Whats next?

[GojuRyu Bahrain]

Greetings everybody! Haven't been posting for a while as I was busy with life ... and Karate.

Wish everyone a belated successful 2015! Train often, train hard!

Personally, I ended 2014 by finally testing for 4th Dan, after more than 10 years of training (since 3rd Dan). It was a good and rewarding experience to go wide and deep into Karate, take some side roads (Uechi Ryu and Shotokan, etc..), and really work on Sepai (which is the Kata for 4th Dan in my organization) so that in the end I felt fully ready for 4th Dan.

Now I am wondering, what will be next?

What distinguishes a 5th Dan from a 4th Dan?

I am working on that and am curious about your thoughts/opinions!

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btw, here is my Sepai:

If my test-partner agrees, I will post the Bunkai as well...I know that's the interesting part

[Wastelander]

Congratulations, and thanks for sharing the video! I'm not a Goju guy, but it looks solid, to me!

[bushido_man96]

Looks pretty sharp! Congrats on your promotion!

I truly think once you get to the ranks of 4th and 5th dan, its more about how you train and teach yourself, and what you discover in your training, and how you expand upon it, that makes a 5th dan different than a 4th dan. The style becomes your instructor, in a way, I guess.

[Zaine]

What distinguishes a 5th Dan from a 4th Dan?

That's an interesting question and I don't think that there is really a cut and dry answer to it. At this point (10+ years) you have a lot of knowledge and technique. I imagine that there is another kata to learn, but a lot of systems slow down or stop having new ones at this point. Mostly, what separates a 4th Dan from a 5th Dan is time and in that time you continue to grow and learn, falling more in love with (in your case) Goju Ryu. I wouldn't worry about rank, however. Continue learning and practicing and the rank will come. Congrats on your promotion to 4th Dan, it's a great achievement!

[Nevinyrral]

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btw, here is my Sepai:

If my test-partner agrees, I will post the Bunkai as well...I know that's the interesting part

Great Kata, wish I was so good

Hope we will see the bunkai soon

And congratulations

[wagnerk]

Congrats on your 4th Dan

[Nidan Melbourne]

Congrats on the promotion. Your Seipai is pretty good from my view. Here is what my dojo does in relation to seipai performed by my sensei:

Although there were a few steps that looked odd to me because of the angle that you went, but may just be how your dojo does it. I am refering to the 16 second mark of your video.

Also when you do the double punch downwards after the little foot sweep your stance looked really narrow + a little rushed to go back into shikodachi to the gedan uke. I am referring to the 22 second mark give or take a second or two.

Then following both those steps you pivot into neko ashi dachi and you should have a chudan uke and a furi uchi but doesn't look like a furi uchi there (You might have a different name for it but it is like a really bad upper block but is a strike)

Nothing Much changes from 4th to 5th Dan, except for you start training more on your own and developing your skills even further and people start coming to you for more advice.

[cheesefrysamurai]

Wow congratulations- 4th Dan is huge!!!

[DaveB]

My understanding was that 5th dan denotes mastery. Mastery to me involves being able to practically apply all the principles of your art during combat, not just drills like 1-step. Being able to apply principles beyond technique, ie not being limited to the set pieces in the kata but being able to create new combinations on the fly that adhere to the principles of the style.

How much of a change this would be from 4th dan depends on how close your training in that rank took you to that goal.

That being said mastery may be something different to you. Would training to meet your definition of mastery be a big change for you?

[sensei8]

Wow congratulations- 4th Dan is huge!!!

I wholeheartedly concur!!