Nidan Melbourne

One thing with high kicks is your recovery. Often if your recovery of the kick is slow then you would lose your balance. But if you recover too quickly you can still lose your balance. So overall it is a fine line to keeping your balance! it all depends on you and how move and stand whilst kicking. There are a lot of exercises i've seen and done but can't seem to recall.

At the tournaments i've been to so far they have had roped off areas. The only people inside the roped area are the competitors, judges/referees and coaches. So parents aren't allowed inside the area, the only time a parent is allowed on the mat is when their child gets injured.

Ummm I'm more Goju-ryu background but our starting and ending procedures are different. We have a standing formal bow in/out, and an informal bowing in/out. But also we have a bow in/out in seiza. Our formal bowing in whilst standing isn't too special except where the instructors turn around and bow to the front. In seiza: 1) Head Instructor commands Seiza 2) Mukuso (eyes closed) 3) Mukuso Naote (End meditation) 4) instructors turn and face front, Shomane Rei 5) Instructors turn to face students, highest ranked student says 'Sensei, Senpai otagani Rei or Kata Ni Rei' and then 'naote' to end the bow 6) Head instructor goes Otagni Rei. But honestly speak to your sensei about correct procedure for it.

My goal has always been to work hard to earn my next rank, but also it is to win against a national squad member without being in a state or national squad

My school has contracts of sorts. You make payments every month or in full. We do a direct debit for majority of students, just need 1 full months notice

It is usually an honest opinion in time to receive your black belt. As many instructors are strict on the basics (Kihon, Kata, Kumite) so it will take you longer to become extremely good at those techniques, and by the time you reach black belt doing those techniques is an automatic response. I trained for 7 years (including 6 months off due to injury) to get my black belt. And it was in between training 1 day a week to 3 days a week, and it varied so much because of other commitments

I will often practice at home with my kihon, as i can't do kata or pre-arranged due to space constrictions. Although I will often practice out at a park that is near me. I practice absolutely everything. When i have the itch for kumite outside of class, i usually organise a group of myself and a few friends of mine who i train with and who train at other schools (and styles) and we do kumite. We make sure that we do have a flat surface (usually a cricket oval) to do it and also book that space as well so we can use it. And we do make sure we wear our uniforms as well so people can identify that we are training and not having a brawl.

Honestly how much you train is a major factor to how often you will grade. At my old school at its hombu there were classes 6 days a week, and you can essentially do a belt every 6 weeks if you train every day and pass the tags every week. To me a mcdojo is where they are more concerned about making money than teaching students how to effectively do martial arts. I have seen many schools that their "black" belts couldn't do the most basic of katas extremely well or explain what use that kata would have in a realistic situation. Also since you had previous experience of martial arts you would move through the arts quickly because you already had the knowledge base. Probably have a read of a blog called karate by jesse. It has a wide array of interesting information and has a particular blog post of what might constitute a mcdojo

Usually the judges will look for strength, power, speed, timing and how well the kata is performed. to improve at kata you PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!! I practice my kata (each one) everyday. When leading up to a tournament I practice the kata that i am going to do there. Since I am a goju practitioner i usually do Gekesai Ichi (rare one for me to do), Seeiunchin (I know two versions; goju & shito-ryu), Saifa, Kururunfa, Seipai. Also I do practice the whole routine of etiquette prior & post doing the kata itself. Do the kata that you are most comfortable with, and also it is still a good idea to be proficient with some higher kata. As every kata is weighted differently

I would start back as a white belt to show that you are willing to relearn information. Especially with the fact that it is a different style of Karate. It is not a bad thing to hold off on wearing your black belt because you've had time off. I have met many people who have had time off for a lengthy time and went to another style and started at white belt. And they were all of Dan Grading at their original school. But what they did was train for some time and then asked the sensei to grade them to see what grade they are at. A few of them were 3rd dans in GKR (surprisingly) and were of green belt standard at my dojo. so they got a green belt for their work.

IMHO I think if you transfer from one school to another of the SAME STYLE you should keep that rank. Unless you had a massive break in between training (i.e. 10 years) then you would be considered to go back to white so you can remember all your syllabus and get to that same standard that you were at prior to stopping. IF you go to a different style then white belt it is. If they asked for proof that you were of a certain rank and you don't have the evidence that you did attain that rank, then i believe you have the right to tell them to contact that school to confirm your rank

Before i start my post i wish to apologise in advance if anyone is offended by this post. I tried my best not to come across as sexist or against anyone learning martial arts. MA are still considered a 'masculine' thing so females wouldn't want to do it because they may fear losing their feminity. But that fear is unjustified as MA can be feminine aswell (Goju for instance majority of techniques you do can be done both hard and) Many of the girls i train with are the sweatest most kind girls you'll ever meet but when they are on the mat they have that fighting spirit that drives them to work hard. I respect any female that does MA and that does take their training seriously, if they don't take training seriously i lose respect for them. I only lose my respect for them because i don't want to see them get hurt on the street if they do have to use it but if they have to and they stuff techniques up and get hurt then they are going to be blaming others for getting hurt. They're the ones that slack off in class not giving 100% to learn the techniques and how to apply them effectively. Even when we train many of the girls are still aprehensive about getting hit (both hard and soft). Even if we are doing light contact for drills they still whine about getting hit. I once had a girl that complained that i hit "too hard" even though i just touched. Then others girls i'll hit fairly hard and they go "come on hit me harder, you hit like a girl" which shows me that they can have me go full pelt at them and also that i can work at my absolute hardest to get better. I'm a Goju practitioner so it is different to Kyokushin, but i suspect that for kyokushin in particular females are under the impression that you'll get hurt if you do it or that guys will go easier on them just because their a female. Honestly when i train i don't care if they are male or female, I work them equally as hard when i'm an instructor or i'm training. The ONLY times i go easier on someone is if they have a legit physical issue (ie injury, physically disability) or the belt they have around their hips. I'm not going to make a white or yellow belt do 'light' kumite which involves heavier contact than 'awase' kumite (thats soft and slow) or 'point' kumite, purely because they don't have the experience or the knowledge of kumite itself and haven't trained for long enough. I would be extremely happy to see more females to train in the MA because there has been an increase in assaults against females, especially here in australia (we had a high profile case where a man killed a lady called Jill Meagher). So I believe females should learn how to defend themselves. I understand the rise for female-only classes but imho they should also train with males to be able to become comfortable with that perceived extra pressure. As physiologically males are stronger than females, so some things that you would want to learn even in a self defense class would be a smart idea to do with a guy to be able to see the difference in strength and size between guys and girls.

That's great your really enjoying it. sounds like your sensei is keeping you interested with new things

Sorry What's this "Dog Brother's event" ? You can go on youtube and look it up there. It is in a way like fight club

A Junior Black Belt in my eyes are a Pre-Dan ranking.

To the bold type above... Absolutely!! Not all BB can teach, nor should they be. We have a few shodan-ho's (provisional Black Belts) and a few 1st Kyu's that should not teach at all for a few factors. 1) they have a lack of patience and empathy. 2) Lack of maturity 3) can't perform the basics effectively nor explain them well 4) massive ego's 5) generally unpleasant (they don't care about what everyone is doing)

your not crazy for feeling like that. If he does insist on paying you for it then do as what the others have suggested to get x months off as payment. I say x months off because the job can be small or really big and the cost would be different. Otherwise if that can't be done charge him less than what you would normally

Rank can be forever as you earnt it, BUT many people i have trained with in the past have had another instructor come in (say an 8th dan of the same style) and readjusted that persons rank to reflect that persons skill level. This one person i know was a 1st kyu and was downgraded to a 4th kyu. this instructor came in (well known to my sensei and his teacher) and with the permission of the chief instructor to change a students rank if they aren't up to scratch.

it has some benefits to do pull-ups, but it is obviously different depending on the variant that you do of it. As you have to work muscles even more if your doing the vertical pull-ups as you have to move a greater distance.

at my dojo our only pre-dan rank (I'm excluding the Kyu grades in this) is the shodan-ho and they wear a normal black belt. so once they receive their shodan they don't change belts or anything. Some people i train with once they've received their dan grading have chosen to either keep their belt and continue using it, get another black belt with japanese kanji on it (so being able to use either BB's) or on their current black belt that they wore as a shodan-ho get a white bar embroided onto their belt (a white bar on each end of their belt). I dont hold a pre-dan grade anymore and hold my dan grading. I chose to go with keeping my black belt the way it was whilst i was a shodan-ho. I didn't want anything embroided on it (referencing to the white bars) other than my school name in japanese (still have to get that changed since i changed schools) and my name in english on the other end of the belt. If i got more embroided it would make my belt to messy and cluttered

We have a pre-dan grade. It is called Shodan-Ho for us. It is in between 1st Kyu (1st Brown) and Shodan. All students when they grade from 1st kyu to black belt attain this grade. They have to hold the rank of shodan-ho to make sure they know all the syllabus required to grade for shodan. Every student wanting to hold the rank of shodan at my school has to know the requirements and be able to effectively use the techniques. It is just so they can get the practice and more mat time to be proficient. They have to stay at the rank of shodan-ho for a minimum of 18 months.

Practice practice practice is all i can say about it. I've done karate for 13 years and kumite for 12 of them and I have done plenty of it over the years. Don't expect to be great at it straight away, you'll develop the skills as you get more time on the mat doing it. Like others have said you shouldn't focus on winning or losing, focus on getting better at it and learning different techniques/combinations and have different ways of fighting. Which develops over time.

How many of you have checked it out on Youtube? It is some funny as hell stuff to watch! if you have any particular favourite episodes please link it here for everyones entertainment. currently my favourite one is the thrust of freedom kata. I'll link it soon

excellent work jaypo

I haven't heard of the term but I do know people who have graded over a span of weeks because of certain circumstances. they still got tested hard on each section, if they graded well in each section they passed.