Nidan Melbourne

Being a Goju-Kai Practitioner, i'd say it is definitely Sanchin and Tensho that represent the style. But out of curiosity, the kata you are working on; is it one of your own creation or one that your particular has in its curriculum?

In many of our dojos, we will have instructors that will have the night off and train in your standard class. As such what do you (regardless of seniority), call them in front of students? For instance you have a 3rd Dan (at my club you are awarded the title of Sensei) coming to train in a Seniors Class which is open to all grades. What would you call them in class in front of other students? I ask because a student of mine asked, and it was something that I hadn't thought of in a long time. Now when I train in such classes, the instructors will generally call me either as Liam or Sempai. depending on who it is and in what context they are addressing me in front of others.

Solid Post. For me as an instructor, I've always prided (little bit of an ego tbh!) myself in my honesty with students. One of the biggest rules I have always had not only with the students but also the people I teach alongside. Is that if we don't know the answer to something, we admit that to who ever asked the question. BUT it is up to us to go and find it out for ourselves. So we can fill in a gap in a lack of our knowledge. For me, I make that additional effort to bring it up in the next class I teach and share that information. Especially if the student or fellow instructor that I taught with is in that class.

5th Dan is still a Technical Grading to me. As with every other rank I’d want to earn it no matter what rank it is for. I’d want to feel like I truly earnt it.

Well an update, we have closed for the foreseeable future with no set date for a review. The senior instructors are still permitted to do our own training. And to take private’s at the dojo as long as there is appropriate consent and cleaning taking place at all times.

Well my dojo has closed for now (which I just mentioned in a new thread). As a result I am doing my own personal training at home. And at the dojo doing my own personal training which means I still have to clean the area after I finish. Also going into the dojo means I can work on my own fitness.

With Covid-19 taking the world hostage. And my sheer craziness with the dojo being closed, I’ve being training and home and looking at various kata/forms on YouTube. With that, I happened to watch some of the Peter Urban USA Goju Kata. Which I found to be uhh highly interesting. As their forms were rather different to what I would normally expect to see. They got me thinking, are there any forms/kata that you have learnt or seen from another style or another “version” of your style that you have seen? For me it was from the aforementioned style and their interpretation of Suparinpei.

Congrats on the promotion! always a good feeling after your return

We're still operating as per usual, as the prevalence rate of the disease here in Australia is a lot lot than in the US. Although we are strictly following the advice of the Health Department. If we get told to close we will, but otherwise if we have anyone suspected of having COVID-19 then we'll shut and have a super stringent clean

I like the idea of 100 man kumite and to be able to last that many fights. Especially the development of their mind set prior to the day.

Speak to the CI about it and what they would like you to do. if they get you to wear a white belt, that they will either get you to go through the same ranks again or will just grade you to whatever was appropriate. When I took a couple of years off due to my knee, the CI I contacted was ok with me wearing my black belt until i got up to speed with the curriculum.

I liked the videos, but do agree they were slightly rushed. Maybe it was because he was trying to get the answer to the question of where karate originated from. Although I do suspect it was probably due to the fact he was limited to the size of the videos he could upload? At the same time doesn't want to upload 20 odd videos for the series. Wastelander any input on it?

Depending on their experience, we vary the games. The first 5 of our forms have 22 steps (not including bows or return to Yoi). Our youngest learn the first 8 steps and gradually increase over the lessons. My personal favourite is telling them the form, and I’ll just call various numbers that correspond to a specific step. They seem to love it.

Happy to hear that proprioception is a part of your interests.Perhaps you have some useful insights that you would like to share on this subject. I for one would like to hear about your experiences in using proprioception with karate and clients. Everything I do for clients has to do with proprioception, as you have to be aware of how you are moving and what the most efficient line of movement is, whilst being safe. The same goes for not only Karate but any martial art, as how you move and stand has an impact on your balance and stability.

A lot of schools often don't directly focus on Propioception, but the ones that do have instructors that understand what it is and how to train it often will focus on it. As an Exercise Scientist, I work quite heavily on this topic with all my clients regardless of age. But I do the same thing with my students at Karate.

The soreness I remind myself will only last a day or two, or will pop up after a time due to DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness). But stretching and moving for me helps greatly, along with some research that helps! The emotional side isn't too bad, during training it comes up to how strong your mental capacity to know that you can keep going. When it comes to students or my friend that I train with, I remind them that the human body can handle a huge volume but comes with training. Even if your brain is going "thats enough for today", you can keep going.

i don't mind Jumping Jacks for a challenge. Considering how many different ones there are for various exercises. But this is a first where you start at 100 and then build up. Every other one i've seen is where you commence at 1 and then you work your way up by 1 everyday, so your doing 365 at the end of the year.

What i'm curious about; is how many of you actively teach or incorporate biomechanical references or understanding into training or teaching? What I mean by biomechnical references is where you will exploit a humans 'natural' weak points in different ways. Such as forcing a knee into excessive extension or the same with an elbow.

Congrats Sperki!

Personally I don't use Gels to help warm me up prior to exercise as I haven't really seen much research to show that there is any evidence for them working. As JR said that they really don't go that deep, which can be an issue as most muscles are quite thick. If you are actively moving the whole muscle can warm up and lengthen.

Being Fit and Healthy are two separate entities themselves, despite being closely linked. Someone could look like the Rock, who could say is very Fit. But for the Rock he is also very heatlhy, as he maintains his health extremely well. Yet the person could in actuality be unhealthy.

Good luck on your search, don't limit yourself to just Kyokushin.

Don't use any apps, i'm a tad archaic and still use Excel for planning/programming

Preparing for a tournament will vary greatly for each person. From what i know you will have a dual curve for your physical preparation, where you can hit your peak twice; once part way through training and the second near the day of the competition. Usually you'll be tapering the week of, and usually is just refining technique at a lighter rate.

it's definitely worthwhile to be able to do it. But i'm also a fan of changing their focus whilst attacking. i.e. strike shoulders (distraction) whilst attacking the legs