Lupin1

I agree that it depends on the context. For sparring of course you wouldn't learn those things. For self-defense, they're things you have to learn. I'm guessing these things were taught to be used in a self-defense situation. I would also think the age of the child matters. If the kid is 14, it's perfectly reasonable to be learning these sorts of things. I believe teaching eye gouging to children under 13 is a little much, though. Yes, a young child needs to know how to get away. But a young child also doesn't know what "reasonable force" is and may very well try out that new technique they learned on their friend on the playground. You need to be more careful with what you teach young kids.

Studies actually show that starting a goal or a new habit on a significant date makes you more likely to stick to it. Signifiant dates create temporal barriers in our minds that separate time into "then" and "now". It makes it easier to think "I didn't exercise then, but I do now". You can almost think of yourself as a different person. It's a psychological trick. It works for any date that separates time-- first of the year, first of the month, birthdays, even Mondays. If you start your new goals at those times, you're more likely to succeed.

1. Focus more on my teaching and how I can become a better teacher. 2. Get my Nidan. 3. Commit to more practice at home outside of class.

I don't bring it up much, but I'm not ashamed of it and I don't hide it. In fact, it's mentioned on my staff bio on my work's webpage and my Facebook profile picture is of me in my gi. I find I'm a lot more comfortable talking about it now that I'm a black belt and help teach classes. I was a little embarrassed when I was first restarting as an adult. It is unfortunately perceived as a kids' thing by a lot of people and so to be an adult yellow or blue belt taking classes can draw some ignorant comments. Saying you're a black belt and you teach kids classes, on the other hand, is perceived completely differently. Again, it's very unfortunate that this is the public perception and I hope it changes.

You and your dojo community are in my thoughts and prayers, Noah.

I like having a variety of kata. I think it allows you to explore different ways of movement. That said, I do think my school teaches too many kata. We require 15 for Shodan-- the 8 empty hand Isshinryu kata and 7 additional kata from other systems including one weapon kata. It's great in that it forces us to learn to move differently. We do everything from a Goju kata to a Shotokan kata to a Kung Fu form. But at the same time we have so many that most of them don't get practiced regularly. In regular practice we focus more on the Isshinryu kata, so, for instance, I probably couldn't even remember the entire Kung Fu form if I were to get up and try it right now. I would need to work on it a bit to remember it all. So I think around 8-10 basic kata is probably the right number. Too many more than that and some of them get neglected and forgotten or just get half-learned. Too many less than that and you don't get enough variety and develop a narrow view.

I'm in southern NH.

Uncle Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender

My school is very, very, very small. It used to be a bit bigger, but it has always been under 40 students. Right now we only have about a dozen kids and only five adults-- all black belts. Because we have so few people, everything is very individual. We have no set time in rank requirements, no application process, not even a formal testing process. 1st kyus become eligible for promotion when the instructors feel they're ready based on observing their in class performance. Most stay at 1st kyu for around one year if they're attending regularly, but actual time in rank depends on the person. When a student achieves 3rd kyu brown belt, they're considered to be a black belt candidate and are given the black belt exam guide, which is a 30+ page guide with an outline of the shodan test as well as a start to the student's historical research. During the test students have to give an oral presentation on the history of karate, the history of Isshinryu, the history of our school, and the history of each kata they perform. A bit of that information is in the guide, but students are expected to do outside research as well. Once the student receives that guide they can start working more methodically on making sure they're ready for every part of the test. When a 1st kyu has shown in class that they know everything in the guide, a test is scheduled for them. Since my school doesn't have formal testing cycles (for every rank but Shodan the rank is just awarded in class when the student is deemed ready), a test has to be scheduled. In the past when there were multiple black belt candidates testing, the test was scheduled for a Saturday morning. All the school's black belts are invited to attend as judges and to help congratulate the candidates and welcome them to black belt. Only black belts can attend. No family or friends or lower ranks. It's a private thing for the black belt group to welcome a new member. The test itself is more of a formality. The real test in is the build up when you have to prove class after class that you're ready. The test is considered more of a culminating demonstration of everything you've learned than an actual test and thus no one has ever failed. When I tested two years ago, this format wasn't followed. Because our school is so small right now, it was deemed unnecessary to do a formal test. They made me think one was going to happen and we spent months in class and I spent months at home preparing for it. But about a month before I was set to have my formal Saturday morning test, after a particularly hard night where we ran through almost the entire test together as a group during class, I was awarded my Shodan. It was a complete surprise to me, but the other black belts had been planning it for awhile and had been testing me during class in the previous month or so. So, in conclusion, it's an extremely small school which allows the testing process to be extremely personal and flexible depending on the student and the circumstances. It's more about the student showing they're ready during classes than any kind of formal test or requirements.

I say to each their own. My school has gotten very lax with it over the years. When I was a kid all black belts were Mr. or Ms. LastName. Now since our new head instructor works with the kids all day (we run out of a youth center) and they know him from there as Mike, they just call him Mike. Our other instructor is still Mr. Lee (his last name) because something about him just kinda encourages formality. I even call him Mr. Lee even though adults are allowed to call everyone by their first name. And for me they go back and forth between Devin and Miss Devin. I will say that the drop in formality has come along with a drop in respect overall, but I don't know if that's causation or just correlation. I think western society in general has grown less respectful and deferential.

I like the phrase "if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough". Making things really complicated is not a sign of an intelligent person. An intelligent person should be able to break something down and explain its parts in simple terms. Too many smart people think they need to "sound smart" by using jargon and making everything technical. I've found the best way to deal with that is present it as a challenge to the intelligent instructor-- explain to them the concept of breaking something down into its simplest form and tell them it's an intellectual challenge. If they can see that they can still be seen as the "smart one" without using a bunch of smartypants language (to use the technical term), they might lighten it up.

So does the term apply to anyone that has "mastered" a single technique? How about a few techniques? To me, if I were to ever use the term "Master" to define someone, it would be in reference to mastering the art not just a portion of the art. I think he's using the term "mastery" in the educational sense. It's a teaching jargon term which basically means a student is able to complete a skill accurately every time without having to put too much effort or thought into it and that they understand the basic concepts behind the skill. It doesn't mean they're masters of all knowledge. For example, a teacher would say a first grader has achieved mastery of basic addition if the child could add consistently every time without having to stop and think about each addition fact or count on his fingers or anything like that and he understands what addition means on a conceptual level. It doesn't mean that that first grader is a master of all mathematics, just that they've mastered that one math skill.

I don't where I'm currently living, but my ex had the hobby of making as much of the house as possible smart. He bought a Wink system for all the lights and the front door lock. All those could be controlled verbally by Alexa or remotely from our phones. He got a nest for the thermostat that could be controlled by our phones so we could leave the heat lower during the day and crank it up when we were on our way home. He had the TV receiver hooked up to Alexa so we could tell Alexa verbally to change the channel, change the volume, turn off the tv, turn on the XBox, etc. He had the whole house monitored by cameras (don't remember the brand) that he could view any time from his phone. He even had an egg container that would keep track of how long each egg has been in the fridge and tell you when it was time to use them or toss them. It was pretty cool. It's a fun little hobby, I think, but to be honest I don't really miss it. Pretty much the only smart device we had that I really thought was lifechanging was the front door lock. It was cool for everyone to have their own code to get in and for the system to alert you whenever someone used a code. You could make temporary codes for people like contractors and then delete the code when they were done with the job. You could also remotely unlock the door with your phone if you wanted to let someone in when you weren't home or remotely lock the door if you get to work and realize you forgot to lock it. Also, the week before we got it I accidentally locked myself out of the house while he was on a business trip and I had to spend $80 on a locksmith to let me in. This removes that possibility entirely.

There's a book that just came out called iGen about the current crop of teenagers and young adults (the generation after millennials) that's a good read if anyone is interested. It really helped me understand the differences in how this generation is growing up vs my generation just a decade before.

We do a ton. In fact, we use kata not found in our art. Isshinryu only has eight empty hand kata but we require fifteen forms for Shodan. We learn three non-Isshinryu kata as a preparation before learning the first Isshinryu kata (which is admittedly very complicated for beginners, especially children). We then have non-Isshinryu forms sprinkled throughout our curriculum-- including a Kung Fu form we learn as the first brown belt kata to "shake up" the new brown belt and make him or her move differently than they're used to. One of our instructors is also a 5th degree black belt in TKD, so we also do a lot of TKD style fancy kicking. Okinawan styles don't have fancy kicking, but we learn jumping/spinning/flying kicks from our instructor with the TKD background.

My instructor learned karate from several former military men who studied Isshinryu on Okinawa at the Agena dojo-- one under the founder of Isshinryu and the other under his son. According to them, it was all very informal. There were few formal classes. Students came in when they were free. Military men worked odd hours, and could come train whenever-- even in the middle of the night. New students would be taught basic exercises and kata by more experienced students. You'd come in and just train individually on whatever you wanted. If you were doing well, someone would teach you something new. If you wanted to spar or work applications, you'd just find someone and ask them to work with you. Shimabuku, the founder of Isshinryu, didn't teach formal classes or train alongside the students. Mostly he would just watch. If he saw you were working hard, he might offer you a correction or teach you something new. But the majority of the teaching was done by his black belts and they worked with newer students individually. You'd come in when you were free, stay a few hours working on whatever you wanted, then leave when you wanted. It was all very informal and individualistic.

I don't understand why you would ever hold things back. That sounds like ego to me. I think my instructor would say that "full knowledge" of an art comes from within after decades of practice. It's not something that's passed on to you. An instructor should teach the students everything, but really knowing the art is something the student does for themself.

Happy birthday, Bob!

I honestly don't think there's a connection at all. All sorts of people are attracted to karate. It really has something from everyone and different personalities enjoy different aspects-- be it the sport, the art, the camaraderie, the technicality-- whatever. I personality am an INTP. I like the individual challenge and breaking down the moves, though my lack of attention to detail in actually performing them hinders me. I also like learning the history and differences between arts. I'm not that into the sport part of it or the dojo drama (but luckily there not much of that at my small dojo).

It depends. I teach at a free school. We don't charge for anything. Some of the kids even get their uniforms provided for them because they can't afford them. We still have eight belts for kids before Shodan because it serves as a good motivational tool and keeps them coming. And we don't want them coming for the money (we don't get any money). We want them to keep coming because we want them to learn karate and have a positive place to come and get some exercise and get some good influences and learn to work towards and achieve goals. There are benefits to the belts system beyond just getting more money. The problem is that people abuse it to get more money and it gives the whole thing a bad rep.

Next Tuesday we're going to start our Fall beginners. We've got 6-8 new kids coming in-- all between the ages of 8 and 11. I'm going to be responsible for them. I know we're going to start out by doing warmups together with the rest of the class. After warmups, they're all mine. I've shadowed/assisted our former head instructor with the beginners for the last few years. His "first night" experience consisted of having them sit down while he went over the history of the program, a bit about the style, the rank system, the "three ks of karate", etc. It took a good 15-20 minutes. After that he really only had time to teach a few basic stances, how to make a fist, and how to punch. Tonight at class, however, our new head instructor told me "just promise me you wont have them sit down and talk to them forever". So I have to revise our "first night" procedure for next week. I'm curious to hear about how you all structure your first class for new students-- specifically children.

Once we start getting to the middle ranks and we're more likely to want to explore different things, share with other martial artists, etc, my instructor would always make sure to tell us "I teach it this way because ________. Other people do it that way because _______. Neither is wrong, but I want you to do it this way." He makes sure we know that the way we do it is not how everyone else does it and that that's ok. I mean, coming from Isshinryu we're kinda use to that already as the whole world thinks we form a fist and punch wrong. Even within my school, different people do it differently. One instructor may be teaching you a kata and tell you to do it one way. Another may work with you the next day and have you do it a different way. It doesn't happen in the beginning kata, but for the intermediate kata and above, if you go to the head instructor about the differences he'll just tell you "when you're working with Mr. Lee do it his way. When you're working with Mr. Cassidy do it his way. They're both right". I think that's the attitude to have. Karate is so diverse and ever-changing that arguing about what's right or wrong makes no sense.

I say different strokes for different folks. In our relatively safe modern world, few are studying karate out of a need to defend themselves. Unless you're regularly going to dangerous bars or are a police officer or bouncer or something like that, the likelihood of being attacked is slim. Yes, it's good to know what to do in that situation and martial arts training should teach that, but usually that's "break free and run" training rather than sustained kumite where you stand your ground and fight. For most people karate is a stress relief activity, a social activity, and a sport. It's a hobby. And due to that nature, different people want to focus on different things. Me-- I'm there mostly for stress relief, socialization, and giving back to my community by working with the kids. For me kata and kihon are king. I enjoy kumite and know it's necessary to be a well-rounded martial arts, but it's not my focus. So I attend a school that makes kihon and kata the main focus. There are other schools in my area who make kumite their main focus and who don't even do kata. The people who are more attracted to karate for the sport aspect are attracted to those schools. I feel the martial arts world is big enough to contain schools and styles with different focuses and martial artists with all different goals. I think trying to argue a "one true way" is misguided. Different people have different goals and different things they want to get out of karate. All are valid.

I'm a 5'6'' female and I usually get "Oh, I better not mess with you then, huh?". I usually just laugh it off. The really awkward stuff is when people tell my 6'1' hundred-pound-heavier-than-me boyfriend that HE better watch out for me. He's actually pretty good at responding to that and just jokes that I'm a ninja, but it's awkward for me. I don't like people joking about me physically hurting my boyfriend. It makes me sad just thinking about it.

Kids here go back to school tomorrow (6th graders and 9th graders have new student orientation today). Karate for us will be starting up in the next few weeks (we don't have classes during the summer). Looking forward to getting back into the routine.