1kickKO

Just thought I'd start an interesting topic here...basically what are your requirements for people training under you to get their black belts? In my dojo, you must know all weapons katas, all open-hand katas, you must fight all the black belts/brown belts in the room at once (normally 15 of them) and then you have to fight each one individually, and you must know all terminology, how to count from 1-101, know our karate creed, and be able to explain the weight distribution and the technical stuff of each of our 8 basic movements and perform them. I read a good article once where a sensei makes his upcoming black belt sudents write a 1000 word essay on why they think they should become a black belt. I think this is a good idea because it gives you a chance to see their maturity and readiness for a black belt, and to see their reasoning as whether or not they should get one.

I think XMA is horrible (sorry if I offend anybody) unless you want nothing from yoru training but to learn gymnastics and be extremely flashy for judges. But in a real street fight, will a back tuck help ya? nahhh..

Basically it comes with time, it's just something that you have to get the feeling for, you know, like learning how to ride a bike..ya just gotta do it for a while until ya get the hang of it.

Oh, I forgot to mention the Majestic Theatre in my city. It is supposedly extremely haunted. The story behind this is that in WWII we had a base here, and when the solderis died, their bodies were shipped back here. When they didn't have enough room to store their bodies, they used to stack them in the alley next to the theatre (now known as blood alley, as the blood from the bodies dripped down the alley into the sewers, and it is still stained blood red) and in the theatre. Apparently the theatre is haunted by a little girl. Well, I was in a play one time there, and we took a picture of one of my friends in the dressing room and right behind her we saw the shape of a little girl in a smokey white configuration. Then, I went down into the boiler room (I live in Ohio, and the underground railroad runs through our city, many hidden tunnels everywhere) where there are a few hidden tunnels, and it is suposed to be extremely hot in the boiler room, and I went down there and got extreme cold breezes. Also, about 3 weeks ago, my friend and I were filming something in my room, and we noticed some orbs, we thought nothing of them until we saw one that just kind of took shape out of a tiny ball, it took shape into like a tiny angel looking thing and flew around the room, then dissappeared. Also, the same night we tried to investigate more into it, and when I shut the lights off we got something strange, two orblike figures joined together and formed a tail, then flew around the room. Then when I asked it to move something, I heard a noise and looked up and saw my ceiling fan string swinging in huge circles...freaked me out.

Hello fellow martial artist, are you tired of feeling helpless on the streets? Well have I got a solution for you. Buy my new 16 DVD/VHS/Book/magazine/soapdispenser/beltbuckle package and you will get everything you wish you had, then some! Only 60 easy payments of $287.34!!!!!! What a deal! Compare this to real dojos at the price of possibly 5 dollars a lesson, you are truly getting your money's worth! In my first through 5th DVD series I cover the basics, brushing your teeth, wiping your bunghole, washing your hands (hints to the soap dispenser) and even how to die your own shoe!!!!!! In The 6-12 DVD series I cover intermediate techniques...included is how to use your leg hairs like a ninja would, and for those girls that don't have any...how to use your fingernails to slice through a man's (or girl's, we are a nondiscriminating company) vital organs! And finally, what you've been waiting for, my 13-16 DVD series covers only techniques for the most advanced. Included is how to run away, the proper strides for running, and how to jump over fences when you're running. Buy now while it's hot!!!! You will also get your 10th degree black belt certification and a club member patch.

I see, well I'm hittin' the sack, but good luck and stay safe.

To each his own I guess.

Haha good point. Something I might throw i here are those "learn how to kill somebody in a split-second" tapes. Don't you guys think somebody could seriously get hurt or hurt somebody else without knowing the proper ways to do these techniques? And when to do them? I think there should be some serious law-suits against these people.

p.s. Welcome to the martial arts ..oh..this might add on to a whole 'nother convo, but I'm pretty interested in what made ya decide to start martial arts..everybody has their own reason...mine personally was it sounded like fun and mainly for self defense...and travelling and competing didn't sound too bad either.

No problem, hope you really like it. If ya ever need any help or anything at all feel free to e-mail me at nmoccabee@yahoo.com.

Glad you found a school, so I take it you're going for Muay Thai? Well good luck and I hope ya find it useful and fun. Oh and sorry, I overlooked the WA and thought it read WV for West Virginia. Yeah, I travel quite a bit for competitions, actually I will be travelling to Rome, Italy and Dublin, Ireland for competition to win the 9th Irish Cup with Team America. Um..I practice Ko Sutemi Seiei Kan Karate and jujitsu, so I go to karate/jujitsu tournaments which are completely different from Muay Thai tournies. Restrictions at my touries are basically no below the belt, no face contact (until you are 17 or older and a black belt) no groin shots, knee shots, hair pulling, eye gouging, you know, the "cheap shot" kind of stuff. In Muay Thai tournies, the rules will be a little different, but not much. Kicks can be anyways besides groin, and as for all the "cheap shots" those apply as well. You could google that as well.

Haha, I just can't take it anymore, martial arts is becoming about money hungry people who know nothing about it but ust want business..ahh well that's their choice, I'll never support those idiots.

Yes it's extremely nice, he is a nice person and extremely smart in the MA aspects. You can check out a few websites on our system... our main website is this akjuteamamerica.com , and akju.tripod.com.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Lately I have been seeing in black belt mag and all over the itnernet these types of ads, I recently saw one that said "Learn in 5, teach in 10!". Pathetic..there is no way you can become an instructor through learning by a week long video program. What are your takes on this?

Yeah everybody's right, Hai is Japanese for Yes. This is also how my Kiai sounds like...why? no clue.

mofunzone.com Go to "online Games", then click on "fighting games". he Capoeira 3 game is my favorite, extremely realistic. Just thought I'd share incase any of you are looking for some good online gaming action.

If things really are that bad, you should move and find somewhere you are happy. Politics are politics, karate is karate. You are there to learn martial arts, not about who should be president or whatnot...so all-in-all I believe you should find a different place to train.

Ya know what..ya have some good points, I'll ask Sensei about this and see what his takes on it are, and bring back the info to ya.

Haha no that's a great schedule, I practice 2 times a week, which seems too little, but we always to awesome at tournies. How long do you practice time-wise?

No problem, I love hearin' about historical events of karate. But the info is from my soke, who trained in Okinawa for quite a few years, and developed his own style from it..called Ko Sutemi Seiei Kan Karate and jujitsu. But it originally came form Okinawa (apparently I always get those two mixed up, although I do know that Okinawa is not a part of Japan). Fkukyuugata ichi might be a totally different form of the kata, I don't know, but two similar sounds and spelling (eg. fukyuugataichi and fu ku gata ichi) might be two different things, ya never know. Thanks for sharing the info though.

Nobody's mentioned anything about old spice yet? Shame.

Well I"ve actually had two UFO (if you can believe that) encoutners...once I was walking along the flood-wall (a 5 mile walking path) at about 2:00 am and these two huge lights with a red center and like that street light orange around them were glowing big, they looked like about the size of the moon, and they hovered for the longest time, then they got really small then disappeared. Then another time I was at a football game at about 9:00 pm and 6-8 orange glowing balls just started dropping out from underneath each other and formed a slanted line. The next day on the front of the newspaper it said evyerbody in my county had reported it and that 3 airforce planes were sent to check it out. It was titled "Are ALiens Among Us?" The weird thing is, this happened a week after a crop circle appeared in a town next to mine.

Whoops, sorry I meant Japanese Army, not Chinese..sorry..haha I guess that would make a big difference.

I see, where did ya begin learning this?

Haha, I wear traditional gi pants that just have a drawstring..the bad thing is, it comes loose sometimes!