ShoriKid

I'd certainly be way out of shape, heavier than I need to be, and very frustrated. I have made some of my best friends in the dojo and I would have missed out on the experiences that they brought into my life. I would be dealing with a lot of stress from work that training keeps from building up. Knowing that I can deal with stress, physical pain and difficulty have made dealing with issues in my personal life much easier. I have survived this, what can the guy on the phone or or this supervisor of mine really do to harm me with some words? My experience with karate in particular as a style, with the politics and petty issues, I have survived. It hasn't always been great. Being that I've basically been on my own with very minimal supervision outside of some discussions and short days of training, have kept me away from all those issues.

bushido_man96, It is good to be seen. I may try to come by a little more. Like I said, rarely on a lap top these days. THe good thing for grappling on the ground, aside from the good work out, it teaches good body awareness and the ability to have hands and feet doing different things at the same time. I find that is something a lot of students struggle with. We don't consider the grappling aspect 'too advanced', but a lot of that is Pitbull's influence. We have been going back and revising our requirements for students both in stand up and grappling requirements. Mostly looking at what is appropriate at each level. And our grappling is seeing some real changes to make sure the skills are building progressively. While the skills were already in a good logical progression, we asked the question, "What does a sound stand up fighter need to survive on the ground" for lower belts. For mid/high belts it was, "what provides them an advantage and who can they control someone with less damage."

*stretches, cracks knuckles, and types* We have incorporated clinch range grappling, joint locks, chokes, close range striking with elbows and knees, for more than 2 decades as a regular practice. Judo style throws(which were really just old karate throws), just a couple, trips, and sweeps have been part of what I've learned since I started training in the mid 90s. We have made BJJ a part of our training personally, and what we teach for more than a decade (Pitbulljudoka is the specialist there). I feel like incorporating those sorts of techniques is both evolving karate and returning it to it's roots at the same time. Pre-Japanese karate had large grappling and close range elements that were largely removed once karate moved from Okinawa. The Japanese had their own grappling systems and karate instructors in that first generation in Japan certainly felt pressure to make karate stand out to justify it having a place at the crowded martial table of the time. So, a lot of those things were lost, and the kendo enfluence for a sportive outlet for karate can be seen in the ranges and scoring that found it's way into karate competitions. Those longer ranges put pressure on karate to teach those longer range techniques instead of the in close fighting and self-defense techniques of it's roots. So, while adding these elements back in is taking karate back closer to what it was, the ground focus that BJJ gives, is a newer piece of the puzzle. There wasn't a part of the karate manual of arms that was focused on ground fighting. Putting people on the ground certainly, and then locking them from perhaps kneeling, or just striking them hard a few times. And honestly, I have put so much time into my stand up work I don't want someone to take it away from me easily. If a guy with a few seasons of high school football ten years back can put me on my butt and take away my years of hard work, that is terrible. BJJ lets me get back up and keep fighting the way I decide. And grappling training is a lot of fun. And hi folks, those I recognize, I'm not dead. Just rarely on a laptop these days.

Anyone can hang a shingle. It doesn't impart skill. I've lived in these circles long enough to see people sell themselves as something they aren't. Sadly, those people tend to do well it seems. Teach what you can teach, let the others teach what they want. Don't claim to be what you aren't and don't be afraid to call out those who are crossing the line. Use some diplomacy if you have to, but tell the truth. I guess that is where I differ from a lot of others, I'm to the point where I'm willing to call people out on certain things.

From a long time ago. Kata, demonstration of applications. Middle/upper Kyu ranking I was burning out on kata and didn't see the point in them. I was working a lot of hands on drills with a friend and fellow martial artist and getting stronger and faster. Kata seemed like a place holder that you did just to pass tests. We had a night with several upper level students and the instructor is like, "Okay guys, time to work on some things past the basics." A throw from a turn in kata. And all of the sudden kata did stuff and were for something other than promotions.

There isn't really "cross training" to me. Not really. There is just training. I'm not saying I'm against styles, but I am for learning. If what I am doing adds to the skills I have accumulated over time, or enhances and refines what I currently do, then it is beneficial to me. If it does not, and I at least enjoy the time on the floor, it has merit. I don't think I'm great, or too good to learn, or above acknowledging where I learn things from. I'm just there for the skills.

Getting hit should never come as a "surprise" when you are training. Being able to take a bit of contact and not have your world fall apart is important, and you have to start building up that tolerance in training. When we spar we set the contract by consent, each asking for more or less contact. When someone repeatedly goes hard, they are warned and then they start getting what they give. Usually until we know what they are going to do, new students are kept with the more experienced ones. Some never get it and have a rough way to go.

Depends on the "puzzle" mats you are looking at. What you will find in most sporting goods stores are not great for throws and take downs. Just not enough padding if they are over a hard surface. We have Champion brand grappling mats, just over 2 inches thick (if I remember correctly could be just under). They hold up well for throws and grappling. They were far from cheap though and covering just over 300 square feet cost us quite a bit.

Broken hand (classic boxer's break) when a student partially slipped a punch during hard contact. Healed ok, plenty of irritation if I work it too hard at the forge or in the yard. Fingers & toes broken, tangled in gi, partial slips/falls where you catch yourself with the foot, hitting shins/elbows. Broken ribs from a hard body punch taken from a pro fighter during a hard sparring session. Broken nose (from my brother) during a light sparring session. Zigged, should have zagged and blocked a round kick with my nose. Facial cuts from punches (again, brother). I have got to keep from dropping my right. Dislocated rib from body movement. Did something funky sparring with a white belt. Rib popped out, had to work it back into place. Bloodied noses and mouths, lost count, along with black eyes. They happen. By far the worst of the lot, for recovery, was the either the rib dislocation which ended up plaguing me for longer than the broken rib. And was worse as far as causing paid during normal movement. The knee popping/tendon stretch still causes trouble now and then as well. When you have bodies colliding at speed and are practicing percussive arts, injuries are going to happen. The best you can do is us protective gear and try to structure some safety into training.

The article was a nice sales pitch. Very subtle in discounting folks after building credentials of the writer. There are some points I disagree with you on Alex, not totally, but enough I think I want to argue them. Should MA instructors be given training duties at academy? I won't say they should be, but they can be. With a few conditions. The would be instructor needs to be given the department's use of force guide lines, be given time to speak with the county/city attorney and the head of the academy/sheriff/CLEO. This is to clarify what they receiving agency expects out of it's officers. The instructor(any one, even LEO going into this position) needs to know what officers can and cannot do. Use of force AARs should be made available so the potential instructor (again, anyone getting this job, not just noLEO MA people). And I mean the good and the bad. See cases of good use of force and bad. Know the warning signs of what is not legal and or so questionable that legal action against the officer and agency is going to happen. Not just might, or will and it will 90% likely be dismissed, but the sort of things that lead to officers losing jobs, going to jail, or the jurisdiction having to settle a case etc. Next, make available a typical vest/duty belt mock up for the trainer to work out of. As the US Army discovered, BJJ is all well and good as a combatives program until you armor up, kit up and toss firearms into the mix. That motivated them to move away from a BJJ exclusive (or nearly so) program. If the instructor doesn't get to get a feel for the burdens and restrictions of a typical duty officer, it will be hard to adjust the training to fit the needs of said officers. If my cuffs, radio, and OC canister, etc are going to cause problems with what I'm doing, or offer grab opportunities to suspects, that instructor better be able to test out his ideas. Theory is fine, but getting to test it in force on force separates the wheat from the chaff. Next, make available some senior LEOs who have a lot of force on force experience to speak with them and run ideas buy. Let them coach the "bad guys", or make up the bad guys, in force on force set ups. This will help build more realism into testing of ideas and setting up realistic training. If the trainer(MA or LEO) doesn't know what is going to be the most commonly needed things, they cannot build a base curriculum that addresses typical needs. Hands on training, just like firearms training, and most other follow on training for LEOs has a low time/money budget (much lower than it should be), so you need to boil things down to essentials. Those senior LEOs know what happens most often and the instructor can plan accordingly. The last thing I want to address is the part about the LEO having vastly more experience on what use of force is compared to someone who only has do to it, assuming most martial artists, occasionally. That is true, however it tip toes dangerously close to if you don't fight for a living, you can't teach anyone else to fight. Same logic applied to firearms means someone who's only had to use them a few times in defense of self and others is not qualified to teach. There would be only a handful of people not hailing from the military who would be able to teach under that train of thought. The firearms training community holds men like Claude Werner and Todd Greene in very high regard, and they were never Mil/LEO. So, I think it is very possible for someone who isn't LEO to very much understand what is needed to do the job if they adequately prepare. Just like a LEO teaching self defense with empty hands or firearms to non-LEO needs to do their homework, because what they know doesn't translate 1-1. Context, context, context in regards to all training for use for LEO/Self-defense is king. All the above, to me, would apply to any instructor teaching restraint/control/SD techniques to LEO candidates (and active officers). Most especially the use of force guide lines and investigation. You need to understand the needs of people you are teaching things to. When I am training students and we are discussing self defense, what I know a 17-25 year old to be most likely to encounter and worry about, are different than what most of the 35+ crowd is going to be facing. The drinking party/bar scene isn't so much of a problem for men and women as they approach 40. Defense of family and lost of some of the physical attributes is however something to consider. Know your target audience.

I sit at 3rd Dan, just like I sat at 2nd and 1st. Waiting until my instructors worry about ranking. I was told at my 3rd Dan promotion that it was long over due. I hadn't worried about it, but I'm aware of it. There is an instructor up the road from my parent's home that is a 5th dan, as he told me in a conversation "...with over 20 years of training in 3 traditional arts". He got his shodan through a good instructor(I was invited to take part in his grading as a yudansha), and when the instructor moved, he joined a national organization. I forget the title he uses now, but I think he forgets I had been graded to nidan, after a decade of not testing, before he began to train at all. And I am not that far over the 20 year mark. I've seen the grade inflation, and I think it was around when I started training. It was just a little harder to verify, going back to our benefits of the internet for MA thread else where, than it is now. And it seems like a lot of those who grade inflate get really caught up in the titles attached to the grades as well. Our small group is pretty simple, on the dojo floor a dan grade is addressed as sir/ma'am or Mr./Ms./Mrs. Blank, or sensei. When I began to train with them, addressing anyone other than the chief instructor that way was strange, but now it's old hat. I address senior instructors/black belts by title when setting appropriate, not because I am required to do so, but because it is respectful and they have earned my respect.

Had a younger student ask me about what to do with knee pain, and if I had any. I told him see a doc or learn to live with it. He asked about my knees and I told him it was background noise at this point. Knees and hips are both trouble, one shoulder, elbows, hands are wracked from working/accidents when younger. I think my back still works. Most days. I've given up distance running for cardio because of my knees. I tell myself that now. I would rather work the bag for that now as it builds a skill as well. I watch how I do squats and dead lifts when I lift. It's all wear and tare as part of not sitting on the couch.

The internet has helped those not in martial meccas be exposed to different styles, thoughts and history/materials. Yes, the fakes are out there, they were in the world before and will remain no matter what everyone does. Sniffing them out is a bit easier now. Guys like me, living in a tiny corner of the world that you have to try to reach to get there, get to discuss ideas and technical aspects that would never have been possible before easy internet access. We have boards like these after all. Folks like Wastelander would never come to light with their writings and video content. Tallgeese, Alex, would be wasting away in Chicago land(I think) without the ability to share his technical ability with the rest of us. We wouldn't have the wisdom of guys like Sensei8 with decades of experience giving an angle that very few of us would ever be able to see. So over all, despite the real Master Ken's out there peddling what they peddle, the internet has been good for the martial arts.

PittbullJudoka and I had a talk with a young student a couple of months back. If he had a hard night, you see on his face he was down. He has a lot of potential, but he gets down on himself for not picking things up quickly or having a bad night. We told he that in our time training, we've had more off nights than on, more nights when we struggled to do simple combination, than nights when everything flowed smoothly and with effort. Some nights you're the hammer. Some nights you're the nail. And some nights you're the board.

We do something similar. Lacking the weapons aspect to need the hockey gloves. MMA "sparring gloves" for a lot of sparring. Boxing gloves some nights, especially for new folks until we get a feel for how they will do. MMA fight weight gloves for special occasions when everyone is going home all pretty. For mitt work, we almost never wear gloves.

Our little crew, mostly PittbullJudoka and I, call this the Palhares choke, having picked it up at a Luiz Palhares seminar. Instead of our own collar, we grip the back of their collar or the back seam of the gi. Palhares taught picking up the gi grip just past the lapel and then slicing the forearm up from below. Very nice video. No one tell my brother I'm watching it for pointers.

Just playing devil's advocate a little bit here, but look at the arts. The Karate and Kobudo were very likely trained together, the Iaido and Judo, looking at the name, also trained together. The Arnis, with the Iaido and Kobudo experience may have been a lot easier to pick up. And any of these combinations could have been trained together with the wide ranging differences without a lot of trouble keeping things separate mentally. Unless the instructor is passing themselves off as some sort of high end master in all of them, as opposed to competent enough to teach you a solid skill set, I wouldn't have a problem with it. At the very least you can have a look and a try and should be able to sniff out fakery as you find it.

but Kyokushin fighter is usually in stand by and stiff position. Shotokan karate moves way more so You need to watch more Kyoko shin fighters. There are many that are very mobile. Additionally, when you start hitting for power, and targeting the legs, it changes the way you move. High, light, and bouncy does not mix well with giving and taking powerful blows. As a side note, kicks to the legs are long distance techniques. There is a difference between staying out of range and darting in for a single blow and moving in to set up combinations.

I'm a bank manager/lender. The only injuries I really worry about are facial bruises. I try to time those to happen when I will not be meeting with upper management for several days. I get the same sort of questions from time to time. Being this is a small town where guys still talk about playing football and how awesome they were 25 years and 55 pounds ago, I just smile. I'm a bit past my athletic prime, true. And if I woke up without some sort of pain in the morning I'd have to check my vitals. But, I still give the younger guys fits, I've still got a bag with some tricks they don't know and I keep getting more skilled, if less talented, over time. So, I guess I'll give up my karate when the ex-football players give up stories about their glory days.

Unless you have a different definition of "full speed, full contact" there will be considerably more than "just some contact". If the Shotokan practitioner hasn't any experience in actual full contact, continual sparring, they will be at a significant disadvantage. Speed only goes so far when the person you are hitting doesn't mind taking a few superficial bits of contact to work longer, more effective combinations. Yes, they both bring things to the table. And, all attributes being the same, there is still no way to make a hard and fast call as to who wins. That being said, the Kyokushin fighter has been there done that as far as full speed, full contact is concerned. Punches to the face might be disconcerting, but they have their heads targeted by leg techniques all the time. The advantages are theirs in this sort of set up.

This, all day long. Contrary to what some people thing, there is a great deal of technique in wrestling. It isn't just muscle and power. So, when facing kids who've been in the wrestling room since elementary school, this exchange student will be behind the curve. However, if he can last the season, he will come out of it with a bit of mental conditioning and fortitude that most karateka just don't exhibit. The long term people, yes, because they've been there for years and have that natural gift. Wrestling gives you that gift, or crushes you trying. For his actual technique, he will go back to karate with a better ground defense, take down defense and understanding of hands on, hard, standing grappling. Putting him off his feet will be harder, by far. Keeping him there, for most people, much harder to do. And I too miss wrestling. I only got a few years in since the team was brand new, but I did relatively well and appreciate every minute of every practice I suffered through.

Mostly, and I do mean mostly, that is how things go these days. I won't say these are more enlightened times, but perhaps more litigious. That does have an affect on what people do. Being willing to take a beating over your principals isn't so common any more either. Those willing to challenge are as rare as those willing to accept these days.

For an outright challenge, I haven't seen any personally. However, I was a bit of a door keeper. When someone new came into the dojo who had previously trained they would be introduced to class, taken through drills etc. The first night they were cleared to spar I was always the first one paired with them. I was young, able to take a hit and not prone to flying off the handle if the person was overly rough. There were a couple of times that guys were sure they had something to prove. Never amounted to much past a hard sparring session. At least not to me. A couple of times it was very clearly an effort to prove their training was better/our dojo had bad training. My first instructor did tell about being taken with his instructor to visit a Korean gentleman who had opened a school in town. The gentleman had come by and introduced himself and invited my instructor's teacher to work out with them soon. When the meeting took place, each had some students with them and they faced off to spar. When it was over the Korean gentleman folded up shop and left town, my instructor had new training partners. While never explicitly stated, the story had the air of a thinly veiled challenge. This would have been in the...mid 70's I think.

Noah, mate, Absolutely on point. It's great to hear this, and I think you hit the nail on the head. A major concern of mine is will my credibility be brought into question. This really does help. Thankyou. Sentoka, Looking at all of this, I see we live far too far apart to sit down and have a few drinks over this subject. I've raised this very question, or something very close to it here in the past. There are no really right or wrongs that I can see, only decisions you can sleep with. I spoke with the man I consider my current head instructor tonight about something else, a pretty happy prospect. Some day, he and I are going to have a long conversation, I hope over a good bottle, about what I am doing up here in the sticks with our tiny, tiny dojo. My personal approach, personal method, and disposition to teach is very different than the Matsubayashi-Ryu I started with, the Shotokan, Kenpo, etc. etc. I've trained in since. What I teach isn't that same old method. One my first instructor would not approve of I do not think. I think at a certain point, as long as you are honest about what you teach, and where you learned it from, you will be fine. The challenges to your credibility will come any way. They would come even if you toed the party line and taught exactly what was expected of a Wado dojo. About the best you can do is defend those challenges with results in your students. The primitive, old school guy in me says invite them on the floor to experience it first hand. But, that is frowned upon in polite society. In some ways I guess I have mellowed as I've gotten older, but other things I'm less forgiving of.

I haven't heard that "Karate is for kids", but as one of the young men in our adult's class (aged/matured out of our kids class) told us, "People think karate is goofy." Most of his peers have only some TV stuff and film stuff to base it on. Much of that is to put karate in a negative light compared to sport fighting, or is sold as something young kids do after school. Adults training seriously isn't what they get to see. Our young man nods vigorously when asked if the adult training is different from the kid's class. In the advertising I think it is identifying market niche. Young, athletic people want to compete. Pair that with a media both event and film/TV that sells MMA and Boxing as what serious adults do and you have them gravitating toward those activities. Karate is seen, in almost all of it's depictions as geared toward kids, or ineffective for adults. So, both sides of the divide have identified where they can effectively market and driven their dollars that way. Why spend money trying to convince mothers to take their babies to be put in a cage to be beaten? Why spend money trying to convince the young adult to put on a funny suit and punch air and scream at nothing? If you get a few out liers, that's just a bonus. A high ranked instructor once told myself and my instructor that you have to have the rent payers to be able to train the serious students. You don't cheat them in training, just realize you can't run them off and keep the doors open by scaring them to death with intense training all of the time for everyone. Spend your efforts wisely and try to keep the lights on. This from a man who never made a fortune teaching, but turned out some good quality martial artists.