Nidan Melbourne

29/1/14 Karate 7-8 pm 7 min High Intensity Training - 50 bilateral slides from shiko dachi, bilateral movement to touch ground with increasing speed - 50 push ups (full) - 50 mae geri (with partner) full force - 50 sit ups + high five (with partner) - 200 uchi's to side (with both arms going at once) - push against partners legs (whilst they push against yours), whilst sitting on ground. - 50 roundhouse kicks to body - as many full force punches to stomach as possible within' a given time (with a partner) NO BREAKS in between each section. you go one after the other 2 rounds of kumite - 4 awase kumite (it is soft and slow, to be able to see openings in your opponent and you get used to being hit a lot), thigh kicks allowed - 4 minutes point sparring - 9 minutes light sparring (throws, takedowns, thigh kicks, groin kicks etc are all allowed) It hurt like crazy.

We start showing students the applications at blue belt (for juniors) and white (for adults). We do that as adults can understand it easier than the juniors. But they start being tested for it at 1st kyu. they do gekesai bunkai for their black belt and shodan. saifa bunkai is also required for grading to shodan.

certain behaviors in class (including before and after) basically. like kensei mentioned as well.

last night i was out with a few friends and we had an interesting conversation last night whilst at the pub about etiquette at our respective dojo's. I found it rather interesting to hear what their schools do for it. What do you all have as etiquette at your dojo/s?

very much a cultural thing. when i go out to dinner with fellow students and my instructors. there are a few of the lower ranked students who do it for everyone, even if we tell them not to worry about it.

at my local gym it is more popular among females to do circuit training. myself and a few male friends joined in (we're all members at that gym so it was free) and we got death glares from these females. I believe they went and thought "why are you here, this is a females training thing" even the trainer said "why are you here, we don't normally have males and we just assumed that no males really want to do it" but one of my friends just replied back going "that is incredibly sexist and the fact you don't want everyone to be able have an intense workout" So we got her name and went to the management so we could raise that issue of what was going on. Not surprisingly the manager there (who is also the owner of the franchise) pulls this trainer out, and from what we heard she (the trainer) got absolutely scolded and fired. As they (the management team at my gym) have a 5 strike policy with all their staff. on the 5th strike your fired. which was the case for this. before she got fired, she had to apologize to us for her sexist comments. the management informed us that she has received numerous complaints about her behavior hence why she was let go. as compensation we were given 4 months free membership (which equates to $300 for each of us individually). But overall circuit training is a lot of fun. as we have gone since that incident.

Our minimum age is 6.

Sounds to me like your very lucky. He sounds open minded and confident. Respectable traits. His actions obviously motivate you to respect him and justify you loyalty. I am very lucky to have him as my sensei. He wants us to learn as much as possible.

The worst thing is that we are in the middle of a bushfire season. So this hot weather and high winds aren't helping that. In fact it is making it worse for the firefighters fighting those bushfires. also our paramedics are struggling to keep up with the demands of treating patients. and our cops are dealing with an increase of violence throughout the state.

I greatly respect my sensei and i am loyal to him. He will have both of those until he either abuses them or till he proves to me otherwise. he earnt every single bit of respect and loyalty that i have for him. He also respects me enough to show courtesy to wherever i train. and that i won't disrespect his school or any school that i visit. Even if we left on bad terms, i would still respect his school and that i wouldn't prevent anyone from training there. He is also fiercely loyal to all of his students even if they annoy the heck out of them. and respects all of those students and acknowledges that they are all individuals that have different ways of learning and different personalities. He encourages us to go out and learn karate from different instructors. as he wants us to grow as individuals and to expand our knowledge. We are allowed to share whatever we have learnt from other schools.

The players are struggling. But they are doing well for the conditions. Yes it is hot as heck. Its OK if it is only that hot for the month or year but when it comes to several days in a row it makes it difficult to perform at your best. Also the heat doesn't go away at night either. It persists throughout the night making it difficult to sleep

4 days above 40 degrees celcius! 43 (109 degrees fahrenheit), 40 (104 fahrenheit), 43 (109 fahrenheit) and 44 (111 fahrenheit). Nothing worse than that heat. Anyone have worse luck with weather?

Actually you can be a massive threat. You just have to condition them to respond to a certain movement. then they'll go the other way and you can smack them on the other way. Say you condition them with a roundhouse kick, then once they start reacting to it you can do a reverse roundhouse (as they are going to try and dodge it). But for it to work is to have a similar movement in your legs to have them fall for it. so it isn't always necessary to do multiple kicks in one go. But to do multiple kicks in succession without dropping your leg, is to do as andym said, but also you need to practice whilst doing both. I am 5' 7" and i can barely do it due to my poor flexibility

But also will vary.

What we do is: Friday night: Grading for students. But cost extra for Dan Gradings Saturday: 6 am training session 8:30 breakfast 9:30-1 training session 1-2 lunch 2-5:00 training session 5-6 break 6-7 dinner 7-10 Karate Idol (basically like Australia's got talent) 10:30 lights out. Sunday 6-8 training session (intense) 8-9 breakfast 9-4 tournament 4-5 break 5-8 last training session 8 finish up Each session everyone are in groups doing different things. is one group doing kata, another kumite, basics, weapons etc.

I travel 30 minutes to train on a good day. but when traffic is bad it will take about an hour

same at my dojo really. i asked my sensei after i got my dan gradings whether i should put them on my belt or not, and he just went "up to you really" but we have a handful of dan grades (all 1st or 2nd dan) and none of us have them on.

I can agree with you on that point. That is why we make them pay a fee to do it. But what i find really odd is why wouldn't this student ask his/her sensei if they know that kata. As my sensei is not just a sandan but he is also a kata judge with Karate Victoria (Victoria is a state in Australia for those who don't know) and he was required to have knowledge of kata from other styles so he wouldn't be completely surprised by a kata and also have some idea of how that kata should be performed. so if i need someone to see how i am going with kata from say shotokan then i could ask him. But if he didn't know that kata all that well then he would be honest for one but then would recommend me to go speak to one of his friends from that style that would know that kata well.

$80 a month for me. which covers training, insurance, gradings (even if we don't grade that month it will pay for our grading when we are eligible to grade) and paying for the space that we train at. for our really advanced adults (by that i mean Brown Belt and above) we are able to train 5 times a week (that is really 2 double classes and one single class). our juniors can do 4 classes a week, unless they have a parent training afterwards then it will be more.

Mentally i was nervous as hell (i was like 8 at the time) Physically i was fine. your fitness gets better the longer that your physically active

i start back on the 20th so I will have had an entire month off. I'm already twitching to get back into it

as long as they ask you prior to rocking up to train in that one particular kata i see no problem with it. i would charge him a small fee for that one particular session. If i know that kata i would teach it. I'm not out to stop anyone from learning any kata or style of karate

Unfortunately not to full shodan. Everyone at my schools (including a couple of schools I train at because I am a good friend of the head instructors) get a shodan-ho before being promoted to shodan. That includes our adults. But he was told if he wishes to teach and work on his karate he is welcome to and may be promoted as a teacher. So my sensei would create another pathway for him.

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.