Nidan Melbourne

It is a difficult thing to do straight off the bat. But you will learn to control techniques the more you do it. What grade are you and what grade was she? Strange that your sensei said that you could get payback. Since you got her in the ribs and she was down on the ground crying does show that you did get her too hard. Take into account that she should also have more control since she is ranked higher than you. For future reference if your going to knee your partner in the ribs during sparring go into the belly and not ribs. But if you are going to go into the ribs do it really light, since you can cause serious damage. I am a dan graded black belt and sometimes i will do exactly what you did with my partner and i misjudged how hard i did it. I apologized and told her that it was accidental and meant no harm. She got me back with exactly what i did to her so we were even. So don't be afraid to spar, because you will get better at it the more you do it. You will learn from this experience, everyone does.

Which of those do you like & dislike the most so far?

For me seipai would be better suited to be after seisan because of the difficulty of some movements in it. Even though there is no real guidelines on which order you learn it, since it is kinda the personal preference of the school. Although you did leave out 2 kata; Gekesai Ichi & Ni which were created by Chojun Miyagi Sensei, which my school (Goju-Ryu) uses along with other schools around the world.

This is geared towards Vegans & Vegetarians. How much does it cost you per week on average to buy all your food? We know Vegans will avoid foods that contain animal products and the extreme vegans will not use any product that is produced by animals at all. Now to those who are vegan, do you consume Honey or use/wear silk? Because this is a controversial issue among vegan groups around the world. Since silk comes from insects and honey from bees. Do you have any health concerns or problems? what is your psychological status like? Recently among my friendship group we discussed veganism, vegetarianism and being omnivorous. I consume both meat and fruit + vegies, 2 of my friends are vegan and 2 of them are vegetarian. Now one thing was starting to become very heated; we were consuming chocolate and lollies at the time. I mentioned to the 2 that are vegan that they were actually consuming animal products and they were trying to argue that they weren't. Now the chocolate we were eating was Cadbury Chocolate; it contains Milk Products and also were eating rocky road which contains gelatine (Collagen derivative). I was the one that bought and brought the choccy to our mates place. I did remind the guys prior to eating any chocolate to read what was in it to ensure that they weren't eating any animal products. So they read what was in them, but when they ate it i had to tell them that gelatine was in the products which is in fact an animal by-product. Now there are gelatine substitutes that are suited towards who can't consume animal products like Agar. BUT companies will list it in the ingredients list. I respect my friends enough to tell them to double check to see whether there is any animal product in the food prior to consuming anything. And if I am cooking anything i will tell them exactly what is in it.

Getting all the essential vitamins, minerals, amino acids etc is pretty easy as long as you eat the right things. Although meat contains more iron and other compounds we need, you can get it still with vegan options but may require to eat more.

So you guys are a tad cheeky to borrow some from other schools. But hey every school borrows stuff from other schools

Seeiunchin is a good goju kata. Check out Kururunfa thats a fun one to learn and do.

If you want another game we do one called "Elvis" but you do need a fairly big dojo to do it safely. But you can add rules but the 4 listed are the ones that can't be removed General rules: - "FIRE" you RUN in a Anti-Clockwise Manner in a Circle - NO overtaking - MUST STAY ON THE MATS (if you have them) - "WIND" You have to TOUCH a WALL or the MIRROR - BUT YOU CANNOT TOUCH a parent, other student, weights etc) - "EARTH" you have to TOUCH the GROUND and stay down until another command - "ELVIS" you have to DANCE like Elvis. How you get out (eliminated) - "FIRE" you can't get eliminated - "EARTH" last one to touch the ground - "WIND" last one to touch a mirror or wall - "ELVIS" WORST dancer The WINNER is the last person standing This game was a favorite among students but we do it for last class of term and during holidays. Also the students keep excited for that and games.

I'd love to attend a krav maga class. Because they look awesome!

The funny thing is in one of my demos on my dodgy technique they got one i didn't think off. So i was very impressed and that they felt proud and their technique improved so much since then

That is so true. Get them to interact with you and answer questions they will enjoy it. Whenever i ask them a question to demonstrate a technique or tell me what i am doing or even what i'm doing wrong (on purpose). They seem to get excited.

Personally I think that they originally came from other styles, but got incorporated into karate throughout the years. So eventually it became part of the art that is karate. I think when Karate was still a young art, those who were teaching it picked up some of the skills from other schools and thought it would be important to utilize.

I can't take him seriously and his videos are long enough but i don't think having him in person would be all that good

Everyone stayed safe. myself and my family basically hung out in our pool throughout the day and didn't want to get out. And our pool was freezing

Nope. Because i enjoyed the first few seasons but it had kinda gotten repetitive over the seasons.

Hope everyone over in the US enjoyed the day.

I agree; how many is it now Patrick?

Thanks for the article tis an interesting read

Do you still have any of your old certificates? cause they should have the schools name on it.

Well not everywhere really. In Australia we can apply for insurance through the Australian Karate Federation, but also through insurers available to the public. But It makes things easier to apply through the AKF when applying for membership with them.

There should be no further arguments/discussions about rank, this person should no longer be a student at the school. Refund all dues not "used" and show her the door. Keep the video as evidence in case she considers suing. Can someone call her now? I totally get what your saying. It is not that hard to figure out how much to refund at all. At my school we have multiple membership types, with the longest being an 18 month membership. If someone at my school gets expelled or quits they have the remaining time/lessons refunded. If they have to take time off and they payed by time (say the 18 month plan) the owner of the school with freeze the payments and will contact the bank to not to do the direct debit that month. But if payed purely on a lesson based you just have to let the owner know, and you can return when you want. This lady should be expelled for her behavior, and that she is threatening legal action is shocking! How does she not understand what Martial Arts involves physical contact? I think she is of the belief that whatever rank her friends go for she should receive the same rank as well. @Jaypo good plan to get all your ducks in a row prior to the meeting. Since you have video evidence of the grading you can easily prove that she wasn't up to the same standard. Also @Jaypo what is your ranking system for adults & juniors and promotional criteria? At my dojo we don't film the gradings because everyone is fully aware of how we do things and that no matter what you do we will treat everyone fairly.

what about opening your own school and not branch out under your current instructor?

Our dojo does something similar, although we still have grading. We pay a flat fee and no extra costs for anything, including belts, exams, etc. For coloured belt grading we are observed always, our attendance is also taken into and stripes are given monthly if the director feels we have earned. When we have earned six stripes we are ready for grading, so if we are invited to grading then we likely will not fail, since we have been observed throughout and earned the stripes. Our classes are not huge, so this is doable. I know that black belt grading is different, and not done at the dojo, but I don't know much about it. (I'm a beginner, not an instructor, but hopefully posting here is ok as long as it is relevant - - let me know if only instructors are to post here and I won't again.) Wouldn't your belts, exams etc be included into your flat fees?

Thats great the your instructor is very talented and has the skills of a 5th dan. Do you think he/she will grade soon? Can't speak for his skills/experience relative to his rank by Kyokushin standards...just saying that he was as good as at least some of the 5th Dans at my previous school. Not sure when he's up for testing for Sandan but according to the syllabus he needs to have a minimum of 3 years at Nidan. I think nearly everywhere you train to grade for a certain dan grade you have to train for a minimum of years that is equivalent of the grade your going for (3 years for 3rd dan, 4 years for 4th dan etc) He is probably due in the next year or so.

Great post I wish I could say I went all the way through my kyu grades with similar-aged peers. That must be a great experience. See, three of my fellow students were ahead of me when I started with my current instructor 15+ years ago... One was a Shodan (we'll call "A"), one a 1st kyu ("B"), and one a 3rd kyu ("C"). Well, eventually I caught up to them. When I made it to 3rd kyu, "B" got his Shodan, "C" had only advanced to 2nd kyu, and "A" quit all together. By the time I earned Shodan, "B" was still a Shodan and "C" earned Shodan with me. So, to me at least, it was cool that "B", "C", and I were all Shodans together... Alas, it didn't seem to sit well with the other two, and they became lax... I eventually passed them up, and they quit, too... It's like your 2nd to last and last passages in your post...you fail, try harder, fail, try again...DON'T QUIT...PASS... I liken these issues to ego, pride, and "know-it-all-ness". As a matter of fact, I just had to address this issue with one of my 16-year-old students. One of the analogies I use with this issue can be found in the movie Forbidden Kingdom, where Jackie Chan's character Lu Yan is talking to Michael Angarano's character Jason. They're sitting around a campfire the night before Jason's training is to begin, eating dinner and drinking, and Jason asks Lu Yan about all these "techniques" that he may be shown: "Buddha Palm", etc... Lu Yan leans to fill Jason's cup with water, overfills it, and continues to pour water into the cup. All the while, Jason is saying, "my cup is full, please stop... hey my cup's full..." "Yes, your cup is full," Lu Yan responds. "How can I teach you anything if your cup is already full? Empty your cup..." My student seemed to understand this analogy well, so we'll see if it takes hold in the near future. As for my fellow classmates that quit, I only pray they would realize this... As for myself, I find that about every 3 - 5 years in my journey I realize I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING, and empty my cup again... why do you do it as a class as a whole? It is interesting how people quit when someone who started after them pass them. I am training with a few people that i taught when they first started. And they are now dan graded students. Which i'm cool with because they are great partners to train wth