Nidan Melbourne

As much as it is morally justified to defend the clerk. you can cannot claim defense as you essentially killed someone. For all you know there could have been no rounds in the gun or it could have been a fake. The end of the story is that someone didn't go home at the end of the day

As far as i know in Australia you can teach Martial Arts anywhere but if you are 'busking' or doing a demonstration you need a permit but from what i read you don't need one. at my school we rent a room at a rec center and we didn't need to register.

i don't agree with young kids getting to the rank of black belt until they are old enough to understand what it means to hold it. At my school they don't have a minimum age to get it but i feel like you should be at least 14-15 to get it as they will have the emotional maturity and physical maturity to understand what black belt really means to have. If i ran my school that is the age requirement i would have for my students, unless the child is a prodigy and is above 12 years old.

You can actually be charged if you hit somebody (and cause injury) if they hit you first. It is the same as if they attack you with a knife you can't pull out a gun and shoot them or disarm them and then stab them with their own knife. And you have to inform them that you have been trained in martial arts and that you will use necessary force if required

thanks for the welcome everyone

if it is in self defense then it doesn't matter if they are male or female. It doesn't matter what gender they don't have the right to hit you. What i do is to block and restrain the person. say they do a hook punch i block it with an elbow (stiking the shoulder), trap their arm at the shoulder then follow up by striking the jaw line (not a thrust) and guiding them to the ground. if they on their side maintain that lock and do a knee ride (knee on their side)

i have taught juniors for 6 years now and what i do is that for somethings we have to teach the kids is to do it in groups or in just pairs to have them do competitions. Say we have 4 groups of 3 kids each (more kids & groups if necessary) and have one kid watch and the other two compete to see who does the fastest (& best) technique. so a punch in round 1, kick round 2, uchi round 3. so any technique for each round and the champion at the end competes against the other champions

I can understand where you come from, as one of my old sensei's was much like that even if you became injured in class. But it is a good thing you went to a new school that would treat you fairer.

Speak to a doctor about it but more of a recommendation though is to speak to a physiotherapist or an Accredited Exercise Physiologist about it. I recommend seeing an Accredited Exercise Physiologist as they are able to help with such problems and to prevent the pain from occurring again. They can help with your balance, ease/stop the pain and help you get better over the long term.

in terms of martial arts having a stronger grip strength it is better as you can hold onto your opponents easier and make it harder for them to break out of a hold or choke. but on a lifestyle point of view having stronger hands is much better as your preventing the risk of rheumatoid arthritis in the future

once you get your promotion and hopefully get the new size otherwise you can easily go buy a smaller one. I am currently a Shodan (1st Dan) Black Belt and i have 2 belts - one is my primary belt which i use for training and the other one i use for more formal situations when the need arises for it (but otherwise i keep in a case at home showing the belt off)

so you have made some slight variations between the styles to create your current version of it?

when you say sport-style grappling what do you mean exactly? Whenever we do groundwork we do learn how to escape from having someone on mount (i knew prior how to do it due to my BJJ training) and how defend from guard. Takedowns we do a fair bit of in the higher grades when it comes to Kyogi, otherwise i'm left in charge of teaching it (even when i'm meant to be training). and locks & holds i also have to teach with my sensei

as much as my sensei allows t-shirts to be worn underneath the gi he would have a limit on what type that you could wear. As it had to be the same color as your gi with nothing on it or don't wear one at all. Otherwise he would still allow compression garments

your welcome I always want everyone to have the same opportunities where every group has the exact same rights (including marriage)

Hey all, In my school we don't do much groundwork during the semester. How much does everyone do in their school. I am the resident groundwork specialist in my school at least anyway and try and convince my sensei to show everyone what to do

Recently i was at a local school for a talk about bullying at schools and how the kids can stop bullying. And the kids (from years 7 - 12) were asking questions when one kid (in year 7) had asked me "why do you do karate? Why should we look after each other?" This is what i said in return: i commenced karate because when i was in year 3 as other children were mean to me and i wanted to learn how to defend myself from them (they were in fact beating me up both physically and mentally). But as i learnt karate i realised that they (the bullies) were just insecure and wanting to make themselves look tough so they didn't get hurt. So the next time they tried to bully me i said loudly STOP I don't like what your doing to me and he tried to hit me and i blocked & he got into trouble with the teacher in charge of the playground. And after that he stopped bullying me. So obviously my confidence had grown and self esteem had finally increases. And we should look after each other because it can stop bullies in their tracks and everyone will feel safe to be themselves. So if you see a kid sitting all by themselves go up to them introduce yourself and get to know them as you both will make a new friend and they will feel safe and happy knowing that they have a friend to play with. I say to everyone after that: no matter what happens never give up on what you want to achieve. If you want to be a doctor, teacher, sports star work hard to become one. Learn as much as possible - not only from your teachers and family but from your friends as welll. When you get into a position of power never abuse it. As every person has a fire burning inside them and help them grow. If you abuse your power and start hurting people either physically or mentally you become a bully. Treat people the way you want to be treated and respect everyone and everything. Accept that everyone has their own opinion and that as much as you disagree with it accept it. It doesn't matter if they have a different sexual orientation, political positon, religion, disability or ethnicity (maori , aboriginal, indian, asian etc), or even family situation respect them. Everyone was born equal and all have the same rights. If you take anything from what i have said then please make amends if you have hurt anyone in the past and don't do it to them as you should walk a mile in their shoes. If you are a bully (if you have done something like what i said earlier and hit or insulted them harshly) go up to them and apologise. Have a new start with them. We are all human and should be treated with respect, especially when someone speaks where you listen with your ears and eyes.

At my school we train in English (mother tongue) but for the techniques we do the japanese terminology. So the white belts start learning the proper name for the techniques from the very beginning. But we (as instructors) still tell them what it is in English as well. But at our recent Black Belt Grading we had a 5th Dan help take the grading and spoke purely in japanese except for making comments about what we were doing well or needed improvement on.

For me personally, I would continue to train in Goju-Ryu and pick up BJJ again (I stopped after completing my VCE - Victorian Certificate of Education - Similar to a High School Diploma in America). I would train in Karate every 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday & Friday) & BJJ twice a week (Tuesday & Thursday). But also i would pick up Arnis (Stick Fighting). all 3 of these martial arts i would continue either i could no longer physically keep up with the demands or i die. If i did die i would donate the rest of the money to martial art schools that i felt were worthy of it or schools that could use the money for the students benefits

doing sparring on your own doesn't do much at all. to get the necessary experience for sparring it has to be done with a partner, as you gain the knowledge and experience on how to combat those who are taller/shorter, heavier/lighter and how to stop their techniques. I am not that tall yet heavy, and i fight people who are taller and that are lighter yet they often have difficulty to fight me purely because i evade get in close and make their life a living hell. But also helps them to learn how to stop that from occuring if that was ever going to happen in a real life situation

Where in Egypt do you live? I have been worried about people i know in Cairo

i love beach training. As hard as it is it works you so much better than in the dojo - as it forces you to be more aware your body is in space (for you smart people it is proprioception) and your body will become so much stronger from it

Welcome back. I know exactly how you feel. I trained for 7.5 years and was well trusted by my sensei to take classes on my own (even the adults classes when i had just received my black belt) then I had to stop because of my knee giving me so much pain and that i had severely broken my radius and ulna so I was out for 4 years and got back into training late last year). I was so scared that i had forgotten everything and that i wouldn't be at the same standard that i was at when i was forced to stop. But when i got back into it i was exactly at the same point that i was at when i stopped, albeit a bit rusty and just needed a little bit of a refresher of the pre-arranged sparring and more advanced kata but otherwise same point. Once you get back into it you will feel right at home again. A lot of us have been in the exact same boat as you

in terms of clothing for the different genders, it is usually better for females to wear a t-shirt or skins (or equivalent skin tight clothing) underneath their gi as it would mean that their breasts (even if it is in their sports bra) might make them feel more comfortable. I train with two ladies in my class - one wears skins (pressure garments that a lot of athletes wear underneath their clothing whilst competes) underneath the jacket portion of the gi and she is younger than i am. Whilst the other wears that and a t-shirt but is older (by about 10-15 years). But occassionaly i train in an earlier class (still adults) and a few females don't wear either just their sports bra. and they feel self conscious but they still don't want to wear anything underneath. Although for males we really don't wear anything underneath purely because of our higher muscle mass and amount of fat on our body. so we are more suited to handling cold/heat better.

the best thing to be able to help settle down after class and get to sleep is just to take the time to reflect about what you did in class and throughout the day. Drink some tea or water which can help relax, shower as well. if you still find that you can't fall asleep after that just read a book in a nice quiet area of the house (do not have the tv or radio on or any other distraction) and turn the lights down a fair bit but still bright enough so you can read. As it should help your brain realise that it is time to relax and prepare for sleep.