singularity6

Welcome aboard! And yeah, I agree with the rest... From what you're saying, the school isn't doing much of anything for you except providing some space and taking your money.

I started in my mid-30's, and it's totally worth it. You'll need to proceed with more caution, as you won't bounce back from injury as fast as you would if you were 20. Slow promotions are actually a good thing! Most adults don't have hours per day to train, and getting your body do perform will in a martial arts sense takes a lot of time and training. My experience says that once you get your first promotion, the following few ranks could take a few months each. Advancing faster indicates one of 2 things to me - either you're a prodigy, or you're studying at a McDojo/Belt Mill, with the second being more likely. Ultimately, enjoy the journey. Make sure you stretch every day (not just in class) and have a proper warm-up before you really get going!

I think the US and the UK have different laws around how this should be handled. The US can be particularly litigious, so my gut says you should find out: Are you allowed to ask? Or does the student have to self-identify as special needs? What are you obligated to do? When are you obligated to do it?

I know. Many, many teachers teach this technique against a knife. Many high grade teachers swear by it. But they have never put it to use in real life. If utilized against a novice it may work but the chances are high you get cut. Used against someone with any level of training... well lets just say that will at the very least end up in the hospital with stitches, that's if the attacker is squeamish and stops after seeing your blood. Don't take my word for it. Attend any knife fighting class and you will realize that, blocking in general, against a skilled person with a blade ends in tragedy. Have your Uke attack you at full speed and tell them to make it real. Use a lower grade with little experience, give them a marker, and just see what happens. I think you'll be surprised how many times they tag you. Don't wear your nice new Gi. To be honest I was taught the same thing but after my time in the Corps and studying under a Filipino knife fighter I was able to convince my Shinshii to remove these techniques. If you block an experienced knife fighter they will rip back as soon as they experience resistance and both of your arms/hands will be shredded. Hard to defend yourself at that point. The likelihood of being attacked by an experienced knife fighter is pretty small. The likelihood of getting cut in a knife fight, regardless of technique, is probably pretty high. Best strategy? Don't get into a knife fight!

Hmmm... We use x-blocks quite a bit to defend against knives! As far as stuff that's not all that useful that I've learned so far. Hmmm... Can't think of much! Everything has its practicality - maybe not for actual use on the street, but for training purposes. Spear hand is great! I use it to torture my nephews and my wife all the time!

I hear ya, JR. The anxiety people have these days is probably an evolutionary remnant of what our ancestors had. Being always-alert and always-anxious probably kept early humans alive. Technology and society have made us much safer from the wild and the elements... However, these things have given us other things to be anxious about. The primal fight-or-flight response helped when faced with other wild beasts (or angry people...) Now, it gets engaged when we sit down to take a biology exam, or stare at a blank sheet of paper or computer screen when writing a paper.

I teach math. Half of my students are terrified of getting the wrong answer on a homework assignment or an exam. In the end, they frequently opt into not trying, or simply accepting the "fact" that they're "not good at math" and fail. A number of them have documentation that says they have test anxiety, and they need accommodations when taking exams. This isn't life-or-death, and they get plenty of training in my classes (or other math classes.) How would we really expect people to act in a life-or-death situation?

Please forgive that my response isn't right on topic, as I'm not sure about ads through specific sources. When I decided to start martial arts, I did a google search. The schools that were searchable via the internet are the schools I investigated. My school is not listed, and the only reason I was able to find it is because it belongs to my coworker's husband, and my coworker told me to check it out. Have you thought about arranging demonstrations with local schools and community organizations? These things will probably just cost you time and transportation. My school ran a 6 week self defense seminar for women. Of the dozen or so women that participated, I think 4 or 5 actually signed up. One lady signed her kids up, too.

Knowledge is not lost these days. The way people gain knowledge has changed, however. My hypothesis is that the ability to hold onto knowledge is valued slightly less by society today. Now, it seems like it's more valuable to be able to know how to locate the knowledge and to be able to properly vet sources to determine if what's presented is valid. There is a tendency to rely a bit much on the convenience of the internet. Especially since the rise of smart phones. I do feel that the pendulum will swing the other way before too long. Anyone who's been online long enough should know that these knowledge sources are not fixed. Some go away (and they're not always replaced!) Navigating websites also changes in unexpected and sometimes inefficient ways (looking at my current employer as I type this...) More directly related to the post - Yeah, I agree with DWx. Martial arts is not vogue at the moment. Especially traditional martial arts!

Congrats!

I know it's just training, I know there's a method, etc etc, but, I don't feel ANY traditional martial art is a particularly effective way to learn how to fight. Sure, you're walking in forward foot stances, making sure your foot touches your other foot before you take the next step, with a perfect stance, you've practiced 500 punches from horse stance a day, and you have an impressive backwards-step transition followed by an amazing nukite finger strike. The only problem is you don't do zenkutsu dachi (forward foot stance), chambered punches from horse stance and kokutsu dachi (backwards stance) nukites in a real fight. I have yet to see ANYONE use a nukite in an MMA match or in a bar fight, and there is a reason for that: you'd break your fingers at least half the time. I do martial arts because I enjoy them, and they are a good way to stay active, exercise, socialize in a different setting and a well peformed kata has a very therapeutic aspect to it, some people call it moving meditation for a reason. I might get self defense benefits from my art as well, it's certainly made me a better fighter than if I never practiced any martial art, but I won't fool myself into thinking it's as good for that as boxing or muay thai are. At the same time though, I don't want to learn silly stuff or mcdojo stuff, and I do take my training seriously. I've never thought of "proper stances" as something we should use in a fight. Using the various stances simply train your muscles. Each stance is becomes uncomfortable after several seconds because you're using those muscles! Also, moving properly from one stance to another teaches you about body awareness and how to move. Working stances will improve your core strength and your balance, as well. The same can be said about chambering your techniques. I do agree with you regarding finger strikes... I'd never resort to that in a real-life situation.

Why stop at salutations? Why not get rid of foreign language terms for techniques, kata names, titles, and so on? Because you start to lose the origins and traditions of the system. I personally think some of the terminology and traditions go a tad too far, but I’d much rather keep it than get rid of it. I agree. I've frequently wondered about this. We use Korean terms and practices in our school. Bowing, kneeling and "meditating" are not part of the culture at all where I'm from. Our master instructor's master instructor was from Korea (I think he died years ago.) I suspect most terms get mispronounced. Our so-called meditation lasts as little as 3 seconds, and rarely more than 30 seconds.

I've seen people fall hard on tile floor. A couple times, it was my instructors demonstrating why it's important to fall correctly. Another time was one of our black belts sparring in a tournament. He's the one I mentioned in another post about being a junior black belt and advancing fast... At any rate, he was about 13 or 14 at the time (2nd degree jr. bb) and had no one else to compete with, so they tossed him in with the adults. His sparring partner was twice his size. He lost, but did quite well. Landed a spinning jumping hook kick to the opponents head, but ended up falling on the tile gym floor. He nailed the fall with a backward roll, ended up on his feet, and continued to fight.

Putting kids in anything that involves intense exercise can cause permanent damage (if they continue to participate.) They might do quite well through their teens and early adulthood. Problems set in later in life. *Gymnasts tend to have looser bodies, and once they lose the muscle mass that supports the joints, they suffer stability issues in their joints *General over-use issues set in earlier Yes, there are many wonderful benefits for children in martial arts, but there are risks, too.

If this past May was the last time I darkened the door, I'll have lots of regrets, as I haven't been able to finish my journey (I'm only a green belt, still!) Hopefully my body and life situations settle for me to continue.

I believe the minimum age for our school has been 16, though a "Junior Black Belt" exists. This rule was held fast until we had a student who came through and really turned heads. His skill-level is very high (he may be trying out for the Olympics.) When it comes to the non-physical, he also excels. His maturity level is much higher than I'd expect of his age. Our master instructor allowed him to test for second dan (jr. first dan to adult rank 2nd, typically reserved for age 18+) at age 15 or 16. I feel rules are important, but sometimes find myself weighing the spirit of the law vs. the word of the law.

PTSDs are real, are frequently misunderstood by the public, and are not only relevant to combat vets. Most people seem to talk about self defense scenarios as if they were born ready and super-heroic. "Oh, if I was in that situation I would ______________!" The truth of the matter is that most (being the general population) have never really faced a truly life-or-death situation. You won't know how you'll react until you're in one. Hopefully, any martial arts training that any of us has received will kick in. But even if training does kick in, it's not always appropriate. Health care professionals, retail workers, and even law enforcement officers all have guidelines on what's reasonable force, and what isn't. Crossing those lines can jeopardize your future! We just received active-shooter training at my school yesterday. The whole thing has me "stressed, shocked and jumpy."

My school split about a year or so after I joined. A number of things contributed to this happening. Ultimately the master instructor and his highest ranking student/instructor had differing opinions on how the class should run. Now we have 2 schools that teach the same style, but in different ways. I think that a split can usually be a good thing, if relationships can remain amicable as discord within the school never helps things! Most people, martial artists included, do not like change. But we should follow our training and "be like water."

Our own expectations (of ourselves, or of others) are sometimes our worst enemy. We will never reach perfection in a martial art. No martial art is perfect. No instructor is perfect. Your disillusionment and the noticing of flaws in your school are probably feeding one-another. Perhaps you should reflect on that? I use a pretty simple technique to determine whether a situation I'm in is the problem, or if I am the problem. I simply stop, and try to look at the situation objectively. Sometimes I end up swallowing some pride then changing course.

A thought just occurred to me. I would only expect the belt you come with to mean something if it's the same style. If you graduate high school here in the US, where English is the primary (and frequently only) language spoken, would you expect a college in another non-English speaking country to take you in right away? You'd probably need to relearn quite a bit before they did! My style of TKD, for example, looks a lot like Tang Soo Do, and also has many similarities with Shotokan Karate. I'd imagine I'd have to start off at a white belt in either of those schools, but I would pick things up a lot quicker. Now if I were to try some Kung Fu, where the style looks nothing like what I've been practicing, more time would be taken. What about Kendo, Iaido or Kobudo? Would anyone here expect their black belt from Karate or Tae Kwon Do to carry over to an art that focuses on weapons? To me, a black belt in a martial art is precisely that.

Yeah, I've had a lot of issues. Trying to get back into training has been hard. Hopefully things settle down for me enough in September.

I've read this book, as well as Hagakure within the last year, or so. Some parts were absolutely great (I even use some of the quotes when teaching.) Others are showing their age, as I feel they're not as relevant in today's society. Definitely worth having in my MA library!

I've always thought of calisthenics as warm-up exercises (I believe that's the definition.) I find it challenging to do my forms before I'm warmed up, as my range of motion isn't as great and the fluidity isn't there. Once I've moved around for a few minutes, I'll do my forms. They are a great exercise!

All good advice here, thanks! Yeah, the depression and anxiety thing really brings me down. When I'm down, I bring others down. My attitude would not be good for the class, and I won't be enjoying my time, so I choose not to impact others. The work issues I was dealing with were quite extreme, very complicated, and directed at me (this isn't an appropriate venue for discussing it.) LLEARNER - I've also been diagnosed with ADHD... Hiking works for me!

So, I haven't been to class really since March. The reasons why are many. I have a history of depression and anxiety (diagnosed) and recent troubles at work have been making things hard to deal with outside of work Two different foot injuries that have occurred to my right foot have been making it hard to do many things that involve being on my feet (I have a doctors appointment.) Being barefoot on a tile floor for 2 hours doesn't help! I have hyper-mobility in my shoulders, and it's not getting better with age. Hap Ki Do and loose shoulders don't play well together. Our classes only run from 6pm-8pm on Tue/Thur. I've gotten used to having that time to myself/to me and my wife. Ultimately, I want to get back into it, but I will need to accept my physical limitations (I'm sure my instructors will be understanding, too.) It only takes me a couple weeks to adjust to the time commitment. Things at work have been improving, as well. I think I mostly need to get all this out in the open (and an "anonymous" can be a great place to start!) to get back into things. At any rate, I've vented. Feel free to comment away!