aurik

My CI has had to tell students that they were no longer welcome to train with us. Most recently it has happened with older teens as they start getting into their strength/size, and their control doesn't come along with it. The last student was disinvited after he cracked another student's ribs while sparring, and this was not the first instance of him injuring another student. It wasn't just that he had poor control, but he also didn't seem to care. He had just earned his shodan-sho, and he never even returned to pick up his diploma.

Sadly I was out of town on 12/31 so I had to watch a replay of the Winter Classic. I thoroughly enjoyed my Blues trouncing the Blackhawks 6-2, and the fight by the captains in the second period was a nice bit of extra punch.

Congratulations on the double promotion! I understand the struggle to train regularly with family obligations. Keep training and keep moving forward!

Many kudos to all the winners!

So I was sitting at a restaurant earlier tonight and heard someone completely butchering "The Twelve Days of Christmas". So I could best avoid it, I looked it up -- Andy Williams, "A Song and a Christmas Tree". Who in their right mind takes a classic Chrismas song and butchers it so?

Congratulations -- 4th dan is a big step!

During the Blues/Stars game Saturday evening, Stars' defenseman Liam Beschel laid a really nice hit on Blues' captain Brayden Schenn that sent him into the Stars' bench. What was even funnier was that he landed right next to Stars' captain Jamie Benn, who was mic'ed up for the game. Enjoy: Brayden Schenn checked into Dallas' bench

Our road to the dan level grading is much tougher than the grading itself. Before the grading, candidates must attend an extra class per week for a minimum of 12 weeks. That class focuses only on the required elements on the test. The instructor runs the class as a perfectionist; he (or she) will provide frequent corrections which the candidate is expected to quickly incorporate prior to being approved for testing. The classes are nominally an hour each, but they frequently run to 1:15 or 1:30, depending on the number of students. Assuming the students pass the prep cycle (some wash out due to being unable to keep the 12-week commitment), the test itself is pretty straightforward. The candidates demonstrate their techniques in rank order -- the most senior candidates will demonstrate last. The test starts with sanchin and the candidates' rank kata, individually. Next the candidates will demonstrate their yakusoku kumite, kote kitae, and bunkai in pairs. The candidates then perform hojo undo as a group and then have an oral exam. Finally, the candidates will be paired off for one or more sparring rounds. As a general rule, black belt tests will take about 2 hours, possibly a bit longer if candidates have to re-demonstrate multiple times (occasionally an instructor will ask a candidate to re-demonstrate a technique).

Many belt manufacturers will embroider your belt for you. I had mine done by Kataaro, and I'm very happy with it. For my extra-long belt with metallic blue embroidery on both tips, it was about $150, but that was over 2 years ago.

Speaking as an instructor, I'll say that a LOT of my time working with beginning and intermediate students involves making these type of corrections before they become bad habits. Looking from the outside, some may look small (corrections). However, when the student makes these small corrections they'll notice significant improvements in the efficiency and efficacy of their techniques. As a student becomes more advanced and experienced with how things are supposed to look and feel, they can start learning on their own and self-correcting (at my school we generally see this happen around 1st degree black belt). However, even the senior instructors in my school (both of whom have been training for 30+ years) still make it a point to train under other instructors from time to time (generally 2-3 times per year). Yes, you technically CAN learn martial arts remotely, but if you have a good school near you I'd highly recommend you check them out.

Congratulations! I found my test prep for nidan considerably harder and more stressful than the actual test. Once I got to the test, I knew I had prepared as best I could, and that my CI wouldn't invite me to test if he didn't think I was ready. Now you get to figure out all the new material that's a part of the next step of your journey. As Zaine said, that's the really cool part about passing a test....

I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly. A good practitioner will have excellent technique. A good instructor will figure out how to bring out the best technique in others. The second is much harder than the first, because different students learn in different ways. An explanation that resonates with one student may go completely over the head of another, and vice versa.

On the flip side of that, the Blues have scored at least one point in every game they've played since they hired Jim Montgomery. Of course, it helps that they're starting to get some injured players back. But I'm cautiously optimistic.

Our style doesn't have kihons per se; we have hojo undo, which is a brief sequence taken out of one of our kata. For example, one hojo undo is wa-uke/seiken-tsuki, or circle block/flat-fist punch. I don't know if all Uechi-Ryu dojos do this, but we will periodically practice these as a class against each other "across the floor". So we all pair up on one side of the floor. The attacker will throw a sequence of lunge punches at the defender, and the defender will defend him/herself with that technique (or some variant of it). We start this at white belt for adults, and in the kids' intermediate class (generally green belt/6th kyu and up). This is one of the way we try to keep things fresh and interesting. We also start with basic 2-person drills/yakosuku kumite drills at white belt (required for 9th kyu).

I saw that one - how the heck do you live something like that down? Fortunately the Caps won in the end, but Lindgren did get a LOT of well-deserved flak from his teammates for that one.