On February 4th, 2020, Ulf Karlsson landed in Phoenix, AZ for the first time in nearly 6 years. For those who are unaware, Ulf Karlsson is the foremost expert (outside of Okinawa) in the rare style of Shuri-Te called KishimotoDi, and is the only person to be granted a Shihan license in the art by the Bugeikan on Okinawa. On […]
As most people know, karate comes in many different flavors, and each flavor has its own variations. There are countless karate organizations, styles, and sub-styles, and each has its own take on the art. The vast majority of these are, in some way, involved in sport karate, to some degree. While it tends to be quite easy to look at […]
On Saturday, October 12th, 2019, I attended a Catch Wrestling (Catch-As-Catch-Can) seminar with John Potenza of the Old School Grappling Catch Wrestling Association (LINK), which was hosted by Ed Morales of NAK Martial Arts in Gilbert, AZ (LINK). For those who are unfamiliar with Catch Wrestling/Catch-As-Catch-Can (LINK), it is a no-gi folkstyle submission grappling art that was founded in England […]
Many people claim to teach “traditional karate,” and even advertise it as such, but what does that mean, exactly? If we define the word “tradition,” as the dictionary does, it means “a long-established custom or belief that has been passed on from one generation to another,” or “an artistic or literary method or style established by an artist, writer, or […]
The art of KishimotoDi (AKA, Kishimoto-Ha Karate/Shuri-Te) is an interesting look into the Shuri-classified (or Tomari-classified, if you prefer to look at it that way) karate of the past, before its popularization by Itosu “Anko” Yasutsune and his disciples. As this style is is rare, only a small number of practitioners around the world study it, so it has been […]
Karate has, like all things, changed over the course of time, for a variety of reasons, from sociopolitical considerations, to sports science and movement theories, to simple aesthetics. Breaking down the myriad changes that have taken place within it would be an impossible task, but one can isolate some specific examples for study, which make for an interesting look at […]
“Karate” is a broad term, which covers many different martial methodologies and styles originating on Okinawa and, later, Japan. There are a number of misconceptions about what karate is, although there has been a movement–a sort of “karate Renaissance”–in the past decade, or so, which has been making more information about karate available, and promotes a practical approach to the […]
A common complaint about karate, and its kata, is that the stances are impractical–that one would never use such stances in a “real fight.” This goes along with the general complaint about kamae (postures) found in kata being impractical guards for fighting from (as discussed in this article: LINK). This tends to stem form the fact that the word tachi […]
Much is made of the influence of Chinese martial arts on karate, from the “36 families” of Kumemura (LINK), to the Oshima incident (LINK), to the mysterious Hakutsuru kata (LINK), and of course the more solid connections found in Naha-Te styles like Goju-Ryu and Uechi-Ryu. While Chinese martial arts would certainly have had an influence on Okinawan martial arts, given […]
At 2:04am Pacific Standard Time, on Wednesday, December 27th, 2017, the world lost an amazing martial artist, a fantastic role model, and a great man who impacted more lives than I can count. Richard Michael Poage was my Sensei, but he was also my friend, and the older brother I never had. He was truly the embodiment of “sensei,” which […]
While many joint locking techniques (kansetsu-waza) exist within karate, there are still karateka who are unaware of them and, frequently, people look at the joint locks of karate from the perspective of other arts. We know that such techniques exist within karate, not only because of karateka who kept them in their curricula into modern times, such as Uehara Seikichi […]
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