CredoTe

Welcome to KF! Glad you're making us a part of your MA journey...

Congrats! Well earned...

There are always the X is better than Y, yet X isn't eligible yet due to a slight difference in age. But you have to draw the line somewhere. The drinking age is 21. What about a 19 year old who's fighting in a war, risking their life everyday? Have they not proven their maturity? Of course he/she has. Do we make an exception an put an asterisk on their ID card that says it's ok for them? No. The line has to be drawn somewhere. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, just stating fact. If someone is 16 and is better than an 18 year old that is worthy of their rank, then they'll still be worthy (barring unforeseen circumstances) when they're technically old enough to hold the rank. If they can't wait 2 more years to officially obtain that rank, then maybe they really didn't deserve it after all. You have to draw a line somewhere. Their will always be people who are exceptional or make you question the rule and make it seem unfair. But the line has to be drawn IMO. If your rule is 18, it's 18. If it's 16, it's 16. I'm not a die-hard believer in the rules are always the rules, regardless of the situation, but if its a great rule 99% of the time, enforcing it that last 1% of the time shouldn't cause major turmoil. If a student quits because he/she can't wait another year or two, they'll find another reason not too long after you've made the exception. Or they'll point to that exception next time a rule is enforced. Or others will. I'm a middle school teacher, so I'm a bit biased. I see parents and students point to an exception made for very good reason, and think it should apply to their child who has a different circumstance and the exception does not apply. Absolutely. Solid post...

Congrats on earning your promotion / grade! As others have said, don't concern yourself with double gradings. MA is a lifelong journey, a scenic route through the countryside.

Karate does have a lot of concepts to it; but, many of them were not passed on in a widespread manner when all the Osenseis passed away. Many karate schools in the West, particularly in the USA (I cannot speak for South America, Europe, etc, but I hypothesize that they're in the same boat), are missing important pieces of conceptual development. Some schools do, however. There are some that do teach Irikumi (in-fighting) and Tuite, development of gamaku (power generation) to achieve atemi (destructive power), etc. These are all part of Ti. See, Ti is largely thought of as the predecessor to Tode and eventually karate. But, it's more than that. Ti is a large core of concepts and methods that is missing from most karate schools... it was from mine, too. It doesn't mean I wasn't a good MA before; we trained hard, sparred hard, grappled hard, etc. But, now that we have it, I can't imagine our MA without it. It doesn't mean Ti is the only core of concepts and methods, either. Many exist, many that work for different people. So... what you're saying is that JKD suffers from the same QC/QA issues as pretty much any MA... Lineages split and go separate ways as practitioners get more experience and think they know better than others; "NO! I'm better! I know what Master wanted better than this other guy!"; "Nooo! I know better!"... Yay! Dojo politics! I don't know how to bold certain things, so sorry if this seems like a mess... You have to keep in mind the majority of the people who brought karate here to the U.S. They were service men who trained for relatively speaking a short time in Japan/Okinawa. They were most likely taught what amounted to the basics or fundamentals and were told to perfect their technique before they taught applications. Learn to walk before you can run. Nothing wrong with that. When they came here, they taught what they knew. Perfect the technique. How long is a your of duty? If it's 4 years, that's long enough to earn a shodan, if they started once the tour started and ended once the tour ended. What do kyu grades get taught? Proper technique. What should black belts learn? Application of the technique they've been taught already. Just my hypothesis of why we're so technique based over here. Regarding the OP... Different instructors are different, even within the same organization. It seems like your child's instructor doesn't know how to differentiate instruction between kyu grades and dan grades. It happens far more often than people realize. I agree. The last part of that post of mine from a while ago was specifically referring to the clash of egos that causes dojo politics to flare up, and ultimately causes the art to suffer. Regarding what you're referring to; in my experience, there's two basic ways things go when it comes to the instruction of waza: 1) MA instructors (old school military who are still teaching or have passed it on and their pupils teach it the exact same way) teach the basics/fundamentals as they learned it during their duty in Okinawa or Japan and stick to it rigidly (not necessarily a bad thing), or 2) MA instructors (either military or not) that have perfected the basics/fundamentals mentioned in example 1, but continue to learn and grow in the pursuit of truth. Example 1 can provide for a lifelong MA journey of self-mastery. So, again, it's not necessarily a bad thing. I don't begrudge anyone taking the way of example 1 in their study of waza. However, I simply prefer example 2.

Who couldn't learn from Master Ken? He's an 11th Dan after all!

yes...Yes...YES, and then some. Cheesy, oh no, a deep gem, imho. Your post here is SOLID!! Bruce, in Enter The Dragon, asked his student, after a series of kicks, one better than the other..."That's it! How did it FEEL to you?", asked Bruce. The students answer..."Let me think!"..."Don't think; FEEL!!", Bruce exclaimed. Absolutely! Agreed...

We make use of heavy bags: 1) Technique and power development - positioned in various stances to develop different techniques and the power generation that goes along with them. 2) Live training tool - we'll move it to the center of the training area, and have students move all around the bag while striking, kicking, "blocking" (receivers), etc to get a feel for constant motion while delivering techniques against an actual resistive object.

That's for sure...

With a good GM, its a blast. But time consuming...There's the Wayne's World timewarp again.... doo-doo-doo doo-doo-doo... 2 days later, the grimey, grubby, dazed nerdo-adventurers emerge from the cavernous gaming den that is knee-deep in the dead. The brutal carnage of zombies, goblins, hobgoblins, the occasional gelatinous cube, and cheetos/doritos are strewn about the floor, walls, and ceiling, a reminder of the doom the nerdo-adventurers had escaped. Then, with thoughts of, "this is awesome!", reality sets back in...

Oh, yes; Shindokan trains with the Sagi-machiwara, but Shindokan also trains with the WCD even more so. I don't know of many Karate styles that train with the WCD, if any outside of Shindokan. That's intriguing... I've seen you mention that a few times before; I'd be interesting in seeing how you train on it, and then how you incorporate the concepts you train on the dummy into application/partner drills. I'm guessing your applications are more Tuide/Tuite related...? Or, Kakie/Kaki-uke related ...? I suppose, in some ways, these can be considered Tuide/Tuite related...

Oh, yes; Shindokan trains with the Sagi-machiwara, but Shindokan also trains with the WCD even more so. I don't know of many Karate styles that train with the WCD, if any outside of Shindokan. That's intriguing... I've seen you mention that a few times before; I'd be interesting in seeing how you train on it, and then how you incorporate the concepts you train on the dummy into application/partner drills. I'm guessing your applications are more Tuide/Tuite related...?

I train in Shorin-ryu and have trained in Hung Gar (Hung Siu Lum). IMHO, they go very well together. The similarities are close enough that they don't really clash or confuse each other, and the differences are far enough apart that they compliment nicely. To me, it's no surprise, considering that both Hung Gar and Shorin-ryu share roots in older Southern Shaolin (Hung Siu Lum is a type of Southern Shaolin).

Okinawan karate-do does implement a "wooden dummy" of sorts into their training... It's called a Sagi-machiwara. It's basically a hanging log supported from above and is used for much of the same concepts as a wooden dummy.

Oooooo... Time for a rematch...

Despite always hearing about the "mystical and ethereal" 10 year old black belt, I've actually only ever witnessed 1 in my entire life. It was about 3 years ago at another dojo in our area; a dojo known for emphasizing tournament karate. The CI there is a good guy, I like him (he's the kind of guy that would give you the shirt off of his back if he though it would help you), but he is not known for traditional / fighting sense karate-do. He does very well for himself and his dojo, but he buys into the flashy, bells-and-whistles stuff, even more so the younger the student is. On one hand, I can see awarding a child student for hard work and achievement. But, on the other, what sort of false-sense-of-security message does that give a 10 year kid?

Matsubayashi-ryu (Shorin-ryu) 22+ years: parents enrolled me when I was very young (a) to help me deal with focus/anger issues in a positive outlet, and (b) because I was interested (I wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle!). Initially, as a kid, the style was meaningless to me. As I grew and matured, I stay in it because it makes sense to me and is the main vehicle for my MA journey. Hung Gar (Hung Siu Lum) Kung-fu (3 years): During a period in my younger life when training in Matsubayashi-ryu wasn't possible (no dojo), I trained in Hung Gar (Hung Siu Lum), a Souther Shaolin style of Kung-fu. It's similarities with my Okinawan karate-do training really supplemented my skill. I don't train in it anymore (not a focus of my journey), but I would recommend anyone to try it if you have a school in your area. Ti / Ryukyu Kobudo (3+ years): The wisdom and dynamics of empty-handed Ti training is the missing link between my Matsubayashi-ryu training and the Koryu Ryukyu fighting art concepts. It (Ti) really facilitates the pursuit of truth, fighting sense waza, and the capability to adapt my MA into the modern world. To be clear, Ti is not a style of MA, but rather, wisdom and concepts that are added to MA training. The Ryukyu Kobudo I train in is completely built around Ti concepts. So, it serves dual purpose: (1) Ryukyu weapons training, and (2) connecting both weapons and empty-handed training (karate-do) with the wisdom and concepts Ti provides.

Welcome to KF! Glad you're making us a part of your journey...

Welcome to KF! Thanks for making us a part of your journey...

Therein lies the silver lining. It looks like the current path you're on has already started to pay back in dividends much greater than the training you received before. I couldn't help but feel satisfied and content when this very thing occurred to me; the realization that the small amount of training on my current path had more value / quality / weight than the training I had previously received.

To the bold type, this is part of the key, the physical part, to seeking the truth in one's MA journey. I am in almost the exact same scenario, and like you, have been given (I would say divinely) the opportunity to train with a master that knows what the missing pieces are. For my journey, the Ti contains all the missing pieces and parts, all the missing wisdom that was supposed to have been passed down through the generations via Okinawan toudi/tote/karate-do. As you say, the most difficult part, physically, is re-training waza and muscle memory that has been ingrained for many years. I really hope you stick with it because the knowledge and wisdom gained from all of this really is worth it.

Absolutely. The fact that Funakoshi was mostly Anko Azato's student, and not Itosu's, speaks volumes regarding the differences between Funakoshi-ha and Itosu-ha waza. The issue is less about Itosu Shuri-te vs. Shotokan, and more about the waza of Shuri-te and Tomari-te as practiced by Matsumura and Matsumora and others of the time. IMHO, this may be one of the reasons why many Chotoku Kyan-ha ("Shobayashi" Shorin-ryu) and Choshin Chibana-ha ("Kobayashi" Shorin-ryu) like to emphasize Kyan's and Chibana's training with Sokon Matsumura more than their training with Itosu (but, they do not ignore/neglect Itosu). The specific issue of nekoashi-dachi brings up the general problem of waza being misinterpreted and misunderstood (and, therefore, taught in error) over the years. What Choki Motobu was referring to was the development of waza at the time into useless "dance moves". I agree, the way nekoashi-dachi is taught in most karate dojos, and what it's used for, is about as useful as dance moves in a fight (i.e. moving forward in a cat stance is largely meaningless in a fight, but we do it in kata). But, a specific discussion regarding this waza or that waza, and/or why it's done this way or that way in kata, are topics for a different thread... To say exactly why any given style has or doesn't have a waza is a little difficult (e.g. changes over the years, lack of historical / contemporaneous records). Seito Shorin-ryu has changed over the years just as much as any other. So has Shotokan, so has all the Shorin-ryu-ha... IMHO, it should be about the pursuit of truth and finding waza that make fighting sense, all the while striving to master oneself. I follow Matsubayashi-ryu (Shorin-ryu) / Ryukyu kobudo (Hozon Shinkokai) / Ti because these make the most sense to me. Of course, these all have their faults. Anything human-generated is going to have faults. As long as we keep this in mind, the pursuit of truth and fighting sense waza will not be obscured.

As others have said, you have earned it!

For all who've given their lives for Freedom and in defense of the U.S:

Oooooooo.... That's so coool... *Nerd spaz-out*