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125 Karate Tips

MyShotokan — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:07:39 +0000

Hello Fellow Shotokan Karate-ka

Are you an Instructor?

If you run a Dojo, you know it can be a challenge to come up with new drill and new training routines, week after week, month after month.

I’m sure you know how important it is to have a fresh batch of drills and exercises available to keep your class motivated.

How would you like a fresh injection of karate drills that will have you INSPIRED, EAGER and ready to teach!

I’ve found something that can serve as your guide for years to come. It’s your source of inspiration, instruction and entertainment.

==> http://budurl.com/karatetips

You can easily print it and pop it in a binder and have it as a reference guide at your school for you and your instructors to refer to.

Here are a few samples of what you’ll find:

• 15 different kinds of pushups - actually it’s more than that when you combine them together to make the ultimate pushup challenge!

• Discover 6 endurance strength building drills to make your students harder, tougher martial artists.

• 5 fantastic kicking drills to develop coordination, focus and speed.

• 2 group drills for developing blocking & striking coordination, timing and footwork… all essential components of self defense, kata and sparring…

• How To Build Your Own Home Dojo for under $150!

• The KarateTips Home Training Routine

==> http://budurl.com/karatetips

Click on the link, and RE-ENERGIZE your karate!

Here’s to a lifetime of training!

MyShotokan

The Correct Use of Shotokan Karate Kata

Joseph C. McDaniel — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:04:00 +0000

Let's clear this up once and for all. Is the correct use of Shotokan Karate Kata as a demonstration technique, for simple show? Or is it an aerobic exercise, a little like windsprints? Or is the Shotokan Kata Syllabus a complete library of multiple sys... Related posts:

Part of the Fun of Training Shotokan Karate in Phoenix in 114 Degrees

Joseph C. McDaniel — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 04:04:00 +0000

And no, the heat is currently not a dry heat. This is Monsoon Season in Phoenix, and if your gi doesn't wick, that's a bad thing. On the other hand, just down the street at 20th Street and Camelback Road, there's a place that teaches "Hot Yoga"; there,... Related posts:

Ohta Sensei 7th Dan JKA in York

Selby Karateka — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:30:00 +0000

Above & Below : Ohta sensei 7th Dan JKA

Ohta Sensei will be teaching in York Saturday 17th July 2010. Hosted by : York Karate Academy
Organiser : Mendham Sensei - 4th Dan - York Karate Academy
Time: 13.00 to 15.30 hrs
Cost : £10.... yes only £10!
Venue: Joseph Rowntree Secondary School (Sports Centre)
Haxby Road, New Earswick, York, YO32 4BZ.
Contact: Sensei Paul 07930 853555

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Summer Camp Coming up Fast, in Cool Payson, Arizona!

Joseph C. McDaniel — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:14:00 +0000

Below I've copied the info about the Arizona Karate Association's 31st Summer Camp; and here's a link to the official website of the Arizona Karate Association, so you can sign up!

Enjoy yourselves; it'll be fun!

31st Annual Summer Camp 2010

2010 Western Region Summer Camp Payson, AZ

Friday, July 16, 2010 Please download -- > 31ST ANNUAL WESTERN REGION SUMMER CAMP.pdf

We are holding our Annual Summer Camp again this year in Payson from July 16-18. As you know, Payson’s beautiful scenery has much to offer, especially the breathtaking views from its Mogollon Rim. Our training this year will take place at the Tonto Recreational Center near the Casino on the Indian reservation, the same as last year.

What is the difference between regular training and Summer Camp? In the Dojo, standard classes are one hour per class. Training at Summer Camp is normally two hours each class, morning and afternoon.

We begin each day by meeting at 4:30 a.m. for a session of meditation at a random beautiful location just outside of Payson. This activity, although not mandatory, is well-worth your participation, as it teaches mental and physical self-control in addition to time management. It helps you find that peaceful place inside you. There are so many personal benefits; you must experience at least once to know what you may be missing.

After a day’s exercise, students can drive back to their accommodations on a road that can be rather tricky to navigate. Therefore, after each session of training you will need to recover your strength. Rebounding from fatigue is an important subject of the camp; I will teach you how to rebuild your strength as well as how to breathe with a technique of Chinese origin called Kiko.

As in our Winter and Spring camps, some students from Mexico want to join us, and are returning for Summer Camp because they are interested in its program. Our itinerary includes both a Kyu and a Dan Exam. So by all means, please attend and enjoy this training.

I will see you there.

Shojiro Koyama

SPONSORED BY:

SENSEI SHOJIRO KOYAMA &

THE ARIZONA KARATE ASSOC.

JULY 16 - 18, 2010

TONTO APACHE RECREATION

CENTER

PAYSON, ARIZONA

2010 SUMMER CAMP SCHEDULE.pdf

Shotokan Karate vs. Defendu/Defendo, All-in Fighting, and Scientific Self-Defense (the Fairbairn Syllabus); World War II Combatives

Joseph C. McDaniel — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 20:21:00 +0000

CAUTION: THE SYSTEM OF WORLD WAR II COMBATIVES DESCRIBED IN CONNECTION WITH THE SYLLABUS OF CAPTAIN W.E. FAIRBAIRN TAUGHT DURING WORLD WAR II ARE MILITARY COMBAT TECHNIQUES. NEVER USE THEM, BECAUSE YOU WILL HURT SOMEBODY A LOT. EVEN IN THE HANDS OF AN UNTRAINED CIVILIAN, THE FAIRBAIRN SYLLABUS CAN CAUSE SERIOUS BODILY HARM AND DEATH. CONSULT LOCAL LAW TO DETERMINE WHAT IS PERMITTED UNDER THE LAWS OF YOUR JURISDICTION IN THE WAY OF SELF-DEFENSE. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND THE LAWS OF SELF-DEFENSE AND THE AUTHOR OF THIS ARTICLE TAKES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR HARM TO YOU OR OTHERS IN CONNECTION WITH THE TECHNIQUES DISCUSSED BELOW.

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Some people know more than you do. Listen to them.

So says the "Most Interesting Man in the World" beer commercial, which make me laugh uncontrollably; in fact, the Most Interesting Man in the World also has a comment about appropriate techniques for use in self-defense.

Well, if anybody knew a lot about fighting, and sorted through techniques that worked and didn't work, that would have been Captain W.E. Fairbairn, who assembled the techniques and the syllabus sometimes referred to as the system of "World War II Combatives".

As an aside, the Germans pooped in their pants when they became aware that the good guys were training in the Fairbairn combatives techniques, and they gave Fairbairn the supreme compliment of publishing a book of counters to the Fairbairn syllabus.

Captain Fairbairn was given a task that was simple. But not easy. His job, if he agreed to accept it, was to turn everyone in Great Britain, starting with the Commandos, and then the various armed forces, and then the civilian population, into trained and brutally effective hand-to-hand combatants.

In about an hour. Maybe a week or two, if it was the commandos.

Now, that's not a project that would be given to just anybody. And Captain Fairbairn wasn't just anybody.

His flyleaf biography points out that he was the first foreigner (their word, not mine) to be awarded the "Black Belt Degree" from the Kodokan. And was then awarded Second Dan.

You think that took moxie in 1931?

Uh, yeah.

He also studied Chinese Boxing. And everything else.

He also assembled and trained and managed the first Swat Teams, called "Riot Squads", in Shanghai, where he had been beaten and left for dead by a gang of Triads; I think that was a motivating factor for him in studying various forms of unarmed and armed offense and defense.

Still, even if you know every variety of attack and defense (and there's nothing new under the sun, kiddies), the real challenge is how to decide what to teach troops going into harm's way in World War II.

And the decision making project is a huge one, primarily because they needed to be very effective at killing their opponents during World War II because, well, it was war, not cricket!

Apparently it was somewhat difficult to get the British past the whole "fair fight" kind of mentality, and into the "killing by attacking the attacker" point of view.

Recap: Captain William Fairbairn, after thirty years service with the Riot Squads of the Shanghai Municipal Police, which he trained and organized, was tasked with turning farmboys into professional killers, with their hands, knives, sticks and firearms.

And then with turning the postman back home into a professional killer; and the milkman, and the waitress.

World War II was special; read about it sometime.

So the obvious difference between Shotokan Karate and Defendu, the Fairbairn system, was the syllabus, which in the case of Shotokan Karate is gigantic, and in the case of Defendu in its most refined form a maximum of thirty-one unarmed techniques, and in all about forty-five techniques, because unlike modern Shotokan Karate, it did teach the use of weapons (including the Smatchet and the F-S Fighting Knife, which was really more of a killing knife than a fighting knife), and the use of sticks or even umbrellas as weapons.

But Fairbairn went further, and suggested that instead of learning the thirty or so unarmed techniques adequately, the combatant learn about ten very, very well.

He did not teach breakfalls or groundfighting to troops going to war, for reasons that seem well thought-out to me. He understood breakfalls and groundfighting very well, thank you, because he was a second-dan Judoka, of course.

But here's the primary difference between the Fairbairn Syllabus and fighting system, and the Shotokan Syllabus: the philosophy and purpose of the discipline.

In Japanese terms, Fairbairn taught a Jutsu, and Shotokan teaches a Do.

And Shotokan has developed as a martial art with a defensive philosophy over the years, based partly on the translation of the one of the maxims known as "The Dojo Kun", which includes "Refrain From Violent Behavior".

And Defendu is certainly violent behavior, which advocates pre-emptive attacks upon an opponent when you believe yourself in danger. The Fairbairn fighting system is almost the definition of violent behavior!

And that, as you certainly noticed, is the other massive philosophical difference between "There is no first strike in karate" Shotokan, and "do unto others first and fast and worst, then get out" philosophy of Defendu.

As an aside, note that Fairbairn wrote several books. They included a book of self defense for women, a book about self defense in wartime, a book primarily aimed at policemen and civilians in moderately safe environments (that book includes more defensive and restraining techniques, which Fairbairn thought had less place in wartime).

Fairbairn points out, as to restraining techniques, that if you try to take an enemy combatant captive, he will resist to the fullest of his ability, and that you will first need to soften him up with blows to make him decide that capture beats the alternatives (in the same way that getting older beats the alternatives).

So there you have two bodies of fighting technique that are close to endpoints on a line.

Shotokan takes a very long time to achieve competent performance of the syllabus, and there are a lot of exams along the way to test proficiency, with judges. Defendu takes very little time to become proficient, and the only test of your performance is whether you come back home with your shield or on it.

Shotokan, as a traditional style of karate, teaches kata as a part of its syllabus, and a lot of kata at that. The Fairbairn fighting system and syllabus teaches exactly zero kata, and instead teaches only the handful of offensive techniques chosen by Fairbairn (note that his choice of most favorite techniques changed over time, because he had the luxury over 30 years with his Riot Squads to teach and find out what worked well and what didn't work. The "Rock Crusher" Technique, for instance, didn't make the cut in his more mature work).

Note, again, that I said "offensive techniques" when I addressed the Fairbairn fighting system; there are no defensive techniques to speak of, because the entire orientation of the system is to attack the attacker.

Shotokan is a Do, and wants to make you a better person in some ways, although Rob Redmond contests that assertion, and Rob Redmond is very smart; Defendu, as a Jutsu, wants to make you a more effective offensive fighter during war, and to do so as quickly as possible.

Shotokan has warm-ups, strength exercises, and techniques for self-defense. Defendu has techniques that you are instructed to use without warning when you are being questioned by Germans and need to escape, and no warm-ups, strength exercises, or stretching exercises.

Shotokan is primarily designed as a discipline for a settled, well-lit, controlled environment with referees and rules and uniforms. Defendu is designed for chaotic, unpredictable environments and broken ground, not polished dojo floors and bare feet.

And Shotokan gave up the practice of weapons (wisely) when it became clear that General MacArthur thought that subject populations like the Japanese shouldn't practice with weapons on his watch. Defendu takes the overall position that if you are empty-handed and unarmed during a violent confrontation, something has gone very, very wrong indeed.

The path of Shotokan Karate, which has give rise to many competing systems, all of which are quite similar to it, and Defendu, which has given rise to competing systems and complementary systems, are parallel paths that do not converge.

Both have similar and sometimes identical techniques, and both involve physical conflict.

But one is for practice in civilian life, and is designed to make you healthy, strong and flexible, with good wind, based on practice over your lifetime, and generally to teach participants to avoid actual fights.

The other, Defendu, is designed to permit you to survive behind enemy lines, and if you happen to kill an enemy combatant in the process, good on you!

And the syllabus of Shotokan Karate includes many of the techniques of Defendu, which makes sense.

But Shotokan doesn't use most of them in free-sparring exercises, for a simple reason: somebody would get seriously dead if those techniques were used in Shotokan sporting contests, which is why they are not.

There is an interesting variation in the uses of the Shuto (knife hand) in Defendu; Fairbairn advocates that it be used in a downward stroke, and an outward stroke, but never to strike with the palm-up edge-of-hand.

I don't know why he advocates as he does, but I'll try to find out when I get a Round Tuit, and I'll get back to you on that.

I have embedded a few videos of Defendu being taught both by modern instructors and also in ancient military training films. The ancient military classes on film will look funny to you, I suspect, and they look a little funny to me, as well.

But that doesn't mean I'd want to get in a fight with the guys in the funny looking black and white videos below, back when they were saving the world for real, as opposed to talking about saving the world, which some people apparently like to do.

And, seriously, while one of the videos involves guys in fatigues wearing masks, understand that espionage was one of the weapons of war during the Big One. And since they were training guys for behind the lines work, they didn't want to advertise who they were training.

And here's a U.S. Training Film showing similar approaches to hand-to-hand combatives:

The "Chin Jab", favored by Fairbairn, is taught by modern combatives instructors who know their stuff. Here's Kelly McCann, who discusses Fairbairn's version of the technique:

Here's the late, great Carl Cestari, who knew more about World War II Combatives than anyone else after Applegate passed; sadly, he's teaching now in a dojo in the sky. If you can get all of the old Carl Cestari dvds, you really, really want to do that; while the production values of the old school Carl Cestari DVDs is lousey, the information is incomparable. His later seminars on DVD are also very useful:

And here you see Carl Cestari, again, teaching a variation of the chin jab:

And here's Carl Cestari teaching the "Tigerclaw" technique, also a Fairbairn favorite:

Sensei in Bulgaria 2008

Selby Karateka — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 19:43:00 +0000

Above : Kato Shihan and Nenov Sensei in Bulgaria

A short video from 2008, a bit of Heian Yodan etc.

You can compare what Sensei is teaching with what we did tonight. Osu!

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This Karate Blog Doesn’t Like Straw Man Arguments Very Much; The "Shotokan Stances Are Too Low" Straw Man Argument

Joseph C. McDaniel — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 22:30:00 +0000

One rhetorical device used in arguments is referred to as the "straw man", and you'll be able to tell when you see a straw man argument in action when somebody ascribes a quality to the opponent, and then criticizes that opponent for that quality.

Here's a pretty decent example: there are people who clearly know better, who criticize the stances of traditional Shotokan karate, suggesting that people can't fight or spar well from such low stances.

Now, that's just a silly argument, although it's a true statement of fact.

Because when you look at videos of Shotokan Karate Tournaments, you'll see that nobody is using one of those very low stances, because they're not fighting stances!

They are stances for training, not fighting!

Remember, Shotokan Karate is a carefully graduated sequence of exercises that produces a predictable result, which is a martial artist who is flexible enough, and strong enough, and can move freely enough, to execute techniques in the syllabus of Shotokan (which includes just about everything!) easily and without, you know, falling down!

So now you know what a straw man argument is, and you know that it's being used whenever somebody (who usually knows better) suggests that Shotokan stances are too low for sparring and fighting.

Because that's not what they're for!

And, yes, every now and then somebody makes that argument, and even causes it to show up in print. On the internet.

Oh, well. People do what they do for the reasons they do 'em, and they keep doing 'em, and no amount of fact can dissuade somebody who wants to believe that his style is the only true way!

Myself, I kinda like Shotokan Karate because it's easy to see (from the other students in class) about what I'll be able to do in another ten years or so, and that works for me!

Now, if you want to watch a Shotokan stylist discussing stances for purposes of fighting or sparring, here is Lyoto Machida doing exactly that!

A Karate Blog Can Only Do So Much, You Know?

Joseph C. McDaniel — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 00:51:00 +0000

I've been having fun with this karate blog for the last couple of days.

I finally figured out how to plug in videos, and there is a wealth of video material about karate and martial arts, so I get to have guest instructors like Sensei Nakayama appear at this virtual dojo, and Sensei Nakayama is available to teach 24/7/365, which is very good indeed.

I also have a platform for my opinions about traditional karate, Shotokan karate, supplemental training exercises, and my opinions about the efficacy of Shotokan karate, Tai Chi and Aikido and boxing and MMA and wrestling and the Fairbairn techniques as self-defense.

And that's fun, particularly when I remember the mere five books (six, if you count the two-volume set twice) that were available to me when I started my martial arts travels after a rough year in 5th Grade at Emerson Grade School in Phoenix, AZ.

But don't think that mere knowledge can help you in a situation requiring self-defense skills; you are going to need practice of some kind, and the more the better, because your mind may remember pictures you see on the internet, but your body remembers what it has practiced.

One of my next projects is to contrast short learning-curve technique sets with Shotokan, which has a technique-rich syllabus, and a very long learning curve.

Critics of Shotokan karate suggest that it takes too long to learn the syllabus.

I agree that it takes a long time to learn the syllabus in Shotokan; I'm still working on it, and I will be for the next twenty years or so.

Since I enjoy the training, the extended and extensive syllabus is a feature to me, not a flaw.

But for no other reason than fun, I plan to discuss some short-learning curve technique sets, including the Fairbairn Syllabus, and a version of Prison Fighting Techniques on DVD that impressed me (actually, about half of the techniques impressed me), and the LINE System used for a while by U.S. Marines, the combatives systems (similar to Fairbairn's) taught by the great, late Carl Cestari and five or six other shorter-learning-curve self-defense systems, and contrast them with Shotokan.

And I'm interested in the current version of Krav Maga being taught in Israel, so I'll take a look at what's out there, because it gets field tested on a daily basis in a way similar to, but far more extreme than, mixed martial arts.

So there's more to come, and we haven't scratched the surface of Shotokan, at that!

Shotokan Karate, and Whether Karate is an Effective Martial Art

Joseph C. McDaniel — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 21:18:00 +0000

I'm going to screen the four-dvd set by Lyoto Machida, because, after all, he is a life-long Shotokan student who had done very well indeed in the unbiased, intense experimental training ground of mixed martial arts.

Once I get my dvds, I will screen them, and I will tell you how well I liked them in this very karate blog.

This much, however, is clear.

Not everyone who studies Shotokan Karate is going to be a world-class competitor and tough guy, anymore than a young lady who takes a year of ballet will be a ballerina starring in Swan Lake in a professional ballet company.

Not everyone who studies Shotokan Karate will have the abilities of Sensei Nakayama or Sensei Funakoshi or or Sensei Tanaka or Sensei Koyama (I got to watch Tanaka demonstrate when Sensei Nakayama brought him to our class with Sensei Koyama at Arizona State University; Tanaka's a pretty serious guy. And that was a more interesting class than the usual class. Kinda like a visit from the Pope, if you're Catholic).

And that's just common sense.

If you are a serious practitioner of any martial art, you spend a huge amount of time in training, conditioning and practice; waaaaaaaaaaay more than a recreational practitioner.

One reason boxers are such effective fighters, in general, is that they are filtered at the both the front end and the tail end; those who are not tough enough to endure the training because they have glass jaws and low pain tolerances are shaken out. At the other end, those who want to have what we generally refer to as normal lives, with a predictable paycheck, drop out.

That leave very highly motivated guys with high pain tolerances and cast-iron jaws and guts who run five miles a day and lift weights and do a million sit ups and hit themselves in the face, and you can teach techniques to guys like that, or not, and they'll still be very tough guys.

But if you take a wimpy little guy who weighs 135 soaking wet, and he trains twice a week in any traditional martial art whatsoever for a period of twenty years, and you toss him in a ring with Mike Tyson or Mourad Oumakhanov, he will become a floor ornament very quickly.

Big, tough guys tend to beat little fragile guys, all other things being equal.

Martial arts in any context are about trying to make things more equal than physics and biology would otherwise dictate.

And you get out of a martial art what you put into it.

So if you practice an esthetically pleasing martial art (Tai Chi as taught most places in the United States) from a non-combative oriented instructor in a Parks and Recreations Class, and you take one class per week for five years, and you become pretty good at the long set, you probably ought not expect to be able to hold your own against a Golden Gloves boxer, who has bled and sweated and suffered several hours a day over a decade for his art.

Getting used to having somebody trying to knock your head off is probably pretty good preparation for a situation where somebody is trying to knock your head off, you know?

In that context, it's also good to recall that in the good old days, formerly known as "these trying times", kumite in Shotokan Karate was essentially without rules-that is, one guy said "hajime", two guys fought like crazy, then everybody went to the hospital. Ditto with matches between Universities in Japan. Made the Japanese hospitals very busy after University Clubs had their gentlemanly matches.

In any case, Lyoto Machida has studied Shotokan Karate for almost the entirety of his life, and he indicates that he worked hard at that, as well as his grappling study. I'll be interested in what he has to say about karate as an effective martial art.

Because in his hands, it clearly is an effective martial art, you know? And he says that's because of his discipline. I tend to believe him: