Rateh

We do a few "street style" one-steps where the person throws a haymaker. The hardest part is being the one throwing the haymaker, for most of the students (who have been training for a year or more at this point), the instructor has to go over how exactly you throw a haymaker (because the students tend to fall back on their training of how to punch). I do agree though that a good way is to find a training partner who is not a MA. I would also say get your instructors advice, they may know more then they are teaching on the subject.

Maybe add something like "What have you or your child benifited the most from in this last year?" Or "Would you, or have you, recommended this school and why?"

I understand what you are saying because i, myself, am a female. But i've always grown up with what my instructor calls 'a command presense' he's always told me, 'when you walk into a room, everyone knows it'. which is quite flattering and very nice of him to say. but i have to say, i usually don't have too much of a problem with people listening to me the first time, and i never have a problem with people listening to me the second time. I am a very athletic, tough 5'6" female...skinny but muscley. So, i am not as fortunate. I don't quite have that innocent look down yet. When I first started teaching I was 17 and looked like I was 12. Right now I'm 24 and could still pass for 15. Most students listen to me the first time, but there are those students, mostly boys aged 8-11, who I have to prove my authority to. Parents have always assumed I was in my early 20's. I worked in a middle school (students aged 12-14) for two years. Most students were confused as to whether I was an adult or another students. I always got weird looks when I broke up fights or confiscated skateboards. A look of "wait...are you really an adult? or are you some kid messing with me?"

Well there's an Omega Martial Arts school in castle rock, I don't know how far that is from you. If the colorado group of Omega is anything like the utah one, the instructors are excellent people, and the training is supurb. The head of the organization/style is in colorado. Website is https://www.omegatkd.com

Well I'm a 5'3" petite female....so I'm rather UNintemidating It would probably be different if I was a larger male. Then again I've seen some students respond automatically to larger males, where as I have to show them I'm serious by my actions before some of them will listen.

I do use push-ups. But I stand and watch them and every time they do a poor push-up I say "that one didn't count". I don't have to do that very often though, because once the students see that I won't let bad push-ups slide, they do them right. I've only had one parent complain that I was being to hard on their kid, which was rediculous because she behaved so I very rarely had her do push-ups outside of warm-ups. Most of the parents have been very happy with the discipline used in class, they LIKE their kids having to do push-ups for misbehaving, and having to do them correctly. I think the main thing with kids is being very clear and consistant on the expectations, boundaries, and consequences.

Throwdown it really depends on where you live. In vegas the cheapest school was $40 dollars a month. And it was in a really scary run down part of town. The part where there isn't much lighting and you're always afraid your car won't be there come class end. They were a non-profit dojo as well.

Currently I go as work allows. Which means Tuesday I help teach for two classes. Wednesday I attend 2 classes, one is an hour and the one after is an hour and 15 minutes.

I never realized how much abdominal work is involved in basics. Yesterday was about an hour straight of basics. Most of the stances were deep cat and X stances. We also did a lot of kicking. Today my legs and abdominals are killing me. We didn't do a single sit-up, yet this morning I couldn't even sit up out of bed without using my hands. My stomach hurts just as much as my legs. I'm not sure if it was the kicking, the deep stances, or what. Anyways I just thought I'd share that new insight.

TBH I've attended many schools in this same type of situation. An instructor/many instructors branch out and do their own thing, sometimes create their own organization. It's not unusual to use a mixture of hyung in such a situation. Just because a school isn't following a strict tradition of a specific style doesn't mean it isn't good. Where I study is a mixture of styles with taekwondo as the base. It's a part of an organization called Omega Martial Arts. The first form is Basic 1, then theres Pyong 1-5, then it skips to the Taeguks 5-?, theres also some japanese forms done in a more korean style, and Palgwe 7. I don't know all of the forms names atm. It may very well be that there ISN'T a name for the style you are practicing. This does make it more difficult when talking to other martial artists and they ask "what style do you study", but it doesn't mean that your studies are any less valid.

I also have a TomTom. I LOVE it. Im one of those people who doesnt take verbal driving directions well at all. When I moved to utah in november to be with my family I would always get lost. Im the type of person who could end up on the other side of the city from where I was ment to be, by following verbal directions. Plus my eye sight isnt so good so sometimes I can't read the streetsigns until its too late. So I got a TomTom for christmas, its soooo sweet. It warns me 1/4 of a mile before each turn. Also it has little markers on the roads in the map as you drive. I've driven with my moms and she doesnt have that so I get confused as to which street to turn down when there are two close together.

Congrats. I read this forum every night for the past 3 years, but I'm a bit of a closed mouth so I'm at 323. Whats your next goal? 1000?

I also have two rebreakable boards going to waste -.-

I want a weapons bag so all of my equipment will fit inside with the zipper shut.

Well I would also like to loose weight. Around 20-25lbs... But I'm afraid to make it a goal because I think I'll fail.

I've added to my kit (I have to bring weapons to every class now so that is most of it) Sparring gear (head gear, chest protector, hand gear, feet gear, mouth guard) Testing requirements binder Weapons (bo staff, escrima sticks, sais, tonfas, two chucks) Belt Camcorder Insidentally my escrima sticks hang out my bag about 6-8 inches, sometimes they fall out when I take my bag out of my car, and of course the bo staff doesn't fit in the bag. Besides that I bring my purse to class. My binder is also 2 inches thick and usually gets squashed pretty good in the bag. If I had the money I'd buy a weapons bag. Half the time I leave my bo staff at the dojang accidentally.

My first instructor gave me two bits of advice when he knew I was moving away, on looking for a new school. He said 1. don't sign a contract and 2. dont join a school that spends a lot of the time warming up. I have no idea why those were the two guidelines he gave me, maybe they are just what popped into his head at that moment. Another instructor I had, told me when I was moving again, to not join a real traditional japanese school. Again I have no idea why this was her guideline to me. Aside from that I don't remember a whole lot about my first instructor. I know I enjoyed the classes, and I don't remember him being overly harsh or anything like that. I do remember, from having trained other places afterwards, that he wasn't very technical in his corrections of his students. When I moved away I got my techniques corrected up down and sideways. I also remember him when he gave me my three green stripes. (testing was every 6 months, everyone tested. All belts had up to four stripes on them, but there were only specific testing requirements for belts. When you tested you were testing for your next belt, and you either passed and got it, or got 1-4 stripes based on your performance). So I tested as a yellow for my green, and I earned 3 green stripes. And he said something along the lines of that I did very well, but needed a bit more work, so he was giving me three so I would get my green the next test. The first school was a program run by a community center, we met in different schools (high schools, middle schools, and elimentary schools), and signed up for 6-10 weeks at a time, depending on the session. There were two 10 week sessions a year, and those were the testing sessions. We met for 1 hour on mondays, and if you wanted to you could stay after another hour and basically get private taught (which is what I did). I remember when I first stayed after and he assigned his assistant to work with me. We spent the entire hour of him trying to get me to kiah louder than a whisper. In the end (and I did try very hard) I kiahed at talking volume.

Actually thats why I have never thrown an axe kick in sparring, I'm afraid of hurting my opponent.

My goal...well its an october goal. I want to be ready to be presented as a canidate for black belt testing for the next october. This means I need to learn 12 more forms, two or three more weapons, 36 basics combinations (full of new stuff), 24 sparring combinations (again full of new techniques/footwork), and bunches of self defense. Then I can be presented and start the year long preperation classes. (I want to get 2nd Kup pass off by august)

In my experience every hard style has three blocks the same. High, low/down, and outside/middle/inside. The chamber/preperation for the block may be a bit different, and the ending positions move around by a few inches here or there, but they are in all hard systems that I have seen.

Where I got my black belt, there were two of us that earned it together, and no one had earned one in years so the head instructor (who was head instructor for about 1 year at that point) made up his own. We each individually went up and broke three boards, each with a saying like "dedication" on it. Then was kneeling, blowing out a candle at the same time as the instructor, drinking tea, presentation of a sword, and then the regular belt presentation (all belts are presented by both the instructor and student kneeling, instructor places the belt to their forehead, student copies, instructor places the belt to their heart, student copies again, then the instructor ties the students belt on), then some sort of oath by the new black belt. Some where in all that the instructor gave a speach about the new black belt. Current school I only saw once...lets see...well I can't remember all the details. One part I remember though. All the black belts on the judging panel (even if you arent high enough to judge, you still sit on the panel, you just dont get a vote) stood in a line in ready stances. In front of them a bit stood all of the new black belts (of any degree) in ready stances. Starting on the spectators left, each new rank was presented individually. The students instructor, and someone on the black belt panel signifigant to them would go up to them. The signifigant black belt would hold the students new rank. The students instructor (this was 3 schools wide so there were different instructors for students) would give a long speach about the person. Then the old rank was taken off and the new put on by the instructor. The signifigant black belt was the belt holder for both the new and old belts. Then there was a rose thing, passing a rose from a signifigant black belt (representing all black belts) to a new rank to someone(s) who were there for them in their journey. (rose was given from one to the next to the next person). I think there were other parts but I'm not sure. Its a very long ceremony. I mean there were 13 new ranks at the one I went to, and each new rank had at least 5 minutes talked about them. The whole time you have to stay in your ready stance. This is also directly after the testing, with the only break being for the judges to deliberate.

Unfortunatly my medications are too new to come in anything but the brand name, I did find out though that if I order them by mail in 90 day supplies then it is cheaper so I am going to be doing that from now on.

Awsome, congrats!

Oddly enough that was actually the TRADITION at my first school. When you got a new rank, the instructor called you up to the front of the class. On the way there you took off your old belt and tossed it aside, most students flung it as far as they could. When you got to the instructor he would tie your new belt on you. After class (belts were always given out at the end of class) you would find your old belt and take it with you. It was always a good idea to write your name on it first though, because there could be a number of people getting the same rank that day and it might be difficult discerning whos was whos. Aside from that you never let the belt touch the floor, to the point that when we stretched out we would purposefully lay it across our legs during stretches like the middle stretch instead of letting it touch the floor. I think the idea was that you throw away the old identity, and take on the new responsibilities of your new rank. It was actually really fun, I was a young teen at the time, and I looked forward to that part of the very short ceremony. (toss the belt, get it tied on, bow to the rest of the class, go back to your spot). Everyone cheered when the person threw the belt. That is a very interesting history lesson sangngak, thanks for sharing.

I wonder if anyone ever tried to put that on a website. By that I mean record a general class. Keep everything on it, including parent sounds. It would kind of give you the feel of the class before you went in to see it. I wonder if people would be more likely to go into your school to find out more information if they could watch a class online. Not even a full lenght, just like a condensed version of a regular class. Like maybe teach a 10 minute class from start to finish touching lightly on different areas.