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I studied Matsubayashi Ryu for 14 years! The philosophy I was always taught was to be like a whip. “The tip of the branches instead of the trunk of the tree.” Matsubayashi practitioners love the “snap.” We would always fully extend each technique, even a little over extending (as if breaking a board, you wouldn’t stop at the point of contact, you’d go a little through), and end up in a relaxed position. I know the question is about the morote zuki in Naihanchi, but let me use an easier example first. (I promise I’ll make my point after this paragraph) With a regular chudan level punch in shizentai stance, there’s a slight cocking back of your right hip (if throwing a right punch) before the punch leaves the pocket. Arm stays relaxed the whole time (until the supposed impact), using the hips to throw it forward, fully extending, right hip now slightly forward, ahead of the left hip. At that point, you would simply “relax” into a normal position with the right arm forward. The right hip relaxes back to even out the hips, and there should be a very slight bend at the right elbow with the shoulders squared forward. I’m not sure if this is just common practice, but it’s how I was taught. Using this same “method,” for lack of a better term, with morote, the arms would be thrown out with the hips. The arms would reach a point of fully extended (not sure how to explain the extension of the bent arm), with the shoulders/hips slightly turned in the direction of the technique. Everything would then relax back to a “normal” position. Hips and shoulders squared forward, fully extended arm will have an ever so slight bend at the elbow, and the other arm in its usual position (again, not sure how to explain that arm). IN CONCLUSION… (lol) Your torso would slightly twist to the side to help throw the technique (slightly) and relax back to straight. If I over-explained this, I do apologize. And please note, I’m not trying to say an over exaggerated extension of the arms/twisting of the torso. But it should be noticeable to the trained eye. Correct me if I’m wrong. In terms of bunkai and practicality, I think it was Noah who said (a few years ago) that Matsubayashi doesn’t focus on performing techniques for self defense purposes. In my experience, that’s an accurate statement (depending on the school of course). It’s far more focused on the snap of its techniques and body mechanics of kata. We strictly practiced kihon up and down the floor, all of our kata depending on our rank, and the 7 Yakusoku kumite. My Sensei had a very impressive understanding of bunkai, but for whatever reason, he didn’t have us practice that very often unless he received enough requests from students. Those classes were always VERY intense. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

Alright, quick story about how I think I’ve been somewhere similar. So I used to go to this community boxing gym in my area. Not only was it free, but there were coaches there who actually wanted to teach you boxing. I thought this was perfect for the longest time. Of course, there were some students there who grew up boxing or just had a natural talent for it. Depending on the crowd, I was one of those students. Other times, I was not. Eventually, one of the coaches asked me if I’d be interested in sparring their star student because it would help me get better. So I of course did it! What I didn’t know, was that their star student had no intentions of having a friendly sparring match with me. He wanted to fight, and the coaches wanted to see how well he could do it. I didn’t receive any instruction, no tips, no communication from my sparring partner or the two coaches who stood by and watched the whole thing. Now, I didn’t get a bloody nose or anything serious. But I realized that the coaches have their favorites, and if you’re not their favorite, they simply don’t care about you. If they saw some “true potential” in one student, they seemed to think they could take that one student to the top. Anybody else was only a tool to help that student get better. Anyway, definitely not to the degree that you’re explaining in your post, but I think I’m guilty of this with my own students. Let me explain first!. I have some students who always show up, who always try hard, who goof off a little bit because they’re having fun, but at the end of the day, they genuinely want to get better. I always make sure I give them enough attention. For lack of a better term, they’ve earned it! It has nothing to do with potential or athletic ability. I even have a few students, who when they first came in, could not speak a single word to me or their coworker - they could only communicate through their parents. I always make sure these students feel heard, feel seen, feel welcomed, and that their efforts (no matter how big or small) are acknowledged and praised. Every single one of these students in mind, who have been coming for 2-3 months now, walk in with a big smile on their face. They give me an update on what’s going on outside of the dojo or they share a fun fact they learned at school. They even beat their parents to the door so they can say hi to me first. Then I have students who don’t know why they’re there, who aren’t there to get better (just to have fun, nothing wrong with that), or who are only there because their parents put them there. Do I completely ignore these students? Of course not. But my ultimate job is to teach martial arts, so I prioritize that. If I have to spend X amount of time listening to Billy talk about his Minecraft routine because he can’t stop thinking about it when I’m supposed to be teaching the class how to do this drill for side kicks, then the students that are actually there to improve their side kicks are missing out on the little time we have together.

Update! So after about 2 months of training, my instructor said I was going to test for “orange with one green stripe.” Test day comes, and Master Kim is there, and I just so happen to be getting over some kind of illness, that kept me out of the dojang for a week and forced me to do my own training from home. I had no clue he would be there! He’s short. And apparently he’s 84, but I easily would have guessed late 60’s/early 70’s. He has a big smile the entire time, until the test starts. First we’re doing a bunch of basics up and down the floor. Master Kim stopped class, and moved students around so he could get a better view of me (I didn’t know this at the time). We continue with basics. Some more time goes on, Master Kim stops everyone and calls me up to him. He asks me if I trained before. I said yes. He asks what style, I told him Shorin Ryu. He says “ohh, ok!” And sends me back to continue. We’re doing more basics. He stops class again and calls me back up. He asks me how long I trained for. I tell him, and he gives me the same response, and sends me back in line. We start going through forms, just the first 2. He then stops class again after we finished form 2 and calls me back up. He asked me who my teacher was and where he’s from. I told him, he asks a few questions about him, and after my last answer, he gives me the same “ohh, ok!” And sends me back in line. Next thing I know, everyone is being told, one by one, to go sit down. I’m the last person standing! I have 2 more forms to demonstrate and Master Kim wants me to demonstrate them by myself, in front of what I’m assuming were 40-50 people. I was literally shaking because I was so nervous and did not expect anything like this to happen. After I finished my last 2 forms, he asked me to demonstrate something from my first style. NAIHANCHI. For whatever reason, no other kata came to mind. So I performed Naihanchi Shodan, most likely the sloppiest version of it I’ve ever done in my life because I was still shaking, you could hear how shaky my breathing was (we did basics for like an hour) and I was completely exhausted. He thanked me and invited everyone back up to continue with the test. The higher belts continued going up in their forms, then we performed our one step sparring, then we did real sparring (point style, rotating partners), and finished with breaking a board. I just used a reverse punch. I’m sure we were all exhausted. Apparently, nobody finds out if they passed or not until about a week later. So when everything was done, Master Kim sat us down and gave us somewhat of a motivational speech. Encouraged us to deepen our stances while we still can. He encouraged us to use our hips. He encouraged us to do SOMETHING every day. At one point, a student had to leave early for religious reasons, and Master Kim was confused at first. When he heard the religious part, he turned to the student, bowed towards him, and said “if I offended in any way, ask your god to please forgive me.” THAT stood out to me a lot. As everyone was leaving, I stayed after to talk to Master Kim. I showed him my old sensei’s book, From The Minds of the Masters, by Jerry Figgiani (showing him Sensei Jerry’s picture). He said that he used to teach around NY a lot, so I wondered if they had ever crossed paths. He flipped through the book for a bit. He talked a little bit about life, gave me some advice. Basically welcomed me to their organization with open arms. I thanked him and my instructor, Master Bruno. We all gave each other a loud “Tang Soo!” And left. I slept GOOD that night. Oh, and some 2 weeks later, Master Kim told Master Bruno to give me a green belt instead of the orange with green stripe. I felt my eyes watering up a bit.

I have 3. I got “karatedo” kanji over my heart. I have “Matsubayashi Ryu” on my left forearm (got it after getting my Shodan). And the yoga symbol for “om” on my right shoulder, which I got after 2 years of teaching yoga. I want to get something panda related and something samurai related (maybe a panda samurai?) although I’m not sure where I’d put that lol. In the future, I’ll probably save space for accomplishments, like getting my “black belt” in Tang Soo Do for example.

I took somewhat of a break from social media. I just found out that Nicolas Perez, also known as fistofshuri on Instagram, passed away somewhat recently. I never met him in person, but we used to have talks online about mental health. He was always willing to listen. Does anyone know what happened to him? I can’t find any obituaries online.

I’d love to hear your own personal opinions on this. I was listening to a podcast and the host said that every time he’s had a debate with someone on why it’s beneficial to training, the person (who believed it to be a waste of time) has always walked away with their mind changed. If you believe kata to be beneficial to training, what would be your reasoning for that? If you believe kata is not beneficial to training, what would be your reasoning for that as well? I believe kata is crucial to my own training. I believe it’s the core of karate. It’s how each technique, unique to each style, is passed on. The same way a boxer/kickboxer uses shadow boxing to run through their techniques or train without a partner, I think kata is used the same way, but far more complex. What say you?

Oh wow. I magically forgot about the previous thread lol. Thank you!

So my company seems to place the focus for the 5-7 age kids on class anchors. Snapping to attention, sitting down, taking a knee and getting in the correct line formations. That’s all fine and dandy, but I’ve found a lack of support in what else im supposed to do with this age group. Classes are 30 minutes, so I’ve been coming up with obstacle courses and combinations, plus other various games. Lots of running and jumping, balancing, and of course kicking and punching, parry blocking and cover blocking. To give me some ideas, can you share what you do with your students in this age group? What does the class look like?

To my understanding, there are 3 main striking points when throwing a round kick: 1. Top of the foot/toes pointed 2. Ball of the foot/toes flexed 3. Shin Do you have one you favor? Does it depend on the circumstances or where you’re striking? In my own experience, I enjoy throwing a round kick with my toes pointed. I feel faster, and I’d use this if I’m striking a head level target or a rib level target. The only other scenario I’d use my shin is if I was going after an opponents leg/knee area. As for the ball of the foot variation, I can’t see myself ever using it. Maybe I just haven’t trained it enough because I can still see value in using it. I might start adding it into my training for fun. Front Kick: 1. Toes pointed 2. Ball of the foot/toes flexed 3. Heel Don’t get me wrong, I love the classic karate kick - using the front kick, striking with the ball of the foot. But I find it so hard to get some real power behind it! I’ve taught this concept to my students, but I want them to focus on using their front kick as a groin strike (toes pointed) for self defense purposes. On another note, the school I teach at only ever uses it as a groin strike, or a kick to the face if they’re wearing shoes. On the other hand, my knees don’t seem to be a fan of using the heel for a front kick, for whatever reason. Yet my coworker prefers it over any of the two other variations! To each their own - another beauty of the martial arts. As for the side kick, I understand the two main variations are using the heel and the blade of the foot. If you’d like to add some info on that, feel free!

Thanks Bushido man! I’m definitely going to include some upper body techniques and foot work stuff with the warmup. I appreciate you point that out, big time. My Sensei would lose his head lol. And thanks for the input, aurik! To be honest, other than the Krav Maga portion of class, I’m not entirely sure that I’m allowed to venture too far off onto something like takedowns/throws. Given my background, I think I could make that very enjoyable for my students (my Sensei was huge on including judo throws with our karate techniques). I may have to stick to what I’m able to teach within the Krav Maga curriculum. I love that idea though, I’ll reach out to another school and get their thoughts. Thank you!

Hey everyone! Talking about my 8-12 year olds as well as my teens/adults classes for this one. Nobody here has let me down yet so I’m open to anything you’d have to say! Since I’m working for a franchise, I’m very limited on what I can teach. We advertise karate for kids (it’s not what we would consider karate, but it’s fun), and kickboxing+Krav Maga for the older kids, teens and adults. At corporate training, we were shown an example: - warmup (10 minutes) - curriculum part 1 (15 minutes) - mat chat (quick life advice for kids/water break for adults) - curriculum part 2 (15 minutes) - announcements, ending creed, etc (5 minutes) As for curriculum, what I’m shown is very broad, although I’m a little worried about getting in trouble so I’m not going to share that. My coworker and I are now under the impression that we have the freedom to run classes however we please, as long as we stick to some basic (broad) guidelines. I’ll try to layout what we’ve been doing below. This was put together by me, based on the “testing sheet” that I found. Warmup: - dynamic stretching - animal type movements up/down the floor - Running/jumping/calisthenics Kicking: - front kick, crescent kicks, side kicks, round kicks (these are performed up and down the floor, in a similar way that kihon would be practiced in karate, but the focus is on kicking). - one kick to focus on, we’ll use the round kick for an example. Either on the heavy bag, shield or thai pads. Regular round kicks, switch kicks, doubles/triples, etc… either way, I want them used to kicking something. Kickboxing: - 1-3 different combos, aiming to focus on the “kick of the day” so they can learn different ways to use the technique while also practicing their boxing, parry’s, cover blocks, etc. Krav Maga: - general run through of the Combatives, such as elbows, palm strikes, hammer fists, etc - 1-3 different techniques, practiced casually at first - final drill, using the techniques and Combatives under “pressure” and at a faster pace. I basically want the students to experience performing these techniques while they’re sweating and breathing hard with the goal of escaping the situation/attacker. Example: Eyes closed until a partner grabs your wrist and you perform a defense against that, following up with Combatives on a pad that they’re holding in the other hand. Immediately sprint across the room to a punching bag, performing a quick but high intensity kickboxing type combo, then sprinting back so your partner can go - each student will typically go multiple rounds. I may or may not throw in some type of calisthenics or plyometrics in the mix, depending on the students in class. Finally, I do a brief cooldown stretch by taking them through 1 round of lunging Sun salutations from yoga, pausing in each position and focusing on deep breathing. Announcements, then we bow out. Classes are supposed to be 45 minutes, so one day there’s a focus on kickboxing, the other day is focused on Krav. I do a demonstration before I have the students do anything. I like them to see it slow, then fast, and then intense. Hopefully, I’m giving them something to strive for by doing this. Any thoughts? Anything I should make sure I’m doing? Humbly, I believe I’m a good teacher and I’ve had a lot of positive feedback, although I know I can be better so I’m always looking to improve. Any questions/comments/suggestions are very welcome! Thank you!

That’s awesome, Tyler! I agree, eBay is probably the way to go. I never thought I’d start teaching martial arts as a head instructor. My Sensei had us practice teaching white belts once we earned our brown belts, and I’ll never be able to thank him enough for doing that. Through correcting others and trying to find other details to help them, I myself grew as a karateka tremendously - through teaching! I wish I could teach Shorin Ryu, but I’m just not there yet. Hopefully some day. Good luck!

Welcome, Tim!!

Thank you everyone for your responses. Fortunately or unfortunately, the student hasn’t returned to class yet. I’ve had a few days of great classes to reassure myself when I don’t have a distraction such as this particular student, I’m capable of running a great class with lots of smiles and hard work. I still get lots of thank you’s from the students and their parents. Trying to take all of your advice, I’m planning on being more firm with him next time. I’ll ask him once to stop running off and doing other things before making him sit with his mother, and I won’t hesitate to make him sit out more than once. After that class, if the behavior was like the previous class, I’ll ask his mom to stick around for a talk with another staff member present (he’s better at this stuff than I am, but I’ll try to do the talking). I’ll point out the particular behaviors that I can’t tolerate, lay out my expectations, and point out to her that I can’t just discipline her kid when my job is to be teaching martial arts. THROUGH martial arts, her son can develop discipline, but that will only happen through actually participating in class. Should the behavior continue, I’ll suggest to his mom that he takes a week off from classes. If, when he returns, the behavior continues, I’ll inform her that he’s not ready to be participating in group classes. I can’t thank you all enough!

I love that you’re still looking to grow as a martial artist. That’s just awesome. At my old dojo, we had a guy start up karate at 72. Last I checked, he’s 84 now and still shows up to class at least a few times a week. So especially as you’re approaching your 40’s - you’re still young, you can totally do this. That being said, BJJ is a totally different ball game. It was actually the first MA I ever tried. I trained on and off for 4 years, from middle school into high school, and the on/off part is directly because of injuries. I tried getting back into it multiple times during the rest of my teenage years and even into my early 20’s but I just couldn’t prevent them from happening - even with tons of yoga, warming up, mobility, and doing the best I could to prevent it. I competed in 2 tournaments. I never placed for my first, and I came in 2nd place (novice division, nothing special) for my second. My second tournament absolutely broke me, literally. I hurt my neck and could barely move for a month, and it took 2 months of physical therapy to get back to normal. I wish I could say that was my only injury, but like I stated, it was my second to last of many lol. The following injuries occurred from my teens and into my early 20’s. My injuries: - multiple neck injuries that put me out of training entirely for a minimum of 2 weeks. Too many to count. The last injury, which is why I gave up BJJ for good, was another neck injury. - a couple shoulder injuries. Nothing serious, but enough that I needed a few days of rest or at least minimal effort when I did go. - THUMBS AND BIG TOES. I’m convinced that I broke both my thumbs and just never got them treated, because they still give me issues even now, over a decade later. The big toes probably got stubbed due to pure laziness on my part, but it happened a number of times. - forearms. There’s lots of pulling and tons of grip involved. It’s only natural that your forearms, specifically close to your biceps, are going to get strained from time to time. Often, I walked out of class just feeling like I got my butt kicked. Bruised, sore, exhausted. As fun as it was, I was only able to put up with that because of my youth. On days that I walked out with an injury, particularly the neck injuries, I felt completely defeated and depressed - and it’s not like everyone I rolled with was brutal or anything like that, though some of course were. After so many, I found it ridiculously hard to find the motivation to keep showing up to class. Eventually, I had nothing left, and quit. THAT BEING SAID… I’m sharing only my own experience with BJJ. MOST of the guys that were at my gym were in their 30’s and 40’s. Some in their 50’s, and even a few in their 60’s! None of the guys that come to mind when I say this had a white belt, either. Some were even brown and black belts. Just beware of white belts and guys in their 20’s - they don’t seem to know how to hold back. MY ADVICE… Not that I’m really qualified to be giving it in this particular martial art, but still. - get to class early and do your own warm up. - START SLOW. Let your body adjust. I wouldn’t go more than 2-3 days a week, and that’s with a day or two between classes that you attend. - stretch after class. Stretch a bit in the morning and at night, whether you’re going to class that day or not. - let yourself be a white belt, but don’t be a dummy white belt. You don’t have to win, and it’s perfectly okay to lose count of how many times you have to tap out. - if something feels off, like a potential injury, don’t risk it. Take the day off or just take it extra easy in class. It’s okay to give your training partners a heads up, like “hey, my shoulder feels weird today so take it easy on me if you go after it.” I hope this helps. I LOVE BJJ. I’m going to encourage my kids to give it a try when they’re old enough. I wish I could do it, but my body just doesn’t like it. And given my passion for karate, I’m perfectly fine with that now. Best of luck!

Oh!! I knew it!! I just began my Tang Soo Do journey, originally training in Shorin Ryu. My first thought was, oh, this is the same thing, just different. Luckily, I’ve looked into Shotokan quite a bit while I was looking into all the different styles of Okinawan/Japanese karate. I very quickly saw that Tang Soo Do is far more similar to Shotokan than Shorin Ryu, regardless of the fact that both Shotokan and Tang Soo Do have pretty much stemmed from Shorin Ryu anyway. If that’s incorrect, someone please tell me! As for cross training or not, TSD came from Shotokan - why not explore the roots? You’ll still be practicing your original art, just a little different and with different words/names. If it ends up being a positive experience, then now you have a deeper understanding of your style! If you end up hating it, then simply go back home to your original style So happy I came across this post!

UPDATE! So I believe it’s been 2 weeks since I started training at this place. I love it. It’s very traditional. We start off with bowing and brief meditation, then we do a warm up, followed by practicing our basics while moving up and down the floor - sometimes they’re basic basics, sometimes they’re advanced basics, I like the variations. Afterwards, we go over forms (I’ve learned motions 1, 2 and 3 so far) before we finish off with one step sparring. I’ve learned “hands 1-4” and “feet 1-4” as well for the one steps. Although the forms seem a little awkward and “extra,” for lack of a better term (at least compared to Shorin Ryu), I really enjoy them regardless. I haven’t gotten to their versions of the Pinan kata yet, although they seem fun with extra kicks and bigger movements. There seems to be a rotation on what we focus on. Some days, we do a LOT of basics in different stances, with a shorter time for forms and one steps. Other days, the focus is on forms, and then another day the focus is on one steps. I like this very much, as we still practice a bit of everything, regardless of what the focus of the day is. I was *somewhat* surprised to discover that they don’t seem to practice any applications from their forms. Occasionally, the head instructor, Master Bruno, will show us what a move is, although we don’t get to practice it. This doesn’t really bother me because I obsess over bunkai PLENTY in my free time. I’m also open to the fact that, hey, that’s just not how they roll here. Being a white belt again - oh boy. In some ways, I love it. People don’t expect me to know things. I can take my time working on building new habits (like chambering my arms for the low block). It’s kinda fun. On the other hand, some of the middle ranks see a white belt on me and assume I just don’t know anything. I’m trying to be a sponge, so I’m open to anything that anyone has to say. There’s a green belt that was trying to correct me on something that he hadn’t learned yet for himself. Tang Soo Do, though very different, is also VERY similar to Shorin Ryu, or more accurately Shotokan - so I’ve always practiced this the same way. Respecting his rank, I tried to ask him some logic based questions to show him why he wasn’t correct, without actually correcting him. Long story short, a higher belt made their way over and corrected the green belt himself. Then, to make sure I was clear, I had the higher belt re-teach me the same concept. After hearing it from a different point of view - I feel like I understand it even better now! I thought that was absolutely awesome. I can see myself training here for awhile. The kata are different, but similar enough, that I feel like I can continue my training in Shorin Ryu without overwhelming myself in trying to keep up with two different styles. Also, I’m trying my best not to be “that guy.” I remember at my old dojo, we’d have new guys be like “lol, we usually practice that THIS way.” Okay, well now you can do it this new way. I’m trying to be humble, respectful, and accept the fact that in this studio and in this style - things are simply different! What I know to be true elsewhere, may not be true here. Thanks everyone for encouraging me to begin this new journey!

Love this topic. Back when I used to train my friends, we’d do a basic warmup with dynamic movements/dynamic stretching. Then I’d get right into kihon. If we weren’t doing basic kihon strikes and blocks/counters on each other, then we were hitting pads. I’d like alternating between the two. Then it was kata. Preferably, I’d have us go through all our kata together (at least up to experience level), then we’d pick a kata to focus on. Perform it a time or two, then start picking out the pieces. Starting off slow, then seeing if we could work it up to drill the movements (kata/my own experience permitting) back and forth. Ending with some conditioning, either partner drills (big fan of forearm training) and/or some calisthenics. If we really wanted to train hard, we’d do a combo of something like 5 box jumps, 1 round kick, 5 jumps, 2 round kick, then 3, etc. Always finished with a good stretch! We could get this done in 30 minutes if we were pressed for time, or we’d go up to about 90 minutes (probably a little less) if we had the time and wanted to get to work.

Hey everyone! So most of the kids I have in this class (5-7 year olds) are absolutely great. Even the “troubled” ones just need a little redirection and positive reinforcement. I love teaching this class. Today, we had another boy join in on class. His first lesson was private where he continuously ignored my coworker who was giving the lesson. Kept saying he wanted to do something else and only wanted to do his own thing. His mom says he’s 5, and although I have no right in saying this, we honestly think she’s lying - our whole staff swears he’s 6 or 7. Back to the class today - it was a group class. After he hit his mother before class started, his behavior was exactly the same, if not worse. He wanted me to punish another student for doing an exercise incorrectly. He continuously dropped to the floor to examine his feet. He kept interrupting the entire class to tell me that he wanted to do something else (none of the other children had an issue). He kept running away to do his own thing whenever I refused to let him boss me around. I even made him go sit with his mom for a minute to hope that she would have a talk with him (not sure if she did) and his behavior didn’t change. Numerous times, I was borderline begging him to participate in class. He ended up disrupting the entire class and distracting the other students, despite all the mini talks I tried having with him. After class, I planned on talking to his mom to discuss how I can help him and how I should go about correcting his behavior, but she was very vocal about how proud she was of him and how well he did, as she was gathering his things and walked out the door. How would you handle something like this? He’s bigger than all the other 5 year and has much better speech, so I’m almost worried about him lashing out on another student. I’m not sure what to do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Part of this might seem like I’m only venting, so I apologize in advance. As I stated in earlier posts, I work for a mcdojo. The pros are that I’m teaching martial arts (for the most part) and that I’m getting paid a lot more than any other job I’ve had and probably more than what I’d make if I left. My boss (the guy who put down the money to open the studio) and my coworker are also great people. Today, I found out that I can’t promote MY students to black belt unless they pay an additional $50/month. In fact, they’ll only ever achieve their purple belt if they don’t our join the “black belt program.” When I asked, what if they can’t afford it? The answer was, “they can continue training, but they won’t be able to rank up any further.” Then, I confirmed, if that’s the case - they will never get their black belt. I can’t get behind this. My hope, is that WHEN we are faced with a scenario where a hard working student can’t afford the dang black belt program, that we’ll be able to promote them anyway, without the need for them to pay a higher monthly rate. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s likely to happen. How can I justify this? How can this franchise justify this? I grew up without money. If my Sensei (who would never do this) did this to me when I was younger, I would quit because I wouldn’t be able to afford it and I wouldn’t see a reason to keep training. I know, I know, belts don’t mean very much in the grand scheme of things. But what about the children? Isn’t this teaching them that regardless of how hard they work, they’ll never reach their goal unless they make enough money? Isn’t this straight up blasphemy to the martial arts? I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this. I feel so conflicted. If, or more likely, when, the situation pops up that a student can’t afford their black belt and there’s nothing I can do about that, my heart is going to shatter into a million pieces. That will be the day that I quit if I’m not fired for giving the student the belt that they EARNED, not the belt that they could afford. What do I do? What would you do? Please, don’t give me some mystical “miyagi advice.” I’m asking for some guidance. On a side note, I’m teaching people how to kick, punch, parry, and cover block. Along with “Krav Maga” that was taught to me over the course of 3 days, or no more than 9 hours. Other than that, I’ve never trained in Krav Maga a day in my life. 13 years of karate behind me and all I ever feel like now is a money driven, mcdojo running fraud.

Wow, thank you so much everyone!! I was thinking WAY too much about this decision. All of your answers inspired me to dive right in. Made a commitment for 6 months to force myself to give it a good try. Thank you so much. Possible updates!

Hey everyone! I may not always respond, but I value everyone’s input on here. Around the time that the pandemic started, I moved away from my home dojo (Matsubayashi Shorin Ryu) and I’ve been practicing on my own ever since. I’ve tried BJJ, but after multiple neck injuries, my body can’t handle it. I’ve tried Chito Ryu, but the instructors themselves (not the style) are not the kind of people I want to be around. Otherwise, the only other thing that’s near me is boxing and my passion has always been in the traditional arts, mainly Okinawan karate. I’d kill for a chance to do Goju Ryu, but nothing in my area. However, there’s a Tang Soo Do place near me. Their class schedule works out with my work schedule, and I really enjoyed the conversation I had with the instructor. As a plus, they’ve been open for like 30+ years with the same instructor, who made it his full time job awhile ago. They also regularly participate in tournaments, although that’s not a big interest of mine - maybe down the road. SO, style vs style, how rough do you think my transition could be? I never had an interest in Korean arts but I have no reason for that. The Japanese/okinawan and even the Chinese arts have always been very appealing to me, but not Korean. Not sure why. Do you have any thoughts? Any experiences with Tang Soo Do that you’d like to share? Again, I’d appreciate any and all input that you can offer. For reference, it’s the franchise known as CS KIM KARATE in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania - they have multiple locations. Thank you in advance!

Hey everyone! So I work for a franchise called Premier Martial Arts. I’m somewhat new, so I’m finding out how challenging it can be to run kids karate classes, particularly ages 4-7. To be specific, 4 and 5 year olds, who will just flop on the floor and randomly refuse to do anything I tell them. Here’s my original class structure: - line up/bow/student creed - basic techniques in horse stance or guard stance - obstacle courses - basic techniques, if they were refusing to do them earlier - bow out I figured I could tire them out with obstacle courses and then review some kihon, but some of the kids are straight up refusing to listen to me - even during the obstacle courses! Tonight, class ended with the student (private lesson) just running away from me and throwing around the pads that I had assembled for the obstacle courses. Earlier, he completely destroyed the whole course (which was actually kinda funny) so I had to set everything back up while he continued to run around all crazy monkey like. I’m not sure how to get them to focus. I’m not sure what else to do with them besides obstacle courses, because that seems to be the only way they’ll *somewhat* listen to me. Any advice will be SO appreciated!

Well that’s interesting. Do you happen to know what ANY version of Shaolin consists of? Names of styles? Names of forms? That’s more of what I’m looking for.

I’ve never been able to figure out what exactly Shaolin consists of. I know there’s a LOT, but can someone lay out what a curriculum or syllabus might look like? Could you include names of forms? Does it consist of different styles, like the animal styles? For example, here’s my old karate syllabus. If you could share what the equivalent of it would be for Shaolin Kung Fu, or share a source, I would really appreciate it Kihon - punching - “blocking” - kicking Kata - Fukyugata 1-2 - Pinan 1-5 - Naihanchi 1-3 - more advanced kata, etc Kumite - Yakusoku Kumite 1-7 - Applications, etc