Nidan Melbourne

For us, it's basically the Dan grade equals the number of years to train before eligibility to test for that Dan grade. 6 years from 5th to 6th Dan 5 years from 4th to 5th Dan 4 years from 3rd to 4th Dan 3 years from 2nd to 3rd Dan 2 years from 1st to 2nd Dan 1 year from 1st Kyu to 1st Dan 3-4 years from 10th kyu to 1st kyu, making 1st Dan a 4-5 year trek on average. And, that's not counting normal life getting in the way and slowing things down... I've been on my MA journey for ~24 years, now, and I'm nowhere near a 5th or 6th Dan... same here at my school. We do the number of years according to what Dan grading we are working towards + an extra 6 months (So for 5th dan to 6th Dan it would be 6 years + 6 months = 6.5 years). But the difficult thing is we don't have many higher ranking karateka in Australia so we have to either go through our national federation (Australian Karate Federation) or go over to Japan and grade. But a lot of karateka often will take much longer than that time frame because of various reasons, like not feeling ready to grade for their next dan grading. My sensei is a 3rd Dan but he doesn't feel ready to grade for his 4th (even if he has been a 3rd dan for close to 10 years). And his old sensei is a 5th Dan and has been saying for years that he is more than ready for it.

Speak to the chief instructor about this behaviour as it is totally inappropriate. No instructor should do this. EVER!!!

Ouch ouch and ouch! I've seen ones like that, usually on a misstep running through a base. Take care of that, those can be nasty. John Will be very careful of it. saw my Physio yesterday and gave me the green light to start training again (albeit lightly) and start strength training at 30-40% of my 1RM for my legs.

I'm healing faster than they expected. Cause of the rehab and of my experiences as an exercise physiologist I was the same (Ex phys was my college major), I healed faster/better than people much younger than myself, and was back running within 5ish months post surgery. Still waited a year to come back to martial arts, they were worried about the landing on the toes on jump kicks being a major stressor on the calf. Ruptured it on a jump/switch stance of all things, a move we teach to white belts their first week. How'd you bung yourself up? John I managed to do it in the awesome manner of hyperextension. It was during the warm up and we were running on the mats and i misstepped with my left foot (about to roll it) so i put my right leg out to compensate for it but my leg was completely locked and all my weight went through it.

I'm healing faster than they expected. Cause of the rehab and of my experiences as an exercise physiologist

I like how most schools don't wear gi's except for comps. cause your not always going to be wearing your GI outside the dojo so you understand how effective your techniques are in civilian clothing. Although my school we require all students wear a GI. But the cost of the GI and signing up is a grand total of $35 combined. Even if you don't want to continue with training you get to keep the uniform

Depends on your sensei of they are knowledgable in it. A friend of mine runs his own karate school and often has self defense seminars, also has seminars for females to defend themselves.

No you should be training with someone who can give you feedback and instruct you properly

hello and welcome to the forum. i hope you learn something from everyone here on the forum

as it just changed lol

mine is seeiunchin kata from goju-ryu

At my school we do gradings every 3-4 weeks (5-7 for the adults) on a Saturday for the juniors and black belt gradings for both juniors and adults (separate of course). And a Monday night during class time for the adults so we can attend the grading if we wish. But the reason we dont do it for the juniors is due to the sheer number of students we have for those classes so we do it on a different day just for the students who want and are eligible to grade

220-age is a complete myth, and one of the worst estimates to float around in exercise science. There is no way to know a person's maximum heart rate without clinical testing, and even then it may be off some. For example, I am 46 and I regularly hit 190+ on interval training. Also, I tend not to recommend heart rate zone based training, as there are too many variables that can affect the heart rate either up or down, without changing the relative effort level. Here's an interesting writeup of the various estimation methods, and the error regression levels for the various formulae: http://www.cyclingfusion.com/pdf/220-Age-Origins-Problems.pdf You can find other formulae and discussions on google scholar. John That's why I suggested the other formula. I am a clinical exercise physiologist for a career. HR training is actually proven to be good for weight loss and training. But for some people they can only do it in the precence of a medical practitioner as they are considered a high risk patient. But a persons MHR is affected by how healthy the person is. So you might be really healthy so you have ensured your heart can go at a higher intensity than those of the same age that are unhealthy

Well in my opinion you are doing well with your training regime but you are doing more muscular strength (and endurance) training with all the sit ups and push ups. Although it is good to do it and help with weight loss. Drinking gatorade (or other sports drinks) only helps if you are doing moderate-intense physical activity for over an hour. For the run you can build up how fast and far you can go instead of going the same distance every time you go for a run. Say you run 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) you do your normal pace, but every (lets say) 1 km (600 Yards) you lift the pace. And if you have a Heart rate monitor you want to be running at about 60-80% of your Max Heart Rate. Since you want to do a 1.5 mile run in under 11:30 but as your goal 9 minutes you will want to work on both speed and distance. Train on hills if they are close by (at parks maybe) you will be able to work on strength, power and speed. As you will be working on your aerobic system to get the oxygen into your system to burn the carbs & fats to get the max ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) out of your body to exercise for longer As the longer you train at a higher intensity you will delay the onset of "hitting the wall" and also you could easily complete the test quickly. Your Max Heart Rate is 220 - your age. But to be more specific and accurate you want to do 208 - (0.7 * your age) which is called the tanaka formula. in terms of your protein shake you should really drink it within' 30 minutes to 2 hours after finishing exercise. But don't drink a strong cup of coffee in the morning, as it doesn't do you any good and also you are having something that isn't benefiting you and your training regime. And for food fruits, vegies, seafood (has omega 3), protein (Beef, Chicken etc) are all very good for you. IF you have space at your house in the backyard you can easily create a vegie patch that grows both fruit and vegetables. As you only have to buy the seedlings once or twice every 4-5 weeks (but most are self sustaining so you only have to buy them once). So it can solve your issue with how much you spend on food. And for consumption it will vary for how much you do every day. You will eat more if you did a tonne of physical activity one day and then not as much if you did less.

Congrats mate. well deserved

Well feeling nervous is totally normal. What I do is to think that no one is there. And facing different directions is always good. that way you can focus no matter what. Also do it facing the corners as well.

Sorry about the injury but it is good to hear that your going to teach even if it means you sitting in a chair. I did my knee Monday last week and I have been teaching with crutches (including to the point where my students asked me how to defend myself if someone attacked me when i had my crutches) But for you not only work on mind/spirit and reading books. I think you should also try (it might sound weird but it works) thinking through your techniques, kata, bunkai, kihon etc. Like what they feel like and what they look like, what is the movement you do for it. Often professionals in various sporting fields or martial arts will do this when they are out injured so they can keep their mind focused on what they do, so for when they come back they won't have lapsed as much as they would have if they hadn't thought about it. As this will help your motor control as a whole. Hope that helps

Have you previously injured a joint or muscle? Which do you prefer to use to stabilize the joint/muscle a brace or strapping tape? I have used both previously in the past and alternate between both. I just like to find out what you all prefer or use.

I have suffered from depression for years and I WASN'T allowed to have meds because i was prone to addiction. My psychologist found out i was prone to any form of addiction from not only me (I was seeing them for years before the depression hit) but from also my family, friends and my girlfriend. So didn't want to prescribe medications cause they knew what would happen and that i might overdose to alleviate the pain. Especially since i was suicidal for most of my time with depression (I still suffer from depression as i type this but i have it under control). So what the psychologist prescribed to me was to go exercise and experience new things with my closest family and friends. Which does help greatly. So medications don't always work for those like me who are prone to addiction

Congrats on the great work!

welcome to the forum

Well i did have legal problems when someone attacked me with a knife but i had purposely raised my voice so people around would hear every word that i said so just in case this went to court people would have to be on my side for this. All i said to him before he attacked me was that i have a history of martial arts and i will defend myself & restrain you if you proceed. so he did attack but what i did was block it, removed the knife from his hand and applied a wrist lock. the good thing was that the police were nearby and happened to witness everything. He got charged with attempted assault but no jail time (it was on bail), and he decided to sue me for hurting him (due to the wrist lock) and the judge asked me what i said and did. and the focus was pretty much all on my martial arts training and i could have prevented having to apply a wrist lock. I politely asked the judge if i may demonstrate what happened and what i did when disarming and applying the wrist lock. which the judge agreed, so i also politely asked a 3rd party to be the demonstration partner which ended up being an off-duty judge who happened to come into the court house that day. and he (the off-duty judge) under oath said that there was no lasting pain from the lock or damage to his wrist. But...... the case got thrown out because of the testimonies and what i said to try and prevent any chances of any one getting hurt & of the demonstration in the judges end statement he was happy to know that i tried to prevent anything from occurring.

it will take time to figure out how to practice what you have learnt and whether something feels right or not. so take your time in practicing what you have learnt already. Remember what it felt like in class and what your sensei has told you how your going. use a large mirror if you want to see if something doesn't look right

True. But why are there not that many people using Hapkido as their primary art? probably because not many people are aware of Hapkido or there may not be a school that offers it in their local area. where i live there are no hapkido schools are within' of a 1 hour drive of my house.

it isn't really a norm that most people cross train. But to some they want to learn multiple martial arts so their "primary" martial art can become stronger