taebot

Yes. shi shi ni.

Good first post JaseP. But what do I know? This is my fourth day here ...

LOL - well-nourished... I would have complemented his center of gravity...

Thanks John G.

KickChick You are sooooooooo wrong. Chongi is a complete fighting system complete with sweeps, pulls, punches and joint-locks. I use it to teach centerline protection as well as attacks from the rear and the proper methods of turning and locating the enemy. Heaven and Earth. When you begin, you are on the Earth and you strive to the Heavens. Having reached the level of black belt, one is usually humbled by what one does not know and we return to Earth. Our black belts do Chongi more often than the beginners. And rightly so.

Is this the black belt police posse? Where do I sign up? I have LOTS of ideas on who should be what rank. For example, when I beat you in the ring, I should get your rank because you obviously didn't know as much as me! RIGHT? Rank is internal to each school and system. If Joe Schmuckatello wants to go put a belt on, call himself a master, open a dojo, and start offering fries with each promotion what's it to you? He's going to fail in the marketplace of ideas. He's going to fail in competition. He's going to fail with his own students because you can only fool a few of the people all of the time... Let me ask you this KC nidan... Suppose manana Mr. Steve Mackey decides he's been patient long enough with one Mr. Jim Harrison and tells the world, I'm a master and my rank is seventh degree? You may want to drive on over and tell him what you think of it, but I'm going to throw him a nice party and tell him, "It's about time, man... It's about time!" When you're done checking out his credentials, you might want to go over to Ron Dotson Senior and ask him what gives HIM the right to be a black belt... :D My point being that Martial Arts may be historical, may be hierarchical, may be a tradition handed down carefully from student to master for generations... And then Joe Lewis comes along and rewrites the book completely. Or Bruce Lee, or the Krav Magna people, or even dumb 'ol Joe "I Just Promoted Myself" Schmuckatello. Conversely, you get a guy like Gary McGee, a fantastic martial artist who struggles and practices for years without rank. So the KC martial arts community gets together and says, "Hey, Mr. McGee. Nice work. Here's a certificate signed by all of us saying as far as we're concerned you're a sixth degree. Congratulations." Rank stinks.

Most seminars I've attended are dog and pony shows with little other than superficial material to offer. I'd rather go to a tournament where you have the opportunity to learn something about yourself. 10 minutes with a top competitor can equal one hour at ANY seminar. Seminars are useful as social events and I go only if the presenter is entertaining or has some historical value just to get a chance to see and meet a person who will be talked about long after I'm dead. Or if it is a Jim Harrison seminar because you never know when someone will cross his s___-tolorence level...

Shaolin is STILL evolving! Witness their discovery and use of tourists...

I have every single issue. Great job Mr. DeMarco! Kudos...

I was the doorman at a club. In not one encounter did I drop someone with a "TKD" technique, kicking or otherwise. Instinct takes over and the reverse-punch/right cross comes out... I was sparring at one of my instructors' schools and was being bum-rushed by a very inexperienced, but enthusiastic traditional karate stylist (name withheld to not let one idiot reflect upon a whole system ). By the third pass, I had him timed and dropped him with a jump-spin crescent kick. When he got up, he he asked what happened. I told him and he said he'd never ever seen such a thing before. I pointed out that technically, he still hadn't SEEN it ! So for now, that's my favorite TKD kick to be used in whatever situation it gets used in.

I've been called stoopid in a lot of ways before... This may be the first time I've seen interesting substituted! I've gotten new signups, just no regulars.

All you heathens out there that drink black tea, I'm declaring war on you for cruel and unusual treatment of tea leaves! You know who I'm talking about, you English, Canadians, Americans, Australians, Kiwi-heads... I have some good Ti Kwan Yin right now...

The teaching, at the first dan level, is the training, IMHO. Our advanced ranks just join in class and concentrate on themselves and their technique. Rank is acquired through time and group consensus more than jumping through hoops and mastering even yet more arcane techniques.

PS - Keep in mind, he's a millionaire and I'm not !

One of my instructors, a very successful businessman as well as large school owner does it like this. You pay for training. You get paid to teach. His viewpoint being that when teaching and lessons are linked, if you need to fire an instructor, you're basically firing a student, too. On the other hand, none of our black belts pay doodly-squat. We do tend to treat first degrees as indentured servants though !

I didn't have any sure-fire tips yesterday, but an answer came to me earlier as I replied to another thread. We do public black belts tests and advertise them. The testing is combined with a pot-luck dinner and the public is welcomed in and treated as family. We ALWAYS get new sign-ups even though marketing did not originally drive our testing concept and we do no recruiting.

We know everyone here. The problem is to get the newbies to respect you and take you seriously... ESPECIALLY the ones who have known you a long time and seen you do some realy dumb things over the course of the years!

Set curriculum and time requirements, the latter not being a guarantor of passage… You can test when you time is up, but if you are not ready, you will be failed.

Reading. News junkie. Political junkie. Used to be Music. Played in the base band in the Marines, but ONLY to avoid peeling potatoes as I detest marching bands. Clarinet. I grew up in a home that featured Polka music and the Pete Fountain, Pete Best (? -obviously been a while...). How was I about to know guitar was about to become king and my choice of instrument would condem me to geekdom and physical abuse on top of taunting and name calling, not that I'm bitter or anything... Home. Family. Community.

Did I mention that I am a Tom Clancy addict?

The secret to Art of War is repeated readings ignoring the footnotes. Furthermore, I you take and cross out all the repeated material, you pretty much get Go Rin No Sho... Machiavelli says about the same things in a way closer to you cultural viewpoint.

Joe's not too lucky ! He's dead ... btw - I've never been on AFV, but I promise to never, ever let facts get in the way of a good schtick...

Do I pass the Turing test?

This is now, my third day, so forum policy stated may, or may not be, the reality, so I wait, watch, probe, keep my feet, ahem, fingers moving... Like round one! I will do an introduction, though .

We invite the public to our testings. This removes the mystery and shows what is possible for any common person to do. We usually include lower belt testings or demos to show the skill progression, the link that makes it possible in the mind of the viewer, "Hey, I can't do the black belt stuff, but I CAN do the orange belt stuff and that blue belt is certainly no younger than I am..." I just don't like the hood and robe, or shall we say, triad, aspect of the martial arts. Similary, I don't think a testing should be boot camp, the student should all ready have been through boot camp. Testing, to me, is a celebration and a public affermation and display by the testing candidate, yes, I have mastered the materials. Our candidates demonstrate the entire forms set, put on a breaking demo of their own design, and then get to prove that they can survive for 30 seconds minimum against multiple black belt attackers. Then we have a HUGE pot luck dinner and celebration (only one black belt has EVER failed the test because we simply don't test those whom cannot pass...)!