aurik

I trained at an ATA school for a little while, and they did a very similar thing. Starting at first degree, you'd first have to earn a "first degree recommended" rank, followed by a "first degree decided rank". The recommended rank is temporary, while the decided is permanent. Of course, they required you to do a number of midterm tests between ranks as well, each one with its associated test fees. But of course, that's ATA for you.

Our dojo does have a Saturday all-ages all-ranks class. Nominally, all the students are training at the dojo at the same time. However, what usually happens is the younger white/yellow/green belt students typically go to the upstairs dojo, while the advanced students and adults train downstairs. We'll do our warmups, accessory exercises, and sanchin kata, and then the instructors will break up the groups by rank and they will work on their rank material together. So yes technically it is an all age/all ranks class, but the instructors break them down into rank-specific groups and they train as such. He will usually nominatte an assistant instructor to work with each group in order to keep things moving.

When I trained in Judo many years ago, o-soto-gari was the very first throw we were taught, and you're right, it all comes down to the entry and the kuzushi (off-balancing). We do 3 different versions of that throw in Uechi-Ryu -- one where you step behind the opponent and then trip them over your leg, one is a proper o-soto-gari, and one where you kick the leg out from underneath them with a soktuto-geri (blade of foot kick). I'm not sure if I would call one throw harder than the others - they are just *different*. Maybe though it's because I generally work with more advanced students (as opposed to yellow belts). When I was training in Judo, most of our training would involve the off-balancing, entry, and right UP to the moment of execution. So for o-soto-gari, we'd do the off-balancing, entry, and bring your leg to tap your opponent in the calf. Then your partner would do the same to you. Then lather, rinse repeat. You can get a lot of reps in that way without having to wait for each other to get up off the ground.

Only thing i would say to that is that sometimes the calling out can be better done privately / in person with the individual. Some people respond very negatively to being called out in public - though the CI obviously knows Zach so i assume that this was factored in. I do totally agree though that it is good for the CI to bring it up and let him know he needs to sort it! Reminds me of the other thread on here about the planned failure. This is a much much more productive way of dealing with things - don't put them out there to fail them, let them know they won't even get out there until they reach the standard expected I've had a number of private conversations with Zach about this, and I know Zach has had private conversations with our CI about this as well. A couple of weeks ago, he had a fair bit of 1:1 time with the CI working on his two-person drills. I'm pretty sure this got brought up at some point. My perspective is that the CI has been teaching for 20+ years, and he's known Zach for about 4.5 years. He's sometimes hard on his advanced students because he has high expectations of them. He will from time to time tell them why he is hard on them - because he expects a lot out of them, and he wants to see them learn resilience in the dojo where it is a safe place, than to have to learn it somewhere where there are real consequences. I mean, I'm a LITTLE hard on the advanced students, because they are advanced students. If I see them giving half efforts, or training in a way that doesn't help their partner, I'll call them out on it. Usually I'll get up in front of the class and talk about something I observed, without naming any names, and how they need to improve on it. For brown belts, I'll tell them about what they'll need to show and do in their test prep cycle and black belt tests, and to start getting into those habits now. That test prep cycle was a rude awakening for some of the kids. I have to say that Zach has really taken this well -- he is actively asking me when he can make it to class so he can get his make-ups in, and getting him ready for class is now just "Zach, it's XXX time. Please get ready". And he goes off and does it without any complaining or "can I go a later day this week". So it definitely had its desired effect.

The last couple weeks have been interesting, especially for Zach. A week and a half ago, he was having a hard time focusing and getting ready for karate in the evening (and this is the class I'm assistant instructing for). He got to class and realized he had completely forgotten his belt. So he had to line up as the low-rank for the class and stood out like a sore thumb. The CI immediately noticed it and called him out on it in front of the class. He also called him out on the fact that he has been missing too many classes -- you see, the previous week I had come 4 times (twice to teach, and twice to train). Each time, he asked me "Where's Zach?" And I told him either he didn't want to come that day and would come the next day. Well, the next day came and Zach couldn't make it due to another issue. And... things snowballed like that through the week. So the CI told Zach that he'd missed 5 classes so far since his last test. And he would have to make them ALL up before he would be allowed to test again. Whether that was 6 months, 9 months, or a year after his last test, it was now up to him. The good news is, the week after this, he attended 1 make-up class, and last week he attended 2. So he is on track to get all of his make-ups in pretty soon. Since the Mrs was gone for much of the last week, Zach and I have been attending the same classes. Last week I taught his class Tues/Fri, and then we went to the early adult class on Thursday, and the family class on Saturday. Last week was sparring week, so we did sparring drills on tuesday/thursday, and Friday was a full sparring class. Our CI broke the students up into manageable groups (3-4 students each) and had them do 2.5 minute rounds, rotating within the groups. He asked me to watch the different students and pull one of them out to work with them. I'd watch their technique to see where they were weak, and then exploit one of their vulnerabilities, and then explain to them how to fix it. For example, one common problem is to drop your guard and hold your hands close to your chest. So when I saw that, I'd step in, trap both of their hands, and lightly tap them on the head or in the chest. (LIGHT taps). I'd then explain to them what they did wrong and how to fix it. Another common problem is kids would do a kick and not pull the leg back. So, I'd grab the leg and the front hand, and take them down to the mat (in a controlled manner). And then explain to them what they did wrong. Or they aren't protecting their head, so I'd reach out and tap them on the forehead to remind them. Not so much trying to beat them at sparring, but mainly to give them a target to practice against and point out where they need to improve. I'll admit, I normally don't think I'm very good at sparring, mainly because I am always sparring against our CI. However, apparently I've learned enough to teach others how to get better. Last week we got a new adult white belt in the adult class -- apparently he has also done some Shorin-Ryu when he was much younger (and it shows), and we got another new student yesterday (high school aged girl). I got to work with the one white belt last night -- he was trying to work through Kanshiwa before class and got stuck at the end. So I helped him with that, and pointed out a few things. I also got to work with him on kotekitae, and gave him the advice I wish I learned my first week in. "As an adult it's not just about the reps. Know when to say 'enough'." Because if you are focused on the number of reps and on how much discomfort you're in, you will set your conditioning back. All in all it was a really good week and a half or so. The back is still giving me issues, but as class moved on things loosened up a bit. I found myself focusing on my breathing during hojo undo last night to work through the discomfort, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I've seen this very same behaviour with Zach. As he has grown and matured, he has found himself "aging out" of classes a bit early. For example, the beginner's class is generally from 10th kyu -> 8th kyu. One of the criteria for moving up is that he has to be able to perform Kanshu kata, and he started learning that at 8th kyu. We found that when he was workiing with older, more advanced students, he started listening better and paying more attention. Fortunately, he won't "age out" of his current class anytime soon, since it is populated with brown belts/junior black belts. And as an advanced student, the CI doesn't hesitate to call him out on his stuff when he gets out of line.

I've trained in Sanchin every workout for the past 4+ years -- there is always something new to learn in Sanchin. Just last night, Kyoshi talked to us about the importance of the Sanchin stance as it relates to your hips, shoulders, and reach. He demonstrated a front stance, and how the reach of the front hand is substantially longer than the rear hand. He then showed a Sanchin stance, and how the reach of each hand is essentially the same. Last week we got schooled on the importance of the stepping in Sanchin, how important it is to keep your weight centered throughout the step, and why the steps should be quick transitions.

Uechi-Ryu has a saying, “all is in Sanchin”. It is the very first kata we learn, and we practice it in every class. It is the very foundation of our style. Our katas are all done in a Sanchin stance, or a stance immediately derived from Sanchin. It teaches us dynamic tension, circular breathing, how to protect ourselves from being struck in combat, how to form a stable base. As we rise in the ranks, we are frequently tested in our Sanchin, are we effectively protecting ourselves? Can we resist being knocked off-balance? Are our strikes effective? Our instructors test us by striking us, pulling on us, and pushing on us while we perform Sanchin. Our version of Sanchin is substantially different from Goju-Ryu and Shuri Ryu. For one, all of our strikes are done with the spear-hand, and we use a half-hard, half-soft strike. Our muscles loosen up during the strike to tense at the moment of impact. We also practice a shallow breathing through clenched teeth (think, “ssst”), which combined with tension in the abdominals, protects us from getting the wind knocked out of us. When Kanbun Uechi went to China, he learned three kata: Sanchin, Seisan, and Sanseiryu. These are the foundation of our style. The foremost of which is Sanchin.

I agree here -- it is one thing to fail a student because he didn't meet the requirements of the next grade. However, to fail a student because "he hasn't dealt with failure yet" isn't going to help the student, it damages the relationship between the student and the instructor, and it damages the credibility of the instructor. I can certainly see the value in pushing the student in the prep cycle before the test. If you don't think the student is trying hard enough, if he isn't giving it all, make it hard on him. Make him work to earn the right to test. Nitpick his mistakes. Make him find the resilience to make it through the criticism. Our CI does that from time to time -- he did it to Zach just the other day. However, he will never let a student test if he plans on failing them.

I have actually only seen one student fail at our dojo at a testing cycle. I think this is mainly because students aren't allowed to test until the instructor is reasonably sure they will pass. I've seen students wash out of a test prep cycle though. Mainly because they didn't complete some of the requirements, or because our CI didn't think they would pass. Failing a test isn't a horrible thing -- I mean, they can just test again at the next testing cycle (which for colored belts is each month). However, most kids don't see it that way, and most of our students are kids.

Actually the thing that helps the most is just to stand, bend over and touch my toes and hold it. With each exhale, I extend the stretch more. A few minutes of that relieves the tension from the lower back and does a really good job on the hamstrings. I also have a hottub out back that I've been using on the lower back as well.

Thanks. I'm still not 100% by far. My lower back is now complaining that I took way too much time off from training, so it's going to take some time to get back into the swing of things. However the elbow/forearm aren't complaining about the training (much). So I will just keep moving forward and doing the best I can.

Congrats to both of you! Watching your kiddo get a promotion is as or more rewarding than earning one yourself. I had the privilege of awarding my son his stripe for nikyu at his last promotion. It was a really awesome feeling. Keep training and moving forward!

So after a few times trying to train through the injury, I decided just to take some time off and work on other projects for a bit. The dojo was pretty much closed from Dec 22-Jan 2, so I used that time to rest and recover. Yesterday morning I saw my chiropractor again and things were at about 90%. I've still got one trigger point on the forearm that makes me want to jump off the table, but during normal motion the pain is mostly gone except when I try to fully straighten or flex. So last night I went back to the advanced class -- Zach went with me, since he doesn't go back to school until next Monday. Fortunately yesterday's class was more cerebral and less physical. We did our standard warmups and accessory exercises, and then we moved into Sanchin. Kyoshi played with our minds a bit the first time through by changing the count -- instead of three steps forward, pivot, three steps back, piviot, three steps forward... he added extra steps into the mix (making sure we were all paying attention). Then after the second iteration, he had us work on our stepping. Specifically he wanted us to focus on keeping our weight centered over our feet as we did each of our steps. Apparently some of us are visibly shifting our weight back and forth as our feet move. So he had us work on making sure to keep our steps swift and keep us centered. You see there is a mantra in our style "All is in Sanchin," or "Always return to Sanchin". It is the core principle of our style, and as such it we execute it in (almost) every class, and it is on every one of our tests from 9th kyu all the way up to 10th dan. Kyoshi mentioned that at "low ranks", meaning 5th degree and below, Sanchin is 25% of our test score. At 6th degree and above, Sanchin becomes 33% of your score. After Sanchin we mainly worked on our dan-level kumite drills. We only had one colored belt in the class (Zach is currently a nikyu). So our CI worked with Zach on his dan kumite drills, and the rest of us worked on our Okikukai dan kumite (aka 10-point, required for nidan). I'm getting pretty comfortable with this drill now, there are two sequences I get mixed up still, but I'm getting there. Next we worked through our dan kumite drill (required for sankyu and up), and asked us to focus more on flow than on speed or power, especially at certain sections of the drill. We all then worked through it, and Rod (a 4th degree who has started training again over the past few months) pointed out some of the things I have been doing that made things so difficult for other people, so I gave that some thought. Class ended with kata, with each of us working on our rank kata. We walked through Seiryu a few times, and then our CI talked to us about some major differences between advanced black belt kata (seiryu, kanchin, sanseiryu) versus previous kata. Specifically, there are fewer pauses in these advanced kata, and there is more flow. He showed us a few places where sequences are performed differently in the advanced kata, for example when there is a kick following a pivot, we aren't supposed to pause/set into a kimae -- just go right into the kick. Also when we do a elbow strike-backfist-one knuckle strike in these advanced kata, we are supposed to pivot and go straight into the next sequence, instead of pausing at the one-knuckle strike. Finally, he talked to us about kime (focus), and how in each sequence there is a specific place we are supposed to pause for kime. We finished class with a few more iterations through Seiryu kata. While we were winding down and getting dressed, our CI talked to Zach about what they worked on in the dan kumite drills. One thing he observed is that Zach is getting more controlled and purposeful in his movements. He talked to Zach about the stuff he wants to see Zach work on, and talked to him about how he now knows almost all of the material he will need for his shodan test, the only remaining item is the bunkai for seisan kata. However, he is learning the kata itself now, so once he earns his ikkyu, he can start learning the bunkai. I think Zach got a lot out of that class. I certainly did.

1. Passing my (very intense) shodan test. 2. Watching my son pass his nikyu test AND being able to award him his stripe. 3. Every day I get to train!

At our school, we will call anyone who is a certified instructor "Sensei", whether that individual is a 3rd dan, 8th dan, or above. We have had 9th and 10th degree grandmasters visit the school, and they have asked us to just call them "Sensei". If individual yrunning the class is not a certified instructor, we call them "Sempai" (senior student). It's very simple that way, and nobody really gets hung up on rank. Technically, if our CI is present, I'll refer to him as just "Sensei", and any other instructor I'll call Sensei, out of respect. The exception to the rule is that we usually call our CI's father by his shogo title, Kyoshi. This is mainly to show respect, and also because if we are referring to "Kyoshi", we all know exactly who it is, since he is the only Kyoshi in the school.

Sadly this has not been a good training week. Last Monday I was in class, and about halfway through class, my right elbow/forearm started sending shooting pains when I would pronate/supinate the forearm to certain positions. I was able to finish out the class, but it continued to get worse. I spoke to a doc, and it looks like a muscle strain in the forearm right at the elbow. I tried training through it last Saturday, but about 10 minutes until the end of class things flared up again even worse. So I'm taking this week and next week (since I'll be in Dallas on work travel) off, and I'll see where things are when I get back. I had planned on finding a Uechi-Ryu school in Dallas to train with, but I'm really thinking that the best course of action is to rest the arm that week and just let things get better. I think this happened during kotekitae, where my partner struck me directly on the elbow a few times. I didn't think this was a big deal at the time, but that's the only thing that was really different about that Monday's training. I'll need to be more careful with him in the future.

You've clearly thought this through, and I definitely understand and agree with your reasons for leaving your current dojo. If you are not getting what you need out of a relationship (whether that be martial arts or otherwise), it is time to move on. I'm going to share one of my own CI's philosophies -- one thing that in his eyes differentiates colored belts from black belts. At our school, black belts are expected to be able to self-evaluate, self-correct, and take infrequent feedback in order to continue improving. For example, he has several students that have gone off to college, or live remotely and only come in once a week or so. He trusts them to train on their own, and as long as he can keep track of their progress, he still considers them eligible for promotions at (possibly slightly extended) intervals Have you considered looking for a good instructor outside your immediate area that you could receive instruction and direction from? With the pandemic, many MA schools are open to remote instruction via Zoom, and you could possibly make arrangements to do in-person training on some type of regular basis. As you already have your own school, you are already training regularly, but this would give you the feedback you need to progress beyond your current rank in your preferred style. For example, my CI only receives outside instruction a few times a year, but he is in regular contact with his instructor(s) and is always getting feedback and information from them. Something to think about, at least.

If you are looking to build strength, big, compound lifts are the way to go. Bench press, Overhead press, Deadlift, and Squat. Look into the "Starting Strength" program by Mark Rippetoe - it's about building functional strength quickly. If you don't have the space for a barbell setup, you can get a lot of benefit from kettlebells as well. Check out "Enter the Kettlebell" sometime.

Wow, I'm humbled. I was happy to be nominated, much less win anything!

I'm a big fan of Elden Ring and GT7.

Saturday's class turned out to be much better than I expected. Saturday is nominally the family class -- all ages all ranks (6+). We had a good sized class, but not quite so large that we had to send half of the class to the upstairs dojo. Before class, Kyoshi asked me if I wanted to run the class, and I said "sure". Since we had a number of white belts and yellow belts in the class, I slowed things down a fair bit, and made sure to state all of the techniques in both Japanese and English. Warmups and hojo undo techniques went pretty well, and I've been continuing my practice of pop-quizzing the students on the Japanese vs English names. When we got to Sanchin kata, I moved to the back of the class, where I could watch the white belts and low-ranked students perform their techniques. When I watched them perform the kata the second time, I found a key teachable moment, and worked the whole class through the fundamental chamber / strike / reset / step sequence. I noticed that the white belts were struggling, but there were also some yellow and green belts who could use some practice. I then paired the students up for kotekitae, and had some of the brown belts teach the white belts, and then checked a few students here and there. I then divided the students up with the younger white/yellow/orange belts working with T (a junior black belt in his prep cycle for full black belt), and I worked with the adults and higher ranked students on their two person drills -- started with the fundamentals and worked my way up. I rotated students and gave them feedback as I saw each of them. At the end of the class, we ran kata, starting at Kanshiwa and worked all the way up to Seiryu (required for 2nd degree). When you only have 5 kata between white belt and nidan, this is manageable. I then bowed the students out, wishing them a good weekend. The REALLY cool part came after class when I was getting ready to head home. Kyoshi came up to me and told me that I should start putting a bio together for my teaching license application. Needless to say, I was floored by this -- I've only had my shodan for about 6 months, and he's already talking applying for a teaching license. He was apparently very impressed with the pace and way I was running the classes, so he thinks that it may come much quicker for me than most students. Of course by that time Zach was saying, "Dad can we go home noe? Dad can we go home now?" So I didn't have a chance to talk to him much more about that. Again, I thought it was very cool, but I figure I'm just going to do the best I can by myself and the students and let the promotions come as they may. I got news that the CI and his wife are heading back from Okinawa today, and they sent a video of the Karate Day celebration in Okinawa -- you can see them performing Kanshiwa and Shushi no Kon at about 11:25 here:

Kyu grade certificates are handed out at the testing. Technically Dan gradings are sent back with the student’s entire packet back to the hombu dojo, and the certificates are sent back over Master Thompson’s signature. However I have never heard of a situation where a student did not receive the rank certificate after being recommended by the testing board. Our test board is headed by an 8th degree, and they have promoted up to 4th degree independently. For 5th degree and up our CI generally invites Master Thompson out to run seminars and preside over the testing board.

Generally the test board will discuss and tally scores, and after a few minutes will announce the pass/fail list.

At kyu gradings, you get individual feedback from the instructor responsible for your evaluation. At dan gradings, the feedback is more general, where each member of the board gives feedback to the candidates as a group. Keep in mind, before a dan grading, students have to complete a 12 week prep cycle, where you are given weekly feedback and evaluations on exactly what the test board is looking for. The sessions are usually run by our CI, but he also rotates in some of the other members of the test board, so you can hear what they may be looking for. So in effect you're getting your feedback before the test instead of afterwards.