KarateGeorge

I'm with RichardZ. Though I hold my Shi-Han in high regard and respect him, I also know he's not perfect. He's got a lot of knowledge and I after around 5 years of training with him there's still a ton I can learn from him. However, he's just as human as the rest of us and not all-knowing. An example...once this semester at grad school is over in a few weeks, there's a nearby Judo school I found that I'm wanting to check out to possibly do some cross-training as I want to further hone my skills in take downs, throws and recovering from being thrown myself. Though karate teaches this, it's not a major emphasis like it would be for something like judo. So though I think he's a great instructor, this is something that I know I won't learn to the extent I'd like under him.

Yeah, I think MA's of some sort has always been a part of society. Its evolved over time as different people over the centuries took up the art of fighting. Different people figured out different things and developed different ways of doing things, and eventually different arts started diverging from each other based on the various people training in them and often based on the societal circumstances surrounding those various individuals.

Moms are cool. My mom convinced my dad to put me into Judo as I had a disciplinary problem, mainly to fight. She was told via a friend, that martial arts could help. I remember when I was a teenager, living in a small town, there wasn't any schools actually in my town. The closest one was about 30 miles away. The mom of one of my friends told him that if a school ever opened up in town that he could sign up for classes. She figured the chances of a school opening up in a town of 2,000 people were slim to none. Then one actually opened up my freshman year of high school. He reminded her of her promise and fortunately for him, she felt obligated to hold her end of the promise. Unfortunately, my parents didn't let me sign up, so the start of my martial arts journey was still another decade away before I found the right opportunity, but I always thought that was a very funny story.

Hah!!! Very true!

Well, we have a a thread of the things NOT to say to an instructor, so I thought I'd start a thread of the amusing things you've had students say to you. I'll start with one that happened while I was helping to teach the kid's class this morning. One of the other black belts was explaining the body mechanics behind why a certain self defense multi-strike combination that a student was trying to come up with wouldn't work the best. The student looks and him and says, "Seriously?" Then pauses and thinks for a minute, and then after the gears turned for a moment he declared, "Oh, WOW, you're right!"

Agreed, it's not the best representation by any means, but it's what I had available to show and something that I thought was at least better than the originally linked test. That said, it is only a 3 minute highlight of a roughly 3 hour test. The sparring doesn't come across the best, but it also comes at the end of about a solid hour and a half of bag drills and and self defense against fully resisting opponents, so when we get to the sparring part of the test, we're fairly exhausted already. Though I think the test from the original link at the start of this thread was rather lackluster, it probably falls victim to some of the same things. We only saw a few minutes of what was probably a couple of hours and I'll give them some benefit of the doubt that they were probably getting worn out and starting to lose good technique just from exhaustion at many points throughout the test.

Well, slightly off topic, but I think this shows a good comparison to the first video of that black belt test. This was highlights from my Shi-Han's test for 1st degree, and to me, this is a much better representation of what a test for Shodan should be:

Agreed. It's kind of like when a university gives someone an honorary doctorate. It's given as a symbol of respect to the person being honored, not so much as a representation of their level of academic mastery of the material. I view it in somewhat the same sense for giving Obama an honorary black belt. Granted, I don't this his "honorary" black belt should hold the same weight as a normal one, because he doesn't have that level of mastery. But as long as its remembered for what it is, as being given as an honor, then it doesn't bother me.

I kind of found my school by accident and the owner turned out to be such an excellent instructor that I've been training with him since. I'd been wanting to learn ever since I was a teen, but we lived in a small town with only a few nearby choices, and my parents couldn't afford any of them. Once I graduated college and moved on my own, it remained something that I kept in the back of my mind that I'd wanted to do. I'd moved to a metropolitan area by this time, and a friend of mine, not knowing that I'd had this secret desire to learn a martial art, saw a school just opening up by his home and asked me if I wanted to join him to go check it out. It turned out to be a Shuri-te karate school that was re-locating to a new facility. Needless to say, I agreed, and fell in love with the place. One of the black belts there had a black belt in Wing Chun as well, and eventually started running his own Wing Chun classes there too, so I signed up for those as well. It wasn't the owner's source of income, and he did it just because it was something he loved to do, so it was rather inexpensive, as he was charging just enough to keep the doors open. But when the economy took a turn for the worse, the school closed it's doors because he starting losing too many students to economic conditions. He effectively "retired" from teaching as far as having an official school goes, but he built a small "school" as part of his home and a select group of us still go to train with him there.

To me anyway, I think the idea is that it builds discipline and respect. Yes martial arts teaches you how to fight, but it can be much more than that was well. Some people already have good discipline before starting martial arts, but to truly progress and improve as a martial artist you need to have the discipline to work hard and develop your skills. If you can learn to discipline yourself to progress further in martial arts, ideally you can be disciplined in the rest of the areas of your life. Respect comes into play when you realize that everybody around you in the school can learn from everybody else. Yes, even the black belt can learn from the white belt...one thing I've learned in the last couple of years is that helping to teach others has really taught me just as much as the one being taught. But being receptive to being taught and respectful of those you come in contact with is vital to growing and learning. Discipline and respect aren't exclusive to martial arts, but it is a good place to help instill these values. Just my thoughts, for what they're worth.

Wise post....there's a difference between having the "heart of a warrior" and being a true warrior. As a martial artist, I've trained to develop my skills and strengthen my character such that should the need arise, I can be prepared to be a "warrior" but that doesn't make me a true warrior by lifestyle. We train to prepare ourselves for a situation we hope doesn't happen. The members of the armed forces train for a situation they know has a high probability of happening.

Bummer. Maybe the instructor would be able to direct the students to someone else in the area who could carry on the training in his place?

The fortune cookie was invented by a Chinese-American, in New York City I believe. It was originally created as a pre-dinner treat to provide the guests with entertainment while they waited for their meal. Over time it eventually migrated to an after dinner treat....or so I was told by my TV once, so it must be true.

Congrats!

Hot Chocolate = tasty!

The biggest thing I've done in the past year was in just plain making the time to get more actively involved again. I had returned to school to get my Masters degree and as a result had scaled back my martial arts involvement significantly for about a year. Though I'm still working on the Masters degree, it's been great to give martial arts a more active role in my life again.

I think some martial artists CAN be called "warriors" but I don't thing all martial artists SHOULD be called "warriors." In today's martial arts world, I think a lot of it really depends on the school. Though there are plenty of really good schools out there, there are also a lot of "watered down" schools around.

This hasn't been my experience, but I think it is the experience of many. Not to say that traditions don't have a very important part within martial arts, as I think knowing where the art you study has come from provides valuable insight, but it's also important to understand it's applications both in everyday life and in a self defense situation in modern society.

For me, I've always been around belts with rank stripes, so I like them. It's just what I'm used to I guess. Though I can see both points of view, I kind of like them. Plus, yes, it does help when you're at inter-school events.

I'll second that. I like to use that one as well. Speed is key in pulling it off well, but it is a great technique..

Well, I was talking to my own Sensei this morning, and they said I was welcome to come in and use the dojo he built at his home as long as we can work out an agreeable time for everyone involved, ie, myself, the person who wants me to teach them, and my instructor since the facility is at his home. He's confident in my abilities and won't be involved in the classes unless I need him for something, he'll just let us in the door. We'll need to sit down with all involved and figure out arrangements to see if this will work, but this may not be a dead idea just yet after all.

Sorry, I should have put some clarifications and qualifications. My instructor's now basically retired from full-time teaching. He closed his school down about a year ago, and only trains with select students out of the small dojo he built out of the basement of his home. His school was part of a loosely connected group of "independent" Shuri-te Karate schools in the area. He's always encouraged his black belts to step out and teach classes if they want to pass their knowledge on, and now that he's closed his school, I'm no longer under any contracts with him. He's been teaching for close to 20 years, and he's always supported any of his students who want to start their own classes. So I'm not worried about that part of the equation. As for my background, yes, I do have a Dan rank. I've been involved in martial arts for 5 years, and have been teaching as an assistant instructor under my Shi-Han for about 2 years. No, I don't have 20 years teaching experience behind me, but I would feel more than qualified to teach a white belt, and all instructors have to start somewhere. My biggest concern, like you said, is the whole lawsuit thing. Though this person is a friend, that wouldn't necessarily mean there couldn't be a risk for a lawsuit if something were to happen. The whole liability insurance, was the main thing I didn't consider when they first approached me. Now that I've had a day to give consideration to their request, and had the chance to put it on the sounding board here, even though I'd love to teach them, have the qualifications, and know my instructor would give me his blessings if I wanted to start my own classes, because of the liability concerns, I'll be telling them they should find a school that meets their schedule better. I'm not in a position to obtain a liability policy for just one single student. It was flattering to be asked, and the excitement got the best of me, but now that I've mulled it over, I realize it'd be wiser to direct them to an actual school. Thanks for the words of advice!

Hmmm, yeah, good points. The initial glee of being asked to give private lessons, caused me to jump past some of those other important considerations. Thanks for the reality check. I'll have to give this a little more consideration before I definitely commit to this. I won't rule it out just yet, as I do enjoy teaching in the classes at the karate school I attend, but before commiting I need to do some more work to make sure this is the right thing to do.

So, in the past I've always taught as an assistant instructor at my karate school, but I was talking with someone last night and it looks like I may actually have a student of my very own, not through the school. It's a friend of mine who recently started taking karate at a different school, but due to some conflicts between college classes and their karate school's class times this next semester, its going to be difficult for them to keep going there. We still have a few things to figure out, such as figuring out where to train. Since this will be my own student, I'll be doing it outside the karate school. We're thinking of working out at the gymnasium at my church. There's a couple of other logistics to get this started as well, but nothing that's probably too difficult, so it's not definite yet, but if everything works out, I may have my first student of my very own starting in a couple of weeks.

Welcome! Another plus, the money you save from not smoking should cover the costs of taking martial arts classes! Just trade one addiction for the other! Seriously though, best of luck both in quitting smoking and in starting martial arts.