JR 137

Congratulations!

Meniscus tears don’t “take care of themselves” and heal on their own; they’re repaired surgically. Was this an orthopedist who evaluated you or a GP? Not knowing where the tear is nor the extent of it, and not being a physician, I don’t know if you’re a candidate for surgery or not. Having said that, forget about “knee friendly” kata, kicks, et al. You need to modify what you’re doing to suit your needs. There was a lady at our dojo who needed total knee replacement, and she modified things to fit her pain tolerance. Our teacher basically told her to do whatever she’s comfortable doing. She didn’t do any deep stances, nor did she do kiba dachi. It was obvious she knew what stance she was supposed to be doing, and you could tell she was doing it within her limitations. Any teacher worth their salt will allow a person with a legitimate injury leeway. Working in sports medicine, I always tell my athletes to work through tightness, stiffness, and soreness; stay away from genuine pain. When there’s genuine pain, you’re making the injury worse.

We do a lot of these things at the kyu and dan levels. I’ve only seen the dan level drills and haven’t learned them because I’m a 1st kyu, so I won’t comment much on them. We do 10 “basic self defenses” which are 1-step. We do 10 “intermediate self defenses” which are also 1-step, but these end with a sweep, throw, etc. The basics all the the traditional blocks, whereas the intermediates don’t have as many. Then we have yakusoku kumite. 4 at the kyu ranks. These don’t have traditional blocks, they start out of a fighting stance, and it’s stressed to keep your hands up and not “chamber” as in traditional stuff. My teacher presents all of them in what IMO is the best way: they’re not intended to be scripted responses. No fight is going to go that way. They teach distancing, timing, where to block (on the opponent’s strike), target selection, strike selection, etc. They’re principles rather than script/choreography. The downfall of stuff like our basic and intermediate self defenses is twofold... First, you need the right partner. Too many people back up too far. They should be at least an arm’s length away, if not closer. My former teacher used to have the defender reach out and touch the attacker’s shoulder. If you couldn’t touch, you were too far away. Not just touch, but put your whole hand on it. And a bit closer was better. My current teacher doesn’t stress that, and people get so far out of range that you don’t have to step to get out of the way. And because I get close, people start feeling uncomfortable and keep backing up. So I follow them Then there’s the people who throw the punch to where they anticipate it being blocked to rather than straight at the target. I don’t know which aggravated me more. I guess the people that do both at the same time. The second downfall is the drills have to progress. Not being more complex with more and more difficult techniques being thrown defensively, but the attacks can’t be the stereotypical straight forward into zenkutsu dachi and straight gyaku tsuki with opposite hand hikite. And the attacker has to go faster and harder; better yet there needs to be more intent behind the attack. If the intensity in attack and response don’t increase, there’s no growth beyond the first few kyu ranks. They’ll look prettier, but they won’t become more functional. All IMO.

There’s another valid reason, too... Seido didn’t have many titles and different “black belts” until relatively recently. As Kaicho Nakamura’s senior-most students got higher in rank and the organization grew, he wanted a way to honor his top students like Charles Martin and William Oliver from others. He did this with titles and “ceremonial belts.” All yudansha (including Nakamura) wear a solid black belt with kanji and dan stripes during regular training. During special events like testing, demonstrations, special workouts, et al., the people wear their respective ceremonial belts such as black with red, red with black, red with white, etc. A second reason for this is to educate (in a sense) those who are new to the organization and don’t know who’s who. Seeing a person such as Charles Martin wearing a red belt with a white stripe through it can lead to questions about who he is, what he’s done to earn that, etc.

Has anyone seen it yet? I’ve been trying to, but things have been a bit hectic and I haven’t found the time to yet.

I haven’t seen the Seishin gi, but a few people here weren’t happy with theirs. There are a few threads on it. The Tokaido Yakudo is I believe Tokaido’s top Japanese made gi. It used to be called/referred to as “the ultimate.” It’s a great gi. So long as it fits you right, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy one if you can afford it. I wear a Shureido K-11. It’s a little lighter (Tokaido has a comparable weight gi). My reason for getting that one over the comparable Tokaido is fit. Tokaido is more like a “slim fit” whereas Shureido is more like a regular cut/fit gi. I’m not a slim guy, so Tokaido never fit me right. A good friend and former training partner had a Tokaido Ultimate way back when, and let me try it out for a class. Shureido and Tokaido are both the same quality IMO. People argue which is better, but if there were no labels, I’d honestly think they were the same company with different cuts for different body styles. Tokaido is a tall and thin person’s gi, whereas Shureido is a stocky person’s gi. All IMO.

Happy birthday, Danielle! Hope it was great!

Congratulations, Spartacus Maximus.

Welcome aboard

Welcome aboard. I live in Troy.

My former teacher left his organization while I was training there. There wasn’t any difference on the floor to the students. I was an assistant instructor, and there wasn’t any difference there either. I don’t think you need any sort of governing body whatsoever. Do what you do, how you do, and when you do. You’ve got enough experience and real-word credentials to run your dojo the way you see fit without needing anything from anyone overseeing anything. A governing body only becomes an issue if you want it to be. Or if your senior students decide to open their own schools under your guidance. If they’re going to use your name and branding, then they’ve got to conform to reasonable regulations. As far as testing cycles go, do you really need a panel? You’ve run enough of them for long enough to know who’s deserving of promotion to whatever rank and who isn’t. Of course more sets of eyes would be great, and I’m sure your senior students wouldn’t mind helping you out. But having been at this for 50 years now (give or take?), you know what you’re looking for. If your senior students aren’t confident in your testing and assessment skills, then they know where the door is. Run your dojo, do what you’ve been doing all along, minus the nonsense. If people want to join you, great. If they want to make up a bunch of rules and by-laws about off the floor stuff, keep an eye on it but don’t get in too deep IMO. Just make sure you own the name so they can’t take away and do as they wish with what’s yours.

The first rule of Fight Club is you don’t talk about Fight Club.

Congratulations, Shizentai! I wish you luck. Sometimes, the best things in life aren’t planned and take us by surprise. Please keep us up to date with everything that’s going on. I’d love to follow your journey.

Welcome aboard. I saw your post in another thread and you were trying to communicate with IcemanSK. I haven’t seen him around here lately. If you send him a PM he is much more likely to get it than posting in a thread that hasn’t been active for a while. A default function of PM is a notification in their email. Hopefully he’ll see it.

Thank you everyone. It was a great day. My wife and daughters bought me a recliner I’ve been wanting for a few years. I think I’m officially old now. My grandfather had a chair that was off limits to everyone, and had an end table with his stuff on it that no one was allowed to touch. My father has the same thing. Now I’ve got my recliner. Just gotta get an end table to continue the tradition

Thank you. It was a great day!

A few years back during a long drive, my mother asked me a simple question: “Why do you like karate so much?” It was a very simple answer: “When I’m at karate, I don’t have time to think about anything else. I don’t have time to think about your kidney transplant when someone’s about to kick me in the head. I don’t have time to think about my wife nagging me about anything when someone’s about to punch me in the stomach. My kids aren’t acting up, my boss isn’t telling me something stupid that needs to be done. Once I’m there and doing my thing, the rest of the world ceases to exist for an hour and a half. Nothing else I’ve ever done has ever come close to that.” She finally got it. That’s the very definition of “being in the moment” IMO.

Our dojo is pretty high tech My teacher has a smaller wire bound notebook that we sign in on. A new sheet for each day. We also write in the number of classes since our last promotion after our name. So a student would write “David Smith 24.” The next class he’d write “David Smith 25.” We’re a small dojo; about 50 students total, 2 classes per night (one kids and one adults), 5 nights a week. He can track trends if he needs to by simply opening up the notebook. I’d imagine there’s ways Excel found do sorting stuff, but I don’t use it much beyond the very basic functions.

I bought my daughters a pair of MMA type gloves. They’re like a lycra material. Century brand, women’s small, very little padding. $15 or so. My daughter was 6 or so at the time and they fit her fine. It kept her hands from getting burned from the kicking shield and focus mitts. I tried putting a t-shirt and other stuff over the shield without much success. The gloves worked great.

Welcome aboard, again I’m right next to Albany.

I don’t think it has to be anything MA related. Get him something he’d like. A nice bottle of Scotch, something that he may collect, stuff like that. Something he’ll appreciate and use. Then do something something small and symbolic for the dojo, like his name on something official as an instructor. Perhaps a framed picture of the two of you or the like in your gis also.

I just picked up the bag last night. I was going to wait until I had the basement settled, but it was $50 off and I only had 2 hours left on the sale so I had to snatch one up. Comes in 2 boxes. The bag portion seem pretty light. The base is about 90 lbs according to the box it’s in. Gonna do some cleaning and rearranging and hopefully I’ll have had a few sessions with it by the end of the weekend.

That is awesome. I am taking Shorin Ryu however my Sensei also has a background in Kyokushin so we do kumite however not as heavy as you. I believe i will go 5 3min rounds. But conditionig is a must of course. I have been skipping rope for a while which has helped a lot. Yea I have to hit the bag thanks for the advise. Be smart about hitting the bag. Too many people get in front of it and just start going all-out on it. It’s too tempting to do that The bag isn’t just a strengthening and conditioning tool. You can use it to practice all your kihon strikes on as well. There are days when I’ll just do stuff like throwing sets of 10 kicks with each leg, ie 10 back leg front kick, 10 front leg front kick, 10 front leg and rear leg roundhouse, etc. It doesn’t have to be a power thing or a cardio thing; it can be strictly a focus on technique. Practically anything you do in the dojo you can do on a bag. The only thing it won’t do is move out of the way and hit you back. I can’t hang a bag in my basement for several reasons, so I have a Century BOB XL. It’s by far the best MA equipment investment I’ve made. I also just bought an Everlast Axis freestanding bag. It’s a lot like the Century Versys VS, only it stands back up on its own when knocked down. I just picked it up last night and haven’t put it together yet, but I planning on having put it to use a few times by the end of the week before I have a definitive opinion of it. I played around with it a few times in the store and it was a lot of fun. It seems a lot like a double-ended bag to me. Just some ideas.

Welcome to the forum, mightyquinn. What you need to do depends on what the test will be like and your weaknesses. I’m a 1st kyu and my teacher recently told me he wants me to test for shodan in September under his teacher at our honbu dojo. So I can tell you what I’m doing... Our test (Seido karate) is heavy on kumite. The final day of testing (there are 3-4 evenings and a several hour day at the end) is allegedly all sparring. Many rounds against fresh black belts. My emphasis is conditioning. It’s my weakest area, and the kumite portion is supposed to be pretty grueling. My plan is hitting the heavy bag 4 days a week. Focusing on kicking and punching combinations, and footwork on two of the days, and keeping my heart rate up high on the other two by doing specific numbers of rounds. I just started and am doing 10 two minute rounds with 1 minute rest between them. My goal is 12 three minute rounds. I’m not a cardio guy; I lose interest very easily and get burnt out during repetitive stuff like treadmills. Hitting the bag is the only thing that keeps me motivated. And the conditioning and increased skill from it is a great preparation, as kumite conditioning is quite different from running conditioning IMO. I also use a heart rate monitor. I keep my heart rate near maximum during rounds and try to get it as close to my resting heart rate in between rounds. It’s a form of high intensity interval training (HIIT). HIIT is one of the best ways to train for cardiovascular endurance. I use a Polar heart monitor but have used a Fitbit in the past. The Polar is more accurate and doesn’t get ruined by the impact from hitting the bag (the shock from the bag has ruined 2 of mine, both replaced under Fitbit’s great service BTW). On the days I don’t hit the bag, I’m typically in class, so that covers a lot of the material. And I’ll walk through some stuff like kata and the like at home. Sometimes as a warmup too.

Welcome aboard!