monkeygirl

Fascinating! When I was doing TKD competitions 15-odd years ago it was all one competitor at a time, but that wasn’t specific to ITF or WTF.

Thanks everyone

I forgot all about Mr. Clark's room! Wow that brings back memories. That board opened my teenage eyes to an entire world that was previously unknown to me. ("who would DO that?!") Sai, I always admired and looked up to you. So nice to read your interview and I'm extremely flattered to be mentioned.

Wow. Where do I even start? First, thanks to Patrick for reaching out and inviting me to be a part of the 10-year anniversary celebration. It seems like just yesterday we were celebrating 5 years. I probably won't be able to make the live celebration, but I'm so excited for you all. Congratulations, Patrick. I've been away from this community for a long time now. Looking at my user profile, it seems that I first joined in February, 2002. I was just 14 then - barely old enough to use the internet without serious adult supervision - and had been practicing TKD for about 2 years. I don't remember how I stumbled upon KF, but I immediately felt like a member of the community. I loved reading about other styles and felt a connection to the vision of a respectful community of practitioners but also friends. Patrick and I shared the connection of being homeschoolers. After a while of steady posting, Patrick asked me to be a Sempai. It was a huge honor and gave me a real taste for being involved behind the scenes of a community. It was challenging to be in that role at that age. I'm sure many people thought that I was just a kid (and I'm sure I gave them plenty of reason to) but Patrick was always very supportive and I learned an immense amount about earning respect and deserving authority. We (the Sempais and Senseis) dealt with issues ranging from simple trolling to pretty epic user problems that made it into Patrick's book (in redacted form with names changed, I believe). I learned so much about people and conflict resolution. I also remember winning the Funniest Member award a few times and feeling like that was the highlight of my year(s). I turned to the community for a lot of things - friendship and entertainment, and also support for teenage inter-dojo drama (OMG DOES HE LIKE ME?) and the heartbreak that separated me from martial arts when I was 16. My life started to change very quickly after I left the TKD school, and I didn't have the time or emotional energy to devote to staying in the KF community for long after that. It's very strange to think about how much has changed. I've graduated from college, gotten married, moved across the country and am doing the whole career thing, maybe grad school in a few years. Things that seemed totally beyond reckoning when I was an active member here. Although I'm not very active now, I think of KF and chat with Patrick from time to time. For years now I've been hoping for the right opportunity to come along and get back into martial arts. If I ever find that, maybe I'll make an appearance again. Until then - thanks. I learned so much here, and the lessons have stayed with me.

They are a lot of fun and for all ages... some retirement homes are incorporating them in common areas to promote the maintenance of motor skills, hand-eye coordination, etc. They are also very fun for parties/playing with a group of people.

I still like to haunt the forums from time to time...

There are two major factors in price-setting: 1. Costs, and 2. Consumer demand. I assume that having morning classes will cause you to have the dojo open at hours during which it would normally be closed. This means that you'll be paying for energy and whatever you pay your instructors, but pretty much nothing else in addition to your normal business costs. If you're already in the clear financially, it wouldn't hurt you at all to figure out the "cost per person" (the cost of opening the dojo for a few extra hours divided by a low estimate of students) and charge $10-$15 over that. That's a pretty clear profit and I'm assuming you'll be able to keep your prices low enough to attract a fair number of students. However, here's where the consumer demand portion comes in. Say that you decide to charge $30 a month, and at that price everyone in town can and wants to come to your class. A, not everyone has time for that and B, your dojo probably isn't big enough. Raising the price increases your profits and lowers the number of people you have to turn away. So you want to keep charging higher until you have a full classroom and you're not turning anyone away for space reasons. Good luck!

A lot of instructors get into a rhythm and routine when they are instructing. If you've ever worked in retail or any other job where you've interacted with many people in a given day, you know that (most) people eventually get a small repertoire of words, phrases, even jokes that they recycle. To some extent, I think that's what's happening here. As you said, it seemed automatic. However, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. There is a wide range of what can be acceptable from a particular technique. The fact that your instructor is saying "good" every time probably means that (although each kick feels very different to you) you are within the acceptable range. Probably not perfect and perhaps not particularly spectacular, but acceptable. As others have suggested, if you want to achieve more than just acceptable, approach your instructor and say you really want to challenge yourself and perfect your technique, and ask if he has any suggestions, or could at least keep an eye out for areas of improvement in the near future. Most instructors will be delighted that you are taking such interest in excelling at your art, and who knows-- he may even apply the treatment to the rest of your class. Good luck!

"Piano" by D.H. Lawrence http://holyjoe.org/poetry/lawrence.htm it doesn't specifically detail the emotional burden, but sort of alludes to his difficulty in coping with whatever burden it is. that's the first one i could think of off the top of my head, i'm sure there are better examples. You may want to look at Walt Whitman, some of his cantos in Song of Myself and other works are sort of troubled.

Congrats KF! It's been an honor to be here for 3 1/2 of those years.

Thanks everyone, and congrats to all the winners!

I understand your position in a lot of ways. I'm in college and only about 5 people know of my MA background. It's not something I'm working very hard to keep secret, I just avoid the topic. If it came up, I wouldn't lie about it...I just try to keep it from coming up. Thus why a few people know...and they understand that I'd like to keep it a "secret". It's very difficult though. It's such a huge part of who I am. I definitely don't tell stories that I otherwise would. I'm confused though...why was your girlfriend expelled from college?

Here's an english translation (to the right of the spanish lyrics). http://www.wedoit4you.com/lyrics4you/show_lyric.php?Lyric_pk_id=24358&Lyric_lang=0 Basically he's mourning the death of a relationship...not because he misses it, but because it turned sour and left him wounded. That's the general idea.

I sort of look at it this way: Yeah, it saddens me to see 8-year-old BB's that have no idea what they're doing...but that has no effect on me or the personal value of my rank. I don't really worry about outside opinion confirming that I deserve to be called a Black Belt, or that a Black Belt is something to be proud of. I proved it to myself over the course of tournaments and meeting other talented MA, and seeing how I matched up. I worked hard and overcame a lot of obstacles on my way to black, and that's good enough for me. People who have heard about my training usually take one look at me and say "no way". I'm 5'2", 100 or so lbs, and usually don't have much cause to seem agressive. (I say usually because, being a person of such small build, people think it's hilarious to pick me up and try to fling me around...and sometimes I have to stop them.) Some of those people taunt and challenge me, trying to make me "prove it". A few years ago I felt like I had to...now I realize it's neither necessary nor worth it. Nothing is ever good enough for people like that, and someone could get hurt in the process. Basically, I feel that an idea of "prestige" (or rather, being concerned with others' ideas of this prestige) contradicts the black belt attitude I believe in: humility, respect, self-control. It's not about impressing others. Just my two cents.

oh my.... here's a tip: every time you look in the mirror, think about what else you could be doing with your time...practicing kata, for example. Or reading a book.