Montana

Very important points, to be for sure. Imho, this post speaks directly to knowledge and experience, which both require maturity in techniques to be effective, and fear is what usually stalls maturity in techniques. Agreed! Fear needs to be addressed as it alone can decide the outcome of a fight. Fear can be overcome thru training IMO and repetition and having confidence in your training and experience. In real fights, I've been surprisingly calm and poised from beginning to end of the experience. I didn't choose the fights, the others did. Back in 1985 I was confronted by 3 men in their 20's I was 15 years older at least), average size, unknown skills, in a parking lot as I was leaving to get into my car. I had no choice in the matter but to defend myself. One swung first, dropped him in one punch to the nose (possibly broke it). #2 got a snap kick to the solar plexus and dropped, and #3 decided he didn't want to play. Shortly afterwards the adrenaline kicked in and I started having major shakes, but I surprised myself that I was very calm, relaxed and ready for whatever was going to happen. I was a long time shodan at that point. I've analyzed this fight for years remembering every detail of the event. It lasted under a minute, yet is as vivid now as it was then. I felt good, I felt ready, I felt confident and I had no fear in me.

I gotta dive into this size vs skill thing. OK, STATS: I'm 6'6" tall and weigh 250lbs. I have long arms and legs and hold a 4th Dan in Shorin Ryu Matsumura Kenpo (Seito) Karate. Now, I'm old (71) and have bad knees, bad back, numb right hand and a cancer. All of which have made me retire from teaching. However, if NONE of those things existed, and say I was 30-40 years old without those issues (sighing), I still believe, from the experiences I've had training with these individuals, that if I actually had to street fight a legitimate Okinawan master of my art, I'd go down like a sack of flour. As you know, your average Okinawan male is around 5'4-5'6" tall. If you, as a 2nd dan with 8 years of experience, in a fair fight, can't handle a larger person in a street fight, then I propose you need to rethink the system you're learning. My opinion...

Theoretically, the 2nd Dan "should" be able the larger, unskilled attacker quite easily. However, I know of several incidences where a 1-5th Dan black belt has gotten their butt kicked by someone with little or no fighting experience. One example is a young 18 year old 1st or 2nd dan dan, 6'2, about 180 or so that was a very skilled tournament (light touch) competitor and consistently had been placing 1st-2nd in all style tournaments. On his last day of high school a guy he'd been having problems with challenged him to a fight in an alley after school. This other guy had just 6 months of boxing. I didn't see the fight, but did talk to the martial artist. He got his butt kicked EASILY by the boxer. Black eyes, bloody nose and totally embarrassed as there was quite a crowd I guess. Proper training in a legitimate system "should" bring success in a fight as you've described. But as we all know, there are systems out there that look good, but don't work.

Suggestion: The next time you're sitting at your computer, look around you. What could you use to defend yourself? At a restaurant? Gym? Bar/pub? Walking down the street or in a store? Literally anywhere, take a moment and get your mindset into defending yourself if you had to. What could you use? As I sit at my computer typing this there is a lamp over the desk, ceramic cup, couple of AA batteries, printer, pens/pencils, books, backpack, reams of paper, framed pictures on the wall, VHS/CD on the shelf, chairs, etc. It's all about mindset and adapting your way of thinking and looking at things.

I'm not crazy about the curve in the handle. It's going to throw the balance off unless you're just going to hold it like a hatchet.

Basically, and literally, just about ANYTHING can be used as a self-defense weapon. When I was teaching, a couple of times a year we'd do a street clothes class walking out about town. We walk the main street, alleys, parks and empty lots. I'd talk as we walked about "what ifs this or that", stop and ask my students what they see that they might be able to use if they were in a fight. The obvious would be sticks and stones, but I wanted them to expand their thoughts. For example, a telephone/light pole. WHAT??? You can put that between you and your opponent and make them come around it to get to you, thus giving you an advantage as you're waiting and ready for it. Sitting at a table and the person across from you gets aggressive and reaches out. You have salt/pepper shakers that make good weapons, toss napkins in their face, squirt mustard/ketchup/TABASCO in their eyes, etc. The possibilities are really endless if you just open your eyes and teach your mind to think differently.

repetition repetition repetition Grasshopper.

Am curious about this - from the description it sounds very like a 'question mark kick'. Is it the same kick in execution of if not i am curious how it differs - always good to learn some new techniques I have no idea what a question mark kick is. Like I said, come up to the knee first straight out like you'd be doing a front snap kick, then twist the leg so it roundhouses to the persons knee, side, stomach, etc.

I had to reach out to other sensei within my chosen system to learn, as my sensei moved out of state abruptly and left our class hanging. I was one year as a shodan at the time. I was in a small town (12,000 people) in north central Montana with limited financial resources and I was pretty much on my own with the remnants of my sensei's class. I found a 4th dan sensei that my sensei knew in Minnesota and took the train there to work with him for a weekend. He literally changed EVERYTHING that I had learned. After about 2 years I heard of a sensei in Texas that was a 7th dan, contacted him and we talked several times over the phone (pre-internet days). He sent me 3 VHS tapes with some GREAT stuff, and changed EVERYTHING back to the way I originally did it! boy, was I PO'D! Then I heard of a 6th dan in Seattle and he was hosting a weekend seminar for the head of our system, so I drove there to attend that. I did this twice over a 6 year period. I was pretty desperate if I wanted to continue in my system.

Depending on how your opponent is standing and what area you are going to be striking, all of the stated weapons are options. One thing I'd like to point out about Shorin Ryu vs other systems that I've seen over the years is the way we execute a roundhouse kick. Most systems I've seen telegraph the kick really badly. It leaves the floor and arch's around in a wide circle. Ours does it differently. Envision: How do you do a front snap kick? Whether front leg or back, it "should" come up to the knee first then forward to contact, right? Our roundhouse does the same thing. It comes up to the knee first, THEN starts it's curved path to it's target. To your opponent, it appears to be a front snap kick coming at you, until it curves over/past your front snap kick defense and gets you. I've pulled this on karate, TKD, TSD, Kempo and a variety of other disciplines and it usually surprises them because it's deceptive as hell! Try it and let me know how it goes.

The 5 Swords is pretty much the same as we'd do, however, more likely we'd use ONE hand to block the punch by stepping inside the punch and simultaneously as throwing your block you'd be throwing a punch to either the face or the solar plexus. Followed up by other punches, kick to the groin/knee, etc. We tend to like to shift to the side, as Kempo does, then move inside an opponents attack and counter. Sorry, no videos.

Your students are your best advertisement. Word of mouth.

My original sensei charged a whopping $30/month for the first couple of years. He taught in his living room of a 1 bedroom duplex. When he bought a house he had a small single car garage that we insulated and tossed old carpets on the floor (it was in Montana and the winters are COOOOOLD!) After a year or so he decided to teach for free because he had a good job and didn't need the money. Our small class of about 15 students dropped the first month down to maybe 10, the next month down to about 7. What we found out is that if people don't have anything invested ($$$) in their training, most put no value in it. Personally, I loved it because I was a poor college student! lol I taught in many different locations, but my favorite was in my basement when I had full control, no rent, easy access, etc. I liked a small class and had around 15 students, which was good. Quality over quantity.

EXACTLY!

If he's Shorin Ryu, we don't use hips to generate power. Just an FYI. If I was testing him for a dan rank and he used hips, he'd fail. What's the reasoning behind this, if you don't mind me asking. I generate power in my techniques using my hips, so that's why I'm curious. Using your hips in punches and kicks does generate more power, but it also throws your weight off balance or can leave you exposed if you miss. We generate out power in Shorin Ryu Matsumura Seito (we call it Kenpo now) with speed and technique. Balance is stable, and if you miss you're still stable. Tomato-tomatoe

AGREED! You'll do what you practice. It's ok to take it slow and easy while you're getting comfortable with the movements, but once you have them, I, as your sensei, expect to see the speed and power that's supposed to be there.

If he's Shorin Ryu, we don't use hips to generate power. Just an FYI. If I was testing him for a dan rank and he used hips, he'd fail.

I started my Shorin Ryu Matsumura Seito journey in January 1975 under Sensei Denny Miller. I tested and received my shodan from Sensei Kuda Yuichi in June, 1978 on his first trip to America. The katas I learned from Sensei Miller and Sensei Kuda were Pinan 1-5 Nahachin 1-3 Passai Sho and Dai Chinto Now, I have never met Sensei Alexander nor worked with any of his people. I understand from others that have that he is very arrogant and a "know-it-all" kind of guy, so I wouldn't get along with him anyway. Years ago I bought a few of his basic kata tapes to share with my students for their home studies, but found them flawed and very poor quality, and returned them to him. In order to return them, I called the number from ordering and spoke directly to Sensei Alexander. He accused me of copying the tapes and trying to rip him off, which I didn't do. I explained to him that his students doing the kata, IMO, were sloppy and not very good, and that really set him off on a rant! lol So anyway, my opinions on Sensei Alexander aren't that he is an authority on Matsumura Seito.

I got the belt a few days ago, exactly as I ordered it. no complaints other than the website was a bit misleading on how fast it was supposed to arrive. it was a custom order, so I guess that's what took the extra time. I'm happy.

the belt is supposed to be here today, but of course, it's not. They did send me tracking info, and as of right now, that info says: "Moving Through Network In Transit to Next Facility" Soooo, there it is.

Agreed. I got a tracking number today, so apparently it's on it's way. It was a waste of $10 doing faster shipping IMO.

We'd do about the same thing, but with balance. That guy is soooo off balance I'm surprised he didnt fall down! Also, being off balance, he's losing most of his power. He'll hit the guy, then he will fall backwards.

OK, FINALLY got a response. The belt ships out next Monday.

Hi all. I have a problem. I ordered a new belt with custom embroidery on May 24th. I paid an additional $10 for faster shipping as I had an event coming up. I "should" have gotten the belt by easily the end of May, and it's June 2nd now. I've called the company 3 times, but nobody answers. I get a message that says "Nobody's available to take your call now, please leave a message and we'll call you back". No call back yet. I've also left a message on their "Contact us" page of their website. Again, 3 times. And again, no response yet. Generally they have good reviews that I've found, but you sure can't tell from my experience with them. My bank says the funds have been taken out for the belt ($55)

I don't mean to start a flame war, but to which groups do you refer when you say they have bastardized the style? A legitimate question: I mean where sensei start to change the system dramatically. In this instance, some Shorin Ryu sensei start adding breaking into the system, which Shorin Ryu doesn't do (traditionally). Kicks higher than the belt are also not in the system, nor flying, spinning, flashy garbage crap.