Nidan Melbourne

Personally i think it is too early to do that. As much as I understand that people want to buy a belt (particularly a Black Belt) and use it is motivation to achieve. But I have had friends who failed gradings for that belt and they stopped completely because they viewed themselves at not being worthy at all to hold that rank. Even when we have told them time and time again when we see them training that they are worthy of attaining that rank. All they had to do was to go and train for that bit longer to sharpen those skills that they weren't as confident in. And they ended up achieving that goal several years later. So it can often backfire to do it

Its great that he has been doing so much sparring. Does he focus just as much on the rest of his training (Basics, Combinations, kata, Pre-arranged Sparring & Bunkai)? I ask because you want to be well rounded out and not just be focussing on sparring. Don't try and have him "burn out" as DWx mentioned. Cause as much as sparring is important you want him to have excellent technique as well that is effective. He will find executing techniques and patterns easier if each technique is better and well trained instead of having sloppy technique. In terms of getting those extra classes added, i'd say not to worry about it. If he is at a standard (from the perspective of the sensei/chief instructor at that school) that he worthy of being promoted then he should grade. Cause the chief instructor may just see him as taking the initiative to do extra training outside of class time

Other than the technical knowledge we require our students to not only have demonstrated that they have actively learnt everything we have taught but also have grown as a person and to have developed a maturity that is worthy of promotion. We also on grading day test our students with a written exam that covers terminology and various other questions that relate to Martial Arts and the persons spiritual and other developments.

Congrats. Everyone will have a bad day but will often turn into a good one. I am not sure about your instructor but mine takes into account not only how you perform on the day of the grading but also how you train in class normally and what your attitude is like towards martial arts. So your instructor took everything into account But Congratulations on passing!

I know how it feels. It isn't that much of a special occasion when receiving your Dan Grading. I felt amazing after receiving my Black Belt in 2008 but after receiving my Shodan earlier this year it wasn't all that special like it did back in the day of attaining a new belt and training. Although i continue to train to improve myself physically, mentally and spiritually.

Congrats!!!

Welcome to the forum hope you find some interesting information on here!

Congrats Harkon72!!! you have been one of the members to inspire others with your knowledge and wisdom

Take time off to recover and let your ribs heal. You can still go and watch to see what is happening + will keep you feeling like you haven't missed out on anything

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.