Shorin Ryu or Shotokan advocates should not watch this!!

Chris McKaskell · Post by **Chris McKaskell** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:17 pm

Halford wrote:This video is not that bad since it covers a scene well-known to most tournament observers and entrants and shows the usual antics of what goes on. However, most of the practitioners at this event are virtually beginners, showing imprecision and lack of focus as well as doing things too fast or not fast enough. I do not have time to say more about this, but remember that whatever you have said about this might come back to haunt you someday since none of you were actually involved in the event.

I don't take part in the tourney scene so I am admittedly ignorant here, but...

My screen isn't all that big and the colour is a little off - I assumed the fellows were all BB. No?

Regardless are you seriously saying that what's shown in the clip is actually part of the tournament system?

If so, to what end?

I'm not trying to cause trouble - I'm honestly curious...

Bill Glasheen · Post by **Bill Glasheen** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:44 pm

Bullshido specializes in picking on martial arts groups and individuals that don't quite measure up. And they aren't gentle.

Here's the thing though... Back in the early 1970s, I was in a Japanese style martial art where the practitioners did kata much like this style, and very badly I might add. Make no mistake about it - we were a SPARRING dojo. Our kata sucked. And when it came to kata like these, our teacher (however talented) wasn't very good either at teaching them or at communicating their meaning.

For what it's worth, his kata were flawless. He was trained by the likes of Funakoshi and Yamaguchi Gogen. He just sucked at teaching us kata. We were pretty much left to our own to figure them out. And then when we did them badly (as in these demonstrations), we were told they were bad and we had to work harder on them. Great... THAT was helpful!

We are spoiled in Uechi Ryu. As much as aspects of the contemporary version of Kanei's style get bashed on these forums, folks don't know how lucky we have it. Do you know what it's like trying to learn karate with zero bunkai and zero prearranged kumite? The kata being done in these films have actual meanings to the movements, but it's clear that the practitioners haven't a clue what they are doing. Even our worst yakusoku kumite sequences put us way ahead of these poor folks. And they aren't alone.

I don't know when these film clips were taken. But it is shocking to see kata this bad today, when the general understanding of martial arts here has improved. But I don't know... I guess I need to get out more.

Interestingly enough, several of the students from my first karate instructor's class DID sort of figure things out on their own. And some of them are today highly ranked by the JKA. One in particular I would label as a martial genius.* Maybe there was a method to my instructor's madness after all.

- Bill

* It probably didn't hurt that he was recruited off of the William & Mary football team, along with several of his buddies. They were tough cookies to say the least.

Kuma-de · Post by **Kuma-de** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 1:57 am

Bill wrote:

I guess it makes me come to some Jeffersonian principles. Mr. Jefferson here was responsible for the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom . It was one of three accomplishments he wanted engraved on his tombstone. (Believe it or not, being 3rd president of the US didn't make the list!!!) It was in a way the very first "I'm OK, You're OK" document ever written.

Bill, who the hell is this Thomas Jefferson?

George's brother??

Crystal.Sands.McKinney/Be · Wed Jan 07, 2009 3:53 am

f.Channell · Post by **f.Channell** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 7:50 pm

No Jefferson is one of those guys with hair like Jimmy Page who almost caused the North to leave the Union 50 years before the South tried to.

George Jefferson I would have voted for.

Bill Glasheen · Post by **Bill Glasheen** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 11:50 pm

f.Channell wrote:
No Jefferson is one of those guys with hair like Jimmy Page who almost caused the North to leave the Union 50 years before the South tried to.

Almost? Damn... He tried his best, mind you.

TJ is the man - a libertarian before his time.

I was listening to some comparisons today of money spent on various things. For what it's worth, Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase cost us the equivalent of $278 million in 2007 dollars. That's a fraction of what the current bailout is going to cost us.

Not a bad deal if you ask me - even if you hate the man that authored most of the Declaration of Independence!

Don't worry - I think we'll do fine without the Brits.

- Bill