Lupin1

I don't wash mine very often (I don't usually sweat enough for it to get gross), but I just machine wash cold and hang it to dry. Usually I'll wash it when I don't have class for awhile (class is Tuesday and Thursday, so I'll wash it Thursday night so it has until Tuesday to dry).

Happy birthday!

No one. My instructor's son started a few months before me and he just stopped training about a year ago (though I think he still runs through stuff at home with his dad sometimes). There's one other guy still training who was in the kids' class at the same time I was, but he's seven or eight years older than me and started four or five years before me. Our two sixth dans started at the same time, though. They're the two longest-training students still active in the school and started shortly after the program started. They took their black belt test together in the 80s. They're pretty much like brothers at this point and I think they probably keep each other going.

This is one of the best parts of just not having tests (or course then you get "when am I getting promoted!?"). Student A, if I didn't agree with them, I'd explain to them exactly what they need to work on before they're ready to test. If, after hearing my explanation, they still think they deserve to test, I'd let them. Maybe they surprise me and really, really work on what I told them between then and the test and they end up passing. Or maybe they take the test, fail, and hopefully take what I tell them more seriously before the next test. For student B, I'd most likely let them sit where they are. Why not? If we're having competitions or something, though, and it's not fair for student B to be in their division any more because they're just way too good for that division, I'd talk to them about it and I might have to move them up against their will for competition purposes. Other than that, if they don't want to test I wouldn't make them. They could wear a purple belt for all eternity if they want. What's it really matter?

Kyu Grades Isshinryu-ized Fukyugata Sho Isshinryu-ized Kozai Isshinryu-ized Ananku Seisan Saifa Seiunchin Nihanchi Wansu (kids receive JBB here) Chinto Supple Dragon Kusanku Nijushiho Sunsu Sanchin Bando Hidden Stick or Horseman's bo staff form as an introduction to kobudo Dan Ranks Really different for everyone depending on the person, their ability, their time availability, their goals, their interests, etc. All the empty hand Isshinryu kata have been studied at this point, so people generally focus more on Kobudo for new material as well as study empty hand kata from other systems and work to perfect/study bunkai for their earlier kata.

Woo hoo! This is the year of the Cubs. I can feel it!

I've often thought of what I'd do if I designed my own curriculum. My ideal would be to have separate beginners, intermediate, and advanced classes with the beginners and intermediate classes using a rotating curriculum. I think it's a easiest way for a single instructor to teach a large group of different levels at once, but it only really works if you split into different levels or you'll have absolute beginners doing advanced stuff. I also haven't figured what happens if someone takes a testing cycle off for another sport or something. Then they miss that cycle of the rotating curriculum and the next cycle we move on to something else they may have already done.

Never anything like that at my school (we don't advertise and most people don't even know we even have an adult program). My instructor likes to tell the story of when he was a yellow belt in the early 70s. They were training one night when two guys came in and sat in the visitors' seats at the side of the room. The guys were snickering and making comments and trying to provoke a fight for a good 45 minutes. The students in the class were doing their best to completely ignore them. My instructor was working on a demonstration with a young female green belt where he pretended to be an unwanted admirer and put his arm around her shoulder, to which she responded by nailing him in the ribs, taking him to his hands and knees and then sweeping his hand out from under him so he ended up face down on the floor. At one point they felt confident enough to go full speed/strength. That's when she missed sweeping his hand and instead kicked him in the nose while he was on his hands and knees. He was facedown on the floor holding his bleeding nose when two black belts rushed up to him and one whispered in his ear "Victor, don't do anything". They grabbed him by the ankles and dragged him the entire length of the dojo floor into the locker room, leaving a trail of blood behind him. Once in the locker room, they helped him to his feet and told him to wait in there. One of them went back out, walked up to the guys and said "Gentlemen, you're in luck! It seems a spot just opened up for a new student! Would one of you wish to join?" The two turned pale and quickly left the dojo.

Happy birthday!

Not everyone's cut out to be a teacher or has the temperament for it. There are a lot of teaching skills that can be learned, but many that cannot. Some people will never be good teachers. Others just don't want to. Teaching takes a lot of patience and you have to take the focus off of yourself. Some people just want to learn and study Martial Arts for themselves. They are not interested in passing on the art. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just a different focus. For some people, they don't have the time to both teach and work on their own skills. Their skills would suffer if they used up all their free time teaching. Or maybe their free time isn't regular hours, so students would suffer. Lots of different reasons.

The kids in the class I help teach. If I quit, they wouldn't have as many adults to help them and their experience/what they could learn would suffer.

Ours varies based on the person and circumstances. If we have a lot of adults at the time or several people going up for black belt at once, we'll have about a three hour test. We don't do the whole "stamina" thing with pushups and running and all that. You just have to demonstrate/explain the entire school curriculum along with presenting some academic research you're expected to do on your own. I basically didn't even have a test. Right now our program is very small and I was the only kyu ranked student with five black belts. About two months before I was supposed to test, they started having me go through a chunk of the curriculum with a few of the black belts every class. I probably went through the entire curriculum three times. I was supposed to test in the beginning of January, but they gave me a surprise promotion the class before Christmas stating the previous month and a half had been my "test". It's such a small program that having us all come in on a Saturday just to see me do what they've been seeing me do for months seemed unnecessary. Of course, my instructor likes to tell us that the "real" black belt test is whether or not you're still training five years down the road.

Congratulations!

Isshinryu was created in the 1940s and 50s. I don't think I've ever heard anyone claim it was ancient. For my Shodan I had to research the history of Okinawan karate. Karate itself isn't very old, but it traces its roots to much older forms of unarmed combat (mostly Kung Fu).

I'm a librarian. I'm usually quiet, soft-spoken, and to some people I come off as "proper" (though not people who actually know me). People are always surprised when I say I do martial arts.

Thank you guys! I did have a good day. It's also my coworker's birthday today, so she brought the cupcakes, I brought the pizza, another coworker brought some balloons, and we had a little party at lunch. We all work at different locations, so we don't get together much and it was a treat to get to spend some time with them. After that I went to my parents' house and we ordered out some subs (we were going to go to dinner, but my dad had to work late). We finished off with some delicious cupcakes from a place that's quickly becoming a local hotspot. Finally, I have the next week off for vacation! (not going anywhere, just no work) Overall a fantastic day.

We're a very small, limited program. Tuesdays and Thursdays we have the kids' class for an hour. It almost always starts and finishes on time, though we've been known to end 5-10 minutes early on days we don't have many kids (we had three last week and ended 5 minutes early). It was an hour and a half when the program first started, but that was just too much for kids. The adult class at the moment is Tuesdays only. It used to be Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings, but then our head instructor got sick and he can't do all that any more. That combined with people's work/family schedules means we cut it to only Tuesdays. I started going to the kids' class as a green belt just to get more floor time in, then I started helping with the teaching, so now I'm there for both kids' classes and the adult class every week. Most adults come at some point during the kids' class and either jump in and help out with the teaching, or warm up and then work on things on their own or with another adult to the side of the room (though nothing too distracting to the kids). After the kids leave, we have adult class for anywhere from half an hour to an hour, depending on how the head instructor is feeling/who's there. If it's all instructors who were there for the entire kids class and did a lot of running around for that, we might cut it shorter. If we have a big group or our (one) beginner is there, we tend to go longer and do more kihon stuff. We've been known to stay a little longer if we get into good history/theory discussions while people are changing, but the place closes pretty much right after our class ends, so we can't stay too long. We actually had a discussion just last night about how different it was at our head instructor's dojo when he was first learning in the 70s. Then 2+ hour classes were the norm. The dojo would just be open for several hours and people would drop in/drop out, but most would train for several hours. Granted, it was geared much more towards adults back then and things weren't split into levels or age groups or anything. Everything was less structured and planned out. People just trained.

I'd mix up the 20 minutes straight of the same thing. That's a long time. Personally, I'd do it more as a "stations" type thing. Have three different sets of movements at each station (medicine ball, pad work, leg drills) and split the class into three groups-- each at one of the stations. Have them rotate every five minutes while you circulate giving advice and motivation. At the end of each 15 minute cycle, give them a quick rest and water break while you explain the new movements at each station for the next cycle (if you have the supplies, write out the movements ahead of time and post them somewhere). Repeat three times. Will keep people interested and motivated longer and managing something like that makes you look like a pro instructor.

Congrats, liger!

So far I've only learned one bo form and I've just started studying bando stick (a little shorter than an escrima stick-- about as long as a sai). I like the stick as it's very versatile. Pretty much anything you pick up can be used in the same way as the stick-- a stick from the ground, a bat, a book (I'm a librarian), lots of things. I'm surprised more systems don't teach it. I find it's a great introductory weapon.

True. That's probably what I'd do after a few years, once I got students advanced enough to be able to do that.

I'd study full time on Zaine's island for a few years (Okinawan karate, BJJ, something with stand up sparring and something weapons) then I'd come back and open a low cost program at a local community center where kids and adults can get quality training that they may not have been able to afford otherwise. Fees would be on a sliding scale, but everyone would be required to contribute something-- more so that they have a sense of ownership and some stakes in their training than out of actual need (I do have unlimited funds, after all). I'd probably make it a school year only program so I could go back to the island every summer to refresh and bolster my own skills.

Go to class. Tell your sensei about your concerns. If you need to substitute high flexibility techniques for low flexibility ones (you do front kicks while the rest of the class is doing roundhouse kicks) then do that. If you need to, you can even excuse yourself from certain activities and go off to the side and stretch while the class is doing something you think would be damaging to you at this point. Basically, let go of the ego. I know it's hard, but it's part of martial arts. Don't worry about what other people are thinking of you. I guarantee you they're not judging you nearly as much as you think they are. And stop judging yourself so harshly. Be good to your body. Going to class and just doing what you can is, nine times out of ten, better than staying away entirely. Stretch at home every morning and evening, stretch very well before class, make sure you're getting all your vitamins and minerals either from your food or from a pill, and listen to your body in class. Take it easy at first and slowly start keeping up more and more as you're able. No one expects new beginners (especially older ones) to keep up with the young guns or the advanced students right away.

My instructor wrote a pretty good blog post about it-- http://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/2012/01/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none.html His instructor, Charlie Murray, studied it with the founder of Isshinryu's son on Okinawa. Mr. Murray visited and trained with us a few times in the past few years and spoke on Chinkuchi. The best I got out of it was that breathing and focusing on bringing your power from your core allows you to develop more power with less momentum needed. I'm still don't fully understand it, but it seems like one of those things that just takes time and experience.

I got my Shodan about a month ago. I've been training on and off (mostly off) for over 20 years with the last six years being more steady training. I don't really feel "proficient" yet.