karate_woman

I don't think it matters. As for legitimacy, you'd probably be checked out by any new instructor anyway; they wouldn't just take your word on it that you were a black belt. When you do a bit of training with them your skills will speak for themselves. If they try to pull a fast one like it sounds one organization is trying to do to your instructor (having a lower rank recertify a higher rank even for $0 - which wasn't the case, - makes you wonder), you'd be better off walking away from such a place. As for opening your own dojang in the future, if he hasn't found a new affiliation by then you can probably just affiliate with your instructor and leave it at that. Unless I've missed something, his own certification is legit, even if he's no longer affiliated.

Changing the belt on the forum is done by number of posts,and has no relationship to your actual ranking in martial arts. As for control? You have NO contact at all? Anyway, I agree with the last poster - practice finding your range in both punches and kicks. I don't see anything wrong with getting in close, though from a self defense stand point remember if you're close you are opening yourself up to attack as well - especially if you're close and on the inside; in a no contact situation that might not be readily apparent to you. Practicing distancing in non sparring situations is helpful to so you visually know your range when it comes to people as well (eg one partner punches or kicks and the other performs a counter - the puncher/kicker should find their range before they begin).

Welcome

Have you checked out the dojos of the schools? Just dropping by and watching, or better yet - participating in - a class or two might be the best way to resolve whether you like the style, and even more importantly, the instructor/school.

Welcome

http://www.nblskil.com/pages/frames.html You can enter your country and state into this form and find tournaments from the NBL/SKIL circuits. Also, some of the lower rated NASKA tournaments: http://www.naska.com/html/2003_national-state.html

I've done both; when I made the transition, stances were some of the changes.

Congratulations for her! What belt level is she? I love the kata but I have found it is too short compared to some of the more advanced bo kata I've seen. Yesterday at our shiai, a woman from our club did matsu higa no bo and another competitor did a kata that was about 3 times as long, with many more techniques in it (I wish I'd caught the name - awful since I was helping judge, but it was LOUD). Anyway, both people performed well, but the longer, more complicated kata won hands down. This was at the brown belt level, though.

Goju is hard/soft, as the name go=hard, ju = soft means. Okinawan Goju does have shorter stances, but Japanese Goju has deeper stances.

His Master's was in Kinesiology and Physiology

Welcome

I would base my choice more on the schools/instructors than the styles.

Agreed

Sounds like she was trying to be a dojo bunny.

Welcome

Smell isn't everything

Here is the NASKA site if you haven't found it already. http://www.naska.com/index.html As far as I know, they are an open circuit. I don't even think you have to be a NASKA member to compete in NASKA tournaments, though they use the ratings to "seed" the divisions in the higher rated tournaments. There is prize money in the black belt divisions: here is the section of the site relating to that http://www.naska.com/2003PointsMoney.pdf

I love to spar

Maybe you should post the area you'd like to compete in? Your ID doesn't show where you live

I too long for - and strive to achieve - quality in martial arts. However, while I'm not fond of the McDojo phenomenon, we must be careful when longing too much for the old way of martial arts - the old way that few to none of us experienced. Why? It seems to me that before martial arts were introduced to the public in the east, they were taught privately to a very exclusive group of people. Even after they were introduced to a wider group of people many were still rather exclusive, with lots of hopeful students getting turned away by the masters. While teachers can still turn students away that they feel would misuse the knowledge, I speculate that many train today that wouldn't have been given the opportunity back in the "good old days", including many of us that throw up our hands in despair at the state of things. I've read about the training that Chojun Miyagi's students endured; from 3pm to 8pm every day, with lectures extending hours afterwards. He himself reportedly started training at 5am for a few hours before work as well. I strongly suspect that as much as I love Goju, even at my highest commitment level of 15-16 hours per week including some teaching hours, I'd not be up to his standards. Perhaps I'm too hard on myself but I don't think so. Therefore, even though I'm not likely up to the old standards (how could I be without that amount of training), I'm grateful for the opportunities I've had to learn thus far, and I feel I've gained from this training I'm getting. In the "good old days", I quite possibly wouldn't have even been exposed to karate, and if I had, the odds of my being accepted as a student are slim-to-none.

I don't know of a site but I do know Richard Kim's books on kobudo have sai forms in them.

Welcome

That is exactly why making a proper form is a challenge; it should really make logical sense. I don't think it would be a "dance" if someone (black belts in ninjanurse's case) created their own form for a grading especially; just imagine the grading panel watching the form and questioning the creator on the bunkai - any "dancers" in that situation would be at a loss to explain why these particular moves went together, how many opponents there are, etc. When you add music into the equation, it is for entertainment, but matching the kata to the song and having an appropriate song choice would be tasks to add on top of all the other stuff. In fact, to create a good form is such an undertaking that is the main reason I haven't created one yet; if I ever make one I want it to be really good, and no, I don't mean just showy. In the meantime, there are several kata from both Goju and Kobudo that I have left to learn - one of them being 108 movements long! Now as for underbelts creating their own kata...well, the kata would reflect the practitioner's level of skill, and I'd venture a guess that the lower the belt level of the creater the more likely the person would either change the kata as they became a higher belt or abandon it altogether unless they had help in its creation. It would still be an exercise in expressing what they've learned, though. I do think it takes away from the person's training to try to create something as complex as a kata from the get go - a self defense routine might be more in order to get the creative juices flowing.

To get my Green Belt - theoretically 1 year but it took - probably 1.5 - 2 years if you leave out the time I took off in the summers. I was off for about 3 or 4 years after that. Once I returned, it took me three years of hard training to go from Green Belt to Shodan (partly because of when the gradings were scheduled, partly because I refused to grade for brown belt until I felt I could perform at my best). So, total physical training to get my black belt: 4 - 5 years; total time in years from starting karate to obtaining my black belt: 10.

I think if I was afraid to die, and lived in fear of that, it would basically mean I'd be afraid to live as well.