sensei8

Welcome to KF!!!!!!!!!

Solid post, and I concur wholeheartedly!!

The Bo is the Kobudo weapon that every Gokyu student in Shindokan begins with; Gokyu is when Kobudo training begins!! It's a great weapon, and I believe that you'll enjoy it as well!!

Good luck with your testing cycle...relax...have fun...and remember, don't worry; the test will take care of itself!!

It's the practitioner and not the art that's a proponent of Shotokan, therefore, any self-defense is dependent on the practitioner to make said effective. IMHO!!

As I'm always saying... It's your MA journey, and in that, you're in control of your MA journey!! Yes, I concur, the situation you're in is a tricky one, but a doable one; follow your heart!! Nonetheless, you need to be honest and up front with everyone, especially with yourself, no matter what. Students deserve that on and off the floor from you. Now, getting the Seniors up in their grades "as quickly as possible in order to reduce the amount of time Sensei has to teach" is, imho, a disaster in the making. Rank shouldn't ever be before knowledge and the like, no matter what because it begets rank as the only reason why one does the MA. Please avoid this for the sake of your students betterment. Good luck!!

You are a teacher as soon as you help instruct someone that isn't as experienced as you are. If you intend on instructing, then you should be assisting in class (if your school allows it) as much as possible, and watching how your instructor deals with new instruction, correction to techniques, student approach, etc. Then use that to develop your own style. Using rank to determine readiness to teach is arbitrary, anyway. As far as a yoga/health club, it depends on the club. It's harder than you think, because if you contract the space and bring in your own students, then you have to worry about the insurance issues between you and the club. And, the club may expect you to take paying members of the club for free in your classes. Just be very clear about the setup if you do something like that. Most dance studios will rent space. The going rate in our area is $25 an hour, but then you are dealing with off peak hours, because the best hours will be filled with dance classes, unless they have extra rooms. Good luck with it, being an instructor is incredibly fulfilling and rewarding. John Solid post!!

You should be proud of yourself...Solid post!! Keep up your dedication and speak with your doctor for further advice.

Teachers generally charge what the market will bear. Hopefully that's enough to feed their family, pay the rent and keep the lights on in the studio. When you're paying $3 per square foot for a 1500 square foot facility, that's $4500 a month just for the space. That's before equipment, electricity, AC and oh, yeah, putting food on the table. Contracts are also not an evil thing. They allow an instructor to set a budget, and plan for their projected gross income level, rather than wondering month to month if students are going to show up again. Yeah, kids change their minds, but then it's up to the teacher and parents to engage them again. Now, I tend to agree that anything more than a year contract is a bit excessive, although I can see two year contracts. Anything more than that I might be leery of. And what do you expect for your "$60 to 75" a month? How many classes? Two a week? That's 8 classes, so lets say they are charging the exorbitant amount of $80 a month. That's $10 an hour, do you really think that's a realistic pay rate? Consider the amount of time you have in training for your job, would you work for $10 an hour? John Solid post and right on the money for Business 101, and in that, the MA IS a business and must be treated as such...or...there's no way to pay for the NEEDS of said commercial MA school. This, imho, isn't a bad thing unless ignored completely.

This, as well as many other posts here, is what's happening because of the tempo and the like of today's karate tournaments. Hit once, wait for point...over and over...this drives me crazy. I'm of the opinion that this type of tempo will translate to the streets, and having said that, the attacker(s) will continue beating the tar out of that MAist. Imho!!

It's not as important that your Naihanchi kata is all-that-and-a-bag-of-chips!! NO!! What's more important, imho, is that one is studying it across the board and that they are beginning to understand it more and more each and everyday. In that, that's where the Bunkai/Oyo is paramount!! Btw, your Naihanchi kata should look AWESOME, however, that'll come with time as your understanding deepens more and more through Bunkai/Oyo. Rock and roll...you're doing fine!!

Welcome to KF!! And it's ok to have unofficially trained in some styles of the MA, I mean, most MAists have done this their entire MA life one way or another.

No!! Still need feedback and the like from a qualified instructor.

That's why it's known that a black belt in one school isn't a black belt in another...not even close...miles away!!

Whenever I visit our Hombu, which is quite often, I love to run along the beach at Santa Monica Beach in Santa Monica, CA. The sand offers quite a resistance because of the deep sand, however, the sand closer to the water/ocean isn't that deep. Keep training and keep running!!

Solid post...I concur!!

Great posts thus far, thank you all!! How do you train for that difinitive; absolute block/deflection?? We, Shindokanists, do many things to address said topic, and one of the things that I do is block/deflect against a 2X4...and break it!!

As someone who converted to Shorin-Ryu (Kobayashi) from a style heavily influenced by Japanese karate, and someone who currently trains with a Shotokan yudansha converting to Shorin-Ryu, I might be able to provide a little insight. The stances are not as low, and most of the places your kata have kokutsu-dachi, Shorin-Ryu uses neko-ashi-dachi, so that is a bit of a difficult transition to make. After stances, I would say power generation is the next biggest problem. Japanese styles tend to be very hard styles that put a lot of power into everything, but Shorin-Ryu is softer and has more emphasis on fluidity. Solid post!!

I don't know, but I've visited quite a lot of Shotokan dojo's over the many, many years, and I got to tell you, I've seen quite a lot of full contact Kumite amoungst thier Dan ranks.

Ooohhhh....I like it!!

Solid post!

By what I'm reading here... No one's picked their own instructor....hhhhmmmmmm!?!?!?!?!?!

Love it!!

In what way?? If memory serves me, the notes of Lee were formulated into the Tao of JKD, and if that's true, while Lee didn't actually pen said book, the notes and all were Lee, thus, Lee "wrote" the book.

I've very quick hands, in that, Shindokan is 85% hands with 15% feet. The closer to my opponent/attacker, the more I'm at home; short range technique dominant mixed in with Tuite.