Nidan Melbourne

Baaaaad idea to date in dojo. The only time I think it is ok if your dating someone who trains with you is if your dating someone outside of the school then they join your dojo. Then if you break up with them when they're training at your dojo then it will become extremely awkward

Yes it is a mix of Goju and Shotokan. I was bored the other day and looked up their site

It greatly varies at my dojo. For our juniors we have classes 4 days a week and adults 3 days a week. If they train every of those sessions (so either 4 days/week or 3 days/week) you'll get tested every couple of weeks for a 'tag' and you need 5 to grade. so it will take just above a month to grade. As the required minimum of lessons before you can grade is 30. No one grades before that. We have probably a good 40 students who do that, and are very skillful (even our white belts who train 4 days/week with us and extra at their other karate school - but aren't counted towards their tally of lessons to be considered for a grading). So it will take just over 3 1/2 years to get, as all our students once they get past green belt (inclusive) they will take much longer to get their 'tags' It took me about 6-7 years to get my black belt, i trained 2-3 times a week but took a few months off due to knee surgery.

haha as much that is funny that you had your finger on the microphone. But then again it is unfortunate that it was the case.

People should earn every single belt that they grade for. So they should know their curriculum and be quite proficient at it as well. There is more leniency on a couple of the lower ranks as they are generally less experienced, but orange/red belts should be able to do the basics well. Not because they paid their tuition fees but because they earned those belts.

good job on not only looking after your own family but other people too! You are one of the reasons why i am proud to be a martial artist. I respect and and am humbled when i see people do that

Hope you had a wonderful day! What did you get up to for it?

go through the latest NAS results - in australia or the UK and you will see that GKR students regularly achieve outstanding results.... http://www.nationalallstyles.com.au/media/nas/pdfs/tournament-reports/nationals/2010/national-titles-2010.pdf What about WKF Championships? And since you mentioned Australia what about at any of the AKF Tournaments?

It was a massive effort on the day. as we have to perform 25 kyogi from seeiunchin to get our shodan but for nidan it is 25 from sanseru. There was no requirement for me to do it but I was thinking "hell why not I'll do extra requirements"

Today i taught my juniors kicks with focus on a good front kick and roundhouse kick. Adults we focused on takedowns, throws and some locks. Which I was pleased about as I love teaching that stuff. My sensei was unfortunately out sick today so he couldn't teach or come in (he has meningitis atm). So it was up to me and a fellow 2nd dan to look after the classes for the day.

Depends massively on the teacher(s). At my old schools headquarters they ran might mites which was for 4 - 6 year olds, and was run by a good friend of mine (and was one of my teachers for a number of years). Goju-Ryu Karate is really good as it has a combination of hard and soft techniques. But i know a lot of kids that age have been doing Brazillian Jujitsu. as most schools run programs for kids that age.

thanks for your opinion on it. Cause when i watched the video i thought it was odd that i didn't really see many instructors go around checking on things.

I agree with you on this. I find it really strange how she expects you to avoid her "private" parts when sparring. Its a martial art for crying out loud. every student of a MA expects to be hit everywhere. The girls in my classes that i train in don't care if they get hit in their 'private' parts aka breasts. and no one wears chest protectors in my school unless they have a chest injury. I understand guys hesitate to hit girls because it is perceived to be wrong. but in martial arts how are girls going to learn how to defend themselves if they don't feel comfortable about being hit. and when they are hit they throw a massive tantrum. But most females who do martial arts understand it is something they have to be comfortable with. especially if guys do try and feel them up and they have to learn how to prevent it from happening. and if they are getting attacked that they need to know what being under such pressure is like so they can perform their techniques well. In Martial Arts everyone is equal so you can target wherever you would strike. I am a guy and i expect to be kicked in the groin when sparring (hence why we still wear cups to protect them) and that i should be able to protect them if i wasn't wearing a cup. so for girls you should be able to defend your breasts. Besides it helps you with distancing. everyone don't forget that it isn't 100% of men will attack women. even if the percentage leans more against men who assault women, there is still a fair percentage of women who attack men. I fight females majority of the time in class (as in my class there are about 6 females and 8 males) so we fight girls a lot. and they understand that when we punch we might do a movement that might graze their breasts but it isn't intentional. many of us senior graded students in the adults class have two distinct fighting styles. one is our usual fighting style for logic and to figure out what works really well. the other is more realistic when we do self-defense simulations that we attack like an assailant on the street would. for the senior gradings (Blue belt and above) all students will be matched up with a senior student that is physically bigger than they are and have to survive and we see what their reaction would be. some of the females who have gone through it used to go to my sensei and say "he hit me in my private area and i don't like it" and now then they realized that they were stuck in their preconceptions that attackers won't attack their breasts and they changed and learned from it. But we don't do this with juniors as there aren't enough junior black belts to do it, and that they aren't old enough to know how to do those self defense situations just yet. But many of the juniors started to train from when they were 6 years old they will grow up being comfortable being hit all over.

As much as some instructors say that it is wrong. but he/she is right that it can waste energy. Although you bounce they can't predict when you are going to move. as they are used to you bouncing forwards and backwards.

You need to practice the kata with the correct sequence more than 100 times in a row without a mistake in it. Otherwise you have to start again.

Most of your BJJ chokes you should be cutting off air as they are blood chokes. So damage to the wind pipe and larynx shouldn't be an issue. Gene LeBell chokes people out all the time and I've never heard of anyone having any ill effects. I personally choked a guys out about a year ago and as soon as I realized he was out I let the the choke go. I'm sure if you held the choke for too long it would become a concern as your partner is not getting blood to their brain. Actually whenever you apply a choke onto a person there is always a risk that your going to damage the windpipe + larynx. My sister works in a hospital as a doctor and she has seen that people have crushed windpipes due to a person applying a choke to someone too hard. if you hold onto the choke after someone has passed out for too long (more than a few seconds) you are at serious risk of giving the person irreversible brain damage. when you apply a choke to someone and they are struggling, their blood pressure increases dramatically. If they unknowingly have a blood clot or plaque buildup somewhere in their body, and you choke them out there is the risk that they can dislodge and cause a stroke or heart attack. But what some schools fail to do is teach beginners when to tap. when i started BJJ the instructors made sure we all understood when to tap and if we are applying a choke or lock or anything like that we have to let go immediately. and also we were told to keep an eye on our partner so we can let go if they aren't tapping

Does the website have these standards listed? My old instructor had talked about them, and it sounds like a testing can be quite draining, for sure. I know I would struggle with 40 pushups right now. How old are you bushido_man96? As the older you get the less you should be able to do. if your in the 40-49 group like Aodhan is you would be in the excellent category for push ups and sit ups if you got more than 40

Personally I think you should go with Kusnaku as it seems like the 'better' kata. maybe i say that because i am a bit bias? but since you are a black belt maybe do the TKD kata

How many people at a grading attempting a promotion do you think is too many? Have a look at this video. It is of a GKR (Go-Kan Ryu) Grading - it is the last video they uploaded of this particular grading. What are the positives and negatives of having this many people attend the one grading? Personally for the kata, they should have split up the whole group so the instructors could see if the karateka is doing the kata well or going through it without really trying. At my grading we had a large group (in relation to our dojo) at the black belt grading, we all did some of the less advanced kata together (since there were 15 of us). But for the advanced kata we did it in groups of 3. at it was the same for pre-arranged sparring.

at my school (I study Goju also) seeiunchin is for brown belt, 1st Brown and Shodan-Ho going for Shodan. The bunkai for it for us is required for when we grade for nidan

In the kata he did he stepped with his left foot when he should have stepped with his right foot. As most of the goju kata start with the right foot moving (to either turn or have in front). That is why the referees were talking about it at the end

As much as the rules say variations are allowed now. He admitted in an interview after the match that he had indeed made a mistake. It is a good kata to watch/learn/do as it is one of the most advanced kata in the goju-ryu system

Interesting John for fitness testing the norms for your age group is slightly different. You are expected for your testing to do 40 push ups which is in the excellent category and so are your sit ups. as the older you get the lower the score that is expected of you to get.

I agree with you on this one. I have bad knees (so running i can't do) and swimming is exactly what i do. Especially when it comes to working on cardio and stamina. It is a high intensity low impact exercise that is an awesome aerobic exercise.

From this years world games gold medal match. Antonio Diaz performs his signature kata "suparenpei" and makes a mistake on his first step and still wins 4-1