Ohanamalu6

Three years into teaching, and I have to say my moments are all similar to the original poster. I teach inner city kids, mostly refugees, through a nonprofit program I started a few years ago. Recently, a quiet 9 year old student of mine with a lot of hesitation in her forms was getting ready for an "in between belts" evaluation. (We give stripes on the end of the belt to youth, as a sign of progression on the way to the next belt level). Anywho, we warmed up, did her form as a group by-the-numbers, then I said, "No count. Can you do this?" Her reply? "Oh, I got this." I almost died from smiling too hard at her response, and almost cried with joy at her performance. She did that form stronger and with more focus than she'd ever done before. God I love teaching. --

Just another BB echoing in on the "it's about the teacher" comments. The best thing you can do for yourself is stop thinking. Show up to a class, see how it feels. If you feel challenged but safe - good school. If you feel intimidated - bad school. If you're asked for your credit card info right off the bat - questionable school. If you are welcomed right into practice and it feels good - great school. You get the point. Use your gut, feel it out. When you find your home, you'll know it.

Yeah, what we do is really really close to Shotokan, which is why we end up oscillating between calling it Karate and TKD. What's in a name, anyhow?

In the World Martial Arts Association, we don't (often, if at all) fail students, we just don't advance them until they are ready. I'm a teacher (1stDeg), and I take my students to my instructor (5thDeg) to be assessed for promotion. The student doesn't know about this, of course, but my instructor lets me know a few things they need to work on. He's got the experience to know this, and to be able to see their readiness much more clearly than I. Only when they have mentally, emotionally, and physically been sufficiently prepared do we announce that they will test at the next event. So for us, a 'test' is more of a celebration. Oh, everyone is put through their paces at the test, but the outcome - baring a major meltdown - is already determined. I never have to say "failed" to any of my students, nor have I seen that been said more than once or twice in six years. We just say, "not yet".

To me, being empty isn't just "not knowing" or "forgetting you know", but forgetting you exist as a mind capable of owning information. When you learn from a feeling place rather than a thinking place, the present moment is all there is. If you compare this form with that form, front stance in one style with another, you are not present in the moment, you are bouncing around inside your own head. Ego wants us to 'know' things, so it can be validated. Ego is of the mind. Self-lessness, emptiness, spirit, wants nothing; needs nothing. To be practicing in the moment is all the reward necessary. If that moment is learning, it is the same as if that moment is teaching. To forget we exist is the highest level of awakening. (I think?? )

I practice Chung do Kwan Tae Kwon Do, and teach it here in the City of Buffalo, NY. It seems like most styles of TKD that I see are the KTF/olympic style. Our style is much more closely connected to Shotokan and Won Kuk Lee's "Korean Karate" more than the heavy-kicking, bouncy styles. Anybody out there?

Yes, UselessDave, forms - kata - are complicated and seem abstract at first. Then they change. If you commit yourself to the 'long path' of karate-do, you will see each form and the practice of forms themself morph a thousand times into a thousand different things. For me, a teacher and student and 1st Degree BB, forms are my focus right now. I am continually learning so much more about what each form can teach me, about why each move is each move, and how my BB forms build off my White Belt forms. I hope you keep at it. In a time where instant gratification is the norm, Karate-do gives us something we can be assured to never fully understand, and whose lessons are revealed slowly and with purpose.