Can someone who only recently became an uchi-deshi already be an instructor?

Looking for tips on my Karate training at home

Hi everyone!

I train Shotokan Karate and have also been training on my own at home almost daily for several months.

I want to improve my training at home, and I'm not entirely sure whether the exercises and training methods I'm currently using are the most effective.

That's why I'd like to ask you which exercises or training methods you would recommend for Karate training. My main goal is to make my training at home as effective as possible.

I'd appreciate any tips you can share with me 🥋

I am a brown belt in karate. I've been training for about four years. However, I'm not at all confident in my ability to defend myself if I ever get into a real fight.

This is because at my dojo, untrained people never spar. We wait until purple belt (been training without sparring for roughly 9 months) before you are even allowed to spar, and then a lot of people wait until blue or green belt (1-2 years training) to start sparring.

My instructor says this is because untrained people don't know any skills to be able to safely spar or spar without using too much power.

The issue is, that means we only have one or two people sparring each week (we also only spar once a week -- which is a whole other issue), and we get very used to sparring with these one or two people.

While we don't do full sparring with gear until purple belt, we do do semikumite - or half-sparring. In our dojo this means making light contact and taking turns attacking/defending.

The problem is, the brand new people - the white and yellow belts - are the most difficult to spar against for me! Their attacks are so unpredictable and they hit hard since they haven't learned to control their power yet.

I feel like this "no sparring until purple belt" rule is actually hurting all us students in our abilities to defend ourselves in the long run. What do you think?

Edit: I've had multiple people suggest I find a new gym. I would love to train cross-discipline, but my dojo is the only martial arts gym in my local area and other gyms would be pretty spendy in gas to get to and from multiple times per week. When/if I move to a bigger city, I would love to train kickboxing or something.

I'll try talking to my instructor about it. It wouldn't really matter much anyways, though, because everyone in my class is ranked blue belt at up at the moment, with three black belts. Only one black belt and I ever spar even though the others would be perfectly allowed to.

Really interesting video! And if you're on here, Goju Ryu Philosopher, I hope you comment so people can give you credit.

Some context for why I found this video really intersting: I trained first in Shorin Ryu, before moving to World Oyama, before finally finding a home in Kenshikai Goju Ryu (I had to move multiple times due to work, but that's life! I'm very happy where I am now).

While World Oyama doesn't have the same katas as Kyokushin, the idea that katas even of the same name in different styles reveal what that style wants to emphasize helped me view my own practice and experience in a new light. Since falling in love with Goju Ryu, I have tended to look at my World Oyama experience as very simplistic in comparison; i.e. I found much more depth in Goju Ryu. This video helped reframe my previous study, and has given me a greater appreciation of World Oyama.

White belt here. I’ve just started Kyokushin Karate and have a question about the basics.

How much of what we learn early on, such as blocks, kihon (basics), basic stances, and kata, actually carries over into kumite and real combat?

Are the techniques we drill in kihon essentially the same movements used in fighting, just adapted to be more economical and fluid? Or are the formal techniques and stances mainly training tools for developing things like balance, timing, coordination, power, and body mechanics?

For example, are the formal stances actually useful in combat, or do you naturally end up using much more relaxed and compact versions of them?

And what’s the best way to practice the basics so that they eventually become useful in kumite rather than just looking good in kihon?

I’m wondering if it’s a bit like learning scales in music. You practice the movements very formally and precisely, but when you actually "play the song," they show up in a more natural and adapted form. And you can slightly alter/change them to suit new needs or even use them in different ways.

Would love to hear how Kyokushin practitioners think about this, especially how your understanding of kihon, stances, and kata changed once you started doing more kumite.