In my opinion a rule set similar to kudo would be best, just not full-blown go for the KO level. You've got striking, throwing, clinching, grappling, headbutting, etc. Actor Jef Speakman's organization has been doing a similar style of sparring for years. Recent Jesse Enkamp and his pro MMA fighter brother Oliver did a video on kudo.
Funakoshi intended Karate-do as a character development-by-fitness, inspired by okinawan sparring and fighting techniques. It was never intended to be anything different. In that format belts have a meaning, because sticking around long enough _is_ a lot of the point of karate-do. It shows persistence, discipline, unquestioning adherence to the words of the elders/superiors and so on - all stuff that was very desiderable in early XX century japan. The misunderstandings came later: first, a little bit, when people in the 50s made a combat sport out of the fitness activity. This draws unfavorable parallels to other combat sports, which to the untrained eye look much more like actual fighting than karate-do does. But the biggest misunderstanding came when teaching karate-do became a way for "masters" to make a living: the promise of self-defense is a powerful marketing tool, and over the years it was exploited by unscrupulous (or self-deluded) people. I am not sure that the real thing can taught as a business at all. But kudos for trying!
Love the belt concept. Brown belt in this case should happen between 9 months and a year. Most of my students have their basics down by that time and join the intermediate class.
If you watch old boxing matches, there's lots of wrestling. PS: I read about a 1950s boxer whose father owned a bar. He used his clinching skills to remove violent drunks.
I think you're being very nice to the modern karate "takes a long time" mindset. :) If karate was taught and explained for what it is - as you say, mostly as a method for get you in an advantageous position in a clinch and then do something, as all katas show - it would take no more time to get reasonably proficient at it, than it takes for any other comparable skillset. It would take long time to get _really_ good at it but that's the same for all the others. You "simply" need to build a degree of posture, coordination, muscle response and a bit of strength and understand what you're trying to do, and then try to do it drilling a few movements from the katas with a partner or the teacher, and then expand from there. All kata movements make good sense and are learnt correctly in a matter of minutes when you knows what you're trying to do, then of course practice with a partner gets you better. Sadly that's not how it goes: movements are boxed into meaningless labels, applied at a distance completely different from the one they're meant for and poor students are literally fed bs from day one in what the goals of these movements are. And the saddest thing is that most often that's done with good intentions - often the instructor himself has no idea and really believes that's the proper stuff. The good part is that the biomechanics remain extremely solid even as they're not applied in the right context, so practitioners still develop good body control, posture and power, only having no idea why and how to use them. :) As for sparring, there's probably no need to reinvent the wheel - kake-kumite is already there for friendly sparring.
Quite some kata bunkais we can find in several Silat style, especially those with Chinese root. I found a make sense throw/takedown that is using "one legged stance" in Gankaku in Bangau Putih silat which in Bahasa Indonesia means "White Crane", which is one of the origin of Karate. Pretty awesome
Sucks I missed your live, hopefully get to your next one. With training after black belt, I think what's happens is that there's not very knowledgeable instructors. Take away tye partner drills, kihons, katas, and what's left is very little. Along with that the lack of an outline through the Dans and the lack of ability to progress people's skill and ability year after year. I'm learning another Okinawan atyle with a group of all blacks from 2nd to 9th dan and the month I've been there I don't see any indepth instructions, just emphasis on doing the kata perfect and using unrealistic strikes because that's the style. I got my shodan in the mid 90s so it's unfortunate when I see places with great potential that just lacks it.
Thanks for checking out the video 👍 I’ll try to set a schedule ahead of time and do more live streams, it was fun answering questions. I think you hit it on the head about lack of instructor knowledge. It’s unfortunate to see but it hard to force people to put in more effort outside the dojo as well. Tough situation
Sorry I’m not great with specific names for techniques, I know I was going for a neck crank takedown but couldn’t get my hands together so I pulled on his tricep with my right hand and still was able to turn him over with the pseudo neck crank with my left hand
Since karate is mostly hand strikes than leg or foot strikes, I train it like boxing. Then when I start developing the leg/foot strikes, I use the Savate or muay thai methodology. And finally I end with mixing it all up with chancery pugilism and grappling.
I appreciate what you're trying to do, but comparing karate to other arts is a trap. The question becomes "why am I not training these other martial arts?" Let karate stand on its own.
The question for me has always been “if I learned it this way growing up, how do I systematize a methodology to help other karate guys learn the same thing” that’s always been the mission. Make karate great again not throw it away for other styles
@KarateBreakdown I've got a rough idea of what your ideal karate is. You've started this platform, had(have?) your own school, and you're trying to reach like minded individuals. The first step I would take is starting a movement and coin it something that people can call it. I'm personally interested in starting or joining a study group that focuses on a kata or two, and just swaps back and forth between kata practice, sparring, and folk wrestling. I have a framework for my ideal karate practice, and I think you do too. I think the framework and getting people on board with it is the best outcome. Karate isn't frozen in time and space but we aren't going to change organized karate, change is in the form of small movements. I personally enjoy listening to some of your talks, and not really the individual interpretation stuff.
Yea honestly it’s how I always taught, I’ve seen the ecological approach pop up as a buzzword in BJJ in the last year or so but it felt like common sense. No one learns well in a standard BJJ class where you warm up with jump jacks and sprints for 15min, learn one unrelated technique and then roll for 30min
@@KarateBreakdown it's definitely a popular fad right now, but the theory is sound. It's how I train my [not-karate] club. I recommend reading(or listening) to Rob Grey's How We Learn To Move, and keep in the back of your head that kata is a constraint. It's not just about warming up. It's the realization that there is no ideal movement, and what we do is based on affordances and perception.
I was lucky my sensei had a very practical interpretation of kata, I feel training BJJ allowed me to pressure test the katas to know what worked and what didn’t
@@KarateBreakdown sometimes when I'm rolling I think "That feels familiar" or watching a technique being demonstrated and recognising movements. I recognise a lot more applications in ground work that we were shown.
@@theflamingone8729100% we always said the applications is discovered after the round cause then you can go back and reassess and say “hey this felt like this move in kata” etc. then it’s about drilling to make it repeatable
@@KarateBreakdown they were clever cookies to develop exercises that refine and strengthen applicable movements without a specific application in mind. Fair enough our bodies have a limited range of movement, and there is a limited number of ways you can attack someone, but the combinations of those two, become too numerous to cover with specifics.
Dude, I completely agree with this. I know so many Karate guys, including myself, who started doing BJJ and it made their Karate Skyrocket. In a lot of ways, I think BJJ was one of the best things to happen to Karate.
Definitely agree. If more karate dojos did a better job of realistic sparring (as realistic as can safely be done) karate would benefit in both popularity and effectiveness. Our go-to sparring is freestyle, light contact, at all ranges. We typically stand it back up after about 5 seconds on the ground. People are welcome to simulate "dirty" techniques. It's surprising how infrequent they are used. We do, however, opt for headgear with face shield and no gloves. I am a big believer that gloves, even mma gloves, change the way that people use their hands both offensively and defensively. People get sloppy very quickly with their punching techniques if they put on gloves, and they often defend with the backs of their hands. If you are punching (even light taps) to plastic with bare knuckles you make sure to do it properly. I certainly do not think that the headgear gives me anymore of a false sense of security than gloves do. When I hear an audible tap of the plastic on my face shield a couple times in a round I spend a couple of days thinking about what I did wrong. That being said, we are just light sparring, so I can see how it's different for Kudo practitioners going full out in a fight. I do agree that the range is different with the headgear, but I measured it and it's about 1.5" at my jaw and 1" at my nose. This isn't any different than the thickness of gloves, and let's face it, there are no perfect ways to safely spar. Anyhow, that's certainly not a hill that I'm going to die on, that's just my take. I really hope that more karate dojos implement effective and comprehensive forms of sparring. Great video!
Good video. In Hidetaka Nishiyama's book Karate the art of empty hand fighting, in the portion about Karate techniques he lists in this order-blocking techniques, attacking techniques, throwing techniques, and joint-twisting techniques. We are part of that lineage and I was always taught to learn enough ground fighting to be able to get back up. My uncle has taught this way for near 45 years.
I'm coming from a TKD, wing chun, and BJJ background and have been developing my own martial art which is essentially MMA in a traditional package focused on self-defense. I'm calling it Tae Sao Do and teaching it along side BJJ. The Tae Sao Do is meant to be a focus on striking with some clenching and throwing as well as "self-defense" which is essentially BJJ clench and ground escapes. The style has begun to look more like Karate and MMA than when I just taught TKD. I think Kudo has a lot they are doing right but nothing is perfect. As far as amateur level tournaments, I think the space helmet is a good way to go for Karate or any other traditional style. For the more adventures competitor, then there is no reason traditional guys can't just fight MMA if their style is well rounded. For Tae Sao Do I plan to require black belt ranks to have ranks in BJJ as well. I think of the two styles as being complementary. Structurally my classes are looking like this. "kata", then applications of the contents of the kata then the last section of class is "self-defense" (which is just escapes from holds) along with specific training with those positions. The self-defense section is replaced in the second half of the week with sparring concepts and sparring. There I have a rotating curriculum that focuses on a different aspect before free sparring. For example one week might be maintaining distance while another is closing distance. It also includes classes on clench fighting, throwing, and even some very basic ground positioning and transitions as well as a week on submissions and submission defense.
se a pessoa diz que Karate nao tem cotovelada nem joelhada , provavel que ela nem sequer sabe os primeiros kata, pois logo nos primeiros kata tem essas tecnicas de forma bem clara (ao menos na ordem que é apresentada no estilo que pratico , Shotokan)
You younger martial artist are so lucky. I’m a 60 year man karate ka. 36 years ago when I started training karate there was no internet to watch different karate styles ,learn katas and learn grappling just by watching your phone. You had to go to class learn all your basics then get promoted to level where you could attend intense sparring. Which is the best and safest way for novice to learn fighting. In Seido Juku karate you don’t spar until you reach 4th kyu. At this level you should be able to have some control over your body, your punching , kicking , blocking and break falls. It is my opinion that the best way to enhance one’s karate is to cross train in boxing and judo once you reach 4th kyu in karate. That’s is how I enhanced my karate. Judo blends incredibly well with karate. Judo sweeping and throwing techniques are vastly superior to those in karate. Boxing’s punching and jabbing has a lot to offer for a karate ka like ko power and movement. I say judo is better to learn than BJJ for a karate ka. BJJ or catch wrestling requires a lot of contact with your opponent. I don’t want to be nipple to nipple with a killer. I want to break him down from a distance using strikes then choke him out. I want to be on my feet the whole time.
Love this video! Been saying this for quite some time with a few guys in my Dojo. When I was a kid we would spar and we would get taken down and have to grapple a little. Now that I have return to the art, I can’t find where to replicate that environment. A lot of our guys use almost full boxing gloves or century karate gloves. I’m the odd ball using Hyabusa Hybrid open finger gloves because I like to grab.
I also train 'dirty fighting', which makes it REALLY hard to find a sparring partner that wants to go through that. Never stepping in the ring, so if I gotta throw hands, I'm going to do damage.
In my club we are using mma sparing gloves and we are just fighting. I train traditional Shotokan, so there is not many clinch fighting, but we have some sweeps and some handfighting
1. Abandonment of practical training. Sparring. Drilling. Skills Building. 2. Charlatan Instructors adding systems with no proof of efficacy. George Dillman, Unrealistic Bunkai, Aikidoesque Systems, etc. 3. Instructors with a complete Ignorance of reality of street level violence. 4. Dilution of the pillars of Karate: Kata, Kihon, Throws and Takedowns, etc. 5. Zero post black-belt training. 6. Abandonment of the core tenets of Karate as a self defense system.
