DeeperMeaning

Whoa, been reading all this and it sounds all to expensive! I charge 25€ a month (+- 25 US$), and students are allowed to trian 3 days a week 4 hours each (they don't have to train the 4 hours). When my Shihan charged me (he doesn't do it anymore ), I payed 30 € (30 US$) that included National Karate Federation fees, health insurance, transportation to tournaments, etc etc etc. Also, there are no grading / belt fees. Everyone must buy their own belts, but there are no testing fees.

I let kids spare with almost no contact, and of course using protective gear. When it comes to adults (and teens: 16+), I have this rule: no hard contact during normal classes, but contact is allowed. Whoever wants to spar more hard stays in the 3rd hour - of course that when I begin to know better a student and see him / her making progress and I think he / she is ready, I ask them to stay in the 3rd hour. Useless to say almost the whole adult class stays for the 3rd hour, but we don't KO eachothers.

Officially? 2nd dan Goju-Ryu and Blue Belt in Judo. Non-officially I've trained Shukokai, Muay, Kickboxing, freestyle grappling, etc.

IMHO, the best gi's are from Shureido. Simply amazing and my fav's

A bit like Jhoon Rhee did...

Thanks for the explanation. I see that Karate is used as a general term... Well it does mean "empty fist". About Karate Kid, he praticed Goju-Ryu - at least in the movie there's the old guy called Mr. Miyagi and the founder of Goju-ryu was Kensei ("holy fist") Chojun Miyagi PS: Where I live, there was some trouble about clubs using the word "Karate" to promote their arts: the national karate federation even took them to court!

Aren't Kyokushin's techniques (when I say this I mean the way of praticing them) half-way between Shotokan and Goju-ryu? I think I read this once.

I'm not American. I'm from Europe, and one thing I see is that in America (USA), it seems to be dozens of styles practiced. It looks like anyone can open a dojo and call it Karate. Is it? I teach a mixed-style and I don't call it Karate, though it's mainly Goju, Shukokai, Judo, Muay, and techniques from other arts, as well as original stuff. My students are aware that what I teach them is not Karate - though if I did get a huge sign saying "Karate Dojo - High Rank Sensei, Champion", I know I would get a lot more students. One of the things I learnt while studying Karate was tradition. I was lucky enough to be taught by aa 7th dan in Goju-Ryu, an old man who had studied Karate and Judo in Okinawa, who taught me tradition and respect. But, from what I read and know from this "new karate styles", there seems to be a lack of tradition and technique accuracy! Can someone clear this out for me? How is Karate in general in the USA? Too "comercial"? PS: It's not my intenttion to offend anyone, just pure curiosity.

I teach my mixed-style but still attend to my Shihan's (in Karate) dojo to train and I pay nothing - but maybe it'z coz we ended up as friends

I still remeber my first MA class. It was in Judo. It was great 'coz the Dojo had just opened and we were a bunch of kids, knowing nothing about Judo. The Sensei teached us what was Judo, what it meant, then teached us how to fall, etc. I felt like home and I loved it. I remember thta at the end of the class the Sensei chose some of us and smoothly showed some techniques, it was really great and not intimidating at all. But... When I started doing Goju-Ryu, I went to a great Dojo, which was mastered by an old man, a 7th dan. I remember thinking that no old-man was going to teach me Karate, but when I saw him.... WOW! I immediatly knew I was going to love Karate He was so strong and agile... He taught me and other begginers the basics n' stuff, but never doing that "military" kind of teaching... He is still me role-model for me on how to teach MA First classes are very important.

I train everyday and train/teach 3 times a week for 4 hours. 1 hr makiwara / sandbag, 2 hrs teaching and 1 extra hour doing kata / sparring with advanced students.

All my students must wear a white karate-gi, but when thay achieve red belt they can choose to wear black.

And I do a test every 3 months, warning the class earlier and explaining again all kata and techniques.

Even though I teach a "mixed-style", I use the Goju-Ryu grading system, just like I was ranked. This has no stripes or mixed-color belts, simply white, yellow, orange, green, blue, red, brown, black.

In first classes (when a whole new group, eg kids, are joining), I accomodate them by introducing them to eachothers and to older students as well. I tell them what are they going to learn and how, and then do some warm-up, if it's young kids we're talking about, some games can help (when I say games it's games where you have to run, crawl, etc, gym-like stuff). The most important of all is to develop a group spirit, IMHO.