What are the downsides of being solo Rick?

Thank you in advance for some great insight.

Give some recognition (a few solid belt colors), scrap the numbers, add teaching skill requirements, and you’ll have a grade system that makes sense to most people. Then they can sensibly judge who’s the better teacher, and not who has the higher number on a cert they can’t read.

Judge the suggestion/observation, not the suggester/observer.

Naihanchi stance is one you move THROUGH, not settle into. Think about when you’re doing the hand techniques, the purpose of the stance is to allow you to drop your knees together and block just during the time you’re executing he strike. With your knees in the proper position a roundhouse kick allows your knee to bend in it’s natural arc instead of at 90 or 180 degrees to it’s natural bend. You’re not supposed to stand there and take it, hence the sweeping/dodging move with the legs in Naihanchi ichi. Picture yourself up against a wall, three assailants and you can’t immediately get clear of them. You don’t want to let one get behind you, so you square off to the wall. You will “stand firm”, but a guy coming straight in with a punch and kick is first, you either use the downward punch in the Naihanchi block to hit them in the knee or shin to stop it, or drop your knees and either block or grab their foot while you intercept the punch. Naihanchi is not mobile, it’s last ditch, “up against the wall” stuff for multiple attackers. Really similar to the Sil Lum hand/arm techiques of Leo Fong, with the stance being more like a squared off goju stance. Remember, if you don’t learn the attendant footwork it doesn’t make much sense.

If you can find a DVD/tape of Oyata’s footwork (the older, bald headed husky one) you can see that it’s dynamic and moves with the opponent.

Just as an example of the mechanics, do you practice the kihon kata where when you back up you alternate inward block with your forearm? Now, when a punch is coming at you, picture yourself intercepting it by dropping back, doing the inward block, switching to the Naihanchi stance, putting your down arm under the opponents leg, and your upper arm across their body, and spinning them like an airplane propeller.

Check it out.

Keep smilin’

My apologizes if my question came off snide – after reading it over I can see how it would – with a background like that, your thoughts on the technical side of Karate hold a lot more weigh. That is why I thought it was relevant. I have received plenty of feedback from other senior black belts who clearly have no idea what they are talking about – was just curious about your background.

In response to your final comment – I knew exactly why he said it, but I make it a point not to entertain people who attack me on youtube. I trained in Uechi-ryu for a few months and got well acquainted with the stance then. I can’t speak for Tadashi Yamashita, but I choose not to teach naihanchi dachi because it leaves you vulnerable to attacks to the knee. It is much more difficult to attack the knees from the inside rather than the outside. The only time I ever found naihanchi dachi really useful was wrestling because there were rules preventing attacks to the knees and it gave you a stronger base.

An thoughts on the vulnerability of the knees to kicks (roundhouse kick for example) when in naihanchi dachi?

Again – apologizes if I offended you, was not my intent.

Aside from spending 23+ years in a “hard knocks” Shorin-ryu dojo where we would fight at promotion times, and at other times during the year to apply lessons learned with the rules being, “no direct attacks to the throat or against the knee and elbow joints” with sweeps, take-downs and throws being allowed, and competing at the college level in Judo, I worked for five years in an environment where sudden, violent attacks with shovels, rakes, baseball bats, broken bottles or other “makeshift” weapons were involved, sometimes with multiple attackers.

But that’s aside the point, and for my final comment, I’ll leave you with this;

The guy who told you “your legs are wrong” in the YouTube video was probably referring to a Naihanchi kata, which if you investigate the history of at all, you’ll find to be based on a “Naihanchi”stance, with the toes pointed in, and the knees turned in to enable you to drop your weight and block your groin area with your needs. That’s why it means ‘stand firm’.

I don’t know why kyoshi Yamashita changed it, I wouldn’t mind hearing an explanation, I DO know that in the spirit of Karate-do the guy who brought it up could have done a lot better job of sharing the information, and you could have done a lot better job of checking out his comment.

Bon Voyage, I’m out of here.

As for not wanting to be judged. I write on an internationally read website and actively encourage people to disagree with me. The joy of my method of judgement is that more people give me input on my Karate than the average karate student, and I get it all for free (though writing is hard work).

The other day someone on youtube told me I looked like I bought my belt because I “lacked power”. Later that day I was in a combatives class that is part of my military school, and I was winning without any problem. For all I know, “anonymous” was a fifth degree black belt – should I take his judgement seriously?

I want to be judged, and I want to improve. But if I have to pay $400 for it – I want to at least know the person passing judgement has used Karate in more than competition – otherwise – what really makes them more qualified at fighting than me?

Final response – You said that I have to “know it all” if I don’t have a complete school and a sempai to guide me. That precludes the idea that anything new can ever be created. Karate hasn’t always been passed down, someone (likely many people) figured out how to fight better after losing a few times. Fight regularly and you will quickly see what works and what doesn’t. Which is exactly what I do ever class, I see what works and what doesn’t.

Hope that makes some sense, and again – feel free to judge me all you want, but in your 30+ years – how many times have you actually used karate without rules and pads?

Organizations are by nature unwieldy, influenced by politics and money, and in the cases of very successful ones, spread out all over the world.

I see in you impatience; you want the respect of accomplishment, but you don’t want to be judged by or wait for others to decide you’re ready to test, and for what.

You’re putting yourself out there very early in your career. Hansi Yamashita was at least 6th dan and had his shihan certificate when he split off from mainstream Shorin-ryu. If you could have seen his level of skill and knowledge circa 1980 you would find him to have been far ahead of you, and of most of us.

I got my shihan in 1995, and when you started in 1998 I was promoted to godan after 18 years of study. Now, with over 30 years in, I still look to hanshi Perry, kyoshi(s) Bethea, Haley, Noujaim, Welch and others for guidance and example.

All this is about is to encourage you to be patient, and as long as you’re in a “complete” school, find a sempai you respect and follow their guidance.

Failing that, you have to claim to “know it all” and set the standard for your school. That’s a very tall order of business.

I wish you well on your path, and I hope you find the combination of independence and guidance you need to become a good teacher of karate-do.

Good luck ! ! !

I think then work to a sandard and you question your standard rather than except they want your money. One club I went to said what belt would you like to be? the exception. If you can do all the katas moves etc most feel you should start again. If you can remove the instructors belt do you get to keep it?