a little shotokan help

[Fish_headz]

Hello i am new to the forum and i have a question. I have been doing taekwondo in america for several years and have recent started studying abroad in japan to learn the language. As a result of being in japan, I have started doing shotokan in a great dojo and everything but i have a question about the ranking system for shotokan. In america when ever i ranked up in taekwondo i learned a new form. in shotokan, i have been doing it for 3 months now and i have learned about 10 forms and as such it has made me curious about the ranking system. i have no desire to rank up and i know they are giving me a lot of kata because i learn them fast its, just i have yet to be briefed on the topic. Though they probably will sooner or later.

[Dobbersky]

I'm suprised at how many forms they have taught you. Normally you learn 1 form them grade and move on as it is set in the JKA, JKF syllabus. Does your Sensei, know you don't want to grade and does he know you are a TKD'ist. You'll need to find a way to slow down the rate you're learning the Kata as you will find they will just merge into each other.

OSU!!!!

[Nevinyrral]

In the school I attend to we also learn katas that are ahead of our rank.

For example last time I was grading I needed to know heian nidan, and I already knew godan

[Fish_headz]

I can't tell you organization my school is. He knows I only have a year here. I have no problem learning the kata like this, I am just curious of how the ranking system. Our school seems to go from white to black that's it. Haven't seen any other colors so it interests me

[sensei8]

Some of the old school ranking went...white, brown, black. Even some styles went...white, green, brown, black.

JKA Shotokan ranking goes...9th kyu to shodan and up...white, yellow, orange, green, blue (5th/4th kyu), brown (3rd kyu/2nd kyu/1st kyu), black (shodan - judan).

Possibly, those here at KF that are of the JKA Shotokan could confirm and/or correct any errors I've made here.

[Dobbersky]

Fish_Headz- san

How do you find the approach to Kata compared to the Poomsae.

I know ITF have a "Sine" effect to the Poomsae and in WTF its there but not as apparent

Thanks

[Fish_headz]

My particular taekwondo school didn't really focused that much on the sine wave that much but that are a lot of differences in their approach to kata. In my experience with taekwondo, your practicing the kata to do it by yourself in competition but in my shotokan school that is not much of a focus. There is a lot of kata practice with a group which is similar to taekwondo but in taekwondo, we sort of end up practicing at our own paces, in shotokan everyone in the group practices at the same pace, the same kata, and allways in count. This may also be Japanese thing though because there a collective mentality here. Which may be the reason that in the shotokan tournaments, they do team kata instead of individual kata.

[bushido_man96]

Our school does forms at count, and then at our own pace, but we learn it by count.

The way they are bringing you along does sound odd. Perhaps they don't look at testing you at all, since they know you only have a short time with them?

[Fish_headz]

My American school also learns kata by count, but this school does kata exclusively by count but as i said its seems to be more because tournament is team based no real individual kata. You may be right that they don't plan on grading and if that is the case, i can deal with it but i have also been told that there is a possiblility that i may be able to obtain shodan rank before i leave. That may be another reason. Either way, it doesn't matter. As long as I get better at japanese and karate, im happy.

[Fish_headz]

Actually, just learned today that i will probably test in June for my shodan rank. hopefully i do alright.