AngelaG

No it is white. I have a Tokaido belt and it wears so that the white cotton core shows through. It actually does go grey after a time but that's only because the white will get dirty. I also tend to wear my belt 6-7 days a week, hence the wear and tear.

We have a weekly register, with all the students names on, and I tick them off once the lesson starts. I do it myself because a) students forget and b) it prevents friends ticking off their mates to make it seem like they've done more lessons. I keep all copies of my attendance sheets, both in electronic form and paper form. That way there can be no arguments about how many lessons have been attended, and also in the unusual situation that someone gives karate class as an alibi I can check whether they were actually there or not.

Personally I would not touch a billing company with a 100 mile barge pole, let alone a 10' one.

yeah, that's my point exactly. you don't have to teach stance per se to achieve that effect, hence the lack of formal stance training in judo. I think you'll find I said right at the beginning that stances are transitional and the work is done getting into a stance. Also just because there is more than one way to skin a cat does not make another way wrong. Shotokan at least trains stances for a multiple number of reasons, including strengthening and conditioning of the leg muscles; being low lessens the target area; drops the COG and also to achieve a projection of body mass in a given direction.

Hmmm my belt is a little worn around the back and knot, and yet elsewhere looks jet black and as good as new. Because of the way I tie my belt the two layers rub each other. At the moment the wear is downmost because I always tie my belt the same way, but if I was to flip it then the wear would be visible. And I guarantee that I have NEVER tried to fray my belt - I actually prefer belts to stay nice and black anyway.

I love photographs... Try and get an action photograph in karate where it doesn't look a bit weird. It looks like you are reverse roundkicking a zombie from Sean of the Dead.

And that list doesn't include all the groups and dojo that have just not passed on the kata accurately and gradually come up with their own version.

But the fact remains that a boxer does not grab, grapple or throw!! So dropping their body weight is less of a necessity. I am talking about grabbing an opponent, pulling to hikite and using an arm to drop them The stance would be a big help, rather than relying on strength. This has NO relevance to boxing.... Moreover I am not in competition against other arts. I don't really care what a boxer does or a judoka, but what I am my students do is my concern, and we see what works and what doesn't and learn from that.

We do not have the shodan-ho rank, but my understanding of those that do is that it is almost like a probationary black belt. Personally I think that defeats the whole pupose of black belt, but that's just my personal opinion.

you don't need stance for that. the term "sitting down on a punch" is used in boxing all the time, and they don't project their mass in a given direction -they stay centered. Who says you don't need stance for that? Just because the boxers don't do it while punching does not mean that it's right, and certainly when talking about things out of a boxer's remit, such as grappling and throws. And the mass is also centred, there is no off-balancing, the head stays over the hips, it's just that the body mass is dropped. This is particularly useful for westerners who tend to move from the upper body, as it lowers the COG more towards the hara. EDIT: Also refer to the article linked to above.

you can't really say that in all cases, though. look at it from judo terms: tai otoshi - forward stance - pulling. seionage - middle stance - pulling AND dropping. sumi gaeshi - rear stance - pulling and dropping. I prefer the weight distribution analogies. No it's simplified... it's up to people to see how to best apply the weight. Also I have only mentioned the main stances, on top of that there are other stances such as hangetsu-dachi, sanchin-dachi, shika-dachi, fudo-dachi etc. These all apply mass in a different direction. (BTW I purposely use mass rather than weight as the equation F=MA refers to mass) http://www.karateresource.com/articles/ebooks/physics_of_striking.pdf

Are you sure that you are as good as you think you are? Perhaps you are still at the stage of being unconsciously incompetent?

I disagree that kiba dachi is up. I think it has been altered so much from the naihanchi-dachi that there is little resemblance left any more. A change in heigt in kata gives up up movements. Kiba dachi is closer to shika-dachi (square stance) than naihanchi-dachi (IMO). by the way, if you look at a video of Master Funakoshi doing kata (my sensei has one), you will note that his stances were very low - so I am not completely convinced that it was Yoshitaka that brought in the low stances. Maybe it just suited to let people believe that.

So the class is still structured? Yes, there is a lesson plan, although sometimes we adapt according to the make-up of the class. (i.e. no point doing advanced kata if the majority of the class is a bunch of 8 year old red belts that need to work on their basics) And once a week, we run a self-defence/pads style class for the teens and adults, which is structured but in a different way. It's still karate, IMO, but in a more physical, hands-on way.

By open I mean that everyone is welcome regardless of age.

Front stance - pushing Back stance - pulling Middle stance - dropping Rear stance - in and down.

Heh! We currently train in a school so my students only have to make sure that they respect their surrounding area, but the cleaners do the cleaning. Anyway, personally I don't agree with making the students clean the floor etc. if they are paying a fee. The most I would expect is help clearing away pads if we have brought some along, or similar kind of things.

What is everyone's retention rate? What percentage make it to black belt at your club? Have you ever looked at the biggest drop out grades and why that might be?

Juniors classes are an hour, adults/teens are 1 hour and 45 minutes, and the open sessions are 2 hours. 1 hour classes are enough for the juniors as after that their attention really starts to wander (and you know that you are just being used as a babysitting service), but for the adults and ttens it's too short as by the time you have done warm up there is little time for any real training. By the way, our warm up lasts for 17 minutes, which is the optimum time apparently.

I teach my nephew and my co-instructor also teaches his daughter. I always think it must be weird for them calling us Sensei, but they do it, so much kudos to them.

Yes, as I said before Kiba Dachi drops the body weight. All stances are transitional - the work is done in getting into the stance.

Most stances are directional - they are about projecting your mass in a given direction, in order to gain a better effect. If I want to drop someone I could use my arm strength, or I could use horse stance in which case my whole body weight is behind the technique.

I recently sent out letters to all my students, including some we hadn't seen in a while. Since then we have had two students come back after a long absence.

I prefer for my students NOT to refer to me as Sensei outside the lessons. You never know what sort of trouble you might attract if someone overhears and decides they want to take on a karate "expert". (Public perception, not my own perception of myself) None of my instructors have ever asked for me to refer to them as Sensei outside of training, and in fact I once got a ticking off for referring to someone as Renshi when we were in the pub after training. Personally I think someone would have huge ego issues if they demanded that outside of the dojo.

Mountain punch is in Bassai Dai (yamazuki)