ShoriKid

And it isn't always now. Too many karateka take "do" as an excuse for navel gazing. They skip the sweat and the hard work and examining with a critical eye what sort of skills they are really learning. Karate jutsu used to be the order of the day. I'm not a big Funakoshi fan, but his early works were considered jutsu. Later, came the "Do". It can happen, but I have long felt that if you're seeking it out, it won't happen.

For me it was the later kyu grades. We were required to teach lower kyu grades (supervised of course) as part of our training. When you have to break techniques down for people that don't know anything, or just have the roughest idea you start looking for the under lying causes. As you do it more, you get better at it. You learn to make fewer corrections and have to really go for the root cause of the problem. If you want to confuse a white/yellow belt give him 10 corrections on his reverse punch. Instead you fix 2 things. The 2 things that will fix 8 others.

To the bold type above...Recognition for your student's rank by an organization, whether it be small/medium/large, will be hard to come by. Why? Politics won't allow it or will make it practically impossible. Your rank is valuable only within your current organization, whereas in another organization, your rank is far less than one might think. For all intents and purposes our organization is a small circle of black belts in our little corner of the world. We're trying to expand that somewhat by reaching out to the few other instructors in the area. I'm more aware of the politics than most in our group. My hope is to help them with those issues as much as I can. For myself a larger reach with other black belts I can work with, learn from without always having to start with introductions and feeling out from the get go. A group that is more inclined to be open to my approach and views etc. I know, find a few good black belts and they should be that way any how. I'd like to be able to sort through all the noise before hand. A pipe dream for sure. But hey, if you're going to dream, dream big.

If my students travel to another school/area I would like for them to be be looked at with with some respect without always having to prove it. Sadly, in some ways it's about the politics I know they will face. More over, I would like them to have a network to reach out to when they leave the nest. If that's their desire. It's a cold world out there and if they have some brothers I feel they would have a little easier path to walk when they venture into the world.

Cooper. Read him, know him, love him. The biggest thing about the isosceles is that it also puts your mass behind the gun and lets you "squeeze" the gun in your grip. Both eyes open shooting isn't that hard for handguns. Your focus is on your front sight. Start shooting at 20-30 feet and you can get the hang of it.

I looked back at this subject, or the related ones to see what had been said before. Not wanting to raise 2 year old threads I figured I'd start a new one here. The instructor's forum seemed the place as they are the ones most likely to deal with this issue. The Who Teaches You thread got me thinking on this again. As most of you will know I practice a mixed style of karate with grappling elements we have always found important. I've been at this for a good number of years and PittbullJudoka and I run a small dojo in a small town. Our instructor is a good ways off from us and with our lives not cooperating training together on a regular basis is not something we can do. His first instructor is no longer with us, mine is retired and the one we were under together is not actively teaching now due to life issues. Because of all of this I have been looking at various organizations to affiliate with for a couple of reasons. Recognition of my student's rank would be nice. The resources of a net work of instructors with seminar information etc. And, yes, the opportunity to be tested and advance myself would be nice. The freedom to teach our style as we see fit is very important. I don't need someone else's content to learn and teach. We're not standard issue Shotokan/Shorinryu folks and don't wish to be. Does anyone know of some good organizations that fit what I'm looking for? I can find a dozen places that fit for traditional, big system, buys. Or are straight belt factories. Basically, my google-fu is weak in this area. We're in the South Eastern US and most of what I find is west coast, north east.

It will also limit the pool of people who can look at a black belt with that requirement. Young males (16-30ish) are the only ones you're going to attract. Women and older men are going to look at that requirement and shake their head. Clearing the medicals for an MMA event might stop some as well, especially those pushing past the 30s. If you are running a competition based school, very cool. Maybe a smoker would fit the bill for what you need as well. Same pressures without some of the issues above.

Remind me to buy a new net, we need to kidnap him soon bro. There comes a time, where through time or geography or life, that we all lose the ability to train under our instructors. It can be a bit disconcerting, but you have to resign yourself to it at some point. The more you advance as a student, the more likely it seems to become that you will be on your own a large part of the time. Or completely really. Then it becomes as much a time to learn from your students and your compatriots as anyone else. Students ask those questions that make us re-examine our techniques and approaches. And isn't that what training is meant to do? Make us examine what we do with an eye toward improvement? With our peers we exchange ideas and ask "what if?" all the time. And they have the skill level to find the holes in what you're doing or ask the follow on of "and If that, what then?".

I knew I'd left an arm hanging the other night right before it got snagged tight. Just more mat time and more drilling to be done. All part of bjj and martial arts in general.

Getting back to this as I said I would. My prospective on BJJ is limited. Wrestling less so. I had a great coach that started a great program. Just didn't get all the time in it I wanted. I've kept to that wrestling base over the years though. So, here's my take on my own questions. Wrestling for BJJ is always a double edged sword. Part of a wrestler's trouble comes from trying to figure out which bone deep habits he keeps and which ones are going to make him pay when he's on the mats in this new format. Wrestlers benefit from a couple of things. The scramble from a wrestler is at a pace and level BJJ guys don't get most of the time. Wrestlers feel an opening, see a gap and they hit it. Heavy on top. A wrestler gets any sort of a top position and they will make you pay dearly for that. They know how to ride better than anyone, and how to control and keep you in a bad place. Good mat sense. Wrestlers tend to have a good sense of what sort of position they are in and how to improve that. No quit in them at all. Ask a wrestler to go another round, to stay in another minute and he'll do it. Tell him to do twenty more reps on a drill and it will get done. When some guys will quit because they are in a bad spot, uncomfortable or they are tired, most wrestlers won't. The daily grind of training is something they are used to. The Bad. Yeah, arms. They hang out. BJJ guys like that. Reaching to pull and turn and manipulate the other guy is a habit and hard to break. The Back. We were punished for resting on our backs during practice. Extra drills and laps. Every guy I ever talked to it was the same. It was pretty much beaten into you not to stop when you hit your back. To hate it with passion. Getting comfortable off your back takes a long time for wrestlers. No quit. Wrestlers will push a position when they should bail and go for something else when they feel like they are in a good spot. Push, push, push are key words for wrestlers. The hardest to break I think I leaving the arms out. Take the time to show a wrestlers he can get some offense off of his back instead of trying to make an example of him and he'll learn to change faster (personal opinion here of course) and see the back as okay. No quit...well, that's going to take a while too. It's learning to determine when it's good to hang in there that takes time and experience in BJJ.

I've done both. Coming from the same base art as you've listed, I'm sure you can guess which I've got more experience using and which feels more natural to me. "On" has a better feel to it and settling weight into a technique. I think mentally it fits my nature. I'm an aggressive, forward fighter, so snapping and setting my weight down and into a movement is right where I live.

Man, big can of worms topic here, one I thought about and you beat me to the punch bushido_man. How can more karate stylists make it into MMA? It takes a couple of things I believe. I will take a change in understanding of who you are trying to reach if you're a karate instructor. It will take a change in training methodologies by most "traditional"* karate instructors and a change in venue/competitive structure. Starting with those things in order I suppose. The first change is the understanding who the karate instructors are trying to reach. They have to target, mostly, young men who are athletic and competitive individuals to start with. MMA fighters are driven to compete and need to have some athletic ability to build off of if they hope to have a good career as a fighter. If they are not driven they won't put up with the level of training, the intensity and the daily grind of it. Being a fighter my sound great to a lot of young people. Put them on a diet, making them do strength and conditioning regularly and put in 2 hours at the gym training every day as well. Oh, and unless you're lucky, work a job/teach as well. That grind requires the fighter to personally enjoy the struggle just as much as the win in the ring. If not, they will fold under the grind. And the student that karate instructor is courting to join their dojo needs to understand that type of personality. Learn to capitalize on it to bring the types of people who will train to fight. Karate instructors right now cast such a wide net trying to bring in everyone so they can build a class. The instructor will have to put it right out front his dojo is focused on fighting. No point sparring tournaments, not Kyokushin knock down fighting, but MMA/Kickboxing. That the contact levels will be high a lot of nights and that the work expected is hard. Let prospective students see that you're serious about getting them into the fight circuit and be able to name organizations that you have at least some contacts with to get them fight experience. Feed that competitive desire. Don't advertise as a self defense class, a fitness class or anything else. That's not going to be your primary goal for your students and they should realize that. If you have a standard "traditional" karate class you are offering, it should be marketed separately and conducted completely away from the MMA/competitive fighting side of things. Don't mingle them and don't even try to. Know your audience and how to draw them in. The change in training methodology will be a big break from what most "traditional" karate schools and one you will have to make. You will need to build basic techniques, but along side those you need to be making use of impact equipment, live sparing that lines up with the competitive out let and conditioning. Lining up to do basics is fine, but you can't spend the whole class doing that every night. Yes, build that strong foundation on techniques, but them use those techniques to hit pads and shields. You learn to hit things hard by, well, hitting things hard. A proper punch thrown in the air is all well and good. But, if that pretty punch never has to actually run against physical resistance then it's not a truly good punch. Along with those mits, pads, shields being added in, here's a dirty thing to most "traditional" karate guys as well. Look at other arts, see what they are doing well. If it can be incorporated into the frame work of your karate, or fills a hole, it needs to be considered for use. Hook punches and upper cuts have their place in an MMA fight, or any real fight for that matter. Know them, learn them and learn to defend them. Sparring will need to change too. Stop and go point sparring has no place in training for MMA. It fosters groups of techniques that don't work when you keep moving continuously, leads to strategies that won't work and gets the fighter used to breaks in the action that just aren't going to happen that way. Sparring needs to mimic the competition model or it's not productive. The use of karate's techniques and strategies for controlling distance, breaking engagement and controlling the angles need to be worked into sparring and be a key thing the karate fighter bent on MMA success is looking to develop. Ground work will have to be incorporated into the training. If the instructor doesn't have that training themselves, they will have to bring it in from outside if they are to offer everything in one dojo/gym. Also, they'll have to look at how that ground training is incorporated into their fight strategy should be informed by their karate training. The change in competitive model is perhaps one of the easiest to understand. The instructor will have to make contacts with promoters who are involved in ami/pro MMA in their area. Doing the same with kick boxing would be advisable as well. The point/semi contact tournaments aren't a benefit to MMA fighters and training to compete in them isn't going to be helpful. If there aren't any organizations close enough, be ready to travel. However, in the US at least, finding an organization in your home state won't be that hard. May have to drive to get to fights, but there will be something out these days. So, getting more karate based fighters into MMA isn't impossible. However, it will require a concerted effort on the part of the instructors who want to see this happen. They can't continue to teach the same way that many have, with a goal that isn't MMA competition and expect to see a change. "Traditional" approaches have got to change. *My quotes around that word have to do with my opinions on what really is traditional and not in karate training today. Enough of a rant/exposition to rate it's very own forum topic. The short of which is that very, very much of what is considered traditional by many karateka today is nothing of the sort.

RU.has a ton of good shirts to pick from. They love Col. Grossman over there too. Couple of sheepdog themes to pick from.

Can that philosophy be backed with proof, though? I routinely break 4 boards with head high round kicks, and I think that's pretty good power. I don't think I could break many more than that with a thigh level round kick. Its like anything else; if it isn't trained, then it can't be used. If it is going to be trained, it has to be done properly in terms of application and context. I've broken 2 inch cap blocks with side kick at just over mid-chest high. I am not a big guy, so I blame technique. I've thrown so many of those kicks that I can't even begin to put a number on it. I know what happens when it lands, when it gets blocked or jammed and how much space and time I need to vet the kick off. It all falls back to training. A little won't do.

Shhh, don't tell everyone that it takes more work! I think most people find the loss of power at the highest level they can kick and translate it to "higher kicks have less power" when it has to do with a couple of things. Antagonistic muscle action due to flexibility issues, balance issues resulting from the change in body alignment taking muscles out of generating power and into holding position. And not understanding the change in technique with the change in levels.

I'm sure this has been hashed out here before, but since I don't have any idea how to do a topic search (I get hit in the head for fun, you think I'm good with technology?) I'm going to ask. What do you guys think about those coming from a wrestling background into BJJ? I've heard some BJJ guys say that wrestlers are too reliant on strength, are too "stiff" or fixed on a movement and don't have any technique. Others like the good balance, heavy hips and transitions. I've been thinking on it and it's come up in some of the pod casts I'm listening too. Open Man and Inside BJJ being the guilty parties. During interviews with well known and highly thought of BJJ instructors and competitors, differing opinions on this topic come up. I know that it's subjective, but I wanted to get the views of my martial kindred here. Are there benefits of having wrestling training prior, or along side, BJJ training? Are there draw backs of having wrestling training prior to or along side the BJJ training? Is it a mixed bag? Does it matter the person that comes along with the training? Is the driven mentality of a wrestler a good or bad thing? I've got some views, limited as my exposure to BJJ is, and I'll share them shortly, but I want to hear from others first.

Bag work and runs in the snow and/or cold are good for you. We've done mile run down to the park in January, performed 1000 reps of technique and then run back. No waterfall training for us, sorry. Hauling my guys out to one where we could get good access would eat up half our time. If we get a good cold snap this winter, we'll drag out to the park for one or those work outs buy the lake again.

There is an account in Col. Grossman's On Combat of a female police officer shot at her home. She returns fire, putting her attacker down and calls for medical help. All this with a gun shot wound to the chest, the bullet having hit her heart as I recall. She didn't just peacefully lay down and die for the bad guys. I've always been of the mind that if I'm going to lose, or I've already "lost" in a fight I'm still going to do my level best to make it a bloody and painful victory. I'm a Ranger Up fan and I have to say, this shirt expresses the idea well enough for me. Wouldn't dare wear it as I'm not law enforcement or military, but it gets the point across. http://www.rangerup.com/brass.html

Pretty much brickshooter. Throw in the "leg kick to the head" commentary that you get from Joe Rogan and the lot... I've seen more than a few sharp front kicks called "push kicks" as well. What commentators don't recognize they will force into the box of what they know.

I didn't expect my first insrructor to keep up all the time. In his 40s he'd had one knee surgery, a major back surgery that fuse vertebra and joint damage in an elbow I didn't expect him to keep pace with 20-somethings every night. It's a rwality we all will have to face at some point.

And there.

Excellent post Sensei8. Something to add, since PittbullJudoka beat me to learn to counter, is never surrender the position. If the grappler closes to clinch, I'm not beaten and I don't have to play his came. A "striker's clinch" works differently and has different goals than a "grappler's clinch". Both are about control, but the use of that control has different aims. If you hit the ground, unless you're very comfortable, don't plan to stay there. Work to gain superior position and regain your feet. I'm a stand up guy. I have enjoyed grappling since high school wrestling and now the BJJ PittbullJudoka brings back to the dojo. I work on my grappling and ground skills because I have worked too long and too hard on my striking to get all of those skills taken away by a guy with a sloppy double leg.

As you age you'll put on pounds, at least most everyone will, no matter the level of cardio or change in diet. Those thine guys you would have said were too skinny as young guys and needed a few pounds of muscle. Then there is the whole training vs. teaching split as well. Most nights the instructor will get the least work in as he's constantly moving from student to student teaching. Out side of the dojo their time is spent refining and planning more than conditioning. At least that tends to be the case. I'm not making excuses for some one to be lazy. However, remember you won't be in your teens/twenties forever and focused on only your own raining. (Edited because you shouldn't post from a phone at 4 AM)

Since we're on the subject, are there major technical differences between Kyokushin/Ashihara/Enshin? I know the later two are off shoots/derivatives of Kyokushin, but other than a political break, are the styles different? Training methodologies, stance/footwork etc, where do the differences lie?

As far as a visual break down of Shotokan kata, Nakayama's "Best Karate" seris is very good. Nothing about application or anything else, just a well done, multi-photo break down of the movements with notes on the timing of the kata. Here's a link to one of the series: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Karate-Vol-5-Heian-Tekki/dp/0870113798/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1347194077&sr=8-8&keywords=M+Nakayama