darksoul

My black belt certificate states: This is to certify that has been promoted to Degree in the venerable Chinese martial art of Shaolin Kempo on this day of in the year of at in . Master's Signature Instructor Signature Witness Signature Witness 2 Signature

Goede dag Ralph! Hoe gaat het?

Here are the laws concerning Self Defense for Canada (these are federal) Defence of Person Marginal note:Self-defence against unprovoked assault * 34. (1) Every one who is unlawfully assaulted without having provoked the assault is justified in repelling force by force if the force he uses is not intended to cause death or grievous bodily harm and is no more than is necessary to enable him to defend himself. * Marginal note:Extent of justification (2) Every one who is unlawfully assaulted and who causes death or grievous bodily harm in repelling the assault is justified if o (a) he causes it under reasonable apprehension of death or grievous bodily harm from the violence with which the assault was originally made or with which the assailant pursues his purposes; and o (b) he believes, on reasonable grounds, that he cannot otherwise preserve himself from death or grievous bodily harm. * R.S., 1985, c. C-46, s. 34; * 1992, c. 1, s. 60(F). Self-defence in case of aggression 35. Every one who has without justification assaulted another but did not commence the assault with intent to cause death or grievous bodily harm, or has without justification provoked an assault on himself by another, may justify the use of force subsequent to the assault if * (a) he uses the force o (i) under reasonable apprehension of death or grievous bodily harm from the violence of the person whom he has assaulted or provoked, and o (ii) in the belief, on reasonable grounds, that it is necessary in order to preserve himself from death or grievous bodily harm; * (b) he did not, at any time before the necessity of preserving himself from death or grievous bodily harm arose, endeavour to cause death or grievous bodily harm; and * © he declined further conflict and quitted or retreated from it as far as it was feasible to do so before the necessity of preserving himself from death or grievous bodily harm arose. * R.S., c. C-34, s. 35. Marginal note:Provocation 36. Provocation includes, for the purposes of sections 34 and 35, provocation by blows, words or gestures. * R.S., c. C-34, s. 36. Marginal note:Preventing assault * 37. (1) Every one is justified in using force to defend himself or any one under his protection from assault, if he uses no more force than is necessary to prevent the assault or the repetition of it. * Marginal note:Extent of justification (2) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to justify the wilful infliction of any hurt or mischief that is excessive, having regard to the nature of the assault that the force used was intended to prevent. * R.S., c. C-34, s. 37.

Another Kempo man I see!

You're showing your age, Fang I really don't think that's the way. Maybe he's had 9 years of poor training, or sporadic training. Maybe he's from a McDojo that just granted black belts left and right. Maybe he's got 9 years going from 6 to 15 years old and hasn't done anything in 10 years. I started MA's when I was 13. Got injured at 17, stopped for a decade, came back, and got my black belt. When I came back, I wasn't as good as I was before I got injured. I still showed skill, but I also came from a dojo with an instructor that was ridiculously good and trained his students even better. Some people come back after years and are out of their element. It really could be that he did have 9 years of training from a McDojo and got a black belt from that same McDojo years and years ago. Beating up somebody to "teach them a lesson," to me, goes against what a black belt is.

^this

I do "theme" days. One day it's Katas, another day it's DM's (defensive maneuvers), another is sparring, and lastly we have "Hell Days" or calisthenics/hard workout days. I think it works well and you can easily match them to kid's, teens, beginner adult, or advanced adult classes.

I actually agree with this whole-heartedly. I've earned my black belt and I feel I should wear it no matter. As for Dan bars, I have my silk BB with my dan bar and I have a plain cotton one. Since I'm only a 1st Dan it really makes no difference, but once I hit 2nd Dan, I'll still probably wear my plain one.

Yeah, I think that's pretty low. I've taught kid's classes before and I would never even think of doing something like that. That's irresponsible and, quite frankly, insulting to black belts and instructors in general. Take your kid and get out of there. Find another dojo. That's... that's just wrong.

We learn to defend against clubs, knives, and guns. In using weapons, it's katas only. I personally love the kamas.

As my sensei explained, a black belt is a weapon. A 10 year old, no matter how good, won't be a weapon against an adult. In any case, junior-black belts, sure, but even then, not before 14. Not full Dans.

Once... I've learned to wear my cup. No matter how uncomfortable it is, a foot in the twig and berries is worse!

"Reinforcement..." yes... I like that!

Thanks guys! Loving the forum thus far!

For mine it was: White Yellow Orange Purple Blue Blue with Green Stripe Green Green with Brown Stripe Brown 1 black stripe Brown 2 black stripes Brown 3 black stripes Black

It took me 7. Or 6 and a half. I just say 7

Just start! It's really never too late

I'm with DoctorQui on this one. However, I do have patches of my dojos. They are mile markers of my journey in Kempo.

I eat normally for a Canadian. Very little to no fast food (poutine here and there and some steamies,) organic beef, chicken, and porc, lots of fish and veggies. Pasta, rice, lentils, and ridiculous amounts of spicy peppers I also eat a fair amount of game meat such as venison, moose, elk, etc... I drink casually on weekends (beer mostly) and tend to have a glass of wine each day. I also drink A LOT of water. I think I eat healthy but I don't go out of my way to count calories or antioxidants or protein.

In my dojo, under 18 are junior black belts (black with red-stripe through.) They get the same respect as full black-belts (everyone kneels when they put on their belts, etc...) but are not 1st Dan. At 18, they can then test for their official black belt. The youngest junior black belt I've ever seen was 14 years old and she truly was remarkable and completely worthy of her rank. I don't think the rank has ever been awarded to anyone younger. Where I trained was a franchise, but luckily, MY dojo was a not a McDojo. Some other dojo's in the franchise were, but I was trained by a 4th Dan first, then 5th Dan. The training was never dragged out for more money, our belts weren't awarded every 2 months, and it took me 7 years to get my black belt. My sensei eventually broke ties with the franchise because he wasn't happy with the "corporation" trying to push McDojo aspects down his throat. The school is now called Ancient Path Martial Arts in North Vancouver, BC, but it was part of the United Studios of Self Defense franchise before. I still have a USSD patch on my gi because that's where I started, but I also have an Ancient Path patch. So... yeah I feel the need to edit this a bit to express that in my dojo, we did full contact sparring, we did grappling, we did submission. We had a few students from other USSD dojos come and train with us and it was easy to see they were not comfortable with some of the stuff we did. Their sparring skills were nearly nonexistent. I'm not a great sparrer, but I have won bronze in an open martial arts tournament at brown belt so I'm not horrible, but these guys were like deer in headlights. We practiced our DM's at full speed with full, yet controlled contact (i.e. we wouldn't give a full-strength ridge hand to the groin, but we would lightly, but solidly ridge-hand the inner thigh) and we regularly outshone in USSD tournaments. I'm now in Montreal and studying under Master Paquette who is not from a franchise and he found my skill to be at the level of a true first dan. I also wear size 9 boots and prefer boxer briefs

Ahh, I see what you mean. My short answer - yes. Whether they are paying or not... actually, ESPECIALLY if they are paying, they want proper training. I regularly give push-up orders to my adult students if I deem it necessary. These instances are rare. One way I do dish out push-ups are as follows. Student is, say... orange belt. In Shaolin Kempo they should know their 8 point blocking system inside and out at this rank. The student is also a paying adult who is respectful, dedicated, etc... in other words, a gem. You are drilling them on blocks and you call out block #7 and he does block #5 or just freezes and doesn't remember. Then I will give them 10 push-ups. Same with defensive maneuvers. At orange belt, they have 6, 7, 3, 5, and 18. If I call out DM 18 and they don't remember, 10 push ups. But as I said in a post I stupidly deleted, Shaolin Kempo is also heavy on health, not just technique, so the extra push-ups go into developing your body and health as well as serve as a punishment/memory jogger.

I've been a musician all my life, those that's definitely a bit portion of my hobbies. Obviously martial arts Other than that - Video Games Hacking (I'm a Certified Ethical Hacker so I don't break the law in any way when I'm doing this) Cooking with my wife Walking around Montréal (this is quite possibly the most beautiful city in North America) Beer (Hey, I'm Canadian) Wine (Hey, I'm Québecois (French Canadian)) I used to play paintball too, but I've fallen out of that.

In my style we don't do that. Pre-purple belt wear white gi's and graduate to a black gi at purple. Besides that, we do not add anything else to the gi. Patches, sure, but that's mostly personal touches. We can mix gi colours at 2nd Dan (or 1st Dan if you are an instructor.) 2nd Dan - White top, black pants 3rd Dan - Black top, white pants 4th Dan - Red top black pants 5th Dan+ - Full Red, Red Top and White Pants, Red Top and Black pants with Red Stripes

Push ups as punishment totally work, but shouldn't be the only form of discipline.

Ask once - good. Ask more than once - bad Bad = punishment I had a great reply, then got all confused as to which thread it was supposed to be in. Oh well... time for more coffee.