chiliphil1

That's traditional, yeah. I'm just keeping the normal cord sequence for the most part here. Sorry, I'm not as versed in ma history as I should be, I only asked that because in most styles including mine it all starts at white, and I think these days white is universally known as the "beginer" belt.

My school gave full Dan ranks to kids, in fact I'm one of them. I got my black belt at 10. The school considered this a full black belt, and it is still honored as such if I go to class. The difference between what my school did and what I'm reading on here is that no matter what age you were, if you tested for black belt, you went in front of the founder of my karate association and a board of 3rd Dans and above and tested side by side with adults, you had to keep pace with them and do everything they could do to pass, there were no "easier" standards based on age.

So white belt would be the highest rank? Interesting. My school followed the chun kuk do method of belts which is White, yellow, purple, orange, blue, 6th green, 5th green, 4th brown, 3rd brown, 2nd red, 1st red. Then 11 levels of Dan ranks. I always felt that the difference between the 2 greens, Browns, and reds was negligible and it really should have been just one of beach color. There was a testing fee between each rank, however between testing you had to earn 4 colored stripes, one for each area of discipline on the test, once you had all 4,that meant you were ready to test, but there was no fee for the colored stripes, only the actual rank promotion.

I think that they should he graded on the same scale as adults. Of course kids won't have the same power, intensity, or ability as an adult, but what I mean is that they should know the material completely and be able to demonstrate it to a point where it is obvious that they understand it and are ready to progress. Passing someone when they are not ready not only hurts them in the long run, but also the image of the art and the school. I personally sat on a testing board where there were some kids that were not ready to move on, and I voted that they should not pass, but was overridden by the chief instructor and the kids moved on. One school of thought that we the studio had was that if a kid did not pass, they would become discouraged and quit karate. I believe that failure is a part of karate if you do not work hard enough, and that failing should inspire you to do better next time, not to inspire you to quit.

You have hit the nail on the head! In your post contains the very reason why when I am financially able to get back into a dojo I will not be continuing with tsd. I don't want to paint a bad picture of the art because as you said it is a very awesome art to study, the practical applications of tsd are limitless, and in fact it is more useful then alot of other arts I have seen. By the time you reach Dan, you know tons of strikes, both with hands and feet as well as countless blocks and various means of defense against many different kinds of attacks, in truth you are well equipped with tsd training. My problem with the art, comes from 2 things, 1 being that tsd, like tkd has been transformed into a sport instead of an art, the second comes from my school. You stated that instructors never explain why you are doing what you're doing and do not outline the practical use of it, this is absolutely true, there have been times where I performed a kata on a test, did moves in the kata and had absolutely no idea what the move was for, was it a block, a strike? I didn't know. The emphasis was on learning the" steps" but not how to use them. My school seemed to concentrate on self defense more than anything else, there was some philosophy mixed in, but it was not traditional, it was more like "treat people nice, don't hurt anybody" red kind of stuff, but nothing deeper. Furthermore once I did make it to the Dan ranks it seemed like instructor participation stopped, and there really wasn't anything else to learn except a couple more kata to advance further. It seemed to me that rank was what it was all about, and not growth. For these reasons I have decided to pursue either a traditional Chinese, or Japanese art. I feel that rank doesn't matter as much as how much the person with the rank has grown and developed,. I believe that the true training starts at Dan, so therefore I want to go somewhere that believ s this as well, in tsd its almost like Dan is the end, but for other styles it is the beginning, they feel that by the time you achieve this rank you have mastered the basics and now can begin the spiritual learning, as I've said before the spiritual portion doesn't seem to exist in tsd, at least not in my experience.

Thank you, I just wasn't sure what to expect. I feel like such a tough guy, getting beat up by a 3 year old, but she's tough though!

Hey everybody, I have a question, sorry if it's a repeat. I've got a big tough guy injury going on, I was tossing my 3 year old in the air today, and somehow the way she bent when she was coming back down her cheek went right into my nose! I have not been hit in the nose before, so im just wondering how to tell if something is a miss. When she hit it, I heard a crunch, and immediately felt a burning, stinging sensation all the way through my forehead and my eyes immediately started to water. I did not have a lot of blood come out, just some trace amounts, but a ton of we will say other nasal discharge, but anyway I figured I would ask here as I am sure many of you have taken a few shots to the nose. Btw, now (approx 2 hours later) I have not had any blood, no brushing, and maybe just a touch of swelling, but nothing major. The nose looks normal, and doesn't seem to crunch when I touch it, it is just very painful and hurts alot when I do touch the bridge area and I have a headache in the forehead area. Any advice? By the way, my child is fine, she didn't even cry it hit her right in the super hard cheek bone, so she's good, of course I checked her out first.

The school I went to was this way. You get black belt or Dan, which is where I am, then you test again and become 1st degree black belt, or 1st Dan. Supposedly there are 10 degrees or Dans, so therefore, a total of 11 black belt ranks. And if you were wondering it was $200 per test for each rank.

Hello, nice to see some one else on here who is studying the chuck Norris system! I have been out of the art for a while, but this is the style I studied, I went to a place called Burnette karate in Georgia. The school was under the American fighting arts federation which is a spin off of ufaf. As I said before I have been out of it for a while, but am coming back now, but mostly training on my own, I have not set foot into the studio at this point, but may soon. So, how do you like the style? How's your training coming?

agreed, and that is exactly my point, the " high rank" class is green belt and up, so there is no advanced training in there. I also agree that at this point you must push yourself, and therein lies the reason i left, why drive over to the school for nothing when I can do it all at home? I have spent a few years out of it now, and am coming back, but I really don't feel that I need to go to the dojo as there is nothing there for me, as far as my training at this point, I feel that I can do on my own more than I will get there, and if I were to go back to a school it would be in a different art.

I found that once I got my black belt there was an end of the road feeling. At the school I was going to there is not alot of opportunity for advanced training, once you make the rank you pretty much become an officer so to speak. At that point your training stops, and you are just an instructor at that point, which don't get me wrong, is fine, I enjoyed teaching the classes, especially the juniors where they had real drive to do well, but at this point there was nothing for you. The only requirement to go from 1st to 2nd dan was one kata. There was no training in advanced kata, weapons, or anything else. I left because I felt like I would have been better off staying a green belt because then I fit in with the class, I was able to take the class instead of leading it, and so on. One thing to understand when you become a black belt, at least in my school was that you already know everything that is going to happen in class, you know every move, every kata, every single thing that they are going to do, and after a short while it gets boring. I know that studying the basics is fundamental but when you have been doing them for years and can do them in your sleep, you want to learn something new..