Nidan Melbourne

Blogs are always great to get the word out. I'm surprised not more of us on here haven't created one yet.

If it is going to be a university one that your going to organize speak to the student association. But a good thing to do is speak to your national or state federation for your martial art to get an idea of what to do.

We do kyogi or in schools that I've been invited to teach at other schools I will tell them that it is exactly like bunkai. In bunkai that everyone has to do that each individual school sets it may not work for some people or may not be fully realistic. So kyogi is adapting bunkai and Kata to our individual needs and abilities. For instance I am not strong with head kicks so I will do body and leg shots. And our bunkai for seeiunchin has it for an attack. We create kyogi as self defense applications hence why they have to be realistic. Often we may ask students to have an application that has more than 1 opponent. And we tell our partners during gradings apply the pressure and make it unpredictable of when they attack.

Sorry for the late response, my video got corrupted and haven't had a chance to re-film. This is my instructor doing seeiunchin

Sorry for the late response, my video got corrupted and haven't had a chance to re-film. This is my instructor doing seeiunchin

I like this thread the most! hehehehe i'm cheeky. I just like seeing what everyone has to say

Thanks for your perspective I am one of the most senior at my school and it is a weird feeling. But within' the style obviously i'm way off that being near the top.

We have the same tradition in our dojo. Never taking a step backwards-always going forward. For our BB cermeony we have a tea ceremony where I serve tea to them-in honor of their hard work and thanking them for giving me the opportunity to teach them and pass on what I know-we drink from the same cup to symbolize a bond that will never be broken regardless of where they go in life, they serve tea to their families-to honor their commitment to their training and thanking them for their support. I like that you also do a tea ceremony for those who grade the coveted rank of black belt. I have participated in a tea ceremony in Kyoto a few years back and really enjoyed it. I was asked if I wanted to participate in one and was honored to have done it.

Now I know I have previously posted about Kyogi which are your own applications of kata, so they are similar to Bunkai. Every school has Bunkai that you have to be able to do, and they are already pre-arranged so every student will do the same. So essentially it is part of the syllabus where you have to do it. Now Kyogi, is the only part of the syllabus that you as a student get to create. 1 Kyogi involves a partner/s attacking you with an attack that you tell them to do and you will defend it using a defense that involves at least 1 technique from the kata. But you can also break down techniques if they have 'doubled' up; like in seeiunchin where you do 2 teishos going downwards, you can break it down and just use 1 of them. But you don't have to do it exactly like how it is in the kata, so for the 2 teishos going downwards, you can use it in any way that you can that is still the technique. Now to my questions: 1) At your school what grade do you start doing Bunkai and for which kata? 2) Does your school do something similar to what i described of kyogi? At my dojo for Bunkai we do the following Green, Purple & Blue Belts - Gekesai Bunkai Brown, 1st Brown & Shodan-Ho - Gekesai Bunkai + Saifa Bunkai Shodan - Gekesai, Saifa & Seeiunchin Bunkai Nidan - All of the above + Sanseru Sandan - + Seisan Kyogi 1st Brown + Shodan-Ho: you need 25 Seeiunchin Kyogi Shodan (to grade to Nidan): 25 Sanseru Nidan: 25 Seisan But for our juniors our 1st Brown students require only 10 Saifa instead of the 25 seeiunchin kyogi the adults need. But once they attain Shodan-Ho they will have to do the 25 seeiunchin kyogi.

Congrats. Wish we could have gotten a close up

We try at incorporate as much of it as possible depending on the amount of space available. It does come in handy during classes and even in everyday life. For breakfalls we have the following GOLDEN RULES that we can't break. 1) Tuck your chin in 2) When falling backwards arms at a 45 degree angle when your back lands. Which is to spread as much of the force out as possible instead of one single spot. 3) Don't put your arms out to help break the fall. It will only break your arm I actively throw people and take them down during class to ensure that they are able to break fall in a way that they won't break their arm(s). Also very few try and succeed in throwing me so i get my practice as well. We even practice when we get tripped as well. Forward breakfalls we can only really practice when it is a small class; along with sideways breakfalls

Have you thought about arawaza gi's

Welcome to the forum!

Learning the kata and the like is one thing BUT it doesn't necessarily mean that they are going to be at a high level. For instance i could go out and learn all the required kata for Shotokan to attain Shodan and spar with friends. And I could go to a Shotokan instructor and ask to be graded to shodan. Even if i trained solidly for multiple years on my own it still doesn't mean that i am truly black belt level. Like everyone else said i would ask him to train for an amount of time so i can properly evaluate his skill levels before allowing him to grade. And ensure they are aware of everything that they are required to know.

Well you (Honestly) made the mistake of not wearing a groin guard (at my dojo males MUST wear one, otherwise no kumite). i know very well even if it is barely hit it will really hurt. I see by your styles that you have done some MA that you will become used to kicking/striking very hard so i think it is just what used to using to hit with.

Oh and also to my last post in this we also tie our old belts into a knot. It is to show that we have done that part of our journey and to never give up. It is to remind you to never stop your training. And if you untie your belt you have taken steps backwards in your training. The only time(s) we will untie an old belt of ours is to pass it on to a student we feel deserves it (like in the movie kuro obi where the master gives his most deserving student his black belt). Otherwise if someone who take time off and doesn't feel like they are at a rank to respect that rank they formally held previously and wear one lower.

Can you please elaborate more on how you can attained the 'Advanced' Tag. Example (we will use my schools belt & testing system): We have 5 tags per belt prior to being eligible to grade A student grading from Purple to Blue Belt (we have purple prior to blue), and pass + receive the first tag out of five on their blue belt which is considered 'advanced' blue, in which they only have to get the next 4 tags to be eligible. Is that kind of what you mean?

OK that makes sense. Since your both inexperienced mistakes would occur. Please tell me you were wearing a groin guard!!

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.