Nidan Melbourne

That's the probably the reason why so may people joined up to GKR because they felt pressured to sign up to that style. Apparently Robert Sullivan who is the head (and founder) of GKR grew up here in Australia (In Adelaide, South Australia). Every time i've met one of their sales reps i ask them so many questions that they feel uncomfortable about trying to get me to sign up. I have asked them about the history of their style, what styles of karate is GKR are utilizing (Goju and Shotokan), what are their levels of physical contact (so you are able to take hard hits and not go down in serious pain), how long that person has been training for, how long their instructor has trained for and the same for that instructors instructor, and several other questions. My school is growing rapidly (I DO NOT Train in GKR) because we are getting positive reviews from students and also we do tell our friends about it when they ask about karate and where they should sign up. But we all don't go out and go "oh our dojo is so good ignore others. but we go we have a really good school that you might like but there are other dojo's in the area that you might like" My main concern(s) with GKR are that they aren't allowing contact between their students. What happens when they do get into a fight and they get hit? also that they do a "sensei's" program which you can do when your approx a green belt (you get invited apparently) and then when you start teaching you wear a black belt with a white stripe in the middle of it (in majority of schools that belt is usually for junior black belts or provisional black belts). The sensei's program you do take time to see if your really worthy of being a teacher and are competent with all the technical knowledge that is required. The belt they wear (like i mentioned before) means their role of an instructor and not their actual rank. Which sounds strange to me because your actual ranks shows what your technical knowledge is at currently. If i was a student there and found out that instructor is only a green belt and their wearing a black belt around their waist i would be concerned and potentially running for the hills. I would feel more comfortable to know that my instructor has a strong basis of knowledge of all the kata, basics and other information that karate offers. At most schools of karate you generally start teaching before you attain your black belt (depending on school usually around 2nd or 3rd kyu) to help improve your understanding and knowledge of what you have already learnt. Also you get to realize that there might be something wrong with what your doing when teaching them. But that would have a senior instructor there to ensure your teaching proper technique to those students. and their qoute of "50,000 and surely we can't be wrong" or something like that. Well yeah there is an potential issue of how you got those members and has Robert Sullivan ensured the quality of his students and how will they manage themselves for self defense. Although I do sound like I am condeming GKR because of a lot of their faults. there are a few things that they do well; build self esteem in their students, improve confidence, some fitness is improved, families can train together and have fun, you make friends, get to enjoy yourself. But they do offer classes that depending on your age and gender (not trying to sound sexist and i apologize to anyone that was offended). So children will train with children, teens with teens, men with men, women with women, and seniors with seniors. The problem i see with men and women (adults) training in separate classes is that assaults and other attacks are usually by men (not always as there are women who will do the same thing to men or other women). But IMHO it would be better if both genders (for Adults) to train together, that way both genders know how to defend themselves against (not only the same gender) the opposite gender. http://www.gkrkarate.com/index.php?x=HOME~|^`1A Where i train we have our children (up to and including 13 year olds) training together. Our teens (14+) will train with the adults. and our instructors (usually 3rd kyu which is for us Blue Belt and up) will teach and provide some pressure during kumite (sparring) That is why i say Chito-Ryu as the better style of karate to attend.

A colleague of mine at my dojo who was a 1st kyu for many years (close to 10 years from memory), has had to cease his martial arts training forever which is devastating news to hear due to his eyes and having had 16 surgeries on them (16 on each eye = 32 total) finally was awarded his Black Belt. He was unable to grade for many years due to his eye problems, but our sensei had decided at our breakup this year (it was last wednesday - it is a Monday here currently in Melbourne) to award him his black belt. All of us senior students in the advanced class or had trained with him knew that he was deserving of being awarded that rank. He was rightly sad to say goodbye to karate and also to say goodbye to us. But we all were starting to get teary also to farewell him. Yet we reminded him that he is always welcome to come visit us and also to teach and share your wisdom to other students.

That was awesome!!!

Congrats quinteros1963

I would go for Chito-Ryu personally. Because it is more focussed on Karate and Self-Defense. Go-Kan-Ryu (GKR for short) isn't that good of a school. it is a very closed off style of karate because you don't really get an opportunity to compete against other styles (Something you probably won't want to do). it is more family oriented and won't really get you kick started with fitness and self defense. But Goju-Ryu is also really good to do (coming from personal experience). Winner: Chito-Ryu

lots and lots of practice

congrats my friend

Thats interesting! cause around the corner from my dojo there is another karate school and they have never had any issues with us (well yet at least). The main reason why we haven't had any issues with them was that we all shared the love for karate and martial arts. Both schools are Goju-Ryu Karate also.

I'm an overweight black belt and i teach. I freely admit there are a couple of kicks that i can't really do but it has nothing to do because of my weight.

Our last class for the year is always an interesting one. Our juniors we have some small competitions; best push ups, best shiko dachi, quick draw mcgraw (fastest punch), and the best one best roundhouse kick. we had one student who one 4 years straight but can't compete anymore because she is now a black belt. after all the competitions we present 3 awards to students who were displaying excellence in the dojo. 2 awards for white belts (1 for boys and 1 for girls) and the other is called the Linnett Family CANI award (i can't remember the full name for it unfortunately) which can be presented to any junior student for being an outstanding student throughout the year. Not only in the Dojo but also out in the public. Once they are done we have some food (usually pizza, lollies and cordial). When the kids go and eat (or drink) them they go insane from all the sugar. our adults we train like usual but not as hard, and then we get changed (and shower) so we can go out to dinner. considering I live in Melbourne (and our weather is notorious for having 4 seasons in one day) we had 31 degree Celsius (87.8 Degrees Fahrenheit) weather so it made for a sweaty class (even more so than usual). With that weather it was rather warm for the juniors breakup where we had close to 50-60 students in the one room. and 25 adults for class

on top of me doing my stuff as an EP. My sensei is a myotherapist by trade. my old head of school was a full time Karate Instructor with no other job. as he was busy trying to run 4 dojo's at once.

it doesn't feel all that different but when your sensei announces that you passed is a nice feeling. But does feel awesome to hear that one particular phrase. I love hearing it when my sensei says for sparring "Dan Grades pick your next partner"

I like my schools fb (facebook) page as it can give a lot of easy information and photos from events that have gone on for our dojo (like our dojo's 5th birthday). Plus majority of our adult student population has an account. Although my sensei who manages both does put information up on both.

a bit of a learning curve. we went a tad overtime (about 25 minutes) but the staff managers of the center didn't mind at all. It was quite enjoyable but shocked at the standard of some of the students. especially when you expect a certain level of awesomeness out of them it was actually quite enjoyable. Apparently a few of the more senior students who were grading had heard about my reputation for takedowns and throws. and they were petrified when they had to spar against me.

Oh yeah that is so true. I have been doing karate for 12 years now and i have been teaching my girlfriend for the last 2 years (we've been together for just over 4.5 years) and she joined up last week.

I like doing kata as it does have movements in them that we can potentially use for self defense purposes. Although there are some movements in some kata that make us all go "when the heck would you use that?" One thing i have learnt from many instructors (even ones that i have visited) have all said that even though that kata might seem pointless but they have a message that you can do different techniques in different ways that can be effective. at my school and my old dojo we have to do kyogi's that are basically how we would use kata in a practical setting. it doesn't mean our partner attacks us whilst doing the kata. but it means that we dissect the kata to use it. And one of the requirements for our kyogi is that they have to be practical. They can involve knife attacks, gun attacks, or any type off attack that you can come up with. It does come in handy for those surprise attacks that you aren't really expecting. I have been doing both bunkai and kyogi for the last 6 years and i have seen hundreds of variations for saifa and seeiunchin katas (both Goju-Ryu versions) and some of those techniques i have found myself using in kumite.

Absolutely... We make sure our female adult students understand that we're not going to make exceptions; that, just as much as we men expect women to use their "2nd nature" skills to kick us in the crotch, they should expect attackers on the street to go for their "T&A" so to speak. At the very least, attackers will do it for the shock factor, and worst, it'll turn into a rape/sexual assault. The only catch we have is for underage female students. Because of their status as minors, that changes how we are able to handle them. When sparring female minors, we instructors strictly go for solar plexus, stomach, etc when striking at their torsos... I agree with you on that when it comes to minors and how you handle them. We strike them differently but they are aware that we will accidentally strike their breasts and that we didn't do it intentionally. The girls that train in our adults class are understanding when it comes to that (except a couple that like to throw tantrums because of it). Besides when we do accidentally strike their privates they do go "game on" or just say "my bad for not protecting myself" then they will aim for a groin kick. Otherwise they just go OOSU and continue fighting. But with our junior minors we do act carefully when it comes to it.

nope Tea is healthier than coffee. As it isn't a stimulant or depressant. Selection of tea is dependent on what you like. So it is probably best to try different types of tea before sticking to one. I go with either english breakfast or a green tea.

This was from the 2013 World Karate Championships and the following videos are from the Womens team Kata. First up is Japan doing Kururunfa (of Goju-Ryu Karate) Second is Italy doing Annan (Can't remember the style of karate this comes from. Sorry!!!) Who do you think performed it better and why?

I agree Tea is great for you. A lot of people find it quite relaxing to drink it whilst taking time out just for themselves. And it will help you with your anxiety. Not only does my girlfriend drink Tea (she has severe depression and also suffers from severe anxiety) but also majority of my friends now drink tea to relax. I got my friends onto it because of a similar situation to you. My girlfriend on the otherhand who suffers from depression and anxiety finds it relaxing to drink tea (she loves trying different types) and helps her focus on what is important to her. Even though Adults shouldn't need as much sleep as children, But it is always an excellent thing to do is to have more sleep than less. Because sleep is when your body is able to recharge everything in your body.

I can understand pairing the kids with their parents as much as possible. At my dojo we have a couple of younger kids that train in the adults class because their dad trains in it and is difficult for him (and his wife often) to take the kids into the juniors class. So we when are paired up to train, the two kids are paired up together whilst the rest of us are paired up together.

Caffeine is dangerous in high doses. And when i say dangerous i mean it can lead to heart problems and even worse death. That is why energy drinks say one can max daily (500 ML Cans). But you should probably watch how much you drink. You are suffering from exhaustion, thats why you are feeling burnt out. What is your work load like currently? I mean by that how many hours you are working each day and how many before you take a day off. For you it sounds like everything is becoming way too much. during the work day find something that you find relaxing and do it. In relation to your memory, caffeine (even though it is a stimulant) can affect your memory by damaging neurons. The best idea to try and conteract any damage that is happening to your brain. Your body is overworking which is also why you feel burnt out. The human body isn't meant to be stimulated so often. It is the same kind of thing with adrenaline. You should take some time off the caffeine to help your body recover to close as 100% as possible.

We have a Facebook Page and a Normal Website. Also where my dojo is; we have a couple of posters for the school and it does include our timetable of classes.

For us teaching students how to fall we get them to start crouching and then backwards with them slapping at the correct time. and also making sure that they keep their chin tucked in. Once they are comfortable with that we get them to go from a standing start and begin falling from there.

Mine are nice and simple for next year (as usual i'm using the KISS Principle - Keep It Simple Stupid) 1. compete in 4 major tournaments 2. attend my first karate camp 3. Propose to my girlfriend 4. be awesome