jaypo

I initially had reservations about the same issues, but I'm very confident now. I though there were gradings too often when I first started, but since I've become more involved in the business dealings, I understand why. There is a constant influx of new pupils where I train because it's located inside a gym. So as new members join the gym, we get new students. What my C.I. does is gauge the progress of everyone and try to test groups when they progress accordingly. But we also have the striped belt ranks for the lower level students to keep their attention. I was against this at first, but I've seen a lot of good students benefit from this that otherwise would have quit. One girl specifically, who is now a 3rd kyu now was ready to hang it up after 1 month with no test (she came from a McDojo and was used to people moving up fast). She had talent, but she wanted to test before C.I. was ready to test her for Yellow. So he allowed her to test with some younger students, and she achieved "advanced white" in our system. White belt with a black stripe. This kept her coming to class and learning until there was an opportunity to test her for Yellow, which she got. Fast forward 2 years, and she's now a 3rd kyu that will be testing for 2nd kyu during the next advanced testing cycle. And she's very good. But she would have quit had we not done something to keep her attention. She paid the cost of a new belt, a trophy, and a couple of bucks to the testing instructor. Sometimes, you have to get creative. And sometimes, it pays off by keeping a promising pupil involved in the Martial Arts.

I forgot another fun fact. The girl that played "Annie" in the recent movie with Jamie Foxx was born and raised here. She was a classmate of my daughter in Pre-K. I can't spell her name, but it is pronounced like "Quwavazhanay". About 17 miles from my house, there is a site where a civil war battle was fought (albeit a very mild skirmish!)

I'm from South Louisiana. About 56 miles south of New Orleans, to be exact. And people always clown around and ask "if we have alligators in our yards". Well, that's not totally untrue! Now, we're not like we're portrayed in movies like "The Waterboy". (Not all of us, anyway!). But depending on what's around your neighborhood, you may wake up to find a very toothy reptile in your grass on occasion!

Mine was during my Shodan test. I was defending against 4 attackers, and I had 2 left to defeat. My legs were jello as we were at the end of a 4 hr test, so when I threw my roundhouse kick, I kicked higher than my body allowed me to, and I fell on my back. Of course, I blamed it on the "wet spot" on the floor (that didn't exist). The other was when I was a teenager, my Sensei was demonstrating a takedown of his constant "example", poor old Sam. When he took him down, he did a kick to his stomach (and pushed into the stomach instead of kicking him), and poor old Sam let out a loud fart. As a 14 year old, the giggles hit me and never went away every time I saw poor old Sam!

Now that the emotion has worn off, I have the following thoughts about moving Graham. He is a horrible downfield blocker. He tends to do well against poor defenses but get locked down against good ones. And he's injured a good bit. We got, in return, a great center in a year where we had a horrible offensive line. And we got another 1st round pick. AND we have money now! I loved Graham when he was on. But this has the potential to help the Saints more than it hurt them. AND we had Browner and Trumond Williams in the Big Easy yesterday! So we may be okay.

So my Saints just released Pierre Thomas, Curtis Lofton (defensive captain) and traded Jimmy Graham. And they're now fielding offers for Drew Brees. Not sure what's going on in the front office, but they're not making the Who Dat nation very happy right now!!

In JKD, Bruce Lee trained his students to fight in the opposite stance. If the student was right handed, he'd have them fight in a lefty stance. Reason being, the strong hand was the lead hand, so a jab would be more effective, a front leg attack would be more effective, etc. Different perspective, but interesting nonetheless.

My CI trained under Nakazato while in Okinawa! Cool!

Congrats! Now, the real journey begins!

Thanks! I was curious because I have been giving the opportunity to test for my Sandan rank next month. I had reservations at first because it has only been a little over 14 months since I tested and earned my Nidan rank. He asked me if I was ready, and I asked him that same question! His reply was that he wouldn't give me the opportunity unless he knew I was! I hear a lot of stories about people not being given the opportunity to test for 3-5 years between dan grades, so I just wanted to see what path other martial artists around these parts had to travel. As a side note, last week, we had a visitor in class. After class, he and our CI were talking about their training. The visitor mentioned that he was a Marine stationed in Okinawa (same as my CI), and they began sharing stories about the "old school" training. I wish I could have gone there to train at some point. It sounded like something out of a movie!

How long did it take you to get from : -10th Kyu to Shodan -Shodan to Nidan -Nidan to Sandan

This "Peter" sounds like he's about 1 stupid comment from getting floored. And I don't mean by you. I mean that he obviously has an attitude problem, and he's probably gonna get under someone's skin eventually that doesn't care if he has eye and ear problems. They're going to put his claims to the test. If I were the CI, I'd certainly insist that the behavior stop or he would be asked not to come back. Don't take it personally. "Peter" seems to be the one with the problem. I work with people from 30 lbs up to 360lbs, and I don't treat them any differently. That has nothing to do with the training! For you, just realize that he's probably bitter at tthe hand he's been dealt, and his way of making himself feel better is to lash out at others. So instead of anger, feel pity for him for he's the one with the problem!

If I haven't answered yet, I pay $35.00 per month for regularly scheduled classes. ($10.00 for private in addition, and testing fees are separate) As I'm the treasurer of the club, I can tell you that we're not a money generating machine like some other places, but we make more than enough to cover all expenses and put money in the pocket!

I'm in a similar situation. Our club has grown probably 5 times the size it was when I started training. And in doing so, most of the growth is the constant inflow of younger people and lower ranks. Because of this, the higher ranked classes are starting to suffer, and I'll explain why. We used to have a higher ratio of advanced students (red belt and above) to lower ranked students, so it was easier to split up the classes as such. But now, there are a lot more lower ranked students, and the classes are a lot more mixed. A typical class that I am able to attend now may include myself and 1 other black belt, a brown belt, a red belt, and the rest will be green or lower. And our M.I. will not make anyone leave or sit if they show up to class, so I am actually training at an intermediate level. With all of our work schedules, we can't coordinate many black belt only classes because we're also helping out to teach the younger classes. So I've been toying with the idea of taking additional classes with an instructor that I met a long time before my current M.I. And it's not a slight to my current M.I. It's just that the spark for me to begin training again came from the other guy a few years ago. But our schedules couldn't mesh, and luckily, my M.I. had a schedule that accomidated my own. The other guy offers Dutch kickboxing and Krav Maga classes, and I'll probably supplement my current training with it. It won't be to replace my current situation. Just add more knowledge to it.

UFC Fight Night is taking place in June in New Orleans! Tickets go on sale April 10th. The main event will be Lafayette, LA's own Daniel Cormier vs. Ryan "Darth" Bader. I went to the last UFC event in New Orleans and had a wonderful time. I met Royce Gracie, and a whole lot of past and present fighters were there and more than willing to meet and greet with the fans. Anyone in that area? I'll be there!

I was actually more nervous for my brown belt test than my Shodan test. I felt that I knew everything that I could know up to that point. I put a lot of pressure on myself for Brown. I was determined to shine for Shodan. However, the night before, a few people were testing, and I hurt my knee while sparring with them. When I walked in for my test, I told myself that I was either making this rank or trying until my knee gave out! And I had my best performance ever. I think it was because I mentally told myself that I couldn't fail and that I was going to be perfect! As for having a 2nd dan as a partner, I think that will give you an advantage. Their experience will help you- iron sharpens iron.

I second Abernathy. I love his work. It has helped me a lot.

I've seen people being asked not to return to the dojo because of such things. Never seen a belt taken away though.

I concur 100% with Sensei8. I saw a similar situation once, and the student ended up quitting. Her comments were "he used to be a father figure to me. Now, he's just some man that knows Karate". I also see that a lot in my current line of work. I guess people with any sense of "power" or "self importance" tend to be that way.

Got bullied a little, but became friends with 2 guys in Junior High that both took karate. And I saw the respect that they seemed to have from everybody. Since I was basically a nobody, I wanted that same kind of respect. Having been a fan of martial arts for years, I was finally able to begin training at 14 yrs old. Did pretty well for a couple of years, then life got in the way. Started training again about 3 years ago, and never looked back!

I did watch it. And I loved it! I wish they would do more of them. They also did a Mortal Kombat series before that one. It was awesome too, but they didn't continue it.

Kata can get you in phenomenal shape if you know how to do it right. Katas are made up of basic techniques, but to get the maximum fitness benefit from them, you must know how to do the basic techniques properly. You have to know how to use your body to focus, make strong stances, use your coordination properly, etc. This will give you the most benefit. If you simply walk thru a kata, it's like walking thru a dance routine. But if you use explosive power, speed, and focus, you will be working very hard. I can either walk thru 26 katas and barely sweat, or I can do 1 the way it was intended to be done and be exhausted. It's all about what you put into it, just like any other athletic activity. I love Master Kanazawa's videos, and they're what I default to when I need to polish up something. So he's a great reference for the correct way to do techniques. I would suggest studying his body mechanics well and copying what he does to the best of your abilities, and you'll benefit greatly.

It depends how you interpret the Kata and at what level, for beginners it's fine to drill a low block to the left, step punch, turn into lower block etc. At the other end of the scale the first 90 degree turn and lower block could be pulling an attackers left hand down to your left then attacking them against their left side. It can also be a grappling move as you turn you are pushing them down to the left. The 180 degree turn can be seen as a throw, the hammer fist strike starts off with pulling back your wrist after a grab, can also be clearing a chest grab on the way around, then finally striking down on the head, face etc. Also think of the turn as just a way of showing that the moves can happen to both sides, left then right. I'm now learning that any one kata can have multiple bunkai ranging from simple to advanced. I have also learned that the 180 degree turns in many katas are indeed throws. We are taking an approach of teaching the basic bunkai to say Heian Shodan to beginners and then going back as you become more advanced and giving a new bunkai that the karate-ka is now able to digest. So in Heian Shodan the first block is possibly just that, then the next punch could be a punch, punch/grab, or just a grab and then the next block with the 180 turn could be a hip toss off of the grab. Wow judo in karate, yes! I think many of us especially with a Shotokan background like myself often don't realize that Okinawan karate has throws, grappling and locks. Okinawan karate was practical, because it had to be. Yes some things are hidden in kata but it was absolutely practical. In the years since Karate left Okinawa it has taken many turns and yes some folks might say that it became impractical, but it was designed that way. So if we modern karate-ka are concerned about the practicality of karate we must find what we lost. Enjoy the journey! I second that. I learned a neck break in the simplest technique from Naihanchi last night. I also kind of figured out an awesome key lock in Naihanchi Nidan the other day in my head. That's why I urge people to keep training for the long haul. I've been doing Naihanchi for 4 years and I finally figured out one of the hidden techniques from the simplest moves in it. Heian Shodan, the most basic kata, has a bunch of throws/breaks. Just off the top of my head, I can think of 7 throws, an arm break, and 2 takedowns (without adding a single step, movement, etc). If you add tweaks, you can double that. And when you "make the kata your own", as my Master Instructor says often, you can increase that total exponentially!

A couple of things could be happening. First, they may be getting into the "style of the week" syndrome. It happened where I live. For years, Karate and TKD were the only schools around. But then, 2 BJJ clubs opened, and did okay. But as soon as they started advertising "MMA" training, people flocked to it. It ran 1 school ran by a national champion 7th DAN out of business, pretty much. 2 clubs here offer Kickboxing and Muay Thai. I, personally, am looking into Muay Thai, but I'm not quitting Karate for it. I'm supplementing my training with it. They may feel that those other arts are better. The other thing is that they may be getting cold feet. I know one of our senior students refused to test for black belt because she said she wasn't ready. Turns out, she was actually scared. But she eventually did it. And another possibility is that they got burned out. Whatever the reason, I hope everything works out.

That is a good way of doing things IMHO. If someone hasn't tested for Sandan for instance (due to whatever reasons) but kept on training / improving throughout the years, his current 'official' ranking doesn't have to reflect his actual skill. This is the point I was making earlier. I've seen videos of my sensei when he was in his 20's competing and wearing his black belt back then. He's now in his 60's. I know for a fact that he obtained a black belt ranking under Master Okazaki, a direct student of Funakoshi Sensei, and he periodically goes back to Philly to visit, train with him. So regardless if this man is not a Godan or higher, he's been training for over 40 years (over 50, in his words). Being the unofficial treasurer of our club, I can tell you that he is not running this club as a money scam. His income is minimal. He just does it for the love of the arts. Knowing what it took for me to achieve Nidan rank, I have the utmost respect for those that obtain higher ranks. However, I do not admonish someone if they don't pursue higher "official" ranking as long as their knowledge continues to grow.