Hey Karate guys, thoughts on George Kotaka's "Kumite Ac

[SPX]

Hey guys, first post here.

So I'm training Shotokan and have a big interest in competing in the coming year (at least four times). It will be my first time competing in karate and I'm trying to really get a handle on the specific skills it takes to win these sorts of matches.

The biggest problem that I'm running into is that the group I'm training with doesn't place a great emphasis on competition. There is one other Shotokan school in the area, but they have few adult students, and the adult students they do have are not interested in competing. They are just in it for the fun and fitness.

There is one instructor at my school who has a big focus on competing, and I know I could learn a lot from him, but he has so much going on in his life that he only runs his class once or twice a month.

Long story short, there are no competition-focused schools in the area that really cater to adult students, so I've basically gone with the best that's available. However, it's become clear to me that I will need to pursue a lot of self-guided learning. I'll have to be a lone wolf of sorts, picking up as much as I can in class while also acting independently. I think this independence is going to extend to me traveling to enter a lot of tournaments alone with little actual support from my instructors (I don't say this in a derogatory way toward them, just matter of factly. Especially since when they do compete it's exclusively in tourneys put on by the school's organization. They never enter open tournaments or compete in rulesets that don't follow the standard Shotokan stop-point format.)

So, for those on here with experience in competition karate, I have two questions:

1. What advice do you have to give me regarding pursuing this ronin path of semi-self-guided learning?

2. I was browsing around, and found this promo for George Kotaka's "Kumite Academy." It looks like there might be a lot of useful vids on there and I'm thinking of subscribing and trying to integrate some of his stuff into my training. Thoughts?

EDIT: Tried to embed this ^^^ but the video tags didn't work. What am I doing wrong?

[wagnerk]

The thing is that without a proper physical partner you aren't going to get the benefits, it may also turn into a disadvantage relying solely on vid's as your sparring training. It's not just the movements, but also the distance judging, reaction timing & speed, etc...

You say that there is a Shotokan instructor around you that teaches/practices 1-2 times a month. Why don't you augment your current training with your current training with the additional classes from this instructor? (you don't say whether or not you do this already). Or there is also the possibility of training in a different style, eg Wado, kyokushin, isshin-ryu, ishinryu, etc... Or even different arts, eg kick-boxing, muay thai, etc. The other option is if you have the cash, get a private trainer. Just remember the rule sets

Added to that there is also the kata (team and individual) events in the competition, that you can train for.

Do hope that you find what you're looking for

[SPX]

Thanks for the response.

The Shotokan instructor I mentioned is actually a member of my dojo. He used to teach a special sparring class on Fridays but life basically got in the way. Not only is he just busy with his family of five but he also got punched in the throat a few months ago at a tournament and almost died (true story, according to the doctors) so he's had to take some time off to recover from that.

Now he's trying to figure out how to start integrating his training back into his life and I asked about his sparring class and he said he's been talking to the other instructors and right now it looks like it might be something he's going to start doing again "once or twice a month." So, basically, everything is up in the air and I have no idea how it will all shake out. I don't think it's going to become a weekly thing again any time soon, though.

You mentioned doing another style or another art. I have investigated everything that I can find that's local. Multiple styles of karate and TKD, a couple of Muay Thai gyms, a Kenpo place, etc. For a brief time I was training with a Wado group but I didn't quite fit in and eventually landed where I landed. The truth is that the martial arts scene here in Salt Lake City simply isn't the best but I think, of my options, this is probably the best place for me. (I was pretty set on ITF TKD at first but just couldn't find a good local place that didn't feel like a daycare.)

I hear you on needing to have a physical partner to train with. I'm trying to work that out. In fact, I'm trying to put together a small group of people who want to get series not only about competition but also about pushing the limits a bit with our sparring. (I'm thinking getting some head gear and light gloves and allowing face contact.) I already have the name for this not-yet-existent group: the Karate Combat Club.

The problem is that most of the members of my dojo are older guys. Most of the younger people are an hour away and train with the group on the BYU campus. So I basically need to entice some of those guys to make the trip up here more regularly, or I need to find some local people from other dojos who would be interested in getting together and doing something.

In a lot of ways, it kind of sucks being an adult and wanting to be a serious martial artist AND wanting to stick with a traditional style. It would be no problem to find the type of guys I'm looking for in an MMA or MT gym. But alas, I'm trying to make it work.

[wagnerk]

This is where "networking" can come into effect, back in my younger year (not that I'm old - I'm 35) a bunch of us from different styles & association (Shotokan, kickboxing and random others) got together every now and again to just practice.

That's come and gone, but other groups in my area are doing the same thing now a days, eg there's a group of TKD and kickboxing people that get together every week to practice.

This could be something that you could do in your area? Of course without stepping on other people's toes, I don't know what it's like in your area when it comes to cross-training and inter martial art co-operation, etc...

[SPX]

You know, it's interesting you bring that up. A few years ago, when I was training with the Wado group, I started a forum called the Salt Lake City Martial Arts Connection. The purpose was to give local martial artists from different schools and disciplines a way to interface with each other, discuss martial arts, and arrange out-of-dojo meetups.

I passed the info out to all the members of the Wado dojo and then e-mailed a number of other martial arts schools in the area with the link to the forum and a note about what I was trying to accomplish.

The result? I think I got two people who signed up, neither of which posted more than a couple of times. It was pretty disheartening.

But I do agree. That's the kind of thing that needs to happen. I just don't know how to make it happen.

[SPX]

BTW, wagnerk:

I noticed that you said you have a BB in "freestyle karate." What exactly is freestyle karate, out of curiosity?

[wagnerk]

Yeah, it wasn't an instant thing here either...

Freestyle (or sport) karate... What exactly is it? That's the thing, imo, there really isn't an exact answer as each association/club will implement it differently (eg have different grading syllabus, use different rule sets, etc). I guess the closest thing that I can describe it is would be something like kickboxing (utilising different rule set) with optional forms (kata). It is very competition focus.

Competition would be something like

and the grading would something like

with basics and combinations (forms/kata if the association deals with them). However please note that these aren't me in the videos. I left freestyle karate in 2004, in the days before youtube, lol.

[sensei8]

The ronin path that you're interested will be a very lonely journey. No feedback might lead to developing incorrect, thus bad, muscle memory. Memory that will take quite some time to correct, if and when, you seek out a credible, thus qualified instructor.

One can take kihon, however one decides to learn it from whatever source, and within the ronin path, practicing it over and over and over, and then some, thus, if learnt correctly some how, will be a force to be reckoned with.

Someone once said...

"I fear not the one who can do 10,000 kicks, but I fear the one who has done one kick 10,000 times." Forgive me if I've not quoted this exactly as it should be.

The most difficult thing about the ronin path is that no matter what knowledge, skills, experience, and the like, it will be quite void without sparring. No sparring equals no effectiveness and the like without that aspect in the ronin path.

One can shadow box and the like all one wants to, but I've never been attacked by my shadow. I appreciate the training aspect of shadow boxing and the like, but it's limited drastically compared to engaging another person. A person that will challenge you in every way possible.

I wish you the best, but it will be a lonely path, imho.

Good luck on your MA journey!!

[SPX]

Freestyle (or sport) karate... What exactly is it? That's the thing, imo, there really isn't an exact answer as each association/club will implement it differently (eg have different grading syllabus, use different rule sets, etc). I guess the closest thing that I can describe it is would be something like kickboxing (utilising different rule set) with optional forms (kata). It is very competition focus.

Ah, thanks for the explanation. I actually looked for a school that did some stuff kind of like that and I just couldn't find one. The closest was a sport karate school that competed in the NBL a lot and it was almost exclusively full of kids with glow in the dark nunchaku and the like.

I think, personally, what I'm really looking for is a hybrid of a traditional school and a school that employs some more modern training methods and competition styles. But there are none to be found in my area as far as I can tell.

[SPX]

The ronin path that you're interested will be a very lonely journey. No feedback might lead to developing incorrect, thus bad, muscle memory. Memory that will take quite some time to correct, if and when, you seek out a credible, thus qualified instructor.

One can take kihon, however one decides to learn it from whatever source, and within the ronin path, practicing it over and over and over, and then some, thus, if learnt correctly some how, will be a force to be reckoned with.

Someone once said...

"I fear not the one who can do 10,000 kicks, but I fear the one who has done one kick 10,000 times." Forgive me if I've not quoted this exactly as it should be.

The most difficult thing about the ronin path is that no matter what knowledge, skills, experience, and the like, it will be quite void without sparring. No sparring equals no effectiveness and the like without that aspect in the ronin path.

One can shadow box and the like all one wants to, but I've never been attacked by my shadow. I appreciate the training aspect of shadow boxing and the like, but it's limited drastically compared to engaging another person. A person that will challenge you in every way possible.

I wish you the best, but it will be a lonely path, imho.

Good luck on your MA journey!!

Well, as I said, I'm not training totally on my own. I do belong to a dojo and usually train in class twice a week. And we do spar in class, it's just that competition is not a huge focus of what we do. So I'm basically looking to supplement my in-class training with some stuff I can do on my own to improve my abilities and understanding of karate.

I'm looking for solo drills that will help, but it's also my hope that I can find a few karate companions with similar goals who will want to get together for some out-of-dojo training to work partner drills and spar and whatnot.

Hopefully I can figure something out on that front. Thanks for the well wishes.