SLK59

Congratulations, GS718Trek!

China, North Korea and South Korea all have national karate organizations that are affiliated with the Asian Karate Federation, which is part of the World Karate Federation (WKF): https://www.wkf.net/structure-asian-karate-federation

Congratulations, Mo!

I want my rank to accurately reflect my seniors' assessment of my current physical and mental development in the art. And it wouldn't feel ethical for me to attempt to deceive my fellow karateka, all of whom would be able to determine my level of skill after watching me perform for a few minutes anyway. Cheers, Scott

Congratulation on your 5-year anniversary, Liam!

Congratulations, JR!

Congratulation CTTKDKing, well done!

IMHO, if you're training/learning totally online, without a partner to practice techniques on, you're wasting your time (and money). You learn the moves, but you're not getting the experiences of someone actually attacking you to see how the technique works. Without a qualified teacher to critique you, how do you know your doing techniques flawlessly? You may think you are, but ... IMHO, if you're getting certification from some online course, it's only worth the paper it's printed on. I had a guy come into my dojo years ago claiming he had an 8th Dan in karate. being ever the skeptical person I am I asked a few obvious questions, like "What system?" He didn't know. "Sensei's name?" He didn't know. I said "How can you become an 8th dan and not know the name of the system or your sensei?" He said it was online and took him ALMOST a year to get the rank. I asked him to show me a kata, he had no idea what that was. He did show me some stances and blocks, but they were very, very sad, slow and weak. His punch would have broken his wrist and hand, his kicks lacked any semblance of power or control, and he stood with straight legs. I asked him why he was there and he told me he wanted to be an instructor at my school. (I'm trying really hard not to laugh through all this). I asked him if he knew any of our katas, of course he didn't. Asked him to show me blocks, not even close. Philosophy? Nope. After about 45 minutes I sent him on his way with a little lesson on taking online course. I told him he's going to get himself killed if he started telling everybody he was an 8th dan black belt, because eventually somebody was going to challenge him and he was going to get a severe beating. I did offer to let him into my class as long as he NEVER mentioned his 8th dan or online training again. He left and I never saw him again. To me, it sounds as if you handled the situation with admirable patience and tact.

Sounds like things are moving ahead nicely, Patrick. Many thanks for all of your time and effort put into this project! Cheers, Scott

I feel your pain. In my careers as both a karate and university instructor, I used to field complaints from 'helicopter parents' on a regular basis. One of the hazards with any sort of teaching/grading job, I'm afraid. Hopefully the positives outweigh the negatives for you.

I much prefer the traditional 1 3/4" width, for the reasons mentioned by others above. I have worn Tokaido in the past, but KI International is my belt of choice these days.

KI International High Quality Black Belt, 100% cotton, 1 3/4" width and 12 rows of stitching. Price begins at $23.00, plus $36.00 for stitching on both ends. Excellent belt!

People have written entire books on this subject, but the following quote does a good, succinct job of explaining The Buddhist Eightfold Path, also known as The Middle Way: "The path begins with right view, also called right understanding. We need to see clearly where we are headed before we begin. Right intention means the resolve to follow this path. Right speech and right action refer to what we say and do—to not harming other people or ourselves with our words and behavior. Right livelihood means how we live day to day, making sure our habits and our work don’t cause harm to ourselves and others. Right effort refers to focusing our energy on the task at hand. Right mindfulness means awareness of the mind and body with discernment. With mindfulness, we might pause and consider whether what we are doing is harmful to ourselves or others. Finally, right concentration refers to dedicated practice, whether it is meditation or chanting. In other words, once we have directed our minds and lives toward awakening, we can proceed. Though the eightfold path is always listed in this order, it is not strictly sequential, and does not need to be followed in only this order. The eight steps can be divided into three areas for training: ethical conduct (sila), concentration (samadhi), and wisdom (prajna.) Right speech, right action, and right livelihood concern ethical conduct. Right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration relate to the practice of concentration. Right view and right intention are related to the development of wisdom." Quoted from the Buddhism For Beginners web site: https://tricycle.org/beginners/. As you can see from the quote above, The Buddhist Eightfold Path is not about positive thinking or therapy. It is about striving to live an ethical life and become an enlightened being. These can also be excellent goals for those aiming to better themselves in the martial arts.

Let me echo what bushido_man96 and Questor have said about finding a new school. IMHO it really is your best option. Perhaps there is another, more traditional dojo within driving distance for you?

Congratulations x 2, Zaine!