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The old tried and true way of joining a school of the MA by visiting them is still the most effective method. Then, there's the trusting ones gut, raised hair on one back of the neck, and goose pimples. Then there's the recommendation of family, friends, and other MAists. I suppose you want know exactly if the switching to a new club is worth the time and effort on your part until you attend. If after having visited the new school many, many times before joining, I'd give it 100% effort for at least 3 months. Not every Black Belt can teach, nor should they ever try; either one can or one can't...there's no middle ground. Imho!! Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Please keep us abreast of how things are going, and good luck.

Here we are... The All-Star Game is steadfastly approaching...July 17, 2018 in Washington, DC being hosted by the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. As we fans know all to well, the All-Star Game officially marks that seasons halfway point of the 162 regular season games. As the fans pour into Nationals Park for the 7pm first pitch between the National League and the American League, as you hear one of the most welcomed and beloved sounds..."Play Ball...Get your Hot Dog...Get your Peanuts...Get your Cracker Jacks"...the crack of the bat...the kid in us all marvel about games most favorite pass time...BASEBALL. Before the first pitch of the 89th Major League Baseball All-Star Game, there's the exciting anticipation of All Star FunFest Week, July 13-17, that's jammed packed for all ages and all fans with some of that weeks activities, like the 5K Run, All-Stars Prospects Game, All-Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game, and then my most favorite of them all...Home Run Derby. I, being the NY Yankee fan that I am, was pleased that the Yankees Organization had 4 dynamic players to represent them...Judge, Torres, Chapman, and Severino...of which Torres might not play due to a right hip strain he received on July 4th...I hope he's cleared. My dear Yankee's presently, at the time of this post, are in 2nd place right behind our arch rivals, the Boston Red Sox, by 3.5 games, sporting regular season standings of 61-31 with plenty of baseball to still be played. Which team are you cheering for this year?? Of course, I'm cheering on the American League. "Take me out to the ballgame..." GO AMERICAN LEAGUE...GO YANKEES!!

Thank you for sharing that link; very informative, and I throughly enjoyed it.

Welcome to KF, DauntlessDruid; glad that you're here!!

If you are fasting with the guidance of your doctor, then you should be ok. However, if you're fasting without your doctors advice, then be extra careful. Either way, I wish you the best of luck.

Firstly, I hate to be that person, but the Hippocratic oath applies only to doctors and it is not the reason you can't punch a patient. You and/or you're employer will be sued for exorbitant sums of money is the reason. I work in an ICU as a nurse. This a trauma center that's in a small city with a big drug problem and we are the only psych facility in the area. Put those two things together and I have been punched at work far more than I ever have been punched at the Dojo. That being said, I have never struck a patient back. I have blocked some punches and occasionally used very simple wrist releases so I could get away from patients, but I have never really used martial arts at work. If I did I would be fired and/or sued and you will be too if you use any martial art. This includes non-striking arts like BJJ. Basically, if you haven't been trained by your facility to bodily restrain a patient, DON'T DO IT. I repeat you will be fired. There is way too much of liability issues for hospital employees. If you ever got taken to court and were asked where you learned a move you used to restrain a patient and the answer was a dojo, gym or another outside facility, you're behind is toast. If you're interested in being able to physically restrain or "takedown" patients, then you should see if your facility offers classes that certify you to be able to do that. Until you take one of those approved classes then my advice is to avoid being alone with potentially violent patients, never let them get between you and the door and if/when they become violent leave the room and call for help. Only use blocks to keeps you from being hit if you can't escape. Solid post!! Welcome to KF, DauntlessDruid; glad that you're here!!

Is this an example of the open mindedness, humility and respect that martial arts teach us? I can only speak with familiarity as well as authority about the SKKA/Shindokan/Hombu.

Whenever I mention the curriculum, I'm referencing MA techniques and nothing else; our curriculum's don't cover anything except MA techniques. The other things that one might find in a curriculum at the dojo level are created and controlled by the dojo's CI's, and not the SKKA. The SKKA carefully and meticulously governs the curriculum with an adamant unforgiveness. Please don't brush the SKKA with a general brush because we're not from the same palette as other Governing Body's, nor is the our style.

Both don't mean that one can produce; actions have to occur.

To the bold type above... Do you believe in your core style?? Do you believe in your styles founder?? Do you believe in your styles founders curriculum?? I hope that you do, because you're training in it, and have been doing so for however long you've been. Sure, you might not utilize each and every single technique(s) found in the curriculum, for whatever your reason(s) might be, but you've trained in them. I'm not speaking about techniques you've not been trained in yet, that'll come in time, but I'm speaking about techniques already learned. Time will create that effectiveness IF executed how your styles founder designed it. If you or anybody can't execute said core styles techniques effectively, as found and taught in said curriculum, then the practitioner is at fault!! After all, the founder can/did/does; otherwise, why would the founder include it in the very first place?!?!? In time, so should you or anyone else. Our Soke created and founded Shindokan...not me, or anyone else. I can execute every single technique found and taught in our curriculum, which was created by our Soke, very effectively. And whenever I couldn't, it wasn't Soke's fault or Dai-Soke's fault or anyone else's fault...JUST MINE!! However, I did overcome that deficiency in time. Imho!!

Every technique within ones curriculum are effective; it's the practitioner that's ineffective. If any said technique is in said curriculum, Shotokan, for example, its founder wouldn't have included it. Imho!!

Should the student be dismissed from the school if only the potential arises to any task?? Oftentimes, students need to overcome low self-awareness, weak motivation, and focusing on the wrong qualities. One of the job's of the CI is to strengthen the students abilities to get out of their own way. My chronic lower back pain is now keeping me from producing as I use to. Two questions... 1) Should I be put to pasture?? 2) I've the proven knowledge and experience, however, will my potentiality replace my ability to effectively produce?? I know what I can and can not do, as far as my lower back is concerned. In that, I'm good out of the starting blocks, but as the day progresses, I slowly digress where mobility isn't favorable to produce anything physically effective. If I can't produce due to my chronic lower back pain, then what good am I?? Even at the start of the day, and all day, I must be extra careful as to how I move. If I move the wrong way, I run the high risk of my back going out. So severe that I might wet on myself, and I can't move without experiencing very sharp pain.

Some many years ago, I heard Dai-Soke say to us at an informal gathering at his house one Sunday afternoon..."Potential Doesn't Produce!!" That caught our attention, rather unavoidable, yet that woke up our complacency, that which we all carry from time to time while on our MA journey. This statement was the wakeup we all needed; the shock of it all, was unbearable. I know for a fact, I needed that wakeup AND that shock. Dai-Soke said... "All of the potentiality in the words can't produce anything!! To produce anything of quality effectiveness, one has to put meaningful effectiveness in sincere actions." If I'm at a job, and you're my boss, and I exhume all of the potentiality in the world, yet, I produce nothing of tangible value, no matter my potential, then I'll be fired with cause. The old saying that goes... "Potential has a shelf life." ~ Margaret Atwood Actions speak louder than words!! How can I produce, if I hide behind my potentials; afraid to live up to them daunted!?!?! After all, potentials are untapped opportunities. They're there, and they've been properly nourished, but remain quite dormant. Let your potentiality free while what you produce escapes unbridled. You want to be an effective MAist?? Then produce effectively beyond your potential; your potential will hold you back from greatness, if you allow it. Your potentiality are only the building blocks, that your knowledge and experience leaps from. Your thoughts, please!!

When I first joined the SKKA Hombu many, many years ago, when I was only 7 years old, the word Sensei was mystical and carried that status of a God. I was marveled by what my Sensei could do quite flawlessly. I placed him on that pedestal because I was hypnotized; I was awed by him. As I was learning Shindokan under his watchful eye, I started to see the man that I wanted to be; down right to the very essence, on and off the floor. His God status with me slowly ebbed away, not because he wasn't that God to me back when I was 7 years old, but because I was growing up in and out of the MA as that yearling MAist and human being. After I grew up, both as a MAist and as a man, I cast away my foolish childish ways. Nonetheless, my Sensei hadn't earned my respect because he was that MA God, but because he wasn't that MA God. He was the man that I grew to love and respect across the board. He was honest with himself, and carried with him up to the day he passed away, that rarest of all things a Sensei can have...humbleness!! Sensei, that word, Sensei...it isn't a title...it isn't a status...it isn't something that can be taught or learned...it isn't an idle word...it isn't an empty expression...it isn't fruitless...it isn't meant to be scoffed at...it isn't meaningless...it isn't past tense...it isn't bigger or greater than any student...NO...either you are or you aren't...humble in origin and a student of the MA themselves. The ability to increase the betterment of themselves first, then that of their students, second. The potter molds the clay; tears it down over and over. That potter gathers up those broken pieces of that student that he/she desires to mend, but not like a puzzle, but on the wheel he/she remolds it again and again and so on and so forth. The responsibility is shared between both the student and the Sensei equally, and without any fanfare whatsoever. The potentiality of the student is discarded and weighed against what is produced over time; potential will get you hurt, but producing will benefit. To my students: Improve their MA betterment across the board unselfishly and consistently; to produce effectiveness. To the art: To be that positive ambassador; not for just Shindokan Saitou-ryu, but for ALL Martial Arts, as well ALL Martial Artists. To my instructor: To wear his badge of honor proudly!! To never disparage him and/or his legacy in any shape, way, and/or form!! To never ever forget him!! I struggled with this one question because I wholeheartedly believe that words can't ever express just what he exactly means to me, now and forever. Yes, Yoshinobu Takahashi is my Sensei, but more important than that, he's my mostest bestest friend ever, and I love him with all of my heart, mind, and soul!! He was there for me when my own dad wasn't!! To myself: To be honest with myself...to my family...to my students...to my Soke and Dai-Soke...to my fellow MAists...to my fellow woman, child, and man of all ages. We, Sensei's of the MA, are always spouting off to our students..."Shut up and train!!" However, I believe that our students should respond to us in likewise manner..."Shut up and teach!!" The proof is on the floor!!

I've earned my living in the MA. By owning/operating a very successful dojo/retail supply store, as well as being an elected member of the SKKA higher hierarchy, Regents and Kaicho. I've been blessed, I suppose, in that regards. Within the Kyuodan Dojo, I've treated it as a business, and not ever as a hobby; that, I believe has made all of the differences. Treating the Kyuodan Dojo any other way than as a business, doesn't allow me to make it that successful business. Treating the Kyuodan Dojo as though it was a hobby, or worse, would've caused me to not take that endeavor seriously whatsoever. I would've hem and hawed myself into the poor house quite expediently.

I thought this thread was about the front snap kick, and not about the roundhouse kick, which of course, are two complete separate techniques all together. You only lack power whenever you're a beginner!! Resolved intent; without it, there's no purpose behind it. I kick like a mule, but I'm also no beginner; I'm the furthest thing from that. To me, any practitioner under a Godan, is a beginner; I don't expect anyone to support that statement. Some things that affect the front kick: 1) Bending the back 2) Extending the hips backward 3) Not raising the kicking foot at least knee high of the supporting leg 4) Not kicking directly to the front of the body 5) Lifting the heel of the supporting foot 6) Straightening the knee of the supporting leg 7) Not re-chambering the kicking foot and not fast enough Not many of us go about our daily routines, outside of the dojo, without some sort of shoe. In the past, I've jammed my toes of my kicking foot, more times than I care to remember, at the dojo. However, I've never jammed my toes of my kicking foot while wearing shoes outside of the dojo...not once...not even when I was a part time bouncer back in the late 1970's. Our front snap kick, or any kick for that fact, in Shindokan, is primarily a check/disruption/set-up kick to the legs/groin for our Close Range/Tuite. Most assuredly so, our kicks are of the thrusting finality, however, the snap is the prerequisite of any thrust kick.

EXPOSURE!! Without it, you're dead where you stand. The one thing about exposure, is that, there are two kinds...good and bad. How one brings said MA style to the MA masses means everything. Your prospective student body defines whether or not if your newly founded MA style is either legitimate and/or respectable!! How one legitimizes and garners respect for ones brand new MA school whenever it's first opened, is exactly what one does in this thread's regard. Suspect!! Yes, anything unfamiliar is suspect. This will not be an easy sell!! Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I hope that everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July, for those countries that do celebrate it, and for those who have a similar celebration, I pray that you did/will have a happy and safe one!! I did; plenty of family and friends and food and fun and fireworks!!

If I've misunderstood what the OP was asking/saying, I might've stated myself incorrectly, and I respectfully apologize. I was under the impression that the topic was somewhat about a BB, for example, in one said MA style, who had joined a totally different MA style, in which said student, who's now a white belt in said new MA style, was entering tournaments as a beginner, knowing quite well that said student was, in fact, an advanced student due to the earned BB already. If I was correct in my first impression, then I stand by what my first post in this thread spoke about wholeheartedly, and without any ambiguity whatsoever.

My goal is to always comp up across the board: Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually. 8% is the lowest comp I'll accept, for my dojo. The Hombu comps up at a minimum of 10% through those parameters; both make a profit The quarterly comps reveal if the annual comps are feasible; can't live without the P&L and/or the KPI reports because they take the pulse of the business.

Whatever is in the First-Aid kit that I bought at the store; seems to have what I need, and I have the biggest kit I could find for the house and car and gym. I carry a lot of bandaids and New Skin glue because I take a blood thinner twice a day.

Shugyo; suck it up!! That's what was drilled into us forever and a day by Soke and Dai-Soke. Endure, no matter what. By that, they both were very mindful as well as compassionate to physical limitations across the board. What they didn't tolerate was whenever the Student Body whined about anything and everything, except of a known physical limitations as diagnosed by a students doctor(s). As the student, you have to be accountable about yourself across the board, no matter what a Governing Body and/or CI and/or anybody might ever say. If the pain is more than one can bear, and going to a different style is the best thing for you, then that's what you do. A sympathetic CI would support your decisions across the board. Well, they should. If not, go anyway. Hang in there...train hard..train well!!

Please never forget that complacency can set in whenever your sparring partners are the same; familiarity can upset the apple cart. Change up sparring partners as often as possible. Your CI is a viable partner providing that that's not against protocol. As time goes by, your comfort level will vary, but it'll lean more towards the positive than the negative. Danielle's post is solid; backing/retreating does have it's black hole affect; it can draw in one's opponent unwittingly so. That ploy has to be garnered softly too.

Spencer Johnson, M.D., who authored "Who Moved My Cheese?". His book changed my life across the board. A riveting book that speaks purely about change. This book rewrote my life in many numerous ways, and it also mapped out my methodology and ideology in my life, more than any other person in history. This book has had a much more profoundly changed my life, unlike any other text ever written. "Who Moved My Cheese?" for me, helped rounded out and filled in many empty spaces in my life that had befuddled me to no end. Accepting change is difficult, if not darn right impossible, for some. I pass this book out to whomever all of the time.

Yes, of course, if you're quite overwhelmed, then the sane thing to do is retreat to a safe haven. There's no shame in that whatsoever!!