Nidan Melbourne

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all. What is everyones plans for this holiday season? Mine is that my fianceé and I are travelling up to Sydney to spend time with her family.

In terms of cross training i have had in terms of etiquette that i should have consent from my sensei. But it was more in terms of private training where there could be changes made to things and out of respect of other instructors & of what they teach. In terms of kumite and not making contact with senior grades. I feel it is silly because it isn't helping the senior grade nor is it helping you learning how to fight. Also you are not really learning what level of contact you can endure is and what they can do is as well. IMHO i think they might be thinking along the lines that no one in their right mind would hit a black belt nor should they. Which is i feel is wrong because senior ranks are senior ranks even black belts. They aren't invincible

Hey Joe, Love your vids mate. And welcome to the forum also. No i haven't made compilation videos just yet considering my club doesn't have many competitors nor those interesting :'( Hope things are well at the Ashburton Dojo Thanks, Liam P.S. i trained at Kew with Sensei Chris whilst he was there. Had Emma + Danielle there too

Congrats on being promoted to Shodan That was sneaky sneaky by your sensei to do that

Congrats, Liam...way to go!! Thanks Bob it was a massive relief to find out i passed. I did my happy dance when i saw the news! My sensei managed to make a mistake on my certificate that he had to correct so he is making me a new one to pass on to me at the start of term next year.

Sorry for the link Patrick and staff here is where you can view pics: http://www.geosnapshot.com/e/Beginner-to-Black-Belt-Senior-Grading The password is karate123

So i just found out that i have indeed passed my grading Will upload a better link when i can

hmmmmmm a blast suuuuuuure. haha jokes it was the hardest grading ever yes but do I regret it? No way.

At my Dojo our juniors don't start learning bunkai until they reach Shodan-Ho level and to grade to shodan they have to be able to do Gekesai Bunkai. Our seniors on the other hand start at purple belt (4th kyu) with gekesai bunkai. Then they add saifa bunkai at 2nd kyu and seeiunchin bunkai for 2nd dan. We have our Taikyoku Kata (Jodan, Chudan, Gedan, Kake & Mawashi Ichi). But don't have specified bunkai for it that is why we start with gekesai bunkai. We have them to at least have some 'mastery' of the kata first. But also they have to have some understanding that a block isn't always a block like how a strike isn't always a strike.

Welcome to the forum hope you enjoy it here

Well as early is Monday night potentially. Otherwise on Wednesday night at my clubs breakup evening

So i just got home an hour or so ago. It ran for 5 and a 1/2 hours. It was probably the hardest grading ever held at my dojo. As we were under the pump the whole time. As an unfortunate testament it made me throw up 3 times. One of those times i barely got to the sink in time. One other student threw up once. We had a 15 min warm up of sheer torture, 2 hours of straight combinations maybe more. 30 mins of kata from Taikyoku Mawashi Ichi to the last required kata of Seisan. But as i was grading with 2 others attempting Nidan and 1 for Shodan we had to do extra. We all did Seipai Kata (the one who was attempting Shodan) then i did Shisochin, 1 did Kururunfa and the other did Suparempei. Pre-Arranged Sparring was a killer as we did Gekesai, Saifa and Seeiunchin Bunkai (for those needing it), then followed up by Gyakusoku Kumite Ni & San then Yonhon Kumite, Gohon Kumite and Roppon Kumite. Followed up by Kyogi Kumite where you had to do 25 of the required kata (For me Sanseru). Kumite lasted an hour and we had not only my sensei who joined in but also had Sensei Adrian, Sensei Leon Romary (he was formely ranked 8th in the world) and Sempei's Mohammed and Steven in. So very intense. The last bout we had was myself and the other 2 candidates had to go 2 on 1 and rotate. Once I heard Yame from sensei my stomach decided to appear and make me vomit and had to run to the sink.

Strength training is extremely important and everyone should do it. But i dislike the idea of recommending a book on teaching this type of thing. Because there is a high potential for something going wrong. And you need someone to watch and correct your form. It is like learning karate or TKD from a book but really needing someone there to correct you. Also those books that provide a program to follow doesnt work for everyone because it works primarily for the person that wrote the book. I prescribe exercise and train people regularly as part of my work and uni studies. And all of this is on an individual basis for best results. As i have one client who tore multiple muscles from doing what you suggested prior to coming to see me for help.

At every school things will be different even if they are of the same style. I know that if i went to a different Goju-Ryu School they would allow me to wear my current rank. But wouldn't allow me to grade UNTIL i caught up on anything i missed. But like JR 137 said it doesn't matter what happens at the other school. Just what they think

Happens to all of us at some point or another. It happened to me a few years back where I took 2 years off training. As I trained almost religiously 4 times a week for 4-5 years, then 3 times a week for a further 2 1/2 years till my break.

Personally I am a kata person over kumite. But I am slowly working on my kumite as there are only a few people at my dojo that I feel that push me to improve.

I know at the tournaments i go to follow the WKF Rules where you can't repeat kata in rounds (rules for children operate differently under 12 from memory). the change for children is usally that they can repeat the same kata in subsequent rounds or every 2nd round. Adults and teens can't repeat kata at all. So advisable to know 2-3 kata which comes in handy. I know a lot of schools have adults to learn 1 or 2 kata per belt level. Kumite you really just have to be any rank and have the appropriate kumite gear (WKF Sanctioned Tournaments require red & blue mits and pads)

I believe all tournaments dont have restrictions of belt/rank requirements. But most instructors will vary what they say to their students on what they think should be done.

That is a fairly big gap between the juniors and seniors. We don't really have an age gap at my dojo which is nice to see. In terms of Black Belts i am the 2nd oldest training, and the oldest is at least 40 years older than I am and I'm 23! In terms of everyone in the school there are about 10-15 people older than I am

IMHO I feel like it is inappropriate for people from one style to leave and join another style but keeping their rank from their own style. Especially if the difference of the styles is obvious. To me it is like me going from Goju to Shotokan, where they are distinctly different and keeping the same rank. But I would have a lot to learn and re-train before anything else. Transferring schools within' the same style then it is ok. but changing styles is a no no for me. If it was just training for maybe a once off type of thing, then it would be different but not for long term. As in if i went to say Wastelanders Dojo, and did a session or two with him and his sensei whilst travelling around America. But would still ask if it was ok to wear my belt for those limited sessions or not.

Congrats all

First and foremost, there's a lot of fake experts out there. Everyone's got some sort of nonsense certification. Personal trainer certification overall is a joke. The better ones are weekend long courses, and all they teach is anatomy. And they do an awful job of it. I say this because I actually unwillingly sat through one. My former boss thought it was a good idea for the athletic department to all get certified as personal trainers. She researched the various agencies, and chose the most respected one. No instruction on how to put together a program, let alone tailor one to specific needs. No instruction on proper lifting technique for any specific exercise. Nothing. I felt that much stupider for having sat through it. The credentials you should respect here in the US are CSCS, PT, OT, ATC, or an exercise science, exercise physiology, human performance, etc. college degree. If they don't have a mention of any of that, skip it. Now to realistically answer your question - trial and error. Be willing to try an approach from a credible source for a set amount of time. Be it 4 weeks, 30 days, etc. Listen to your body. Be methodical as possible. I am not a fan of personal trainers because more often than not they create a program for people that would be unsafe for them to do so. One of my classes last semester was all about advanced resistance training and olympic lifting along with power lifting along with a couple of other things. Exercise science and Exercise Physiology frankly are the only ones that should be prescribing exercise. Because they have been taught how to train people of ALL health statuses (apparently healthy, metabolic, cardio etc). One thing i dislike seeing is where trainers have overweight and obese clients and they are having them do exercises that can do more damage than good. And they aren't monitoring the clients bp or hr at all during sessions

Happy 14.5 years Karate Forums! Also congrats to the winners also for when the results come out

Every 'Expert' is different, as their preferences and experience guide their views. If you spoke to me during a session where i was training you and gave you advice on this and then spoke to a personal trainer (who say has a certificate 4 in personal training) they will give you different advice because of their training.