Montana

IMO, TKD and karate are similar in some aspects, just like a Volkswagon Beetle and a Chevy Impala are. both are "cars", both are essentialy mechanically the same (engine, transmission, brakes, doors, etc), but they don't look the same, they don't respond the same, they don't function the same, and they serve different purposes. Yes, they all have kicks, blocks and punches. Yes (mostly anyway) they all have kata. But to the trained (and in some cases, not so trained) eye, they are vastly different. My opinion anyway.

My origional sensei, as well as myself, trained outside in back yards, or public parks during he summer months. One of the main reasons for this is that you have a different surface to stand on (bare feet). Grass is a lot diffent than mats (which I seldom had), concrete, wood or carpet of various lengths. Not to mention that outside you'd probably have ground that wasn't perfectly level, possible very soft. I, for one, love training outside. As a side note, we even trained outside IN THE WINTER occasionally! This is in Montana, where winds and deep snow are an ever present, and normal condition in the winter. No coats, gloves, hats, logn underwear or shoes allowed. Yes, we didn't train like taht often, and not for every long (15-30 min tops). it was fun...but then, I was in my 20's too! lol EVERYTHING ABOUT THE ARTS WAS FUN!!!

Uhhh..what was the question again sensei8? I've reread yoru post twice, and honestly, I'm not understanding what you're saying bud! lol OK, I know "of" Iain Abernethy and that he's supposed to be very good, but in all honesty, I've never heard of Jesse Enkamp. I know, I know..I have my head in the sand most of the time! Just keep in mind, I'm from Montana origionally, and we really don't keep track of what's going on in the rest of the world to much. We're to busy enjoying...well...MONTANA! lol

This is an old thread I did a few years back and thought it would be useful to repost. I tried to add to it, but it didn't come up as a recent thread, so I copied and pasted it. This section often has tournament competitors asking what judges look for, or suggestions for improving their "performances" before a panel of tournament judges and referee's, so I thought it might be a good topic for discussion. I've been a tournament judge and referee since 1978 for open, all style tournaments. I don't attend XMA-style tournaments, so my comments are for the traditional tournaments. The tournaments I attend are light contact for lower belt adults and young children, and medium contact for middle to advanced belt adults. Legal target areas include the front and side torso and kidneys (the spine is a no-no), front and sides of the head and the groin. Sweeps are allowed, but not directly on the ankle/knee joints. Take downs are also allowed but must be controlled and no "slamming" your opponent to the floor. The reason for this is that we don't use mats at our tournaments. The floor is usually a wooden basketball court or tile over cement (such as a closed grocery store might have). When I first started, the only gear required was a mouth piece, groin cup and hand pads, but it has progressed to require foot pads and head protection now. Personally, I'm not a fan of protective gear of any sort because you won't be wearing it in a street confrontation, but that's just me. Depending on the tournament, competitors are lined up by age groups and belt/experience levels. Typically the sparring divisions are like this: Beginning (under 1 year experience) Youth 6-8 years old Beginning Youth 9-12 years old Beginning Youth 13-15 years old Children 16 and above go into the Adult Division. Intermediate Youth (over 1 year of experience but under brown belt) 6-8 years old. Intermediate Youth 9-12 years old Intermediate Youth 13-15 years old Children 16 and above go into the Adult Division. Advanced Brown/Black Belt Youth 6-12 years old Advanced Brown/Black Belt Youth 13-15 years old Children 16 and above go into the Adult Division The Adult Divisions are typically: Beginning Adults (under 1 year of experience) Intermediate Adults (over 1 year but under brown/black) Intermediate Adults (Brown belts) Advanced Adults (Brown and Black Belts) Sometimes we will have a division for Advanced women, but typically the women I know that are that level choose to compete in the regular Advanced Adults Division also. Personally, I admire those women and give kudos to them for stepping up and recognizing that they are holding an advanced level belt rank and aren't afraid to get in there with the "guys". Referee's for the beginning and intermediate levels can be brown or black belts, but the center ref has to be a Dan level belt. Depending on the tournament, sparring can be who gets the most points in 2 minutes with a maximum of 5 points, and the action stops when a point is called by any of the 3-5 (5 required for advanced sparring) judges. The clock only stops in case of an injury, so points are awarded fast and the action starts again immediately. The other way that sparring can run in our tournaments is 2 minutes of continuous fighting where the clock only stops if there's an injury or the action is gridlocked (basically, no action is going on. At the end of 2 minutes the 3-5 referee's all hold up their flags as to who they think won the match. Very often referee's are bad mouthed because we didn't see your point/technique that you scored against your opponent. You need to keep in mind that we are only human and can't see everything...or we see something that YOU don't see. Sometimes that great punch that you are sure scored, we see as being to far away from the opponent, or not strong enough in our opinion to be a legitimate scoring point, it was blocked, or you were so off balance that the technique wouldn't have landed with any power to actually do any good. That, and we have to have a majority (2 out of 3, or 3 out of 5) of the judges must see and agree that there was a point. Angles of view are everything in a tournament. If we can't see it, we won't call it. ALWAYS kai when you do a point! But if you kai EVERYTIME you do anything, we will get used to hearing it and tend to ignore it. Kai ONLY when you have made what you think is a good point. It's not the length of the kai (ie: a 5 second kai is way overboard) that is important, it's the strength of the kai. Now for empty handed kata judging. Because this is an open, all styles tournament, judges can't base their scores on the accuracy of the kata that is being performed for them. Although I've seen kata from Okinawan, Korean, Japanese, American and all other styles of martial arts over the years, I don't know them well enough to say whether they are doing them correctly or not, so we have to base our opinions on certain criteria. Such as: -speed -control -timing- -power -balance -focus -strength I'm typically the center, or controlling judge, for kata, so I always have a short meeting prior to the start of the event with my fellow judges. For beginning levels the judges must have at least a brown belt, with the center ref being a ranking black belt judge. For intermediate levels all judges are black belt level, with the center judge being sometimes the highest rank (but not always), or most experienced judge. We have a few "masters" that show up for tournaments, but they are sometimes VERY biased towards their own students, or they are just not very good judges, and thus are not allowed to be center judge. I also hold a short meeting before the contest with all of the competitors and give them a pep talk and wish them well. When the competition begins, the competitor approaches the judges (usually at a run), stops before them and gives their "salute" or bow, is expected to announce their name, system practiced, name of their kata and then ask permission to begin. I the motion them to begin their kata. We will typically watch 3 competitors, chosen at random representing different systems, by the score keeper sitting behind us before we give any scores. We use the 10 point system (10 being the highest) and can either score by the half point (ie: 8.5), or by the fraction (ie: 8.3, 9.1, etc) depending on the rules of the tournament. After we have scored the first three competitors this way, then each remaining competitor is scored at the end of their kata. Weapons kata can be a real challenge. Judges are picked because of their knowledge of kobudo/weapons. Again, I am typically asked to be the center judge for this competition. I hold a short meeting with my fellow judges prior to the beginning of the event and state some basic rules. First of all is the weapon of choice. Is it a real weapon, or something else? For example, I had a black belt woman enter the competition with a broomstick painted black. Man, could she whip that thing around FAST! However, because of the type of material and the weight of the weapon, she scored very low with the judges. The reason was because if she had actually hit somebody with it, as a kata represents her doing, the weapon would have snapped and caused little to no damage to them. Keep in mind, this is NOT an XMA tournament, but rather a traditional tournament. We also look for good technique. I wouldn't want to even try to guess at the number of competitors over the year that didn't have a clue how to use nunchauku, sai, tonfa, etc other than to whip them around or poke at the air. The best example I can give would be a 3rd dan black belt that laid out nunchauku, sai, bo, katana, and a few other weapons in a half circle in front of us and announced he wasn't going to do a kata, but rather demonstrate to us his expertise with each of the weapons. Sadly, and I was very embarassed for him, he was nothing short of terrible! His technique was very weak with all of the weapons, but hey, he had good KAI's! Out of a possible 10 he scored a 7, which is the lowest score we will give a black belt. My best advice, if you're going to enter a weapons division, is to use a REAL weapon, and really learn how to use it. The nunchauku, for example, isn't ONLY used as a swinging weapon. There are a multitude of blocks and parrys that can, and should be demonstrated. Under no circumstances is the nunchauku passed between the legs, around the back of the neck, twirled between your fingers like a baton, or held close to the rope/chain. Not in a traditional tournament anyway. On the bo, it is a two handed weapon. Swinging it over your head by one hand is NOT good technique or control. Nor is your ability to twirl it with one hand using your fingers. There are a few one handed techniques used with the bo, but essentially it is a two handed weapon. With the sai, kama and tonfa, learn the proper way to hold the weapon when doing a block. So many times I have seen a competitor do a high block and the "blade" of the weapon that is supposed to be blocking isn't where it should be and if the situation was real, the competitor would have their arm cut off or broken from the strike. I hope this helps you understand a judges perspective to tournaments.

That's not really my point. My point is that you can take a person with no training, put him or her in a boxing or BJJ regiment for 6 months. And they can reasonably defend themself with what they learned. You can't do that with TKD or Karate. At 6 months, the TKD/Karate student is barely grasping its concept. Barely. Ohhh..I'm going to strongly disagree with this one. Students in my dojo, after about 2 months, have pretty solid punches and kicks. Sure, they aren't perfect, and not as strong as a boxers (keeping in mind that punches are ALL a boxer does and trains with), but for a street fight , which is what we train for, they are just fine. I've had numerous students that were brought to me by parents that were tired of their son, and yes, daughters too, being physically picked on in school. Those people get more attention from me and put on a fast track to defending themselves, more than the regualr people in class, because they need it..FAST!

I watched the first season, you just need to keep in mind that what you're watching "martial art wise" is pretty much like the B movies that came out of China for years..fake and unrealistic. Just watching it for entertainment is ok, just don't start thinking you can whoop-up on a dozen guys and come away in good shape! lol

I had to watch the video several times to actualy see what was going on. It switched from one thing to another so fast you can't really see what's going on very easily. As for throwing your sai..you NEVER, EVER, EVER throw your sai! Why? (he asked?) Because you just threw away one of your weapons, and having just one sai remaining isn't nearly as effective as two! Forget what you see in the movies..DON'T THROW YOUR SAI! That, plus they can break! Yeah, no kidding. When I was a brown belt, just learning the sai, I threw mine now and then in the dirt when I was practicing in the yard. Like you, just for the fun of it. Well, one day I did that, and the dang thing snapped in two! I never did that again! lol

WHAT??? You must not be watching the Walking Dead then...when ammo runs low, grab your bow! lol

Martial=warring art. Archery, javelin throwing, discus (not frisbee), track and field, rifle/gun shooting, boxing, fencing, wrestling, etc. The list is long of things that had their roots in warefare. ALL are martial arts IMO.

There is no formalized instructor training, so I guess OJT is the rule. What I personally did was starting (a student) at brown belt (there are 3 before black) I would assign a brown belt student to run the warmups and exercies at the start of class. From there they would do basics (blocks, kicks and punches done as part of every warmup drill). Depending on what we're doing that day, I would have brown belts (actually, any student that I know can help others) pair up with new students, or lower ranked belts, and help them with any issues they might be having, such as kata, blocks, kicks, etc. Basically, I delegated tasks for my upper belts partly so they learned how to teach, and partly to free myself for more advanced things. (ie: naps, eating, football, etc lol ) KIDDING! When a student got their back belt I would start them teaching the entire class..start to finish, under my supervision. Only when I was certain they were able to teach without being supervised, would I allow them to teach alone and uninterupted. VERY rarely was I not in the class, or at least in the dojo somewhere. Afterall, it's MY dojo and I'm responsible for literally everything that goes on there.

HJere's another one for you...Shorin Ryu Matsumura KENPO! Sensei Kuda Yuichi changed it from "karate" to kenpo in the mid-1990's, just to diferentiate what we do from what others are doing., because a lot of other Shorin Ryu systems are doing some rather drastic things we would never do.

I was gone for about a year and a couple of months ago came back on here. Anyway, I was looking back at some of the old threads and this one caught my eye. In the origional post, chrisw08 posted himeself, or his friend (not sure which) doing some basic nunchauku techniques, which, IMHO, had pretty poor technique. Then Harkon72 posted a link with a master doing GREAT techniques, which made me VERY happy to see that there are some people out there that know the difference. This is a very good example of people that don't know good technique from bad, teaching others bad technique..and so on, and so on, and so on.... As a tournament judge for about 25 years at open (all style) tournaments, and normally the center weapons judge, I've seen MANY, MANY, MANY horrible black belts doing God awful techniques, ESPECIALLY with the nunchauku. Please people, learn good technique. The power you generate from good technuique, versus bad technique, is ASTRONOMICAL! *climbing off my soapbox now*

lol..OK, so maybe it's just an exciting prospect for me, but... I'm 63 years old now and have been out of the martial arts for 10 years due to arthritis in both knees and a bad back. I trained and taught for over 30 years, and really hated to give it up, but I was finding, especially in my back, that there were severe limitations to what I was able to do. Sooooooooo...I was looking at the thread on canes just now, and came up with this idea of how to get back into the arts wth my physical limitations. I've used a cane in my class (usually upper-level students) for many years and believe it is the BEST, and perfectly legal, weapon to carry around with you (short of a gun of course). Thru my training in kobudo with tradition weapons for over 30 years, the basic concepts of weapon manipulation of any bo/jo or cane are all about the same. I'm going to start modifying my basics and kata using a cane and see what happens... \*the excitement is building!* Wish me luck.

But..if you make solid contact with his testicles, and for example, CRUSH THEM..you will be paying for his medical expenses, and probably punitive damages for the rest of HIS LIFE! God help you if you damage him to the point that his sex life is over and he can't reproduce! ONLY in life or death situation would I use that type of force on an attacker to that area of the body.

7th-9th Dans wear the red/white striped belt..if they wish to, and 10th (or head of the system) wears a solid red belt. Or..they wear black..it's their choice as far as I know. Sensei Kuda Yuichi from Okinawa wore black when he visited us (his first time in the states) way back in 1978, and he wore black as a 7th Dan. When I had the opportunity to work with him again around 1990 or so in Seattle, he again wore black as a 9th Dan, and head of the system. I have seen pictures of him in other US cities when he visited wearing red/white..so I don't know. I think it depends on his mood maybe? lol

If it was a good fight, no flagrant INTENTIONAL rule violations (cheap shots for example), then a bow, handshake, or a few words is all you need.

NICE! This goes along with what my various sensei's have taught me since day 1 of my training. True karate still exists, but you won't find much of it in big, fancy commercial dojos will wall to wall mirrors and weight machines. Nor is it found very often outside (oftentimes INSIDE) Okinawa..but if you look hard enough, dig and research your local dojos..you just MIGHT be lucky enough to find the real deal out there, instead of a water down version, of karate.

IMO, ANY class, regardless of what is going on, should be open to parents and spectators. If it isn't, then I sould be suspect as to what is going on in there, especially with kids.

DISREGARD...he answered my question alreeady.

I've also seen this sort of things in dojos across the nation. From budda statues in shrines, to crosses hanging on the wall. I've been asked many times by people that they would love to take karate, but can't because they're Christians and won't pray to budda. I laugh and tell them I teach karate, not religion. Sparticus, who did you study under on Okinawa? Sensei Kuda by chance?

Put it in a Christmas card and mail cash to them. I know mailing cash is dangerous, but I've been doing it for years and have NEVER had an issue. Or even better yet, have a friend of yours that they don't know (or a local minister would do it probably), take a card to their door and give it to them anonomously.

EXCELLENT!!! There were a couple of the old black and white vid's of OSensei Soken Hohan (my particular linage) in there but went by so fast!!! lol

The kids class played games, ate cookies and drank KoolAid. The Adults...well, we went to Moose's Saloon and drank beer and ate pizza. More like an office party actually..lol

Simply, no it doesn't annoy me if people think it's just for kids. Honestly, I don't think that in 40 years since I started, that comment has never been made to me that I remember..but then, I'm old too...memory isn't what it used to be.

I've never heard of him...what does he do would be helpful. Links?