Martial artists often debate the question, “Which is the best martial art?” Of course, the question needs to be fleshed out a bit: best for what? Usually this means, which is the best for self-defense? I don’t really know the answer to this, or even whether there IS an answer, because so much depends on who the teacher is, their…
I want to say a few words about the nature of karate training for the dedicated student. If you’ve taken my classes, you know how unlikely it is that I will say “a few words” about anything karate-related… And yet, here we are :-] . I’ll use a list format to keep it brief. Note that what I say here…
Tai Saba ki Tai sabaki – this Japanese term is used often in the martial arts. It’s usually translated as “body shifting” by English-speaking karate sensei, and that translation is good enough, considering how we use the phrase in teaching. Basically, it describes getting out of the way of an attack and/or positioning yourself advantageously for…
The kanji above reads in Japanese as “en-bu-sen,” or as it’s normally pronounced as a complete word, “embusen.” (It’s just easier to pronounce “em” in the word than “en.”) Japanese karate players recognize this word as referring to the path or pattern that your steps take when you’re performing a kata. If someone was watching you do your kata from…
Shotokan Karate has lost two of its 10th-dan masters in the last 5 months. Both were 88 years old. Kanazawa Hirokazu died in Japan on December 8. And this past Tuesday (April 21), Okazaki Teruyuki also passed away. I had the pleasure of taking a class from Kanazawa Sensei at a Martial Arts weekend seminar at the International Budo University…
Both Delguidice Sensei and I came up through the karate ranks and earned our black belts learning Shotokan Karate the “traditional Japanese” way. And I actually trained for three years in Japan and earned a 2nd degree black belt through the “Kenshinkai” organization, which was definitely traditional Japanese. (For those who want to know, “kai” in this context indicates an…
As was my impression at the time, the videos confirm that the our members did a great job at the demonstration. Here are some of them: Some .mov files: 2019 GOTA Josh breaks board 2019 GOTA Josh self-defense
We performed for the second year in a row at the annual Pennridge Gallery of the Arts on Sunday afternoon, September 15. The weather was a little better than last year — it was warm and quite bright, but the humidity was low. Still, we did the whole thing directly under the late-summer afternoon sun. I was very pleased with…
