a_modern_production

between me, you, and everyone else on this forum... i think testing is garbage. up until maybe a year ago i thought thats how it had to be done. You put in your dojo time, you train hard at home on your own time, then you test and if you do good you are promoted. I had the privelage of attending a very good goju-ryu school, and it just so happened that on that day, at the end of class, the sensei promoted one of his senior students to black belt. The senior student had been training their for 12 years and that particular day the sensei had felt he was ready to receive his black belt.... after seeing that, i feel thats how belt promotions should be done, when you look ready, naturally.

6 months of training is just enough time to make you a worse fighter then you were before you started training at all.... After about 6 months of training your body is just starting to accept the techniques, strikes, and katas into your muscle memory.. naturally for this to happen a lot of your born fighting instincts such as charging someone with right left right left flailing motions are being overwritten. to get into a serious altercation at this point would leave you a bit confused in the head about what to do, because you still have a large amount of your natural fighting responses and you have a few new striking methods that your body has been slowely adapting. thus your going to be trying to fight with these new techniques you have learned, but they will still be to fresh for a novice to use them productively. which is why you hear the phrase "the most dangerous people are the ones who know nothing". it's a confusing thing to explain, and i am probably the wrong person to do it as i take much too long... hope i conveyed myself correctly.

ninjacurse... i believe that sometimes force works just like kindness... this "whitebelt" that we keep talking about.. up until the moment he pushes you around, maybe your right, nobody has really showed him respect or friendship.. and maybe he has made his way through life by pushing people around and bullying others without any reprecussions.. but if you are the one to finally just knock some sense into him, and then offer him a hand up... maybe he'll get it. i am not saying you have to just kick him in the teeth and throw him through the window then go back to practice. but make him feel weak and lesser and then show him it doesn't matter because you will be his friend anyways... that is gold baby. if i was that daniel steele women i would write a book about that stuff... and yes i realize how corny that whole situation sounds, like something out of a dawsons creek episode but without the making out.

either your sensei is not all there, or he/she thinks you are an exceptionaly gifted and hardworking student who deserves this extra bit of treatment, ...........or they just don't like you.

i can see where your coming from hobbit.. and in some cases i will agree with you.

the multi-range attacks and defense offered by the kusara kama is what attracts me. when you think about it, it is 3 weapons in one, the weight acting as a bludgeoning instrument, the kama acting as the bladed instrument, and the chain useful for choking and tangling up the enemies weapon/body parts. a very flexible and spontanious weapon.

thats an easy one... your dog will never tear up your house while your standing their watching it. he wants to make sure that you are hardworking enough of a student that you are able to meet any sudden suprise [like a test out of nowhere] and overcome it.

yes i am talking about a syckle or a kama [not that i say either of those are the same thing] that have a chain with a weighted ball on the end... and i think you are right with kusara kama.. that name sounds familiar and i think i have run across it in a few books.. i figured that it would be ninjitsu but i didn't want to draw any conclusions. all i know is that is the one weapon i really truely want to learn. hopefully it'll cross my path soon enough.

any altercation that starts out with chest or belly bumping is more of a joke then it is a fight.

all i have to say is....ooooh that lipstick is a good idea

you know what SUPER... thats a damn good peice of advice... i usually mean to ask the sensei what his views are on the way martial arts are heading. but after observing the class, i have gotten distracted and completely forget.

he should have learned respect for other people when he was 5... but thats only in a perfect world. i guess my point is that not everyone who isn't involved in martial arts is disrespectful, and not everyone who is involved, is respectful.

syckle and chain, and kama and chain... this is a weapon that i would be most interested in learning but i am completely clueless as to what art this would be taught in or is it it's own seperate art [like kenjutsu]. any thoughts?

good point.. if you spend some time with the plastic replica knife and it is just not doing it for you cause your not scared... then just take a kitchen knife and dull the blade down on peice of granite, then brake the tip off... this makes the knife about 80% less lethal, however there is still enough danger to get your blood pumping... but i recommend spending some time with the plastic replica first.

that works to.... unless he has been sleeping in the alley behind the dojo, then he will refuse to leave because it is not his bedtime yet.

from my experience you should never try and guess what an attacker on the street is going to do... all that does is make you setup a combo in your head that fails completely when you try to excecute it. i have had my fair share of street brawls with all types of characters. and in at least a few of them there was something i could of done to end the conflict before it got physical, and that would of been the best thing to do. but since everyone has already been through this speech, i am skipping it. since the biggest part of this topic seems to be on knife defense [something i have put a lot of work into, considering the likelyhood that an assailant on the street will have one and won't hesitate to pull it out] here is a training method i have tried before, it's very common sense and most of you will go "oh yeah, that is nothing genius" but here it is. if you have a good friend that trains with you at the dojo or is just interested in helping you out, then run down to your local costume shop and purchase a reasonably sized plastic knife replica. give it to your friend and tell him to just come at you with it with the idea of ending your existance. and you do your best to take it away, put the limb with the knife in a position to be broken, or damaging your assailant enough so that he is in no position to pursuit you when you get away. even if all of this fails and you spend most of your time just retreating and evading the swings and stabs, at least you get used to dealing with the weapon. but just remember, this type of excersize will not make you a knife deflecting machine and unstabable. The attacker on the street will more then likely me much more aggressive and forceful then your friend is [depends on the friend]. it is just like dojo practice, and hopefully it will better your chances...

thats nice and civil... first of all, negative rivalry like that has no place anywhere, especially inside the dojo. it shouldn't matter weither your a black belt and he's a white belt or your a white belt and he is a black belt... if a fellow student tries to bully you like that, you knock them to the ground and make it clear that their attitude won't be tolerated. unless you have done something to provoke that treatment the other students and your teacher should be on your side of the matter too.

Thanks for the reply Brickman, I can only guess that you are a close aquantaince of sensei minakami or that you train with him [hopefully those two go together]... If I am right then any relevant info that is not posted in a brochure or website you could offer would be appreciated, if you don't feel comfortable posting it for everyone else to see feel free to msg me on aim if you have it.. my name is leHassle

actually it's funny that you both mention minakami... i have visited his dojo in lake city where he teaches, and it has been one of the very few dojo's in seattle to have impressed me... once i am fully recovered from my injury i will most likely attend there.

this goes back to what wcnavstar was saying.. it's like that with every art. i have lost count of the karate dojos i have visited and had to bring a box of cleanex with me so i could wipe away the tears. what saddens me is the amount of schools that say they teach "traditional" [whatever that is suposed to mean anymore] karate.. but all they really teach you is block countering drills for winning tournaments and competition fighting. or places where you train your karate techniques and katas hard... but when it comes time for sparring it looks more like boxing or some half ass backyard ufc match.

I just moved to Seattle, WA about 8 months ago, and have been recovering from a long term injury... During my recovery I have spent my time visiting dojos throughout the Seattle area, but havn't had many positive experiences. I was hoping that someone on this forum might have a good recomendation for a karate school. At this time I am very interested in studying shito-ryu and or shorinryu, so any recomendations that fit these schools are even better... thanks.

and I thought shaolinwolfs forum was full of "which style is the best" people. Listen King of Fighters, when you take the concept of style away from the martial arts, then all the arts become the same. Style is just the flavor, you practice what tastes good. Through my eyes Shorinryu is beautiful and powerful, if I was lucky enough to find a shorinryu sensei who could meet my picky standards in my area you bet I would sign up in a second. But that aside, i would take just as much caution when fighting a tae kwan do fighter or a choy li fut practitioner. Like a heard someone say ealier, it's the teacher who makes the difference.