Nidan Melbourne

Jujitsu and Karate do compliment each other very well. I have been doing BJJ which compliments my karate (goju-ryu) very well. Especially to get an understanding of ground-fighting

Congrats Andrew. Are you going to study further (ie get a diploma, bachelor etc) in the fitness industry?

At my old dojo and my current one, if we had a 12 year Junior Black Belt and they were interested in teaching we would restrict them to the juniors classes and not let them take the adults classes as intructors for obvious reasons (and they wouldn't be able to show the techniques to be effective for a demonstration). Although for the more advanced juniors they are partnered up with older black belts (at my current school we are 15/16+ except for my sensei who is in his 30's) so they can see how to manage a class like that. But often we will allow the JBB to take a small group with that assistance but the senior instructor will watch and have input of what to do.

At my dojo we don't really teach anything different between juniors and seniors. Both 'tiers' learn the same content, but the adults get two katas instead of the one for juniors (at gradings adults should be able to do those two katas well and the next one in the sequence but at a lower standard, and similar in juniors). In the adults class we also teach how to fight from the "clinch" and ground fighting. Along those lines we also teach them chokes, arm bars, locks and throws. The we sometimes show simple locks to the juniors, and how to defend yourself on the ground. But nothing too major due to the fact that they aren't mature enough to understand much more on the topic.

Hello and welcome to the forum judoespecialist and nepathyanbt. Hope you guys find this forum very informative

Welcome to the forum my friend (well very a very belated one). I look forward to reading your posts and learning from you.

I have a few people who are training with me and 20 years ago they reached up to their 3rd dan (and a couple who got to 4th) and hadn't trained in all those years. But what they did was wear a white belt and attend a Black belt grading to allow our sensei to decide what rank that they should be at (They may retain the old rank that they had 20 years ago). They wear a white belt for the meantime, BUT they train with us black belts so they can be refreshed on the advanced stuff as well. Since we have a few 4th Dans training with us, then we have a couple of 5th/6th dans help assess him (just to make it fair).

Well Dynamic stretching has to do with movement (whilst static is when your not moving). And when your watching videos that have people doing the splits easily, you might not be able to get that far but you can stretch them just as well through movement. For a leg swing you go as high as comfortably as you can go, then go a little bit further. It doesn't mean you should go to head height straight away. Dynamic (and some static) can be beneficial if you do it in the morning and at night to help your muscles relax.

Well there are many Martial Arts you can do. I am overweight myself and I have done karate and BJJ for many years now. You can lose weight really quickly from BJJ. for weight loss MA, healthy diet and exercise will be beneficial to you.

That's so sad to lose three men due to weight cutting. there should be no/little last minute bouts to stop this happening. And that athletes can make weight safely. RIP you three. you left this world too early!

I organise all the fitness testing for my club as an extra for all students in my club. It all depends on what my sensei or students require. I test everything from musculoskeletal (i.e. push ups, sit ups etc), aerobic (running, sprinting etc) and anaerobic (muscular power and strength). But for classes we do a warm up of a combination of all 3 fields. But the difficulty of each depends on rank and age.

It chose me.

Make sure you do some rehab on your knee to help strengthen it up. I have had multiple knee injuries and I still am able to train because of rehab. and I have been promoted multiple times with those injuries & surgeries. So I am now a shodan in goju. But anything is possible

I am concerned that your withholding your promotions because your not happy with your kumite. But do you honestly spar consistently with more experienced people that can apply pressure on you, so you can improve your skill? As most people improve over time and fighting more experienced and more difficult opponents. Like Mal103 said you shouldn't be sandbagging yourself because you want to be winning at competitions. And deciding to quadruple grade is disrespectful to everyone at your dojo because it is basically saying to everyone that you think your better than they are and you don't really care for putting the time in to training in each of those grades. I have many friends throughout Australia that are 3rd Dan and above (one of which is an 8th Dan). And they have never done more than a double grading. And only one has ever double graded 4 students (in the 40 years that he has taught). And since you want to grade from sankyu to shodan in less than a year it isn't very advisable. Especially since you said you weren't ready to grade. Even if it is because your sensei wants other judges so other students won't get cheated. As you might struggle for a shodan grading. Because this isn't an appropriate reason to promote someone to shodan (or any rank at all). Like Mal103 said you don't get given one or awarded one but become one. As the one thing your doing by sandbagging yourself is cheating yourself out of is experience and mat time. But i am NOT trying to put you off doing anything, but you can do what you feel like your really ready for. But back to the point that you want to open your own school. Speak to the minister in charge of the church, as they will be able to determine if it is really appropriate for a MA to be in a church.

Its good to hear your back at training! But just keep an eye on your ribs. so you don't re-injure yourself. So just let your sensei know how your going in terms of recovery.

Practice always makes perfect. Watching videos and other methods can only compliment the practice that you do for kata. Bunkai and kihon can help with kata but still as a compliment (yet can give you a better understanding of that particular kata)

oh wow that is a lot of trophies! I am jealous! how and where would you keep all those trophies?

congrats on doing so well! it is good that you know what you were doing wrong (especially with those bad habits). So work hard on changing that and i know you will be great kumite fighter at competitions

Personally i believe Kata should be performed how you think it should be done. I have done Goju-Ryu Karate for the last 12 years and each student performs kata slightly differently for tempo/speed. Like for Gekasai Dai Ichi our green and purple belts (we start teaching them as green belts in preparation for their kata test with their purple belt). Their timing is different (mostly) to us black belts as we have insight of what the kata is doing if we were doing those techniques in real life

I have to agree partially with you there. Don't forget that there may be some internal injuries that they may have (i.e. ribs may have been broken and are healing) or are in rehabilitation from. So they may be in legit pain and will have to sit out and will be better after x minutes. And [qoute=mal103]Your Sensei is not a doctor. But some instructors have other professions, and that they may be a medical practitioner (doctor, physiotherapist, exercise physiologist etc) so they would be aware of the risks and signs of injury. So they would be able to tell if you have to rest or not (especially if you are faking it because you want a rest in general). I teach and i am doing a degree as an exercise physiologist and i can tell when someone is in pain. and if they are trying to feign the problem i check (with their permission and the parents) to see if it is real or not.

That's shocking that your sensei ignored those requests. He/she should be aware of injury risks of any pre-existing problems.

oh man that would have been painful! I have been lucky a few times when that has ALMOST happened to me. albeit they were much heavier than 120-150 pounds. 120 pounds = 54 kg 150 pounds = 68 kg I have a friend of mine who weighs in at 90 kg (198 pounds) nearly do that to me. Then a 110 kg guy (242 pounds) and a 150 kg (330 pounds) nearly land on my bits.

I have three that i absolutely love doing on people. One is the cross-lapel choke, the rear-naked choke and the triangle choke. Oh and the guillotine choke

when i attended my 1st Grading (i was 9 at the time) i was terrified because i didn't know anyone else there at the grading except for one of my sempai's. I was in tears because i was so scared. But when we all went onto the mat to bow in i had calmed down. Since then i hadn't been like that because i knew what was expected of me.

The black belt gradings at my dojo vary greatly in how long it goes for purely because of how many people are at the grading. But when i went for my black belt it went for close to 8 hours and for my shodan it was 5.5 hours long. What we do is a warm up that goes for about (give or take) 20-25 minutes, Basics 30-45 minutes, Combinations 1 hour, Kata 45-60 minutes, Pre-arranged Sparring (Bunkai, Kyogi and our regular pre-arranged sparring) which takes at minimum of 1 hour (more or less depending on numbers) then sparring which is 1 hour (give or take). For basics/combinations - we do every single technique that we are required to know: Although both times it has also been incorporated into our combinations section of the grading (so two sections in one). Which they make the combinations rather difficult so they can see how we cope with the pressure. Kata - We do every single Kata that our school does Taikyoku Jodan, Chudan, Gedan, Kake Uke, Mawashi Ich, Gekesai Dai Ichi & Ni, Saifa, Seeuinchin, Sanchin, Tensho, Sanseru, Seisan. But Senseru & Seisan are for the students going for their Shodan. Pre-Arranged Sparring: - 25 Kyogi (from Seeuinchin kata) - all of which we make ourselves - Gekesai and Saifa Bunkai - Pre-arranged sparring #1 and #2, Sanbon Kumite, Yonhon Kumite, Gohon Kumite Sparring - we spar everyone that is participating in the grading and all of the instructors that are in attendance.