Shotokan -> Kyokushin (mostly at ex Shotokan practitioners)

[Ben]

Well, basically what I thought is that having trained Shotokan for more or less 6 years would give me a bit of a head start in Kyokushin, since it partly derives from Shotokan. Quite frankly it turned out it's quite the opposite. Doing things the Shotokan way has become so natural for me that it's really hard to do things the Kyokushin way. It's like you've used you right hand to write all your life and all of a sudden they expect you to write with your left hand, if you know what I mean. So I'd like to ask how to effectively overcome that problem and also hear from others who experience/experienced the same thing.

EDIT:

Things I'm mostly concerned about are:
- differences in zenkutsu dachi
- differences between Heien/Pinan
- differences between fighting stances
- difference in holding the back hand while performing tsuki

OSU!

[vietchau]

I am in a very similar situation. However I do not find it is difficult to change my habit of doing thing. ( I have done 6 years of Shotokan and hold a 1st dan )
. zenkutsu dachi : leaning forward 1 degree in Kyokushin, well this makes sense and I usually pick thing that makes sense quickly.
.heian/pinan : the pattern are very similar (they come from one root I think )
. fighting stances : when I am at a distance I move like when I do point sparing e.g. legs a bit wide apart. When I come in close I switch to sanchin stance . I guess if you haven't done KD sparing it is hard but it just automatically come when you don't want to back up and staying there to hit/get hit .
. back hand : yes ,in KK the backhand is held higher. I trick myself to do this by trying to focus & tense my tricep muscle and thinking that the next technique I really want to punch as strong as possible, the backhand then naturally pulls up.

[Martin H]

I didnt convert from shotokan, but I did train both for a while (a shotokan dojo opened up basically next door to me, while I had a hour one way trip to my kyokushin dojo).
It really messed me up in the beginning. Both my shotokan and kyokushin training suffered and I did something halfway in between. In the end I had to quit shotokan due to lack of time.

I found the best way to deal with it was to think of it as completely separate techniques. Not different way to do the same techniques.
but even now, several years later I occasionally do a "shotokan" version of a technique by mistake :-)

[tmd]

This may not be of any use but re the fighting stance: I think you are probably talking about having to shorten your stance? Bag work should help with this as you will learn to feel comfortable and balanced throwing techneques that become gradually more comfortable and more powerfull - flowing, especially try staying at one distance and throwing kicks and punches or elbows and knees in combinations.

If you have done a lot of WUKO tournaments or training I'm guessing, so don't get offended if I'm wrong but you won't tend to do many combinations? for WUKO as with Kyokushin Clicker (semi contact) you tend to dart in and out - with one attack then landing out of range in the longer more traditional stance. By doing bagwork you will naturally start working on combinaitons which starts you looking for YOUR best fighting stance to suit your best moves.

Second the rear hand being higher? Not sure if this will help as most of the karate styles I've done are either Kyokushin based or have let me do my own thing! But what I was tought was you are not only returning your hand, you are striking a rear standing opponent in the solar plexis with your elbow - hence it is as fast and powerfull as the punch the lead hand is throwing, having been told this I always bring my returning arm back fast and at the right hight.

Lastly welcome to both the Forum and Kyokushin

[DKKC]

We have someone in the club now who has trained 4-5 years in Shotokan before he joined our Kyokushin club. He's been with us for the past 2 years but you can still tell he has done shotokan before. I'll tell what I told him: patience and keep training. Find reasonable explanations for why you are doing things - ask sensei- why do we lean 1 degree forward in zenkutsu, why is our hand up in hikite etc etc. There are logical explanations that, hopefully, will help yuo rationalise the changes. As far as the fighting stance goes - just keep sparring the way you feel confortable and trust your sparring parters to 'teach' you the hard way! Trial and error - the best way to correct technique!

[Ben]

Alright, I'll try to follow your advice guys .

OSU!