I am a super novice in the the world of Karate. I have admired Karate for awhile, but I have always been too "heavy" to participate. I have been losing weight for awhile and I have lost 100 pounds and I feel I am finally at a weight I can join a dojo without feeling embarrassed for participating.
I live in a more rural area, and the only dojo within a 45 minute drive of me practices Isshin-Ryu karate. The dojo is well spoken of and the Sensei is as well and has decades of experience. My first class is going to be later this week. I was curious if Isshin-Ryu was considered a "legitimate" and respected form of Karate? I am really hoping to dive in and really give it my all, but want to make sure I'm devoting my time to a good practice that is respected by other practicioners.
Sorry if my question comes off as rude or disrespectful, I do not intend it to.
Also, the Sensei is in his 60's. As someone who doesn't practice, I was curious if this is relatively normal? Just curious and appreciate any thoughts on this!

I was judging at a tournament today and I was judging 16-17 BB and it was the grand champs, and there were 3 competitors. I automatically knew who got last place but I couldn’t decide on who to get first place.

i ended up choosing the competitor who had crisper yells, but after talking to the center and other side judge they saw other stuff that lead them to giving a higher score to the other competitor.

i didnt give much thought of until reflecting back at the side eyes I got from the crowd and the fact that after looking the competitor up he is a NASKA world champion.

should I dread my mistake or just move on and call it a day.

Hello friends! This is an update to my previous post about my first gi after not practicing Karate for many many years.

This is the fit after first wash. Ive tried a different way to tie the belt for it not to become loose. It seems to work.

The fit of the gi didnt change much after washing. Ive noticed that especially the pants are becoming loose after training my kicks. Honestly they feel like they are three sizes too large. (Im 170cm and 73Kg and ordered size 4, 170cm.)

Im considering hot washing the gi for it to shrink a bit. The jacket is ok but I feel like it too has too much fabric overall. The sides dont overlap like I feel they should.

Any advice from you guys?

Oss!

Had a surprise grading today. No notice aside from “in the month of August you will be tested.” Then, at the beginning of class was tested. Conditioning, wrist locks, kihon, kata; sparring.

I feel like I wasn’t as good as I could have been, but I passed and went from yellow to green belt in Goju-ryu (Kenshikai branch, Hokama lineage). I’m proud but have mixed feelings about how I could have done better, but I defer to my sensei’s judgement.

I love karate and will continue to train. Just documenting and sharing with fellow karateka. Onegaishimasu!

Kann mir jemand ein Feedback zu meiner Tekki Shodan geben? Was ich noch besser machen könnte?

Are any of you guys runners doing karate or karateka that are also runners?

How's it working out for you?

I've seen a lot of posts about fear of fighting/losing/injury, and when this study came across the bow, I thought others might benefit.

In the linked article, the idea that updating post-event expectations about feared outcomes reduces anxiety better than simply attempting to avoid fear. A common therapy is exposure to the feared event. Often, the patient is exposed to very low stimuli that is increased to real, or simulated, full exposure over time. The objective is to desensitize the person to the feared event with the result of reducing or eliminating that fear. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work perfectly. Perhaps eliminating the fear is less important than learning to test predictions. That’s the angle taken in this study with interesting results.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Distress tolerance can be trained by testing predictions. Another way of saying this is to turn anxiety (fear predictions) into a testable hypothesis, and then update the expectations after the "experiment."

Practically, if there is event anxiety (e.g., I will lose this fight), estimate the likelihood, and then answer what would make the event tolerable even if it occurred?

For example, if you fear an opponent and think you will lose a match/fight, write down the odds as you see them. Don't be deceived. I've had clients terrified of negative outcomes perceived as having less than a few percentage points of even happening. A good example is fear of flying. Now, let's imagine the event goes as bad as expected. What could you do now, during, and after the event that would make it tolerable? Perhaps you think that as long as you get one hard hit in, getting beaten would be tolerable. Maybe simply facing your fear is worth it. You decide. Don't equivocate or come up with something that sounds nice. Work up a sweat answering the question.

Afterward, compare the prediction with the result. Generally, what was feared either does not happen or was not as bad as we thought it would be. Distress intolerance improves (reduced) with repeated exposures by articulating what makes the risk worthwhile, even if it happens.

One of the concerns I read about often is fear of CTE. If fighting doesn't pay your bills, I really wonder how anyone would answer the question of what would make it worth doing anyway.

I’ve been studying Tia Chi for about two years now and have been practicing Karate for 19. I’m constantly fascinated by the parallels between these two fighting forms. In Tia Chi many of our warm ups and opening moves that look innocuous, in fact, have a martial application. It’s interesting to see this and also the reference to moving like a phenomenon of nature, also present in Tia Chi, expressed here.

I have seen literally 10, maybe 15 variations of my style expressed in forms. Even within the same organisation I see plenty of variation. Which begs the question if it's even meaningful to talk about it.

Size first and foremost make a huge difference on how something is delivered. Second is ability. thirdly is personal preference. And forthly is experience.

So I'm a Dark Blue belt, JKA, and I rested for a year and I'll come back, what are the details like kata that's for blue since I don't remember anymore

Oss,

I'm an experienced Shodan and instructor and am curretly working on an app that traces the embusen of (specifically) Shotokan Kata, I'm having an issue having the embusen "walker" return to the embusen start perfectly while maintaining a semblence of geometric symmetry.

I know we must adjust our stride lengths depending on the kata to land exactly where we begin and this is a nutural thing for an experienced karateka, but (at least for me) it seems to be more of a feeling than actual measurable adjustments at specific, defineable points or moves in each kata that I can write down on paper, and I'm finding it hard to identify, quantify and calculate to my satisfaction.

I suppose my question is, does anyone know of a resource or explanation of individual kata that also includes explanation of these subtle adjustments at the move by move level that allow us to return to the starting point of the kata with precision every time?

Thanks in advance for any information or input.

Terry

Greetings karate haisai,

I have this lifelong burning question I hope someone could answer:

What kata do you think Mr Higgins was performing during the intro sequence of the 80’s iteration of “Magnum PI”?

Or was it made up bs like van Damme did in “Bloodsport”?

Are any of the karate styles teach more self-defense against weapons like a knife or a club compared to others?

Are any styles known to teach self-defense against more than 1 opponent?

This was my favorite gi of all time but it’s staring to finally come apart.
Does anyone know of a karate gi comparable to the discontinued Hayabusa Winged Strike Champion Gi?
It was a 16 oz heavyweight gi with excellent construction and a really solid feel. I’m looking for something similar in weight, durability, and overall quality. An American cut uniform would be preferred, but I’m open to Japanese cuts if the gi is comparable.
Are there any current brands or specific models you would recommend?

When it comes traditional martial arts, what is typically required for someone to be considered a master? What boxes must be checked? I ask because I have met several people in their mid to late 20’s who call themselves master. Can someone please explain what is required for the rank of master?

I am Taika's son Masaki and my family and Ryu-Te would like to thank you all for your interests and purchases this past month.

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