1st tourney, 2 1st place victories! :)

I did do karate for a year and some change and practiced the crap out of it. I don't know what kind of katas you have but Isshinryu Karate includes: Seisan, Seiuchin, Naihanchi, Wansu, Chinto, Kusanku, Sunsu, and Sanchin. I think that's in order, and I believe I got up to Sunsu. I also was learning the Tokumine no Kun bo kata before I moved into MMA. The were pretty friggen' long katas. (I had to wiki this stuff lol, I remember having to do 6 or 7 katas and a bo kata, only remember Seisan, Seiuchin, and Sunsu off the top of my head)

I used to get complimented on doing kata a lot. Lots of pop from the go in the punches/kicks and aggressive movement but maintaining good technique. If I were put into a situation where I'm grading kata (gym or tournament) I would have wanted to see a little more fire, more aggressive movement. It's tough doing that stuff in front of people though, and it's your first tournament.

As far as the mechanical stuff goes my mind really doesn't click anymore with karate stuff. I can wrap my mind around sparring in grappling/bjj and boxing, don't have an eye for picking things out in kata other then aggressive intentions with movement. All in all, still not a ton to add but it might be helpful for you. Feel free to tell me to sod off and all.

 

Here's my dojo's syllabus of kata: http://azbudokan.com/pdf/AZB-ISKF-Syllabus.pdf
I agree that I should've been more aggressive. I reckon I was more tired than I thought. I wasn't nervous at all. The crowd there was nothing compared to the crowds I've played for in various bands. Thanks for the polite criticism, though. :google:

 

Well, now you mention it...*sharp intake of breath*

Nah, it wouldn't be fair for me to try and criticise you. Unlike me you've actually posted a vid of yourself doing something, so you're a better man than I am. Would have liked to see more on the second vid rather than starting what looks like half way through the form though

 

Yeah, that "second form" is part of the first one I did. Sempai's camera was having fits, I understand. I just included all the videos she gave me for completeness' sake.

 

lol I don't mind criticism as long as it's constructive.

 

Hi matvei,

firstly, congratulations on your wins, and thank you and congratulations on putting videos of yourself up on here. You move well for your grade, and appeared very composed in both the kobudo and karate katas.

Do you mind if I offer a couple of suggestions based on what I saw in the karate kata? (assumes consent is given)

Your turns were good, but when you turned, your feet were a bit too much in line for zenkutsu-dachi (I assume that's the stance you were after), which made you a little bit tippy. If you can get the front foot around a bit more that would help. But nice on the putting of the feet down and then turning the hips into the new stance - you might try softening the supporting leg and hip to help bring the other leg around if that helps.

I don't know if this is taught in your school, but I was taught when turning, that the eyes lead, then the feet. You are not looking before your blind turns, and my preference would be to look first, then move. (There are kata though where that is not the case, and schools/styles that don't do this, so feel free to ignore)

Your chudan ukes are too cramped and are in an anatomically weak position. Try to have the elbow 1 1/2 - 2 fists away from the body and the forearm at a minimum of 90 degrees to the upper arm - this engages the triceps and gives a much more 'switched' on feeling. It also makes it a much stronger structure that will be effective in deflecting attacks. Also, try and make them more upright, by bringing the elbow more underneath the fist (you should have the feeling of a squeeze in the armpits as you do this)

You had good recovery on the kicks, and good thrusts with the punches (no scooping).

Again, well done, and thank you for posting the vids.

 

Well done mate.

Baza

 

Ok, you need to wear spangly green gi's at comps, they look far more dazzling

Seriously though, melbgoju went into a great deal of detail from his perspective, so there really isn't much for me to comment on. I also can't comment on the kobudo bit because I haven't done much training with the bo before (with a jo, maybe, but not a bo) or with forms like that.

But if I might suggest it for your karate kata, you mae geris didn't have a great deal of "focus" at the point of full extension - your foot is almost pointing completely up rather than driving forward into the (imaginary) target. You also didn't seem to have much tension in the toes to reveal the ball of the foot as the impact surface, so in effect you're kinda doing more of a "push kick" than a mae geri chudan. If you apply it to a guy holding a pad, all that happens is that almost your entire sole of the foot comes into contact with the pad to get the impact and "can" lead to you essentially wiping the sole of your foot on the pad rather than driving the weight of your impact through a small point.

Also on one or two occasions when you raise your leg to kick, your foot is trying to get away and swing ahead before you've brought your knee up to a good height, which will alter the way in which the mae geri tends to function. It also makes it a tad more difficult to control the movement post keri, which can sometimes mean you end up "falling into" the next movement rather than controlling it.

As for the chudan uke (depends on what your instructor calls it mind), I can't comment much. Most forms of chudan uke I have witnessed tend to hold the elbow approx. 1 fists' width away from the ribs but relatively tucked in, but it does depend on the type of uke waza it is (is it more of a striking block, a redirecting deflection, etc?). The only thing I would say though is that your wrists look like you hold them under a lot of subconscious tension, hence the bend in the wrist. I tend to find that uncomfortable and have generally been advised to avoid it, but again that really depends on what your instructor wants you to perform.

There's also a couple of times you lean into your tsuki a tad more than you might want to right at the end, but again this might be down to stylistic differences. Only thing I wanted to say NO! NO! NO! on was right at the end when you completed your form when you were looking off to one side briefly rather than focusing yourself ahead to complete the kata. As my instructor would say, it shows a premature lack of focus at the end of the kata

But apart from that, you actually had pretty good form, pretty good recovery with your keri waza, your tsuki actually looked really quite good, your movement was relatively smooth, you weren't very "hesitant" with your feet (which is a massive pet peeve of mine) and you seemed overall pretty relaxed and confident, which was extremely impressive. Good job dude

 

hey man, not bad at all. just make sre to relax more into your stances, as you'r kinda keeling over forwards on some steps (common for tall people. note the rear heel).

...but my hair is more awesome! (j/k, always good to have more long-haired comrades with whom to taunt simon and mitch )

 

nice job bro.

 

Thanks for being so thorough. The looking to the left and snapping the head forward at the end of the kata is stylisticly correct. The idea in practice is to make sure the attacker(s) isn't getting up to come back at you again. I thought it was a weird thing to do when I started ****o-Ryu as well.

 

Thanks! You nailed pretty much what I thought was wrong with it. I do look before my turns (that's how I'm able to get such wide step-behinds, which took a great deal of effort because i had to unlearn bad habits my previous instructors gave)...I suppose I need to make it more obvious for the judges.
The ****o-ryu chudan uke has always befuddled me a bit. In that block and most others there is a perry before the block. Easy to do properly in jodan and gadan uke, but not so much in chudan (but that's just me).

Thanks again for your time and effort. Cheers.

 

...Really?!

That's a new one on me. But hey, if that's what you're taught, then that's alright

 

There were a couple kata in Isshinryu that used the same "look at them, then turn" after certain techniques as well. I don't think it's too uncommon. I don't think we did it at the end of katas but we did it during and maybe near the end (it's been years). Most of the time I was focused on finishing the kata in the same spot I was started it off in because if you were off a half a pace from the starting point you did it wrong.

:star: for me because when I saw it I didn't think it was weird.

 

Yeah, I've seen the head movement during the katas (I'm from a former goju ryu/current wado ryu background), but not right at the final point of it, came across as being distracted more than anything else to start with. It's one of the issues with commenting from other styles though, everyone has slightly different interpretations of how to move from each other that sometimes just seem strange.

 

Yep! I thought it was mighty odd myself when I started learning the style. I also think it's odd to pull the fists to the ribs at the beginning and end of the kata, but it got me a new rank, so I reckon it's okay. As I understand, kihons weren't taught at all in Japan and Okinawa back when karate was being born, so some of the detail is left to interpretation.

 

Congratulations!!

Keep up the good work.

 

LOL

I'd assume that it's to show that you're mentally and physically ready/guarded, but I don't know for sure. I know I'm expected just to make relaxed, comfortable fists in front of my thighs as I prepare myself. Might be worth asking what your instructor believes?

I'm not wholly certain about that one. Gichin Funakoshi actually logged in his autobiography that he would travel each night to the homes of his instructors Master Azato and Master Itosu where he would drill the same form for hours on end until shortly before the sun came up and that would have been...late 1800's IIRC. The Okinawans had toh-di long before the Japanese had really embraced karate-do mind. I can't comment about the japanese arts mind, someone else might be able to jump in at this point *looks at Fish of Doom*.

I think the easy thing to forget with any "style" of karate is more that all we are doing is practising karate the way certain pioneering individuals envisaged it, with their beliefs about practice, their attitudes and mind sets, their perceptions and so forth. So it's kinda understandable that certain katas and styles would have noticeable variations.

Anyway, we're going off on a tangent. You planning to compete again?

 

Yup. I'm going to attend every tourney I'm able to. :google: I've always like performance arts, and want to make a living out of it one day. (concert soloist and other performing arts):Angel:

 

I look forward to seeing what you do in the future. I'm known for posting tournament vids myself (though I just broke my ankle, so we'll see how that goes...). Since you're just getting started I'm not going to say too much - just always remember to breathe and be relaxed.