mal103

Difficult to offer advice on this and we've only heard your side... All I can say is how I would have handled it and how I think my Sensei would also deal with it. Any accident or injury should be fully investigated so someone would have spoken with you about it. You should have also spoken to someone about your unhappy situation, ideally a medium sized club should include a few instructors and also other "staff" who should be approachable. Of course as Sensei8 points out that a BB can't always be a good teacher and a good BB teacher isn't always good at running a club/org! If someone spoke to me about their fear of sparring with someone then I would do my best not to pair them up, being good at sparring also includes restraint so skillful Karateka should be able to "teach someone a lesson" without breaking anything... If someone spoke to me about a problem then I would ensure we tried to resolve it as best as possible WITHOUT the student feeling they needed to stop training. If we thought that someone lacked in an area then we would try our best to bring them on or restrict their next grade, not kick them on their back-sides. I would request a meeting with your Sensei, save time by putting it all on paper maybe. Let them know how you feel, maybe request someone else sits in. Of course if you are still not happy with how they deal with it then look elsewhere!

Sorry to sound negative but there are plenty of plans or "get ripped quick" schemes that seem nothing more than a glorified yoghart with vitamins, if you want to get stronger/bigger then you need to train for it. Select a gym and tell them what you want to acheive but there is only one person that will be able to acheive it! A big step in MA training is the transition from being trained by a Sensei to managing your own training program. I know I am offering advice on a forum but this is the last place you want to be taking advice from.....

Just pointing out that someone in the news became very ill drinking too much milk..... I always find i eat loads more when i train hard and exercise more.

What do you want to be? You are similar to myself in build and I have gained the fitness and strength to out train a lot of peers. Take a look at Kanazawa Sensei in his earlier days: http://www.fightingmaster.com/legends/kanazawa/kanazawa.jpg Not bulky but every bit fit. I have known a few scrawny guys who could out wrestle anyone using correct leverage and skills, you don't have to have arms/chest like Hulk Hogan to be able to defend yourself. You may also find that you are faster as you are, just train hard and train harder!

As with a lot of these scenario's you need to make an appointment and go and speak to your Sensei and/or instructors. Ask to go back and just do basics until your fitness returns, even offer to wear a white belt until you are ready to train at the previous level, he/she should be glad to have you back and will either accept your offer or just accept that you will train lightly for a while. Being away due to illness then there is NO way you should even consider going back and trying to train the same. If you are mebarressed or aprehensive about how the other students will treat you then ask your Sensei to explain briefly your situation, that way there will be no high expectations and you can enjoy getting back into it. My son is about to return after having his appendix removed, I will have to warn the others to not punch him even in fun sparring, also that he will be training slower and maybe resting more until he's back up to speed. If anyone has a problem with that then it is only them that have the problem... Fix a date to return, speak with your Sensei and get back on the horse - so to speak - just don't expect to gallop straight away.

I put some general advice in this post: http://www.karateforums.com/new-instructor-teaching-kids-vt44580.html With regards to running a club and the general admin then I would use your existing club/Sensei as much as possible and keep it as simple as possible. You have to sometimes change what you are doing and where you are doing it, don't just plod on hoping it will improve, try different things - especially advertising. Just be careful not to spend out hundreds of pounds hoping you will make it back, if a small ad in a paper gets no interest then try something else. Not everyone is a natural teacher although you will improve over time, take it steady and keep up your own training. Most of all enjoy it, but don't expect everyone to be the same as you, i've gained about 20 students in my clubs - some train in my Dojo and my Sensei's Dojo's - I think about 5 are as keen as me, 10 are average and the rest are just plodding along hoping to hang in long enough to become good enough for a Black belt. A lot of the time YOU have to imspire your students so keep it active, varied and interesting. Try to teach something new each lesson.

That's the spirit Rez! I was thinking earlier after listening to 2 younger work collegues talking about sitting around watching Tv most evenings... I thought hang on - when you are very old and CANNOT do anything then there will be plenty of hours and days sat around watching TV! Keep active while you can. There are plenty of people who are struck down with sudden illnesses, or like Rez in accidents, I can think of nothing worse than taking my last breath wishing I had done more. It's bad enough going to bed wishing you had done something more with your day.

I work for someone who is just plain incompetent but think he knows it all.... I'm not sure where I fit, a mixture of 2, 3 & 4. So long as it's not 1 then I don't mind. I often work in 3 and think that it's graduating to 4 but then I see a video or check a mirror and realise it's back at 2... I always like to keep striving for 4 though.

I won't say anything bad and name an org/assoc but for certain reasons we are thinking of moving, we want insurance, policies to follow, guidance if needed and somewhere to recognise our grades, also to grade seniors without having to jump through burning hoops and pay a fortune. I think the last straw was the threat of having an instructors licence revoked because they haven't done a certain expensive course, even though they are good instructors, also having to tell our teen Shodans that they will now have to go back a grade when they become adults. Anyway, enough of the bad bits, all we want is an org/assoc that will give us what we need at a reasonable price, loves Karate as much as we do but not force stupid rules on us. Just a note that we consider our clubs to be a very high standard, we are proud of what we do and how we do it. So there are plenty to choose from, please can you let us know who is best and why.

Just find a good Dojo, it may not be the shinyest or the busiest, they may not look impressive but you will know when you find it. We do Shotokan but with full force/power, generally the students love Kata as we show applications, drill parts of them and put 100% into them.

Now that would have been hilarious if the Welsh team did Tekki Shodan as a response.... The Haka seems just like a Kata, also no good unless you have heart and feeling within it.

sorry to sound awkward but if you are serious about weight training then I would seek out the advice of a qualified Gym trainer, don't listen to any of the "build muscles fast" schemes as most are after your money and don't give a damn if you injure yourself. Only someone who is stood next to you can tell you if you are training properly! I'm no expert but I have trained with some of the Navy Field gunners who would regularly do speed weights and mostly did a lot of damage to their joints and backs. They regularly had people out with injuries and once they got to a certain age they struggle with all sorts of problems. I do a mixture of weights, running, gym equipment and Karate, the best advise anyone can offer is to listen to your body, it has a built in way of letting you know if you aren't training the best way, called pain!

I had a go at teaching awareness training tonight, I consider myself streetwise and can avoid trouble in most situations - 10 years Armed Forces and foriegn countries helped! Part of MA is defending yourself so good MA training should maybe include awareness, I also picked up on other comments made recently. My Sensei has included this sort of thing a few times so I thought I should include it in my classes. To start off with I had another student and myself "harrass" a 3rd student, we acted agressively and pushed them a bit but nothing too heavy, I then fell back a bit and allowed the focus to be drawn to the other attacking student. In most cases the 3rd student ended up turning their back on me enough for me to slip behind them un-noticed and tap them on the shoulder. The morale of the story is that you need to keep an eye on all people nearby as someone will always try to sneak behind you for an easy attack. Escape if possible or move into the best position without being cornered. It took 4 people taking it in turns as the 3rd student before the majority realised what was happenning. I also mentioned the best option was to run like hell! I have some other ideas to work on but does anyone regularly train this sort of thing at their MA club/school?

Maybe someone who isn't chasing it deserves it? Is there a reason why people in your organisation are pushing for it?

We've got a summer camp in August but went to see where it was today, had a great laugh looking about and did a trial run of training on Bournemouth beech this morning. Luckily all of the stones have round edges....

Well done! The main thing is that you enjoyed it and had a feeling of acheivment afterwards. Onto brown belt next? Faster, crisper, more power, less black eyes...

Well done, i was wondering when the "colours" were going to be passed on.

I don't think there is a set ettiquette, it may be polite to talk to both Sensei to explain your reasons and their advice. If they have major issues then you may question why, some clubs/people have a problem with their students cross training, most should be quite happy with it. With the licence it depends on the politics of the associations, in theory the insurance and licence should be transferable. How you grade is up to you and your Sensei, any training is good training, what you learn regards to style is up to you. Your main statement of "I just want to train" is a good attitude and should see you okay in whatever you do or where ever you train.

Keep training! Remember that nobody forces you to grade so you don't have to be "given" a new belt if you feel you are not ready or worthy of it. Remember also that you are still training in the basics and sometimes it's the right decision to keep grading students - partly to keep them motivated but also give them confidense - if it doesn't start slotting into place then they may be forced to skip the next belt. Remember also that certain allowances can be given to disabilities like Autism, dyspraxia, dyslexia etc. Not all of these are obvious! Keep training but at some point venture out and look at other schools/dojo's, look online at good video clips, try to get in and train with others. You should after a while get a good grasp on what standard students should be at for each Kyu level. We've had Purple belts join us that should be red/yellow, we've had green belts join that should be brown, i've seen Brown belts in other clubs that put me to shame, i've also seen Black belts that... you get my point. So long as you think you've earnt it, if you get to brown belt and never had a wet Gi then maybe time to swap Dojo's!

You can get any results you want from the right data and how many pieces of the data you want to include. Al Gore convinced everyone we were all about to fry from global warming from driving cars too much, soo much of the data used was rubbish or small parts of it. We're now all going to die from climate change - not that the climate has ever changed before until we came along.

If compared with a health freak, salad eating, fitness maniac who lives every minute to live longer then I would much prefer to eat, drink, be merry and train often in Karate. I would rather enjoy 85 years doing what I liked than live 100 years making sure I lived to a 100.

It is difficult for an instructor to get across how they feel about Karate to their students, just telling them to train hard and hoping they get it eventually will work with most, some students you can see yourself a few years back so are willing them along to train harder! It's also easy to mention how hard you trained to get where you are or exagerate how hard your Sensei trains or trained - or how hard the Sensei's Sensei trained to get where they were.... etc etc If I were you then I would just get on and train, if you don't like them later on then move Dojo/org.

My Sensei specifically tells us not to do that. You're telegraphing a spinning attack and against a good counter puncher you'll end up with a hole in your back. We try to land in a narrow stance before the kick, in sparring this could also be picked up by a trained eye but if your are quick they are either being kicked or having to move out the way so are on the defensive.

My previous post almost made sense.... I've heard of people who have trained for many years having joint problems but there are plenty of them without problems, I look at the aging Japanese Sensei who are still kicking well past our pension age. My Sensei and I are 58 and 43 - most people guess our ages as many years below that so we either look young for our ages or are keeping young by exercising regularly This sounds like some of those dodgy poll's that are made by twisting certain data or a brief study with a few people, it's like saying Elvis died early due to his MA training - nothing to do with junk food and pills or whatever it was that got him.

There is a line between being respectful of the place your visiting and wanting to keep some level of grade/rank. Anyone that walked into any Dojo and demanded to slot in exactly where they felt they should be or expected everyone to bow like crazy at them probably wouldn't be very welcome but if someone has trained in the same style and respectfully asked to join you to train then they shouldn't have a ton of rules thrown at them. I'm only a Shodan and i've trained in a few other Dojo's, always asked to train, always introduced myself to the Sensei and everyone else if time permitted, i've always asked where to slot in and tried to find out what their ettiquette rules were. I would have been a bit peeved if they gave me a white belt and was told to stand on the end - not exactly going to learn much! We've had a few people visit and most have been equally respectful, a couple have been coming back to training and automatically stood at the white belt end until I dragged them up to stand with the Black belts, one was a Nidan so after a few weeks back into training I swapped places with them, they never demanded it. I would actively encourage everyone to go out and train with others, anyone who is wary of you training with them or demands things like wearing a white belt may not be the best Dojo or have something to hide?