Nidan Melbourne

I agree with you, Many people who are interested in Martial Arts and want to make a life out it usually make the approach in studying a Health Related Degree from a Certificate to Post-Graduate (Master/PHD)

It can be a tough balancing act, as there is a ridiculous number of businesses that close within' the first 12 months of operation. I am looking at opening a club in a few years time. But I am not restricting my club to just teaching Karate, but also will get a BJJ Instructor to run the BJJ Program and have a Boxing Instructor to run that program. Whilst at the same time we would be having our own gym (like a Fitness First or Genesis) for the general public and our students from Karate/BJJ/Boxing to use at any time. My logic for having a gym attached to my dojo was to ensure that I still had an income but also to create opportunities for students to come and train at the gym or in class then go do the other. Also so we can create more opportunities for people to become stronger and safer.

Thanks you all very mucht for inputs. i will take this into consideration. Tough - "Coming from an Exercise Science Perspective you shouldn't looking at maximum effort and gains for stretching just yet" When should i ? And where does it differ from "non-maximum effort/gain stretch" ? Maximum Effort vs. Minimum Effort translates to length of time and how you perform a stretch for. As an Adult it is very difficult to improve flexibility from stretching as your muscles + tendons are more 'set' in what they are accustomed to. Usually Stretching will only help by approximately 10% of overall flexibility but it is not a long term way of improving flexibility. But if you are looking for Maximum Gains you have to stretch dynamically or through the use of PNF (Peripheral Neuromuscular Facilitation) Stretching as this CAN aid in flexibility and height of kicks. But for both you should be aware that this can take a long time to work on. Same goes with Minimum Effort because of the time required to attempt to improve flexibility. People like Jean Claude Van Damn are 'naturally' flexible because their muscles have the length and joints allow for such movement.

Don't force him into it, I would say take him in for a few lessons as many clubs would offer an introductory program prior to signing up for a membership. If he likes it after those first few lessons then sign him up if not don't stress about it. like you said that he isn't as interested or passionate about MA like you were when you were his age. It boils down to a difference in the age that you were growing up where there was no minecraft or youtube. Many children these days are more interested in Youtube over physical activities, which to me is disappointing. But you should get them into a MA or sport because he would probably enjoy it.

Even Instructors need to train every now and again so you can have someone look at your technique. I can understand why some instructors wouldn't like others coming into train. But then again this would be a small percentage of people like this. My Sensei trains on his own but also learns from all instructors that is willing to teach him. His instructor recently retired from actively teaching, but will consult with him for advice.

I like the idea of having trainees assisting in the class. That way, they can watch my approach to teaching, and listen to how I address details, and then I can let them take over a small session and listen to how they do it. I can jump in to clarify anything, and afterwards I can take the time to review them, tell them what appeared to work well, and what I perhaps would have approached differently, and then explain to them how I would have approached it. One of the big things I learned as I became an instructor was learning how to teach the same thing to different students in different ways. Everyone learns differently, but we are trying to get them all to learn the same things. The bigger and broader the student base, the more opportunities there are to improve this skill. I like having them observe as well for them to see how things are run, and explained in different ways. Normally when I have new instructors come into the dojo, I get them to take the warm up and then take a small group on their own but with a more advanced person there keeping an eye on things. Especially when you first start out teaching you don't really know what to look out for in techniques, so you do need to show them what to look for and how to explain. Heck there was one time I had to explain targetting to a student by using a Donut as an example. The donut has a hole in the middle, for the targetting you want to aim for the hole in the middle and not hit anything else other than that hole

You won't really need to drop muscle mass to assist with kicks. As there is are many Body Builders who are absolutely ripped but are as flexible as Gymnasts. Coming from an Exercise Science Perspective you shouldn't looking at maximum effort and gains for stretching just yet. Because this can lead to overdoing it therefore injury. For anyone you need to work on your Range of Motion have a practical approach to what your doing. As Stretching is quite diverse where you have Static, Dynamic, Ballistic and PNF along with various others. Stretching is a good daily exercise to do, but for long term they don't have a lasting impact on the muscles and tendons over time. Most of us here will stretch daily to help stay relatively loose and mobile. As such you need to focus on the movements that you would perform for kicks and feel where the issue is. Because Kicking is quite frankly very technical. If you have tightness in your adductors (inner thigh) then stretch there. I am also around your height and weight along with large thighs due to strength training. For Goju-Ryu Kicks they aren't as high as TKD kicks, but for you mobility is important. For me I can't do head kicks due to my weight and also due to knee issues.

I know many National Federations do this where they run Courses to give accreditation to instructors to show that the particular instructor has some form of formal qualifications etc. I know at my dojo like in the 2nd half of what you said, we have my CI run weekday Classes and I run the saturday Classes. For our actual classes themselves on a Wednesday evening we run a normal class for White to Blue Belts (3rd Kyu), but after that we run a Brown (2nd Kyu) + Black Belt only Class where we can do our curriculum and focus on the quality of technique.

I'm getting the Fitbit Blaze for my birthday which is in a few weeks time from my fiancee. For me I wanted it for the practicality for my placement and work so I don't have to pull my phone out of my pocket to see who is contacting me. I personally don't need the GPS considering it would also use my phones GPS if I ever needed it. Also it is about $70AUD Cheaper than the Surge.

For me you to understand where you are now is to understand where you were and what came before you. Let me elaborate for many of us you will have started training after the old 'masters' died. As such you would want to know where you came from in terms of your style but also want to shape it as much as possible. even the techniques and forms in every Martial Art you have to understand why you do it that particular way and others do it differently. So if you don't look at your lineage then you are missing out of an important aspect of your training.

This I feel like is up to the eye of the beholder. Because I see my fianceé as a great martial artist due to her not restricting herself to 1 martial art but learns all of them. She then also has adopted the attitude and started learning the history from each. Some People are Great Martial Artists because of the competition side, some are great from the theoretical and historical sides. I am aware of some students seeing me as a great martial artist due to me taking such a personal approach with every single one of them whilst being their instructor.

I can understand that back in the day 2 hour classes would have been the norm because the operating costs would have been low, so the instructors could operate classes for a longer amount of time. But unfortunately these days locations and the general overhead is quite expensive. Which puts a lot of schools off from operating for longer amounts of time. All of my clubs classes are 1 hour in length, but we encourage students to attend a minimum of twice per week. For our Juniors they can attend a maximum of 4 classes per week. Our Seniors on the other hand can train 3 x per week. On Mondays we encourage Green Belts and Above to do a double class for our seniors program as to benefit their training. Especially since we do their curriculum in that class. But Our Wednesday Advanced Class is restricted to 2nd Kyu and Above to due to large amount of curriculum that they need a strong understand of prior to grading. Personally I train twice a week and for two hours each time (so I do double classes) to get more out of class and for me to travel 15 km i want to make my time worthwhile there. We don't focus on the full 3 K's every single class as we feel like that isn't a productive class where you will retain all that information. Our approach is do a warm up, then work on some basics then undertake whatever tests that we have to focus on. Usually 1/2 of the class time is for teaching new or reviewing techniques whilst the rest is for testing.

I am a Goju-Ryu Practitioner and we only use Osu for bowing related times. We do not use it when being acknowledged by an instructor or senior student. We say "Hai" which means yes.

Our classes are one hour long and cover whatever we need to that particular class. We break down into groups that will work for the number of instructors and space available. Many of our adults train for 2 hours which are two classes long

Atm i teach 2 classes per week but the most i do is 4 or 5 classes when i teach more

The class is run in Queensland (north-eastern state of Australia). @mazzybear they actually came inside the rented space to hand them out and didnt wait outside. As it was on school property, he notified police of this occurring and apparently it has occurred elsewhere also

Recently a colleague of mine that teaches interstate had an issue where GKR 'memberships consultants' decided to enter their part time dojo that was located inside a school. Of which they handed pamphlets out to those students in class. Now what are your thoughts on this?

Correct technique is important yes I disagree with you on the planks because they still place the wrists, elbows and shoulders at increased risk of injury. Especially if they have previously been injured. But the others i would agree with, although have to be applied with caution and with appropriate loading of weight.

That is an interesting way of organising and training all instructors. Who is the person teaching each of the courses? As in the Headmaster (Chief Instructor/Owner/whatever you call it) or the head of your organisation? I agree in having uniformity in teaching is important but in addition those sessions do you actively train instructors during class. But why do you not also have a course on teaching kumite? I ask because i have recently help set up a club that has decided to do such a thing to ensure that instructors are aware of standards and what to expect. They are either on Basics, kata, pre-arranged sparring and sparring. Whilst the senior instructors are required to attend seminars on managing classes whilst the C.I. is absent

I think of the Gracie family for further developing jujitsu. Then of Jesse Enkamp, Iain Abnerthy and an honorable mention to Wastelander (Noah). I feel like Wastelander is rather influential, and will be moreso in the coming decades

Well said. Standardization is a hard thing to do, even in small organizations, because each practitioner has different strengths & weaknesses. 5th Dan "A" may have a perfect side kick, but struggles a bit with the technique that 5th Dan "B" excels at. You posed a great issue with those folks who go independent or are no longer with their instructor (for whatever reason). If they stop testing by choice or out of necessity or circumstance, it may eventually limit their students' options for advancement. Say a 6th has an 8th master in an independent organization. The master dies & the 6th Dan (Master #1) decides that he won't seek out advancement from other folks out of respect for his master. Master A runs a successful program and is able to produce 5th Dan Master #2. Master #2 is a faithful student & reluctantly accepts a promotion from Master #1 also to 6th Dan. Master #2 is a good instructor his students love & she too has a 5th Dan student that she promotes to 6th Dan. So, the highest ranking members of this program that dates back to 1965 when Master 8th Dan took in Master #1 as a student. Good stuff happens on the floor every night, yet the self-imposed limitation in rank (due to circumstances, & choices of Master #1) do not express the depth of learning the leaders have achieved. I trained under a man who (I discovered details later) misrepresented himself at almost every turn. He was 4th Dan from his grandmaster, with whom he had a falling out. But he was so arrogant that he opened up a school directly across the alley from his old GM & promoted himself to 6th Dan in not one, but 2 Arts! In the 80's, he claimed to be a member of the PKA (because that was popular). Then, he magically became a 6th Dan in Aikido when Steven Seagal did his 1st film. He also claimed to be the state director of a large TKD org, but he would actually bring in the man who WAS the state director to do seminars for us. My point in bringing this man up is not to point out this man's failings, but to say what I learned in this event. Before I showed up at this guy's school, I received 1st Dan in a large organization from a master who moved out of state. The magic 6th Dan tested me for 2nd Dan & gave me a bogus cert. from the org he claimed to be state director. After all this bogus stuff came out, I realized the value of credentials from organizations (& legitimate ones at that) rather than ones from an instructor only. In Korea, there are government regulations about who can teach what & at what ranks. Some people struggle under the narrowness of it (even Korea). In the US, we have the opposite...no regulations of any kind what so ever. Anyone can claim anything or nothing & put mats in a room & teach. I'm thinking that some kind of middle ground is needs where regulations of some sort are required of instructors. Heck, it's like that for teachers or yoga, strength training, Zumba, etc. Why not us MAists? end of rant. That would have been extremely frustrating when you found out he was bogus, clearly wanted to just make money and to get payback on his old instructor whilst making students suffer at the same time. But I agree where Person A may be good at a certain technique whilst Person B may not be proficient at the same skill. For instance a friend of mine is also a 2nd Dan is better at Side Kicks and I am not. But I am better at low kicks than he is.

Personally I find that it is a good idea, as you are obviously more likely to be attacked anywhere and at any time. So this adds a more realistic approach to training outside over being just in the dojo, purely because this will force you to adjust and be more aware of your surroundings. I agree with your point about getting some unwelcome attention by others, especially arrogant teens where they think that they are better than everyone and will fight everyone.

Yeah I have heard it is difficult to get international instructors other than those from the hombu dojo to come teach. I am aware that Jesse has seminars in the US this year. Personally I don't understand why schools wouldn't allow international instructors of high regard to come teach. My sensei has always been open to having instructors come teach if they have something that would benefit our students. The main things that they required were positive history from other clubs and if they are well known (i.e. Jesse Enkamp or Iain Abernethy).

I loved it when i saw it on Friday night. It was pure hilarity

As sensei8 said that not all black belts can teach. Since you're a yonkyu i would say wait till you are more experienced and a higher rank. UNLESS you employ an instructor in the same style to teach that is of a higher rank. I believe being at least 3rd dan is important as you should know the whole curriculum or majority of it for your style. I am looking at operating my own dojo one day with my fianceé. But i will be operating my own medical centre at the same time. And i will be the chief instructor in the lead position due to me having more experience than my partner.