aurik

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.

Each section is worth a different number of points - I used 8/10 as an example. The key takeaway is that you want to maximize your score in every section, because if you get one of those "Can I see that again", you know you didn't quite pass that section. There are sections that if you don't pass, members of the test board may recommend a fail regardless of your overall score (Sanchin is one of these sections. It's worth 25 or 30 points). However by maximizing your score in other sections, you can pass even if you marginally fail one section. Also, the score you receive on each section is the average score from all of the examiners on the testing board. And no, you generally don't get to know what your score is after your test.

I always look at it as you don't need to score 100% to pass. Tbh if you performed every technique perfectly then you should likely be a LOT higher than whatever grade you are testing for. Everyone has something to work on. I was told that attitude is a big thing for our grading examiner. He puts a lot of store in it and it can swing things when they are borderline. I see his point tbh, someone with the right attitude that is borderline will likely take his feedback on board and work on it really hard before testing again. Worst case you fail and you get independent feedback from an expert on something you need to work on to improve. At the end of the day self improvement is what is important anyway, to be the best martial artist YOU can be. What does your passing / failing a grade mean in the grand scheme of things anyway, it is about your own journey and development. I tell all my classmates the same before we grade and most of them think i am mental! I will try my best and if the examiner thinks that is good enough then i get a grade, if not then they tell me what i need to do to get it next time. I don't want a pity pass, i want to BE a belt not just have one. If not i wouldn't have decided to regrade! I've never graded any student of mine with a 100% because no one deserves that score because no one's perfect. As DarthPenguin has mentioned already, students don't need a 100% to pass at all. Make a mistake, BIG DEAL...KEEP GOING...the Testing Cycle ALWAYS takes care of itself. Like I've always told my students that the Testing Cycle will take care of itself, therefore, stop worrying about the Testing Cycle and just do your best. Either the student will pass or fail. Worrying about the outcome of something that's not even taking place yet fuels the fire which adds to one's poor execution of effective techniques. Regardless to the outcome of any Testing Cycle, feedback is crucial across the board for all concerned. Train hard and train well. For our dan gradings, the test is very structured and formalized. For a passing grade, you need to get 80/100 or better, and you are expected to pass each section. A typical shodan candidate will score 82 to 84 on their exam, partially because they are being evaluated on elements that they aren't expected to know yet. One of the key elements is that if a member of the test board asks, "Can I see that again", and passing on that item is 8/10 or better, then the best you can expect to receive on that section is 7.9/10. In fact, the ONLY section of the test you can expect to get full marks as a shodan is the oral examination, where if you are exceptionally well prepared you can get 5/5. Granted, I did hear several students get the "Can I see that again" during my shodan grading, but everyone did pass . Very few candidates actually fail in a dan grading -- the 3 month prep cycle pretty much sees to that. However, that also doesn't mean you shouldn't do everything you can to maximize your score and increase your chances of passing. To a great degree, I agree with your sentiments - if I go in and do my absolute best on a grading, and I end up failing then I'll just re-test in 6 months. However, I also want to make sure that when I do grade that I am as prepared as I can be and put my best foot forward.

I enjoyed the story, but I did have some issues with it. Keep in mind, I've only read the main trilogy, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion. I haven't read any of the vast amount of other material that have been derived from his notes. Based upon the material in The Lord of the Rings and its appendices, my understanding is that the elven smiths first created several lesser Rings of Power before forging the three elven rings. I also assumed that the Seven and the Nine were forged with the assistance of Sauron, and his identity wasn't discovered until after he had forged the One. Likewise, in the LOTR appendices it was announced that the Istari did not appear in Middle-Earth until the Third Age (presumably after Sauron began to exert his influence in Mirkwood). I'm pretty sure that there was no mention of Istari in the Second Age.

So today was the first day I've been back to the dojo since Friday. I taught the youth advanced class from 5-6, and I thought the class went pretty well. We started out with warmups, and one of the students was making whin-ey noises after I announced each of the exercises, so when we finished doing the splits, I had students walk their hands out a few steps, and did 10 push-ups there. I then told them why and pointed out the student in question. I'm getting into the habit of giving students random mini pop-quizzes in class, to make sure they're paying attention. In the advanced class, all of the techniques are announced in Japanese, so every so often I'd announce a technique and quiz a student, "which means what, ?" I feel that this is a way of making sure they're paying attention, and they also will need to know most of these vocabulary words for their black belt tests. We focused on the dan kumite drills for the first half of partner techniques. I had the brown belts/black belts working with purple belts (since purple belts/yonkyu are just learning this drill). Since we had an odd number of students, I'd work with one student, give them some feedback, and then have that student switch with another one. That way I had a chance to work with 4 or 5 different students. I then worked with the junior black belt on the Okikukai dan kumite. We then ran through kata, all the way up to seisan (required for 1st degree).. I didn't give any kata feedback today -- there wasn't enough time. I then was able to attend the advanced adult class. Before class, I saw E (the girl who had talked to me about her partner). I talked to her about Friday a little and her mom had discussed the situation with the CI as well. He said that he had also noticed the issue. For the time being, he didn't want the two of them training with each other. We started off with 2-person hojo undo and rotated partners. After that we ran sanchin kata twice, and then Kyoshi had us start working kote kitae while he evaluated sanchin individually. He loves to talk, and when I noticed that he had been talking with the first student for 5+ minutes, I found the next higher-ranked student and had her go stand where Kyoshi was giving his dissertation. He got the hint and moved on. I then was sending the next higher-ranked student over there to keep things moving. After kotekitae and my sanchin session with Kyoshi, I worked the Okikukai dan kumite drills (aka 10-point) with one of the 2nd degrees, and he was amazed at how well I have it down now (he tells me I've got a mind like a steel trap). Well, one of my obvservations is that when I'm running a class, I get to pick what I work on to a degree. There's a template, but I can pick and choose from within that template. I then ran the 10-point drill with one of the other black belts, and then I started working in with the other students on their dan kumite drills. I took particular note with T (one of my favorite training partners) and G (his partner for his upcoming shodan test). When I checked their drills, I noticed that both of them had gotten into the habit of doing the flying kick NEXT to their partner instead of AT their partner. I had T run the drill again and just stood there (instead of getting out of the way, pointing out that he missed me. When I did the kick back at him, he did NOT get out of the way, and even though he did the prescribed block, I still tagged him in the chest (not hard, but enough for him to know he biffed it). I then talked to both of them about making sure that they are pushing each other to be their best, because if they aren't, they will get called out on it. I also gave them an abbreviated version of the speech I gave on Friday, reiterating that they are each responsible for their partner's safety. I also told them that if something goes wrong on the test KEEP GOING if at all possible. The testing board may miss a mistake if you keep going and don't have that "OMG I screwed up" look on your face. All in all I thought it was a good class. I didn't get to work on all the material I wanted, but I also felt that I helped out the other students quite a bit.

My (hockey) St Louis Blues went 24 straight years of making the playoffs without even getting to the Stanley Cup Finals. It took them 51 years from their inception before they won their first Stanley Cup. I feel your pain.

So last Friday, I taught again (in my normally scheduled hours). The class went very well, up until the end, and then it became a very difficult class. We had a good mix of brown belts/junior black belts, purple belts and one blue belt. The class is generally geared for students that are starting to learn the dan-level yakusoku kumite drills, so the purple belts (yonkyus) were at a point they were just learning it. I changed things up a bit and had our students work their hojo undo techniques on a partner (as opposed to solo). I split them up with one of the junior black belts working with the lower ranks, and I worked with the higher ranks. Most of the students did really well, and I was able to give each of them some constructive criticism as they paired with me, so that was good. We then all worked dan kumite for awhile. I took the junior black belts with me to work with the low ranks in teaching them, while I let Kyoshi supervise the brown belts (since they already know the material). For the last segment of class, I had students work on their bunkai. I paired students off and went around to monitor them. When I got over to Zach, he was alone and his partner wasn't to be found... It turns out that at one point in the drill, Zach had performed a prescribed overhand with a (wooden) knife on his partner, his partner had missed the prescribed defense, and Zach bopped his partner on the head with the knife hard enough to raise a decent sized goose egg. The partner was crying (he is ~10-11 years old, so completely understandable), we got him an ice pack, I checked him to make sure he was still lucid and didn't seem to be acting out of the ordinary. I then line all of the students up to close out class, and then give them the "We love our partner" speech. And how important it is to be very careful when you're using a weapon -- even a rubber or wooden weapon. I talked about how horrible you will feel if you accidentally hurt someone, and how you need to learn to train at your partner's level. Push them a little, but not so hard to hurt them. Kyoshi reinforced what I said with some of his experiences, and then I bowed the class out. As I was walking out to my truck, one of the junior black belts came up to me and told me that her partner has been hitting her a lot harder than he should, in areas that he should not. Since our CI is out of town, she felt she needed to bring it up to me. I told her that I would reach out to our CI, and I would also talk to the person in question. I've noticed that the student in question goes REALLY hard when training against me, but I'm also twice his size and can take getting hit in most places. I'm also not a 13 year old girl either. So, I sent an email to the CI informing him of both incidents -- his wife mentioned that she had noticed the same thing with the student in question. The CI will reach out to the one student's parents about the head contact, and I'll talk to the offending student the next time I see him in case the CI hasn't talked to his parents yet. Definitely not the fun part of being an instructor.

Our neighbor put up a 9 foot tall werewolf. It's pretty awesome...

Impressive, most impressive! Thank you for contributing so much, Zaine!