BrandonH45

More than you think. Some seminars are not private to individual schools, but open to the public. What do you find most important for a seminar, that would likely compel you to attend?

I’m looking to start teaching seminars and would love some advice from those of you who have experience organizing or hosting guest instructors. When you bring an instructor in for a seminar at your school or look at attending a seminar, what are you looking for? Credentials? Real-world application? Teaching style or energy? Specialty topics? Fit with your student base? New skills for you and your students to apply? Access to an organization and future revenue? Other not listed? I want to make sure I’m offering the most value possible, so I’d really appreciate your insights. What matters most to you when either choosing a guest instructor to come to your gym, or for you as a student to attend a seminar with that guest instructor? Drop your thoughts in the comments—thanks in advance!

I like that idea. Make it a milestone rather than an official rank. It could also be used to show other instructors and students how far an individual is in that particular part of the curriculum and tell them what the student needs to work on most.

So to clarify, are you recommending options 3 and 4, but keeping the stripes as mile markers, perhaps primarily for kids, and not an official ranking? For example, the student goes through the 2-3 degrees of white belt, but on test day, they put it all together?

I have been a long time instructor, but I pretty much only teach adults now. I have been getting some kids in class recently (I don't take anyone under 10 typically) and I've been noticing that they are just not picking up the curriculum as effectively as I would like. I think this is primarily due to attention span more than anything, but regardless, I went back to the drawing board. We only have one training standard to promote, which is based off of the adult curriculum. If you cannot successfully pass it, then you do not advance. Because of this, I have been considering breaking down the Kyu curriculum into smaller segments. Currently, White belt has the most techniques in it (48 techniques) and every belt thereafter have 20 techniques to learn. I have contemplated breaking this down a couple of ways: Option 1: Split white belt into 3 segments making each white belt Kyu 16 techniques instead of 1 belt with 48. Keep the rest of the belts the same as they are. Option 2: Split white belt into 2 segments, making it 24 techniques per segment, and then keep the rest the same. Option 3: Split white belt into 3 segments (16 techniques each), and every other color belt into 2 segments (10 techniques each). Option 4: Split white belt into 2 segments (24 techniques each), and every other color belt into 2 segments (10 techniques each) None of these options would increase the trainining time required to make black belt, it would only be for increased learning efficiency. Each whole color belt takes the minimum training time of 30 hours before they can promote, so white belt would be 10-15 hours per segment before they could test for yellow belt. The rest would be 15 hours each if you had 2 divisions of each color belt, or 30 hours if you did not split up the other color belts. I think I like option 3 and 4 the best because it gives less per belt, but then it adds 9-10 more kyu ranks. I think 18-19 kyu ranks sounds a little like a McDojo and looks like more of a money grab. If the belts were broken down into it's smallest divisions possible, it would look like this: White belt: 10 hours White belt stripe 1: 10 hours White belt stripe 2: 10 hours Yellow belt: 15 hours Yellow belt stripe 1: 15 hours Orange belt: 15 hours Orange belt stripe 1: 15 hours (and so on) I've been taking feedback from some of the students and it sounds like they at least would like to see white belt segmented into smaller chunks, what is your opinion?

Generally 4th-6th Dan is considered a Master level practitioner. I generally just say 4th Dan but it depends on the organization.

Hey all, I’m Brandon and I’ve been teaching martial arts for ~22 years now and have trained in quite a few styles. Over the years I found there are things I liked and disliked about a lot of systems that I have studied. More often than not, the biggest thing I disliked was the unnecessary politics in the system. I also was not a fan of more sports based systems. In 2015 I founded the Modern Martial Arts Society (MMAS) which is an international A-political organization that is dedicated to assisting martial artists world-wide. MMAS is dedicated to assist and aid martial artists in their martial journey and promotes students purely based off of merit. MMAS was primarily created as the governing agency for Seiyo-Ryu Aikibujutsu, which is a martial arts system that I founded at the same time, but any system or individual may join the organization. MMAS is primarily for martial arts systems that are primarily rooted in and teach self-defense and warfare. The organization strives to make practical self-defense education accessible globally and conducts periodic seminars. The organization’s website is is currently being updated and can be found Here. I currently hold ranking in the following systems: Seiyo-Ryu Aikibujutsu, Founder 5th Dan, Tae Kwon Do, Master 4th Dan, Modern Arnis, Master 3rd Dan, Hapkido, Instructor Assistant Maestro (Blue Shirt), Derobio Eskrima Jungle Style (~2nd Dan) 2nd Dan, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Instructor 1st Dan, San Shu Kai Budo Karate, Instructor 1st Dan, Daito-Hakko Jujutsu, Instructor Instructor, Muay Thai Instructor, Kickboxing Instructor, Boxing I’m looking forward to some interesting topics and conversations!