Planning to Start Shotokan

[Jacob]

Hi! I started out in Tae Kwan Do a few years ago, and dropped out when I was a Yellow Belt due to work and school commitments.

Now, I live in a different city, and plan to visit a Shotokan Karate class that is being held twice a week in a local church rec room. There are five instructors, all either 3rd or 4th Dan.

My question is: what are the best books and videos/DVDs on Shotokan Karate?

Also, has anyone head of a Shotokan Martial artist named Michael Milon? Who are the "big names" in Shotokan today (meaning most visible in the karate community)?

Thanks!

[karate kid 1]

welcome to kf's jacob but no soory i dont no about dvds or anythin like that but i also study shotokan

[aefibird]

Hi there, welcome to KF!

[pineapple]

Hi Jacob and welcome! I had trained in Shotokan under Sensei Kenneth Funakoshi.

Edited February 20, 2006 by pineapple

[solar_kid]

Although no video is any kind of adequate substitute for training under a good instructor, Ray Dalke has some DVDs out that I think are great supplements to shotokan training. I have felt that sometimes he'll put something just the right way so that I understand it more than when my teacher says the same thing.

[Jay]

Hi A guess a big name would be Sensei Hirokazu Kanazawa

[P.A.L]

if you want to have a standard library of katas ,i would suggest the KJA or JKF videos although you really don't need any at the begining,

[AngelaG]

The first book I would recommend is Karate-do Kyohan by Funakoshi Gichin. This is pretty much the original Shotokan textbook (unless you are lucky enough to be able to get hold of one of his earlier works).

The Karate-do Manual by PMV Morris is a good book, if you can trace a copy.

Karate the Japanese Way by Mark Groenewold is a good book for people beginning Shotokan.

Videos, well there is a GREAT site here:

http://www.shotojukukai.com/kata/kata.htm

[RichardHangHong]

My question is: what are the best books and videos/DVDs on Shotokan Karate?

Also, has anyone head of a Shotokan Martial artist named Michael Milon? Who are the "big names" in Shotokan today (meaning most visible in the karate community)?

Nakayamas "Best Karate" series of books are excellent for beginner or advanced levels. The first volumes 1 (Comprehensive), 2 (Fundamentals) and 4 (Kumite II) are my favourites, although the kata volumes that follow are a superb learning tool with step by step pictures for getting the basic floor patterns for all 26 Shotokan kata.

Shotokan Karate Magazine is an excellent quarterly magazine that has loads of great things to read up on. You can also get back issues on cd too. I've been subscribing for over a year now and have 10 back issues. It's non-political too so it doesn't get filled with all the crap you usually see in the normal MA magazines. https://www.shotokanmag.com

Videos are hard to recommend as Shotokan is so huge there's a lot of diluted garbage out there. I haven't seen much good stuff in the way of videos, in terms of quality I mean. But some recommendations I'd make would be these:

1) Best Karate: Masao Kagawa. Available from SKM website

2) Kanazawas kata dvd: Hard to find, but worth the hunt.

3) Shihan Kenneth Funakoshi's dvd/videos are good. Has bunkai on each kata also.

If I think of anything else I'll put it up later.

Good luck with your training

Richard

[johnnymac]

Michael Milon

I use to know a Michael Milon, he was a French karateka. He died not to long ago from a heart attack.

John