Lupin1

Just got back from the meeting. It was very short (about 15 minutes). I filled out a form with what I was interested in, my martial arts experience, what I hope to get out of it, etc. We talked for a little about that and about what I did for a living, what my goals were, etc. Then she showed me the schedule and the pricing options (it's a year contract and the more you put down, the cheaper it is per month). After that we took a tour of the school. Lots of people there-- there were two kids' karate classes going on in the two front rooms and the BJJ room was in the back. A mixed fundamentals class was going on with white and blue belts taught by a black belt instructor. There were six people in the class (I know there are more in the program, however, as I've seen pictures on their facebook page with tons of people). She invited me to attend two trial classes next week-- the women's class and the mixed fundamentals class-- and said I can make a decision after that. Overall I got a very good feeling about it, though still a bit of sticker shock after seeing the prices. I can afford it, however, if it's something I think I'm going to stick with for a year. I guess I'll decide after the trial classes next week.

I like the idea. It promotes the idea of the dojo being a family and a community rather than just a place to learn MA. I'd suggest having separate adult movies and family movies with all ages welcome at family movies and an age limit (maybe 13 when accompanied by an adult) for adult movies. For the family movies, things like Karate Kid and Kung Fu Panda come to mind.

Since with my new work schedule I can only get to one of my karate classes a week, I thought it would be a good opportunity to try something new (in addition to continuing with my one karate class a week). I called the local BJJ school. They're a very commercial school (bordering on McDojo for their karate program, but their BJJ program seems legit). They have great reviews and are the only BJJ class around here I can make it to. They also offer a women only class, which appeals to me. They want me to come in tomorrow evening for "an interview". This is my first experience with a commercial school (everything I've done so far has been through rec centers and youth centers). What should I expect at this interview? Will they try to use high pressure sales tactics on me? I know I'm more informed than your average person who knows nothing about martial arts, but I hate high pressure situations. Any advice from those who run a commercial school or the BJJ guys/gals on what to look for or what questions to ask?

Can we just take a moment to appreciate the fact that the Cubs are in the World Series for the first time since 1945?

Happy birthday!

This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community. How many times have you been asked this question over the course of your schooling, career or martial arts training? How many times have you asked your students this question? What would you do if the truthful answer was "I'm a follower"? One goal of most martial arts schools is to develop leadership in their students. In our society, we see the issue as black and white: you're either a leader or a follower. There is no in between. There is no sometimes. And it's usually seen as a very obvious, set-in-stone trait. You can tell if a person is a leader or a follower as easily as you can tell if they have blue eyes or brown and, in many cases, the two are viewed as just as unfluctuating. And so we set it as our goal to turn our students from quiet, withdrawn and passive followers into loud, outgoing and outspoken leaders. But what would happen if we decided to question the view of leadership and followership as black and white? How would it change our ideas about leadership and our approach to developing leadership in our students? Leadership is a set of skills, not a personality trait. And, like all skills, leadership can and must be taught and developed. People love to use the word "leader" as if it is a characteristic. A girl is praised on a report card as "a leader of her peers." An employee is passed over for a promotion because he is "not a leader." We "turn kids into leaders" believing that once the task is complete, they'll never again be followers. But what this view fails to take into account is that "leader" is a role a person is fulfilling at a particular moment, not a defining trait of their being. When a person is "being a leader," they are using a set of interpersonal skills to accomplish a task with others. When they are "not a leader," they are not using those skills. Certain skills such as planning, effective communication, motivation and management go into making a leader and are skills that can be taught and practiced. As with any other skill, some people will naturally excel or struggle with leadership, but even those who struggle can improve with instruction. When people are told things such as "leaders are born, not made" and "you're either a leader or a follower," it's ignoring the fact that almost every skill that goes into leadership can be taught and it destroys the confidence of those who need that instruction the most. Rather than "creating leaders," a school should focus on "developing leadership skills." Words are powerful things and the way we describe something can change the way we think about, perceive and approach it. Rather than advertising that your school "creates leaders" or telling students you're going "turn them into leaders," tell them you will teach them leadership skills. Then create and implement an active plan to do just that. Break down what you feel to be the most important skills a leader can have and spend time teaching and having your students practice each one. Talk about and have your white belts practice effective and respectful communication by doing role playing and teamwork challenges. Talk with your blue belt about assessing what someone else needs to work on and giving positive criticism and feedback to help them become better and then have them work with a white belt to develop a particular skill. Talk with your brown belts about designing an effective lesson, delegating and communicating with partners and have them take turns planning and running a lesson in which they need to direct other brown belts to run small group activities. At the end of each of these activities, have a debriefing to allow the entire class to give feedback and suggestions to help their classmates as well as learn from the struggles and triumphs of their peers. As my instructor always says, what you don't practice, you can't do. Developing leadership skills is something that must be done deliberately and systematically. Both introverts and extroverts (and ambiverts, too) can be leaders and there's more than one type of leader. It's often said that before you can lead others, you must learn to lead yourself. And part of that involves knowing yourself. You must know your strengths and your weaknesses, your personality, what generally works for you and what doesn't. The quiet, intelligent leader who people follow because he knows what he's doing is just as valid as the outgoing, charismatic leader who people follow because he speaks up and takes charge. Students should learn to recognize their strengths, their personalities and their leadership preferences, and to make those work for them. Being a leader does not mean changing your personality so that people will follow you. That never works out in the long run. The greatest leaders harness the natural energies of their personality and use them to shape their leadership methods. Whether it be the energetic, people-centered energy of the extrovert or the intense, thought-centered energy of the introvert. There are great leaders of all personalities and dispositions. It all depends on how you use what you have. Students should be encouraged to be true to themselves, but to find and develop their best selves. A confident introvert with practiced interpersonal skills can make himself heard as effectively as any extrovert. Knowing when and how to be an active follower is just as important as knowing how to lead. Everyone must be a follower sometimes. Leaders are necessary in directing a body of people, but without that body, there is nothing to lead. It is not bad to be a follower. You are not a sheep or a mindless drone. In fact, learning how to be an active follower is just as important as learning how to be a leader. No good leader wants to command mindless drones and so being a follower doesn't mean shutting off your own brain or surrendering your thoughts and will to another person. An active follower must know how to spot good leadership and how to offer support to both good and bad leaders. A follower must know when and how to respectfully speak up and when to step aside and do their own job while letting the leader lead. They must know their role in the group and how to support the rest of their team while still focusing on their own tasks and letting others do the same. They must know how to be reliable, responsible and obedient, while still applying their own skills and knowledge effectively and for the good of the group. Good followership is not an easy task and should be taught right alongside with good leadership. The skills are similar, yet slightly different and are applied in different ways. The most effective team member can both lead and follow and knows when to apply which skill. A good instructor knows that in order to bring out the most potential in his students and make them as prepared for life as possible, he needs to do several things. First, he must identify the teachable skills that a good leader must have in his toolbox. Second, he must develop and implement a plan to systematically teach those skills to his students while allowing them opportunities to practice those skills and reflect on their progress and their own strengths and leadership methods. Finally, he must develop his students' confidence in their abilities through repeated opportunities and the knowledge that even when they do make mistakes, they have the skills to learn from those mistakes and to become a better leader (or follower) with every experience.

Brown belt is an important rank as a stage of growth. Most people grow and learn a lot during their time as a brown belt. One of the things many people learn during brown belt training is to not to care so much about rank or what others (like your friends) think of their rank. Do karate for you, not as a means of impressing your friends.

There's also the fact that when people learn knife defense, the "attacker" usually brandishes the knife from 10 feet away first. In most knife situations, it's concealed until the last second and you don't have time to do many of the techniques that are taught. If someone brandishes the knife from 10 feet away, my self-defense is my CC.

When it's really, really cold (like below 10ish degrees) it gets to me. All my muscles and joints are just so stiff and tense from being cold all day. That's when I usually get hurt (the other year my muscles were so tense I sneezed and someone pulled a muscle in my neck and was out for two weeks). I don't mind the heat as much, but summer's the busiest time of year for me at work and so I don't get to class as much. Fall is the best time because all the kids are getting back into it and the temperatures just right and it's nice. Spring is ok, too, but usually by Spring the kids are losing motivation from the long year and are ready for summer.

I bought myself a cheap belt display rack on Amazon to hang them on the wall. I ruined it, however, by giving my orange belt to a little boy who needed one... Gis I just throw away. I wear them out and they're usually stained and nasty or ripped before I toss them.

I try my best to eat low sugar and low carb. I lost over 100 pounds on low carb/primal a few years ago, but I've been slipping and have gained a chunk of it back. For the most part I do a lot of meat, cheese, and coffee (no sugar, extra cream) with some vegetables (not as much as I should be getting).

It's hard to do a rotating curriculum yourself having everyone in the same class. Although I don't teach my own program yet, as a teacher by trade I enjoy planning out what my curriculum would be. I would use a rotating curriculum. I think the brand new beginners would have their own class. That way we can really go into the basics of each movement without boring the kids who've already done it (not that they wont continue to work basics) and the beginners can have all my attention. After that I would probably do three belts intermediate (yellow, orange, blue), three belts advanced (green, purple, brown), and then a black belt class (starting with junior black belt). The intermediate and advanced classes would be taught on a three or four month rotating curriculum. Kids would only be able to join at the beginning of the session. Each session would focus on a kata, some movements, some partner drills/self defense techniques, an aspect of sparring, and possibly some grappling techniques. Starting at junior black belt (equivalent to adult brown belt) kids would move at their own pace as one would assume by that rank they'd be capable of self-managing their own learning with some guidance. In my experience that's also when kids' attendance becomes more spotty or kids start hitting more plateaus or dips in motivation. Allowing them to work at their own pace allows someone to push through something like that while also teaching them self-management and independence. I think, if I had room, I'd like to do at least one "open" class a week so the beginners can benefit from working with the advanced students and the advanced students could develop their leadership skills. Those are my thoughts on how I'd like a curriculum to work. This is assuming I'd run my program through a rec center or youth center and only be able to teach a few days a week. I also wrote my dream curriculum for children. I don't feel capable of teaching adults right now and would probably send any interested adults over to my instructors. If I were opening a full school with a full schedule, I'd probably work it a little differently.

I've seen everything from it just being an extra karate class (with an extra fee) to an entire curriculum of leadership skills with philosophy, communication skills, problem solving, role playing, teamwork challenges, mentoring, etc. I think the latter would be a great program for kids who aren't getting that sort of thing elsewhere. I did a similar curriculum when I took JROTC in high school and those skills have been very helpful in the working world. I think the schools who just use it as a revenue booster give the entire concept a bad name, unfortunately.

There are two sides to martial arts-- the combat side, and the sport side (you could also add a third side-- the art side-- encompassing things like kata). UFC and competitions and weight classes are the sport side. It's not trying to be a realistic brawl. It's a sport just like basketball or tennis. The combat side to martial arts is usually studied in class and you learn things that would be illegal in a competition. Competing definitely puts you at an advantage in a fight (you're use to distance, finding openings, keeping your cool, etc) but it's not meant to be an all out "fight".

Talk to him. Figure out why he's doing that. Have a conversation about integrity (without being preachy) and let him know you're hurt by his actions. If he's invested into you and the dojo, he'll probably be repentant and it'll stop. Then he can start earning your trust back.

I don't know about killing. I've been here almost seven years (has it been that long already?) and the number of new members introducing themselves seems to have stayed steady. I'm also in a few karate/martial arts groups on Facebook and Reddit and we offer a completely different experience. Facebook is good, but it doesn't have that tight knit community we get here. It's a lot of people posting funny pictures and memes and not a lot of deeper discussion. You also can't go back and look at past threads as easily. It's not organized for discussion or thought. It's organized for people to see things that make them say "oh that's cool" and move on. Reddit has some good discussion across the board, but it's not moderated for respectful conversation. The people on reddit are knowledgable, but they're rude and elitist and the moderators don't care (in fact, the rudeness has actually been embraced as part of the site's culture and most people there are proud of it). So, while a lot of people do frequent those sites, I don't think they're going to be replacing stand alone forums like this any time soon. There's just too much going on on those sites for members to have serious discussions AND form a tight knit, informative, and supportive community.

Welcome!

I taught my first class where I was the only adult in the room a month or two before I got my Shodan. It wasn't planned-- something came up where our other instructor couldn't make it and no one got the word around fast enough to cancel class. Before that time I had been assisting since green belt and have been almost solely responsible for the brand new youth beginners since brown belt. I've since taught the youth class on my own a few times since getting my Shodan. That said I'm a bit of a special case as I have a teaching degree and several years experience as a school teacher, so I'm more experienced than your average Shodan (or even many Sandans) in handling a classroom full of kid. The few times I've found myself alone in front of the class I've stuck mostly to basics and conditioning and have used the opportunity to do some of the more academic stuff that usually falls by the wayside (karate and style history, terminology, personal safety, some anatomy and health, etc). Not being an official instructor, I wouldn't teach the kids anything new while being the sole adult in the room and I keep partner work to minimum without a black belt instructor around to help supervise and be a second body to go for help if someone gets hurt. So I think in special circumstances pre-instructors can handle a class now and then, but I wouldn't make someone who's not a qualified instructor in your system the sole teacher of a class on a permanent basis and I would limit what they can teach.

Happy birthday Zaine!

Welcome! I too was a "boomerang student". I trained from age 8-11 and made it to 6th kyu before leaving to pursue other activities. I started training again after college and got my Shodan in December. Keep an open mind and stick with it! Good to have you on the forums!

We're very informal as a club program. We don't use any titles-- not even sensei, though we do teach new students what it means. Every so often my instructor's instructor will come visit and he joking calls my instructor hanshi knowing that he doesn't like it. My instructor is 8th dan with over 40 years training and is over 65 years old. One of our 6th dans (soon to be promoted to 7th dan) who is the head children's instructor wears a renshi belt, but we don't call him renshi. Perhaps if we had more formal events we would use formal titles, but we don't.

Yes. Falling is really the only time I've "used" my martial arts, but it's saved me a few times. One time I was being dumb and stood on a swivel chair to hang something on my bedroom ceiling. As soon as I push the stapler in, the chair went spinning and I went flying. I flew off the chair, hit the tv standing knocking the tv over, and landed on my back with a nice slap just in time to catch the tv. After I caught my breath it took me about five minutes to find my glasses which had flown to the other side of the room. I hit the ground hard and it hurt, but the only lingering pain I had was my wrist where the tv had landed on it. There have been a few other small slips on ice or trips over things, but the one above is where I really could've gotten hurt without the training.

Welcome!

In addition to Zaine's question, I'd also wonder if there are other clubs in your area run by dan ranked instructors and if you're planning on charging a normal fee. If your area has very few martial arts schools, you may be more successful starting a school at 2nd kyu and people could forgive your lack of experience. If the area is flooded with 3rd dans and higher teaching, most people will gravitate towards them for instruction. Also, if you plan on starting a small, free or cheap program at a youth center or rec club that might be different than wanting to open a full blown school with normal fees. People again will be more open to taking lessons from a 2nd kyu for free or for cheap through a rec center, but may not want to spend a good chunk of their income on lessons from a kyu ranked student.

Happy birthday!