and it makes you work just a bit harder on balance with some techniques. I don't have any mats, so it's nicer than cement for floor techniques. The gymnastics floor is great for sparring and takedowns/breakfalls, but really sucks for many kata's as balance is very difficult on it because it gives so much. I taught at that gymnastics gym for over 3 years and it was a sweet deal. I paid $100/month for rent and had a key to the place.

Yeah, it was a small neighborhood grocery with a cement floor and walls in the basement. Not so good for breakfall and takedown practice.

My dojo is in a converted garage attached to the back of my house. To give you some idea of where else I've taught classes: High school gyms/stages Telephone building meeting room Grocery store basement. Commercial store (my own business) City Parks Church recreation room High school/college classroom My living room Garage Gymnastics school on tumbling floor. Types of floors I've taught on: Hardwood Cement Carpet Carpet over plywood over coil springs (gymnastics floot) Grass Dirt Tile Variety is the spice of life ya know!

Self-defense isn't my primary goal, but it was one of the goals I had when I began, and is still to this day. I've been at it since January of 1975 and the main reason I started was curiosity because it was pretty new to this area, and Bruce Lee was "the man" everybody wanted to be like at that time. Because it's FUN! Also, it has become a way of life. Not really. Fun, self-defense, fascination, exercise, friends..those and more keep me going.