Wastelander

The answer to this question is obviously going to vary from person to person, but I think it's also important to point out that some people are limited in what they are allowed to learn by their rank, and that's going to significantly affect their view on this question. For a most schools, the curriculum does not stop at Shodan, and many don't actually allow students to learn the curriculum of the ranks above them, so staying at Shodan for students in those schools would actually mean that they would stop learning new material. They could continue to refine what they already learned, of course, but that limitation is still a problem. To answer your question, though, I could have stayed a Shodan forever under my late Sensei and been fine, since he taught the full curriculum by Shodan and taught all the black belts all the same material, and it was up to us to explore it from there. He did want us to test for higher ranks, though, and I ended up earning Nidan, and being told of his plans to test me for Sandan, but my personal story gets a little complicated after he passed away. I was officially put up to test for Sandan by the highest ranking member of our dojo, who unfortunately passed away a few months later, himself. My test ended up being cancelled 3 weeks out, after about 9 months of preparation, because someone higher up in the organization found out that when I started my own karate program, it wasn't going to be part of the organization, because I wanted to alter the curriculum (which my late Sensei and I had discussed and he liked the idea of). They also refused to repay me the money I had been forced to pay well in advance to have my rank registered with the organization, despite the fact that I had not even been given the chance to fail the test. I had originally planned to remain in the organization, myself, and continue training and testing in it, but after treating me that way, on top of a bunch of other political nonsense I had to deal with in the last two years of being a member, I wanted nothing to do with it. This leaves me in a position where I am not even able to test for a higher rank, even if I wanted to. Since I have started my own program, it would be nice to be able to have that higher rank for marketing purposes, I suppose, but most potential students don't even know there are varying degrees of black belt. Several friends have urged me to pursue Sandan, at least, so I am currently looking at my options for that, but if I say a Nidan forever, that's not the end of the world, for me. My Sensei's standards for Shodan were nearly equivalent to some people's standards for Godan in that organization, and as Bob likes to say, "the proof is on the floor."

Congratulations, and certainly very impressive!

Congratulations, and many thanks for your contributions!

Honestly, I have to say that your experience with karate has been VASTLY different than mine--the ideal, certainly, but not anywhere near the reality that I've experienced. Still, without karate, I imagine I would probably be a lonely, depressed, (more) out-of-shape gamer boy, still living in Illinois, and who knows what would have happened to my IT career if I had stayed there instead of leaving when I did. I'd like to think I would have still been alive by now without karate, but my quality of life certainly wouldn't be as good. Karate gave me the ability to speak in front of groups of people, which I was incapable of prior to that, thanks to severe social anxiety. It also helped me learn more about teaching people. Without those two skills, I can't imagine I would have gotten anywhere near as far in life as I have. Plus, I have made some great friendships, had great experiences, learned a lot of really cool/fun things, and found something I really enjoy.

Loosing the school you have been training at is always hard when you want to keep training, no matter how you lose it. I've gone through it twice, now. When I moved from Illinois to Arizona, I spent 2 years without a karate dojo, although I did find a Judo club to attend. During those two years, I took advantage of the opportunity to continue the Judo training I had started in my first karate dojo, and in my free time I researched karate, and practiced my kata, and did bagwork. I wrote little blog posts about the things I was learning and/or figuring out. The chance for discovery really kept me going. That 2 years ended when I met my late Sensei, and I started training with him as much as I could. After he passed away, I continued training and teaching at the dojo he had started for a while, but I left at the end of 2019, for a variety of reasons. I had intended to start my own dojo, but the housing market and COVID put a stop to that. That's left me training at home for a year and a half, now, which can be disheartening. Thankfully, I have been able to teach private lessons, some in-person, but most over Zoom, as well as several webinars. These give me the additional motivation to keep up on my own training, and I've been building my collection of training equipment. I can work my kata, hit the makiwara, drill on the heavybag, train techniques on an improvised kakiya/kakete-biki, and lift. When I have the chance, I get together with people who want to train and are vaccinated or in my bubble. I think that, as long as you still have the interest, you can keep yourself going. It can be hard, because you don't have the regular class schedule to rely on, and you have to find your own training partners to hold you accountable, but it's doable. Study, try to figure things out for yourself, and I highly recommend writing about it.

Congratulations, indeed, and welcome back!

Congratulations! Sounds like things are going well!

Style-wise, it's a mixed bag. You're more likely to find that sort of material from schools that teach "practical karate," regardless of the style. The material is present in all styles of karate, but they don't all train in it.

Really just when they first get their dogi, or when they need to replace a worn out patch. I wasn't sure if the other patch options might last longer, or look nicer.

Hello, everyone! I've long felt like designing a patch for your dojo/dojang/school/etc. was sort of the mark of "making it official." I created mine a good while ago, now, but COVID changed all my plans for opening. I just received my first batch of printed patches, today, and I've gotta say, it feels pretty great! These are simple 25% embroidery patches, so they are the cheapest option available, basically. Has anyone gone with the fancier printed or PVC patches? Are they worth the investment?

Welcome to the forum, and welcome back to karate!

Not exactly. Back when I was a green belt, I cut my old white belt into pieces that I distributed to a group of kids at an inner city school I did a demonstration at, as sort of keepsakes. At this point, the only belts I still have are the white belt I still use when I train at other people's schools, my Judo green belt, my Shuri-Ryu brown belt, my old Shorin-Ryu brown belt, my current black belt, and my "formal" black belt that my Sensei gifted me (new) when I was promoted to Shodan. Since I only fairly recently went independent, and the pandemic put a pause on really starting up my dojo, I haven't had the opportunity to train someone up to a belt rank I could pass on the belt for. I suspect I will pass on my brown belt, someday. The formal black belt has sentimental value to me, since my Sensei has passed on, but I may pass on my regular black belt, someday.

Welcome to the forum!

What you're describing would be akin to an ude-makiwara, but without any spring action. You can use it for conditioning, if you're careful, but it's not really a makiwara. A better bet would be to build a proper makiwara on a platform, that way it's moveable and not permanently bolted to the floor or anything.

The triangular shape is the result of making a wedge shape with your hands/arms. That's it. Some styles like to attribute poetic meanings to "unusual" movements or postures in kata, and this one is frequently related to "looking to the sky," or "scanning the heavens," but those are relatively new interpretations. Karate doesn't have any more "hidden dark ties" than any other martial art that was developed for self-defense and law enforcement--that is to say, just the "hidden dark ties" that specific practitioners might have as individuals. A good number of Kyokushin practitioners, for example, were known Yakuza, but it makes sense that a rough-and-tumble fighting style will attract such people to it.

Welcome to the forum!

Many thanks, Alex!

My Sensei encouraged students to take advantage of seminars, regardless of style. Active cross-training in another art he encouraged once students reached brown belt--before that, you tend to have students blending things too much, too soon, and they don't make very good progress in either art. The organization didn't care, unless you were visiting Okinawa, and then all training outside of the organization honbu dojo was forbidden.

Thank you to everyone who voted, and congratulations to everyone who won!

That sort of thing happens FREQUENTLY in traditional martial arts after a major figure in the style passes away. Maybe they were the founder of the style, or the head of the organization, or the son of somebody notable, but when they die, it's pretty much inevitable. Everyone wants to stand on the shoulders of that major figure, and they believe there is only room for one person to do that, so they have to discredit others and make themselves out to be the "most righteous successor," so to speak.

Thank you so much, everyone!

Well, the Shorinkan has 10 dan ranks, although I'm not with the organization anymore. The Bugeikan doesn't have dan ranks for KishimotoDi, at all--just a Shihan license you can test for, eventually. For my own school, once COVID settles down, I think I'm going to get rid of the multiple levels of yudansha, entirely. The closest I would have is a "curriculum black belt" and an "instructor black belt."

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum!

Well, before some personal setbacks and COVID, while I was prepping to open my own dojo, I had set up a structure where my childrens' ranks were completely separate from the adult ones. This is an idea that I shamelessly stole from BJJ, lol. I figured there was no sense in trying to have kids and adults learn the exact same curriculum in the exact same way/order and just breaking the belts into pieces, although that is what my previous instructors did. I liked the idea of setting up a youth program that had its own curriculum, which would build up to where they could join the adult program sometime in their teens and be well prepared to do so.