You are here:
I can answer questions on history, culture and on actual self defense effectivness of Okinawian Karate and some systems of Japanese Karate
Experience in the area
I started learning Karate in 1967, so I'm comming up on 40 years experience.
I have studied with four men ranked 8th Dan or higher.
Organizations
Over the past 40 years I have belonged to a variety of Okinawian Karate groups. As different masters have retired or passed away the groups have been renamed, so while I have belonged to differntly named organizations it has pretty much always been within the same family.<
Education/Credentials
My current certificate is Kiyoshi, 6th Dan.<
Awards and Honors
Kiyoshi is an honorific title signifing the full ability to teach.
Past/Present clients
I teach only on refferal and only privately.
Update:June 2007
Shortly before he passed away the head of the system in America, Ken Penland awarded me the certificate of Nanadan, which is a 7th degree, and considered a Master Level teaching certificate.
I have known Ken since the early 80s. In those years he and I have written a number of historical research papers. Ken lived in Southern California but visited Seattle on several occasions and stayed with me on those visits. I am going to miss him but I know he expects me to continue research into our art.
Karate is not thing apart from one's life, but rather a deep and constant center of one's being. The exterior ability of the hands or feet is only 10% of the teachings. It is what happens inside that is more important.
The learning is endless. There is so much more to know what the old masters were trying to teach us. The monks from the various religius groups, Buddhist, Taoist, and Confunsionist, all had different systems. They also had complete systems of herbology and medicine. These systems, the martial and the medical, were all part of one larger system.
In China each of the major religions had at leat one school of martial arts. Buddhists had Shao Linn, Confusians and Taoism each had schools too. The Okinawian people, being seamen, traveled as late as the 1920s to the Southern Shao Linn in Fukien China. Sadly much of the templas were destroyed in 1928.
Tournament fighting is a post world war II invention and not part of a traditional school. Many Okinawan Karate Masters had a very critical view of tournaments. Karate is not an art like boxing or wrestling, but one in which left with no other, an art of destroying our enemy. As such, there is really no place for the slap and tickel tactics of tournament "fighting".
| User | Date | K | C | T | P | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| abdul | 10/30/09 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | Yes |
| Kyokushin | 10/29/09 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 8 | Oush |
| niel | 10/02/09 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | Laurence was great, very knowledgeable, objective, and ..... |
| Allen | 08/26/08 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | Thank you for your insights |
| asaad | 07/21/08 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Dear Abdul, Kung Fu, more properly known as WuShu, does not traditionally have full contact. Full contact is where each partner hits with full power and full speed. Certain areas are exempt from this
Dear? You are asking two questions. Firstly, is Kyo the most "powerful" and Secondly, about full contact. I presume by "most powerful" you mean is the style dominant in a combat situation. Or perhaps
Dear? Your question reminds me of the line in just about every Kung-Fu movie ever made "MY Kung fu better than YOUR KUNG FU!! And then the fight starts. I'm reminded of the old saying that there
Well, Niel, it turns out that history IS the answer to this and many other questions and if you stay with it long enough you are very likely going to want books on the subject that deal with the history
Niel, you ask: why shotokan uses the deep stances, which are unusable in real combat? We need to go back into history and study Itosu for the answer. I'm going to write from memory here and I may be
Answers by Expert:

©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.