kempocos

pmh1nic I lived in the lake ronkonkoma area for 35 years, My cousin is a wreastling coach in brentwood. I will let him know so if any of his guys are looking for training. Good luck with the new school, from your comments I am sure you will do well.

"Karate developed in the US in the late 50s " Karate was deveolped in OKINAWA then brought to JAPAN long before 1950.

I would avoid belt gradings, Monkeygirl says " your pretty much close enough " However your are still not a "SENSEI". In all the styles I know of worth anything you need to be an adult (age 16 + at time of 1st dan test) 2nd Dan or above before that title . I say be honest set levels beginner , intermedite and advanced. It will matter until the first group is there awhile and new ones start, in the mean time find a place to either train you or test your students. Bill yourself as a trainer , train fighters but be honest so the first groups will respect you that is what will make or break your club. Good Luck

My only question would be is more legal than style. The two that are not your kids , do you have a letter from the parnets saying they are ok with what you are doing? In this day and age it would be a shame to lose your house because of a freaked out mom/dad if thier son gets hurt or hurts someone. Then says Mr * taught me. I know they train however waivers were signed. Its the DAD in me. As for your boy driving you nuts, he is just hyped up he's got the cool dad , knows karate and stuff. It's that he is so proud he can not contain it. And thats great. Style wise do not reinvent the wheel , a kick is a kick and a punch a punch. The pad /bag is good, work on conditioning and streatching. I would just breakdown kata you show them so when they go back to class they will still give what the instructor wants for the form breakdown.

This is already a thread in INTERNAL ARTS, please send it there.

RyuTe No Michi - Taika Oyata

pmh1nic, I understand your points, the classes I train in are upper kyu - Black and Black only. I mentioned safe levels for many of the reasons you listed. Let me cover my points a little deeper, they address the same folks who never break a sweat during class doing kata, sparring or drills they never sweat. Before anyone says conditioning then I say if you push yourself you will sweat. If the person does not resist at all and just goes with what is expected the body reactions are not the same by either partner. This becomes clear when reaction drills are done. If you have never done this try it with your students, have every one gather put one in the middle close thier eyes and have someone grab them then they open thier eyes and respond. We also do this where the attacker is picked and the person open thier eyes when the instructor says now, they have find what direction the are coming from and what type of attack, kick , punch, weapon. This opens the eyes of to happens when things are sudden. Sparring Full contact does not have to mean full power. The no contact, or point type tippy tap sparring build bad habits in distanceing, stances, footwork. As they rise thru the KYU ranks power should increase. Once in the upper KYU's to DAN light head and leg contact as well. Then thier are times when advanced students need to bring the power up , not all the way but to what both are comfortable with know how the dynamics change. I mentioned the instructors from past training more than current. I feel that instructors who never allow sparring or drills to go to the ground are not providing balanced fight training. The attitude that all techniques will work the same on all people regardless of who uses them is also false. I have taught many times that the person needs to consider the attackers size, apparant stength as well as there own before relying on a technique. The person who trains will get the hurt every once in a while. The MA who complains of this is like a surfer complaining that they are getting wet. It happens. That is why the training must be taken seriously to keep it to a minimum. I looked at you profile , I am in jersey now but moved off the the island, several years ago where is your school. I have family and freinds that ask about places they can train every now and then.

I find that time is not the issue here are mine, The people who will not resist or complain when I resist during self defense drills. The folks who complain about sparring, getting hit while sparring. Instructors who will not let sparring matches go to the ground. Instructors who will not allow the questioning of techinques , or be willing to prove thier effectivness against a resisting attacker.

take a class , learning point locations is not going to help. Doing is the only way

"umm well, to strictly answer your question, they both won many full contact fights in their prime although Norris' fights were much more well-documented... " Bruce Lee's fight record are stories only one or two have ever been proven to be fact. So nobody really knows how he fought, his concepts and teaching ability are proven but is fight record is not. All we ever have seen are movies, and Bruces marketing hype for his acting. Chuck Norris has held many ttitles so I give to Chuck remember he a TEXAS boy , he will just pull his gun and shoot bruce where he stands

We use a parry or brush instead of a block and often see it as grabbing the arm and pulling it to the hip. This is to take the attacker off balance and to mantain control of thier wepon, the arm.

TOFU wrote "Wow. I find this a very good point. I'm not sure about anything else, but a 5th dan should be able to promote someone to the same level. What about those who feel they've gone beyond their teacher? And what if the teacher agrees and feels the same way? Hmm" The 5th dan can simply ask his instructor to test the person. I think you will fnd that many FEEL the surpased thier teacher, they often start thier own system and promote themselves several levels. You will also find they are often wrong. In regards to promoting to same rank that is part of the DAN ranking system. For example a person is awarded a 5th dan this mean he knows all it takes to be a 5th dan, and is ready to learn the skills of a 6th dan. Then until he completes all it takes to go from 5th to 6th how can he judge if a person is ready to take that same task on. As always IMHO

SMR - "If you do not agree with this statement, then you would also agree that there are no high dan rankings because as you grow older, your technique worsens. It's a fact of life." Very good point. SMR - "Now would you demote your instructor because he is too old and feeble to perform the techniques he teaches? Your rank should be an award given for your passing a test or satisfying some other requirement when you were asked to do it. Once it is given to you, no one has the right to take it away" This is another good point, No the rank was earned not self granted, or given by a group who does not have the authority such as the instructors students. I have seen where the students were so impressed the prompted thier instructor from 4 th dan to 9 th dan because they really liked him, and to this day the guy still refers to himself a a 9th dan.

SMR you are starting to see my point a 10th can promote to 8th or 9th dan. Why can't the 9TH dan request the 10TH dan his teacher test his student when the time comes. Becuase his EGO would have to admit thier is someone of higher rank. So how can there be so many 10th dans , answer is that they break off of thier instructor , create a name and declare themselves the head of a new style teaching the same techniques his teacher taught him. What is wrong with not getting higher than 8th dan and spending 30 + years getting there. The only answer is EGO. Your ranking really has little to do with how good your techniques are. Only pratice effects your techniques. IF two 4th dans train together, have equal abilities they split wins in sparring. clearly are equal. One tests and is awarded 5th and the other choses not to stays a 4th. Does the 5th suddenly have better techniques than the 4th, NO.

I would like to state most 5- 10TH dans never tested for the rank and had it handed to them. I get disgusted when I see 7th - 10th who promoted themselves by creating there own style of stolen techniques, paid and joined a "federation" and jumped 5 rank leveles, or my fav " the students promoted them. In alot of system it would close to 20 years to go from 1ST DAN - 6TH DAN, yet there are hundreds of 9th - 10th dans who made the rise from 1st kyu to 9th-10th degree in 20 years I find that very hard to accept. I do not want to get into a children program vs adult program that is already a thread please see my comments there. I am refering to adults which means you recieved you 1st dan earlist 16. The fact is even if you were a 1st dan by 16 , 6th by 36 how can you jump to 9th in less than 5 years. The only way is to LIE, BE GIVEN, NOT EARNED. Who is prompting the 10th dans to that rank. A person can not promote someone to the same rank as they are a 1st can not promote a person to 1st, a 2nd can not promote to 2nd, and so on. I would like to see all your thoughts on this. As always IMHO

In fact in most styles you do not get to be called SENSEI until 2nd dan, nidan. Having a black belt of any rank does not make you a teacher.

More to the point is for the last 8 years you have been in a childrens program. The adult program should be much diifferant. If not the adults in your school are not getting the proper training. IMHO

I agree that both is very good, We push the higher ranks to attend every class offered. Do you allow them to spend the whole class without working with the lower belts at times to give them time for thier training. To know how others run classes can only benefit all.

When preforming a throw/takedown the movemnts learned doing the technique is very helpful. I have to state Bruce Lee did not invent the " ONE INCH PUNCH " like everyone of his techniques he took it from another style. The movement is taken from WING CHUN and TAI CHI.

G95 - I still see that as a disservice to your upper belts. They should have time that is only for thier advanced level of training. I mean no dis respect IMHO

Delta - You are correct in your respect for the damage they can do. Try going to the web site mentioned https://www.dragonsociety.com and loook under seminars for one near you. I am going to a five hour seminar next sat. with Rick Moneymaker. I can not wait to see which meridian we discuss this tome. what you refer to as sublevel 4 Is what OKINAWAN and JAPANESE karate call KYOSHO JUTSU ( VITAL PINT STRIKING ) which goes with TUITE JUTSU ( joint manipulation). Rick Moneymaker teach TORITE JUTSU which combines these in a very efffective way.

Sens55 - as I staed earlier I use the same technique with other wepons. try when you go inside to block a punch use the point of your elbow. If you connet between the peck and the shoulder( lung 1 + 2 for those who use Pressure Points ) it works real well

Oh yes the concept as I explained above can be used any time you find yourself less then and arms length away .

The classes are seperated as well. kids white - green blue - junior black adults white - green blue - black black only ( senior brown belts preparing for thier Black belt test can sometimes come ) adult black belts can attend any class no limit on the amount of classes a week. They just have to agree to help teach when called to do so. It is not fair to the senior brown - black belt students if there is no class geared towards advanced techniques.

IAMA_chick - It has nothing to do with " getting over not a getting it as a chld" CARSON - " BLACK BELT WITH WHITE STRIPE " Both would be considered junior BLACK BELTS where I train. You would have the white stripe. Then when you turn 14-15 depending on the person you start in the adult class as a white belt ( white stripe ) learning the adult program. This would include testing for each KYU and the stripe color will change with each test. You then will test for the BLACK BELT when you are ready . It has to do with the fact that most DOJO'S tech very differant things to CHILDREN then they teach to ADULTS. Under the age of 18 you have not been invovled with the ADULT training long enough to pass the requirments to get the BLACK BELT. The KATA BUNKAI complete with chokes, neck/limb breaks, joint locks should not be taught to children. The concepts behind Vital Point Striking should not be taught to children. The sparring needs to be on par with ALL senior students in the class with the contact a level for an adult , and as a child even of 13-15 you would not be ready. Go to an adult advanced class and watch the sparring and ask yourself if you could handle trading blows with all the people there including the instructors. In all honesty if you are under 14 in a class with adults, I would question the level of training the school is providing to the adults. I mean no offense this just my opinion.