moriniuk

When I first started Karate, Wado Ryu then Shotokan, in the early 1970's, nobody used the term. It seams to be more prevalent in Kyokushinkai and its offshoots. I've asked a couple of fluent English speaking Japanese friends (both non martial artists) to translate it and they both came up with the same - Yo! I don't use it.

Dislikes: Anywhere called xxxx's Black Belt Academy Anywhere that has classes for lil' dragons. ninjas or tigers. Or anything else preceded by lil'. Anywhere that has a 'program' that has to be 'signed up' for. Anywhere you have to pay more than a few £/$ for a grading. Anywhere they wear more than one patch on their gi. (maybe 2) Anywhere that tells you not to wash your belt. Stupid kiai's (eesaaaaaaaaaaah) Screaming out the name of the kata so that nobody can actually understand it. Extremely dramatic walk outs onto the mat for kata competition. Team kata displays.

From what I remember, the only combat based arts that have the Level 2 coaching qualification which are recognised by Sports Coach UK and the OU are Judo and Amateur Boxing.

In my opinion Yoga should be a compusory practice for everybody not just martial artists. It's fantastic.

The original belt system implemented by Carlos and Helio Gracie was that all students wore a white belt. The belt colour did not signify any skill level or fighting ability. The darker belt colour was to indicate that the person was an instructor. A student who had embarked on the professor diploma course wore a light blue belt. When they had recieved the diploma, they wore a dark blue belt. It wasn't until 1967 that they started to use the black belt. The different coloured band at the end was used to differentiate it from other martial arts. A white band was a black belt who wasn't an instructor. A red band was someone who was taking the instructor diploma course. A red band with white borders was someone who had passed the instructor diploma course.

I'm with the 1st two replies. Never heard of a kyu grade asking a dan grade to spar being a 'no-no' before. Always best to try to spar with people who are better than yourself in order to improve. Sounds like an inappropriate response from the dan grade to me.

If you're going to be situated in a local sports centre, there's going to be plenty of people passing through. This is going to be your best source for potential students. Firsly, put up an advert on the centre's noticeboard. Does the centre have a website with details of activites? Make sure you're on it. Contrary to popular belief, I don't think that having a website or a facebook page is massively important, but a facebook page is easy and free so you may as well have one. There are lots of free website companies out there and it's not too difficult to do that yourself. I think you'll get more response from local adverts in shop windows etc. I've got a listing on the 'School of Everything' website and I've had quite a good response from that. There's a chance that you and your friend could be training by yourselves to begin with and this never looks good to interested passers by. Could you get other students from your other dojo to boost the numbers for a few weeks until you get your own new students? Best of luck. Where abouts are you situated. I'm in Manchester myself.

I've never had a belt presented to me. I've either had to go out and buy one or had one passed town from another student.

I'm currently practicing the Gracie Combatives course at a Gracie Centre. Their instructional dvds are amazingly good (the best I've ever seen) and I've seen evidence of people who have learnt using these alone and have excellent skills. An equally dedicated training partner is essential though.

I've reached a point where Karate wise, I just practice Karate.

Bruce Lee and the Kung Fu TV series.

I mainly teach Muay Thai but I'm a long term karateka. I'm so pleased that some people have said that you should spar from day 1. Best for beginners to spar with experienced partners though.

The 1st and 3rd say 'Muay Thai" which translates as Thai Boxing. The second one says, 'chu jai rin' which is probably somebody's name.

From the severity of the strikes from the guy with the shorts, I'd say that this was a challenge match. I'd also guess that the guy in the white pants was a grappler who had no experience against a striker. He seemed to have no idea of defence at all, but also didn't seem keen to close the distance. Weird.

I've only ever heard of 'mon' grades being used in Judo. They're only for juniors and each mon grade further breaks down the kyu grades into 3 parts. 1 kyu = 3 mon Each mon is signified with another stripe on the belt.