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Welcome to the family! Glad to see you found what you were looking for and hopefully we'll see ya at a seminar some day.

Best wishes. And remember, shodan is the first door in a long hallway of knowledge. Give us details on Wednesday of how it went, best thing you did. Worst (if any) Lee

I think it should be a case by case basis. We all know what a Savant is. I've been a musician for over 30 years and every few I see some young kid that can play drums, piano, violin, etc with skill I will never attain. We don't teach anyone under 17 at our dojo, but I have seen 'Junior Blackbelts" at Association functions. Never really trained with them though. That whole clique thing ya know. At any rate, I would never rule out the possibility that someone 1/2 or a 1/3 my age could teach me something. You learn by teaching, you learn by watching, you learn by doing. I remember once I was in the basement dojo playing with someone's 6 year old boy. He wasn't in the martial arts or anything yet, but we were just messing around playing tug-o-war with one of my bo's. I learned something technique wise with a bo that I'll never forget clearly by accident. But I digress..... Case by case is my answer. If a 16 year old was teaching me something, I'd be open to the experience until I had reason not to. Perhaps my main instructor would be testing my temper and patience. Lee

Most definitely. I think a lot of people that say that nobody is going to grab you like that are people that get limited exposure to something like Tuite or other grapples. We were as guilty as the rest of them years ago of teaching how to do the techniques and not teaching the "set ups" until later. So someone that went to a few classes or seminars learns the technique but never how it might come into play. We are pretty adamantly explaining to the new students now that there are setups and show a couple for each technique. One real common way is when you knock someone off their balance, common human reaction is to grab something for balance. Hopefully we've positioned our forearm for the grab.

And I thought I was the only Midwesterner with insomnia.

Yes, but that advanced Jagdpanzer Tiger-Elefant kata is a bit intense.

He was quoting “The best way to fight a bigger stronger opponent is to put him on his back. “ By that, I think he was saying that prone is better than supine and I would most def concur in my experience. Opponent Supine: They have Hand/Fist available to punch, grab, slap They have Leg available to kick, trip, etc. They have eyes available. Opponent Prone: They can't see what you are doing. Have nothing but their rear end to attack with, and gaseous emissions. Yes, it is easy to flip someone from Supine to Prone IF you have control. If you have assistance sometimes that helps. Other times your partner is hindering you because they are pulling in the opposite direction, etc. So in my opinion, if I had to pick Prone or Supine for any opponent, I would want them proned out. Numerous techniques from arm bars, shoulder locks, wrist locks, to vulcan mind melds can put them there and pin them. An opponent on their back can't put all their weight into a punch or kick as said before, but if they are proned out, they can't really put anything into a punch or kick until they raise or twist to get into position. In my opinion, and from my experience training with someone on top of me in any various mounts, when I am face up I can block, punch, kick, twist, etc a whole lot better. Just look at any of the various fights that have been on TV since the UFC started. People on the bottom on their backs still can punch. On their bellies, not so much. In real life situations I've seen for the past 17 years on the streets, and particularly now that everything is on dash cameras, we get in a lot much more trouble when people are taken down on their backs. My two yen.

Greetings, We had in the old days always used various bookkeeping books, just cause they were cheap and had lines, to take role. We basically kept attendance, start date, when association dues were due, payments, etc. A few months ago I decided to do this a little different and decided to open up Microsoft Excel which I'm pretty familiar with. I'm not keeping track of the following; Attendance and Excuses for not Percentage of Classes Attended Payments Address, Phone, Email, other Contact Right or Left Handed Rank/Progression of Student Dojo Finances Phone Calls/Emails from Prospective Students Trends At any rate, Excel is a wonderful tool however I'm starting to think that Microsoft Access would be a little better. I have just taken a weeks worth of Access classes and was going to do some work on creating Access. I really have no previous experience with that software. As I run a small basement dojo, I'm not interested in paying $500.00 or something for some of the Dojo Admin software out there. I already have Microsoft Office Suite and just can't justify the expense. I'd rather spend the money on mats or other equipment or maybe a new giant screen TV for the man cave. My questions to you all are; Who else uses Access, Word, OpenOffice, or Comparable Products? What do you track? Thanks

Writing all the beautiful characters of the Japanese language in nice flowing ink. And he is pretty good. Difficult art. Like most Japanese arts they have the kyu and dan ranking system.

Thanks but nothing close there.

We discussed this in class last night and eventually the topic lead to an interesting comment. It is extremely easy to buy a rifle in America, and there are no real laws in most places about carrying a rifle around. Most are not concealable. You ever see a martial artist wig out, climb a tower, and kill 23 students with his nunchaku? You ever see a martial artist wig out, enter a McDonalds and randomly start thumping people? But which is easier to get and carry in America in general. Just an interesting thought that materialized in class. Lee

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A..... REASON ONE: COOL FACTOR OK. When I was a young one, grade school, there was a Y.M.C.A. near my house and my parents would drive past it all the time. A big huge sign was out front that said Karate. I must of seen a movie at some point and thought it was cool and wanted to do it. I begged and begged but my overprotective mother was afraid her runt would get hurt. I checked out every Karate book that was in the grade school library and got made fun of a lot. My parents enrolled me in little league baseball instead. Which I hated. I was pretty much a runt back then, though I'm not huge now. So flash forward all the way to highschool, and I decided I'd get some lessons from a guy I knew that allegedly studied something. I basically learned a few blocks, horse stance, and some punches. Don't think that guy really knew much more than that but he talked a good line. REASON TWO: SURVIVAL Further forward now and I'm working at Kmart in security and always getting in fights. Somehow the big shoplifters didn't like stopping for the 5'5" 110lb kid. I ended up getting hurt because we were not allowed to use handcuffs which led to Kmart thinking I was going to sue them. So they allowed me to get us all trained on handcuffs by the expert in the town I was working. Enter my first instructor, and Ryukyu Kempo. REASON THREE: COOL AGAIN After the handcuffing seminar I joined the Association and their classes. Pretty much it was the continual wow factor that got me through the pain of training. It was totally amazing to see how tweaking a little spot on the body could send someone crashing to the ground. REASON FOUR: OTHER THRILLS 19 years later it is still thrilling. I still learn from my elders, my peers, my students, and myself. I love to teach, it accelerates my learning so much. It is an amazing thing to know the power of the human body, and its weaknesses. Oh, and then there is that whole being a cop thing, so survival is still a part of it. Lee

I'm searching for belts that I used to be able to get in Merrium, Kansas. They were black belts and had either a 1/4", 1/2", or 3/4" stripe in Silver or Gold depending upon the rank. The stripe was full length down the center of the entire belt, not a stripe on the tip. We don't use these really any more in our system with everyone wearing the same hakama, however I have personal reasons for finding these belts. Nostalgia. Anyone seen these in the last few years? Thanks Lee

In addition to Shujika's comments, we take a portion of their first month's dues and enroll them in the association officially. We def do not get caught up in rank and color.

Give Shujika money and he'll make you anything. He is a Calligraphy Guru.

I'm curious where you are located? Even if there are only 4 schools listed in the phone book (assumption here from first post) there are sometimes unlisted places. Sometimes the basement or garage dojo has the more experienced people that just don't want the headaches of the strip mall approach. Of course, it doesn't necessarily mean that a basement dojo is better, but that there may be other unadvertised places that you just need to work harder to uncover. Shop around at as many places as you can find. As far as law enforcement, the other police on here are right. Grappling is very important. As a cop, you don't get looked at favorably if you just knock someone out, break bones, etc. You tend to get involved when it is time to arrest someone. Which usually means that you have to take them to a handcuffing position. This usually ends up on the ground, but maybe on the hood or trunk of a car, etc. The key is you want to be the one taking them to the ground. Big giant spin kicks to the head look cool in the movies but not on the dash cam played back on Channel 5 news or in the judges chambers. Another thing to take into consideration is that quite often we have to arrest someone that is not necessarily fighting us, they are just standing they and refusing to follow our directions, like put your hands behind your back. They refuse whether because they disagree, are too high, or want to create a show. The issue is that now we have to make the first move to put our hands on them. Something to think about. A lot of techniques out there are the opposite. Additionally, pressure points have limitations. If you ever have to arrest someone that is high on PCP, you will learn that standard pressure points do "do" some things to the opponent, however the pain factor goes away because the signals are pretty much ignored by their juiced up brain. Striking a nerve that normally causes other reactions in addition to pain will usually still cause that reaction. But they just won't react to the pain portion of it. I've seen some pretty big PCP'rs not even flinch at broken bones. Lee

Wouldn't it be nice if the judges would pick your flashiest move in a weapons kata and then require that you explain its usefulness in self-defense. That might weed out the back flips.....

OK, just showing the below image for reference but first let me say a little other information. In the old days, when the style was still under the name of Ryukyu Kempo, we used the below chart for belt rankings. At some point, before Taika renamed the art Ryu Te, he began pushing the non baggy hakama's. At any rate, all students at seminars and such would wear these hakama's which had the belt built in. If you were a white belt, you wore a black hakama which had a built in black belt. If you were a green belt, you did the same. If you were an uber high level black belt, you did the same. Taika wanted everyone to treat each other the same. We'd go to a seminar, conference, or whatever training session and everyone looked the same. Well, most people were not as ugly as me, but we all dressed the same. At any rate, Taika believes we should all treat each other the same and getting away from all the colors and stripes helped to humble us all. But originally, we were all on the below color scheme. I think most schools in the system now allow students to wear a standard uniform with their belts. If they own a hakama they wear that. Our school lets you wear a belt or not. You can wear a pink tutu if that is what is comfortable for you. A color or stripe of material makes not a good karateka. http://www.darkaffliction.com/kenshukai/images/belts.png

Weapon Laws over here in the States are massively confusing. Most people have the right to own guns, but it doesn't mean you can carry them in certain manners. In Missouri, up and until 3 years ago we did not have a concealed carry permit. So it was illegal to carry a gun, or most any other weapon concealed upon your person. Now if you 'qualify' and get the permit you can carry in most places. If you are 18 you can have one in your car. All of this recently changed. To confound that, each city has local ordinances that cannot supercede State or Federal, but a city may choose to ignore enforcing things. At any rate, nobody in Kansas City is going to give you grief about carrying nunchaku in a case/pouch in your car and going to class. No permit needed. But you carry them hidden in your coat and go into a public area like a bowling alley, tavern, etc you might get some heat. Over on the Kansas side (next state west) they are much more strict in most of the cities. It is just a crazy mixed up system. And there is always room for interpretation. For instance, being a martial artist, I would never consider giving anyone any grief at all if I stopped them with any martial arts weapons. Other non martial artists on my job that don't understand can get all freaky when they see something like that. Just curious, what draws you to that particular weapon. It is my least favorite, not saying it is worthless or anything, but I just never liked it too much. There are only a couple of Tuite that are easily done with it and I guess I grew up in our association watching my first instructor pluck them out of too many peoples hands as they were twirling them. So I just never did care for them too much. Lee

I found the below interested site in regards to this thread after reading your post. http://www.totalnunchaku.com/nunlaws.html This site deals solely with the issue at hand. Perhaps they can help a little. Below is the Australia portion from their site. Also, sorry about the police. I'm not sure how their system works but if it is similar to the US, call and ask for a supervisor or desk sergeant. Usually they are less likely to be like that. Unfortunately there are jerks in every profession. Often it is from a lake of knowledge. I work in the field and see people do that kind of thing when they have no clue what the real answer is. It is hard to know the 100's of thousands of laws that apply to the area you work in but that is no excuse for what they did. Lee

One often overlooked reason is just for the fun of it. All work and no play makes jack a dull boy. It is just fun to pickup something that you probably will never ever use in real life unless a burglar breaks into your basement while practicing with your Naganata. There are other reasons as well. My instructor teaches an Eku or Eiku form and there are a lot of sliding motions where your hands are sliding up and down the oar. He is constantly drilling into our heads that these kata help us learn important movements such as "sticky hands" used in our Tuite. We have heavy weighted tan bo that work on arm strength. Bokken and Suburi training do this as well as flipping Sai. If you can flip a Sai you can do a "milking punch". Then there are weapons that don't seem too practical but may come in handy. Many Jo motions can be used with a broom. Shovel for an Eku. Flashlight for a Tanbo. Really small flashlight for a Chizikunbo. Say you have your jack handle in your hand changing a tire when someone tries to mug you. It is shaped similar to Tanbo. You just never know where you'll be or what you'll be doing when you get attacked. In law enforcement (we get to play more than the average bear) many of us use semi-traditional weapons all the time. A straight baton used by many agencies are just a single tanbo. My department uses expandable PR-24's which are essentially Tonfa. Some agencies actually use the Rapid Rotation Baton which is modeled off the Sai and I've even seen some agencies use a modified Nunchaku. Another reason to train with a weapon is it gives you an understanding of the weapon, its strengths and weaknesses. If you are suddenly confronted by an attacker with that weapon, you might have a better chance of defending yourself should you know a little bit about it. I have trained with most Okinawan weapons a little, and I do mean a little. I would not call myself proficient with any of them. Bo is my favorite and I train with it the most, and have learned a few basic forms. But I still train mostly open hand. Just my 2 yen

I have a small video production studio at home and regrettably at that evil place called work. I also have domain space to host videos at. So if at some point you need video converted to various formats I can do that for you, if that is what you are asking. Resizing, and reformatting is not that difficult with the right tools. Lee

Sorry, I know I'm necro-posting a bit but wanted to clear this up for any future onlookers. There are many kanji that are pronounced RYU. The Japanese and Okinawan languages have numerous synonyms. At any rate the kanji or character in the style name of Ryu Te does not mean so much "School" but is short for Ryukyu as in the Ryukyu islands (including Okinawa) which is where the style originates. Again, sorry for the necro post.

I am flat footed. Training for two hours straight on a hard surface doesn't make my bare feet happy. So when I train in my instructor's school on the linoleum floor I wear a pair of wrestling shoes. My school has those puzzle foam rubber floor pieces so I train barefoot there. But more on topic, I wear the short runners socks. They have the seam on the outside of the sock rather than the inside so after kicking a bag, moving in different stances, etc, for 2 hours or more, they don't rub you raw or anything. Runners socks are the best.

Yes there is plenty of You Tube footage out there. Search for Oyata. If it is videos you seek, Taika currently has 13 videos for sale. These have been around for quite a while so they are still on VHS. They essentially breakdown a basic "foundation" version of each kata then more of an intermediate/advanced version. Then they go into bunkai, taking excerpts from the kata and making some unwitting students make funny faces as Taika demonstrates taking pieces out of the kata and using them on the happy little students. These are the first 12 open hand kata in this system. The 13th tape is pretty much just the fun make funny faces tape where you get to see many people contort their bodies and faces much to their chagrin. http://www.ryu-te-supplies.com/ 1) Naihanchi Shodan 2) Naihanchi Nidan 3) Naihanchi Sandan 4) Tomari Seisan 5) Pinan Shodan 6) Pinan Nidan 7) Pinan Sandan Pinan Yondan 9) Pinan Godan 10) Pasai 11) Kusanku 12) Ni Sei Shi 13) Kyusho Techniques Lee