Rateh

We greatly split up our age & rank groups. We feel students get the most benefit from it. For example, our youth "high ranks" tend to be a little more skilled than our teens "high ranks", due to our teens having only one class division and our youth having three. We group as follows: Tiny Tigers (3-4 years): "all ranks" class Little Dragons (5-7 years): "low ranks" class and "middle+" class (middle+ is all students who are middle ranks, high ranks, and elite ranks) each rank group is 3 belt levels Youth (8-12 years): "low ranks" class, "middle ranks" class, and "high ranks" class - each class is divided into 3 belt levels Teens (13-17 years): "all ranks" class Adults (18+ years): "all ranks" class We hold 7 classes per day, and each group has 4 classes to choose from each week We also hold a "black belts" class once a week for all youth, teen, and adult black belts. Black belts MUST attend the black belt class if they wish to advance. All students who earn a black belt before 15 years old are considered a "poom" belt, which basically means junior black belt. Their belt is black on the top half and red on the bottom. Even though our class times are not particularly long, because they are very focused on what the students of that rank need the time is sufficient. If we had more time in the day I would extend the classes by 5-15 minutes. We also hold separate classes for sparring on Fridays. Forms clinics once a month on Saturday. And seminars once or twice a month. Their are rank and age requirements to attend these classes. We also hold "leadership" classes to teach students basic leadership skills, as well as how to teach. Students who participate in this program can eventually certify as an instructor. I can't imagine having all of these classes together. The class would have to be quite long to accommodate all that needs to be accomplished. And it would be less tailored to the needs of the particulate students. This is of course just must opinion based on my own personal experiences.

I DO rely on teaching martial arts as my only source of income. I spend 35-40 hours a week at the school and I make less than I did when I worked for Walmart. I barely scrape by. And by barely I mean some months I haven't been able to afford food, yes food. I'd absolutely love if the world worked in such a way that I could just teach for free and somehow have a place to live and food to eat, but it doesn't. And expecting instructors to somehow live in this magical world, or to work a full time job and then teach for free part time is more than a little ridiculous IMHO. We don't expect doctors, teachers, firefighters, police officers, those in the military, those in the government, or any other profession to do their jobs for free, why should we expect martial arts instructors? Also, I have only been paid for teaching in the last 2 years, prior to that I DID teach for free. And guess what, I'm a much better instructor now than I ever was because I have been able to dedicate all of my time towards that, shouldn't I be fairly compensated for my expertise? I'm sorry if this post comes across as rude, I don't mean it that way. I just feel that the idea of martial arts instructors not making a living off of what they do to be a bit insulting. I teach for the love of teaching, but I also need food and shelter.

We do several things, I'll give you an example of a 5-7 year old white belt. First, they need to earn 8 stripes ("tags"), each a different color, that correspond to different parts of the curriculum. They also have to earn a behavior stripe and an attendance stripe. Once they have earned all 10 stripes they are eligible to test at the next test. Another thing we do is called "Levels of Detail" For example: we have 4 Levels of Detail for Basic Kicks each including 3 physical areas and one understanding Level 1) Must have good kihap, effort, and the techniques need to look like what they are (or in other words, if you see them perform a kick you should immediately be able to identify what kick they were throwing). For understanding they must know the technique by name. Level 2) Must have good focus, balance, and include all of the steps. For understanding they must be beginning to understand the importance of proper technique. We have Levels of Detail for everything from basic kicks to self-defense. At each rank in the curriculum it states what Level of Detail students must be able to perform the moves at. This keeps everything consistent. So for that 5-7 year old white belt to earn their Brown Stripe, they must perform their blocking set and their first two kicks all with Level 1 Detail.

TBH I don't think most of us here who have black belts are 16 stone 30 year olds with combat experience. Nor have we all fought in harms way.

Hmmm... Well we really have no money in the budget for new equipment right now. Also, I really don't want to bring in techniques from other styles, as I feel that trying to mesh styles together isn't very effective. I do like the idea of putting self-defense stuff near the end of testing when students are more tired, right now we do it around the middle. Perhaps I could also add it in at the end of some of the advanced classes without notice, just have some of the students stay after and ask them to do something they are not currently working on, but have trained in. We cycle through everything so this would be kind of a surprise, more like a real attack I would think. Just something along the lines of "Madelyn and Sydnee stay after please" then tell one of them to attack the other with a specific attack? Thanks everyone for your comments so far!

Tip: hydrogen peroxide gets blood out of white uniforms

I'd like to know what other instructors are doing to insure that their black belt students can defend themselves. What specific drills or instruction do you provide that you believe is a good indicator of your students ability to actually defend themselves? What do you do in testing to test the students ability to actually defend themselves? If you are a student and not an instructor, what experiences do you have in your school that make you feel you could defend yourself? When talking about self-defense, do you differentiate what between what would work in various scenarios. For example: youth students learning both what they can do to defend against their peers, and what they can do to defend against an adult. Or as an adult defending against your friend who is out of control, versus defending against someone who is threatening your life. What expectations do you have on a black belts ability to defend themselves. Fight against any and all comers? Defend against scenarios most likely to occur based on the students age and gender? Escape without any serious harm coming to them? Do you teach them to run away? Do you teach them conflict avoidance and how to talk themselves out of a bad situation? Do you expect them to be able to stand toe to toe and fight it out? I am interested in ALL ideas and concepts. I myself have 17 years of training, in various schools due to moving across the country. The school where I teach at it is me and the Master instructor, I teach the majority of the classes under his guidance. We are having our first group of students test to black belt next May, 8 in total. In some areas I feel very confident in our students abilities. When it comes to self-defense I would like a more accurate way to know they are able to defend themselves, and I find this hard to achieve considering we cant ACTUALLY send them out into the world, put them into a situation in which they need to defend themselves, and then let them go all out and actually do it. I CAN actually check their ability to defend against various attacks, their ability to be spontaneous in their defense, their ability to effectively spar, their ability to do their forms in a way that reflects knowledge and understanding of the moves, their ability to hit targets with speed accuracy and power, their ability to perform techniques in the most effective manner, their knowledge of where to strike and how, their ability to block and evade, their ability to do basic defenses in a pressure situation, etc, etc. These I know how to test, but is that enough to know they can defend themselves? Is there more I can do? Thanks for any responses at all, I will take everything into serious consideration, so that I may best help our students and school. Again, I really appreciate any feedback, even if you don't think it is worth much, please say it anyways. Thanks again!

For reference, I am 30 and every time a phone book gets delivered to my door it goes right in the trash. I do, however, use the internet to look up phone numbers every single time I need one. In fact, just last weekend I spent time online finding a doctor in my area that was covered by my insurance. Never once did it cross my mind to open a phone book. That seems an awful lot harder than going to my insurances website and doing a search for doctors in my area. Also, the internet gives you the ability to find out real information outside of regular business hours. Because you don't need to call or stop by to get the information. My parents are 52 and 55 years old, and they to use only the internet, and don't even own a phone book. Just a thought from a somewhat "young" person.

We follow the Poom system for students under 15 years old. We also follow the Poom BELT which is half black / half red. The highest colored belt is red, so the Poom belt color is half way between the highest colored belt, and a full black belt.

I wanted to train as a child but my parents didn't sign me up due to cost and time constraints. As a 12 year old my mom signed me up, then told me later. Within a couple of months I knew that I wanted to do martial arts forever. We met in various public schools during the evening, in cafeterias and gyms. I remember deciding to "make a memory" and looking up at a particular part of the ceiling, and focusing very hard to remember that moment, that I wanted to do martial arts forever. Well, it worked, I remember that moment. It's almost 18 years later, moved 5 times since then, still at it, can't imagine my life without it. In fact, I work full time as an instructor, and its awesome.

Something I have learned over the years is that just because you are in the right, does not mean that it was right. In other words, imho, there may have been a better, more humble, way of addressing the situation, that would insure no hurt feelings on either side. Yes, you may have been correct and even justified in what you said, but there may be a way in the future that will leave both of you feeling good about how the event turned out. As it stands she probably feels a little defensive, and it seems like you feel a little out of sorts about it or you would not have posted it here. I speak as someone who would normally have said exactly as you did. Good luck in the future, I hope the two of you smooth it out. Working with parents can be hard, but the skills learned in dealing with difficult situations can help you in all areas of your life.

But who corrects you? Unless you are soo good that you can self train or have been able to keep training everything properly, which I doubt. If you havn't got the enthusiasm to do some training yourself then you have no place in trying to pass it on to students. You need to urgently get back in the line in front of someone else, if there is nobody else then you need to find someone somewhere, even if its once a month for a day. I trained under someone who gradually got worse at their own technique and skills, they ended up teaching rubbish or missing parts of Kata. When I started teaching the students that went in front of both of us were getting taught different things in the same system! I used to cringe when I was in the line and they showed bad technique. In the end I had to split and now train with a much better Sensei who has had to do a lot of corrections on me but has sharpened my skills. This i am then able to pass onto my students who have also noticed the difference in me and my lessons. I complement this by working on Kata and line work myself during lunchtimes at work, this is fine to keep it fresh and work on lesson ideas but not a supplement for proper Dojo training. I would say you have to teach/train equally, I am looking to move one of my teaching sessions so I can attend more training. Even if you have been training for years I don't believe that you can just teach and not train (or just self train), you will eventually lose your technique, speed, skills and forget stuff that you will learn properly in a Dojo. Please don't pass on your bad mistakes to anybody, there are enough people in McDojo's doing exactly that!!! This is not meant as a personal attack but based on my experience of seeing fat, slow and useless instructors who have stopped training. Sorry, but I think you completely miss-understood my comment. I do not train in class at the school as I am the highest rank and do not have a class to attend. But I am not the owner, just the head instructor. I have a master instructor above me, who I go to for technical advice, as well as watching when he teaches something and picking up on anything he says that I do not normally say.

I currently teach 25 hours per week. I find the best way to train is to pretend I am a student, and make a lesson plan as if I was teaching myself. I try and make sure the plan goes over the things I will be teaching the students the next week, to make sure I am sharp on that material.

Been training 17 years. Only problem I have had is with my feet. I developed plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendonitis in both feet because of being on my feet teaching barefoot for hours every night, and having naturally very flat feet and weak ankles. Did some physical therapy to develop arches and stronger ankles and I've been fine since.

Our current schedule is... 3-4 years: 30 minutes 5-7 years: 45 minutes 8-14 years low & middle ranks: 45 minutes 8-14 years high ranks: 55 minutes Adults: 60 minutes Adult instructor training: 1 hour 45 minutes Every class at least one student stays after for extra training for 5-15 minutes I personally feel our students could handle the following... 3-4 years: 30 minutes 5-7 years: 45 minutes 8-14 years low ranks: 45 minutes 8-14 years middle ranks: 60 minutes 8-14 years high ranks: 90 minutes Adults: 90 minutes Unfortunately there are only so many hours in a day, and I already teach 29 classes per week.