shotokanz

Wow, that is quite a story Justice Zero, and a good illustration of your point. The thing that has been missing for me in this whole thread is... where is the instructor??! I mean I could understand how in a really large dojo this kind of thing (the event described by the OP) could be missed or overlooked, but that doesn't appear to be the case here. A lot of people have mentioned that the kid should be responsible for himself and/or Holley should be responsible for her behavior, and I think both are true. However, I cannot fathom how any teacher would just turn loose an emotionally disturbed kid and a barely adult orange belt and let them just try to work it out. That seems extremely irresponsible on the instructor's part, not to mention dangerous. That is, assuming Holley gave us all the information to begin with. In any case, I do hope that this situation has been resolved in this dojo! that's because it more than likely isn't actually happening. Refer to holleys other thread and read my post near the end of it to figure out why. Holley just got an orange belt, and she was supposedly going to get her purple belt...that is until her mom told her sensei she lied about something, now the sensei won't let her test for purple. Funny how someone who can't control their kicks gets to jump from orange to PURPLE belt isn't it?

Well here's how it went guys: First off, class started like 20 minutes late (i knew only 2 people were coming to this first one, no big deal, more will come over time) because the one girl was running very late, not a big deal though as i am allowed to close the gym when i'm done so it worked out ok. We stretched, i talked to them a bit, got the jitters out of my system. I explained the 3 stances (horse, front, back) that we'd be doing, showing each to them. We then got in horse stance, and i broke down the basic punch to them in as many steps as i could to help them understand it. Once they had it down, we picked up the pace a bit, and i had them throw several dozen of them, making sure to emphasize hip rotation, the draw hand, all the goodies lol. After we did it for a while, i broke down all 4 of the basic blocks for them, my fiance was one of the girls there, she's trained with me a bit so she had a VERY minute understanding of it already, the other girl slowly started to get it, had a hard time getting her to understand about how her arms need to cross over each other during certain movements, and about keeping her palm up on rising blocks for example, but eventually she caught on. We worked on this for a good part of the hour actually, as it was what was giving them the most trouble. We then moved on to kicks. We did snap kicks from front stance from the back leg, teep kicks (foot jabs or push kicks as you might call them), shotokan roundhouse kicks and muay thai roundhouse kicks. I made sure to show them all the subtle and big differences between the 2 types of kicks, explaining some of the more appropriate times to apply each kick. Took a while to get them to understand the difference between a snapping kick and a "push" type kick, eventually they got it once they were able to apply it to the blast bags (i could definitely feel the difference that 30 mins of practice made lol). We worked on front stance a bit more, as far as where to have your feet, the distancing, hip rotation in that stance, etc. After this we did a 25 minute conditioning routine (i'm also a personal trainer, and the one girl there is one of my clients, she wanted to join in this since it had the fitness work as well), that used a combo of bodyweight, light weights and alot of kicking on the bags in rapid succession (if you're familiar with K1 training, think about "foot sprints"), they loved it. After we were ALL done with all of that, i had them review with me the basic punch, the 2 stances they just learned, and the 4 blocks, and the differences between the kicks and how to do them. They got about 95% of it without me having to remind them I don't expect them to know all that next week perfectly, but if they retain 50% of what they learned tonight i will be happy, eventually it will start becoming second nature. Don't get me wrong guys, the things i listed are not things i'm going to do EVERY class, those are the things i ultimately want them to be able to do, after they have a very good understanding and ability to perform small chunks of techniques, and eventually be able to reperform them even without practice for say a week, then and only then will i introduce new things Not to mention this was sort of a "test run" class, for me to figure out how i want to approach it, and get comfortable doing this sort of thing with them. I will grow as a teacher as much as they do as students

Thanks, and i will ^_^ The hardest part for me will be figuring out how to run the cirriculum each time and fitting in everything i want to do each day lol. For example, i want to cover reverse punches, the 4 basic blocks, 3 kicks, knife hands (if only for the ability to shift from back to front stance properly) back fists, jabs, line drills, etc. I also want to combine in the kicks i know from muay thai training and a few other things such as their elbows and the like as well. I want to do pad and bag work with people (equipment limited to start, it will grow eventually, only a few bags to start), work on combos, drills there, timing etc. Want to work on the judo throws that i know (once we get mats in the gym i'm doing this at), and some ground work as well. Want to do 20-25 minutes of hard conditioning work each class as well, as it was the most overlooked part of when i trained martial arts, and it's usually the MOST important. All this in a 90 minute class lol. Obviously won't cover EVERYTHING every time, but i wanna get enough in, but still be able to work on enough repitition to help people get it ingrained, and also keep it interesting, as i'm taking people who have NO prior martial arts experience, that don't even know if they will like it and basing my class around them to start lol. Gonna be an adventure ^_^ I just hope i don't like stumble out of my horse stance infront of everyone or something, or have my voice crack cause i'm nervous xD

I'm a brown belt as well, and i'm actually starting my first class tomorrow (teaching i mean) night at 5:30pm. The only other location to train shotokan around here for at least an hour or more drive is the school i came from, which since my leave has become more and more mc dojoy, so i wouldn't recommend it to people anymore anyways. I don't know how well the class will work out, how big it will get, or if it will grow at all, all i know is i'm charging a fair rate for the knowledge i have, and tailoring it more towards self defense than the traditional schooling alot of places offer (kata will be covered eventually, but it's not high on my list of immediate things to do for people), and i will be mixing it will some of the other training i've received. I'm approaching it with a very Jeet Kun Do type attitude (i've trained shotokan for 9 years, other things for a while now, started getting rid of the ridiculous things, focusing more on what actually works), and i think it's going to work out nicely. I will still teach all the traditional techniques, but i will put an emphasis on what i feel is actually effective and what's just going to get people hurt. Anyways the point of my post is, if you're comfortable doing it, and you feel you can change some lives doing it, then do it. You're clearly not out to rip anyone off, and you seem to have your self in order. I only hope i can gain confidence through doing this, because right now i'm very nervous about teaching this class (obviously will take a few weeks to get comfortable doing it), but i think it will work out for the best. Anyways rant over, if you wanna do it, do it!

I'm going to play devils advocate here and go with the opposite way that everyone else seems to. I do not believe that "senior students" should have to teach AT ALL, and i'll explain why (again this is only my opinion). It could stem from the fact that the shotokan dojo i originally trained at seemed to use this as a crutch (this is a place i got kicked out of for false accusations and assumptions made against me about things i did not say or do). The sensei there CONSTANTLY seemed to have something else to do other than teach us, and i felt like i was trained more by the other black belts and brown belts there than i was trained by him. He'd always start class, start us in the direction we wanted to go, but then have "Jim" or "Tony" take over and lead 3/4ths of the class, only magically making his return periodically to do a set of lunge punches or say "ok we're doing such and such now" then head off again, or just watch us and not count or just observe and not instruct (i'm a big believer in self development so that was ok, but still...not all the time). I feel any students who teach should do so because they WANT to help, not because they HAVE to help. I've known plenty and i mean PLENTY of martial artists who were AMAZING, but couldn't teach the stuff to save their lives, same goes for many gym goers at my gym. They're super strong, muscular and amazing, yet when asked to help other people (aka personal training like i do) they seemed to revert to babbling children lol. A persons ability to teach something does NOT always reflect their skill in that subject, and i feel anywhere that REQUIRES a student to teach, not let them teach because they want to learn how or improve themselves through it for their own use later or w/e reason, is taking advantage of those people, especially when they are given nothing in return, even something like free training at that school. Again that's my personal opinion, nothing more

i have never seen someone who's been trained primarily in TKD be able to perform shotokan techniques at the same level as a shotokan practitioner. Same goes for someone in shotokan being able to perform TKD techniques the same. They may look the same, but they certainly aren't being trained the same.

Something my mma coach has been emphasizing is basics basics basics. We've had Paedro Sauer in our school a few times since i've been there, and when he comes, my coach doesn't ask him to teach him something new or fancy, he asks to help him improve his cross choke or arm bar or triangle. As a result, my coach has some of the most dominant basic moves i've seen this side of UFC, Pride or any school i've visited. This works well for me because i also come from and still practice on my own, shotokan, which is a very basic style where you drill a few techniques till you're blue in the face, it's helpful for me because i can keep the same mind set that instead of working on 27 different holds, i'm going to be repeatedly working on my cross choke, kimura, rear naked, etc, and i get better at each as a result, just like i got really really good at throwing jabs and reverse punches and back fists since it's what i worked on for years. I completely agree with keeping your techniques to a workable number. I'd rather be amazing at a few then sort of ok at a ton.

well freaking said! (i did read most of the other posts after this too as well). In my opinion, i am very good at shotokan and getting better at muay thai and BJJ (had to leave my shotokan school for a couple of reasons, joined an MMA gym since that, still practice shotokan on my own time though) and i feel i can use it to defend myself in the average situation, which is why i learned it in the first place. Infact i HAVE had to use it a few times to defend myself "on da streetz", and i'm confident the only reason i came out on top is because i was trained the way i was. Is my technique perfect? No. Would i have come out on top if the guys who attacked me were professionally trained fighters? No. But the fact of the matter is, despite not being able to hang with my mma coach in sparring (and if i could...honestly..i think it'd be time for me to get a new coach lol), i can beat the crap out of the average guy that 9.9 times outta 10 i'm going to run into and actually have to use my martial arts training on. I have a brown belt, not a black belt, and that doesn't in any way affect my ability to fight. My technique is far from "textbook" mostly because of some freak accidents that have messed up my elbows and knees from a long time ago, but i still hit like a freaking truck. Would my "chambered reverse punch" look as fluid as a 3rd degree black belt? Heck no. Would it still knock every ounce of wind out of your body if i hit you with it? Absolutely.

this to me looks very similar to the concepts behind a karate punch, such as a shotokan reverse punch. The hand is left open and relaxed slightly as the fist rotates out, then is closed and the muscles flexed and focused at the point of impact. As was said this doesn't seem like a breakthrough of any kind, though imo it's something that's not practiced enough anymore, at least in my experiences around at different places.