ramymensa

Shotokan is one of the Karate styles born in Okinawa who got quite a promotion when Gichin Funakoshi was invited in Japan and was given a dojo. The fact he a Kano Jigoro were quite close (Jigoro is the "father" of Judo) led to the fact karatekas got to use the pijamas we call today karategi and belts The belt system went from white-black to white-green-brown-belt to the rainbow we use today. Asked by one of his students if they do Shoto-ryu or something like that, the Master replied: "No, you do Karate." He was trying to imply all the differences don't mean some people do more Karate than others Shotokan is a style which emphasizes "perfection" of technique. You'll spend endless hours trying to punch or kick in a way that is considerred the most "effective". Biomechanics is frequently quoted and the Shotokan practitioners try to achieve maximum results with a give technique. You'll hear many "angles", "numbers" and lot's of measurments (heels on a 90 degress angle, a shoulder width distance between the feet, 45 degrees here, and so on until you go crazy). The training is stiff and boring many times. After some years the development is quite obvious. practiced like it was meant to be, Shotokan proves to be a good style. Keep away from stupid instructors and mcdojos and you'll discover a beautiful powerful style Shotokan Karate offers a wide range of techniques. Some are not allowed in competition, but that doeasn't mean they are not practiced. Kicks using the sides of foot, heel and "koshi" (the part you support the body when using high heels (finger area ... ca't tell the term as my English betrayed me again ), open hand strikes, one, 2, 3 finger strikes, punches, elbows, knees. Blocks are an important part of the techniques too. The entire body is used In Shotokan you'll learn throws, wrist locks and hits to vital areas. The stances are very low and many people think we sparr like that. The idea is techniqes are done in a "proper" form ar Kihon (that is when we train basic techniqes). In Kihon we are in deep stance and try to do everything full speed, full force, very correct in our methodology. You'll hear all the time the instructor saying the hip rotation's importance. Shotokan practitioners believe Hara, the lower part of the abdomen is VERY important and we do the techniques from hara (very difficult at first, but the results are quite good). Sparring in Karate is more "relaxed" than the stiff stances we use in Kihon. We have a high stance, but the previous work in deed stance and stiff techniqes provide the stident with some qualities in kumite. We are able to hit fast and touch an oponent that's quite far and thinks we can't get to him. Kumite is done in 3 ways. Kihon kumite is a prearanged fight at 5, 3 and 1 step. The 2 oponents: Tori (attaker) and uke (the attacked one ) are face to face and they attack and block with a given technique. It’s usualy done at lower levels in order to teach new students controll and distance. The next step is semi-free sparring. They have only the level given (jodan – head level, chudan – chest, godan – groin area) and are permited to use the desired technique for attack and counter. After that people get to free spar. They try to land techniqes and the only limit is their imagination. Contact is light to moderate (depends on the dojo and the students.) – light contact to head level, harder contact to the chudan level. In competitions the students score techniques and are awarded points for this (that’s why we talk about point sparring). You could get disqulified for hard contact on head level, as in Shotokan competitions we don’t go for knock-downs. (Again the ruled may vary from federation to federation). In competition we are not allowed to use “open hand” techniques (that’s why they’ve given us some semi-open gloves to make sure our finger won’t stick out of them J). Elbow strikes are not allowed and neither knees (again the rules might vary). For more info, PM me

I'm one of those obnoxious persons who intend to keep away from her dojo kids under 13 years old. Still I'd make an exeption for kids who are really into it and work hard. They could join with no pronlem. I've seen so many ruined classes because of 5 year old kids who run around and don't pay attention. My plan would be simple. I would give the smaller kids the chance to train for few days to see how they do and if they really like it. If they seem to enjoy it and abide by the rules, I'll make room for them. If not, I'll ask the parents to save me from the headaches and get their kids to other activities they would really enjoy. In the BB problem, I'm stuborn too Teenagers under 18 should wear brown as the highest rank, since in our federation BB means you can instruct in your own club. At brown belt they can still enjoy the hype of being very high ranked and after they turn 18 (and are considerred adults who can fully respond for their actions from the law's POV) they are welcome to test. We've got some brownies who waited to turn 18 and I didn't see them bother too much because of this rule. They assisted in the classes and were respected as being awesome martial artists. One of them turned 18 last year and only now he is considerring testing for shodan. He wasn't in a rush

It is indeed a problem. The thing is like Murphy said .. when all you have is a hammer, everything turns into nails. Maybe that happens too with the MA people. We land techniques all day, learn how to hit, break, maim and maybe sometime some people feel the urge too see it in "real action". Media today is not helping us maintain a "decent" level as "heroes" are many times depicted like sadistic and terminator like human types. Youngsters are thrilled with this image and unfortunatelly it's difficult to set them another role model, as this is "cool". I've seen many people take from MA only the brutal side. The truth is we, humans, are blood thirsty animals and philosophy and mental stuff are not for all "mortals". I'm quite fed up with this tendency of showing off and bragging about how someone maimed another people instead of trying to avoid the conflict and use the minimal force possible. I've avoided conflicts everytime and I think a fight would only destroy my "inner peace". It would show me we are brutal and have lost all our beauty as spirits not just bodies. I love MA because I can test my skills in a careful, respectful manner, I can play with danger and still see the beauty of it. It's a moral experience as well as physichal. Sorry for the rant ... hope I wasn't quite off the line

This is one of the most difficult things to do .. and if you are lucky to have a good understandin sensei, only then it's easier. The thing would be to have a very "innocent" way of putting it. I find it useful to tell him about my rants in the Karate forums. So we've created qiuite a bond and he's more interested than ever in what is happening in other dojos aroud the world. So it's quite easy for me to give some hints and questions. You could share with him some information and he'll fall for it. You could tell him that others said they sparr from the first day and ask him what he thinks about it ... little by little you can get him where you want, It won't work if the guy is an ..ss. Nothing could help then And make sure it's private talk. A good instructor would always like to hear some ideas and have students that are so interested in Karate that they spend some time reading all about it in forums and sites.

In general ... there are some instructors who think they are the beginning and the end of life on earth .. some of you might have had the pleasure. What I was saying was that I do respect the people in my dojo, not because of their rank, but because they are good people. And I demand respect, as I am a human being. Restect is won through hard work and decent behaviour, not just because some have a darker belt. So I wasn't hinting at anyone ...

OMG, almost made me cry ... Very nice (if I can use the word to describe this tragedy) ... hope the poem won't be deleted. Excellent and sensible.

Well .. don't know. I've seen awesome MA women and some really lame, as I've seen males in the same situation. I think we shoud talk about commitment, hard work, dedication and so on. They are relevant. Sex is just ... statistic If a person puts some effort in his/her training .. there's nothing that can stop him/her become good and respected

I don't know if it's humility (well, lack of it) when we are talking about what you've described. An henest shake and a restrain in showing ones happiness over winning a point has got more to do with etiquette and even education. I'm saying it from the POV of a person who really lacks humility I'm quite proud and very self-assured. I don't take crap from anyone, not even the greatest master of all time. I respect deeply my superiors and all coleagues and demand respect in return. So humility isn't the case for me (at least not the type when you let yourself trampled by anyone, just because they are superior in rank). I still think etiquette should be respected. I bow to my coleagues and even praise them when a technique lands nicelly. In tourneys it's not necesarry to congratulate them for kicking you, but a bow or a hand shake are not to be forgotten. And we should controll our emotions too

I have seen may 2-3 hundred new students ... maybe 4-5 got to higher belts ... and none to shodan, yet. There are many people who come and go. Maybe it's better to accept you don't have anything with the style and be honest with yourself I think MA training is hard enough and if you don't some to the class with all your heart and soul, you'd be miserable. I count the hours to the next training. If I wouldn ... I'd find something else I love. My dedication and love for the style have helped me go through the hard times and these are especially the first months, when you are almost out of the world I wanted to give up then. I did it and got back. When I came back I was the same uncoordinated and weak student (the first time I quit after 3 moths because I had changed college). The second time was rough too. I wanted to leave again. I loved karate but I knew I was hopeless. Still I loved (still love) my instructors who understood and helped me. I'm forever greateful to them for helping become aware of my true potential. I'm still struggling with my techniques and back problems, but I know they are there for me, as I am for my coleagues that begin the journey. The numbers are indeed shocking. There are too few people who become shodans. And as you said, some just don't train for the belt. Some don't cope with the training and leave. We should respect their courage Sorry for the rant ... I thought I'd share this with you

You surelly KICK Congratulations to you. A well deserved "rank". Keep on posting

They are both good and powerful systems so you could use any of them. Still you need to work VERY hard to make the techniques work and to have a carload of luck to be able to use them when they are needed. Better to stay off places you could encounter "trouble", train hard and realistically and realise there is no magical formula to make you a super a..kicker. Self defence consists in more than kicking someone. But you'll certainly learn it in your karate or kickboxing class provided you have the right person to instruct you. Search for a good dojo or gym. A very good instructor can really open your eyes.

I don't know where you've got the statistic from and I don't know if it's right or wrong. I think it's difficult to make such assumption, because we are talking about different regions and even more different aproaches in teh KB training. As Delta already observed ... there are cardio classes blending in some martial arts techniques and they are popular. How popular I couldn't say. In the KB competitions there are deffinetly less women than men, in comparison with other styles where the girls are almost everywhere. Still we talk without any solid information to back up our words . We need some clear facts here, but where could we provide them from?

The problem as I see it. Sometimes we have to be more discreet about our hobbies, espeacially in public places when we know we could get into trouble (bars for instance). The situation wouldn't have appeared if the guys just shut their mouth about their sotries and chose to brag about something else, like how many levels they've done in X PC game. Nobody's gonna jump to fight you when you talk about PC games or books or job. But as soon as you say MA they just lose their head So maybe we should try to brag less about how good we are in this area. I know you'll hate me for saying this, but I've got my share of "dirty" looks (hopefully nobody wanted to see me in action), so I became quite attentive when it comes to sharing this part of my life.

Try to enjoy it. Be attentinve, ask around when you have some questions, try to understand the mechanics of the techniques, work hard and still know when to take it easy, listen to your body, be constant in your effort, try to go to classes whenever possible (don't skip too many), be nice to other people and they'll be nice to you .. and never forget: what you can't do today, you'll be proficient at tomorrow. Welcome in the beautiful world of karate. Enjoy your journey and good luck.

I don't racall anything similar in our dojo. I wouldn't give something like that. You train and test, you get a rank, if not .. there are so many other "titles" to have? I really don't understand why does anybody have to be a x dan in a certain style, if the person isn't training and testing there. And the confusion is indeed the problem. Not to mention corruption.

We all have some up and down times in these forums ... welcome back. And good luck with all your activities

There are many threads like this. Unfortunatelly we can't decide for yourself. The best MA style is as easy to decide as the best music. We are not talking here mathematics and we can't quantify it like we would like. It would be great to do so and it would save us the effort of chosing and thinking. The best MA is different for me and you. I love Shotokan. Maybe if I found another dojo and style, the best MA would have be an entire different "name" So we can't make choices for you. We can just say what's working for us, without pretending we have the answers, because we don't. It's OK to start an MA style. You'll have to see what's in the area, see some classes and you'll fall in love with one style and one dojo/dojang. We can help you with some information and opinions, but I'm afraid the hard work is on you

One of my instructor has it crossed on the back, the other not I don't cross it because that's how I was taught at first and I can tie it very quicly this way. I second the opinion that it's a personal choise

A nice movie: posting and you As we never get too good at posting

I've made something that resebles a wallpaper It's on Dojo. My site. Look down the page in the main window (and in the English version too). Feel free to download the zipped file (i've checked it with NAV and there's no problem with potential virus attacks. I'm a serious person ) I'd like to make some more ... and if I have the time, I'll take care of the problem. So far, we've got a file [/url]

Now you walk with that rainbow round your waist Congratulations. Good pick, Patrick

I can't say since there are lots of them and we all are accustomed with a certain brand. I like Kamikaze. Don't know if it's the best .. don't care. I'd like to be "exposed" to other brands but that's what I find in my country. There are some "no name"s from Romania. Kinda crappy, so Kamikaze is quite good comparing to them

I'm with the previous poster .. talk to the man in charge. I think at your rank and being a beginner, this wouldn't be that important. In most of the dojos students get to sparr and need protections after 1-3 years. Maybe it's better to just wait until you really know you're gonna stick to it, so that you won't spend the money on things you won't need if quitting. It may also happen that your dojo let's you spar right away, so you'll need protections ... Talk to the instructor and he'll give you the best advice. Welcome to the beautiful world of MA

I'm with you, Warlock, and quite amazed of how things are done is some places. If it's a study and you want to use us in order to gain some information YOU SHOULD PAY US. And I'll say it all over again. Go to a dojo and study with an instructor. Use books and other materials in order to gain more insight in the art and see some good examples. The most important person in your learning journey is your sensei, sifu, instructor, coach or what you call it.

Showing off? Where are they from? Mars? Venus? In our dojo stretching includes attempting the splits. We do it every training and we try to go lower than before. Everybody does it. Some people are natural born flexible. Some stiff (me for example) and have to work a lot. Of course you're a star when you can do them, but it's a goal in our training too, so it just means you can do something more .. no show off. I'd say to continue your stuff. Being flexible is almost a must in MA, so just do your job