Aodhan

This. If you truly feel the Sensei caused/contributed, the time to confront him was a year ago, not now. I would address the injury, but not add the recrimination part of it, and let him know that she may need to bow out of class occasionally. If he's not ok with that, it may be time to find a different studio. John

To be technical, it's battery, not assault. Assault is a verbal threat ("I'm a gonna kick yer butt!"), battery is the actual kicking of the butt. Not only should you pursue charges in the civil system, but I would look into contacting his higher rank/association people. Someone that does that has no business teaching martial arts. John

Ouch ouch and ouch! I've seen ones like that, usually on a misstep running through a base. Take care of that, those can be nasty. John

Any suggestions on weird positions? Stand on one leg. Do the karate kid crane pose, then stick your leg straight out, move it around behind you, all while on one leg. Practice hopping from a balance on one foot to the other foot. Learn to grip with your toes, and how to "sit" into a position to get balance over your leg. Go find a friendly pool, and practice kicks and balance drills in chest deep water where you have support. Figure out where/how you start to lose balance. Progress to shallower and shallower water, and note the same things. Do goofy stuff. Practice keeping a balloon in the air by kicking with one leg. Count how many kicks before you have to put a foot down. Things like that. Pretty much anything you can do on one foot without really endangering yourself. John

I'm healing faster than they expected. Cause of the rehab and of my experiences as an exercise physiologist I was the same (Ex phys was my college major), I healed faster/better than people much younger than myself, and was back running within 5ish months post surgery. Still waited a year to come back to martial arts, they were worried about the landing on the toes on jump kicks being a major stressor on the calf. Ruptured it on a jump/switch stance of all things, a move we teach to white belts their first week. How'd you bung yourself up? John

Depends on the school/system. Our system has introduced weapons basics at the colored belt level now, including single/double escrima (bangh mangh ee), single/double nunchaku (ssangh jeol bangh), kama (ssangh nat), bo staff (jang bangh), sword (gum do). We teach basic handling and 9 lines of attack on all the weapons as well as some partner drills. Forms for the weapons start at 1st degree BB, and some are restricted to higher ranks (For example, sam dangh bangh/3 section staff and jee pangh ee/cane are restricted to 4th degree and up). John

I feel your pain, I ruptured my Achilles last year. 1 year before I could come back to MA. Get your rehab done and heal fast! John

Balance will improve as you learn to interpret the signals coming from your body when you are in different positions. Abdominal, oblique and lower back muscles (Often somewhat erroneously referred to as "the core") play as much a part of balance as any other segment. If you are weak in these muscles, balance may be affected. Practice, practice practice, try to balance in weird positions, and get stronger. All of these will help. John

Dynamic stretching is basically motions that mimic the actions in the sport that you are about to do. So, for martial arts, that means leg swings, kicks, leg lifts, etc. For dynamic stretching, you should start at low levels, and gradually progress over 10-12 kicks to your current level of reach. If you can only side kick belt high, start low and progress to that point. If you can't swing your leg higher than your chest, don't try to get it over your head. You should feel a bit of the stretch when you start kicking near your limits on range of motion. Static stretching is the basic "sit and reach" type of stretching. This should only be done on warm muscles, as doing it on muscles that have not been warmed up can easily lead to injury. If your sensei is old school and insists on doing these at the beginning of class before warmups, then I would not push these stretches very hard. If necessary, do a warmup before class. Hamstrings, gluteal muscles and lower back are all known limiters in kick height, along with strength. I recommend scientific stretching as a good read/primer on stretching. It takes time to increase it, so it may be a year or more before you get close to the splits (Mileage may vary). John

Mmm...we can agree to disagree on the efficacy of HR training, although it's probably more applicable to an untrained person than it is to a trained person. And MHR is a genetic determination. Fitness merely indicates how close you can get to your MHR. An untrained person won't be able to get very close to it, where a trained person might. But, MHR itself is a genetic factor. John

220-age is a complete myth, and one of the worst estimates to float around in exercise science. There is no way to know a person's maximum heart rate without clinical testing, and even then it may be off some. For example, I am 46 and I regularly hit 190+ on interval training. Also, I tend not to recommend heart rate zone based training, as there are too many variables that can affect the heart rate either up or down, without changing the relative effort level. Here's an interesting writeup of the various estimation methods, and the error regression levels for the various formulae: http://www.cyclingfusion.com/pdf/220-Age-Origins-Problems.pdf You can find other formulae and discussions on google scholar. John

Teachers generally charge what the market will bear. Hopefully that's enough to feed their family, pay the rent and keep the lights on in the studio. When you're paying $3 per square foot for a 1500 square foot facility, that's $4500 a month just for the space. That's before equipment, electricity, AC and oh, yeah, putting food on the table. Contracts are also not an evil thing. They allow an instructor to set a budget, and plan for their projected gross income level, rather than wondering month to month if students are going to show up again. Yeah, kids change their minds, but then it's up to the teacher and parents to engage them again. Now, I tend to agree that anything more than a year contract is a bit excessive, although I can see two year contracts. Anything more than that I might be leery of. And what do you expect for your "$60 to 75" a month? How many classes? Two a week? That's 8 classes, so lets say they are charging the exorbitant amount of $80 a month. That's $10 an hour, do you really think that's a realistic pay rate? Consider the amount of time you have in training for your job, would you work for $10 an hour? John

Heck, even the 'rents going at 70 is great! Hope your gramma gets the chance to go, I've had a few tai chi classes that were great fun. John

We wear mouthpieces for all sparring, even our point style tournament sparring. The better mouthpieces are designed not only to protect teeth, but to help prevent concussions because of the absorption through the back of the jaw. All our sparring takes place on mats as well. While there is something to be said for realism and sparring on wood/concrete/carpet, it's just too wearing on the body for year after year, and the chance of incidental injury is much greater. John

We also have a minimum number of classes to be eligible, and we use the belt stripe system. If you can demonstrate your form successfully in class, you get one stripe. If you can successfully demonstrate your sparring segments or one step combinations, you get a second stripe. Your self defense (Weak link release, etc.), gets you a third stripe. Weapons is new for colored belts, we don't use assigned stripes although it is part of the curriculum. Once you have all three stripes and the minimum classes, you are eligible to test. The instructors then watch those students, and when we have graduation, those students we feel should pass are invited. You can still fail, but it is rare to have that happen, as if you aren't ready, you don't get invited to test. Yes, that means just about everyone passes, but that's also because if you aren't ready you don't get invited. Once you start getting midrange in the colored belts, and when you get to black belts, then all lower belt curriculum is fair game. I've seen 3rd degree black belts fail midterms because they could not remember the form and sparring combinations for purple belt. John

You are a teacher as soon as you help instruct someone that isn't as experienced as you are. If you intend on instructing, then you should be assisting in class (if your school allows it) as much as possible, and watching how your instructor deals with new instruction, correction to techniques, student approach, etc. Then use that to develop your own style. Using rank to determine readiness to teach is arbitrary, anyway. As far as a yoga/health club, it depends on the club. It's harder than you think, because if you contract the space and bring in your own students, then you have to worry about the insurance issues between you and the club. And, the club may expect you to take paying members of the club for free in your classes. Just be very clear about the setup if you do something like that. Most dance studios will rent space. The going rate in our area is $25 an hour, but then you are dealing with off peak hours, because the best hours will be filled with dance classes, unless they have extra rooms. Good luck with it, being an instructor is incredibly fulfilling and rewarding. John

I am also ATA, and I agree with everything above. In our schools, at least (Our instructor owns 11), they are looking at some of the quality, and starting to push testing out to 4 times a year. This is not to say that our quality is bad, but that we want to structure our instruction slightly differently to get a better martial artist. The other thing that comes through is the ego of martial arts. There is a special cachet to being a black belt, and many seem to feel that if someone else is not that great a black belt (according to whatever mystical standard is established) that it somehow diminishes their own accomplishment. This is simply not true. Martial arts has, is and always will be evolving. I can pretty much guarantee that if you take some of the best martial artists around from today, and drop them in the middle of a hand to hand battle from a few hundred years ago, that very few of them would survive. It's simply the nature of the beast. Techniques change and adapt to the times, and the simple reality is that very very few martial artists will have to put their skills to the test. So if you get 40 y/o dad and 37 y/o mum wanting to take classes with their kids, and they work hard and achieve a black belt a few years down the road, and maybe they can't fight off the 25 year old punks that shove a gun in his face. Does that diminish your art and your belt achievements? No matter the art, you can either train to the minimum necessary to get that next rank, or you can train to your own full potential. And, even if you train to your own full potential, there will be someone out there that can knock you on your butt in no time flat. I've been in martial arts since 1985ish, and I've seen these same arguments go round and round that entire time. Martial arts is still here, it's no more "watered down" because of ineffective black belts than it ever was, and we are still here having the same arguments. Do the best you can in class, learn everything in class, and hope that if you do have to use your art, it's not against the guy that can knock you on your well trained butt. John

There is a similar thing for situps and planks (for time). Almost anything is good in a progression. You may not gain a lot of mass, as it's the wrong type of training. For the OP, one of the best recovery drinks after aerobic exercise such as running is chocolate milk. Has carbs/protein in the 3:1 ratio, and has been proven in studies to be one of the most effective replenishment drinks around. John

Or those that achieved rank, but were never registered by their instructor, and thus have no proof of rank. John

You can also chamber for your kick, then have someone push against the kick as you extend it. As for the stretching - Dynamic - mimics the exercises you are about to do. Something like 10 front kicks, starting at a low target and progressively getting higher, etc. Designed to get the muscles warmed up in a safe fashion, and ready for the class/workout. Do this before workouts. Static - The "traditional" stretch. I generally hold for 10-15 seconds, relax for 2-3, and then stretch as deep as I can for 15-20 seconds. I specifically target muscles that were worked the most in the workout. Do this after workouts, never do this when muscles are "cold". Ballistic - The old "bounce" type stretching. Don't do this. PNF - A very intense, controlled stretch. Works wonders, but only do it once, MAYBE twice a week. It can really damage you if you do it wrong. John

Just some educational stuff- The primary function of the triceps is to extend (straighten) the lower arm. Any movement that does that will build them. One of the reasons that there are so many different exercises, is that the suffix "CEPS" in anatomy means "head". So, there are basically three different heads to the muscle, and each needs to be worked in a slightly different way. (Biceps = two heads, quadriceps = 4 heads, etc). The function of the lats is to adduct (bring closer) the upper arm to the body. The best way is when the upper arms are kept in line with the body. That's why a pull up with the palms facing away from you will work the lats primarily, and a pullup with the palms facing you (Arms in front of body) will work the biceps primarily, lats secondary. John

Any number of viruses and bacterial infections can make you increasingly stiff and achy. I'd go have a doc check it out. If you aren't overworking, then there is SOMEthing causing it. Muscles just don't decide "Oh, I'm going to ache today!". There is something not right. John

I do both martial arts and endurance sports (competing triathlete), and I can't remember the last time I actually consumed a "recovery drink". A nice glass of chocolate milk after any endurance type workout. After a MA workout, I'll drink a bottle of Gatorade G2 (The low cal stuff) or Powerade Zero, and then a glass of milk when I get home. If I know I'll be away during the 1/2 hour after a workout (The "golden" period), I'll take a baggie with some protein powder to mix into the G2. (I don't consider protein powder a supplement per se, although I guess technically it is, and the # of times I use it in a month can be counted on one hand ) An absolute GREAT dessert, is take sugar free Jello pudding mix (chocolate of course!), mix in a few scoops of chocolate protein powder when making. Chill and serve, yummers! John

Here's three studies on chocolate milk. Karp, Jason R.; Johnston, Jeanne D.; Tecklenburg, Sandy; Mickleborough, Tim; Fly, Alyce; Stager, Joel M. FACSM "The Efficacy of Chocolate Milk as a Recovery Aid," Annual Meeting Abstracts: C-34 - Free Communication/Poster: Post-Exercise Nutrition. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise: Volume 36(5) Supplement May 2004 p S126. Thomas K, Morris P, Stevenson E. "Improved endurance capacity following chocolate milk consumption compared with 2 commercially available sport drinks." Appl Physiol Nutr Metab. 2009 Feb;34(1):78-82. Gilson SF, Saunders MJ, Moran CW, Corriere DF, Moore RW, Womack CJ, Todd MK. "Effects of chocolate milk consumption on markers of muscle recovery during intensified soccer training." Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2009;41:S577.

Our studio has had puzzle mats for years, and I don't recall any toenails being ripped off. The only injury I've had were from the 4x8 mats laid in our second room, when I did a spin kick and left a toe behind in the junction. How are you constantly ripping off toenails? John