DoctorQui

You'll find great training in some of these places. Some of the best schools I've seen were in a one car garage in the back yard. This is true. My school was 100% word of mouth, he never advertised but the training I received was invaluable. Yep, I agree! I found my school purely by chance and it is quite possibly some of the most quality MA teaching I have ever had!

Congratulations Lupin

Looks like you've done some very sensible research, very few bother to look before they leap...well done! Both Shotokan and Goju Ryo are excellent styles so either one, you are going to learn some useful stuff! Don't worry about no contact, if it was a grading then mabe its because lots of mums are their to watch and the school doesn't want to show their little darlings beating each other up The most important thing is what they do in a training session. Also, it is quite common, in the UK anyway, for martial arts schools to use several venues rather than one bespoke and very expensive dojo. Mine uses 4 venues! I envy you, starting out for the first time however, what you'll quickly find is that in MA, you never ever stop learning!! Welcome to the world of Karate, its hard but very very rewarding and enjoyable! OSU

Last time we'll see a treble number date in our lifetimes!

Well done..its good to see hard work paying off!

Excellent work Dobbers! Had a look on your website at the proud line up! Very promising beginnings for your Ryu! OSU

Considering the age of the thread, I'm half expecting any response to suggest the same issues but this time for Nidan!!

congrats chaps and chapesses, and thanks to all those who voted for me! I am genuinely surprise to have even been nominated let alone winning! Here's to a great 2013! And blue belt status as well...double whammy for me!

High 5 Pers, well deserved!

What an ungrateful lot. You probably don't celebrate the fourth of July either. Positively unpatriotic. LOL Nope but we do celebrate 5 and 11 November (what the hell are those I hear you ask! ) so !!

Sorry I'm late but Many Happy returns P, hope you had a good one!

Wel, as a Brit Thanksgiving isn't really our thing but as my brother is an expat living over there I feel qualified to return the greeting! So, Happy Thanksgiving to our colonial cousins across the pond!

Thanks for all your support and advice guys, I agree with all of you. As I said before, its not about the black belt for me, although outsiders see the black belt as a sign of knowledge and experience and I (as do my dojo mates) know that my knowledge and skill is that of a black belt. As I said, its more of a frustration than an annoyance! Well, last night, to sweeten the pill, my instructor has started me on the advanced katas and technique which is unusual for a kyu grade so at least I've started learning what I would have normally started at bb!

Its club rules that there has to be 6 months between 1st kyu and 1st Dan for seniors (for juniors 6 months between 3,2 and 1st Kyus then 12 months to Shodan) which means that if grading (and there is only one Dan grading per year which is in Dec) falls inside that period then you have to wait to the next. I will have waited 16 months by the time I grade! Its frustrating!! I'm in it for the long term, he knows that, I've been doing karate on and off for about 20 odd years and have always got to an advanced level and had to stop for various financial or domestic reasons, or that I have moved to another area. So I am reasonably experienced and not just a BB hunter!!

Well I'm gunna anyway! Actually this isn't a moan and I'm not angry just a little niggled! I found out last night that I wont be doing my Shodan in December because of a club rule that there must be 6 months between 1st Kyu and Shodan. Thing is, I've been training for the Shodan (doing all syllabus) since half way between 2nd and 1st Kyu (so I've been doing it for 5 months) and every black belt in the club is saying that I am so ready for it, even the chief instructor has said that I am ready but due to club rules I must wait another 12 months until the next Dan grading because this one is inside the 6 months!!! I really hope I don't go off the boil!! I know its about the journey and not the belt colour and am completely comfortable with that its just that I want to start doing the advanced stuff now!! Rant over!!

congrats Harkon...I gracefully pass the multicoloured belt to a worthy successor! Enjoy!

For the benefit of our Colonial cousins Happy Halloween!! As for us Brits, a bit of culture! Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble. Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt, and toe of frog, Wool of bat, and tongue of dog, Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,— For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Very solid post! I think the purpose of this thread has been misunderstood just a little in that my main point was is it right for adults to be punished like kids when they make a mistake. The reason for punishment is discipline. Does an undisciplined adult really bother to actually pay for a karate class in which he is required to obey instructions? One example for me is when I attended a class a few months back. It was in a very big building. When I went to the usual door, it was locked (I was 10 minutes early) I couldn't get anyone to answer the door so I had to walk around the other side of the building (a very large school), gain access via an intercom, then I had to get through 3 further security doors, each one via intercom, this took me 15 mins. I got changed and went to bow in only to be told to do 20 for being late which became 30 when I tried to explain why I was late! I'm 42! I wanted to respond, 'get lost mate, I'm off!' but did as I was told in order to maintain the intergrety of the club (there were a few kids and parents there!). Suffice to say I was not happy! At the end it appeared that the instructor arrived after a few students and then closed the door behind him only remembering to go back and open it after I had come and gone. As a result, several students turned up and went home because they couldn't get a response, I went the extra mile and got in and was punished for my efforts. It is the same instructor that does this! There are a number of other instructors including the chief who has never to my knowledged punished anyone. I am considering challenging this guy when he does something like this in the future, not publicly of course, because I really think that he continues with this behaviour because noone has ever called him on it. I have never accepted bullying and don't really want to start now and imo, bullying is exactly what this guy is doing. I have seen some very unreasonable 'punishments' in recent months from this guy who seems to think, as a 3rd Dan, he is untouchable. Even my 8th Dan instructor is happy to challenged!

But what about when it interferes with karate training and becomes a particular instructors raison d'etre. In a typical hour, we would have 15 mins of warm up (including press ups, sit ups et al) then then 45 minutes of karate training including technique, kata and sparring! On Tuesday evening, this particular instructor was taking the calss, we had the usual 15 mins warm up then when it came to the session, we were doing 10-20 push ups everytime a child got there left or right mixed up, if he didn't think we were saying OSU loud enough. He even made us all do push ups when he didn't think a certain student was kicking high enough (until I pointed out to him at the end that that student had an injury)! Why didn't that student speak out, well 5 mins before he made us all do 20 for another student speaking out when they were trying to tell the instructor something (I couldn't hear what it was!). I worked out at the end that we had had about 15 minutes of karate and 45 minutes of push ups. Not exactly what most people pay for really! For the record, I have not problem with using discipline when its required, but in my opinion, dishing it out to establish authority where it isn't necessary and for such silly reasons is not constructive particularly where paying adult students are concerned. My main instructor is an 8th Dan and I have never known him dish push ups out, he doesn't need to however this 3rd Dan seems to enjoy the power! I think you have an instructor who thinks he's a drill sergeant, or something. If this many people in the class are messing up that bad, instead of making everyone do pushups, which just makes the person causing the pushups feel bad or embarrassed or both, and taking time away from everyone, they need to be separated and given 1-on-1 time to help them out. If worse comes to worse, just let these few trod on more slowly, and hold them out of some gradings until they are ready. Holding an entire class back doesn't help anyone. Couldn't agree more

But what about when it interferes with karate training and becomes a particular instructors raison d'etre. In a typical hour, we would have 15 mins of warm up (including press ups, sit ups et al) then then 45 minutes of karate training including technique, kata and sparring! On Tuesday evening, this particular instructor was taking the calss, we had the usual 15 mins warm up then when it came to the session, we were doing 10-20 push ups everytime a child got there left or right mixed up, if he didn't think we were saying OSU loud enough. He even made us all do push ups when he didn't think a certain student was kicking high enough (until I pointed out to him at the end that that student had an injury)! Why didn't that student speak out, well 5 mins before he made us all do 20 for another student speaking out when they were trying to tell the instructor something (I couldn't hear what it was!). I worked out at the end that we had had about 15 minutes of karate and 45 minutes of push ups. Not exactly what most people pay for really! For the record, I have not problem with using discipline when its required, but in my opinion, dishing it out to establish authority where it isn't necessary and for such silly reasons is not constructive particularly where paying adult students are concerned. My main instructor is an 8th Dan and I have never known him dish push ups out, he doesn't need to however this 3rd Dan seems to enjoy the power!

As others have said, it all comes down to club requirements. My current club is White for everyone regardless of rank, my last club was white for juniors (age not grade), black for seniors (age not grade) and after Shodan you can wear whatever colour you wanted because you earned it although most either go all white all black or white/black. I can see the logic of using coloured gis to differentiate rank in addition to belt. I prefer a black gi because it shows the dirt a lot less, on the down side, if you train hard and sweat you get a white tide mark so its swings and roundabouts. Black also fades which you obviously don't get with White!

I agree, I had to do press ups with a group of 7-9 year olds yesterday (kids are intergrated with adults) because a 7 year old who had been going for 3 weeks, went into right zenkutsodachi rather than left. Its only one instructor that does this, the chief instructor never uses press ups. I felt annoyed particularly as that same instructor just prior to this told us all to do Heian Yondan then exploded because we weren't doing Heian Shodan (the kata he meant to say!) and made the whole class do press ups.

Let the dust settle then arrange a 1-2-1 with your boss to discuss the events and the sanctions and the practicalities of them. As a former boss myself and having worked for some very senior bods, lots of decisions like this are made as a kneejerk reaction, based for subjective rather than objective reasons. Give it a few days!

I think that's great that you got to continue learning requirements through the rank of sandan.My question is, what the difference between knowing those requirements as a junior, and knowing them when you came of age to hold the rank? To me, it seems a formality of age, and not of passing on knowledge. Unless I'm missing something that I would understand better being a Shindokan stylist, not knowing the intricacies of what you learned when you did. I'm with Brian on this one. No offence meant and I know you have to adhere to the By-Laws of your Hombu, but when you get down to it, what is the difference between the JBB rank and a normal BB rank? If you've learnt all the requirements and can perform to the standard expected, what is the difference really? Often times I sometimes think that the JBB rank is a way of adults making themselves feel better that a kid got the same rank as they did. I agree that kids are far better than adults at learning and retaining information but for me, a junior simply cannot be a full Dan grade until they reach a certain maturity of mind and body. At a previous club there was a junior black (9) who was always pulling rank on you because he was a black belt and there were adult who were not, he would refuse to spar with anyone less than black belt and when made to spar with me, at that time a 5th Kyu I made him cry not by hurting him but by not 'letting' him hit me, ie blocking all of his technique because he simply didn't have the speed or power to compete with an adult. At my new club, to be able to take Dan, you must perform full contact kumite (no pads) with a Dan grade until you land a punch or kick on target. This can take up to 3 mins. A child would, imo, simply not be able to do this and therefore not fulfill the requirements of the grading.

I applaud that. Even my own school, which is very good, has 10 year old black belts and there is one child who continues to progress beyond his ability but I think you get that in even the most reputable clubs!