tori

Well this has little to do with karate, and more to do with my huge fear of spiders and a great punch. I am TERRIFIED of spiders! I am always on the lookout for these tiny evil creatures. On one particularly hot day, I was walking and felt something crawl onto my neck. Without hesitation, I punched myself, right in the side of the neck. Well, when you punch your carotid artery, blood tends to not flow so fast to the brain. Yep, I crumbled right to the dirt road. When I came to and remembered what had happened, I checked for that horrible spider who made me hurt myself. Well, it was actually a strand of my hair that had caused my demise and not a spider at all. Good punch though.

Bunkai of kata. Once I really started to break kata down and find the various applications of the technique, I was truly remotivated in my training.

I would never strip someone's rank. They earned it, and I don't believe it is mine to take. I would however, suspend them for repeated offenses. If they are disruptive and disrespectful with their rank, they may continue their behavior once it is removed, out of anger. Making them leave the program for awhile will either help in their behavior when they return, or they just won't return. It becomes the students loss, not mine. It becomes a better training atmosphere for everyone in the long run. As for those who have bad days, we have to be supportive and hope that it is a temporary problem for them. When I notice someone having a bad day, I allow them the opportunity to train on their own and work out the problems. I am not trying to coddle anyone, but I have been there. So I try to understand.

That happened to me while being allowed much practice time (several weeks) for my Sandan ranking. I went up to the teens who were "acting out" and said, "If you guys dont want to practice for our ranking, fine." I will schedule time for me to practice on my own. Then when my instructor confronted me for talking to them, he said, "I have been waiting for you to come down on them." Then he went after them and told them that if they could not practice the way black belt should, they would not test. He then appointed me to make the decisions at the end of the scheduled practice days to decide who would and and wouldn't test. Wow, did they straighten up.

Wow, I have never come acrossed this situation. I am sure there are several other people who attended that tournament thinking the same as you. It will reflect in any future tournament that the head of the schools throws.

There is advantages to both. I fit into the smaller, faster catagory. If we are talking sport fighting, or point sparring... I have found that it is harder for a larger fighter to fight smaller ones. Now lets talk real fighting. A smaller person may be fast, but are they strong and able to land the hard strikes to truly defend themselves? A larger person may be slower, but probably has great strength behind their strikes. I enjoy sparring, but my reason behind my training isn't to "score that fast point with a insufficient, controlled kick." I train to find those moves that will bring my attacker down so I can get away. I am not trying to say anything negative about point sparring or sparring in general. It is a must for training. I am just trying to give the point that it doesn't really matter what size you are if you can't win the fight on the street.

The soreness feels good, doesn't it? Congratulations.

Oh my gosh, I could never imagine walking up to my instructor and saying "dude"... I laughed out loud when I read that. I would however, ask him if he was ok and that he seemed to be bothered by something and if there is anything I can do. I take it upon myself to never judge the way he handles situations, but i have never experienced him behaving in the manner you describe. Hopefully he will return to his old self soon.

I maybe misunderstanding the topic here, but if you are looking for a full contact event, you have to seek them out. If you are attending local tournaments, well you have to expect that you are going to have point sparring. The people attending these types of tournaments want to go to work or school when monday roles around. These are not tournaments for the individual who wants and expects to go in there and fight full force 100% takedowns and blood. If you want that, look for it and train for it. They are fun and awesome to attend, but try not to criticize local school tournaments because they aren't what you are looking for your own training. Those tournaments are the feel good tournaments where everyone is meant to have a good time, try their best and win a trophy. Full contact is to win a title. Two totally different types of competition.

Why don't you try to bargain with your parents in helping you with the 2nd class. Offer to do something around the house... Training twice a week is very important, you already know that. Congratulations on setting a goal and sticking too it.

So I too am late in my suggestions, but my instructor has always said, you are nervous because you care about your performance. I am sure you did well.

In our school, you test when the head instructor feels you are ready and not anytime sooner. One thing you definitely do not do at any rank is question when you will be tested.

Not a fan of either, but live in an area where you are either a Bills fan or a Steelers fan. I am NOT a Steelers fan!

Around the time a student reaches blue belt, the head instructor starts to evaluate whether or not he feels they will be a good candidate to train to teach others. Once picked, the students go through several personal instruction courses and learn more about teaching others. By Brown belt level, if they have been chosen, they will begin to teach others, supervised by the head instructor. No one has instructed a class unsupervised by him except on 3 occassions where he was very ill. At that time, I was Shodan level or above and did instruct the classes in his absence. He never misses, so he must have been very sick to miss those 3 times.

I am glad we are not affiliated with JKA for alot of reasons and this is one of them. Too much politics. My instructor tests us in our dojo. Very convenient and he knows us and what we are capable of doing.

Before one can test, they have to complete a written test and turn it in to the head instructor. Manual exams are actually part of the manual. They can be torn out and completed as an open book test for kyu rank. Ranking to Shodan and above is all essay.

I agree that wearing your obi outside is only looking for trouble, but kids coming from mom and dad's car with their gi on is not really an issue for me. When we had changing rooms available for all students, alot of horsing around in the changing area and late students became a problem. Now kids come in their uniforms, no belt visible. Adult students have their own changing area on another floor and are able to change quickly and get out and start practicing. As for traditional, have you ever watched some programs of traditional schools in Japan? They drop their obi on the floors, something we were told never to do. They wash their obi. Also told not to do that. They come to the training area already in a gi. Sometimes we westerners take traditional too far.

I ruined my joints as a child. I trained at a Martial Arts school 4 days a week, 3 hours a day, no padding. Full contact sparring encouraged. My shins are a mess and my knees hurt like a toothache everyday. I love NSAIDs. I have to take them to get through the day.

I do feel that it is effective inside and outside of the dojo for kids and adults. Being an assistant instructor, I know that my behavior towards others could directly affect my instructors program. If I acted upon some anger issues I may have towards someone or something, and for some reason they come in and check the school out and see me as an instructor, they may think twice about becoming a member of the school. You probably think, well what are the chances of that. Very good actually, as i am an ER nurse and deal with the public everyday. The same public that at times is awful and can make you very mad. The same public that comes into the ER at any time with " I hurt my thumb 3 years ago and I want it checked out right now and by the way I am in a hurry," public. It can make you mad. So for the sake of my instructor and his school, I try to keep my anger, self discipline, and professionalism in check all the time. TRY, i said.

I am pulling for Arizona. I definitely am not a Pittsburgh supporter, but feel that they will probably take it to the Cardinals.

I have never seen anyone lose a rank, but have seen them stay at their current rank for a long time. They have to prove that they should be allowed to go further.

Our instructor does give push ups if things get out of hand. Mostly, all he has to do is get really quiet and everyone straightens right up.

I met an old asian instructor who thought the rank or title of Master was overused by Martial Artist. His own definition of Master was, "one who has learned everything there is to know in his style." He stated that Master should only be given to those who have passed away, as they truly no longer can learn anymore in their art. He would not allow anyone to call him Master or any other title other than Sensei. I don't know what ever happened to him, but he gave me alot to think about in many aspects of my own training.

I feel very fortunate that our organization has not been associatied with any others. I would dislike having someone dictate how our training must go, according to their own policy. As for bunkai, how do you learn kata without it? It wouldn't make sense and it wouldn't even be fun practicing. It really would be just dancing around on the floor without thought or cause. I wouldn't love kata as much if there was not Bunkai taught.

That is great!