Nidan Melbourne

Hope your hunt finds you well and hopefully Google is your best friend. Have you spoken to your Renshi about recommendations of where you and other students can go and reach out to? Like I know my Shihan were to close, he would recommend clubs in the surrounding areas that were good and had similar standards. As he wouldn't want to let any of his students down in the training front.

I was having a chat with an American Friend of mine the other day, about different sports around the world and then shared sports that various countries play and their respective leagues. and how some sports barely exist in others. What Sports do you follow, that are outside of your own country? He had to get reminded that the "national" sports in each country might not exist in another country or has a small % of participation. When he asked about the Major Sports in Australia; where we have - Australian Rules Football (AFL) [Mens League is well over 100 Years Old, Womens League was created in the last 10 years]. Our primary national sport - Rugby Union + Rugby League - National Basketball League (NBL) - Soccer (European Football) - A-League (Mens League) and W-League - Cricket We have small participation amounts in sports like Ice Hockey and American Football. Before you ask why we don't have larger amounts of Ice Hockey participation. It is because Australia as a whole is a very hot country, even with our seasons; it can vary from 2-3c (~37.5F) to 50c (~122F). SO it would cost significantly more to keep Ice Hockey Centres at a low enough temperature to prevent the ice from melting and to keep it as a playable surface. Then American Football - is already similar to Rugby Union, Rugby League and our own AFL. So there is a smaller following of the sport in relation to being a player, however there does seem to be a decent following in terms of viewership. Although what was funny, is that he had no idea about what AFL was (understandably) so I told him to watch the attached video to get an idea of what it is. And btw Handballing you "punch" the ball from your hand, similar to the first couple steps of Saifa. Restarts after scoring, take less than a minute to do. International Sports I watch (when I can); - NBA (America) - Euroleague (Europe) - Rugby Union - Rugby 7's

This was part of my morning training from yesterday, I did add that note section just in case I forgot what shorthand I used also I knew that if I shared I could make it easy to show you guys.

Can't say that I have met anyone like that in my 20 odd years of training. But it does make me think about my early days.

So this is my Template I use to help plan out my training, then just print it off for me to go. I have a secondary sheet on the same document; which helps me keep track of how often I do each of the exercises/skills. Now on both Sheets I have - Exercise Now this is the most obvious thing for the Warm Up and Main Training. You just have to identify what your doing - Sets How many Groups of Repetitions you have to do. - Reps How many times you do it - Load This might sound strange, but if I am adding any form of weight for a Set I add it here. If unloaded; I either leave it blank or write 0. - Skill Type Whatever form of training area that item is. Kihon, Kata, Pre-Arranged Sparring, Breakfalls etc. I'm looking at making another sheet that gives me a tally of how many of everything that I have done. So at the end of a training phase, or when I review my training I can clearly see how often I do everything.

I should probably add, when it came to Throws and Breakfalls Training we had to be careful and limit to more advanced students when it came to training on Wooden Floors. Like I learnt how to fall on Wooden Floors; did it suck? yes it did. But definitely made me appreciate that having those "golden' rules when it came to learning how to do them and also teaching others. Throws are the same, as each throw has different mechanics to them; we had to have solid awareness of what is on the ground and what the surface is like.

You're doing great! Take it one day at a time. I have a little training diary that I make sure I do something everyday and fill it out.

Depends on what i'm wanting to focus on in any one day. Having been in the game for a long time now, and I'm training on my own; I like to go by feel and listening to my senses outside of sight. Why? because if your in a situation where you lose access to your vision; then you need to rely on everything else at your disposal. Kata - I go through the "Standard" way, then change it up. I did some on the beach recently, including in the water. Pre-Arranged Sparring - "Solo" Edition. Makes you look like a complete Psycho, but this allows you to work on that internal intensity outside of class.

This is more directed towards those who have multiple locations. So for context; the club I first trained at had 4 locations (2 of which I never visited). So our Hombu Dojo used Mats for both floors, and the Dojo I was based at didn't use any mats as we trained on hard floors. So the only time I visited our Hombu was for Grading Purposes. Now out of curiosity; for those who have multiple locations or teach for several clubs. What surfaces do you teach on and how differently do you teach when on different surfaces?

that is so true when it comes to a temporary space. Both clubs I've trained at have used a rented space, both at recreation centres (one now at a school). We can have signs up (Banner ones) and mats out for training.

Thats great that the owner happened to be watching and spotted the issue.

We use the Shodan-Ho designation betwen 1st Kyu and Shodan. But we have the same issues as those who promote students straight to Shodan from 1st Kyu. Over the years, I have noticed that more kids quit once they get to Black Belt than the Adults do. I remember going through the Kyu Grades; and was told NOTHING about the Dan Grades and what training is like after attaining the rank of Shodan-Ho. Although to be fair, at my dojo at the time there were no students ranked above Shodan. We had several Shodan-Ho Students, even when I transitioned to the Seniors Class there were only a handful. But when I graded to Shodan-Ho, I had 1 classmate going for Shodan who was the most senior student there. However club-wide, my instructors (1x 3rd Dan, 3x 1st or 2nd Dan) were some of the most senior. But from what I know all up I think we had 3x Sandans (including my Club Owner), 3 or 4 2nd Dans and a handful of 1st Dans. My current club, we have 1x Godan, 1x Yondan, 4x Sandan, 5x Nidan, 8x Shodan, and several Shodan-Ho. But the reason we have so many higher grades, is because of my CI (Godan), our Yondan came from another club, and the remainder have come to the club as Black Belts and were consequently promoted. But it is possible for a student to have started in 2008 and be promoted to around 4th Dan (if awarded BB in 2012).

A dojo at most imho should have a Shrine with the founder of your style and your Chief Instructor. So at the Dojo I taught us, had 3 photos; Chojun Miyagi Sensei (Founder of Goju-Ryu), Gogen Yamaguchi Sensei (Founder of Goju-Kai) and my Shihan (Headmaster of our School). I think there was a plan to add photos of Goshi Yamaguchi (Son of Gogen Yamaguchi) and Tino Ceberano Hanshi (Brought Goju-Kai to Australia) to the lineup.

The dumbest thing I managed to do was dislocate my small toe on my right foot, courtesy of the person to my right and their pant leg. I can't remember if I was getting up or down, but my toe for whatever reason snagged their pants and dislocated my toe. Otherwise I've had no other injuries because of my training.

My condolences to the family.