Most of you that have been exposed to movies and TV and have heard the karate kiai! The sound of the impending karate chop was supposed to frighten the opponent as well as release pent up energy. I remember reading books in my youth that mentioned particularly good practitioners of the kiai were able to kill small animals with a single yell! I use to practice the kiai at the same time I was toughening up my fingers to plunge into a chest and remove the still-beating-heart.

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In sport karate we have a saying - Be First! That means as far as a point karate standpoint - being first is everything. Let me explain, in the open tournaments I use to fight in from the eighties, the most points in two minutes, won the match. While it was true that sometimes some sloppy but effective techniques would ultimately win bouts. I think generally that a practitioner that can hit their opponent first would also win in the street.

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I started with Tracy’s Karate Studios after the “Kung Fu” TV shows featured the Tracy’s Karate commercials. I still remember those checkered uniforms with the participants running through self-defense techniques. I wanted to do what those modern-day warriors (Tracy’s) were doing!

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When I as a little boy I wanted to be a black belt so I could register my hands as lethal weapons. I figured that when I found out all of the secret stuff - I would be able to easily defeat any opponent! Then I watch Tarzan take a 10th degree black belt and started wondering, what was better - jungle fighting or karate? But I am going off point.

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How can a prospective student figure out if a karate or self-defense school is any good? This is a perplexing question facing many folks. Some people start taking karate only to discover that they cannot fight their way out of a paper-bag, but look cool. Others discover they still don’t have any idea how to mount a successful defense but think their Sensei could!

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When I was a youth I use to watch the television program Kung Fu. In that program, Grasshopper was taught the process of toughening up his hands for combat. I read articles in Black Belt magazine and watched tournaments that involved board-breaking. I thought that those guys and gals had to be tough! If anyone messed with them - they would just break the attackers with their power! Karate demonstrations like that inspired me to start breaking boards and jam my hands into buckets of sand.

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This topic sounds like I’m being sexist but please hear me out. First let me point out that many women in my life and women I have observed can fight. I have many self-defense stories involving women! I have also seen examples of women that were apparently trained but did not have the heart or the chin to win their fight.  Full Story »

Over the years I have seen kids with black belts. I did not award any kids with a belt that high because it would have put them at a disadvantage. When I owned my school a kid could earn up to a brown belt legitimately because they know all of the basics, katas, techniques, and sparring (starting in upper white belt).The belt rankings generally are:

1. White belt (includes all of the beginning belts such as orange, purple, blue, and green - other schools have different white belt rankings)
2. Brown belt
3. Black belt

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