Nidan Melbourne

Hey all. I was wondering how your schools organise your syllabus book for students. I am asking because a friend is mine is wanting to create a syllabus book for his club and asked me to make one for him. I have shown him my old clubs book to provide an idea of what one looks like. What do you all include in yours?

Exactly still his usual black belt.

Very cool and congratulations Patrick! Thanks for the mention as well it makes me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside

I think that is usually due to differences in culture between okinawa/japan and korea. Also due to the preferences of instructors themselves. Sensei Morio Higoanna only wears his normal black belt and no other

That is true unfortunately. I don't think Press Studs or Buttons would be appropriate due to the nature of the activity. But definitely extra ties like what you would find normally would be a positive. My fiance who i teach has a ridiculously starchy gi but she also ties the gi extra tight with the ties available and wears her belt tight. so it stays in place quite nicely

Thank you for sharing that is a very inspirational story of that young man.

To the bold type above... How so, Noah?? Well, from what my Sensei and I understand, the Renshi belt was invented by the Goju-Kai on mainland Japan, and was never an Okinawan trend. At some point in the Shorinkan's history, though, someone brought that belt from mainland Japan back to the West. As others have mentioned in this thread, it isn't worn on Okinawa (at least, not in the Shorinkan), but it is worn all over the rest of the world. It's a bit strange to have one bought for and given to you on Okinawa, where it would not be worn. I know one of my friends who i train with, travelled to Okinawa to a Goju-Ryu Dojo and the sensei there wore a Red Belt. I am not too sure about the origins of where the wearing of the Renshi Belt came from. But does sound like something Yamaguchi-Sensei may have done

I know Seishin have just released a womens gi designed for women. So i'm assuming they may have extra ties as well. There are some styles of gi i believe that if you place a special order they can accomodate with extra ties. Majority of the females at my dojo wear only a sports bra with a crop top type of singlet underneath. A few others just wear a tshirt underneath. I understand many females feel uncomfortable with what i said above. So i hope you find a solution

Our gradings are open to be watched. Personally i dont like it for our junior kyu gradings. Because i feel like it makes the kids more nervous. Our adult kyu gradings are during class so people are still training. Our Black Belt Gradings i feel like each student should have someone there to provide support and first aid during the grading itself

At my dojo my sensei specifies a white gi that is it. It can be any cut that you wish as long as it was a karate gi that is white. Majority of our students just buy our club gi (by which is no way mandatory) that is cotton of which is made by Jols. Usually it is our 1st Kyus and up buy a specialised gi for either kumite or kata. Or just better quality gi's made by different manufacturers. Many buy from Adidas or Tokaido. I personally have a Seishin Gi (which i love) and a heavier Tokaido Gi. Along with having my club gi which is slightly more restrictive than my other gis.

I hate seeing when students fail grading, but then again at the end of the day it is up to them whether they pass or not. I have spoken to many parents in the last couple of months and none of them could understand why their child failed their grading. And what I had to do was explain to them that it isn't just given to them but they have to work for it. and that effort has to be put into what their doing. Personally I have seen several people who have failed, some have taken it well and worked harder than before to reach that level that would allow them to pass. But then on the other hand i have seen some of them failing and taking it really hard. I know when i tested for my Nidan i gave it my all and was physically and mentally hit hard because of it. Because I know that I would want to truly earn it by giving 100% of myself into it. It was to the point where I got home and cried in the shower because i was so mentally worn out. Parents should know that yes they pay us to teach their child whatever MA it is they are wanting to learn. BUT the child still has to meet those requirements to be promoted. We are in a way the "experts" in our field and that we will do our best in teaching their child but they have to take the time and effort into the promotion.

At my dojo we would grade and at the following class we would receive our results. We put our new belts on and have either sensei or one of the sempai's tie our old belts (unless your brown belt up for juniors, or yellow belt up for seniors where you tie your own up). We also receive our certificates at the same time. The exception is for our Black Belt Gradings where you attempt for your black belt or any dan grading. where it takes 2-3 weeks (sometimes longer timeframe or less) for sensei to review footage and to have belts made if ordered with embroidery.

I can understand why they may not want to have videos to be shared online in terms of say kata. As it can be seen as a privacy issue. Judodad_karateson may I ask what style you do? I do Goju-Ryu and I know there are hundreds of videos relating to our kata on Youtube. But the difficult side of it is where there are minor variations to those kata even though they are from the same style. I know my sensei has released some videos for our club in which members of the club can see what a kata is supposed to look for us.

Thanks mate. Yeah it was mostly 2014-15 vision and there was a STACK of it. One of the camcorders I was given had 220gb of video to sort through! I personally shot some it throughout the year at various events, and some of it was taken off phones as well. Would have loved to travel around with the family to all the tournaments but as you know it gets expensive and karate is not a very high profile sport over here in Aus. Hopefully we'll be doing some cool stuff in 2016. It makes all the difference when the subject matter is one you love (karate) and understand, as you can see things in the vision other people wouldn't, like referee calls, coach reactions, skills that are so fast you might miss etc. I would happily make karate videos for a living if there was a demand haha. Hey, congrats Liam on your Nidan, Sensei Chris is an excellent technician and I'm sure he was invaluable in your preparation. And yep I was at Donacaster seeing the new Star Wars movie! Thanks for that I thought that was you, cause I walked past when you were eating.

Being a white belt going for promotion you are allowed to make lots of mistakes. I suffer from Anxiety and Depression, so I understand where you are coming from. I'm a 2nd Dan in Goju-Ryu and I still have trouble every now and again with some combinations. I am a bit of a perfectionist, but I have trained for 14 (15 Years in October) and took me a long time to learn and realize that if I take my time then I grow and become better. So my piece of advice is don't rush yourself in any technique, enjoy the experience and work hard. You are still new to this and it takes time to develop such coordination. I know there are a lot of people that feel that there is pressure on them to advance to the next grade by others. But they do it because they compete and feel like they need to keep advancing in grade to fight others. Personally I would say your sensei would not be disappointed in how you perform. Let me elaborate: he has taught you from day 1, and knows what you are capable of. He wouldn't tell you that your not ready to grade or to anything unless he can see it in you or if he believes you just need more time. It sounds like you have an amazing instructor, because people need to have an instructor that listens + understands your concerns and is able to help you along with it.

Unfortunately we had our last class for 2015 on the 16th December. Our juniors have a fun breakup full of games and then have some food afterwards. All paid for by our CI usually a couple hundred dollars of food. Then our seniors do a training session at our usual time, but is usually a much more relaxed class where we have more fun than doing a full on session. And is followed up by us going out for dinner around the corner. Both juniors and senior breakups we have belt presentations, mainly Black Belt + Dan Grading Presentations. then we do what we gotta do.

No I haven't had it personally done it, as neither of my parents has the patience to undertaken it. Although i think my sensei has at one point or another.

We had Jesse over at our dojo on Saturday evening. Good session primarily on biomechanics. He certainly knows his stuff. We are having Iian Abernethy out again in early 2017. If your interested I'll keep you posted. I thought so that he attended an extra dojo that day from what i gathered from one of his facebook posts. Yes please if you can keep me posted, pm me or i am happy to send you my contact details

As the time of year is upon us i would like to wish all you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Hopefully you can go! Just got an e-mail back from the organizer. I'm signed up for April 2nd!! I'm so excited! This will be my first karate seminar. This was my first and it was amazing

Hopefully you can go!

http://fspyfrancineschaepperphotography.pixieset.com/download/photo/username/FSPYFrancineSchaepperPhotography/key/jesseenkampseminaruma191215/pid/391422169/?idh=MzYzNzM3NjAwNQ

On the 19th December I attended a seminar run by the Karate Nerd Sensei Jesse Enkamp. He travelled all the way from Sweden to Melbourne Australia for a few days to teach two concepts. Mumuchi and gamaku which i had not heard of until the day of the seminar. It was a very enlightening experience of what i do in class is based from those two concepts. Sensei Jesse gave us the concepts and how to apply them to our own training and how to teach others using those concepts. My favorite qoute he said was "Redirect like a ninja, silent and deadly". We all cracked up laughing. It was a hard seminar due to the heat (41 Degrees Celsius!! Or 106 degrees Fahrenheit approx for my us friends) and was extremely humid as well. But still a lot of fun. I would highly recommend going to one of his seminars. As you will learn a lot from it even different explanations of techniques that you know extremely well.

Not necessarily no you don't have to. I know the us is scarce in many states in regards to tournaments. As from what i know there are 3 or 4 organisations that organise tournaments. And that would vary with the quality of tournaments held. From my little knowledge there are little tournaments even if at a reasonable distance. So i hope that resolves your issue. Maybe enquire with the USAKF (usa karate federation$ Here in Australia each state runs their own tournaments, but you can compete at any tournament you want australia-wide. But it is expensive to travel interstate for tournaments as there is no prize money at all. We have 6 tournaments in my home state every year but now we have from memory 10 due to 'country' tournaments which is outside metropoliton melbourne. And they are AKF sanctioned tournaments only. Then we have a lot more from ISKA.

Yes i am still with Sensei Chris out at Booroondara Sports Complex. Went for my 2nd Dan last saturday (12/12/15) and passed Btw Joe were you at Doncaster Shopping Centre the other night?