Shorinryu Sensei

Wow..that's really VERY interesting..and also says something too! Thanks for that info.

Agreed! Looking at the responses on forums from non-American people, it appears that many of them see the USA as a very violent, gun-toting society of street gangs running rampant (thanks Hollywood), terrorists everywhere, our own government out ot get us, and people getting killed all the time just down the street!

I'd like some feedback from others on this, but speaking for myself and my experiences, I've found that people in general, the longer that they are involved in the arts, are the ones that are LEAST likely to get involved in fights if there is no other alternative. As for how many I have killed with my bare hands? None so far, nor with guns, knives, automobiles or anything else. Have I been in real fights? Yes. None that I started myself, verbally or physically. The worst was when I put a guy in the hospital with a broken nose, cheekbone, two broken teeth and a mild concussion. Saying that having self-defense skills makes me prone to using them is a concept held by many people not involved in the arts. We're often perceived as "modern day gunslingers" just looking for a fight to use our skills. That's total * for the majority of martial artists out there. Yes, thereare always those that will prove me wrong, and those are the ones that you hear aboyut..."Joe Blackbelt goes out ot the bar and kicks butts every weekend..what a bunch of karate bullies!" Hey, it happens, and that Joe Blackbelt gives all of us "good" martial artist a bad rep.

I've only been on this and a couple of other forums for a few months, but I've seen this sort of reply on many threads, and to tell you the truth, it scares the hell out of me!!! I see so many people on these forums recommending and suggesting to people to carry knives and guns for protection. I've also heard this quote so many times, that I find it a very disturbing attitude..."It's better to be judged by twelve, than carried by 6". Are we becoming such a paranoid society, that we, as trainers and practioners of the martial arts, feel that that training isn't sufficient to protect ourselves and our loved ones, that we have to carry a weapon with us at all times, just in case we need it? I live in Montana, where nearly every vehicle has a gun in it no doubt, and probably 95% of the homes have a small aresenal in them. yet with all this firepower within easy access, I don't know one person here (and I know a LOT of people) that carrys anything more dangerous than a small folding pocket knife, or a Leatherman type tool on their person. Are we safer here and less threatened than elsewhere in this country? Possibly, but we still have murders every year, and there is currently at least one, possibly two serial rapists at large in this area. Homes get broken into, cars are stolen or vandalized, and this area is one of the largest meth producers in the NorthWestern USA. So yes, I'd say that this area is a fair cross section of the country, if not for the forementioned points, but for the fact that large numbers of people from California, New York, Texas, etc move up here either permanently, or seasonally. We also get literally millions of tourists up here every year, mainly from the US, but also from around the world. But do we personally arm ourselves every time we walk out of our doors? No...nor do I recommend people doing so, because a person carrying a knife of gun is more likely to pull that weapon out and use it. Late at night, as you're walking home a man comes out of the shadows and demands your wallet/purse. He is displaying a knife or gun in plain sight. What do you do? I've seen some people on some forums recommend taking your gun out and shooting the guy! People, the way I look at it is this way. Ask yourself..."What is the MOST amount of money that I have ever had in my wallet/purse at any time in my life?" $500? $1,000? 5,000??? Whatever the amount, counting credit cards if you want....is your life worth that much? Do you put a dollar amount on what your life is worth? Isn't it easier just to give the thief your wallet, report it stolen to the police, cancel your credit cards, replace those cute pictures of your children, and get on with your life? OK. I know there's going to be a ton of "what if'ers" replying to this, and sure, what if the guy says "I'm going to kill you." If the guy already has his gun out, you'd better be the quick draw champion of the world if you think you can pull yours out faster than he can pull his trigger. Personally, I think people are watching WAY to much TV and movies, and are getting WAY to paranoid about being attacked and being killed by an attacker with a weapon. Sure, it happens and we see it in the news..but how often? How many of you can personally, and honestly say, that they have been attacked by a weapon toting person, and literally was afraid for their life? I do, however, carry weapons with me every moment of my life. They are my wits, my knowledge, my awareness, and my skills as a martial artist. I know what to watch out for, and what to avoid. I know what danger signals are, and how to deal with them. Isn't that what we're supposed to be doing as martial artists? Isn't that what it's all about? Unless you're Superman, no person on this planet is perfectly safe, and never will be. But if we promote the carrying of weapons on this and other forums, especially to our youth, then aren't we spreading paranoia and fear? Just my 2 cents worth.

Literally every situation will be different..period. There are really no "general rules" other than those you use and abide by yourself. What I would do at 6'6" tall, 240lbs and 29 years of training and experience might be totally different than someone much smaller and less experienced. Personally, I won't fight unless there is absolutly no other recourse. I put a man in the hospital once with a broken nose, broken cheekbone and 2 teeth knocked out because I lost my temper and control in a self defense situation years ago. He tried to press charges and threatened to sue me, but I had to many witness's that testified to the police and district attorney that I tried to walk away and had no choice to defend myself when he attacked. I never got involved in the arts to hurt anyone, and I felt very bad about that incident afterwards. To the point I nearly quit the arts totally, but my sensei and another senior student talked me out of it. Even the policeman that answered the initial call talked to me at length about it, which I really appreciated.

https://www.24fightingchickens.com is a shotokan website with forums. I've tried numerous times to register as a user, but it never works.

OK, I've gotta dive in here. I've been doing my art since January of 1975 and I've been on the internet for around 7 years now...and it wasn't until I got on these forums...ohhhh....maybe 2 months ago that I first even HEARD of 24fightingchickens! Does this mean I have no legitimacy???

To clarify that statement...the force necessary to PROTECT YOURSELF. Clearer?

I can't find fault in what you're saying..sounds good to me! Maybe consider a #10---use only what force is necessary to stop the aggressor and to protect yourself or others from harm. I believe in most states that this is part of the definition of what the law allows you to do in a self defense situation.

Thanks smr...I'm busy trying to study for my Life/Health State Insurance Exam this coming Saturday so that I can start working for AFLAC next week. so, I was just looking at the pictures and not reading a whole lot! lol Yes, sounds quite a bit like what we're doing. Personal;ly, I love the art!

I didn't read much onb that page, but it looked like a "typical" Japanese system with low, very hard stances, high kicks, board breaking, etc. Not the way I was taught Matsumura Seito..but then again, what two instructors do it exactly the same anyway? lol

ahhhh...Google is such a wonderful search engine! lol I typed in "Ashihara Karate" (with the quotes) and got some 3,690 hits in 4/10th of a second with a 50.666bps dialup connection. Here's the link to the first one, the rest you can do yourself. http://users.iafrica.com/a/as/ashihara/

I agree...Keanu Reeves is an actor and portraying a role and has limited martial arts abilities most likely. I also, feel that I could take Bruce Lee in a fight. BRING HIM ON!!! Oh, he's dead? Well..*snapping my fingers*...DANG! As for whom I'd like to see fight? I'd pay BIG money (at least $20 Canadian) to see Jean Claude VanDamme (sp?) and Steven Segal go at it for real! Bare knuckles, no rules preferably. I know Segal has legitimate skills, but I'm curious as to whether or not he's really any good or not..and don't get me started about VanDamme. All show, no go in my personal opinion.

In all honestly, I've never even HEARD of jow ga kungfu, let alone know anything about it, but I have however been involved in Shorinryu for quite a while and believe it to be a very effective and well rounded system which, to me anyway, covers all aspects quite effectively for any given REALISTIC (note: nuclear weapons aren't included in this) self-defense situation. That's my 2 cents worth anyway. I don't know how much luck you're going to have finding somebody that does both those systems and can campare the two...but good luck!

I also agree that kata is useful and good as long as the bunkai of the kata is explored and worked on. Another point about kata is to constant practice of it teaches your muscles and mind to do movements that aren't natural, the same as a baseball player practicing catching or hitting the ball. Or a basketball player practicing dribbling, shooting baskets and various other basics drills. Kata are a form of teaching your body movements that will become automatic to you when you need them, or just to improve balance and coordination. My 2 cents worth.

I agree with Jussi Häkkinen. You should have plenty to learn at your level from what your sensei is teaching you, without worring about the bubishi. I have George Alexander's translation of it, and until I learn how to read Chinese, it's making a good paperweight!

No, mine seem to fit nicely and I can holds and manipulate them with no problems. When I ordered them I did tell them that I'm a pretty big guy (6'6"/240lbs), which might have something to do with it? Also, since I've had mine quite a while, manufacturing methods may have changed maybe between when I got mine, and you got yours? I wonder if yours could be heated and possibly the prongs could be pulled out a bit? I'd have somebody familiar with metal take a look at them first and see what they say.

Well, I was going to dive in here and help him out, but as soon as I saw the words "cat stance"..I decided not to, for the above mentioned quotes reasons. We do it the old way..there are no cat stances in any of the Pinan's as we do them. Dang..better luck next time!

If you're looking for cheap ones, forget the "good" part. Keep in mind that you get what you pay for in this life usually. I've been using sai's for about 27 years or so and went through maybe 6 pair of them before I found ones that will (hopefully anyway) last me the rest of my life. I've had them for 15 years or so, and they are very good ones from http://www.karatedo.co.jp/shureido/english/e_index.html These sai are made in Okinawa, and are TOUGH! If you take the normal sai you get from most catalogs, they are made of cheap pot metal and are rather fragile. They will work fine for kata and practicing your movements, but try to do any serious real blocking with them, and they could break on you. That's why I've gone through so many pair myself. I have not had that problem with Shureido...but they're expensive.

I also like the tonfa and haven't had a problem with sweat. I think that might be something in the finish, or the type of wood perhaps? Wait until you get to the advance tonfa....gotta love it!

Quality over quanity I'd say. I know 15 and need to learn maybe 5 more one of these days

One of the key thikngs that will make you fights look realistic is the angle of the camera in relation to the actors. For example, you want the camera to be behind at an angle to either of the actors when they make a strike/punch/kick because from the camera's view, it will look like it make contact. You don't want the camara at a 90 degree angle to your actors when they are fighting. Also important is practice, practice and more practice before you shoot the scene. Each actor should know what the other is going to do, and what you are going to do. There is little or no adlib'ing (sp?) in movies. I worked on the movie "The River Wild" with Meryl Streep (a sweetie!) and Kevin Bacon (a jerk), and for each scene shot, there was a MINIMUM of 3 practice takes before they turned on the camera, but the cameraman was watching to see how it would look. Then they would shoot the scene at least 3 times, making any small adjustments the director felt was necessary. So they ran through each scene a minimum of 6 times total.

I had a commercial dojo for 3 or 4 years with around 70 students, and I was running it 6 days/week alone. I refuse to use contracts (not good business, I know) and inb the summer months classes would dwindle down to just a couple of students. It was fun the first year...felt lik3e work the 2nd, and really sstarted to burn me out the 3rd year. Long story short, I took a bit of a sabatical from the arts, then started teaching out of my attached single car garage with about a dozen good students. I'm much happier now..less stress, and I don't have to worry about bills and can just teach the art for the sake of the art, instead of the almight dollar.

I don't know if this thread has been done before, but I thought this would be an interesting topic for instructors. Why, as an instructor, do you teach? I'm not looking for assistant instructors that teach because their instructor tells them to, or it's a requirement for them to do so. I'm looking more for the head sensei of a dojo/dojang. Why, when we could be sitting on our duffs watching some reality show instead, do we drop everything, schedule our lives in such a way as to make sure we have every Monday and Thursday (or whatever) off so that we can teach a bunch of newbies (or not so newbies) blocks, kics, punches, kata, kumite..and so on? Why do we tell our friends and family.."I can't make it to that party, meeting, BBQ..whatever, until AFTER my karate class is over. Why do we put our entire social lives, family time..even work sometimes on hold, just so that we can get all sweaty, maybe beat up and abused? OK, I think you get the idea. Now, my reasons are this (in no particular order of importance): 1. I love the arts, and I love teaching people (I used to be a school teacher). 2. I feel the arts have been very good to, and for me in the mental, physical, emotional and social sense throughout my nearly 29 years of doing them. 3. Because I love the art, I feel it is my responsability to pass on what little knowledge I have to others that are interested in learning it. 4. I feel that if I didn't teach, then I would probably not have enough drive myself to practice on a regular basis, and eventually my knowledge would be lost. Teaching a class gives me the opportunity to practice what I know, improvwe my skills, and gives me somebody to practice (play?) with. How about you?

Agreed! I've found some parents use you as a babysitter for about $2.50/hour and have asked parents to take their kids out of class because they weren't there to learn, but rather to play. I don't agree that EVERYBODY that wants to learn should be taught though. An example: I've had, and I'm sure most sensei have seen this, had people come in that all they want to learn to do is learn how to beat somebody up better than they already do. Sorry, wrong attitude for me, and I won't take them. This is going to vary with each individual instructor. Some will take students that are just learning to walk almost, while others will say adults only. I'm only teaching adults myself presently, or at least, "adult-sized" people. And yes, a short person, male or female ADULT, is welcome in my class. This brings me up to an interesting thought for a new thread..."Why do you teach?"