Forest City, NC: Ray Rice - 8th degree Shotokan Karate Black Belt?

[Vieux Normand]

Okazaki Sensei has a strong organization, and anyone who comes out of ISKF with a high level dan ranking is deserving of respect.

Still, there are quite a few authentic Shotokan Karate organizations other than the ISKF. Besides the JKA, you also have Kanazawa's SKIF, Oshima Sensei's SKA, Asai Sensei's JKS, and many others, some of which aren't too well known. They're not going to cross-reference with each other.

Nevertheless, though, someone who is an advanced dan rank holder in almost any of the authentic orgs, is going to have decent Shotokan kihon in their performances. Judging by the videos, Ray Rice's kihon are substandard for that ranking.



Yes, I know it's a "novice" level kata, but advanced practitioners should be able to perform novice-level kata with advanced basics. In this poor performance of Heian Godan, you can see his head bouncing up and down, in addition to using very little hip twist, poor posture, and even leading with his head. As a result, he has poor stability, very little power, and could probably get knocked over by a stiff breeze.

I've seen children green belts with better fundamentals than this guy...


Now, there may be a few individuals who assert that "well, his main art is really (insert name of his own style), and not Shotokan," that's fine. Nevertheless, there are only so many ways that a human body can optimally perform a technique, and those ways are all going to significantly overlap. It doesn't matter if you're a Goju Ryu, Wado Ryu, Shito Ryu or Shotokan practitioner. You generate power using the legs, hip twist, etc., and from what I see, the individual in question is certainly lacking in those areas.

What he looks to be lacking most is sobriety.

As far as I know, shoto-types aren't supposed to be trying to imitate drunken-monkey-whatever. Posting this "kata" is equivalent to those post-Vancouver-riot public-shamings that are popping up on sites all over the place.

It doesn't matter how many decades have passed since this travesty occurred, the shame is eternal. The individual "performing" it should be hiding behind more than just teeny-bangs. A paper bag would be more appropriate.

[proteinshakez]

as i said, Ray Rice was a joke back then and he's a joke now. He's an ideal example of why people think karate is a fucking joke anymore. I'm not usually literally disgusted with people, but all i can taste is the **** flavored vomit that watching him in "action" causes me to produce.