skullsplitter

There was an article in our local paper today about a 6 year old student at the local ATA school who recived her black belt. She started when she was 4 and the norm for that school is 2 years for the black belt. In the article it was stated that since she is a black belt she is now eligible to teach. Is this an ATA rule on the teaching eligibilty?

The American Shotokan school my son attends does emphasize the headturn. The thinking being if you can't see it how can you block or hit it?

Add the WKA too. They hold an annual world championship tournament. think this year is in Scotland.

So I took my son to see Karate Kid today. We get in the lobby and I hear music blaring. It's the local tae kwon do school setup in the lobby with a couple of kids doing chuks and they have a table to sign up for free trials. I guess I should have expected to see one school or another doing this, but it seemed out of place even for opening weekend of Karate Kid. So my question is how much is too much promotion for a school or is too much even possible? I guess what really got me is that this school is all over the radio, TV, newspaper, etc. When do you just rest let your reputation and word of mouth do it for you? My son's school is never in mass media. I've only seen our school advertise in a small local sports magazine that one can get free at various restaurants. Past that it's word of mouth.

I do not go around trying to be hard with people, but people have looked at me as some sort of tough guy all my life. I'm not sure how that happened as I am 38 now and have not been in a fight since my freshman year of college and only 2 fights prior to that. I've never been a really big guy, 6-1 240lbs in hs and college, but people have always been intimidated by me. Even now when I am way overweight and in no shape to fight anyone people are intimidated by me. From what i am told I have a very scary "mad" face. What people don't realize is that behind that face I have no desire to actually get physical with anyone. I have no MA training or anything like that. It's served me well though a couple of times when I was actually prepared to fight, once to protect a friend and once to protect a total stranger. I was able to successfuly intimidate the other parties so no fighting actually happened.

I've seen the term mcdojo used several times and it's obviously not a good thing. What makes a mcdojo in your eyes? I've done some reading on other sites. Some blame the mcdojo primarily on TKD. Some say if kids get black belts then it's automatically a mcdojo. Other hints are lack of sparring, presence of made up ma form, making ma something mystical etc.

He ended up getting past it. Brought home a 2nd in weapons, 3rd in kata, and 3rd in sparring. Weapons division was 13 and under and the 1st went to a 13 year girl.

My son's first tournament of the year is this weekend. In past years he has hardly cared about how well he does, but this year he is very uptight about coming home with a trophy. Any words of wisdom for a 9 year old from the tourney vets on here that I can pass on to him to help him relax?

Where my son trains it is a minimum of 4 years for black belt

I'm not a martial artist. I'm just a dad following and watching his son's journey. From my point of view from the viewing stands, the lack of consistency and standards from tournament to tournament is a glaring problem. Our small circuit includes 4 tournaments. I've seen my son nail his kata or weapon, but then place well below others who appeared to have some issues. Then the next tourney I've seen my son not do well at all, but place above others who I thought did better. It all seems so random. Our school also runs training classes for judging prior to the tournament season. I don't know how many other schools do this, but it seems to me it could help things overall.

Our kata list is similart to Shizentai's except that first 7 are all performed at first black belt test.

May I ask why? I don't know why. My son has been there almost 5 years now and there has not been a testing fee or belt fee in that time. We pay a monthly fee, we pay for the gi, and we pay for any private lessons he wishes to have. I'll see if I can find out the reason from the sensei.

There is no charge for testing or belts at our school

Club - East-West Karate Sensei - Lori Stanley (Lantrip)

My son is almost 9. He started at his school at 4 and received his black belt at 8. There were about 17 kids that started within 3 months of him. I think 5 of those 17 have their blackbelts, 2 more are testing this week for theirs, and 2 others are eligible to test but are not ready yet. The rest have dropped our without earning it. I don't know what the percentages are for attaing a black belt, but our school seems to have a good balance of not being so hard that kids do not stay and learn and also not being so easy that everyone that comes through the door gets a black belt. There are no testing fees or belt fees so I also do not think that money is the sole purpose with our teacher. It does get much harder to earn the 2nd and 3rd degrees belts. There was one 3rd degree bestowed this year and I think she said it was only the 4th or 5th she had awarded over her 25 years of instruction. Our school does alot to keep everyone (kids and adults) interested without watering down the instruction. A Masters class is offered for a small fee. Each 3 month session concentrates on something outside of the normal classes such as a weapon or a different MA (Judo, Kung Fu, XMA). Near the time of school starting a large part of the focus for kids is self defense rather than kata. So there are ways to keep things fresh without making it easy.

it's either spelled jion or gion (Jee-on) the starting move is stepping back breaking an arm, then someone is grabbing you, so you reach inside the grab and grab their gi, kick (you know where ) and three punches.... so those are the first few moves here i'll put a link i don't like the way he does it though My son is learning jion too. He is the only student that I've seen learning this kata right now and I've not seen any of the older students at his school do this one so I was wondering if it is not a "common" kata.

He's 8. I know from reading the forums that there is some disagreement over kids this young earning a black belt, but I am amazed at how he has grown in maturity, work ethic, and confidence over the last 4 years.

He did it although it took 2 attempts. He was nervous about this all day and just blew it on the first attempt. Reminded me of myself during finals week back in school. His sensei had him sit down, relax, and warm up again. He nailed all of the katas the second time. I don't know how normal it is to have a second attempt like that. She explained to us after the test that she does not let students test at all unless she feels they are ready and she knew he was extremely nervous.

Skullsplitter is the name of my favorite beer

First off I wish I had found this site sooner. I am going to spend hours on here reading. My son tests tonight for his fist black belt . It's been a long four years. He started right before his 4th birthday mainly to help with some muscle problems, but he has developed an absolute love for karate. I'm probably more nervous than he is. I'm proud now just because he has stuck with it this long and will be even prouder tonight after he earns his belt.