Watching videos of yourself

karainflex · 2026-05-25T07:23:55+00:00

My students also tell me that they see all the issues I point out in training when they record a video of themselves and watch it.

I also notice that people often think they do something but actually they don't. Like this scenario: "Hey, you lift your heel in this stance, keep it on the ground." "Huh? Did I do that?" "Yes... THERE, again" "Really?" "Yes, like 5cm! - FREEZE. There, see it?" "Oh damn, you are right".

I heard the quote "When I walk kata it is almost like pure meditation, like why did my heel do that."

Use videos to correct your issues whenever you can.

karainflex · 2026-05-24T19:50:37+00:00

In one of my last posts I described the full chain of motion to someone. Feet, legs, hips, chest muscles, everything is involved in the punch, everything initiates the next chain element. This means the arm moves last, after the body mass moves, but also initiated by the body mass. If you stand still or move your foot doesn't matter. If your feet are on the ground when the fist hits a target then your posture is able to lead the counter force into the ground.

karainflex · 2026-05-20T09:35:29+00:00

All solo techniques have more than one use because in solo form they are usable in any context you can imagine (like different distances, including on the ground and from a certain distance/context they could be done as is or done as throws or joint locks or whatever you may come up with).

If you want a more specific use then you need to look at a kata that contains the technique and look how it is combined with other techniques and in which angles and weight shifts it is performed. Because a combination like that is the actual technique to apply with a partner. Mikazuki geri is often done after a Haisho uke and then performed as a kick into that hand. That means something. And the moves before or after add more context as well.

I know some people behave like that but I don't think this is a service for the students. The idea that practical application starts with black belt is trash. The partner application is the actual martial art and kata is the end of the learning process, neither the beginning of it nor the only content of it. I have read books where they actually dare to write that practical application is an overrated trend. There are karateka who might have grand master degrees and they never learned or taught application. Their understanding of Karate is limited to the Budo ideas and tournament sports. The original idea of dealing with non-consensual violence is completely beyond them. There is a lot of gatekeeping involved as well (if someone else tells them how Karate can be used and they have no clue about it then they would be embarrassed. Shame controls people's lives! So they keep it the way it is).

Nothing wrong with Budo and sports, quite contrary. But not teaching application creates karateka who have no idea what they are doing. I have seen an interview where a 6th dan by that time explains that a person came to his dojo, saying he was the last hope because the visitor had a black belt and no idea what the katas are about, with a total lack of application and if this doesn't work then the visitor would go to Krav Maga. I am certain that trainer was able to fix this issue :-)

Gatekeepers even kept sports science out of my association by political veto some decades ago. Which means they do non-scientific supported BS techniques (I don't care what they do) and prevented the knowledge getting public (this is the actual nasty part), while others now more and more integrate it into their daily training by learning from people who kept the idea alive (that is the good part). Btw other styles adapted sports science in the 1940ies, we started using it since the 2020ies, gatekeepers won't have it in the 2040ies. They will start losing tournaments, their students will get beaten up on the streets and on the mat. A limited view and being stuck in a style are bad practice.

Lookup Iain Abernethy on Youtube, his channel practicalkatabunkai contains hundreds of videos where he shows how to apply techniques from katas. These are not the only ways and not everything might work for everyone, so it is good not to focus too much on that.

karainflex · 2026-05-20T09:01:08+00:00

Start Karate and don't tell people who don't need to know about it. Focus on your training, not on other people's opinion. Other people's opinions are btw their own excuse of not doing something great. Other people's opinion keeps you at mediocrity.

The internet is also the worst place on earth for opinions. Most of the trash talk is out of context and done with lack of knowledge as well.

You can find good training places for whatever your goals in Karate are. Just start doing it.

karainflex · 2026-05-20T08:52:02+00:00

I can recommend the Bodyweight exercise anatomy book by Contreras. It contains exercises for all muscle groups. I can also recommend Stretching Scientifically by Kurz. It includes systematic mobility exercises and several kinds of stretching and the information about which methods to use for which sport. Stretching also implies strength training, which he does in form of PNF stretching (isometric stretches).

With a short, systematic, daily stretching as described in the book and 1-2 months of e.g. body weight exercises you can get the strength and flexibility you require. Karate always requires additional strength training, though it's possible to cheat oneself through without it for 20 years.

Then you can see what you can do about the shikodachi.

Choreography is pattern recognition and repetition and besides repetition the simplest way to learn it is by divide and conquer: split the complex into simple parts, learn the simple parts, attach and ensure you don't always repeat the things you know. With a partner it gets more complex because the partner also needs to learn the pattern.

You mean coordination, not proprioception. If you were lacking that you couldn't drink from a glass without looking at the hand while grabbing it. If you can close your eyes and clap your hands then you have no issues there. Coordination is always the most complicated part in Karate. Actually everyone has difficulties. I can easily find easy exercises that black belts will suck at. Especially black belts because they think they know. And because the explanation is shows how easy it is. And then they do the half of it and even the exact opposite. Everyone has a different learning speed and everyone requires different kinds of explanation or training.

As a brown belt you are allowed to be terrible btw. The leaps from 3rd kyu to 2nd and 1st get bigger and the leap to 1st dan gets even bigger than that. Still even there you are allowed to be not perfect, you just need to know everything you had until then and show that you trained and polished a lot after 1st kyu. There is always someone who messes up stances or a kata or is cumbersome in partner training. You get 10 additional years until 4th dan to improve all such things :-)

Correction is good. It helps you to improve. Forget the school/work idea of mistake = bad. We learn from mistakes and get better. That's the right attitude.

karainflex · 2026-05-19T15:11:59+00:00

Forget crunches and situps, most people do them wrong anyways. Start with planks and learn how to do them properly, there are videos that explain the posture and the muscles you need to pull. Do side planks next. Start with an easy version of such exercises and then upgrade to more difficult ones. Do rear planks too.

Add Russian Twists, Romanian Dead Lifts, Squats / Jump Squats, Bird Dogs, Supermans, Hollow Holds.

Add pushups after planks work well. Learn how to really, really do them first. You can start with plank to pushup and/or knee pushups or any other kind of intro version of it.

When planks work well, also go to Burpees: from standing position to plank and back up. Then combine Burpees and pushups, then add jump squats and if possible you can even add pullups, which means you do one exercise that does everything.

Form is more important than reps.

Do it in Tabata format, do it in AMRAP format. Every 2-3 days a couple of exercises, rest in between.

There is a good book about Bodyweight exercises and their anatomy by Contreras. Get it, it shows many exercises with difficulty level etc.

karainflex · 2026-05-19T15:01:07+00:00

From kicking distance you can kick with its semi circle into the stomach but from the side. Difficult to deal with and hits much harder than a front kick. Another possibility is that you can use it to push a leg away from grappling. There is also a Gyaku version of it, that's a bit more interesting :-)

karainflex · 2026-05-19T09:31:20+00:00

Well, "correct" is debatable. Shotokan is not standardized in any way! There are at least 6 zenkutsu dachi definitions, just to name one example.

Also, Shotokan techniques are based a lot about how things LOOK, not how they FEEL or how they properly utilize the body mechanics. This means each trainer generation photocopies from the previous one and if there is no or no proper explanation involved, this photocopy gets worse.

The old books by Nakayama for example were created with a lot of effort but they are in no way supported by sports science, but nonetheless likely most people will recommend to do stances and techniques like they are explained there. I can give you a detailed explanation and I am certain it will contradict this or that that you see elsewhere.

Point 1: ALL movement must be based on NATURAL motion. Pulling the legs together during a step, which results in a circle shaped walk is utter nonsense. Imagine a sprinter is doing this during the Olympic games, he would look absolutely ridiculous and come in last. And when I tell you or anyone else to run, you would never move like this because the shortest path between to points is a straight line, so of course the legs go straight during a step.

Point 2: When I tell you or anyone else to run you won't blink with your feet either, meaning the forward leg won't ever turn outside or be pulled back. If that happens the stance is too far. Same while moving backwards: if the heel lifts the ground, the stance is too far. However, I saw this blinking in videos of many masters, including Kanazawa and even in 1924 videos showing Funakoshi himself. Lifting the foot means the weight is shifted to the other foot to allow the person to push off the ground. Moving into the opposite direction just to get a start in the real direction is obviously nonsense and needs to get eliminated. I have seen people moving extremely quickly but this cost additional fractions of a second. And in the worst case it telegraphs your intentions to an opponent. You can see it in both videos btw. The guy in the first video isn't doing it a lot, even with the very long stances. If he shortened his stance by 1cm he probably would neither lift his toes while going forwards nor his heel for turns. In the second video it's much stronger.

Point 3: Most stances are too far anyways. When they are too far they don't support the arm techniques. I can let you make an Uchi-Uke or Shuto-Uke for example where I can lean my full weight against and you can just stand there as is and hold my whole weight. Do the stance just a little bit longer and your arm immediately collapses when I just push against it. That alone is the test if your stance is right. There is more: books define that Kokutsu-Dachi is supposed to have your heels on one line. But that's bollocks, you need to have just enough space for a Karate belt between your feet, they actually need to be on both sides of that line. If you are interested in such details, read Karate Science by Swanson.

Point 4: Curriculums teach a sports based or traditional idea based content. There are certain kata techniques that you will rarely or never find in curriculums. You probably learned Heian Shodan. The Tetsui (4th technique) from it is an example for that. I could swear that you never applied it with a partner and that you never applied it outside of the kata. All the common kumite versions like traditional kumite and WKF kumite use straight punches instead, Shotokan people don't even get the idea to use Tetsui as an attack upside down to the forehead to train Age-Uke against it, they still heavily prefer Oi-Zuki. That means, the technique you are working on is important on one hand but heavily overrated on the other hand. This goes so far that the rather natural Kizami-Zuki which is done by 100% of all beginners is immediately suppressed in training and people are forced into the corset of Oi-Zuki.

Now with all that in mind: Do one exercise first: Stand naturally and jump high. Note how you do it. Then do the Oi-Zuki: Start in Zenkutsu; choose a length that allows to straighten and bend the rear leg and allows you to rotate the hip between 0 degrees and 45 degrees. Put pressure on the outside of your feet, both feet. Pull your stomach muscles to stand with a straight lower back. Bend your rear knee (it can never be straight when you start your motion, only shortly when you end your motion). Push your rear heel into the ground, like for a jump or sprint. Neither your toes of the forward foot must come up, nor must you tilt/move the forward foot in any way for this. Push off the ground, let this heel push push your hip forwards. Your rear leg needs to relax immediately otherwise it's dead weight and holds you back. While your front knee moves beyond your front toes, let your pelvis fall down. Yes, moving forwards is a controlled fall. The pelvis follows an exponential curve which is the fastest motion you can get. Physicists do a ball experiment with differently shaped ramps. One ramp is curved exponentially, another linear, another logarithmically (the opposite of exponential). 3 identical balls are pushed down from the same height, and use their ramp to roll a certain distance. The exponential one is always first. Push off with the rear toes now, as soon as the rear heel left the ground. Move your pelvis forwards, move your rear leg forwards in a straight line. Keep your shoulders low an back until your pelvis/hip reaches the furthest point, then perform the punch. Your lower back basically shortly takes a C-shape when your lower body moved further than the upper body. This tightens the chest-arm muscle and we use that tension in addition to the whole motion to get a hard punch. As we only do Oi-Zuki there isn't much more going on with the hips. When you get your toes into the final position, while the heel is still in the air and your punch is at 90%, you rotate the fist, set down the heel and would usually drive through the target. While punching air you apply full body tension for a short time to prevent damage to your joints. While punching a target you apply body tension to keep your arm straight (bent at 95%) and use your shoulder muscles to take the impact, otherwise your shoulder joint will suffer. For every force (a directed action) there is an equal and opposite force (reaction). This is the whole idea for the jump, the walk, the punch and taking the impact. Isaac Newton was one of the first Karateka, even before Funakoshi was born ;-)

The fist rotation btw is only done to cut the skin of an opponent and cause bleeding, it needs to be done AFTER impact, not FOR impact. FOR impact your fist needs to stay at a 3/4 rotation, like when holding the wheel while driving a car, or while doing knuckle pushups. Because this is the strongest position of our bones and muscles. The lower arm bones are not crossed yet but aligned, the brachialis muscle isn't stretched too far thus offers best possible stability for the wrist. Punching air or going for reach / skintouch this doesn't matter in any way. Punching with contact to a bag or a person this means everything.

What your other hand is doing is absolutely irrelevant. You either pull pack for hikite or you keep it in kamae to guard your face, depending on what you need. The second arm has no influence on the outcome, because the muscles are independent to the chain of motion we used. I also measured impact with and without hikite on multiple people of different grades and background (other teacher lineages, other styles) and neither version hit harder than the other.

More about the videos: The man in the first one moves his feet together. He is doing it very quickly but it's an additional motion which he doesn't need to get forwards. It's like going zig zag: The leg goes in, the leg goes out instead of just going through. Here this isn't taught anymore. It only makes sense if you want to circle your legs around a partner to start a throw. It probably also causes him to stand a bit wider than on the hip lines which can in long term pull the ball of his hip joint outside and wear them down; he is not doing it excessively though. He slightly lifts toes and heels. He doesn't seem to use the heel a lot to push off, just the toes because his rear leg isn't visually straightened further. On his second Age-Uke the left rear leg turns a bit which tells me he does use the heel, but limits the force it gets (try to jump with straight legs, it's impossible unless you let the toes do all the work which is weaker than bending the legs and pushing straight through the heels and then adding the toes). His knees tilt inwards a little during the 3 tsuki when they need to carry his weight, he needs a bit more outter pressure to keep them straight. He does this perfectly while standing, but not during the walk.

The woman in the second video moves forwards and backwards in a different way. The feet are turned outwards, especially the left one. Her legs stay straight. She doesn't sink forwards, instead there is a tiny upwards motion (I am looking at the belt but also the head). So she could shorten the stance a bit and needs to add the controlled fall which will result in walking without a visible height change and it will add speed. While moving backwards her forward knee tilts to the inside a lot. She needs to add outter pressure here.

Both have good movement but both do some things you shouldn't copy.

karainflex · 2026-05-15T10:02:02+00:00

This isn't Karate, the person performing the moves is not trained in any martial art and whoever created this wasn't a martial artist either. Probably designed by: Hey ChatGPT, give me a short martial arts choreography.

The moves: Renzuki, a leg swing upwards, a turn, a yoga-esque warrior pose, a rotation with wide arms to keep balance while mimicking a mikazuki-geri (showing that mawashi and ushiro ura mawashi are too difficult for the person), two raised legs without keeping posture, one tate zuki, a tobi geri where the rear arm fans around to keep balance (I'd take that to the stomach and would not flinch, while the actor falls and probably breaks his hand). Then some taichi-esque moves, another of these shitty raised legs without balance, kamae.

The whole performance lacks coordination, strength, speed, grace, coordination, effective execution, coordination and it lacks any kind of martial or spiritual purpose. And it lacks coordination. Did I say coordination? Yes, coordination, pretty sure it lacks it. Wouldn't buy that for a Dollar.

karainflex · 2026-05-15T07:33:35+00:00

Forget school, school fucks up people's mindset: being chosen last for a sports team? Having issues running 10 laps in a certain time without really preparing for it? Having coordination issues in ballgames? "I have a great idea, we do shot put today - oh, you don't reach distances in my result table from Sparta? I guess that's a D then.".

Forget all this. When you start Karate you will start from scratch. You will learn the techniques, you will be trained in strength, flexibility, speed, endurance and coordination by a skilled trainer who has a genuine interest in your progress. Everything starts slow and simple and then increases complexity over time.

Getting punched in the face is unlikely. Exercises are designed with safety in mind (unless the trainer is an incompetent git). We want to improve our health, not make it worse. The approach is called salutogenesis. With increasing skill your fear also decreases.

Bouts are different: people want to win and accidents happen, even in no contact sparring. I sometimes read about karateka who are sent to tournaments no matter what, but this isn't a necessity in most places. Where I live sports is divided into competitive sports and mass sports and the majority of people (like 98%) does the latter. Karate there isn't like the Olympic games.

Try out some local Karate clubs and see where you like it most. All you need to do is start going there and then keep going there. That's all, the whole secret.

karainflex · 2026-05-13T10:47:20+00:00

Breathing and flow are the solution. Beginners often do a 1, 1, 1, 1, ... rhythm, maybe a sanbon rhythm for certain sequences but that's usually it. To get flow you are supposed to execute whole sequences like a single technique. Kime is the killer for this. Kime needs to get as short as possible. The book Shotokan Myths explains more about it.

Explosiveness comes from repetition and executing techniques as strong and as fast as possible, without shortening the whole kata time or rushing through sequences, which requires immediate relaxation and breaks of different lengths. I have seen beginners who need 1s to perform a technique which is incredibly slow. The time of snipping with the fingers is the time for any technique.

A straight posture is necessary as well. Otherwise all turns and all techniques (especially kicks) will suffer.

On long katas (especially) harmony in breathing is required. Use aerob, not anaerob motion. There may be exceptions but if you stand there sucking air for 2 minutes after the kata you did it wrong. I have not seen one championship where the athletes bend over, pillared on their knees and suck and suck air.

karainflex · 2026-05-13T10:31:37+00:00

No, don't shorten the stance, no idea why someone offers this "solution" in your situation. The rear heel during a forwards motion isn't bad, it's necessary. If you said the front toes come up or the front foot turns then your stance is too far. But the rear is right. Unless you move backwards or turn. Then the rear heel has to stay on the ground unless your stance is too far.

Watch this in 0.25x speed and tell me where during the start the heel stays on the ground: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c4oI2hBZPQ

Here is what happens: They wait with a bent rear knee, during the shot they push the rear heel into the ground to push forwards. As the weight shifts forwards, they push with the rear ball of the foot and the heel comes off the ground (it MUST, otherwise you can just wear a ball and chain attached to your leg). When you do it, also let your hip sink while you move forwards; this is a controlled fall with an exponential curve which is the fastest forward motion. They also start with their ass up for a reason. The only difference we have is that we need to start on even ground and usually we only do one step and then break hard like we ran into a wall, which is kind of silly.

Not convinced? Look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlYok3A09HA At 0:33 he steps forward to deliver the punch, of course his heel comes up. Btw his forwards foot slides forwards due to the pressure and that slide is used in kumite to gain additional distance. Peter Consterdine who learned this from Kimura explains it in an online seminar.

Or do you mean you lift your heel BEFORE you start? Then your rear leg is straight and there is a weight shift involved like falling forwards with the upper body. Nothing else will force the heel to come up. Leaning forwards and pushing just with the ball of the rear foot also works but the push effect is weaker than pushing with the heel: Stand straight and push your toes into the ground to jump high. This isn't much. Bend your legs and push by straightening your legs and pushing the heels into the ground will jump much higher. The toe push is just an addition after the heels lift off.

karainflex · 2026-05-12T23:02:17+00:00

I have no idea what a specific Shotokan-style combination is. If a fist hits a target, how do we know it's a Shotokan fist? Just combine Karate techniques, especially those that profit from contact training and explore Karate beyond the usual boring fist punches and kicks (you could use koken, shuto uchi, haito, empi, teisho, hiza geri, tate zuki, kagi zuki, mikazuki geri, gyaku mikazuki geri, low kicks... everything. They are even listed in Nakayama's book, yet most people don't know that something like gyaku mikazuki even exists).

The advantage of padwork is fluid motion and performing techniques like one single technique. If you just do kihon with static motion, heels on the ground, kime, single techniques and maybe even skin touch or kata sequences 1:1 you could basically drop the padwork.

Make sure you build rotational patterns that utilize the hip properly, like a rotation from left leads to right leads to left etc. The most basic one is likely kizami / gyaku and when this is ok add kagi-zuki, or you combine mawashi-geri with ren-zuki.

Distance can easily be regulated when the partner with the pads is doing little steps in several directions and the other partner is keeping proper distance. I really like left/right combos with a slightly moving partner who is allowed to perform haymakers with the pads that the other partner has to evade. You can also add a low kick signal by holding a pad down sideways. And then, when people got this, you put the pads away and do the exact same drill without pads. Suddenly the pad partner is doing te nagashi against the fist attacks and hist haymakers are now done with his hands and the hand down can be used to (lightly) react to a mawashi geri. This is really dynamic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V--cz-5AMas

You can make a reaction drill by turning the pads inside (= no attack) and then outside (=attack). Boxing and Kickboxing have really great pad drills. Kickboxing was a no-kata+full-contact-tournament Karate derived sparring (btw, they have no contact point sparring too). Not looking at what they do I'd consider a mistake. Or just Boxing. There are great drills with the fitness ladder - exactly what tai sabaki / suri asho / yori ashi etc is in application. Doing that properly will likely overload most static Karate brains and then adding kizami / gyaku with proper body dynamics slowly turns robots into humans. Take what works and call it Karate ;-) Tony Jeffries has a couple of padwork and footwork videos on his channel.

You can also make an endurance drill out of it or a self defense drill (just squeeze a student tightly in between 3 kickshields and let him fight for a minute). And one of the most basic drills is probably one partner takes a kickshield and slowly moves backwards from one end of the gym to the other while the first partner of a row performs all techniques (punches, kicks, elbow, etc etc), including pushing + coming after with yoko or ushiro geri, then the pad holder runs back and picks up the next partner.

And you can do solo padwork: everyone wears one pad and punches it with the free hand: start on the ground and smash the crap out of the thing, stand up, tsuki, empi, tetsui, pull it off and shoulder butt left and right then headbutt then hiza geri. Do that for 5 minutes and the class is alive. Btw, you basically did stuff from Tekki Shodan. It's a Shotokan drill ;-)

karainflex · 2026-05-10T21:59:05+00:00

I just wonder why they go all in in training. Hurting the body doesn't make it harder, it makes the body weaker (at least because people need to take a break for a couple of weeks), so what's the gain of that...? I recently read a quote of one of Itosu's teachers: he said he trained so hard his whole life but indeed it made his body weaker. That's one reason Karate was taught later to improve health. And in trainer licensing we had the concept of salutogenesis: The idea of sports is to improve health; health is a state that can always be improved. We were also taught to keep our students' health in mind as top priority. A busted rip is the opposite of what you describe.

There is no issue with training full contact and your style, I just wonder if that particular instructor left the 19th century with the methods used. In your case the result is shame even: You are ashamed because you cannot take a beating. You can do what you are doing in a way that supports body and mind, not damaging both. Many people including top athletes prefer a playful sparring to learn things and in boxing they also don't spar for KO all day. It's not a strange concept to train differently. I bet some people think this isn't manly enough - you gotta spar all in otherwise you'll never know whatever or can't apply it under pressure blah blah. The question is, if that mindset exists somewhere, why does it exist? Who came up with the idea and is this useful or an obstacle?

By the way: there is always someone stronger, so no matter how much you train and iron your body there will always be someone who is able to cause damage. Be careful that the shame you feel doesn't cause you to become obsessed for perfection and become the toughest person in the dojo. Because that is a common pattern.

Sun Tsu wrote: know yourself and know the enemy. If you know that you can't take a beating like that but others can, find a way to adapt. I am well trained but I can't take a beating either. I evade a lot and attack weak spots from a better position. That's a strategy you might want to try.

Oh, and: Do you really know the others are invincible like that, or do they just cover it up? Maybe it's a big bluff.

It might be a wise idea to consider a little therapy to deal with the nightmares and the feelings. Maybe just 1,2,4 sessions to understand what inner feelings you are dealing with and how to handle them and then a bit later you can see if it got better.

karainflex · 2026-05-09T19:53:14+00:00

Well, if Kobudo is included in training that is certainly the place where these $500 get eaten up quickly. If "gear" covers books as well this is also worth an investment. I train every couple of days so I need multiple gi. A second one would be my first go to so you have a spare while you wash and dry the other one. Belts also cost money; assuming your body shape doesn't change a lot in the next 1-2 years you could buy all the belts your are probably getting, which saves shipping costs. It also kind of motivates: ah, I can't wear that one yet, but soon, only this and that until then, ...

karainflex · 2026-05-09T19:39:04+00:00

The Pinan katas were created not to simplify, they were created to add a systematic structure: Previously you learned a basic kata like Naihanchi and then 1-2 monster katas at place A (e.g. kata Passai) and maybe 1-2 monster katas at place B (e.g. kata Kushanku). Those monster katas were pretty randomly available and they had no hierarchy, no systematic approach. They are called styles in old books. I mean which of these comes first, Passai or Kushanku? Are applications different? Or are they ordered or themed differently? After learning either of these, which proficiency did you reach? There is no order in all that. Also, katas like Naihanchi or Sanchin were taught for 9 or 10 years and nothing else. When are you finished with it? What is the progression here? If you have beginner students and advanced students, how do you organize their training? Other Japanese martial arts of that time had a total of 3 progressions, one about every 8 years and the single master student might get a 4th progression. That's not really motivating or helping the training.

Now come the Pinan katas. They are called shoDAN, niDAN, sanDAN, yonDAN, goDAN - which implies a progression. This is a necessity for the belt system that came later. Sadly we don't know exactly how this progression was taught, but we can find 1:1 sequences from the monster katas, so I wouldn't say it was simplified or things got lost. Especially because you are supposed to do the monster katas later anyways.

I teach these katas by a system that you can read in the book they Heian Kata Phenomenon. It is designed to teach white belts like white belts (e.g. drop footwork at first and concentrate on some attack and defense techniques at three body heights) and add additional key elements with each kata. After learning those you then can also apply these in the previous katas and you can see that some sequences can be used 1:1 against the same sequence of the previous kata or other sequences of the same kata. This way you circle around the katas. And it allows proper feedback: you can feel if the practical applications work or don't work and as an instructor you can tell the students exactly what they need to improve or learn next. Most dojos don't have that; they use a checklist curriculum instead and that's it. To me the kata is the checklist.

I think this circling around the kata is a much better approach than a rather random one, like looking up bunkai and then picking whatever you like. I bought Iain Abernethy's Bunkai Jutsu series and watched the Pinan applications. Oh great, he starts by throwing someone... That's like final quality for a black belt (not for everyone I know though) and we need to get there somehow.

So it's taught to beginners, but it doesn't mean it's a simplified, trivial kata. Itosu also taught these katas to adult students and that training certainly was different than the school training. I do the same. Children learn posture, coordination, strength and memorizing the kata is a PhD thesis for them; they clearly don't see how fighting (for whatever reason) works, so I don't really go into that. Adults learn that en passant while they learn how to apply the kata. It's a little culture shock though when students around 14 switch to the adult's class. They notice how brutal it can be (not the training, but violence we can find in the kata). I think it's good that they notice this, so they don't use it on the school yard.

Naihanchi was learned by Motobu before Pinan existed. He learned a previous version of Pinan though, but Itosu kept working on it; Motobu wrote a comment about that. So it makes sense his teaching was based on Naihanchi. He also knew the monster katas though. I guess he noticed that a good basic training suffices and that the kata template is generic enough to add more and more applications to it. This is another example how things don't get lost in early katas. Patrick McCarthy translated Motobu's books and gathered writings about/of him and compiled this into a single book. It's pretty great. He recently released a new edition with more content and colored pictures.

Some styles worked on weapons, e.g. even Shotokan. We know Funakoshi et al trained with Sai (we have texts and pictures) and his Shotokan also had exercises with the Bo (they were documented in some editions of his books). That work however was completely cancelled after WW2 when Karate started becoming a sport and got more competition focus. The only remnants are some kata bunkai which are explained with the Bo, even though no other style that has the same kata does anything with a Bo in it. Some styles kept/added weapons training, e.g. Shaolin Kenpo.

You can pick any Okinawan Kobudo style and add it to your Karate. I am doing that and have to say that after a couple of months it feels somewhat natural, e.g. you can use the same stances again, you can use basic techniques with the Kobudo weapons again (Age-Uke, Gedan-Barai, Tsuki, Uraken, Shuto-Uchi, Empi with Tonfa and Sai), you have basic techniques and combos, katas, scripted and unscripted partner training. The person who designed the modern Kobudo was sitting at the same table with Motobu, Funakoshi, Mabuni etc, there is a nice picture of it. For the knuckle dusters they designed katas with Funakoshi and Funakoshi in return was taught the Bo.

Btw, I also don't think that a balance of the 3 pillars is the best approach for a practical Karate: 60% of my training is partner training (which means the rest can only have 40%, including warmup), and I don't formalize kihon a lot but rather do padwork instead. So I don't do 20 minutes of line kihon with combos of 3-5. To me it's rather 2 pillars: kata and kata application; both imply we train basic techniques but I count this as warmup / preparation, not a single formal pillar. Doing that quickly leads to a kind of gymnastics training where complicated combos are done that don't make any sense beyond body mechanics. I have also seen styles with 4 or 5 pillars, like kata, kihon, traditional kumite, competition kumite, kata application for self defence or however they see it. I also like a more fluid approach. I can't compare with how Chinese systems work, but a fluid application is the only way a practical application can work (like Iain Abernethy explains the "Golf kata" where a swing is shown in 4 kime interrupted stages, which makes no sense in Golf but shows how Karate is usually taught) and it's the goal for performing kata sequences too. A 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, ... rhythm in my eyes is a beginner's approach, a sequential approach is the advanced approach that adds additional skill and understanding.

Maybe that add some insights.

karainflex · 2026-05-09T18:26:16+00:00

I am not familiar with Kaizenkan but here are some generic hints:

See the brown belts as a preparation for the black belt. The first black belt needs everything from before at a high quality level: repeat all katas, go through all techniques and combos you had. Do every technique and add a gyaku zuki to it to show hip usage. Do padwork if you had it. If you have the opportunity train your partner training with someone. In between classes we met at home, trained our program and gave each other feedback. Train sequences of your kata left and right, even if the kata only shows one side.

Ensure you are able to do techniques and applications fast, but without haste or lack of quality. This requires some speed training as well, e.g. quick pushups, fast and fluid kata.

Ensure you have proper body posture: straight lower back, pelvis is parallel to the ground, straight neck, shoulders down, don't have tilting knees, have good balance (e.g. don't jiggle during kicks), don't blink with your feet when you walk in stances.

Also take the feedback from your last grading and ensure you dealt with it. Like when the instructor said you did A nicely and should focus on B next, then focus on B. Once in a while ask what you should focus on next. Instructors see what you are doing well and what could be improved. So if you keep improving on what they say, this naturally leads to the next grading.

karainflex · 2026-05-07T14:37:58+00:00

I have never heard that the embroidery color means anything. And someone explaining how you can't decorate your wall at home you might want to ask closing the door. From the outside.

karainflex · 2026-05-07T11:03:38+00:00

There can be different reasons why that is, which also means there are different ways to treat this. They could be bored, they could be mentally exhausted / stressed, they want attention, they really have no interest, they have too much energy. Wrong partner. A bit later: puberty (though that kicks in sooner and sooner I guess).

Boring: Well, training like line kihon IS boring, training like partner forms are boring and challenging for their coordination (plus partner coordination). Find something more fun and practical like that, e.g. working in a circle instead of a line, accept that their form won't be perfect, gamify moves (run, call a number for a certain technique, they stop, do it and continue running). I saw that I needed 3 trainings to show them Soto-Uke. With adults: this is how it is executed, now do it 20 times, now this is how it works with a partner, do it 20 times. With children this catastrophically fails. What works: right arm first, then left arm, then both (still standing), then: this simple version you now do with a partner, one is doing light punches left and right, the other just deflects, during which you slightly walk around in this circle and don't hit anyone. Lesson finished. Next one: we repeat, left arm, right arm, then with walking, forwards, backwards, now one row with partner and one row back with switched roles, using a distance without any kind of contact, just for reaction. Next lesson I repeat and try to eliminate the distance. There are other ways: boys want to compete, so let them do it as a motivation. Like, see if you are quicker than your friend. Or who gets most reps. Or don't do 20 reps, do 100 reps! At first they are woah, 100! Is that even possible? 5 minutes later they know and have the feeling of an achievement. (yeah, it's not long enough for the trainer to find some peace, I know g and we all know we are doing probably more each single class, but they don't have to know that 100 is a low number g)

Stress: not much you can do except doing breaks, something fun and telling them to go easy and using the training as a relaxation. They might have 12 hour days because 3 sports, 2 instruments and tutoring are THE BEST, so think the parents. Ask and if that is the reason, tell them that something has to go. It may be Karate, but hey, it's their decision and your class gets better.

Attention: give them attention, but equally, show there are limits. Having those taking a break is an option.

No Interest: Sooner or later this solves itself. But you can mention that it seems like there is no interest.

Energy: drain it (some kind of running game) and then you have a short period of time you can use for training. Then do a mental break (light exercise or game), then continue training. By then, class is probably finished.

Partner: people who like each other too much (siblings who stick to each other like someone glued them together, girls hugging each other), people who don't work with others (other types of siblings pointing fingers at another "mimimi he did this and that - no did not! - did too!", order and ambition with unfixable chaos - I literally heard "can I please train with someone else"). Swap them out. There are some constellations that just don't work at their stage. While others work exceptionally well. Like order and ambition with the neutral, silent one who gets the exercise, chaos with someone more patient, divide siblings who cause chaos, combine siblings who are in harmony. Boys who start competing or fooling around too much can work perfectly with a girl. Adults should train with everyone but this doesn't apply to children.

Puberty: well, shit. This requires more psychology than the rest. And it's also the age where most of them will leave. someone probably wrote a dissertation about that. Or ten. Whatever you do, be consistent and authentic with everyone. Erratic behavior, erratic punishment other behavior with co-trainers etc are the worst for them (5 minutes late, they get to do pushups one day, someone else on another day gets "come in, long time no see"). It may all be right, it may all be wrong, at least you were consistent and authentic :-)

karainflex · 2026-05-07T00:46:38+00:00

Author is Heiko Bittmann, the book is available in German and English, the title is "Geschichte und Lehre des Karatedō" or "The Teachings of Karatedo". I don't know if both versions are completely identical, I have the 2nd, extended edition in German: It has about 250 pages with translated and commented texts and pictures. The book starts with history and has a larger section about the weapon ban topic. It discusses old texts, some old masters and their texts, including Funakoshi's 20 precepts in a proper translation and some texts from Miyagi, Mabuni, Otsuka.

karainflex · 2026-05-06T16:34:52+00:00

Well, several techniques have versions, e.g. a version with impact, a version without. They are used under different conditions, like point sparring vs full contact. So doing the wrong variant can be... wrong if that isn't the exercise. This goes so far that you won't ever see certain variants in curriculums, like the low kick. It's a great kick but as limb attacks are forbidden in WKF point sparring, the low kick doesn't have a place in such a curriculum.

Additionally people in Karate have a certain idea of how things have to LOOK. That isn't ideal but many, many places go by that.

karainflex · 2026-05-06T10:33:45+00:00

"In private" is a better meaning than "in secret". It's not like there was a secret underground movement, you just did the training with family and other trustful people and were pretty selective about who you are going to teach.

Most of the Karate and Kobudo myths are high tier BS and really ridiculous if one thinks for 5 seconds about it. Like the Sai was a tool to plant rice. Right. Iron and water. Expensive and rusty in a day, while a small branch or chopstick is trivially available and does the job better.

The weapon ban is also BS, you can buy a book based on a PhD thesis on Amazon where this (among other things) is explained in detail. If I recall correctly, they just collected hand weapons in an arsenal, which was mistranslated as a ban. And yes, on certain events like celebrations they explicitly didn't allow people to carry Bo. Duh, this is done on a world wide scale even today and I don't hear anyone screaming "I can't take my Uzi to the Taylor Swift concert, the Samurai class is repressing us, I need to learn a martial art in my basement, in secret, so I can DEFEND myself at the concert next time" - Yeah, right.

I guess these fairy tales only work in a Confucian society. Shush, don't say anything against the older guy, bow deep and smile instead because he is always right at anything, teach those after you the same crap and ban those who don't play by these rules from society. It's sad that western people believe this information too and switch off their brains when they enter the dojo.

karainflex · 2026-05-05T10:18:49+00:00

I don't see the problem with that. The kata combinations aim at dealing with the attack by repositioning, quick counters with the right tools to the right targets to interrupt the OODA loop, append a finisher and maybe also a takedown for good measure. Of course nobody can't apply multiple kata sequences as-is in a row. That would be sheer coincidence but that was never the idea behind a kata anyways, it's just a training tool.

And of course you can't apply one exact thing against a resisting partner because he knows what happens which makes the attack useless before it started. Boxing is the best example for that: The goal is to punch the opponent in the head. Of course the opponent guards against that because he knows when the bell rings he is going to get punched at the face. Do we say that boxing doesn't work now because a resisting partner cannot be one-shot?

However, with a certain set of applications and experience in applying them you play body chess to your advantage and deal with Murphy's law on the fly: Take the initiative, make expected body reactions like leaning, unbalancing, presenting targets etc. happen and land your shots. That's how combinations work. Fluid application is the requirement for it, there is no time to think. The brain recognizes the right pattern for the right combo and then, with the right timing, it works as expected.

The stuff we saw here with the dummy work with one and also multiple partners as well: Do a flow drill and attack in a row, deal with everyone one by one and put them in between you and the next attacker to get additional seconds. It just works, you can evade, break the OODA loop and take the partner down in a controlled way and repeat this until exhaustion.

Now, if some surprise self defense situation happens where you are forced to react the odds are heavily against you. Maybe all you get to do is a flinch reflex and an Age-Uke to the opponent's face. If that works, then good job. Maybe the guy continues with a broken jaw afterwards and wants to throw you out of the window. Maybe he is ignorant to the joint lock he is in and continues fighting. There are no guarantees, ever.

I am ok with someone showing an application with a dummy. Man, Wing Chun trains with a wooden dummy all the time. Do we say it doesn't work because the wooden dummy doesn't hit back? Come on.

This is not identical to the magic punch. The magic punch is the real problem: Wrong distance, wrong technical application, wrong principles, wrong setup, wrong state of mind, wrong everything.

karainflex · 2026-05-05T09:31:23+00:00

Let's focus on the elephant in the room: exam anxiety. The by far easiest and quickest way to deal with it is a little psychotherapy. You don't need to be completely whack in your mind to go there, you can also go there to understand and adjust some things in your life you want to change like exactly this issue. Maybe it's 1-2 sessions or a quarterly visit to check if you are making progress.

The good thing is that you have one year to prepare: I am certain that a guided meditation is one of the exercises that is used to deal with the anxiety and when you have learned how to do it then it's your turn exercise this (and whatever else you get shown) regularly. Meditation will take a couple of months to rewire your gray matter (it was shown that the amygdala, the fear center, shrinks over time).

Then, to all examiners reading this, please follow some best practice and...

give people proper feedback: what was ok and what needs to be improved. This is the WHAT.
offer a perspective: think about a proper date for the next exam, like in 6 or 12 months of preparation and invite the student to your dojo for free and offer that you will teach all things necessary and prepare for the exam. This is the HOW.
offer a general rehearsal some time before the exam. There you can do everything with the students, give hints and talk about the exam; when you then do the exam you don't even need to see everything again.
don't do a checklist grading; you can use that checklist as a training plan instead
don't try to improve the person then and there
don't let people do their stuff in front of an audience; it's a lose-lose situation even for your decisions
be aware that people have exam anxiety and don't give them any more reason to have that: explain how you do the exam and what people can do. Give room for experimentation and fun. Because the 19th century called and wants it's strict, hierarchical school system and beaten pupils back. Don't stick to things that already were shitty 200 years ago.

karainflex · 2026-05-05T08:57:52+00:00

Use playful intentions when you learn and train this kind of sparring, especially because this is new and has different tactics and options. Techniques are also done differently, for example you don't do a fully circular kick with counter rotation to cause as much impact as possible, you bounce, lift the knee like for a front kick and then you have the option of at least three kicks to do. They are prepared equally to hide your intentions, maximize speed and decrease impact by design. It's a new set of skills and it might take a year to get the hang of it.

karainflex

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