ShoriKid

That sounds like a familiar thing in a small town. We just got lucky an while we didn't have a ton of choices we had some very knowledgeable instructors.

This is an excellent point to consider. A lot of mma guys are great to work with.

If you are looking for contact in sparring, give the Goju school a check as well. While it is possible that the Shotokan school makes good contact in some sparring for adults, there is an equal chance that it is just touch sparring all the time. As to the the time/grades of the instructors, it all depends. Grading comes at different pace from one organization to the next, so a sandan could have well more than eight years in. Then you have to consider the level of instruction received and the ability of the teacher. While the Shotokan instructor with 25 years in likely has more time teaching, some people are naturally better teachers than other if not better martial artists. My basic point is to check out the Goju school and give it the same chance as the Shotokan. You may be surprised at what you find in that it fits your wants and needs better in martial arts training.

To add on a word of caution to go with Sensei8 here, check your weapons. Pilots do pre-flight walk arounds before they even set foot on their aircraft. Weapons practitioners should do their own pre-training checks on the tools of their trade. Check for lose fittings, frayed ropes, gaps in chains, cracks in the wood. Any imperfection in the weapon can lead to serious injury of yourself or those around you. I've seen nunchaku separate and go flying toward someone after a snapping strike. I've personally had a bo break in my hands after a strike and was cut by the broken end. It could have been very bad if the cuts had been an inch or two back. Just a minor imperfection in the wood was the cause. So check your weapons before you practice. It could save you a lot of pain and trouble.

Where I'm from it's a limited pick if you can't travel a good distance. PitbullJudoka drives about 2 hrs once a week for his BJJ training. When I started training there were 3 schools in under an hour's drive. Matsubayashi Ryu, Shotokan (not what I've found to be the average school for that style) and Aikidokai Karate (an American style of karate home based out of Texas I believe). And that was it. An hour to the north was Judo and a couple of TKD places. Another half hour on, Hapkido, and two hrs south Goju, tons and tons of TKD and Issinryu (Wheeler). As a teenager, that kind of travel a couple of times a week wasn't practical or affordable. Now with kids, work, bills and $3+ a gallon gas, it still isn't. I guess that makes us products of our environment when it comes to training.

Hey, sometimes you have to let the puppy play a bit before you calm it down and teach it to sit and stay and what not. I love that enthusiasm that some students have where they just want to soak everything up and try to learn things. Sure, they have to be reminded to learn the front kick, correctly, before moving on to the lever kick. Of all the troubles to have in a student, I would rather deal with the over excited puppy than the fatalist donkey. "Oh, I try, but I just can't seem to get it." guys. They keep seeking approval and pats on the back, not through their efforts, but seek them out to reassure themselves. And Evergrey, never let being a lunger back you down from anything. Push until the world spins if you have the heart for it. I condone it, support it and do it often enough. I'll go against what a lot of people will say here, but be the puppy. Just don't make your instructors take a rolled up newspaper to you too often!

If you can't form a solid fist, you either have poorly fitting gloves or poorly designed ones there Evergrey. The only gloves I've ever had trouble making a fist in were low quality and poorly designed, usually around the finger stitching. A good glove really conforms to your fist, it doesn't change the way it's formed. My solution for bare knuckling the bag had always been wiping it down when done once I was smart enough to realize the dangers of leaving personal patterns tattooed all over it.

Okay, missed out on posting in last years because, well I'm me. Here goes. 1: Train for and successfully complete my next grading in the spring. 2: Continue breaking down kata for application. Targets this year, Naihanchi ich, Rohai as my personal focus. 3: Implement a consistent resistance training program, body weight and kettle bell driven, with a focus toward core and gripping strength. 4: Get back on my cardio. I've dropped most of my runs and those will get back to at least 3 a week of 2 miles or more. Add more training specific cardio, tabata based, work as well. 5: Compete in another BJJ tourney. 5(b): Work on my bjj. Goals for the dojo (Feel compelled to post this since I spend so much time teaching) 1: Hold(act as host and attend myself) 2 seminars at the dojo, ideally 3 (one BJJ, one striking, one Judo/throwing). 2: Test one of our students for shodan, another for brown belt 3: Take my kids class to a tourney (and not lose my mind)

Hey, are knuckles supposed to have skin on them? Actually half the time we do wear MMA gloves in my dojo... but that half of the time, we do face punches. Er, my Sensei and I might have hit each other in the fact last night, even though we weren't using mouthguards or handpads... MAAAAYBE. Not until you're a brown belt or so and then...well it's not normal skin. MMA gloves that don't cost $100 are great. You can make good contact and still grab very well.

I think that ideally, we don't know we have gained respect until someone tells us that they respect us. And ideally, if we do things the right way, through our actions and by living as an example, we are more likely to hear about it through a third person source, if we do things right. I don't disagree with you. But, nor do I think it is wrong to discount those who are talented and make things look easy, even hard work. Some people with talent will coast. But there are those with talent and a hard work ethic, and they are just as deserving as well. I'm not claiming that you would deny this at all. But I also understand what you are saying in regards to "rooting for the underdogs," those who have to work harder than the rest to achieve their level of success, and I agree with you there, as well. I respect the sweat and efforts put forth by some one. You can be gifted and I still respect what you can do. Especially if you still have the drive to put forth that effort when you know that coasting by is possible.

" Flying blue belt"? I love it! Are those like hurled brown belts only softer?

Jiyu vs. kata is very much the call of individual instructors. Kata trained sufficiently imparts movement patterns, finger prints of the style on the practitioner. That's how I view it, though plenty of others will disagree. Free sparring should be part of every karate-ka's training. Everyone has a plan until they get punched. The short answer? Yes. The long answer? Needs it's own...wait, this is it's own thread. If you're going to train kata then you need to learn how the things work beyond the simple block, kick, punch application. Otherwise you are wasting a lot of valuable training time. And you should work on your free sparring too. It doesn't line up perfectly with self defense, but it teaches a lot of valuable lessons. What it is to get hit, working combinations, non-compliant partners, distance, timing and how to cover etc. Both have value and should be looked into and get plenty of training time. But, I'm one of those crazy people who believes in partner drills, free sparring, kata application, breaking down movement and less line work and formality. Yes, there is. It isn't the easiest thing to do though and has to built specifically from the ground up for the style that is practiced. The rules context, the range, what you can attack with and how etc. There is a lot of work to do there. It's also why many people just go to a "kickboxer esque" sparring format and leave it at that.

Nothing you've said raises the first red flag with me if I were looking into things. Paying the first quarter likely covers your insurance fees as well as your classes, which means they lose money on you the first three months. Grading twice a year is a bit slow, but nothing terribly so. Paying for gradings covers the instructors' time and can cover the new belt, certificates and possibly the paper work of registering you with an organization. Gloves when sparring are smart. They protect you and your partner and let you make some contact without too much worry of injury. In the video posted, not to being critical, just observing, little to no contact is being made in the sparring shown. With contact things are very different when training. If you are going to make contact, it is safer to wear gloves so everyone can go about their lives the next day. Kyokushin guys are the exception. They're cray to begin with, but we love them.

The man passes an Cha check and hopes of pulling down enough XP to level and suddenly he's a philosopher...wait, is my character sheet showing? Not that I disagree. Those blessed with natural gifts are no more deserving of praise and respect than those without. The ones who put forth effort to improvement themselves, where ever they start out and where ever they end up are much more deserving of respect. I have great respect for my instructor who is 2 years older than me and has had both knees and both hips replaced thanks to arthritis. Never once made it an excuse not to push his training and ours. That's more deserving of respect than the athletic guy who can cruise through techniques and bang out kata like a champ but doesn't have to put much into it.

I got my first Iron Man when i hit 3rd Kyu. I'd gone through a couple of standard weight gis at that point. That was in 95' and I finally had to give up on the jacket this year. I've got two heavy weight gis in my rotation right now. If you're serious about training a heavy weight gi is never a mistake. My shodan took just over 3 years with a ton of outside training to get there.

A mouth piece, cup and some form of gloves are always on. Shin pads, elbow pads come on when the contact goes up. Boxing head gear gets strapped on on occasion, but not often. Our gloves vary. General sparring is conducted in mma "sparring" gloves. More protection than a standard 4oz fight glove and very good hand freedom for trapping and grappling. Certain times we use mma fight gloves, now and then boxing gloves are the order of the day. It all depends on the goals of the night.

PittbullJudoka is our chronicler, without him we would be largely lost to ourselves. I'm really thankful he has an interest and talent for it, because I sure don't. People in pics I take tend to have the tops of their heads lopped off etc. How about asking folks to bring in pictures of their own from over the years? Build your own collection from copies of those. Let everyone contribute memories that are special to them. Those are the things that build the history of a dojo and circle of karateka into a family. I bet you would be surprised what folks have laying back in boxes and photo albums.

Nice looking group of karateka. Life looks good for them.

I agree with this completely. I spent today wonder why that's the case and still haven't come up with a good solution, but I think it's true. I did some stand up Monday night for the first time in...well, a long time, and really it wasn't bad. Yeah, I've been sharper, the timing has been better, but I wasn't a fish out of water. Combos and technique was there. I enjoyed it enough to consider doing it more. But we'll see. I'm willing to bet on the much higher degree of muscle memory built up for the stand up game for both of you. PittbullJudoka has always been a grappler at heart, his brain works that way and I've known that for a long time. But, he's got a ton more hours on his feet than on the mats. It's more deeply ingrained and takes less polish to bring those skills back up than the ground work. I can feel what tiny bit of ground work I've got fading from where it was two months back. One of our adults makes it back to class while I'm half healthy he is destined for a gi top and a few rounds on the mats before class starts. However, my timing, footwork(as it is! ) and ability to read distance are coming back nicely right now. When you practice a board discipline it is hard to keep all the tools in the box sharp. There are just so many hours in the day and some much you can do to keep things maintained. It becomes a matter of priority and working out a way to rotate through things. It's a chore to just figure out the balance.

Laughed a little to hard in a public place at that one. That comment is awesome. Hehehe....thanks. Unfortunately, its too true. That really, really sucked. The worse part of it was cleaning it off afterwards. Its like lighting your face on fire, and then standing into the wind to try to put it out. Never again.LOL!! Man, I've been caught in a cloud of pepper spray years back and it was nasty stuff. I'd rather not catch a face full of it on purpose. I take it was part of training certification? Though man, I have to say the dental molding stuff, puts you in mind of a mouth full of cat's butt.

A plateau is where you find the chance to delve deep. A plateau has a limitation, it hedges you in. As you're progressing your skill, making the obvious gains, on the climb, there is no need for exploring the depth of a skill. Digging down during those long quiet times though, it either makes or breaks a martial artist. Many see black belt as the final goal, it's where you quit picking up tons of techniques and it's where many people quit. They aren't seeking new things and think they either don't have anything else to learn or don't think they are learning anything any more because the progress slows. The beginning of the Dan grades is the first serious plateau most students encounter and many just aren't ready for it having made speedy progress through the kyu grades. It takes a long time to progress once you reach the Dan grades. And, as said above it is where the personalization of the art should begin. I think that a lot of instructors would serve their students well to be up front about the slower progress, not just in grading, but in acquiring new and different techniques as well. Being up front and willing to guide that exploration without smothering it with a forced, wrote, adherence would encourage a lot more people to see shodan not as the end game, but as a step in the process.

Don't forget that the "blocking" hand is ALSO suppose to prevent the attacker from re-engaging, thus, the attackers hand(s) are out of position, which stalls the attackers transitions and the like. That's why I advocate and teach a mix of positive pressure with the blocking hand and hikate application to set up the strike and then feed into tuite if you want. Combine it with foot work and body positioning and you are golden.

My first instructor, Sensei Mason, was a white haired banker starting to build a little bit of a paunch. You wouldn't think he could bench press half his body weight if you strapped him down and put a gun to his head. But, I've seen him put men half his age who were in top shape shoulder blades first onto the deck with a punch. He was strict in his critique of kata and techniques and loved to fight. Showed up to the dojo ever night dragging his tie off and kicking dress shoes off behind the desk.

The Ukewaza drills that I learned in Matsubayashi Ryu taught us to block "across" the body. For a chest block, you had the same stack across your chest that you're talking about with the blocking hand on top, palm rotated slightly outward. The right hand blocked a right punch, left to left etc. The drills taught everything as a clean block, which is the idea. What I've been doing with when training my guys is an evolution of that. The hand on the bottom is the initial "brush" or deflection with the blocking hand finishing as a pressured check to get the limb fully out of the way. Or it can act as a strike. And if you goof the timing, you have arms crosses as a nice covering barrier. Knife hand "blocks" from the Pinan/Hiean katas work in a similar fashion, but with a more direct striking and trapping application. Something I've been contemplating for a while on the hand on top/bottom thing. Those techniques are meant to clear away intervening limbs. The "blocking" hand is supposed to clear the path for the follow up attack. So, in a blocking technique, the blocking hand/arm is on top because it is to emphasis that part of the encounter or point at an application involving joint manipulation. In a striking application, the lead hand is clearing or engaging the limbs to get you a clear attack, thus a little more direct in application. Just a personal thought on the hand positioning.

Naihanchi s a great kata/series that a lot of people want to breeze past because they appear so simple on the surface. But, they are great when you drill into them. And seeing all the variations of the kata is great too.