This week,  Ezra Scott from James McLain's Kosho School of Karate in Nashville joins the show. Ezra and I discuss the recent release of Marvel's Iron Fist on Netflix, and also the other Marvel shows including Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage.  We start the show focusing on the fight choreography, by in the 2nd half of the show we get into some of the social issues represented by the shows, especially the criticisms of Cultural Appropriation that have been leveled at Iron Fist.  Particularly those regarding the appropriateness of having a white person portrayed as being a master of Asian martial arts.

This week we are wrapping up our multi-dojo, mulit-state, multi-country martial arts road trip. This thing took so much energy out of me that regular Chop Talk listeners may have noticed the show has been coming out pretty sporadically in the last few months.  Well, today's episode is the last pre-recorded show in the bin.  So next week Chop Talk will be returning with all newly recorded episodes.

Just a forewarning though, this audio on this week's episode is a little rough.  The first half of the show was recorded on-the-road as Kosho School of Karate instructor, Evan Jones, and I were heading over a recently re-opened mountain pass in the Appalachians.  The pass had been closed for over a 2 months due to a severe mud slide, and as you can hear in the audio, we almost slid over the side ourselves as I was paying a little too much attention to the conversation and not enough to driving!

The 2nd half of the show was recorded at the Shakespear Arms, a local English pub in Guelph, Ontario.  All of the guys from the Kosho School of Karate that made the trip from Ohio to Candada were there.  Paul & Mark Tarvin, Travis Volz, Tom Dougherty, and of course Evan Jones. I am happy to report that all of them successfully passed their Jodo test and were promoted!

In today's show, Kosho School of Karate instructor, Evan Jones and I are still on our second stop on our international karate road trip.  This week we are in Dalton, GA to join the Classical Fighting Arts Seminar, taught by Yoshio Kuba.  Evan and I sat down with Kuba Sensei,  his student and my good friend, Miwa Kanazawa, and a few bottles of red wine,  to talk about his experiences in karate.

A student of Toguchi Sensei, Kuba has become one of the top instructors of traditional Goju Ryu in the world..  In recent years, he has traveled extensively to help teach this art.  Traveling to Europe, US, India, and South Africa (where I joined the tour in 2012). He also regularly teaches at the Classical Fighting Arts seminars held in Okinawa. 

His approach, is more internal than other well known branches of Goju.  Focusing less on conditioning the hands and the body, but on developing correct technique and understanding application.  In his classes and seminars, he emphasizes the difference between basic and "Advanced" karate techniques, stressing that the participants, many of whom are black belts, should be able to separate the fundamental techniques taught to beginners with the more practical and effective techniques they should be using as advanced practitioners..  With a background in acupuncture, he is also an expert on how to make it hurt! He includes more wrist locks and pressure points than you generally see in a karate dojo. And, he is an expert on traditional kata and bunkai.

In this interview, Kuba Sensei discusses the historical cross training between masters,  the "Old" techniques that are no longer used modern training, how to find a good teacher if you don't live in downtown Naha, how more advanced practitioners move towards soft movement, and a few secret punching methods. .

To, find out more about Sensei Yoshio Kuba, and the Kenbukan Dojo, in Okinawa City, Okinawa. You can contact Miwa Kanazawa at [email protected]

This week, Kosho School of Karate instructor, Evan

Jones and I make our second stop on our international karate road trip.  This week we are in Dalton, GA to join the

Classical Fighting Arts Seminar, taught by Yoshio Kuba.  Evan and I sat down with Kuba Sensei,  his student and my good friend, Miwa Kanazawa,

and a few bottles of red wine,  to talk about

his experiences in karate.

A student of Toguchi Sensei, Kuba has become one of

the top instructors of traditional Goju Ryu in the world..  In recent years, he has traveled extensively

to help teach this art.  Traveling to

Europe, US, India, and South Africa (where I joined the tour in 2012). He also regularly

teaches at the Classical Fighting Arts seminars held in Okinawa. 

His approach, is more internal than other well known

branches of Goju.  Focusing less on

conditioning the hands and the body, but on developing correct technique and understanding

application.  In his classes and seminars,

he emphasizes the difference between basic and "Advanced" karate

techniques, stressing that the participants, many of whom are black belts,

should be able to separate the fundamental techniques taught to beginners with the

more practical and effective techniques they should be using as advanced

practitioners..  With a background in

acupuncture, he is also an expert on how to make it hurt! Using more wrist

locks and pressure points than you generally see in a karate dojo. And, he is an

expert on traditional kata and bunkai, which we will get into in detail in this

interview.

To, find out more about Sensei Yoshio Kuba, and the Kenbukan

Dojo, in Okinawa City, Okinawa. You can contact Miwa Kanazawa at [email protected]

this week's, Kosho School of Karate instructor, Evan Jones and I make our first stop in our multi state, multi-country karate road trip.  This week we are in Nashville, TN to work out at James McLain's Kosho School of Karate with Head Instructor Ezra Scott.  In today's episode we catch up with Ezra's recent training regiment. 

We also talk about another instrutor at the school, Nick Riggans.  Mr. Riggans is quite the southern renaissance man! In addition to being a great martial artist, he is also the star of the CMT's Tobacco Wars,  a few episodes are available online, and I'll share a link on the Chop Talk facebook page. http://www.cmt.com/show/tobacco-wars/series.jhtml He is also one hell of a musician, the bumper music to this week's show came from his latest album  "Farmed and Dangerous", which was i am told was at the time of this recording,  one of  the top 10 country albums in Europe.  We'll play the title track to the album later in the show. If you like good old fashioned country music, you'll definitely like what you hear and you can buy Nick Riggan's latest album, Farmed & Dangerous on Amazon, you can see the video for Farmed and Dangerous on YouTube, and find out more about his other projects at www.nickriggins.com.   We will be looking to have Mr. Riggans on as a guest in a future episode.

For those of you interested in learning more about Ezra Scott, and McLain's Kosho School of Karate in Nashville, TN you can visit www.koshokarate.wordpress.com

Oh man! In May I went on one of the all time great

karate road trips!  Kosho School of

Karate instructor, Evan Jones, and I went on a week long Odyssy starting in

Cincinnati OH, and then heading to Nashville, TN to train at James McLain's

Kosho School of Karate with Head Instructor Ezra Scott, then it wason to Dalton,

GA to jump in the Classical Fighting Arts seminar taught by Yoshio Kuba and my

good friend Miwa Kanazawa, next was the long haul! Evan and I drove 13 hours

straight, all the way from Georgia to Guelph, ON to join in the annual Sei Do

Kai Jodo seminar! In Canada Evan and I  we were joined by Kosho members Paul &

Mark Tarvin, Travis Volz, and Tom Dougherty all of whom were testing for their

promotions in Jo-Do.

We recorded episodes all along  the trip, and we'll be releasing them over

the next few weeks. In today's episode we get to know my co-pilot Evan Jones

and find out his background in the martial arts.  That interview is coming up in just a minute,

but first is the

For those of

you interested in learning more about Evan Jones, and theKosho School of Karate

in Cincinnati, OH you can visit www.koshoschoolofkarate.com

karate road trips!  Kosho School of

Karate instructor, Evan Jones, and I went on a week long Odyssy starting in

Cincinnati OH, and then heading to Nashville, TN to train at James McLain's

Kosho School of Karate with Head Instructor Ezra Scott, then it wason to Dalton,

GA to jump in the Classical Fighting Arts seminar taught by Yoshio Kuba and my

good friend Miwa Kanazawa, next was the long haul! Evan and I drove 13 hours

straight, all the way from Georgia to Guelph, ON to join in the annual Sei Do

Kai Jodo seminar! In Canada Evan and I  we were joined by Kosho members Paul &

Mark Tarvin, Travis Volz, and Tom Dougherty all of whom were testing for their

promotions in Jo-Do.

the next few weeks. In today's episode we get to know my co-pilot Evan Jones

and find out his background in the martial arts.  That interview is coming up in just a minute,

but first is the

you interested in learning more about Evan Jones, and theKosho School of Karate

in Cincinnati, OH you can visit www.koshoschoolofkarate.com

Japanese & Okinawan culture, karate history, tournaments, travel, and good ol\' blood & guts stories we talk about everything vaguely martial arts related.

Japanese & Okinawan culture, karate history, tournaments, travel, and good ol\' blood & guts stories we talk about everything vaguely martial arts related.