sensei8

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!!

I hate thief's and liar's with a passion; don't want them near me in any shape, way, and/or form.

Welcome to KF, prokaryote; glad that you're here!! You might consider getting a larger top than the bottom. Have you looked into either a Meijin or a Seishin?? Both in the $300 price range. Seishin has a Female gi of all sizes tailored for females. Not sure if Meijin caters to Female gi's or not; they've an excellent cut to them.

I knew you were going to post something along these lines, as I’ve heard you briefly speak about not backing up before. I really like the detail you put into this post. I fight at a closer range than most people at my dojo do. Being 5’9 and having short legs (29” inseam) has something to do with that. Having horrible flexibility that kicking above rib height has something to do with it. Having the wrestling experience I have and not being afraid of being grabbed or thrown has something to do with it too. There’s a guy who can easily sweep me at any given moment, but I’ll discuss him a bit later. I like fighting up close. It takes away people’s reach advantage, and especially their kicking. I find most taller and thinner people like to keep guys like me in a range where they can hit me but I can’t hit them. They also like to catch me on the way in. They typically have the most difficulty when I get up close. People around my size aren’t as predictable. The most difficult people to find a comfortable range against is the taller AND big guys. They’ll happily keep you outside your range, then when you get in and under them, they’ll happily trade punches and make you carry their weight. The guy I referenced earlier in this post who’s a yondan (not the yondan in my previous post). Whenever I get close, he either goes Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots with me, which ends in my demise, or he just sweeps me and laughs. If he’s in a really good mood, he’ll do both. We were sparring one day, and he just kept tagging me every time I tried anything from the outside. So I got up really close, and he picked me apart inside and swept me. My CI just shook his head and chuckled. I said “ toying was working from the outside, so I figured I had to change it up.” My CI nodded, then I followed up with “nothing really worked when I got inside either, so I’m out of options.” Everyone in the dojo found that one amusing. But fighting up close and not backing up are two different things. They appear the same on the outside, the way I did it last night was a significantly different experience. All I did differently than usual was not take a single step backward. If my opponent stepped backward, I simply took a step forward. If they stepped forward, they got themselves into an up close range without me initiating it. I’m really looking forward to seeing the seniors and trying this. The above mentioned yondan who loves to sweep me will most likely have a field day with me. It’s all good though. To the bold type above... That's it, right there!! Backing-up/retreating from an opponent can create temporal space between one another, which might prevent anyone contacting. However, that space created ALSO creates that exact space that your opponent's striving for. Your opponent presses you...you backup...and WHAM...you're tagged-and-bagged unceremoniously. You stepping forward, and it causing him to step backwards, offers you a plethora of opportunities through calculating angles and the like, while constantly scanning for his hidden attacks. Dai-Soke called that 4X4 Awareness; attentiveness to all 4 immediate sides offensive and offensive. We don't execute singularly whatsoever; always multiple attacks. This increases our ratio of contacts. Always forward at every possible angle. Attacking deserving targets gets opponents attention, and their attention isn't always that focused where it ought to be; not everyone can watch everything. Especially is I keep them busy here, while I attack over there. That too. is 4X4 Awareness...where he isn't, I will be!! Now, the world could be turned upside down for me when my opponent tackles me to the ground. However, I don't fear the ground, I welcome the ground. Take me to the ground...I like it there too.

Were you a trouble maker? LOL!! No, but you sure couldn't tell that by the torture pace he set...day after day after day after day. So you had a multi-day test? Oh yeah; 3 days...10 hours each day. Glad those days are far behind me...I felt he was trying to kill me.

Back up only when necessary!! That's a Shindokan staple through and through. Through Space Management I can drastically curb the urge to back up. How? Forward motions far outweigh backwards, albeit, it's easier to watch forward than it is to watch over your shoulder behind you. As it is in Close Range, so is it in NOT BACKING UP. Ether take guts to executed effectively; the air of uncertainty can be quite stifling at first until much more knowledge and experience is acquired on the floor...wherever that floor might be. Defeat the fear of not retreating asap because that which one can't overcome, it shall most assuredly conquer you. Once fear's set in, it's quite impossible to overcome it. These aren't maxim to ignore!! The options before any practitioner in the regards of backing up/retreating are as wide as the skies. Angles are your friend. Slipping is your friend. Ducking is your friend. Receiving is your friend. Intercepting is your friend. So on and so forth. Whenever I do backup/retreat, and it's extremely rare that I do, it's within my goal and plan to do so, in order to do set-ups and checks, and/or to draw my opponent into my zone purposefully with resolve. Even whenever an attacker's attack is overwhelming, my backing up/retreating isn't for naught; there's a plan already in motion to reengage AND reestablish my forward Short Range attacks/counterattacks and the like. For me, it's all a Chess game with me. Establishing and reestablishing that center through your opening game. Sending out your scouts here and there. Thinking always 5 moves ahead. Setting up those hidden attacks. Blindsiding the corners. Solidifying ones middle game. Willing to sacrifice. Constant reevaluation of strengths and weaknesses. Trapping opponents pieces; freezing. Weakening their defense by capturing one piece at a time for the end game. Introducing Check Mate from the most unexpected place. Whomever plays the game better; wins!!

Solid post!! While I might support the 3 classes per week staple, it's surely not enforced whatsoever. What one puts in should reflect that that's what one will get out of it. Attending often or sparingly is up to the practitioner with the goal in mind of capturing quality of knowledge and experience.