Nidan Melbourne

I am fortunate enough to have a lot of land . I made a level spot out the front of the house with the tractor , so its fairly large ( no Mum or Wife to complain about carving up the garden ) it soon got covered with grass . Now I call it ' The Circle of Death ' The last 12 years , our 'club training ' on the weekend has been in a public park in town . It seems to have become popular , now the local aikido club trains there on the same day . Outside training is the go ! Much more to offer ; being aware of a much larger 'field' / environment , yet not being distracted by it , uneven ground and correct footwork ( for outdoors, that is - dont try doing what you learned to do on a smooth gym floor when outdoors ) , tactics (like maneuvering another into uneven ground , or so they have the sun in their eyes, etc ) . Weather can be an issue , sometimes we evacuated the park and went and trained in a nearby covered car park . We train at the park every now and again, and love it. But I love seeing the reaction of students when it starts raining, but you can see differences between attitudes real quick. The last time we did, came down hard and a few of us Black Belts just laughed and said "perfect time for some kumite"

Definitely is a mixed bag but then it is even more of a mixed bag when it comes to the schools teaching it. We do a bit of grappling/throws etc at my school because a few of us have the experience from having learnt it elsewhere. Along with being encouraged to learn from other instructors.

Theres 2 Belts I will be passing on, My original Black Belt which will go to my wife as we literally met not to long after me be promoted. The other is my current belt, which will go to my daughter when I pass.

Welcome to the Forum! Yeah I used to do that all the time! but then I realised that I can just train outside and has way more space

The biggest thing for me that a Black Belt should hold is Attitude. Yes Non-Black Belts can carry themselves in a way that exemplifies a Black Belt. But when those around them come to them, even when not teaching shows that there is something different about them.

90% of the time we have students come up to us wanting to teach. So we take them under our wings for a few lessons, and given them various amounts of responsibility. The other 10% we go to particular students, and invite them to teach. But our minimums are 13 years old and 2nd Kyu. But the younger they are, the less responsibility they have.

Both are effective in what their designed for, and I encourage all my students to utilise both. Also for me if the instructor can’t or doesn’t get to know you from a class setting then there is an issue. The classes I teach, I ensure that there is low student to instructor groups. That way, we learn more about the student and same goes the other way round. I would be failing my students, if I didn’t know how Jimmy Works and Learns in comparison to Cassandra who does things completely differently.

Depends strictly on the association and also your club. Some are very strict on this matter, as a matter of quality control. At my club, my Chief Instructor (Godan) runs all gradings and will promote students up to 3rd Dan. But we aren't formally affiliated with any other association, so he tends to bring in other instructors of other clubs to assist when dealing with students wishing to have any Dan Promotion. 1 of our 3rd Dans are due in 2021, but not sure if he is interested in being promoted to 4th Dan any time soon.

To the bolded, thats what i love and learnt through Trial and Error is to get to their level and have them feel more comfortable. But to be honest with you I do feel like if i can get to their level and have them enjoy class then I can enjoy it. As i'm not forcing either side to enjoy things, as we are mutually having fun. But i'll definitely take your advice on board regarding giving them a small job to do. Does it work for the much newer (like 2nd or 3rd lesson) students? I feel like i was on the knife edge with encouraging her to get on with including the parents and inviting them on. As I felt like I may have embarrassed her.

That’s one of my many tricks that I do, and throw them in throughout the class. As to entice them in and show that there is something to look forward to. I’m hoping the more she sees me and sees what I do as an instructor, she’ll warm up to me and the others.

This morning whilst teaching my White Belt Juniors Class, we had a young kid (approx 8 years old) and was super shy and didn't want to join in. I tried everything in my bag of tricks to allow her to feel comfortable to join in, but I feel like I am missing something. What I would like to know, is how you as an instructor would encourage to the kid to join in despite but super shy and hesitant to join in? As an Instructor, when I come across a person like this; my goal for them is if they even join in for 5 minutes then its a success. But then the next class is for them to do 10 minutes, etc until they do a full class. I explained that to the dad, and he was understanding. As I told him that as an Instructor but also teaching a skill it is sometimes more valuable and successful for when they simply give something a go over getting a belt or a 'tag' on the belt. Even though he wanted to pay for the session, I wanted him to not worry and that i'd rather give his child another class so she could have another chance to have a go. As it is still a lot of money per month (even though it averages to $27.50 per week for unlimited classes) to spend. And my CI is known to rather have a kid come in for paying nothing to see them come out of their shell.

Welcome to the forum, i'm looking forward to the discussions i'm sure we're going to have and also learning from and sharing my knowledge with you. I hope you find the people here welcoming and friendly

We allow all our students to cross train in any style of martial art. To us it would be too restrictive on a persons growth, and rather controlling of us to go "No you must only train with us". We have a few people that do cross train either in multiple styles of Karate or other MA, and they have always been open to sharing that knowledge with us if we didn't already do it or know it.

Congrats all!

congrats on the promotion!!! I was supposed to grade for my Sandan this year, but COVID wrecked those plans haha

We haven't lowered our standards due to covid, as people have continued to train in the modified format via zoom throughout the year. Providing individualised feedback has been near impossible due to it though. So we had set our expectations of classes to be lower, as we expect students to have moved backwards throughout the year. but not to the extent that some haven't actually improved. We have also been teaching in person for the last couple of weeks, as our restrictions have been progressively been easing over the last month. As of yesterday we have had 28 Days of 0 new infections and 0 active cases in my state. Our students also are aware that they can't expect to be tested in grade or for a belt promotion for the foreseeable future, until the standards have been met. and they all understand, and are working hard to meet our standards for even remotely being able to test in-grade. the hardest and most problematic has been the no-contact rule. as it rules out so much of what we do in Martial Arts.

We have no formal governing body for my club with the exception of the Australian Karate Federation and Karate Victoria. They pretty much are just there for the support of clubs and tournaments. But don't dictate anything for clubs in regards to grades, curriculum etc. But we have 10 Dan Grades at my club. But my Chief Instructor hasn't set any formal requirements for past 5th Dan as of yet. As he himself is a 5th Dan.

I wouldn't be surprised if it is to keep the pace up and not take all day. When I was at my State Championships a couple of years ago competing, we had 30 odd people in my division and took close to 4 hours to finish.

I know there have been some online Kata competitions going on during the pandemic. But as far as I know, there have been none here in Melbourne (Australia).

Personally I can see why people see it as obsolete. But it does allow you to train in a way that doesn’t mean you have to replace clothing every week. Belts are only really useful to help split classes up into groupings.

At my club your a Sempai in any way possible as an instructor or student. In our adults classes, when all grades are working together, we will partner advanced students with beginners. And rotate around so beginners to work with others and the advanced get to work on it too

Thanks for sharing Sensei8! For Godan and above gradings, how do they work when they cross several days? We generally only work ours on a weekend, and only have our seniors kyu gradings during the week. Which sits nicely into our timetable. I don't know too much about the SKKA unfortunately, so I am in the dark about what your curriculum comprises of and say how many kata that are required or bunkai. Our Kyu Gradings are held in around the same time frame as yours, albeit we are on a much smaller scale in comparison to yours. As we have approximately 350 students across two sites.

With the whole coronavirus pandemic going around, it me thinking about how gradings are done and how their formatted. At my club, along with my old one; we held two different types of grading: Kyu Gradings and Dan Gradings. With these being separate for Adults and Juniors. Our Kyu Gradings (Adults + Juniors) are 2 hours long, and Dan Gradings going for a minimum of 4 hours. Our Kyu Gradings; you will undertake each of the sections that they were tested on in-grade, with more senior students having more to do in comparison to the newer students. Often these gradings take longer than what was intended, which I am negotiating with my CI to make it a 3 hour grading to give it more time. All promotions are done the following classes when the student attends next. Dan Gradings are open to students of 3rd Kyu and above; and is at least 4 hours in duration. The longest i've been part of as either an instructor or participant has been 6.5-7 Hours. Students wishing to be promoted to any dan grade has to meet their requirements. Students not attempting for a dan grading will have more breaks than other students. Out of curiosity, how does your club or organisation do all gradings and how are they formatted?

Like Wastelander has said that it comes with the territory that you will follow the Shuhari Principles. For me as a beginner you should follow the process of learning the techniques, kata etc and allow it to become natural. After I was promoted to Shodan-Ho, I didn't feel like anything was natural in itself. Only when I got promoted to Shodan, where I realised that what I was doing was natural and that I could relax. Which seems that the expression of my karate changed and improved. But when it comes to teaching, I do verbalise to my students that there is always going to be a difference in how everyone does it due to their own physical, psychological and spiritual progress.

I practice Sanchin Kata regularly, as it brings a level of focus back into my training. But also it reminds me to actively engage my body throughout my training. Even when I practice my kihon, it is furthered more as I practice the kata.