r/kyokushin

Hello, any of you ladies and gentlemen is a shinkyokushin instructor?

Martial Way Kyokushin Karate kumite sparring techniques - YouTube

Osu!

I wanted to ask the Kyokushin community for perspective on a situation at my dojo/federation.

Recently, I saw two people being awarded green belts even though, they were not technically eligible for that level - they were not graded for the green belt.

One of them had not even fully passed the yellow belt requirements and could not perform the kata expected even for yellow belt level during recent grading.

However, he had opened his own Kyokushin school under the flag of our federation. Another person had only previously passed for blue belt. Nevertheless, both were given green belts.

When I asked sensei about the logic behind this, the explanation was basically: “That’s how it is supposed to be.”

I understand that different organizations and federations may have their own internal rules. I also understand that a sensei or federation may sometimes make discretionary decisions based on contribution, loyalty, dojo development, teaching support, opening a branch, or other factors that regular students do not always see.

At the same time, I find this difficult to understand from a traditional budo perspective. In Kyokushin, I always thought that a belt should represent technical level, spirit, effort, time in training, and the successful completion of the requirements for that grade. If someone receives a rank without meeting the technical standard, does that not weaken the meaning of the belt for everyone else?

I am not asking this because I want someone else’s belt or because I think I personally deserve more. In fact, I would not want to receive a belt I had not earned.

My concern is more about the principle: what should a belt mean in Kyokushin?

So my questions are:

Is it normal in Kyokushin for a sensei or federation to award a higher belt for organizational reasons, such as opening a new school under the federation’s flag, even if the person has not passed the technical requirements?

How much discretion should a sensei or federation have in promotions?

At what point does this become harmful to the dojo culture and the meaning of rank?

I am trying to understand whether my reaction is justified, or whether I am looking at this too rigidly.

Osu!

Any tips on training at home I do all the basics like push ups sit ups and stretches I also run in the morning but I don’t feel like I’m getting any progress

about nearly a year ago I wrote a post asking about shidokan and whether or not I should do it over kyokushin, so during my break I decided to try both, for context I come from a wkf shotokan and judo background so there were a bunch of Stuff that I was familiar with and a couple of things which were new to me, and I came on the days that they were doing kumite

So I’ll break down my experiences

kyokushin

we first started runnning , then one of the instructors hit a drum (the type you’d see in movies before a tournament, idk what they’re called) then we all ran and made rows and sat down, then we mediated, then we got up and started running and while were running the coach would clap and he made us to exercises like running sideways, crossing our feet pretty standard stuff, but he also made us do some techniques like the kizami zuki and the giyaku zuki, some hooks, hiza geris, and things like that, I personally really liked that

Then we did some stretches, then we started the kumite, so we first did some shadowboxing, then the coach started to teach us the some techniques,  we did the sidekick, we did the axe kick, and we also did the spinning back kick, then we did some combos such as the sidekick into the spinning back kick, then we did some other combos that I can’t remember (this was a week or two ago)

Then we did some combos on the pads/kicking shields then we started sparring, it was bare knuckle, I was a bit worried initially but everyone was chill and everyone I sparred with went easy on me, I had some success landing the sidekicks due to my shotokan background and I thought I did pretty good I was landing a couple light headkicks and decent shots (this 100% probably due to them going easy on me) then we finished the class of with some running then we did the meditation then each row bowed to the one behind them.

The head coach was the head of the polish team and he trained with mas oyama, I think under some other kyokushin legends like Francisco filho and Andy hug (or trained under their senseis, something like that) but that was pretty cool

As for shidokan, it was amazing as well

What was interesting was that we didn’t have much cardio, so we bowed in, then we sat down in seiza and meditated then the students read the shidokan oath, then we bowed and began the class. We did a whole bunch of stretches, we the shihan (sensei) made us do 200 jumping jacks, then 200 punches on the same spots, then we shadow sparred, then we had a partner and we’d spar him without touching him, then the coach told us to put our gear on and we’d spar each other, the first round was kickboxing sparring I had some success landing a couple of head kicks and back kicks (again probably because my partner was going easy on me) after that round we switched partners and I got partnered with the sensei who (although going pretty light) absolutely whooped me, I was landing a couple headkicks sidekicks, he was piecing me up with his boxing, then we switched partners and sparred again, then after the 3rd round, we went to our original partner and this time we had an mma round in which takedowns were allowed, and this round I had some success, with my striking and my grappling, my partner was around my size (or a bit lighter) so I was able to get close and take him down with an uki waza and a chair throw, but he got me in a triangle, I also was able to defend against his double leg takedown then I sparred with the coach who whooped me again (not hard at all, just more playful) he was shorter than but bigger so it was a lot harder for he to throw him, but he would catch kicks and take me down, it really showed where I had to improve on, then by the end of it I was exhausted, and I got cooked in the last sparring round. 

But overall I had fun, if you’re wondering why he let me spar on my trial, he asked me if I had any experience in martial arts to which I said yes, and I kept asking him about the sparring the kumite and he eventually asked me if I wanted to come and try the sparring out to which I said yes, and according to him I was pretty good, which I was confused because he whooped my ass (maybe he was talking about my first match with the first partner? Maybe he saw me while sparring idk) , he noted my judo and shotokan background while I was sparring so that made me feel a bit better about myself, then we finished off with some very tough workouts, we had to do 50knuckle   pushups and we had to put our knuckles on wood and we did some other crazy ab workouts and in the last 2 minutes we had to stand in kibidachi stance and grab the air, and that was tough, but over all I really enjoyed it. It was essentially an mma class, and I’d probably ask if I can come for another class just either for the kata or just the techniques

The sensei was from Japan and was a direct student of yoshiji soeno, he mentioned that the dojo is very traditional, and that there are only about 1373 black belts in the world and that they are an official shidokan branch in America, and the belt test are a combination of kata/kihon/kumite which I really like 

Coming from a shotokan point fighting background, it took a bit to get used to the more squared stance and a lot more used to the boxing and the leg kicks, but I really liked both of them, but I think I’d have to give the slight edge to the shidokan although I love the kyokushin place I really like the mma aspect of it as well as keeping karate’s culture and respect and how personally I can use my skills in that style.

https://youtu.be/CnYJjJgV0gc

I'm new to the kyokushin but i have some background on other martial art like kickboxing.

so, our dojo is participating on tournament, and they want me to join the tournament they said it will be based on age and its open weight. they said there is no headgear only mouthguard, groin guard, and shin guard.

i tried asking the opinion of other people who does martial arts and they said I shouldn't join because it's open weight.

I'm just looking for advice if should join and what should I do if join.

How can I lose 3 kg in 1.5 months if I weigh 167 kg and 54 kg if I gained it quickly and before that I weighed 51 kg?