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 […]
The one-legged turn in Kusanku Dai A little over a year ago, I wrote a quick post to show three techniques that I had recorded video of, and wanted to share. I didn’t go over any of the techniques in-depth, and I wanted to revisit the Kusanku application, to shed a little more light on it. The kata movement is […]
Every time I wash my obi (belts), I get mental images of countless karate instructors and practitioners screaming “never wash your belt!” When I first started training, I followed that tradition, and everything was fine. Of course, I also went up through the belt ranks pretty quickly, so I didn’t wear the first few for very long. On top of […]
For those who don’t know, Sarah Mayer was the first non-Japanese woman to earn the rank of Shodan (first degree black belt) in judo, which she did in 1935 after less than a year of training. She is a very interesting and important figure in martial arts history, but most martial artists (judoka included) don’t know anything about her. I […]
I did some video recording last Saturday, and finally got a few clips edited and uploaded to share. The first is an application for the one-legged turn (a jump, in some styles) in Kusanku/Kanku. The technique is a throw found in Okinawa Shima (a grappling sport in Okinawa that descended from tegumi) and Sambo. This video simply shows the throw […]
Funakoshi Gichin demonstrating Ude Wa (Arm Ring), a basic double-leg takedown Karate is typically recognized as a striking art, but there is plenty of evidence proving that it also incorporates joint manipulation, strangulation, and takedown techniques. According to Genbu-Kai Florida, karate is not a grappling art, either, and it’s grappling methods can be fairly crude. In the old days, that […]
Royce Gracie vs Matt Hughes – one of the first UFC events I ever watched I have been a fan of MMA for a while, now–since some time in 2006 when I watched a UFC event and saw two young fighters battling it out with good technique, and having push-up contests between rounds and high-fiving and hugging each other afterward. […]
Last night in class we worked a lot of multiple attacker drills and a bodyguard drill, and I thought they were all very fun and useful. Before we started those drills, though, we wore ourselves out with jogging, calisthenics, bagwork and kicking pads (normally we don’t do running or calisthenics in the adult class so between that and being out […]
For quite some time I have been considering signing up for an amateur MMA fight in the Phoenix area–there are a couple different organizations that hold amateur MMA fights and I have had them bookmarked in my browser for over a year. Since the only weaponless martial arts I have only ever studied have been Okinawan karate and judo I […]
Uchi-Mata (Inner Thigh Throw) Before class last night Brandon and I worked more on the throw I taught him after our knife defense class–the side-step uchi-mata (inner thigh throw). Since Brandon has only ever worked striking arts (he is a brown belt in another style, but I can’t remember what that style was) and considering how easy it was to […]
Hello everyone, This is my second go at a martial arts blog–my first foray into blogging was while I was between karate dojo and training in judo, and I just fell out of the habit of posting. This, I am hoping, will be more insightful and more regular now that I am back in a karate dojo. I started training […]
