Shorinryu Sensei

No, I don't Quality of training and the background of your sensei and the system I believe are more important. The system that I study isn't that widespread, and from past experience, the organizations that were the head of it were far to political to be of any use to me. I belong to a small organization now and it seems pretty good so far. They don't interfere or ask for much, and have general guidelines for what they want you to do. No..not at all. sure, affiliation with a large organization is nice and can give you credibility to newer students and other instructors, but again, I think your training, and your sensei's training and background are what's really important.

Yep, I'd go along with this. You need to keep moving most of the time to keep them off balance and screw up an plans they have of surrounding you. Also, if one of them gets to close, you need to attempt to put that person DOWN and out of the fight with anything that will do the trick, such as a hard groin kick or vicious kick to his knee. It makes the others hesitate and think twice about getting to close to you. Fighting multiple attackers can be reltively easy if you work them against each other by keeping yourself moving. Make them bump into each other by shifting your position.

Well, it kind of depends on where I'm at inside the hosue when I start going to the dojo. From where I'm sitting right now at the computer...about 12 steps. From the kitchen...maybe half that. there are advantages to having your dojo in the converted, attached garage.

The same here. I've never seen anybody get shodan in this system in two years though. I got mine in 2 1/2 years, then 9 years to Nidan (disadvantage of living where I do), then 3 to Sandan, where I've been sinbce 1990. Obviously, I'm not in this art for the rank! lol

Glad to hear it went well for you! See, it wasn't that tough! lol

As of the first of the year, I just started a new career at age 51 with AFLAC. Yeah, the duck! lol It's good stuff people. Ask about it at work! I also teach karate 2 nights/week, and the occassional security/bouncing job here and there, usually at concerts. What better way to get back stage or in the front row for free???

Naw..we Montanans are pretty laid back sort of folk. Our idea of fun is watching tourists buying cheap bear spray and walking sticks with little bells on it, and thinking they are going to be safe from grizzly bear while walking in the woods. We have a saying..."Do you know the differance between black bear, and grizzly bear "scat" (poop)? Yeah, grizz scat has tiny bells in it and smells like pepper."

Well said I-Self! Although I don't have any firsthand background knowledge in the perils of abnormal breathing and tension in the martial arts causing harm, I have read the same thing that I-Self just stated numerous times in books and on the web. I believe it is well documented.

Agreed...good idea WG. If you have 6 new people for their first lesson, I'd get the advanced belts working on something they can do pretty much unbsupervised, such as one-steps/self-defense techniques against, for example, a front grab. We do those a lot and my people can do them without my help most of the time. Then you should take the newbies (aka "fresh meat" ) and start them on the basics. Blocks, stances, kicks. I don't know how klong your class is, but that should easily take up an hour to an hour and a half just for those. By then, you can have the advanced people working on their kata. Have each senior student take turns and call each kata 3-5 times. Have the next senior student in attendance watch the kata and make corrections. That's very good practice for them also, or if you want, you can do that and have that senior student work for a while with the new students on their basics. Let me know how it went.

Fuse (I don't think there's a "i" in the name) Kise is the 10th Dan GrandMaster of Kenshinkan, a branch of Matsumura Seito Shorinryu. The late OSensei Yuichi Kuda and Sensei Fuse Kise were both students of the late OSensei Hohan Soken, who was the grand-nephew of the late GM Matsumura Soken. I have never worked with Sensei Kise, but have worked with a few of his high American students that left his organization in the 1980-90's. Sensei Kise is a very small man of stature, but can deliver an incredible amout of power in a technique. From his students that I have talked to, he is VERY good and not to be taken lightly because of his size. I believe he's somewhere close to 5'3" tall or so. Do a search for sensei Kise on Google..there should be lots out there on him. I hope this helps.

You have 5 years of training in that system and are a brown belt. Certainly you have some idea of what you would like to do? Anyway, keep to the normal routine as much as possible. Do your normal warmups and whatever you do in a normal class to get ready to train. I'd avoid sparring, as it could open the dojo and sensei up to liability to have an "underling" (no offense meant here) running that aspect of class. Work a lot on techniques you are very comfortable working with. Don't try to impress the class with anything new of fancy. Kata are a good way to eat up class time in your situation also. Be confident and in charge. Think to yourself.."What would sensei do here?" I hope this helps a little? In my class, brown belts start learning how to teach and get the chance to teach about once/twice per month.

You've never heard of "runners" in the military? Long distance running began with runners carrying messages back and forth to troops, or back to base from the battle. Relay runners didn't pass batons like they do today, but rather messages from one runner to the next. Javelin, discus and hammer throwing was competition with combat weapons of the times.

[ Unfortunately, you're just a tad bit too far away for me to visit. I did, however, respond to a post here in this forum and included links to various online video clips. Maybe what you see and listen to there will help wash out some of that offal you were fed (take special note of the clips with grandmaster Jimmy Woo talking. A proud, yet humble man who often taught his classes in casual 70's attire. And yes, he wore a black belt... to hold up his pants. hehe) Unfortunately, I'm on a slow dialup setup where I get at BEST a 48000bps connection, and often a 36000 or less. It takes me forever to download and run videos on this piece of dung! It's not my PC, but the part of town I live in. Old wiring. I've checked thsi PC at friends homes and it works fine there.

Of course not, but body size can be a huge factor in the sport of judo.

Yeah...like I said, I'm an old fart! I'm 51 years old...dang near a senior citizen!

ABSOLUTLY!!! As for starting earlier, back in the early 70's (yeah, I'm an old fart) there weren'tmany martial arts schools to choose from where I live. We had a choice between TaeKwonDo and Hawaiian Kempo...period! Both of the instructors of those schools often went out to the bars looking for fights. The Kempo instructor (I saw this happen several times in fact) would walk out on the dance floor while the band was on break...drunker than a skunk..and yell "I'm a karate black belt and I can kick all your a$$'s!!!" Well, a bouncer or two would pick him up and toss him into the street. Not what I wanted, nor was the TKD instructors much better. My main regret was not being able to start at a younger age. I was just out of the Army in January of '75 and found a friend of mine had just started taking Shorinryu classes. I liked the sensei immediately, and the system. I'll also always regret I never had the opportunity to go to Okinawa to train. *sigh*

It isn't listed, but I've been a Sandan since 1990.

White Warlock -- the other guy I talked to on this forum last year also said what I have seen here locally is not typical of San Soo schools. What their roots are..I don't know. The head instructor did tell me the system is based on Chinese prisons, where practioners of San Soo would take other prisoners and practice techniques on them to see what would break bones, maine or kill...not a pretty history if you ask me. But again, these people are my only expose to the art, and they have left a bad taste in my mouth because of it. I don't know what affiliation they are with, but I'll ask around a bit and see if I can find out. I haven't been in their dojo in over a year.

Yes, sumo is a martial art. Technically, track and field events, shooting a gun and many other things are also. Basically, anything that involves war/training for war is classified as a martial (meaning warring) art. With all the obese people in the world, particularily the USA, I'm not surprised if it became popular here.

Didn't I see that on a 3 Stooges show years ago? lol Actually, not a bad tactic at all...just sort of chickensh*t.

Actually, if you scroll back, there are several references to honorary BB's and pre-BB's (between 1st kyu and shodan).

You have to get your shodan? Why??? Fireka, you need to shift your goals to something like "I want to train and be the best that I can be in the martial arts", rather htan setting a goal of a shodan. it will come in it's own time with work, patience and perseverience. If you're going into the Navy, there will be many people I would think with varied martial arts backgrounds for you to train with, either on base in your barracks, or an on post dojo or instructor. The arts are EVERYWHERE now, as compared to when I was in the service from 1972-1978. You may get stationed in Okinawa for example, where many of the finest traditional martial arts (authentic) masters in the world are located. All on an island a mere 18 miles long. Take advantage of that if you can. My own sensei did while in the Navy from '69-71.

My thoughts EXACTLY!!! Natural, in many of your posts you have said what a "bad-*" you are, and that you can beat everybody and nobody can touch you. Come on Natural, you're 15 years old. Nobody is THAT good, especially at the stage you're at. Like others have said, if you have that same attitude in the dojo, nobody's going to like or repspect you for long. Confidence is good...bragging and showing off isn't. I've had students like that in my own class, and they don't last long. I'll boot them out the door. Agreed! Just chill out a little Natural. If you're as good as you say (and think) you are, then your actions speak much louder than your words do. Ever heard of "walk softly but carry a big stick"?

Ikku (1st kyu) to shodan here. Talking about "honorary black belts", I also hold a legitimate (I'm told it's good in any dojo in the American Korean Karate Association) 3rd Dan in TKD...and never taken a TKD class in my life! lol

Living in Montana, many people wear cowboy boots as a part of regular attire, whether in a business suit, or jeans. With the only exception of a guy on the ground, and the attacker "putting the boots to them", I've never seen anybody do a kick in a fight yet, and I hang out and go dancing weekly at the local cowboy bar. The primary sport in these parts is hunting. So far, I haven't seen anybody whip out a 30.06 and shoot anybody, so I really can't say whether it is true or not. The majority of fights I've seen (I've bounced quite a bit also) are the "hockey style" fights, where they are flailing their arms, hitting just about everything except where it will do the most good, and yes, ending up on the ground much of the time because nobody lands a good, clean blow to any part of the anatomy to end the fight.