Tag archive for "karate" | Okinawan Karate-do Institute

Kagi Uke

Translation Kagi Uke is made up of two symbols. “Kagi”, meaning “hooking” and “Uke” meaning “to receive” or “block”. This is translated as “to hook that which is received” or more commonly “hooking block”. There are a few ways of…

Sparring Without Pads

[sc:q5ad] Milestone with Your Training Partner One of the milestones in a relationship with a training partner in karate is the first time you realize you can safely spar with them without the need for pads. In an ideal world,…

Limited Food Intake

80 Percent Full One of the most unique parts of the Okinawan diet is the idea that you should always eat until you are about 80 percent full. This idea of not over indulging is at the core of the traditional Okinawan…

Various Types of Conditioning

Introduction to Conditioning In karate, the word “conditioning” tends to be used in two ways–as it relates to fitness and as it relates to toughness. Each aspect is more or less important depending on why you train, but both have…

The Future of OKI

Where This Site is At As this site approaches its two year birthday, I wanted to give everyone an update of where it is at, where it is going, and how everyone can help. When I started this site in…

Grappling Statistics

Karate Effectiveness This poll was started a while back and I think we are at the point where I have gotten as many responses as I am going to get regularly. I was trying to find trends in martial artists…

Rank vs Years in Training

Marine Corps Martial Arts Program In my attempts to change the perception of karate from an old impractical form of fighting to a useful system combatives I often look to MCMAP to see how they train and what makes them…

Promotion to Yondan

Kyu/Dan System For most of us, the kyu/dan system is the standard rank system in martial arts, but few know where it comes from. In the late 1800s Japanese swimmers began using the system and colored belts to identify the…

Adapting Karate to the Local Culture

Adapting to the Locals In my last article I talked about changing the perception of karate. Today I want to focus on what specific changes can be made to preserve traditional karate while increasing membership and public acceptance. I can’t…

Changing the Perception of Karate

Lack of Posts Lately Seems fitting that I start his article off by apologizing for the lack of posting lately on my part and give a huge thanks to all of the other writers that help make this site possible.…

Using the Hips

Introduction to Koshi The word koshi is simply the Japanese word for the area from your navel to your hip sockets, but when discussing martial arts it specifically refers to how to generate power with your hips, and it is…

Daily Karateka Workout

Daily Workout One of the keys to getting into fighting condition and being physically prepared for the challenge of karate training is having a daily workout. I find the best time to do your daily workout is in the morning. I…

The Importance of Passion in Martial Arts

The Importance of Passion in Martial Arts There are many reasons why someone decides to take up martial arts as a hobby and no two people are ever alike. Some decide to learn karate purely to learn how to defend themselves, others will learn it to understand more about the cultural traditions of learning unarmed combat and some people study as a way to get fit in a social environment. Some people just want to get a black belt because they feel it will prove that they are strong in character.

Ignorance of the West

Rant Disclaimer Occasionally I get worked up over a ridiculous comment or article I read on Karate. Today is one of those day. Karate for Jesus Every now and then I come across an organization claiming to teach Christian friendly…

5 Common Questions About Karate

Light Hearted All too often karate students let the art go to their head. They can’t have a good laugh and accept that much of what we do could be perceived as amusing to non-karate students. My roomate was more than willing…

Class Notes for 04/02/2012

Kobudo While not talked about very much on this site (yet), weapons training is a large part of my curriculum when I teach and when I was taught. For many, it is an outdated tradition that isn’t practical in the…

The Karate Tree

The Analogy Karate training can be very much like a pine tree in many ways–it starts as a seed and develops roots that form a solid foundation for it to grow from, and as it grows it branches out, far…

Top Ten Mistakes Every New Student Makes

Common Mistakes I have been teaching karate for a long time to many students. The ages of my students has ranged anywhere from 6 to 60 and has included almost every demographic you can imagine. Despite this variety of students, there are…

Drinking Water

Soda Consumption The average soda (soft drink) consumption for the United States is one can a day. That is 364 cans per year. The nutritional facts of a classic Coke can state that there are 140 calories. This translates into an…

Hanshi Doug Perry Seminar

Yesterday Hanshi Doug Perry came to the church campus that my dojo is located at to hold a karate seminar. He is a Kudan (9th Degree Black Belt) under Shuguro Nakazato, which makes him the highest ranking non-Okinawan in Shorin-Ryu karate, and…

Deep Stances

You Don’t Do Deep Stances? Recently I got a lot of comments on my YouTube channel because I have higher stances than many karate schools. These were called “bad” and “incorrect”, so I would like to talk about it. I do…

Adapting Traditional Martial Arts to MMA

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…

Kyoshi Eddie Bethea Seminar

Last night my Sensei’s instructor, Kyoshi Eddie Bethea, gave a “combat karate” seminar at our dojo that goes over applications for techniques pulled from kata. I attended his seminar last year and both times, now, it has been educational and…

Joint Locks in Karate

An introduction to joint locks in Karate. Despite many people referring to Karate as a striking art without any grappling, this is only evidence of the watering down of Karate since it became a popular sport among kids. Karate contains many grappling techniques including joint locks.

Drinking Tea

An informal post about drinking tea and breathing to relax the body and mind. Definitely not something to be found on a karate syllabus, but an example of how karate-do affects the whole person.

Blocking

A look into the theory that, "There are no blocks in karate, only attacks." The attacks are divided into passive and active attacks. In both cases, the end goal is to strike the opponent and make them not want to attack again. There is never a point where you "block" and then wait for your opponent to make the next move.