ps1

This conversation is about a few things. 1. It's about a person who doesn't understand the culture of martial arts. 2. It's about your ability to explain something within the culture to someone who doesn't understand the culture. Kind of like trying to explain kata to people that don't believe in it. I always explain time requirements as being about 2 things: 1. Commitment: I don't want to waste my time training someone who isn't committed to training for a long period of time. I'm certainly not promoting a black belt who hasn't dedicated themselves to the art. This is half the reason to use contracts...to get people that are dedicated and committed. 2. Loyalty: It sometimes sounds cultish or conceited, but I won't promote a black belt that isn't loyal to my academy. That's exactly what I would have explained to the young man. He might be very skilled and progress more quickly than usual. But there's no way anyone can, in good conscious, guarantee a Shodan test sight unseen. That's my take. Odd situation indeed, though.

This whole story is very strange to me. Someone makes accidental contact so you got a free shot? With a knee strike? You need to leave this academy immediately. Your instructor isn't qualified. That's my professional opinion. To allow anyone who is new and has very little control throw a knee strike into anyone else as "payback" is neglectful at best. Next, learn your anatomy. You're thinking you hit in the ribs. But what should concern you is what's under the ribs. Most people move to their opponent's right side and bring in the knee. This is because most people naturally carry their right side in the back (right handed). This means your knee strike, while connecting with the ribs, would actually be a liver shot. This is one of the most painful things a person can experience. It's not on you. You didn't know. But it's clear that your "sensei" doesn't understand the importance of taking care of training partners and students. Leave immediately and find another place to train. My $0.02

Not picking on you specifically, Bob, but I disagree 100%. To be taken seriously you really only need three things: Professionalism, Honesty, and Value. As long as a person coming in the school recognizes it to be a safe, fun, clean, professional atmosphere, they will be comfortable. As long as you are honest about your training and the training you provide, they will value it. As long as they see value in the training you provide, they will pay for it. Rank is quite meaningless to the layperson. Heck, to most people who've been training long enough to have significant rank, it's meaningless. We all understand that different people seem to have different ranks and there's no real standardization across the board. It's just confusing to people who aren't in that specific art. What the average person sees is you, as whatever rank, teaching and says to themselves, "Well, I guess this person is allowed to teach at rank x." Beyond that, they don't care at all.

It is the job of every martial artist to take care of their training partners. Without them, we do not have anyone to train with. And training alone can be, well... lonely. I was not there and do not know if the woman asked your son to ease up a bit during the match. If she did, and he continued to go hard, then your son was being a bully (or at least had a bully mentality at the time) and should be spoken to. If she did not, and just complained afterward, I would encourage her to discuss it with your son in a polite manner. This is why it's important to set expectations prior to a match. At 89 lbs he can't be very old, 12 or 13 at most. He doesn't understand that people train for a variety of reasons. Sure, someone may have TOLD him that; but he's incapable of understanding it until he experiences it. He doesn't know what it's like to be a 50 yr old, waking up with aching joints, going to work for hours on end and still finding it in you to go train martial arts for a few hours per day afterward. Her complaint is quite valid. People train for different reasons. Perhaps hers it just to have fun and have a place to hang out and stay in shape. Despite what you may believe, not everyone wants to act like they're training in feudal Japan for warrior combat. You're in the United States in the early 2010's. She's a 50something yr old woman. If the woman wants your son to take it easy on her, then that's what he should do. We call this respect: treating others the way we want to be treated. This is a warrior value; of ancient Japan, I don't know. But it is a warrior value of the US Army. Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, Personal Courage. If you and your son want to train like warriors, you need to include all the training, not just the physical stuff. Take care of your training partners and respect their wishes because you would want them to do the same for you. Just my 2 cents.

This is really a question for your instructor. Things vary so much from one system and school to the next. In BJJ, you can begin assisting at blue belt and open an academy at purple. That represents, on average, about 6 years of training. My original Shotokan instructor opened his first dojo as a brown belt. Of course, that was in the early 70s and karate wasn't as well proliferated as it is now. To me there are two things that will go into this decision. 1. Are you an excellent instructor who is able to teach the basics very well? 2. Does your instructor give you permission to teach on your own? Everything else is superfluous. Also, get some good books on the subject of running an academy on your own BEFORE you open up. There's alot more to it that you may suspect.

With respect, I'm not sure I follow the point of this thread. Don't take this the wrong way, it's not my intent to be combative or rude here. It's just that, every time someone provides any kind of situation for you to think about your retort is the same. "I'm faster, my base is too good, I would just hit them." I'm not saying any of that is untrue...maybe you are. I'm just wondering if you came here just to say your style is the best ever. If so, you've said it, thank you. The problem you're running into here is this forum, literally, has about 1000 years of martial arts experience telling you that NO STYLE is the best or has all the answers. We've all ran into people, like you seem to be, who believe your style is undefeatable. Every time we've run into those people, we've exposed a weakness of some sort. My personal opinion, and I give it only as opinion, is that you need to let go of your ego. Take the time to exit your comfort zone, empty your cup, and go into another style with no notions of what is good or bad. Literally enter another school, academy, dojo, or dojang simply to learn what they do. Not what they do against you, but what they do; period. This is the only way you will ever find value in anything. If you constantly compare to what you already know, your growing will be stunted and, in my opinion, impossible. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy you found a system you love and are passionate about. That is just as important as the usefulness of the system itself. But don't allow your love and passion to blind you to the usefulness, authenticity, beauty, and effectiveness of all the other systems that exist. Good luck in your journey, my friend!

Honestly, he came back way more skilled than when he left. We attributed it to the amount of time he just spent drilling the moves and really getting down the muscle memory.

Might also be a good idea to find someone who is fluent in Japanese to assist you. A translator of some sort would be fruitful.

Glad to hear you had a good time. Let us know how your search goes!

Some associations do have formal instructor training, others do not. My academy does have them. I would say this is the exception, not the norm. Under most associations, a purple belt is more than qualified to teach white a blue belts. Typically, they can not award rank, other than stripes. With that said, I would be very curious about the purple belt's affiliation. Be sure they are affiliated under someone and have been for a while. There are some out there who seem to be drifters. This can SOMETIMES say negative things about the purple belt and his/her character.

Actions always have causes. The MI, if he actually cares about the students, should speak with her in private and try to get to the root of her self esteem issues.

Most states require that, when a contract is entered, the contractee is provided a copy. If he doesn't have a copy of it...that could be a helpful point for you. As an example: all my enrollment agreements are signed in duplicate and a copy is given to the enrollee. There's even a place for them to sign and say they received it.

Unless her husband signed a non-compete agreement. Many schools will have instructors sign these indicating, for example, that if they leave they may not start a school or teach martial arts within X miles (usually 50) and may not contact or speak directly with students for a period of X months (usually 12) after their departure. There are many iterations of non-competes out there. He should know if he signed one. Even a non-compete is usually null if the person is fired. Otherwise it would be easy to take advantage of it.

It takes alot of practice. I used to stretch this by planting my toes on the ground and kicking into the ground. Over time, I was able to get it.

This brings up a few points for me. 1. If the guy is teaching a "BJJ Class," then he probably should wear an appropriate rank. If he is mixing things in class for TKD students, then I wouldn't worry about it so much. If I decide to teach some of the DT that I have learned in GRACIE in my TKD class, I won't be changing belts. Like I mentioned earlier, though, if I am teaching outside of my regular class setting with my students, I would probably do just casual workout clothing, no-gi stuff. 2. What is this weekend certification seminar? Who puts it on, and what does it entail? Also, is this coming out of the BJJ community, and is it supported by the BJJ community? Some want to bang on a TKD guy for teaching it with his belt on, but what are these seminars telling them, and how do they promote it? I know there is at least one guy out there that does a weekend seminar and issues you a navy blue belt to teach bjj. He's very expensive. I don't know if he's still doing this, but he was outed on another site back in the day for doing it. I won't mention his name here, though.

The choke has always reigned supreme. Look at Helio Gracie. He wasn't going to tap to a kimura that was put on him by...Kimura. The towel was thrown in by his brother. In addition to the Carlos Gracie quote provided in the article, Helio is quoted as saying, "There are no tough guys when it comes to getting choked; they all go to sleep." Even since the beginning of the UFC, Royce was hitting chokes, not locks. I think Tallgeese spoke well about the slow change that has taken place in the refereeing to increase the standing component of the sport. As a black belt, I can submit just about anyone I want, but it takes time...alot of time sometimes. You have to poke and prod to learn their defenses and set your moves up. This can take much longer than the length of the entire round, let alone the short time the ref will give you. That's why black belt divisions are ten minutes long in competition and many submission only comps don't have time limits. This means that someone with even blue belt level of skill on the ground can just stay alive long enough to get the fight back on it's feet. Combine that with the fact that it's much slipperier with no clothes and you have giant clunky gloves in the way... it's tough to submit in those conditions. That's why people like Rousey and Maia are so amazing. They do it on a consistent basis. I believe you don't see many leg locks because, while always available, you need to be EXCEPTIONALLY technical to lock them in.

This is great! I respect the heck out of Kyokushin fighting and your results say alot about your spirit. Congratulations!

This situation has nothing to do with you, IMO. I certainly wouldn't go suggesting lawsuits for two reasons: 1. Let's say your student wins his case! Yay for him. Next thing you know you have the same attorney finding new sources of revenue knocking at your door asking about the time little jimmy stubbed his toe. Simple fact in the US is our liability waivers suck and don't hold up. 2. It's bad business. All the other instructor did was make sure your student wants to train with you and not him. Let him go out of business in his own time. If you go suggesting things, word will travel; especially if your student follows through. That could put your school at risk. 3. The discussion you should have with your student should be about consistently making it to class. I would imagine you have certain expectations set forth...you should if you don't. Point out that only committed students make it to the highest levels of the art; which is the goal. Just my opinions.

I agree 100% with the way you handle it. I also agree that if you're in the middle of a kenpo lesson or between kenpo lessons, wearing your kenpo rank, and are asked a BJJ question, there's no need to to a quick change to your bjj belt to answer the question. As long as you wear the appropriate belt for the classes you're running at the moment, you're good. I am also a BJJ Black Belt. Thank you for showing the appropriate respect to the art. I would never go into a Kenpo school wearing a BJJ black belt unless I was teaching BJJ. If I walked into a judo school, despite being decent on my takedowns, I wouldn't' expect them to honor a bjj rank either. I know exactly zero judo kata, which is another big part of their art.

I'm very public about my training. This is for two reasons: 1. I own the school and like to drum up business! 2. Before I had my own school, I was always looking for new training partners and wanted to be sure my instructor's academy was doing well.

Congratulations!!

Clinch to avoid all striking, maybe use a knee strike to soften, throw to ground, create distance between me and attacker (i.e., get away)

Gracie Barra - Carlos jr (not Carlson) I'm sure it was just a typo but I thought I'd point it out for the newer folk to the Gracie family. Absolutely correct here! Thanks for catching that Chucksmanhood! I edited the original post to be correct.

I agree with Wastelander on this! Perhaps even add that it's because you don't want people that don't understand the situation to resent you. Bottom line is you need to feel comfortable. If the Sensei is using you like a senior student, then correcting people that treat you like one, it sends a mixed message. That's not your fault, but I can see where the difficulty is.

My pleasure.