Was there particular focus on kihon, kata or kumite and were you encouraged to compete outside your dojo?
SM. Yes, the norm back then was the three K’s (kihon, kata, kumite), as it was in most dojo across the country. Kihon was first. This consisted of simply lining up 10 people deep. We would then take turns counting to 10 while, punching & kicking in usually a zenkutsu dachi stance. I distinctly recall that when someone messed up the count, we’d have to start right back at the beginning of the row you were in, and repeat the techniques. Everything was usually done with a very loud & strong Kiai. I remember on more than one occasion, during a normal class, we’d only complete the techniques on the right side of the body because someone would continually mess up the count and we’d never get to exercise the opposite side, for lack of time before we’d move on to the next part of the scheduled class. Kata was practiced by separating into belt colour groupings. I remember very little applications were shown, let alone actually taught for kata then. But, some of us were curious why we had to per
