Adam_XKT

Hi all, My name is Adam. I'm a second-degree black belt in Okinawan Shuri-ryu karate. I began practicing karate in 2003 as part of a free, after-school program at my high school. I began teaching in 2005 and have done so ever since, save a few semesters of college when my schedule prevented me from participating. During one of these semesters two years ago, I began practicing tai chi chuan. My instructor is now focusing on getting me ready for promotion to third-degree, which I suspect will take quite some time. It's exciting for me, but I'm concerned about a few things - namely, the fact that I've canceled classes for the next four months in order to restrategize goals for our program. Glad to be back, and I hope to be able to utilize the resources available here as I seek promotion and continue growing in the arts.

The current incarnation of our martial arts program is crumbling. We are currently in a high school teaching primarily to high school students. We also have two grade school locations. Being in a school setting has both positives and negatives. I have decided the negatives outweigh the positives at the moment and would like to look into consolidating to one single location, ceasing the existence of that program, and starting a new club in its place. What do I need to look for with regard to insurance?

We are doing Yang style as well. I've learned a number of martial techniques for it but haven't had the opportunity to actually work many of them due to time.

Thank you for that.

Yes. However, I'm not interested in learning the lineage hard and fast. But I think there has to be something more than a guy in the 1700s straight to the 500s. Sensei8 - Would you mind informing me what a densho is? I've never heard that term before.

Sorry for not checking back earlier than I did. We worked a partner drill last night for relaxation, and at least three people commented on how tense I seem. Hopefully tai chi enables me to be more relaxed. Joe - It was interesting to see the demographic that mainly showed up...a number of older, gray-haired women, and two younger(ish) guys still older than me. The teacher himself is turning 60 this year but is a renowned area martial artist. I was in favor of this class last week, but after this week's, I realize that this has potential to really enhance my karate training while giving me some new moves in my arsenal. My karate school practices a lot of kata work, and I'm hoping to use some tai chi influence to come up with different defense in kata work in the future. Thanks for the responses!

I've spent seven years doing karate. For a number of reasons, I went to my first tai chi chuan class last week. (I believe the instructor mentioned other arts but I can't recall them off the top of my head). I still haven't been able to really grasp it with a very brief introduction, and what I did get wasn't explained very well. Specifically, we went through the movements of the first section of the Yang form with 108 movements. I am completely unfamiliar with tai chi chuan so I'm looking for some advice from those who have, and especially those who have combined that experience with karate knowledge. If you have trained in both of these, what are the biggest benefits or pitfalls of combining the two? Did you inherently like one better than the other? Why are these good (or bad) to cross-train with?

I realize I'm tackling a very broad range here, but I was taking a more active look at my school's lineage this summer. After we trace it back to Chatan Yara, there is a nearly 1,000-year disparity between him and Bodhidharma. Does anybody have any clue about what happened to the lineage in that time? If it helps, I train in Okinawan Shuri-ryu.

A few years ago I competed at a "national tournament." It's been too long to remember exactly where other competitors were from, but it seemed to be a little higher caliber than the tournaments I was used to visiting. I took first in a forms division and didn't think much of it, except that my trophy was several feet taller than what I'd been used to receiving. Unbeknownst to be, my parents had a sign made with my name declaring I was a national champion. Technically, I guess they were right - I had won a division at a national tournament. But I didn't feel like a national champion. I didn't go around the country winning forms divisions. I felt like I should've had to beat many people in different divisions to win. In fact, my division only contained three people total. World champions don't mean much to me. I'm not into sport karate, so the fact that somebody has X amount of world championships doesn't impress me. I guess some kind of credibility is nice, but I'm more interested in their karate teaching ability and the knowledge they possess, not how many trophies sit in their room.

I should really log on more often. Thanks for the info! With a heavy semester I don't know if I'll be able to make the drive. Maybe I can make it up to the one in October. BTW - Open tournament in Metamora, Ill., on May 1! http://www.metamoramartialarts.com

First of all, I would love to do something like this. In my opinion, you've got a fun opportunity here. Do all three of you know the form? I would work on getting the form down first in the air. Then once you have that, study what the interpretation is. Check a book, consult with your instructor, etc. Once you actually get to working with each other, work on specific sequences to make them really good. Keep the pieces of the puzzle small. Then when all of your sequences are good, put it all together.

From what I read, Apple isn't gearing this toward nerds and is going for the casual person. In its promos, they show people relaxing with it on the couch. And I guess they didn't talk about its technical details as much as they did the practicality. As a tech junkie, I won't be getting it because I enjoy my Macbook. I wonder how this will affect a company like the New York Times, with its new Times Skimmer on their site. Apparently the journalism field is supposed to be salivating at this. As part of a class assignment for my interactive design class, juniors had to tell the program director if they thought this would be a success or fail. If it's a success in a year, students who said it would fail would have to bring him something from Starbucks. If it's a fail, students who said it would fail can pick what they want and he'll deliver us our drink of choice anywhere on campus. I thought it was a fun bet so I told him I thought it would fail. We'll see how this goes in a year.

I'm looking for some tournaments to go to in Illinois (preferably less than 2 hours away from Peoria). We're doing our own this spring and I wanted to get out and spread the word by competing at other events to help us get an even better turnout than last year. KarateTournaments.com provides a few more listings than it did the last time but I know there's got to be more than that.

Last year, when I was 19, I was asked to sit on a panel of judges. I was a shodan and it was my first time and I was pretty uncomfortable. Let me tell you - just because they're sitting there doesn't mean they think they should. I was sitting with a group of guys who were all probably more than twice my age. I felt really out of place. But, I can say that I judged to my best ability. I looked to see if the forms competitors looked like they might actually be able to use these techniques, deep stances, body unity, intent, and form difficulty. I felt real awkward when a guy about my age (I'm guessing he was a year or two younger than me) asked me why I judged him lower than the others. I told him I thought his form was okay but his stances were just too high up for my liking. That said, I would talk to either your instructor and/or other promoters about judging lower ranks. In all reality, you could judge anything, in my opinion. If you haven't learned one, a form is just a form, and you know what you want to look for. Just because you haven't learned it doesn't mean you theoretically couldn't judge it. But my guess is that competitors and other black belts wouldn't be too thrilled.

In my school it's 3rd degree. We haven't had anybody get there yet (though one is apparently close). He was the first person to join in our program, and so far he's been involved almost 8 years.