Lupin1

I picked Chuck Norris, but in reality... I am Iron Man.

We can only do white until black belt, so right now I wear a Century middleweight white gi with the sleeves rolled up because it's way too big on me. I've only had it for a year, but I might be ordering a new one soon because it hangs off of me and I can't seem to get out the stains I got from wearing it on Halloween night in a graveyard in Salem, MA (on the plus side, those stains have the best story of any stains I've ever gotten). I'm considering a brushed cotton one this time. We'll see.

Congratulations, Heidi! Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into our family here. You truly add so much and I always look forward to your posts. Here's to another 10 years!

If they're smaller kids, my Judo instructors would just have them do rolls from kneeling and then grab their belt with one hand and their sleeve up by the shoulder with the other hand and as they roll, guide them where they need to be (which usually involved picking them up by their belt and shoulder and tipping them over. Since I'm a little big to do that with (though I have been picked up by the belt once or twice), a hint that was helpful for me, rather than focusing on the placement of the upper body (after you get safe positioning of the head and hands, of course), is to concentrate on the feet. Start with live toes so you can push off nice and strong and then picture trying to kick the wall directly in front of you as you roll. This gets your legs going straight over your head rather than off to the side. Finally, stress the courage thing. Shoulder rolls are all or nothing-- you have to be committed to do them right. If you don't go for it 100%, you end up going sideways. They're actually a great way to test yourself and build confidence. Do you have what it takes to commit 100% to throwing yourself head over heels?

Threw this together for tomorrow. There's gotta be *some* advantages to being a brown belt, right? Can't all be getting beat up and always being wrong... right? Maybe? http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o241/rmwedgie/th_jedi_zps9e958989.jpg

That's true, but we're going to be teaching those kids different things no matter what color they have tied round their waist. We only accept groups of beginners once or twice a year, so we're usually able to get all the previous beginners up to the second or third belt before bringing in the next group. So, for us with our unique circumstances, all it really changes is the color of the cloth holding their gi closed and, many times, their mindset (some kids just buckle down as soon as they get that darker color).

My instructor's very lenient with beginner gradings. We always have groups of kids start at the same time (we just had seven start a few weeks ago) and they generally grade them all together at first in order to keep them motivated and encouraged in the beginning. Obviously the ones still struggling will continue working on the white belt kata before moving on, but they'll get the shiny new belt to keep them encouraged. He stresses that the belts don't matter much in the beginning, anyway, and are really just tools for motivation. His line of reasoning is basically that as long as they're where they need to be if they ever grade for shodan, it's all good. He's very flexible with the curriculum up until that point.

They're pretty different. Tae Kwon Do is a lot more kicks, and I'd say it's more speed than Isshinryu. From the experiences I've had with TKD schools, they seem a lot more focused on the cardio and fitness and many do a lot of flashy stuff (of course this isn't universal). Isshinryu schools tend to be a bit more on the traditional side. It's also an Okinawan art as opposed to Korean and the Okinawans in general are a lot smaller and they're also the longest living population, so the focus tends to be a lot more on a sustainable art that's effective for smaller, more compact, sometimes older people. It's more focused on strength and power than on speed and agility. The stances are narrow and the kicks and punches meant for close-range fighting as opposed to the large stance and big long-range kicks of TKD. Really the best way to decide is do a trial at both schools. Observe a class or two and see if they'll let you participate for awhile before making a decision. Try them both and see which one you like the feel of-- which school you feel most comfortable at and which art feels more you.

In the immortal words of Frosty the Snowman, "Happy birthday!".

That's me. Just got promoted to Nikyu tonight. Had another one of those classes where I was vastly outnumbered (two 4th Dans, a 7th Dan, an 8th Dan... and me...) but I did ok. Then at one point while we were waiting for people to go grab some things my head instructor just had me do the kata I've been working on while he watched and then declared me a 2nd kyu and then as people trickled back in he just told each one and they shook my hand. We're not very big on pomp and circumstance. I'm a little nervous. I've definitely seen myself improve a heck of a lot lately and I'm feeling good, but I know it's going to get very tedious very fast now. It's becoming a lot more about the details. And this is really the last step before black belt where I'm actually concentrating on new material. After that it's pretty much all review and preparation. Scary...

Some things I guess could be blocked-- things that don't depend too much on what came before it. Isshinryu might be a good system for that since our kata don't necessarily go easy to hard (hence why my instructor has us study kata from other systems as preparation for the Isshinryu kata). But even in one-room school houses they didn't start the first graders with long division. In most systems, things get harder as you go and that's for a good reason.

I feel like for the majority of people, most of the time the martial art chooses them in the sense that it often comes down to luck-- which style is available locally with a good teacher at a good price. That's certainly the case with me. I didn't say "I want to study Isshinryu". In fact, I'm not sure I knew explicitly what Isshinryu was until 10 years or so after I'd started studying it. I just joined the only local class that my parents could afford and whether they taught Isshinryu, Tae Kwon Do, or sumo wrestling was lost on me.

Welcome! (From a cute little newbie kid)

Maybe that's a good reason to stop talking in terms of being "worthy" of a certain belt. When you get down to it-- a belt rank is just an indication of skill level. It's like saying my 10 year old isn't "worthy" of being in 4th grade, so we're keeping him back a year. It's not that he's not worthy, he's just not ready. If we talked more like that and stopped thinking of martial arts belts as magical strips of power that only those with a pure spirit can use to hold their shirt closed, maybe people wouldn't feel that way. Honestly (and keep in mind this thread is like two years old) looking back on it now, the fact that I bought a brown strip of cloth a little early did nothing but put me out $30 or so when it turned out it didn't fit. It didn't do much to motivate me-- it hung in my closet with all my old belts and that's where it still is-- and when my instructor did promote me to that rank I went out and bought a belt that fit so I could wear it to class without tripping. I didn't feel any worthier of giving the company my money at that point than I did when I gave them my money a year or so before. Having a certain color strip of cloth sitting in my closet doing nothing is really just a waste of money. Decent lesson.

Last year I started judo just after getting my 3rd kyu in Isshinryu. I'm so glad I did it. It's very different from karate, so I didn't get confused at all, but I loved learning the different techniques and getting more comfortable on the ground. I also loved what I learned from randori, which is a lot more full contact all out than you can safely get in most karate schools. You learn to strategize, work from the position you're in and find solutions to tough situations. It also got me a lot more comfortable being up close to people and getting in there and trying new things. Overall a great experience. That said, both classes took a recess for the summer and, while I restarted karate two weeks ago, I haven't gotten back to the Judo class yet. I miss it. I loved it and I'm still considering going back, but karate two nights a week and Judo two nights a week with work and then a 2nd job on the weekends... It's just too much. I started dreading going towards the end of last year not because I didn't like it (I loved it), but because I was just exhausted and needed a rest. So that's something to consider, too. Some people can do it and not bat an eyelash. I don't think I'm one of those people.

Congratulations!

Obviously the eventual goal is to get to both, but in the mean time it might be the judoka in me, but I'd rather you be able to make it work than strive for perfection. Oftentimes when people strive for perfection, when they mess up the tiniest thing, they stop and retry or go back and try something new rather than working with what they've got. You've got to learn to do what you can with what you have rather than with what you wish you had. Improvise, Adapt and Overcome. I might even make that my signature. 'Bout time I made one...

Awesome work! Congratulations!

I like training kata quickly every once and awhile as an exercise (along with doing it as slowly as you can, doing it backwards, doing just the upper body or just the lower body, doing it at different angles, etc), but I don't think the majority of kata are meant to be done at top speed as a rule. As some have said, every kata has it's own unique tempo that's supposed to be followed and more often than not, it's a fairly steady pace, although many kata have fast parts and slow parts-- sort of an organic ebb and flow. But for competition I'd say go with whatever's going to make you look strongest. For someone lithe who can do top speed well, doing so would be putting their best foot forward. But for someone older or bigger or just more sturdy, that's not the best option. Your strengths are going to lay elsewhere. Always play to your strengths and the judges will see the best of you.

Congrats! Well earned!

Just get out. Don't pay the rest of the fees. Forget about the contract-- if he's letting that go on, he's breaching the contract, not you. Trust me, he won't take it to court because if he does and you bring out all that's going on, HE'S going to fry. Just stop going back. Don't give up on martial arts, though. I know you love it and don't let one bad experience ruin that for you. There are good schools out there.

Welcome! Starting up something new is such an exciting time! I hope you enjoy and savor all the firsts along the way. Can't wait to hear more!

I like the idea of community service requirements. We don't do any of that-- all our official requirements are technical, however I have seen our instructor tell children they're ready to be promoted but he's holding them at their current belt until they can behave better in class or in the club because he expects more from a blue belt or whatever (we're a free class at a Boys and Girls Club and most of our students are kids who spend their entire afternoon/evening there most days and our head instructor is the athletic director for the club. They probably spend more of their time with him than with their parents, anyway).

When I was in 4th grade I created my own style and the highest belt was yellow belt with a black stripe because that's what I was.

I'm really bad with the "would you do anything differently" questions. I'm the type of person who focuses more on the future. When I look back at my life and the choices I made, I mostly just see the steps I took to get where I am and when I picture taking different steps, I realize I wouldn't be who I am today had I done that and I don't like that idea. If I hadn't quit martial arts in 5th grade, I wouldn't have joined the traveling basketball team or done Sea Cadets or the other things I did with those Tuesday and Thursday nights. I would have had different friends and maybe missed out on/gained some essential, life-shaping experience. Anything changed would change who I am today-- maybe for the better, but maybe not. Sometimes it's fun to speculate how those things would have changed me and maybe try to integrate some of the positive changes if I think I'm lacking in a certain area due to my choice, but really I like who I am and I wouldn't want to be the different person I would be had I made a different decision. Idk... I'm just bad at those questions. Probably because I read way too much into them. I much prefer asking myself something more along the lines of "ok-- if you choose to do something differently NOW, what would it be" and then go from there.