Quote Originally Posted by pacfan View Post
No argument there. Karatemen will not do well in the boxing ring fighting with boxing rules and gloves, no question about that. But outside the ring in a raw hand-to-hand fight, that's another story. But I have to say that most of the so called martial arts in the western countries are 'fakish' by our standards. If I wear any kind of those mittens they wear on those martial arts fights shown on the tv and hit anyone in the jaw, I can crack it really badly. We train in a very different manner there in Okinawa, the home of karate, where we're routinely brutalized. Our bodies are pounded with heavy sticks during kata exercises and our fists are made really tough hitting hard objects, of course starting gradually from soft to hard. We can take them because the essential part of the routine kata exercises is to stiffen, or tensing of, our whole body - the so-called isometric exercisess - as well as relaxing it, until we learn to control every part of the body at willl. Most people don't know this but when we strike, be it with fists or feet, we put the whole body strenght into it. We even learn few technics that can put anyone to 'heaven' with just one shot, no kiddin'... By the way, I'm not 'that' young - just pretending to be one.
Nice to know that you're a good karateka. My sensei before would usually praise me for my strength. May be it's because I know your punching technique. hehehe. Even in the way I kick, he would usually make me a model for his other students.

I miss the giving of belts when we were promoted to higher belt rank. We were really tortured and I had to prepare and practice really hard including stiffening my stomach(abs).hehehe.