New Updates of Shotokan Karate Videos

The Dojo Key Subscribers area of MyShotokan is called Sensei's Office.

Sensei's Office will be continually updated with new Shotokan Karate Training Videos that match our high standards of review. We spend our days scouring through YouTube.com, MySpace.com, Google Videos and more.

Day after day we review videos of homemade karate videos. We see so many bad clips - it's hard to believe people will publish themselves as experts, when they are so clearly beginners.

Only the best quality karate training videos make it onto the shelf in Sensei's Office!

The March Master Profile will feature Tanaka Sensei - perhaps one of the most famous fighters that Shotokan Karate has ever know!

Watch here for updates as New Shotokan Karate Videos are posted to Sensei's Office in MyShotokan.com!


:-)

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Popular Searches for This Shotokan Blog

Become a Member of MyShotokan.com today! Free Members gain FULL ACCESS to all the Shotokan Kata Videos! ...and it's FREE to join! >> Sign up here <<

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And you can view a short list of the martial arts sites that have referred traffic to MyShotokan.com

Yay! Finally Live Again!

MyShotokan.com is Finally Re-Opened!

But - it wouldn't be Launch Day without some unexpected things jumping in the way... like the internet connection going dead on me - one hour before launch time! I didn't get the connection re-established until 30 minutes after the time I was to launch... and then I only had 5 minutes to get the correct home page inplace before rushing off to other duties.

WHEW! But - The site is live again, and working!

Thank you for your patience - and please leave a comment here on my Shotokan Karate Blog and let me know of any bugs you find!!

The final touches

I'm getting more excited as the Launch Date approaches for MyShotokan.com!

The final touches are being completed now. All the construction on Sensei's Office is down to the details and clean-up - and it's lookin' GREAT! ... if I do say so myself... ;-)

Today we are testing the signup and registration process, then following every link and review each page with a checklist to be certain everything will be working smoothly tomorrow for the Grand Re-Opening!

Thanks again everyone, for all your helpful email!

Back to the dusting and polishing!!

:-D

Shotokan Kata Videos

Videos of all the 26 Traditional Shotokan Kata by JKA Masters.

Shotokan Karate Kata, Kumite and Kihon Videos - Videos of JKA Karate Masters, Tournaments and Karate Demonstrations in Sensei's Office for Dojo Key holders.

New Shotokan Karate Videos

No more delays - the site will be opening on schedule this Tuesday!

Thank you again for all your email and messages over this past week as the renovations are being finalized. I'm really humbled by the number of people who are telling me that THEY can't wait for the site to be re-opened!

I can certaily assure you that it's all going to be worth the wait!

What's the most exciting part for me? I'm not sure if it's the great new look and layout, or if it's the new shotokan JKA Masters karate videos I've been able to find! Many of the searches to find these videos were very obsure - but the results were like a prospector finding nuggetts of gold in unexpected places. Solid gold, amazing videos of the top JKA Masters... and as you'll see - it's no wonder that these men are at the top. They did not get promoted for politics. They really are amoung the most astonishing atheletes the world has ever witnessed.

Update:
The Free Membership section of the site, the Videos of the 26 Shotokan Traditional Kata, is completed.

Sensie's Office is almost completed. Those members who hold the Dojo Key Subscription will have access to an expanded and improved section with videos of the worlds top JKA Karate Masters including Funakoshi, Nakayama, Nishiyama, Asai, Okazaki, Enoeda, Kanazawa, Yahara and Abe. Dojo Key Members will find much more in Sensie's Office! Such as Karate lessons teaching Kihon and Basic Combinations in Japanese, and special sections of videos on Karate Kicking Drills, Kumite Drills and many karate tournament highlight videos. In addition, Dojo Key holders can also access a special section on four advanced Shotokan Kata that you may have never seen before.

I'm creating a Special Bonus section of Amazing Stunts Videos. These Martial Artist will make you do a double-take, rub your eyes and shake your head before you watch the video again. No kidding. These Amazing Martial Artist Stuntmen are not necessarily Shotokan Karate-ka, but we who love Unsu, Kanku-sho, Enpi and Heian Godan for the jumps and athletics will be impressed... no, you will be astonished by these videos.

Finally I have two more of the most exciting areas to complete before Tuesday... only a few more hours at the computer checking off the final things my list of things left to complete before launch time in 2 days, 23 hours...

Ok - back to work/play!

More Delays - Sorry

I'm sorry to announce that I have to push back the opening one more time.

I spent the weekend training with one of my top Sensie's - and didn't get the time to complete the last 10 or 12 hours work needed to complete my renovations.

So, I'd rather push back the opening date and bring you something polished and tested to work, rather than opening today and causing you frustration by finding broken links or confusing or incomplete information.

Thanks for your understanding and patience!

MyShotokan


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Semi-Free Sparing Practice Drill

The final karate class we had this weekend was fantastic!

Everyone was happy and really enjoyed the training - everything was different and new - and each of the two hour classes flew by! I was suprized when the classes seemed to end so quickly!

We did a few memorable things that stand out, and that students commented on afterwards. First off - Sensei worked us through the basic combinations with more intensity than I normally do... I'd say more than twice the repetitions forward and backwards.

My favorite drill was a kind of semi-free sparing with a partner. In a slow, controlled drill with Sensie counting, Partner #1 attacks on the odd numbers with any technique - and Partner #2 blocks with any technique; on the even numbers, Partner #2 takes a turn. The focus was to move naturally and make distance - mix up the techniques with all sorts of kicks, punches and strikes. This kumite training drill was made more interesting by restricting one side to only strike attacks and the other to only kick attacks. By changing the restrictions on techniques, we were forced to try moves we would normally ignore or avoid. It was a refreshing challenge.

After training, we all took Sensie Don and Sempai Jill out for lunch. The massive hamberger with Canadian back-bacon, mushrooms and swiss cheeze sure hit the spot!

Now that my weekend of karate seminars is complete, I have time to get back working on MyShotokan. There are about 12 hours of work left to complete before the launch tomorrow! I'm excited and apprehensive at the same time!!

Until then...

MyShotokan

Kata Applications on Video Tape

Sensie Don walked our class through a couple really interesting applications for Heian Shodan and for Heian Sandan.

I recognized the first combintation that is widely known through the Midwest Karate circles. The first time I experienced the application drill for Heian Shodan was at the 5 day Midwest Karate Summer Training Camp in Regina Saskatchewan, way back in the summer of 1992. Durring that training camp, Sensei Marr taught us great variations of applications for all the Heian kata, one kata per day for the week.... man were we bruised up!

This time I have the drill on video tape - not just scratches of notes we used to write after each class... sometimes the notes don't make much sense when you re-read them a decade later... :-)

The second partner combination from yesterday's training was an adaption of applying moves from Heian Sandan, introduced to Midwest Karate just last weekend in Winnipeg by visiting master Katsumata Sensie. We really had a great time with it - and I'm looking forward to reviewing the video of this fun and effective karate partner training drill.

Because the content of the classes was so fresh and different for myself and my students, the time just flew through both of the 2 hour sessions yesterday.

Several people remarked on areas they enjoyed, and would like to incorporate into our regular training drills.

-more doing basics forward AND backwards
-more performing the kata alone infront of the class
-include the extended stretching routine in warmup
-include partner stretching
---- and I know there is something else mentioned too...

I've asked my students to email me their comments because if I don't write them down and make a habit of reminding myself with a series of brief written lesson plans - then it's easy for me to get off track...



We get one more class, today from 11AM-1PM today.

Time to charge the video camera and get ready for training!

MyShotokan

Completing The Upgrades

I estimate that I still have 11 or 12 hours work to complete the upgrades to MyShotokan. But finding 12 hours time between now and Tuesday at 2 PM is going to be a challenge!!

With the extra karate seminar hours this weekend, I won't have any work time for the website until Monday morning...

It's difficult to NOT work on something that is so exciting!

But, at least I'm interupted by karate! :-)

... I'll report on the seminars as the weekend unfolds.

MyShotokan

Karate Seminar

This weekend my karate club is honored to host Sensei Don and Sempai Jill again! You can check out a short video clip from last summer's classes here: Karate Highlights - 20 seconds of fun partner work. Today we are training from 10AM till Noon, then from 2PM till 4PM, and tomorrow from 11AM till 1PM. I'll be video taping, of course! - and will be posting clips on MyShotokan. More notes soon, I better get a small breakfast in me and do some stretching! 1.5 hours till first class.

Progressing Right On Track

The upgrades to MyShotokan are moving along - right on schedule.

All of the Shotokan Kata Video pages have been completed and I've been able to make a lot of progress in a new area of the site I'm calling Sensei's Office.

Sensei's Office is a place completely filled with a lifetime collection of Essential Shotokan books, videos, DVDs. You'll find rare and out-of-print treasures and a huge shelf filled with over 100 videos of Shotokan's top karate Masters, karate classes taught in Japanese and personal recordings of dojo sparing and dojo training drills from several top karate clubs around the world. Sensei's Office is also a store-house of tournament trophies with a box thats full of tournament footage. In Sensei's Office, you can sit down and study some of the worlds to Kata and Kumite competitors in action!

But my favorite part about Sensei's Office are the video clips of Embu and Karate Demonstrations! It's great to learn from the choreography of Top Shotokan Karate-ka from around the world! Even after watching the videos over and over again, some of the acrobatics still make me gasp and shake my head!

Today, I'll finish formatting and upgrading Sensei's Office - right now there are Nine Categories with over 100 of the best Shotokan Karate Training Videos online. I estimate three hours to finish the referbishment in this area. Following those renovations, my next goal is to re-vamp the Membership Levels to include an eye-popping bonus Membership Level for those people who refer other karate-ka to MyShotokan.

I don't know about you, but I'm getting excited about re-opening the site and showing everyone around the new and improved 'dojo'!

Regards!!

MyShotokan.

MyShotokan Renovation Update Report

Hi All,

I've had a couple email requests for temporary access to the videos. One person reports that she is getting ready for testing, another was excited about learning a senior kata for the first time and they wanted to review a couple different people doing the same kata - and they wanted to quickly login and review a few points.

Sorry! Things are a shambles! If this website were a kitchen - there'd be no cookin' goin' on today!

... the login can't be activated yet, but I can give you an update report:

I've reformated Heian Shodan, Nidan, Sandan, Yondan and Godan - I've also reformatted the three Tekki Kata pages, Bassai Dai and Kanku Dai pages are complete.

Today I'll complete reformating the Katas from Book 7 in the Best Karate Series: Empi, Hangetsu, Jitte - as well as Katas from Books 8, 9 10 and 11.

Let's see now... it takes me about 20 minutes to reorganize each kata page... 14 katas left to do, that's about 5 hours, give or take.... Then, tomorrow, I'll begin reformatting the pages with videos of Kumite Drills, Self Defence demonstrations etc.

The new layout is really exciting to work on! After I'm finished each page I can't help but smile! It's lookin' great - but most of all - it's easy to move around and find all the info you could ever need to help with any of the Shotokan Kata!

Ok! Back to work! I can't wait till I can open the doors!!

:-)

Upgrades and Wish List

Hello everyone!

I'd like to thank you all again for making MyShotokan.com so popular! The comments and the feedback have been very encouraging, constructive and helpful.

A few Members have been kind enough to tell me, in detail, where they have found bugs in the site - and to these people I bow especially low. You have my gratitude for helping me present an easy way for Shotokan karate students to study all the kata.

I'm afraid I have some bad news though.

When I started on the upgrades, the suggestions I began to receive made me stop and re-think a few things. I took out a pad of paper and started to scratch up a To-Do List... drew a few flow charts and new page layouts...

Well, the long and the short of it is, I've just added four extra days of building time to get the site up to the new standards!

That means I'm going to MOVE BACK THE GRAND RE-OPENING one more week.

The site will now be Launched on Tuesday, Feb 13th

I'm taking the site apart by the seams, if you will, and re-stitching the pieces in a way that will make it easier to navitate and will offer much more support information about every individual Shotokan kata. But that's not all! Just wait till you see the new and expanded sections!

Thanks again for making my hobby so much fun!

Don't forget to add me in your MySpace Profile

Shotokan Karate Blog

YES it's true

MyShotokan is CLOSED FOR UPGRADES!!


We would like to thank everyone for our unexpected popularity!

In just two months, MyShotokan.com has grown to an
International membership of over 700 Karate-ka!

We are in the process of improving the site and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause! But I'm sure you'll enjoy the upgrades!!