Archive for October, 2009
Yori-ashi and gyaku-zuki
Posted by badaboom in Tips & Techniques on October 29th, 2009
Shotokan specializes in long stances and in fight in a long distance. It seems obvious that in the real life, a fight in a long distance is a pipe dream.
Long zugi-ashi and regular zenkutsu-dachi motion are natural for Shotokan. In such movements, gyaku-zuki can be classical and powerful. I think that yori-ashi came to Shotokan later – as the response for a need of a fight in a short distance. And the classical gyaku-zuki doesn't fit in the yori-ashi so perfectly - mainly because of back leg's heel up.
When you watch the cross punch in Jeet Kune Do, you can see its advantage over classical gyaku-zuki. For JKD, yori-ashi and short distance fight are natural. Their keep their heel up but also the path of the punch is different.
Speed, power or technique?
Posted by badaboom in Tips & Techniques on October 29th, 2009
I’ve started my karate 15 years ago. We had 4.5 hours trainings a week. Nowadays, this amount fell to 2 hours a week for beginners and intermediate and to 3 hours for advanced.
I stopped training for some time when I was green belt. I came back after a long break and my technique is still quite good in comparison to people who maybe train longer but they go with the new schedule.
What interests me here is a training concept for students with kyu (to shodan) grades. What should we focus on? Power? Speed? Or maybe just technique alone?
I’ve seen many films on youtube where people pass their exams for brown and black belt doing their kihon slowly and without power. It was something new for me, cause in my club we still try to do it fast, with power and the right technique. Anyway, I often can see that the technique thing gets worse when you have only this amount of time and you still try to do everything. So maybe that’s a good solution – to teach first just technique and leave power and speed for nidan grading? Or maybe we should divide this to some blocks, e.g. 9-5 kyu slow, 5-3 kyu faster and harder and 3kyu-shodan full power and speed? What do you think about it?
rising heels
Posted by djb in Tips & Techniques on October 17th, 2009
oss i am new to the site an recently past my shodan. my turning in my kata is respectable and i can keep my keels planted throughout. my trouble comes when moving forward and backwards, they lift around 3/4 of the way through an oi zuki for example. i would be very grateful if anyone has any tips for a proper movement thank you oss
Black Belt is Not Important But it Means Everything!
Posted by Linden in Philosophy on October 8th, 2009
Recently, we had two karateka pass 3rd kyu (brown belt) and I said to them,
'Congratulations on passing your brown belt, you are well on your way to black belt. Now your karate gets easier but it is harder and black belt is not important but it means everything!'
Many questions and emails later I decided to write this article, hopefully this will explain better, the point I was trying to get accross.
For a beginner to shotokan karate, it is all very confusing, both arms moving together as in gedan barai (downward block), one linear in movement and one circular, then both arms stopping at the same time, but one traveling more distance than the other, for someone new to karate, this alone, is a challenging exercise.
new to karate
hey i've just started karate a week ago andwondering does anyone have some useful tips or advice