Nidan Melbourne

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

you say that the colors don't matter. But i am curious what the colors are

at my school we test students on curriculum every 6 lessons for a 'tag' and to grade for the next belt you need 5 'tags' on your belt. so on average you would have 30 lessons under your belt before you grade. But a lot of students will do a double class instead of the usual one. But nearly all the advanced grades (green belt and above) will do an increased amount of classes to have the competency in all the areas that we test in. But for gradings if you perform quite weakly in areas in the grading you receive a 'G' on the back of your attendance card. the 'G' on the card basically means that area you were weak on at the grading and that you need to work on it a bit more so you have an extra 6 lessons before you get tested on it.

at my old dojo i started teaching the day i received my brown belt (nikyu) so my first class was as a blue belt (Sankyu). I was well entrusted by my sensei to take a group of students on my own as my skill level was considered excellent and that i was able to teach on my own. But depending on the group and the number of instructors available I was on my own but often was with a more senior instructor keeping an eye on me. But as a Shodan now, I am more entrusted to keep an eye on the more inexperienced instructors to ensure everything is correct.

speak to various places. and once you have a good student base the cost of the place won't really matter to you as much. At my school we are using a sports complex 4 days a week (Monday & wednesday 4-9, Friday 4-8, Saturday 8-11) and we have in excess of 150 students

Well ask your sensei about it and he will decide. As for me I moved schools (my sensei made his own school in 2008 and i moved late last year) and i had a hiatus of 4.5 years after attaining my black belt and my sensei decided that i can retain my rank and i was able to grade for my shodan recently

I learn from everyone. My sensei openly says that we shouldn't only take his word as gospel but learn from everyone. I have learnt/learn from my students, people i train with, others from other schools. Even when i teach i learn from my students as they might do something wrong and i realize i do the exact same thing so my technique improves

well at my school ours are on a scale as our cheapest is for 30 lessons that don't have an expiry date (so theoretically you can go to 30 lessons over the course of 4 months or however long you wanted to) all the way up to a black belt membership (unlimited classes, insurance in case of injury, belts, mits & pads, gradings etc for vary amount of time usually 1 - 2 years)

Personally at the schools that i have train/or train at we have a minimum of 6 years of age. But at my old schools Hombu we had a little "mighty mights" class for 3-5 year olds but they were more aimed at fun ways of teaching martial arts

It is totally up to the student. at my old dojo we had a 4th Dan training with us and has been a student of my old sensei since he began training

That makes sense up to a point. But I'm not going to limit my students abilities based on what I can personally do. Some students are going to be faster than me, some have stronger arms, some be able to do more sit-ups, some have greater stamina, etc. That's why I believe in pushing students to do there personal best, not my personal best. I agree with you as I teach juniors 3 days a week and i can't do kicks properly due to having bad knees and hips. But i still am able to teach the kids to kick well. And I have students all the time asking me to teach them more advanced syllabus and they are more than ready to learn it.

Managed to stuff up my knee on monday night now i am out for a few months recovering. But sensei has kindly let me do teaching duties. Few at least i can keep my mind in the game[/u]

Thats what we do at my school. But with a slightly longer grading cycle. As we have we have a grading every 5-6 weeks. which is the same for adults Every 6 lessons you are tested on a certain area and if you are competent enough you get a "tag" on your belt. And you need 5 "tags" to grade.

Thats fantastic!