Nidan Melbourne

In every Martial Art there are many many techniques. But do you have 1 technique that is your absolute favorite or even absolute favorite to use during kumite? Personally mine is Gedan Mawashi Geri or Lower Roundhouse Kick which in Lamens terms is the thigh kick. I find it to be a very useful kick that not many people expect to see.

Overtraining occurs at different points in time for everyone. It is when people start getting injuries and highly prone to fatigue. Even for 'healthy' people it means you are physically active most days with 2 days rest, even overweight/obese people require rest days to help recover and prevent injuries. But this comes off from Moderate to intense exercise, with normal walking being at a Low intensity. Training and hitting a plateau is a good thing, but to improve you need to increase by 10% at a time. Often people will do more than that is safe, which can include training more days than they should. In the sports world overtraining is very common, irregardless of sport (Martial Artists are not exempt from this) as they push their bodies hard nearly every single day and the trainers often don't take into account every player as an individual (Sorry JR 137!!) whilst others do take it into account during training sessions. Currently I am training 20 athletes from Basketball, Rugby Union + League, Netball and Karate. Out of them all the Rugby Union and Karate players/practitioners were the most reasonable and looked heavily after their own health to prevent overtraining and injuries. These clients vary from the age of 12 to 52, and some of the young ones are going overboard by the time that I took them on as clients. When I am working with clients that aren't into exercise or anything like that, I incorporate Karate as a way of helping them along and making it fun and get them to focus on learning something through movement. But it teaches them more than just how to kick and punch, but how to look after themselves and that exercise can be fun and enjoyable. For instance I ignored the signs of overtraining where i hurt my knee (Have zero mensicus in my left knee due to surgery) and what I can tell a stress fracture in my right foot. Which sucks because I am due for my grading in 5 weeks time, which now means I am likely to have to miss that grading. Which is why i was working so hard to get ready for! but alas my knee and foot gave out to it. Now i get the chance to rest my joints and heal before grading. As much as the final decision is the individual in relation to their own health, often they need that reminder that they are not indestructable and need to adjust their training to prevent injury. This is where their trainers, teachers etc need to have awareness of overtraining AND overreaching (Going too far in upgrading their training) and what consequences occur as such.

Definite congratulations

Ummm as far as i know you should be at minimum two grades above what your students are grading for. Unless you personally have the skills, experience and knowledge of a higher rank when you havent graded for it. For instance i can grade anyone to Shodan-Ho. But there is no rule regarding it because one of my friends is a shodan-ho helped grade me to shodan

Will be keeping everyone updated on how it is going

Spot on as well. Also what would happen in terms of the work being properly credited? I ask because there could be an issue down the road where people would take those videos to claim as their own work.

Sounds like a really good idea. Would all videos be accessible to the public? Also by what is your definition of Traditional? As in Goju-Ryu, Shito-Ryu, Shotokan and Wado-Ryu only? Or every single style of karate under the sun?

Sounds like you had a great time

Have many people nominated? I look forward to seeing if someone put my name forward

Hi All, I am raising money for Beyond Blue, an organisation the helps in dealing with Depression and Anxiety. As 1 in 6 suffer from depression and 1 in 4 will suffer from Anxiety in Australia. As they do such an amazing job in looking after mental health here in Australia. Because it is so prevelant, not just here but worldwide and can affect absolutely anyone. We could have family and friends that are suffering from this without us knowing about it and could really use the support. They have saved my life multiple times, and i wanted to do give back to them because of that and also because mental health is such a difficult thing to manage. If you wish to help please click the link below. As many people who fundraise use websites that you can give something in return as a thankyou. That is why i chose that particular site to use as a platform so you are able to choose what you want without being disgruntled about what you get.

At my school we have a 2 hour grading to be promoted up to 1st kyu (brown belt is 2nd kyu). Unless 3rd kyu & 2nd kyu's attend a black belt grading for their promotion which then it is 4-6 hours. Our two hour grading comprises of a warm up, kihon (basics), kihon (combinations), kata (up to their belt kata + 1 extra), pre-arranged sparring (includes bunkai for adults) and then kumite (approx 10 3 min rounds) Kumite includes awase kumite and point sparring, adults 1st kyu up get light sparring (like point sparring but more contact and more techniques allowed). Our black belt gradings encompass above, BUT more of them of varing degree of difficulty. So can be either really easy or really difficult. Kumite you have to be able to do 15-20 rounds 3-4 mins length each. Awase, point & light will be done.

I have nominated and was a tough choice this year of whom to nominate.

To me it is an extremely important kata as it teaches you a lot about karate in itself. My sensei says it is one of the most important. We don't personally practice the bunkai for it though. I accept that it is extremely important but i have been encouraged to find my own interpretation of the kata and find the importance of every single kata in my style.

Awesome list Patrick

Personally don't use such a way of remembering things. But i know i should use it for work purposes. For me at karate I don't use it because I normally do a repetitive form of learning and subesequently remembering it.

I understand that you want to cross train. There is totally nothing that you want to learn others to understand them better. There is no timeframe that you should start cross-training. I know many people don't cross-train but they could benefit from it. I personally do cross-train as I do Karate as my 'home stye' then I also do some BJJ and balintawak arnis to branch out and learn from other MA

I compete often here in Victoria Australia when Tournaments are on. The furthest I have to travel is to Keysborough from Richmond Victoria. which is 32 km (20 miles) from home for me. Which I don't mind doing because I can then either drive home or go to my beach house which is 77 km (47.8 miles) away. I don't compete outside of the state because Australia is freaking huge in comparison to the U.S. and I don't have the funds to fly/drive their nor the time to do so. But I am a huge kata fan for tournaments But those tournaments I attend are generally really well run and happy with. Although there was an exception at the Shotokan Cup (It is a Victorian Karate League Tournament) this year where the program that organises the schedule for the day and the breakdown of each division into trees of who wears what and who they compete had failed when the organisers went to print off those files. So they had to do it manually.

We primarily only focus on our curriculum kata for goju. But occassionally we will dabble in some kata from other styles. We have done Empi & Jion (Shotokan), Bassai Dai & Nipaipo (Shito-Ryu), Anan & Paiku (Ryui-Ryu). Sometimes we do the variations from the taikyoku kata. Such as jodan ni, chudan ni, mawashi ni. Also we do gekesai san which we hardly ever teach

Keeping motivated is really hard. I took time off because i was in year 12 and had to do school sport on top of that. But i was so unmotivated it was almost criminal. But that break did so much for me and i had a different outlook on things. But i believe instructors should take some time off to recoup and just relax. Tbh i think my sensei needs it because you can tell he is just exhausted (even running on a reduced timetable because of school holidays). He can trust a couple of us senior people to take the classes as we have the experience and knowledge to do so.

Agreed life happens as we all have that where we want to train but other things stop you. Like i used to coach basketball and that training was at the same time as my classes. As i took 2 teams and both trained different nights and both happened to be karate nights. Even with trying to adjust but to now avail. But i made sure i trainer extra hard outside of it or when i got to class i worked harder to catch up and improve

Not just standing there while your opponent/partner has his/her way with you...one technique after another until the end of the series. That's fine, for learning and refining, which is still learning! You execute a punch, for example, and your opponent/partner executes a series of techniques while you offer no resistance...you just stand there!! You don't resist...you don't block...you don't counter...you don't duck or move out of the range...you don't escape, if being grasped...you do, well, NOTHING!! How's one to know what to do when plan 'A' doesn't work like it did in the dojo?!?! Well with each of our kumite versions it is all movement based.We develop tactics with each progression of kumite. For us kumite does not have any pre-defined techniques you have to do or told to do. As long as they are karate techniques then your fine. So you learn different tactics when others fail. We teach different ways of fighting (counter fighter for example). But every person finds their own sneaky tactics. But obviously every person develops those tactics over time. We have pre-arranged sparring as well which is different for us as they are teaching concepts for kumite.

Hey all, This is aimed towards those that are photographers or anyone that sells their photographs online. What site(s) do you use? Currently I am using GeoSnapShot which is a free platform to sell Photographs. You take home 70% of fees paid for each sale with the other 30% as a processing fee by the site for storage etc. Here is one of my albums that you can check out (and purchase if you wish) the snaps put up. http://www.geosnapshot.com/e/Melbourne-Zoo-by-Liam-OHalloran-Photography The Photographer or the Event Organiser selects the price of what each photo is being sold at. The usual recommended price is $8.95 AUD (USD$6.28) but can vary from whatever they want.

I like them, all!! Do you also train resistive drills with most, if not all, of these types in a deliberate tone or in a passing tone? Passing drills are for learning, while deliberate drills are after learning, and nonetheless, the resistance must be of intent!! We don't really use resistance for our kumite. The most variation we do for our kumite is varying what your allowed to do and not to do, such as only evasion as the defence or legs only etc

A few points: 1. You need to do a more active warm up. Because 5 mins of walking isn't sufficient for running Recommendation: Light jog/run 2. If your back starts hurting, then start walking or stop and move your back (aka stretch your back out) 3. Since it is feeling weak, there is a possibility of instability in your core and lower back - common in newer runners Since you are sedentary most of the day, you are overusing your hip flexors which can cause pain in your back and out of shape. Running is fantastic yes but you have to be careful because you can cause yourself some damage. I cannot stress enough you should see an Exercise Physiologist (different to a Physiotherapist) to help with this because they are trained in exercise prescription (Way more training than a Physiotherapist and Personal Trainers) and have an in depth knowledge of human anatomy and work with all people with different conditions. - They can prescribe exercises to help with this and to help with your overall health In relation to your gait go see a Biomechanist they can see exactly with what is wrong with your running style. As you can get more accurate results than what an experienced runner can and can tell you what you need to do.

In relation to Kumite we have a few types at my dojo: 1. Awase Kumite - Flowing form of kumite continuously throwing techniques - Contact should be soft, but not too soft - A slight variation of Continuous Sparring - Chance to work on tactics and get used to being hit 2. Point Sparring (WKF Rules) - Using the WKF Rules - Use Concepts + Tactics from Awase Kumite 3. 'Jyu' or Light Sparring - Similar to Point Sparring but with a bit more contact - Takedowns, Throws, Grappling, Chokes etc are allowed 4. 'Go' or Hard Sparring - Full contact sparring - We don't do this format with any grade below 1st Kyu - 1st Kyu are allowed to do it with limited rounds - Black Belts do it but 5-6 Rounds maximum