masterphoenix

Does anyone know a supplier that stocks the degree patches for belts? I've seen some black and gold ones in the past that were roman numerals, that way a student could keep their same belt, but change the patch as they changed dans.

I never do them online... I draw it out, make notes about what thread color I want each line, belt size, belt width, belt style, etc, and then I fax it to them.

Century's belts are firm, but very thing, and they burn them off at the ends instead of hemming. This hard, sharp plastic edge can amount to injuries, particularly in grappling or ground drills. One of these sharp edges scratched someone's eye. We always shoot for stitched belts. I like Golden Tiger's belts and Asian World's. For black belts, I always use Sang Moo Sa and get the deluxe quality if they don't want to spend the big bucks. If they do, I always go for Eosin Panther.

Do you publish a catalog then?

Glad to hear it. I had 2 years worth of nothing but nightmares with them after Rand left. I left a message for the owner at the East Coast facility, and they never even returned my call.

I've never seen anything in 25 years that beats Eosin...

Haha. Too funny.

I hope people will at least discuss specific things they do or don't like instead of being insulting or passing condemnation. This kind of questioning walks a thin line. There is another message forum I really dislike where the majority of what they do is find something to pick on about other schools. This board is very decent. I'll be interested to see how people handle this question.

Amen. The law favors criminals, at least in the U.S. You're even put into question if you hurt someone who has broken into your house, even though it's supposed to be legal to use force against them. If it's proven that someone has broken into your house or initiated unwarranted violence, what you did to end the situation should never be put in question.

Interesting post. I think a lot of people would benefit from having options about the intensity of training.

At this time, all of our affiliated classes are held in fitness centers, churches and public schools, so unfortunately, the wall thing won't work for us, but it was a good idea. Thanks for taking the time to suggest it.

Sounds very human to me, after doing the same thing for years. Most senior instructors I know don't teach beginners anymore. I don't think there's any dishonor in moving on to allow lower ranked students to run things and focusing your experience on the higher ranked ones. This seems to be a pretty natural trickle down effect. Some long time instructors will be out on the floor with beginners and some won't. I don't think it's anything you should be hard on yourself about.

The manual will be split into a younger and an older class. The older class begins at about age 12. This list is fantastic, and does contain some things I hadn't thought of yet. Thanks for the contribution!

I am looking for topics for a book I am writing for our instructors and assistants. This book explains the objectives of each belt level, requirements and offers structured lesson plan templates so that things are changing, exciting and progressing toward our goals. I'm going to cover all aspects of classroom training such as flexibility, strengthening, open hand techniques, kicks, self-defense, sparring, etc - everything that goes on in the classroom. I'm going to give a wide variety of drills for achieving skill in every area for the purpose of preventing student boredom and class stagnation, while keeping things on track in the bigger picture. I will offer at least 20 lesson plan templates, with instructions for creating more templates, so that classes are at least somewhat planned out for 30 days in advance. If you were writing such a manual, what subjects would you include? What drills? What games? What would you say to staff who might be responsible for running classes by themselves, classes not separated by belt rank?

I'm trying to get away from inkjet printed certificates because we have had a few incidents where they were presented to someone with sweaty hands and the ink smeared, or something in the bag had some moisture to it and caused some smearing. The kind of stock we use generally repels water pretty well, the ink does not. I'm going to switch to a laser printer, but I need a color printer with auto duplexing at a reasonable price. Any suggestions?