Lupin1

You bet I'd go! You've only got one life to live. Why not live it in the coolest, most unique way ever experienced?

You bet I'd go! You've only got one life to live. Why not live it in the coolest, most unique way ever experienced?

I started informally with a short bando stick form at 4th kyu and started my "formal" weapons training with bo staff at 3rd kyu (which is our technical start time for adults). Kids don't start weapons until junior black belt and both kids and adults only do bando stick and bo staff until the Dan ranks. After that, lower Dan ranks can add sai and/or tonfa and only advanced Dan ranks learn kama.

What if the owner is an amazing business manager/marketing guy but a so-so martial artist? If he's able to hire people who are outstanding martial artists and manage the work environment to let the talents of his people shine while he concentrated on keeping the place running smoothly for them, wouldn't that be better?

Good job, Fang! Taking the initiative to remove yourself from a harmful environment takes courage and is something to be proud of! I hope you flourish in your new dojo.

You can only build your house as strong as the foundation. Take it slow. Don't worry about the speed of your progression-- worry about the quality. Also, 6-7 months for a beginning rank is pretty average.

I would say it's being in it for the money at the expense of student progress. You can make a ton of money and not be a McDojo (you'd just be a successful business). You can even have frequent gradings and promote people who don't quite meet standards if that's what will help that student grow the most and meet his or her fullest potential (some people-- especially in the lower belts-- just need the confidence boost and promotions can always have extenuating circumstances). A McDojo, on the other hand, will set up the system just to make money even if it in no way helps the students. But as long as student well-being and learning comes before money, it's not McDojo.

Happy birthday!

We pass kids along fairly quickly in the first few belts. We actually have two belts between white and yellow that aren't "real" Isshinryu ranks (they don't learn their first Isshinryu kata until yellow)-- they're just to get the kids excited and motivated from the start because too many kids were dropping out due to the time it took to get that first belt (look up the first Isshinryu kata [seisan] when you get a chance. It's not a beginner kata). At those ranks we tend to keep the kids together. We start them in groups and the groups rank together until around yellow. Even if one's really lagging behind the others, we'll give them the belts to keep them motivated and keep their confidence up. Everyone learns at a different pace. My instructor views the kyu ranks as extremely flexible and more of a sign of individual achievement than steps in a set curriculum (although we do have a general guideline for each rank). What he expects of one kid at blue belt isn't necessarily what he expects of another. According to his way of thinking and the way we rank within our school, everything is mostly arbitrary up until shodan, which the vast, vast majority never reach anyway, and so the kyu ranking system is just a tool to help each individual student grow and progress to their best of their ability in the time they're with us. So I guess I'm ok with an "everybody passes until red belt" system. Red belt (what would be our brown belt) is the time they're preparing for their shodan test-- the point where set standards and expectations manifest in our our program-- and so is the point they'd be required to start meeting more universal goals rather than individual goals.

We pass kids along fairly quickly in the first few belts. We actually have two belts between white and yellow that aren't "real" Isshinryu ranks (they don't learn their first Isshinryu kata until yellow)-- they're just to get the kids excited and motivated from the start because too many kids were dropping out due to the time it took to get that first belt (look up the first Isshinryu kata [seisan] when you get a chance. It's not a beginner kata). At those ranks we tend to keep the kids together. We start them in groups and the groups rank together until around yellow. Even if one's really lagging behind the others, we'll give them the belts to keep them motivated and keep their confidence up. Everyone learns at a different pace. My instructor views the kyu ranks as extremely flexible and more of a sign of individual achievement than steps in a set curriculum (although we do have a general guideline for each rank). What he expects of one kid at blue belt isn't necessarily what he expects of another (they have to know the entire kata, but their level of mastery varies). According to his way of thinking and the way we rank within our school, everything is mostly arbitrary up until shodan, which the vast, vast majority never reach anyway, and so the kyu ranking system is just a tool to help each individual student grow and progress to their best of their ability in the time they're with us. So I guess I'm ok with an "everybody passes until red belt" system. Red belt (what would be our brown belt) is the time they're preparing for their shodan test-- the point where set standards and expectations manifest in our our program-- and so is the point they'd be required to start meeting more universal goals rather than individual goals.

We also have a junior black belt that used the "oreo" belt. I don't know if it's technically a "pre-dan" rank or not as it's just the equivalent of an adult brown belt meant to keep the kids motivated and keep them from dropping out.

Karate means empty hand, so really you can call any (primarily) empty-handed combat system "karate" and just port the word over. Calling Kendo or other primarily weapons systems karate doesn't make much sense. But pretty much any other system can possibly be called that. It kinda feels like we're stealing Japan's word when we do that, but that's just what humans do over time. It's not necessarily correct usage, but it's become common usage. Gotta go with it.

Rank isn't so much a measure of skill, but a measure of learning. It's like my bachelor's degree. Do I remember half the stuff from the classes I had to take to earn it? Nope. Does that mean it should be taken away and I should be reduced to high school diploma? Nope. It's an indication that I did the work and the learned required to earn it. Now it's mine even if I forget every last word my professors said (to be fair, I do remember quite a lot still).

Thanks, guys. I did indeed have a very good day. Had dinner with the family, a nice carrot cake birthday cake, and let myself binge on 1/2 price Valentine's Day candy for an after school snack. Plus it was character day at school, so I got to dress as Sheldon Cooper. Good day.

It's definitely enriched my life and added another dimension I never would have had otherwise. As a child, it helped me vastly with my physical development-- it helped me become more coordinated and provided me with a source of regular exercise. I also believe learning and memorizing the movements of kata helped my memory develop as well as led to my above average kinesthetic intelligence-- I'm able to dissect and learn new movements more easily than most people. This wasn't the case when I first started, but it's an ability karate developed in me. As an adult, it provides me again with a source of regular exercise and socialization (something I don't get very often other places). It gives me a sense of community purpose I believe most adults are missing in their lives. It provides another avenue for me to teach and develop others which, as a teacher, I believe to be my life's purpose. It also gives me a confidence and situational awareness that I believe shows in all areas of my life. I feel like more of a sheepdog all around- prepared and mentally ready to protect myself and others in any situation that might arise. I've stepped up in emergencies and directed others. I'm also much more calm and rational in confrontations knowing I'm prepared to handle it. I'm much more likely to try very hard to find a peaceful solution and avoid violence knowing that if it came to that, I could actually hurt someone, which is something I don't want to do. In other words, it's affected my entire mindset, demeanor and worldview.

Three sessions a week for a four week month-- you're paying $390 a month!? Is it private instruction?

I don't think promotions should be based on teaching ability. It may just be because I'm a teacher, but I think teaching's just one of those things that you've either got it or you don't. You can have someone who's an amazing practitioner but is a horrible teacher. You can also have people who aren't that great themselves but just have the gift for guiding and nurturing others. I think one's personal advancement and one's ability to teach should be separate.

Welcome! As everyone said, post your questions up! We've got countless decades of experience on here just itching to help!

I can see using it in groups-- beginners group with like white, yellow and orange all working on the same basic stuff. Then intermediate group all working on the same stuff. The advanced group all working on the same stuff. I can't see it spanning the entire curriculum from white to black, but if you use it to simply break the class into smaller groups, I can definitely see it working. White belt material isn't too much different from orange belt material. Blue belt isn't all that different from purple belt. The browns can all pretty much be one group and, in our dojo anyway, the dan ranks pretty much do their own thing. So I can totally see it working to an extent, but constrictions have to be put on it. Teaching a white belt advanced brown belt jump spinning crescent kicks on their first night most likely will not go over too well.

I don't think we have anything. When I was little we were supposed to bow when entering or exiting the dojo, but we don't do that anymore. We were also supposed to call every instructor Mr. or Mrs. _______, but now only the kids do that and only for certain instructors. So it's incredibly lax all around. The only thing we're really trying to push right now is if you come in late, walk around the back of the class and join in at the end of the line. We have a bunch of kids who walk right in front of everyone if they come in late. Honestly, I wish we'd step it up a bit at least for the kids. They show very little respect for the instructors and the class as a whole and I can see it's really wearing on the kids' instructor.

We have to wait until black belt to wear a black gi.

Happy birthday!

The story I got from one of my instructors who studied at the Agena Dojo on Okinawa was that some of the founder's students, after seeing that the founders of other systems were promoting themselves to 10th Dan, went out and bought a red belt and presented it to Shimabuku. So basically his own students promoted him to 10th Dan.

I don't know if anyone's asked this of my instructor or what he'd do if asked, but I do know he has acquired kata himself this way and now teaches them as part of our program.

I was 8 years old and in the spring of 2nd grade. I was obsessed with martial arts movies and tv shows and had been telling my parents I wanted to take karate, but it was just too expensive and we couldn't afford it. I was disappointed and didn't know that my mom had secretly put me on the waiting list for the free class at the local Boy's and Girl's Club. Then one night she surprised me by quietly coming up to me and telling me to put on a sweatsuit and get in the car-- that she had a surprise for me but didn't want my sisters to know because they'd be jealous. When we got into the car she said to me "how'd you like to go to karate class?". When we got there there were a bunch of older kids (8 was the youngest they allowed) with different colored belts warming up while a couple young adult black belts helped them. We were greeted by the head instructor's wife, who was also a black belt and helped out with the kids' class at the time. She helped me and some of the other first timers (we always start a group of kids together) stretch and warm up while the head instructor talked to our parents about the program and answered their questions. When it was time to start, she showed us where to line up in the back row and how to stand at attention and bow. After that we did some warm ups as a class and then the head instructor pulled the group of beginners to the side while the other instructors continued working with the older kids. He had us sit in a circle around him just like in school and told us all about the history of the system, about where he trained and for how long, about some of the black belts in the room, and about some of the things we'd learn. After that he had us stand up and taught us to make the Isshinryu fist and stand in a Seisan stance and how to step forward and backward and throw a straight punch. We practiced that for the rest of the class before rejoining the other kids back in line to close out. I honestly don't remember all that, but my instructor still uses the exact same "first day" script to this day and with his recent health problems he's actually had me do the speech and initial teaching with the past few groups of beginners while he supervised and guided me, so I know it pretty well. I do remember being extremely excited and nervous, being intimidated by the bigger kids with their colorful belts and especially the black belt instructors, and being a bit disappointed when we didn't learn to throw ninja stars or transform into Zords on the first night.