GeoGiant

I've only been to one other dojo with the intent of "maybe" taking a few classes. The instructor was nice, he even let me take a class. I went back to talk with him again and he was kinda giving me an attitude like why are you wasting your time with that other style. I didn't end up signing up for his class, mainly due to money. I would have been paying $90 a month and only been able to attend 4 classes a month.

I would do it... why not? If the $$$ numbers work you would be crazy not to do it. If more of your focus was on teaching you could advertising more... more students... teaching becomes full-time.

Welcome! What type of karate are you studying? Google search... you will find everything with google.

I have a small notebook that I take on vacation... I'm always connected!

How come I didn't get my copy yet I'll be sure to check out the article.

I like to wear boxing gloves and regular (thinner) bag gloves. Make sure to get yourself a good set of elastic wraps. If you have never used wraps, search on youtube, there are tons of videos that will show you how to properly wrap your hands / wrists.

Any way you can ask to have your regular job reduced to assume more MA classes? If everyone is so happy with you teaching MA.... maybe ask to teach MA exclusively! Getting paid to train, ahhhhhhhhhh, that sounds wonderful!

Ouch! I hate to say it but I couldn't live without my laptop.

Wow, there are a lot of good points on both sides of this debate. I have to say i never really thought about it too much. First and foremost I judge another belt by how they handle themselves when we line up across from each other. I can appreciate someone who looks crisp when they perform a kata and I strive to do the same but you still need to be able to defend. I line up against 16 yr old brown belts that i will totally dominate (I'm still a yellow belt... for at least another month). However I've meet other 16 yr old brown belts that I've tired to use my height / reach advantage on and they knew it so they took their technique to another level to let me know they got game - I expect and appreciate that. So I guess what i'm saying is - regardless of belt i will show proper respect in the dojo however if your rank is BB I expect you to have a certain skill set... and if you line up across from me [in a good natured, competition type way] I will poke you to see what you got.

Welcome David!

Very nice! How did it feel when you first took your position to spar? Old hat or butterflies?

Here is the best advice that I can give.

Wow, good for them!. That is a tough age. Unfortunately i think most kids are willing to join in on heckling someone just because they are glad they are not the focus.

I got the most peculiar visual while reading this. That of like some random worker lurking beside the copy machine with a clever in their hands. Now thats funny!

I'm not sure if MAs made me a better driver. Riding a motorcycle definitely made me a better driver.

I agree with the above but I would add - take note of the students. You will be training with these people so make sure you will comfortable with the average age / weight / height.

Welcome. I like your enthusiasm!

For me, a person needs to persevere to obtain a BB. Its achieved success marked by over-coming many individual obstacles. It marks a level of dedication. Martial arts like science is practiced... you can gain the knowledge to advance however there is always something else to learn or study or practice. As for dojos that hand out BBs... I really don't have a comment. I mean, who is really being cheated? ... the BB. Why would you want to run a race, subtract a portion of your completion time and then claim you were faster...? Having your BB and having your butt handed to you by a yellow or green belt can't be fun. As for instructors, I guess i would do some research into the school. My instructor was been teaching since the 70's and he is well known / respected in my area.... and I can tell you that he doesn't hand out BBs and the ones he has promoted to BB can clearly demo why they have a BB.

Ok. MAs are an effective way to defend yourself. For people that have not been in a fight or people who are not natural fighters you may find that you are not used to getting hit so you drop head when you are hit....or you are not used to keeping your hands up to protect yourself so you leave yourself open to attack. I will be honest, I did both of these things in class and I got hit a lot. If you get in a fight on the street chances are you are going to get hit and doing either of the things i mentioned is going to get the crap kicked out you. I wasn't trying to mock you with the Bruce Lee comment, sorry if it seemed that way. What I was getting at was - if you want to be able to defend yourself in a fight by training in a few months you may want to consider boxing. Boxing will focus on footwork, protection, punching,,,,, it will focus on all the bad habits you may have when faced with fist fight. MAs will also teach you these things but it will take longer (IMO) to break habits like dropping your head because all your time in the dojo will not be focused on engaging someone.

I may be a bit off base here but do you want to learn a MA or do you want to learn how to fight? With MAs you learn to defend yourself but you will also learn tradition (to some degree) and kata. If your desire is to fight back you may not like learning traditional forms… or I should say that you won’t see the need for learning these things. Not that you are thinking Bruce Lee, but get any idea out of your head that you are going to grab you attacker flip him around and walk away bushing your cloths off. Why not try boxing? A good portion of a fight is mental. If you put gloves on and bang for a few weeks you will gain confidence in your physical abilities. I would never want to discourage anyone from MA training but you sound like your focus is defending yourself in a fight... and you sound like you need to do it now. Good luck my friend.

Thanks everybody! I will definitely be back at BJJ class next week. The way my schedule works i can only attend once a week... for now. I have the option to sign up for one month at a time which is nice.

Being attacked by a grappler is a concern for me. After my dojo started to offer a MMA class I took it and learned that I had no ground game. Unfortunately the MMA class at my dojo really hasn’t attracted many adults, mainly kids and teens. After taking the MMA class for 2 months I started to like the idea of grappling but I didn’t feel like I had people my age/height/weight to workout with so I went to a BJJ class (I still attend the karate classes at my dojo on a regular basis and I plan to continue). With my job I attend short courses and seminars a few times a year. It has been my experience that short courses and seminars are helpful if you have a base of knowledge, even if that base is small. I want to learn to grapple and I don’t think that it is possible for me to obtain the knowledge that I want from a short course or seminar. I guess I’m lucky because I have a qualified person in my area. I haven’t told my karate instructor that I’m taking the BJJ class…. I’ve only taken one class at this point. I’d hope that my instructor would not be offended because there is no cross over with Tang Soo Do and BJJ.

I will have to find out if they have a website. I heard about the school from a buddy of mine. My impression – great. I showed up and met the instructor, great guy. He told me I could just jump in and I did. After warm ups and stretching everyone lined up by height and then we were told to pair up. I got REALLY lucky and got paired up with an experienced guy about my age and weight. I learned a lot and hopefully I was able to be a decent partner. I knew some of the terminology so I was kind of able to follow what I was supposed to be doing. It was a great experience and I plan to go back. At one point during the class my partner was explaining something and said I’m not sure if you interested in tournament JJ but….. my response was that I’ve been taking Karate for almost a year and I recently discovered I have no ground game. Without missing a beat my partner replied that most JJ guys have no game standing. I thought it was a great response to make to a new guy that was trying to be open and honest. At the end of class we lined up from our partners, standing position, and practiced going in for a single leg take down. It was sooooo hard to drop my hands and go in for that take down!

I found a BJJ place not too far from my house. I emailed the instructor and asked if I could take a class.... he said yes! I'm leaving for the class shortly... can't wait!

Speak as if your only speaking to the people at the back of the class.