muttley

A couple of weeks ago I took my daughter to her regular ballet class in Kent (UK), her school is based in a small village in a converted industrial unit. While waiting in the car park to go collect her, I noticed that a previously run down building had sprouted a sign "Karate Justsu Kai" together with the emblem for The World Independent Budo Kai association. I hadn't noticed this before. Today, on doing the same dad-taxi to ballet I saw the place again and saw that someone was doing work on it so I went to speak to the guy. Turns out the dojo will be opening soon and is an off-shoot of Kyokushin Kai, I believe it is linked to this place http://www.karatejutsukai.com/assoc/ Anyway, the guy invited me in to have a look around and see what he is setting up, the place looks fantastic, just how I think a dojo should look. Mats permanently in place, punch bags hanging from the wall and to top it all off, makiwara attached to the walls. I got talking to him and he explained what he wants to do, he is looking to open on monday, wednesday and friday evenings 19:15-20:45 but said that, as I work shifts we could come to an arrangement for training during the daytime, well I couldn't believe what I was hearing, sounded fantastic! I am now looking forward to this dojo opening up and starting to train again, a really welcoming guy and I am sure the dojo will be a huge success!

I have to admit, it was pretty difficult trying to teach her basic step into front stance and gedan barai! I might just see if I can teach her the very basics and Kihon Kata then get her to the dojo.

I have 2 children who are very, VERY different, my 3 year old is full of boisterous activity and tires me out just watching him, my 6 year old is completely the opposite, wouldn't say boo to a goose and is very emotional, she studies ballet and is so bright. Unfortunately, my 6 years olds school friends take the mickey out of her and she doesn't seem to have the confidence to deal with this, in this, she reminds me of myself when I started school. Some of her "friends" study karate, one of them is quite bullish in her ways and I really want my daughter to stand up to this girl. With this in mind, I have been looking for karate clubs in my area for my daughter, my wife is not so keen on this as she thinks it will just tire her out (she is tired quite often). My wife has suggested that I teach her some of the basics of karate, being that I have trained for so long in shotokan, I can teach the basic movements, but I am not sure that teaching the basics is enough. Has anyone on here tried to teach their own children at all? If so, any hints and tips you could pass on?

According to Damon Albarn of Blur fame - "Confidence is a preference for the habitual voyeur of what is known as (parklife)" Since changing my career, I have once again found myself not training in martial arts. With this lack of training I have noticed that my confidence levels have dropped severely in some situations. I find it strange, I play rugby for a local veterans team and in that situation, my confidence is spot on, I take on guys far larger than myself (and generally get the better of them on the field), in my work, when I am faced with confrontation (which happens a lot in my line of work), I am confident that I am able to deal with it. My issue is in another area of my work, I find myself questioning my decisions which I can only put down to a lack of confidence in my own ability. This is something I never suffered from when I trained regularly, and is something my friends find odd as they would never describe me as being a person who lacks in confidence. Has anyone else suffered from this before and has it improved when they have started training again or is it a case of me feeling down heartened due to not having the time to train as I once did?

The club I am looking at does have a dedicated "kids" session which is supposed to introduce them to the ideas of TKD and make it fun until they reach an age that is more suitable.

Thanks, I think I might go along one evening as I need to do something and I think starting a fresh in a new club would benefit me more than starting from where I left off. At least one of the clubs trains a lot of evenings which is good.

Hello I am looking for a martial art for my son to do, he is a rather boisterous 3 year old (4 in August) and I feel a martial art would help him greatly. The issue is this, in my area of the UK, there are only Kung fu, Karate and TKD classes, most of these run on evenings and I don't think that my son would be suitable for these as he has an early bed time. There are 2 TKD classes in my area that train kids on Saturdays, one is and "Olympic TKD club" which only charges a yearly membership fee of £40 and doesn't charge training fee's. The other is this club http://www.wolftkd.com/wolf-cubs-from-4-years.html which I am interested in as I could actually train there on an evening (shift work - not great for structured training) - I used to train in Shotokan. Would this benefit my son? Would I find it hard to change from SHotokan Karate to TKD? Many thanks

This is very interesting, when I was younger and into my teens, I was quite open about my karate training. I now try and not tell anyone. Now I have started training in Judo, I want to try and keep it more secretive as I don't see why anyone needs to know what I study or do in my spare time (and it might come in handy for others not to know).

And the best thing about this dojo is that I can train every week. As it starts at 20.15 I can make it there after work. Oh and also its very good value at £2.50 for a 90 minute session!

Well, I went to have a look, took my karate gi along with me "just in case". Turns out there was another guy on his first session and one of the Sensei's had a knee injury stopping him from participating in the randori session so he took us through break falls and some basics. Great stuff.

sounds good.

Seriously considering going along to my local judo club tonight ( http://hernebayjudoclub.com/the-clun/ ), trouble is having never done judo before, I emailed the club to make sure it was training as it's the Easter holidays at the moment and was told it's not a "usual" session, instead it's a monthyl randori session with other clubs coming along. From what I can gather, this means there is no formal training, just freestyle type sessions on the mat. Is it worthwhile still going along or am I better off waiting for a normal session in the coming weeks? The alternative is to go to a local https://www.jitsufoundation.org club and try jujitsu...which would be more advantageous to me?

Just wish there were more who taught like this in the UK, unfortunately, the majority of clubs are sports orientated and lost their way.

In all honesty, the biggest decision you've made is to return to training. In my opinion, put on a white belt (if you have one), train for a few weeks and then politely ask Sensei to assess your ability and award a grade dependent on the standard of the rest of his class. The last thing you want to do is annoy others in the class by waltzing in as a black belt when you've been out of training and the style has some differences.

I am looking at studying Wing Chun, I have never studied a Chinese system such as this having only ever studied Japanese/Okinawan Karate. I've done a fair bit of looking about on the web for a club, there seemed to be one a few villages away from me called Wugon Academy but this seems to have vanished as far as I can see. So I have come down to this club not too far from me: http://wingchunkentregion.co.uk/ Question is, I know what to look for in a good karate school, what about Wing Chun? Are there governing bodies etc??

Currently watching this documentary (aired on ITV - UK in 2000). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxMxoE4uoMo It's not bad to be fair. Part 2 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UhpVy5b0Zs Some fantastic stuff from Geoff Thompson around 11-13 minutes in.

I have tried Kyokushin a few times, maybe it was the dojo I went to or the sessions I tried but the focus was predominantly on knock down fighting and training for competitions. There was no kata trained at all, kihon was on the spot hand and foot techniques which was a good workout (and the hip flexors certainly knew they'd worked the next few days!). Unfortunately, competition karate isn't for me, I am not interested in it at my age (38) and would rather train for self protection reasons, it's a shame because the training is great for conditioning etc.

Just had a thought (and yes it did hurt, lol), have you considered an Open Degree? I know of one of the teachers in ICT at our place has an Open Degree - pretty sure there are more at our place. That way you can do modules in both ICT/Computing and Sport, if you don't do a Bachelors of Education (BEd). Then you can do the DTLLS, PGCE or one of the other QTS program routes. As for coaching courses, there is the BTEC Level 3 Self-Defence Instructor Certification, is that any good for you if you do want to do the Sports Degree? I've already got a Level 4 NVQ in Use of Force instruction (obtained through my work)...wasn't sure if that would suffice.

Thank you for that, looks like I need to get cracking with a degree in that case and look to leave my current "career" behind me...I wonder if there are any transferrable skills I could use.

Too late for that option then, might start off with a PTTLS course as a taster and to get me back into learning (cheaper too), although once I get a degree, there are these training programmes for teachers where they do the PGCE while working as a teacher.

Thanks for the advice, I quite like the sound of option 1 there, I am looking at doing everything through the OU (not the cheapest, but certainly the best known provider of distance learning in the UK). The main issue I think I am going to have is time, combining study with my full time job (although I get quite a few rest days ordinarily), it's a big decision and a long term investment in my future so lots to think about.

Thanks for the reply, I will speak to someone at the university prior to deciding what I am going to do, other options to get into teaching is to completely change track and do a degree in computing and IT...I know what I would rather be doing!

I am thinking of changing my career over the next few years, want to go into teaching (looking at PE teaching), in the UK to be a teacher you need to have a relevant degree qualification and a Post Graduate Certificate in Education. I am looking at doing the sports degree via The Open University (distance learning while still working), the issue is that to complete the degree, I need a coaching qualification issued by a recognised national governing body, the question is, does the KUGB qualify for this and would the instructors course suffice? Many thanks.

As a use of force instructor within a UK government body, I can tell you that in the UK uof is legal (and you are covered under criminal law act 1967 section 3(1) as well as common law - have a look for Beckford v. The Queen). You do have to prove that the force used was : Necessary No more than necessary Proportionate Reasonable I would say we have some of the best laws for self defence in the world.

You misunderstand the Interpretation, in no way is Funakoshi saying you have to wait for anything prior to hitting, as I said earlier in the thread, pre-emptive is better than reactive. I was reading an article on this the other day, can't remember if it was Motobu or Myagi but one of them was faced by a knife weilding idiot who was intent on teaching him a lesson in a fight. They were in a restaurant, Motobu/Myagi initially refused to fight but seeing that the guy wouldn't go away, he suggested they take the fight outside. As the knife weilder turned and started to walk out, he followed him closely. He took his time but launched a kick which landed on the guys back, flooring him and ending the fight. In no way does that go against karate ni sente nashi, the guy threatened him, he ended it. Hope this helps