italian_guy

Congratulations!!

I use the same method described here:http://www.all-karate.com/karate_belt_tie_1.php

Doing karate I've never spaqrred with my senseis during classes, when I was doing kickboxing I sparred my instructorseveral times, but although he could obviously outclass me, he never was brutal, always controlled. Regarding demostration one of my sensei uses me a lot on grappling and throwing demos... he starts saying... I would like to show you how this technique works on big guys.

We have to spar for any belt above yellow.

I also have fun doing karate and Tai chi chuan. I have fun and I like to see all that visible improvement that martial art is doing to my body. About you (who started this thread... I forgot) I think you should ask yourself what you were expecting when you started and if your expectation has been meet... maybe it's not you maybe is the style or the school that make you feel unconfortable.

It is mostly historical differences but it reflects also the style. Karate originated in okinawa from three different cities Shuri, Naha and Tomari, and the different style reflect this. For Example Goju and Uechi originated from Naha, while shorin and shotokan originated from Shuri (expecially Shorin while Shotokan has some Tomari influence) then there was the influence of the mainland Japan. That also generated other differences and different styles (Wado). To make a long story short there are some difference in the various styles, and, at least in Italy but I think it is also a common practice anywhere, If you change dojo you need to restart from white belt unless the two styles are similar or you pass a sort of re-qualification test... If you go visiting a different dojo which is your style you can wear your belt, if it is a different style you should wear white belt.

a) I join mostly for fitness b) the I start to like it very much and now I enjoy the journey.

I agree that the amount of Dans is definitly too high (I counted a total of 43 Dans that in 25 years is almost 2 Dans a year not to mention coulored belt periods ) to be legitimate... He still may be a good MAist but is not definitively a humble one.

I think there is an underlaying dilemma here... Should MA be a physical discipline that: a) anyone (indipendently of age, gender, and physical fitness initial level) can approch or... b) it is reserved for few gifted people? XMA tend to answer b), current approach to traditional martial art tend to answer a). Here is the problem with XMA; and although it generates spectacular outcome on the media tend to stop the propagation of MA as a whole.

I think it should be stick a couple of inches below the end of a gi top.

Go ju ryu up to green->blue. white->yellow 3 taikioku (jodan,chudan,gedan) yellow->orange Gekisai Ich,Ni orange->green Sanchin,Tensho green-> blue Saifa .... then I don't know too far away from my current level.

No weapons in our Okinawan goju ryu class, but this is only a head-instructor decision.

When I started MA I was almost 42 and definitly not athletic at all. Now I'm almost 44 and I have somehow improved my abilities (maybe not too much but somehow I did). My good point is that I always show great passion and respect for everyone and this helps to gain the attention to the teachers (... not always but usually it is).

Hi jbw7577 welcome to the board.

Hi Dean, welcome to KF

Welcome.

Welcome to the forums.

Welcome to KF

For sure there is the Chris Kent lineage but I'm sure there are also others I don't remember now.

We are talking about the world... I never heard XMA outside US.

I train 4 days a week in the dojo/school. 2 days karate and 2 days TCC. I take 2 classes (when I'm allowed) each day. So my karate training at the Dojo is 2.5 hours/lesson and my TCC training is 2 hours/lesson. Total 5 hours/week karate 4 hours/week TCC. At home I do some stretching and details refinement in forms. The stretching is mostly leg exercises (I'm not so fexible in my legs so I feel the need of some extra training) .

Few consideration. He may be world class in his martial art and maybe he's more mature than an average kid of his age I would have no problem to learn from him as an instructor but I think to be an head instructor you need to have a maturity level that comes with age because the head instructor is not only a guy/gul who teach you how to kick punch and throw ... he needs to have deep inside in the art , good knoledge of how the human body works and the ability to run a dojo both from technical and from the organization side. BTW in my karate organization here in Italy you are not allowed to be an head instructor until you are a 4th Dan. Since it takes 12 years min. to get 4th Dan starting from Shodan and you cannot be Shodan before 14 (or 16 I don't remember), the minimum age to be head instrutor is 26 ( or 28 ) which I think is reasonable.

I cross-train Karate and Tai chi chuan (that includes Chi kung at some level) and, even if my karate style already includes some chi kung, I find this cross-training quite beneficial. Give it a try! Poi ci risentiamo....

Rank7 is your JKD from Inosanto school/lineage? I took some JKD/Kali (Inosanto lineage) classes some time ago and I liked it. I think that with Aikido you need a relatively long time to get proficient in self-defence (longer than in JKD where self-defence is your main focus). If you look for a Grappling art with some self-defence application I suggest Ju Jitsu either Brazilian or Japanese. If you want an internal art with some grappling that has spiritual aspects (this maybe also a way to complement JKD) then, in this case, Aikido or Tai chi chuan may also be a good choice.

I also never heard about the romans contacting chinese. I heard once that the chinese emperor sent once a delegation to rome but it was stopped and sent back by some neighbour population around the roman empire.