cathal

And, it's been beaten to death in several threads already. However, it all goes back to the basic question: What makes a black belt? Forms? I could teach a receptive student all the forms needed inside of 6 months. Sparring? I can teach someone a competent level of sparring in 3-6 months. "Street" fighting? Again, 3-6 months to achieve a level of self defense that would be sufficient against 90% of attackers. Weapons? Why would you need them? Unless you are in the habit of carrying an escrima stick around you pretty much won't have them in a fight. Ok, so lets look at hours. How many hours to get to a black belt level? That's going to be different for everyone. You give me a natural athlete, with 1.5 hours a day, 5 days a week I could get him to a competent black belt level in 8-12 months. Also, you need to look at how much someone trains. Take someone that comes in for classes 4 times a week at 1.5 hrs per class, and practices another 10 at home. 16 hours per week x 52 weeks x 2 years is 1664 hours. Is that enough? Should it be more? Less? It all comes down to the individual, how much they train, and how athletically inclined they are. Some are more than ready after 2 years, some won't be ready for 10. Black belt is a state of mind as much as it is a physical capability, and any time frame is purely arbitrary. It's up to the instructor to make the determination and promote according to who is ready. Aodhan That says it right there. In our system we train for a minimum of 2.5 - 3 years in order to get to the brown belts. Then you train for one year, then test for Shodan.

LOL For what it's worth (and I think not much) my score was 9.44

My story is rather hilarious. I was sparring with another student, it was one of my first time doing free sparring and he'd been doing it for about a year longer. I'm 5'10" and 280 pounts, he's 5'10" and about 240. I did a slow start to a head-level roundhouse kick and he swept my support leg very quckly. This prompted me to fall backward, and I landed almost completely flat...at the same time as landing I unleashed gas so loudly that I wouldn't be surprised if they heard it the next town over! Everything in the dojo stopped for at least five minutes until we got control of ourselves again.

I like that idea, I think I'll let my sensei know about it. Thanks

That's an interesting method. In my system we grade over an entire weekend with the official test beginning on that Sunday. However unofficially you're being tested the moment you walk in the door. If the tester feels you aren't at the level you have to wait about six months before re-testing.

I have had a few, with a sucker punch thrown in. One of the ppl I used to work with threw it at my face, which I promptly slapped away. He nodded as though he were my sensei and said "...so Karate has really improved your reaction time". I politely suggested that he go to one of our classes to check on his.

What is the difference between these two examinations?

I think you are the only person on this forum who practices that style of Karate. Perhaps you should ask your sensei, or a fellow student to set one up for you.

I think it happens way too much in tournament sparring. But honestly I think that it is misplaced kime. Instead of displaying their spirit/power in their physical techniques they try to display it incorrectly in their yelling.

Rebreakable boards? You've got to tell me about those my friend.

I had thought it was a system of exercise, stretches, jumps, etc. I'm glad I'm learning something today.

First of all Storm welcome back to MA. Looks like you have a lot of options in your area. I used a standard search, click on this link to check out the list: http://www.switchboard.com/Martial_Arts_&_Self_Defense_Instruction/Grand_Rapids/MI/242-/yellowpages.htm Enjoy

I have good reach but there is a man in our dojo who is close to 7' and he's got an amazing reach on him. I've had great success using my speed to get inside his reach, or grabbing his arm and throwing it opposite to my moving direction (that just gets me about 1-2 seconds but sometimes that's enough). Something else to consider is that you can attack the opponent's arm or leg. In tournaments which are point-based a good attack to an arm (try targeting elbows) or leg (target just above the knee in case you hit him/her) is just as effective.

That's good advice.

You make a good point. Plateaus can be hit a few times during training, I think that depends on the individual and of course their physical fitness level. That's where it goes over to the instructors/assistant instructors to help the students through psychologically.

I can't find anything on this style, sorry.

I'm going to check it out later tonight, when I get the chance, but it seems interesting.

We tend to both look at the other person, and look down. It seems to depend all on context. If you are bowing for kata, tournaments, sparring, etc you are looking at the opponent, so the eyes are up. If you are bowing a greeting or farewell you look down. Both are considered signs of respect, in the case of the looking though it is considered a sign of alertness.

Last night we had a great fun activity, and I wanted to share it with you. We all got into a (fairly large!) circle with one person in the centre. Two people were given tennis balls and the goal was to lightly strike the person in the centre with the balls. The person dodging the balls was to pay particular attention to where the "enemies" were, and to avoid the tennis balls. The throwers goal is of course to lightly hit the person in the centre, but they also had to throw quickly enough so the tennis ball would get to someone else in the circle if it missed. That way we kept the tennis balls going (we use no more than 2) in order to keep up momentum. Rules are that no one can aim for the head, or bounce it off the floor in order to hit high on the body, like the head. Also no one is allowed to throw the tennis ball too hard to cause injury. Have fun.

In our dojo/system we do close quarters yes, but no real ground techniques. Not enough grappling to say we train a great deal in that area.

When you practice more you'll become less shy and it won't even matter.

We have 7th Dans in the JKA and they don't branch off the moment they get their 7th Dan.

So what are the goals of the UBB program she made?

I am not a fan of the stripes, etc and half-ranks. But anyway that's a discussion for perhaps another thread. If they aren't giving you anything then push for it, take the initiative and ask your instructor straight out why you don't get any feedback. If they don't have any issues with your techniques then they should say so. If they do have issues then of course you can chat about them.

There are some good websites out there which have an index of disciplines. e.g. https://www.martial-way.com But watch for websites which offer opinions on the arts as some could be biased. Of course you can check out your favourite search engine and just run a few searches, too.