aurik

Definitely lots of red flags here. I can only speak of Uechi-Ryu, so take what I say with a grain of salt. In Uechi-Ryu, 10th dans aren't exceedingly rare, but the number of 10th dans in the USA is very small -- 4 that I can think of. In Uechi-Ryu, once a teacher gets above a certain grade, they are somewhat expected to travel and teach at seminars. So a quick google search of their names should give you an idea whether they actually do this. Another resource you should try -- your current instructor. My CI has pretty good relationships with many of the other martial arts schools in our area. (Funny story, the heads of one of the other local schools asked to come along on one of his trips to Okinawa, because they don't speak Japanese and our CI does). So your current instructor should have a pretty good idea whether these guys are 'legitimate' or not. And as DP has said, if you don't know what a "kyu" grade is but claim to teach Shotokan, then you definitely don't teach Shotokan.

Uechi Ryu doesn't have an explicit "front" or "reverse" punch per se. We only specify the weapon to use, whether a seiken tsuki (flat-first punch), hiraken tsuki (leopard-fist punch), shoken-tsuki (one-knuckle punch), etc. If necessary, we specify the hand (right/left), but oftimes it's implicit.

I'll be honest -- most of the times I watch the super bowl for the commercials. Granted, the game is fun and everything, but I rarely have much invested in either team. Now my wife and I do have an agreement -- if the Steelers are ever in the Super Bowl, I have to cheer for them. Likewise, anytime the Blues play (NHL hockey), she has to cheer for them. This year I ended up going to Costco a few weeks ago and picked up a few packs of chicken wings and will be making those along with some sides. 2 years ago we tried (pre-ordering) from Buffalo Wild Wings, and that was an utter disaster. They had no concept of how many orders their kitchen could handle, and I ended up just cancelling my order after waiting an entire hour past my pickup time. FYI, Alton Brown has an awesome Chicken Wing recipe that's really easy to make:

Another couple weeks have gone by, and things are finding their new normal. I'm now making a regular appearance to the Thursday evening classes, and there's a somewhat different group of people that come that evening. Over the last few months I've been having to juggle other commitments (my son's Scouting for one), so making the Tuesday evening class is sometimes difficult. The good news is that I've got the basics of my new kata (Kanchin) memorized reasonably well, so now I can work on the nuances of it. Last night we had enough time at the end of class that we were able to do the entire gamut of our kata (6, not including Sanchin). I'll say that there is one disadvantage to being of high rank in our school -- you'll end up working your own kata AFTER you've worked every other kata in the system. When I was a white/yellow belt, I would think that working my one kata was hard after an hour workout. Now as I work the color belt katas, I need to make sure to budget my energy to work the dan-grade katas. Which is why last night I made a few glaring mistakes on my newest kata -- it's not that I don't have the kata memorized, but when you're already tired, it amplifies your mistakes. The good news is that I got a few kudos on my Kanchin form in some of the more nuanced portions, and my CI also showed me where I'm making a few common "beginner mistakes" in the form, so I can be cognizant of them when I work the kata on my own. I'm dealing with some nagging back and hip tightness again, but that tends to go away after the warmups and hojo undo. I Another fun experience at last night's class is that I got to work with Devon in our kotekitae session -- he is a 5th degree in TKD and a shodan in kobudo, so he already has great power and technique, but one of the things he's not quite used to is actually hitting people (relatively) hard. One of the things we work on is gauging how hard to hit your partner to get the proper conditioning response. Too soft, and they get little to no benefit, too hard and they can bruise and that can take a long time to heal. I'd have to ask him to go harder 2 or 3 times to get the right intensity. Afterwards he told me that he's not used to hitting people hard -- he has one partner who he could go pretty hard with, but mainly he is used to hitting/kicking bags. I also had a chance to teach him some of the other conditioning drills we do, so that was pretty fun as well. So on the whole, I'm getting back to where I was back in November before things went completely sideways. And after that I plan to keep moving forward. Until next time!

For my 50th birthday, my wife rented out our HOA's clubhouse, and she brought in Steve's Retro Arcade. The guy basically has a air-conditioned trailer that he loads up with a dozen or so retro arcade games -- you get to pick and choose which ones you want. It was a complete blast. Some games I did quite well with, but I hadn't played Dragon's Lair in a LOOOONG time, and I sucked royally at it. But it was a blast! My only disappointment was the "pinball" games were digital pinball emulators, not actual honest to goodness pinball games.

I agree 100%. Since I've been teaching, my understanding has increased significantly -- in the process of explaining things to students, I regularly have "a-ha" moments and insights. The version I prefer to say though is "The best way to learn something is to teach it so someone else".

One of the benefits of Uechi-Ryu is that there isn't that much new material to learn for each kyu grade. For example, we only have eight kata in our system (with their associated bunkai), three different yakusoku kumite drills, and a few other pieces of required material. What students are graded on is the quality of their techniques, not necessarily how many techniques/kata/drills they know. Our kyu levels are broken down into groups of 3, based upon what kata they are tested on: Kanshiwa (for 9th, 8th, 7th kyu), Kanshu (for 6/5/4), and Seichin (3/2/1). Within each grouping they are expected to memorize the kata, then be able to demonstrate the kata with appropriate power, and at the third level, they are expected to demonstrate the kata with proper timing, power, and technique. What makes things hard in our style is that when you learn a new concept in your new kata, you're expected to propagate that concept all the way through your karate, from the first kata / bunkai / yakusoku kumite you've learned all the way up to your current material. Back to the original issue though, the CI definitely needs to find a balance between "bonus material" and "making sure students can progress through the curriculum at an appropriate rate". My CI tends to do 1 in 4 classes with "bonus material", and that seems to work pretty well for us. For advanced students, that balance tends to shift somewhat -- our brown/black belt class has bonus material more frequently -- more like 1/3 to 1/2 of the time. Of course, if your style requires new material at every kyu grade, then that calculus changes.

I agree. I've been involved in two very successful traditional MA schools, and they both had the following things in common: - Had a lot of kids' classes, with a few dedicated adults classes and some all-ages classes. - Made a point to "mix things up" on a regular basis. For example, they both had a set curriculum that would be tested on, but every so often, they'd have a class on "cool stuff that isn't going to be tested on, but it's fun and useful" - Made a point of retaining a fair number of advanced students - Hosted seminars with outside instructors to bring in a fresh perspective from time to time. Yes, Martial Arts is hard. If it were easy, everyone would walk in the door and be guaranteed a black belt in X months. Advancement in the MA is predicated on practicing the same techniques over and over again, and not only practicing them, but practicing them with the focused intent on improving something with every repetition. So yes, it's boring. But that doesn't mean you can't (and shouldn't) sprinkle in some new material now and then to keep things interesting. Also, by having advanced students in the class that can be role models for new students, it gives them something visible and attainable to strive for. A brand new white belt might not be able to see himself as good as his CI someday, but they can easily see themselves being as good as the yellow belt, or green belt that they are training next to, and the green belt can see themselves as being as good as the brown belt or new black belt.

I'm glad to hear that you and your mini-me were able to decide on continuing with your current club. Honestly, when I was a low-rank (white/yellow belt), I would always enjoy training with the right black belts, because they would always give me pointers and help me improve my technique. So hopefully your fellow advanced students will give your daughter the same treatment. Good luck on your training this semester, both of you!

It's been a little while since I posted in here. The last month or so has been pretty rough, both life-wise and training-wise. After Zach and I tested for our dan gradings, I spent a week in Dallas (which was fun -- I had the opportunity to train with a Uechi-Ryu Kenyukai group out there. As Mr Miyagi once put it, "different, yet same". It was a good experience. Then the week of Thanksgiving, we went on a cruise from San Diego to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas, and back to San Diego. And then my dad died the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Since then, I've spent the last week of November at his place going through all of his things and cleaning his house -- I've also been working with my sister trying to manage his estate. There was a fair bit of friction there as well -- my sister and I haven't been on the best of terms for a long time. And then the last night as we were getting ready to head back to Denver, the darned hotel bed messed up my back again so I've been dealing with that. Couple that with all of the things that go on during the holidays, and I didn't get much training in. So over the past week I have done my Thursday evening class, taught Friday evening's advanced youth class, attended Saturday morning's class, taught Tuesday evening, and attended my first advanced adult (Tuesday evening) class since my testing. Friday evening's class was pretty fun. One of the things our CI had me do was work with the shodan-sho's on their new kumite drills and work with them on their new kata, Seiryu. Zach has also had to miss a lot of classes (due to travel, holidays, etc), so he's still struggling with the new kumite drills. But he's getting the hang of them. Personally my favorite segment of this drill is the last one -- basically the attacker comes in with two low front kicks, followed by a right lunge punch. The defender raises up the legs to block with the shins, and then steps forward into a low stance (shiko-dachi) with a circle block, strikes the attacker in the solar plexus with an elbow strike, applies a backfist to the upper mandible, and then does an o-soto-gari (major outer leg reap) takedown. The takedown is the hardest part for a lot of people to get -- mainly because most students will just give the takedown to the defender. Personally, that really irritates me, because it doesn't make the defender learn the proper technique. And the throw here is all about the kuzushi (off-balancing). So I demonstrated how if the defender still has his balance, he can just lift up the leg to avoid the throw. So I had one of the students lift up their leg as I tried to sweep. Then as their leg was up, I just gave them a tug and push, and down they went. I then had them try on me a few times. Still, none of them were trying to off-balance me. They would just try to step in and sweep the leg. So I showed them the other reason you wanted to have your opponent off-balance... if you're stepping in to do this throw, you're by definition not in a stable stance, so all your opponent needs to do is drop his hand to your waist, tug on the arm, and twist... and you end up getting thrown instead of your opponent. So that was a lot of fun. Last night was my first trip back to the advanced adult class since my testing, and I learned a fair bit. For one thing, I had the chance to work on my new kata quite a bit to the point where I have it fairly well memorized. I definitely won't say that I "have it down", but I know which moves are supposed to go where, so that's a plus. In each of our kata, they introduce a new sequence or two, and this one is no exception. This particular kata is rather difficult, especially for a large person, since you spend quite a bit of time in a shiko-dachi, and there's one sequence where you end up having to do a 180 degree pivot from a shiko-dachi to another shiko-dachi. If done right, it looks really cool, but I'm far from doing it "right" or "well". The good news is I do have a couple of years to work on this before I have to test on it. In any case, practicing this kata will definitely help with my quad strength! So the important thing is after rough month and a half or so, I'm trying to get back into a normal routine. I expect that there will be more bumps in the road in the upcoming months, but I'll be doing my best to keep moving forward in my journey.

A number of years ago, my wife and I were visiting her brother in Aspen - the first year they had moved there. The sidewalks were iced over, and I had a big box of stuff in my hands (we were unloading the car at the time). All of a sudden, my feet slipped out from under me and I went from vertical to horizontal in an instant. The one thing I remembered that saved my life -- tuck the chin to the chest and HOLD IT THERE. I ended up landing flat on my back -- scared the bejeezus out of my wife. However, aside from a sore neck, I was fine. If I hadn't been trained on how to fall properly, I would've most likely bounced my head off the concrete and had a much worse outcome. So yeah, learning how to fall is the most important lesson I've ever learned from my martial arts training.

Congratulations!

I'd probably go with Gichin Funakoshi, Kanei Uechi, Jigoro Kano, and possibly Morihei Ueshiba

My biggest goal for 2024 is to increase my stamina and drop some weight. I figure if I can do both of those, improved karate will follow.

I think our CI charges $50 for kyu tests and $250 for shodan tests. The dan-grade exam fees are set by our organization, I believe. Also, a testing for a junior dan grade (ie, shodan-sho) will also cover the testing fee for the same adult grade. For our area, those testing fees are pretty much in line with what other MA's in our area charge.

Sure. I'd like to present KarateKen with a trophy recognizing his outstanding contributions to KarateForums.com, which I know are recognized by members near and far. Thank you, Ken! 🏆 Congrats, KarateKen!! Heck, on the forums, participation is everything! Domo arigato gozaimasu!

Wait... I won for funniest member of the year? Ummm.. how did that happen? In all seriousness, I'm just glad to be here and able to contribute in a positive way, and share a bit of myself in the process. I'm glad y'all appreciate my contributions!

I really enjoyed the Blues beat the Knights this past Monday. It was a great game on both sides, with Jordan Binnington standing on his head to keep the Knights to a single goal. Tonight they have a rematch in St Louis -- let's see if the Blues can win this one as well.

I don't think that it's so much that the spazzing white belts are going to make a black belt tap. However, white belts have little to no control and are just trying to get out there and prove themselves. My CI always says that when sparring you're far more likely to get injured when sparring a white belt than a black belt for that very reason.

It's been a few weeks since I posted in here, and it's been a very eventful couple of weeks. The week of November 13th, I went to Dallas for a work trip. It was very productive in terms of we got to see people face to face who I normally only talk to through Zoom (or similar tools). We also were able to discuss a lot of what we want to accomplish as a team with our manager and second level manager providing a lot of good input and direct feedback. Also, while I was in Dallas, I was able to visit a local Uechi-Ryu dojo to train for an evening. It was a very different experience from my home dojo. The dojo is part of a different organization (Kenyukai), and they do things a little bit differently. For example, in Sanchin, they perform the strike and step on different counts. Also, they will perform the last 3 wa-uke sequences broken down into 8 small steps, instead of a fluid motion that we are used to doing. However, in spite of these differences I did get a few nuggets of information that I definitely want to incorporate into my karate: first, in my Sanchin, I need to lower my left shoulder a touch, to lock things into place. He showed me how much stronger things are with the shoulder lowered (just an inch or so). He also drilled into me the "eyes, feet, hands" sequence -- he had me do one of my kata with the sequence "look", then counted the number. "look", then count the number, etc. It felt a bit more crisp that way, and he explained the reasoning behind it. We then discussed kotekitae together and he showed me some little different things I can do to strenghten/condition myself better. We also discussed my sensei and his family (above a certain level in our style, everyone knows everyone, it seems). He gave my CI a few compliments, since he has had the opportunity to train with him a few times at various seminars. He also gave me a few compliments on my kata as well, and told me that I was welcome to come train with them anytime I was in town. Once I got back from Dallas, we were again packing to go on a vacation. We did a Disney cruise out of San Diego, where we visited Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. Each location was very different and had a different flavor, and we picked a different shore excursion to do at each port. At one port, we did a cruise on a pirate-themed ship (which was a replica of Christopher Columbus' ships), which involved a pirate show and a few hours snorkeling and hanging out at a really nice private little beach. At Mazatlan, we did a bus tour where we visited a brick factory and a few small tradidional "mom and pop" businesses, and also a "ghost town" -- which wasn't completely uninhabited, but was down to ~300 residents. Finally, we did a cruise on a catamaran around the harbor of Cabo San Lucas, visited a glass factory, and stopped at a restaurant with an awesome view of the harbor. However, the entire trip did not go well. On the final night of the cruise, while I was in a whiskey tasting seminar, I got a text from my sister to call her immediately. My dad had been visiting with my sister and her family in Phoenix for Thanksgiving, and he was on a flight back to Jacksonville (FL), when at the end of the flight they found him unresponsive. They made an emergency medical landing and determined he had a heart attack on the plane. He was pronounced later that morning at the local hospital. So... the next few weeks are going to be a really rough time for me. I'll be spending the next week working to set up my dad's funeral, and then there will be all the other things that have to happen after that. I'll be sure to train as much as I can through this, since I find the exhaustion after a workout definitely helps. But focus is going to be really hard.

Our dojo also teaches Aikido, which I've tried to encourage him to try out. They even have a convenient Saturday morning class, right before the class we usually go to. I find it's a really nice warmup for the Uechi-Ryu class. I'd really like for him to stick with it, because as our director said after the testing, "Karate is like boing water. If you take away the heat, it stops bubbling within you". That's one of the things I love about our school --after you pass your test, our instructors will give you feedback on things you can improve upon.

Not a silly question at all. Yes, when he turns 15, he will need to re-test for full shodan (and concurrently test for nidan-sho). In Uechi-Ryu, the only different requirement for the different Dan grades is the rank kata — so he will need to demonstrate both Seisan (for full shodan) and Seiryu (for nidan-sho). Assuming he continues training, he will then be eligible to test for full nidan at 17 or 18 - before he leaves for college.

This past Sunday was a big day for Zach and me. He tested for (and passed) shodan-sho, and I passed my nidan test!

So the testing has come and gone, and.... (drum roll please)... everyone passed! We had two testing sessions; the morning session had 7 candidates testing for adult dan grades, and the afternoon session had 5 candidates testing for junior first degree. I was personally a little nervous going in -- it's a test so the nerves were there. However, I knew that I was as prepared as I was going to be, and I was confident that I was going to do well. In my test we had Aaron and me testing for nidan, Eli was testing for shodan and nidan-sho (junior second degree), and the remaining four candidates were testing for shodan. My test started with Sanchin. In Uechi-Ryu, we have a saying "All is in Sanchin". And as such, it's the beginning of our test, and it's also the section of the test with the highest percentage. (25% of the test). Our tests run lowest ranked to highest ranked, and since I was the oldest nidan candidate in the test, I was the last to go. Usually Richard (our CI) does all of the Sanchin testing for male candidates, but this time he had David (who recently tested for Godan/Shihan) do some of our testing. So I was a little surprised when he was asked to do my testing. I noticed that he doesn't hit nearly as hard as our CI does, but he does all of the checks we're used to. However, towards the end of the test he did give me a surprise I wasn't expecting. Normally as we are doing the 3 final wa-uke strikes, we will get kciked/struck in the abdominals. However, unfortunately David kicked me... a fair bit lower. Not QUITE in the groin, but just a hair above there. At least he didn't kick me really HARD there either. But it was enough to break my concentration for the remaining of the test, so when he did the final tests of my hand strength, I messed up a bit -- but I didn't let either of those oopses show on my face. That's actually something I that I've been telling the other candidates on the test -- whatever happens, keep going. If you make what you think is a mistake - keep going, don't let ti show on your face. If a member of the test board thinks you've made a mistake, they will ask you to show that technique again. However, don't make it easy on them to see your mistakes. Neither Aaron nor I were asked to repeat any techniques, and most of the candidates were only asked to repeat things a couple of times. That right there is a pretty good sign that everyone passed. As we went through the remaining segments - rank kata, seisan bunkai, kotekitae, hojo undo, I felt really good about things. THere were times where I ended a session a bit winded, but not nearly as bad as I was on my shodan test. When we got to the oral exam, I was able to answer all of my examiner's questions in as much (or possibly more) detail than he expected, so I think I got 5/5 on that (technically that's the only part of the test you can be expected to get full marks on). And as I'm over 50, I elected not to spar this time around. When the results were announced, they announced that all of us had passed, and they handed out belts (to the shodan candidates). We all then got some "okay, you're a black belt, but here's some things to work on" feedback, Iwhich I *really* appreciate. In every test I've taken, I've always received "here's how to get better" after I passed. Two of the key pieces of feedback were "make sure you're hitting the right target", and "Manage your distance." Zach's test went much the same way -- he was asked to repeat one segment in his bunkai, but only the one. I was very impressed with his Sanchin and his rank kata -- there were a couple segments in Seisan that he really wowed me at. Also, my wife overheard some of the instructors commenting about how Zach did really well on his oral segment, so that made me a proud dad. As we were waiting for the results, our CI was talking to us a bit, and he did mention that he had not (yet) failed any students who had passed the prep cycle. However, there were students that washed out DURING the prep cycle. And he has attended other tests in which students have failed. In the end, Zach passed as well, and they got much of the same feedback that we got after our tests. And now on to the required pictures:

Quick update: At last night's class our sensei and I got to introduce Aaron to the joy that is Master Ken. We were fine-tuning our dan kumite drills, and at the end I said something along the lines of "and re-stomp that groin". (Seriously, the finishing move for the dan kumite drill is pulling up on the opponent's leg while doing a stomping kick to the groin.) Aaron had *no* idea what we're talking about, so we had to educate him a bit. Now I'm feeling the need to watch a few episodes of "Enter the Dojo Show"!