Ozpunker

Cardio. I've just suspended my account at training for 3 months to focus on a few other things. In that time I've decided to work on my cardio (as well as my diet).

I'm attempting to obtain my 1st Dan rank at the end of the year and one of the criteria before the grading is that we have to teach 10 classes. We are given a broad topic for each class and we get to choose how we teach it. The topics include: Kata, Multiple attacker self defence, cardio/endurance, Sparring, Punching bag, Focus Mitts/Kick shields, Knife/Weapons as well as some personal choice classes. Sounds straight forward, but each class has to have something unique to how it is taught. The idea is to make us think outside the box. However, I've run out of ideas. I was hoping some folk here would be able to help. To give you an idea of what I mean, some of the classes I have taught so far are... Kata: I chose a kata that half the class didn't know and taught it using a 2 person drill. They didn't realise they were doing kata until the end of class. Multiple Attacker: Just normal self defence while being distracted. e.g. being hit from multiple directions, having their eyes covered etc. Sparring: (someone else did this) Sparring wearing an eye patch to simulate being partially blinded during a fight. If you have an unorthodox way of teaching particular lessons, I'd love to hear it. Even if it sounds ridiculous, I could probably still make it into a decent class.

I wear my gi pants to and from training but only wear my gi top in the dojo. If I need to go to the shops after training I wear my pants and a normal shirt. We wear black gi pants, so I guess they kinda just look like sweatpants or trousers. I'd I don't mind seeing little kids in gis outside of a dojo, but an older person doing it can be asking for trouble. I think the biggest deal here is the belt. If you're going to wear your gi outside of the dojo, please at least take your belt off. To me, showing that belt means that you're there to train and willing to fight.

I believe this kind of punishment is reserved for bad behaviour, not making mistakes in learning a technique. Talking in class, or not giving attention to instructor: 10 push ups. (or similar) Repeated offence: 20 push ups Repeated again: 50 push ups

A few years ago I dressed up as a ninja for a halloween party. I wanted a black belt for the costume but didn't feel right in buying a real one to wear (before I had actually earned a BB). I decided to get a white belt and paint it black. There was no way in hell I was going to paint my own original white belt, so I told my instructor what I was doing and he gladly gave me a spare (we have boxes of unused white belts). I don't really see a problem in buying a black belt early but just don't ever have it displayed in a way that could mislead others into thinking you have earned it yet. I know that all of our belts are ordered before our gradings. They are awarded to us on the day. We don't buy them as they are supplied as part of our grading fee. From Black belt onwards they have our names and the name of our school stitched into them.

Bill Wallace's stuff is pretty cool. Really nice gut too. My school did a seminar with him a few years ago. The best part was hanging out at Burger King afterwards with him. lol.

Wearing a Gi it's Shihan No Gi, it's Pete.

I've seen a few people fail coloured belts. They were mostly kids or teenagers who just didn't put the effort in. The day I graded for my Black Belt the 2 ladies grading for 1st Dan failed. During the belt ceremony (where we are handed our new belts from Shihan) They were given a "Probationary 1st Dan", which just meant they had to re-sit parts of their grading. One lady has since done this and the other has more work to do and is re attempting at the end of this month.

There are certainly levels of this that change depending on the event that preceded it. i.e. the heavier/more physical the round the higher up the list. Also depends on how comfortable the people are with each other. -Standard bow -Standard bow, fistbump/handshake -Standard bow, handshake, pat on back -Standard bow, handshake, pull in for pat on back -Standard bow, handshake, pull in, arm around for pat on back. I don't think anyone here in favour of hugs is really thinking in terms of a full sustained embrace. I use them all. The biggest ones are usually reserved for the ends of gradings where you've been beating on each other for round after round. To, me it's just a natural progression of a bow to show a higher amount of respect.

Thanks for the responses guys. It seems that most people I speak to prefer to stack the opponents. I was speaking to our Head Instructor and he's not a fan of the barrier method. He said that his reason for including 2v1 sparring is to increase fighting speed and technique. When he was training for 2nd Dan? many years ago he was the highest ranking person at his dojo and the ability of the other students wasn't at the level he needed for the required intensity of training. The way to address this was to fight two of these people at the same time The story goes something like that anyways. He says that after training all year always fighting two at once, when it came time to fight only one person, the task was so much easier. As tallgeese said drills are different to real life and maybe this needs to be as a drill and not real fighting. In saying that, What other tips can you think of for fighting the two people at the same time?

I'm currently training for my 1st Dan in a Freestyle Karate, hoping to grade at the end of the year. A major focus of this belt is 2 on 1 Sparring. That is the subject person has to simultaneously fight 2 attackers at the same time. There has been some conflict at the dojo about the best way to approach this. One view is that you should take a 'barrier' approach, where you keep moving around in a way where you always have one attacker between you and the other. This way you are really only fighting one opponent at a time. The other approach is to just flat out fight both people at the same time. Sometimes from two directions at once. What are people's thoughts on 2v1 sparring? How would you approach this scenario? (i.e. general approaches and specific techniques) Although locks, throws, take-downs and submissions etc. could be used, the focus is more on continuous upright sparring.

In our style, if you already have a black belt you aren't asked to removed it. My instructor's philosophy is that by taking off your Black belt you are saying that you are forgetting all of your previous training (or something along those lines). That person gets to stand in rank with the black belts but they train under the same syllabus as whatever their current level is in our style. Students who have any other high level (but below black) in another style can grade for purple belt (half way to black) as long as they can demonstrate all the appropriate techniques. I agree with the advanced gradings but I don't entirely agree with my instructor on his black belt rule. If you are a guest or doing once off training at another dojo, then I think you should wear your full normal uniform. If you are actually training the other style as a student then you start at white belt just like everyone else. (Perhaps with advanced gradings). I like to think of a black belt as having a trade qualification, with different MA styles being different trades. If you get a fully qualified plumber you can't have him walk in to another company and automatically become a fully paid qualified electrician. Just as you can't have a Black Belt TKD walk in to a BJJ club and expect to receive the same recognition.

Science!! It's a rather simple explanation. Convection. Your hands are warm and the heat rises, cool air moves in moving the paper. Here is a video that explains it.

We don't usually bow as a greeting. So bowing outside class isn't really an issue. We do use a handshake (one that seems to be used by a lot of martial artists that I have met) that I would use outside of training. When we're in class we always refer to Shihan as.... well... Shihan. But outside it's usually regular old Pete. It really depends on the situation. Use your own judgment. If you bump into them in a quite area you might address them as you would in class but it's not something I'd recommend if you see them at the local pub drinking with mates. Some people like to keep a low profile on their training.

I'm going to Thailand in April for a few weeks. I've trained in Karate for 2 years (Blue Belt) and dabbled in a fair bit of JuJitsu and small amount of Muay Thai. While I'm in Thailand, I'm kinda keen to check out some Muay Thai training gyms. I'll mostly be in Phuket and Bankok and I was wondering if anyone was able to recommend somewhere that welcomed foreigners. I'd really love to have a training session but at the very least just be able to watch. I've seen a few places online but I'm not sure how reputable they really are. Any help is much appreciated.