Grandmaster Demura And Me

[theapprentice124]

hey guys i just started shotokan about a week ago luckily for me my dojo had a grandmaster over to teach for the weekend Grandmaster Demura was there and it was awesome! He is a great teacher i believe that he went back to California but anyway i have a question how long before i will test for my yellow belt and what should i know? i already know one kata its called Hein Shodan i dont know if thats how you spell it...I'm having a bit of trouble with my roundhouse kick but ill get around to getting it sooner or later lol....thanks guys

[y2_sub]

Lol.. seems like you are progressing so fast .. you will learn over time . Hope you the best

[ncole_91]

Well first of be patient. You are not studying Shotokan for a yellow/blue/black etc.. belt. You are studying to become a better MA, a better person.

This is very hard to do, to forget about the belt ranks and concentrate on yourself. Try not to concentrate on other people too much because you either look really good, or really bad. This will be hard to go and I have not fully done it yet just because it is really easier to want to test for your next belt and try to get a better rank than so and so.

If it is your first week and you have fully memorized Heian Shodan (your spelling was really close ), then, wow, your are progressing really fast. for now keep working on it. Work alot of your stances, getting them perfect and nice and low lol. For example go into front stance with your hands out on the side, then look at your stance. Is it 1 shoulder length wide? If is approximately 2 shoulder lengths long? Is your back up straight, head high (that’s a big one)? Now practice going forward and backwards. Make sure your feet go in, then out, then check to three things again.

You will find there are about a million little details you will have to remember to have good stances.

Now once you have practiced the above, add a lunge punch, just to the chest. Go back and forward, and kiai on each punch. Again, make sure you check your front stance. A big problem I had is I was almost leaning over when I punched. You do not want to do this; you want to have your back straight. You should be able to stick a pole from your head, let is go down your spine, and it should come out of your butt, and be totally straight.

If your punches are going straight out, then go into a natural position, then just practice punching. Remember to always bring your hand back to chamber, then twist it out. Do not twist your hand to fast, but not too later. Well actually, if you were really punching something, then you would make contact when your hand only turned 90 degrees, then as you push turn it the rest of the 90 degrees. But when you are punching air, you don’t have to worry about it, just keep it in mind.

Now you get to work on low block (gedan barai), just go through the whole thing, in a standing position, one side, then the other side. Remember Shotokan uses big movements. Have your hand up at your ear, slide it down your other hand. (Hard to explain, but you know what I mean) Just do not take shortcuts or it will bite you in the behind later.

With this you can practice almost the whole kata. Work on the turns, especially the one after the first kiai (third rising block). It is a 270 degree turn, practice it till its perfect.

Now, the hardest part of the kata. The last four knifehand blocks (shuto uke). It toke me a long time to get back stance and knifehand block down pat. (Not saying mine is perfect, not even close.) Your legs are going to feel weird and hurt for this one, quite a bit. Remember you have 60-70% of your weight on your back foot, then the rest of your front foot. Your front knee will be bent a little. Your heel of your back foot, and your front foot will be in a line, and keep your back foot straight. This will hurt the ankle a lot, but it will look better. This is a hard stance to describe, but these are key points. Remember, BACK STRAIGHT lol. You are going to look like you are sitting on a chair a bit. If I am confusing you, don’t bother reading this part. Anyways here is a picture of a good back stance.

http://www.irimi.it/image9/tachi_kokutsu.gif

Here’s a picture of a shuto uke, the devil of this kata and beginners. It is very very hard to get it good. You probably should have learned the process of getting it there like the hand is at your ear, the other one is extending, pulling the extending one back, and they one from your ear goes into the actual block. For the outer hand, it should be a 90 degree angle with the elbow. Also, the hand should be in line with your arm. Like it should make a straight line, and of course your thumb is tucked in. Your other hand will be palm facing up, right against your solar plexus. Imagine you are holding your favourite drink, and you go not want to spill it, so keep is straight, and never, never relax your hands, they should always be straight.

http://www.shotokai.com/imagenes/tecnicas/shutouke.gif

A lot of this stuff might not make sense if you do not know how the block/strike/punch works/goes. Like I said before practice all of these things, show them to your Sensei and make sure you are going them right so you don’t develop bad habits.

There is no time limit for when you can test for yellow belt. It could be next class, or it could be in 3 months. There isn’t even a standard requirements that everyone follows, it will depend on the dojo, and your Sensei. I only needed to do front snap kick, and roundhouse for yellow adv. Practice those kicks a lot, and you should start stretching daily, do some static, active and dynamic stretching for maximum benefits. If you are interested in this, just tell me and I will write another post about them.

Also this stuff in my post might not be exactly the same as you Sensei would do in the dojo, so take his word for it, this is just what I have learned so far.

You can also just make up combos to practice your memory and to actually practice the moves. Like for example, you could do front snap kick, rising block, reverse punch, lunge punch.

And of course, you can never forget to learn as much terminology as you can. I doubt you will pass your yellow belt test unless you know all the names of the moves in Japanese and vice-versa. It would also be good to maybe print out a copy of the kata for reference (the key word is reference, you never really want to learn a kata off the internet). Here is a sort of drawings that you can find easily.

http://www.ozwebart.com.au/kua/forms/heian%20shodan.GIF

If you have any questions whatsoever, ask and either many Shotokan practitioners on this forum or I will answer.

Good Luck with your Training,

Ncole_91

[theapprentice124]

thank you very much...yes this helps and dont worry i didn't get lost lol today i was trying to learn my second kata in like 20 mins. but i didn't really get it because i was getting taught by a girl that really didn't know how to explain much and another thing how do you count in japaneese? i know one is ich i think and two is nich? lol

[ncole_91]

Wow, do not rush the katas. You should just concentrate on Heian Shodan until it is pretty good. Gichin Funakoshi (The Founder of Shotokan) practiced one single kata for 1 year before he perfected it, or even moved on the next on. You should probably concentrate on doing kihon (basics) before attempting Heian Nidan (The Second Kata I am pretty sure you were talking about).

This kata uses lots of shuto uke, which is very very hard to pick up correctly. Also there is a side snap kick, which is pretty tricky if you are not taught right. Not to mention the first couple moves, the block where your hands are one, horizontal by your forehead, and two vertical. A lot of this kata introduces new things. It would be best that you learn all of these things in class by your Sensei, not by a student because it is very vital. I mean a student can correct you or give you tips, but you need a foundation. This does not apply to and older student which has a pretty high rank.

One piece of advice I would like to give you about katas, is for memorizing them, do not use markers in the dojo. For example, don’t remember that on the first turn, you are turning towards the punching bags (Just an example), because if your Sempai/Sensei tells you to do the kata facing another way, you will be lost. This is also a good exercise, try the kata facing East or South instead of North. You could even try doing it in a 45-degree angle, do like NE, or SW etc.

Like I said, don’t worry about Heian Nidan yet. Just drill the heck out of Heian Shodan. If the kata is getting boring, then try this. Put a piece of tape on the ground, or a rock, anything that is a marker. Then do the whole kata, and if you did it correct you should have ended up in the same spot. After that, do it with your eyes closed, it will be tricky. If you find this one boring, then try the kata like a mirror image. For example, (for Heian Shodan) instead of turning left with a low block, turn right with a low block. This will be really confusing at first, and should probably not try until you have totally fully memorized the kata, as it can mix you up a lot. Another exercise, which is very hard, is do the kata backwards. Yes, I said backwards. A student does not know a kata, until he/her can do it backwards. So you would step forward with your left foot NE into Shuto Uke, and then do the rest of the kata. This should take a long time to master. Make sure you are using the right hand, turning the right way, etc…

Anyways, this should last a long time and remember if you get bored, practice lol.

Here is how you count in Japanese. Again, there are a few numbers that aren’t that same, so ask a Sempai (Senior Student) which is right.

Ichi – 1

Ni – 2

San - 3

Yon or Shi (It can be either, most dojos use Shi, but the one I attend uses Yon – 4

Go - 5

Roku or Loku - 6

Shichi - 7

Hachi - 8

Ku or kyu - 9

Ju or jyu – 10

Ju-ichi - 11

Ju-no – 12

Ni-Ju – 20

If you have any more questions feel free to ask.

[theapprentice124]

kk thanks im going to try that tape thing lol yea i think i need more time with heian shodan but i have to do what the sensei tells me and yes id rather get taught by the sensei but the sensei teaches the class instead of me cuz i dont know much so he always puts me with a brown belt or higher to learn the basics and in this instance the hein nidan lol sorry for spelling...

[Mu Ryuk]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Fumio Demura the Grandmaster of Shorin Ryu Karate, not Shotokan Karate? Or are we talking about a different Demura?

[PBI]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Fumio Demura the Grandmaster of Shorin Ryu Karate, not Shotokan Karate? Or are we talking about a different Demura?

Demura Shihan is actually a practitioner of Itosu-Kai Shito-Ryu Karate-Do. He is very open to cross training, however, has taught at several Japan Karate-Do Ryobu-Kai seminars, and was actually even a guest on the panel of instructors that judged my sandan test for Shindo Jinen-Ryu...

[Psilokan]

I didnt even start learning roundhouse kicks until yellow belt. I struggled with that kick for so long, I knew what I was supposed to be doing, but just couldnt get my body to do it.

But patience is a virtue, and it paid off. It took me a good year to figure that kick out, I was already a purple belt before I felt confident in my roundhouse kick.

Now if only I could get my spinning back kick mastered...

[Paula]

I'm going for my next belt soon too. Good luck