https://youtu.be/QzkF713RD90?si=_h3L-RGsYO0gPtbk

Hey @tony-barnwell-9293 This is a shout out as we would love to hear your karate story on here for others to read. :)

Michael Jai White has studied many Karate styles including Goju Ryu. For those who were in the dojo last night, see anything familiar?

Great class last night! A few takeaways: Practising moves/applications of specific kata moves in a free flowing fashion before you even attempt the kata could be the way forward to learn a kata. That way you learn the flow and visualise the application rather than some rigid "dance" moves. Just a thought. Stance controls the power of a punch - clenching abductors gives the deepest "through" impact - being a human punching bag proved this last night. Yet another revelation of Sanchin kata. Doing Kumite with Sam - usually I am in survival mode, but was able to settle myself down and start watching his eyes tracking my movements and also avoided a few of the things he has got me with before. Nevertheless I still ended up on the floor as is the tradition. When I eventually started gassing out I decided to bring all my movements in close/defensive and avoid his kick onslaught with neko dachi (like we practiced in a previous class). This worked well in conserving my energy and regaining some breath until my eventual complete gassing out.

Hi everybody, I'm Chris. I'm a student in Sam's Dojo. Here's my story (apologies if its too long). This sounds corny but I saw the original Karate Kid movie in the mid-80's and was inspired to do karate. Daniel-san had me at "Wax-on, Wax-off". There wasn't a lot of martial arts back then - mainly Karate, Tae-Kwon-Do or boxing. I found a karate school in Sydney via a mate at college - it just happened to be Okinawan Goju-Ryu under IOGKF headed up by Morio Higaonna. My instructor was Len Resnekov, a pint-sized powerhouse of a man with a military background and a no-excuses attitude. He was a hard man - I don't think he had any pain receptors... I can genuinely say that the many years I spent in Len's dojos through my 20's and 30's had a massive impact on how I conduct myself in the world. It instilled confidence (something I needed badly) and taught me persistence and resilience. There were many rites of passage on those floors for me, making it through the gradings and tournaments eventually to Shodan and then Nidan. I was a willing student and found that Karate suited my body. I have a small frame but am very flexible and bounce pretty well off wooden floors. I must admit that my motivation back then was to learn how to fight - having been the victim of much bullying growing up. So I loved Kumite and Randori (a softer flowing form of Kumite). I found katas to just be a thing I needed to learn to progress through grades - I could do them quite well but never gave too much notice to their inner meanings and applications. Eventually marriage, kids, divorce, moving, etc got in the way. I also came to an inner realisation that my reason for doing Karate had been achieved - I had gained confidence in myself and no longer felt the need to defend myself out of fear. I moved to the northern end of NSW, couldn't find a decent karate school , started a business, raised teenagers etc. So here I am now at 59 years of age, kids grown up. Just over 2 years ago, with a lot less on my plate I felt a longing to go back to karate. I didn't want to go quietly into old age letting my body pack up. I was still nimble and flexible but felt I had grown soft. I had been taking the neighbour's kid to Tae-Kwon-Do as a favour and watching their "different" take on things - I found myself correcting the kid on his technique after he had been to class and teaching him how to develop power. I googled Goju-ryu Karate in my area and stumbled across Sam's class. I went and watched. Having been around pure Goju all of my karate life I could see when it was done properly - even 23 years later. Sam was technically flawless. We had a chat and I turned up at the next class up the back as a white belt. When the student is ready the teacher will appear.