Rateh

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When a person buys a product, in this case martial arts, they want to know what IT will do for THEM. In this case, knowing the specific name of a style means NOTHING. It doesn't tell the average consumer a thing about how the product will help them, or what the product will give them. Because the average consumer knows nothing about styles, and frankly, most of them don't much care. Because what they do care about is what the particular school will do for them, not the name of what the school teaches. That's more of an after thought. It's like when I bought my new computer. I didn't care what the name of the processor was, or any of that stuff. It doesn't make one bit of difference to me in making my purchase. What I cared about was would my new computer do what I wanted it to do. Would it fit my needs. Yes? Good, I'll take it. No? Never-mind, I don't want it. If they salesman had gone on about the names and parts of the computer, I probably would have gone to someone else who would have actually answered my questions about whether or not it would suit my needs. So, IMHO, when making an ad about your martial arts school, you should advertise what you can do for your student. Which yes, should include self defense (if you teach it, which, again IMHO you should if you are saying you teach martial arts...). Your ad MAY include the style, but if it does that should not be prominent. IF someone wants to know the style, they can ask, but most people who will be looking at the ad will not care, and may be put off if you have that be the main part of the ad.

When I was young I wanted to do it because I thought it might be fun but my parents couldn't afford it. When I was a bit older (12 years old) my mom signed me up. She told me that she had, and I was like "what?", then she said "remember how you always wanted to do it." And I remembered how I had wanted to try it so I joined up and loved it. Initially I didn't care about self defense, or staying in shape, or discipline, or anything like that. I just thought it was great fun, and I still think it is great fun. That's what has kept me going all these years.

Students earn stripes on their belts that indicate knowledge of different areas of the curriculum. When they have all of their stripes and a testing is being held then instructors will pre-test that student. If they pass the pre-testing then they are invited to take the formal test. Kids tests (Ages 3-7) and the first two tests of the regular curriculum are informal meaning that they are performed in class. Students can earn stripes or be pre-tested by any black belt in the school, however for pre-testings in particular a head instructor usually asks/assigns a black belt to pre-test a student either during or before/after class.

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Welcome to the forums and good luck!

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I have trained in 5 different schools, only my current one does board breaking. I start my students off with board breaking at white belt. I use the color coded rebreakable boards for in class practice (the ones that go from white to black that are 7 levels, not the 3 or 4 level ones). Wooden boards are used for testing. My students do board breaking once or twice a month, I believe it helps them with confidence, power, and technique. My rule is that you can go to the next level of board if it takes you less than three tries to break the level before. My 3-4 year-olds break the white, yellow, and even have made it to the orange board. They do stomp kicks to teach them the basics of board breaking (chamber high, hit the center of the board, and follow through). My 5-7 year-olds break white, yellow, orange, green, and even blue boards (blue is the equivalent of 1.25 inches in thickness). They break with the stomp kick as beginners, side kick as intermediates, and front kick as advanced. Stomp kick is required to advance from beginner to intermediate, side kick from intermediate to advance, and front kick to graduate to the regular program. At testing they are required to break a wooden board 6"x12"x1". Ages 8 and up have breaking requirements starting at their third rank. The younger students can break the 6"x12"1" boards, as determined by the instructor. All other students break 10"x12"x1". At blue belt they start breaking two boards, at black belt 3. I expect all of my 8 and up to break the 10" boards. I start working on their board breaking at white belt even though they don't need it until their third test. I don't allow any of my students who are under 9 to break with hand breaks. My 9-14 year olds can do hand breaks to low level boards (white or yellow). White and yellow boards are considered less than a 10"x12"x1" board so none of my under 15's are allowed to do hand breaks for testing. Also at black belt testings students age 15 and above do brick breaks with a palm heel.

First, I'm a she Yes, I do feel I gain something. As much as I hate writing them, it makes me think a lot harder about topics than I would have otherwise. My hardest paper so far was Yin-Yang. We were supposed to write about it not as a dictionary definition, but relate it to our lives and/or our martial arts. As far as expanding my knowledge, not really. Most of our papers are made to make us look inside ourselves, more than to learn more. Though there are some papers that we are supposed to write about history. I actually joined this system with a black belt, so most of the papers were useless to me I felt, because I was writing them from such a higher rank then they were made for. The history papers were on things I already knew, but if I was coming up through the system I would probably have learned a lot writing them. The paper must be turned in before the actual test, so theoretically if the paper isn't in, you don't actually test. With black belt tests the papers are due a month or two before the test and they DO get sent back to the writer to re-do if they are not good enough. As such when the actual test is happening I don't think about my paper, because I know it already passed. For my graders, our organization is small, small enough that I could become someone in it. We only have 6 or 7 schools, 3 are in Utah. I want to open my own school and right now I am running a few programs but not a dojang of my own. I would hope that if I have really good papers that it would help me stand out to the testing board. After 3rd degree testing has little to do with physical skill, so that would help in future advancements.

In our school we are required to write a paper for every rank starting at white belt. My next paper, going for 2nd degree, has the broad topic of "teaching martial arts". There is no official page expectation but anything less than say 10 will probably be frowned upon. I have never written anything so long in my life. I know plenty about teaching, probably a lot more than any other student going for second degree (10 years of teaching classes, and I run my own club), but I am still apprehensive about the assignment. On the one hand, yes I think that writing papers can help people think more about their martial arts in ways that they might not otherwise, also those judges on the table who don't know them as well can read their papers and understand them a bit more outside of what they demonstrate physically. On the other hand, some of us find writing papers hard. Me I can tout off short things, but I feel like I'm just blabbing when I can't get something organized into a nice concise bundle.

Welcome to the forums!

Welcome to the forums!

Welcome to the forums!

I do it half way between my solar plexus and my belly button (for lack of a more technical term). I don't know that using ones belt knot would be an accurate indicator as people "wear" their belts at different heights. IE some people wear it lower on their hips and some higher on their waists.

Perhaps what I need is some drills that really...drill...home what levels of force are appropriate in what situations. Kids, and well most people, tend to understand more by doing than by just listening I think. Also regularly practicing such drills would make them better able to react appropriately with force if they DO need to use it.

I learned the kick as an inverted roundhouse kick at one school, and the identical kick as a twist kick at another school. That doesn't mean that it is ALWAYS the same though. There are always techniques that are called by two separate names and are the same technique...and are also called by those two separate names as different techniques, depending on who you are talking to. For example a heel kick in my last school is what we call a hook kick in my new school. But what we call a swing kick in my new school, is called a heel kick at some other schools. Confusing huh?

Hmm, perhaps I should have been more clear. By technique I mean both the movement and the target on the persons body. So for example a side kick to the knee with the intent to break the knee would be a "technique" in this case. I'm not asking when we should teach a side kick, but when we should teach to side kick someone in the knee. Not when we should teach the long fist, but when we should teach to use it against a persons windpipe. Etc.

DON'T VOTE YET. I've been trying to fix the pole but its giving me an error. :/ I have been mulling this over for a long time now. At what point do we start teaching dangerous techniques to minors? At what age is it appropriate? For the point of this poll... Lethal: Any technique with the intent to kill the attacker Seriously Injure: Any technique that, if performed correctly, would send the attacker to the ER (most likely in an ambulance) The reason I have been thinking so much about it is because now that I have my own club with my own students, I really don't know if its appropriate to teach all of the techniques that are taught in the curriculum to my younger students. I just don't think that younger students have the maturity to determine the appropriate level of force in any given situation. And I don't want them to use dangerous techniques against their peers when a much safer method was justified. I'd really like to know your all's opinions on what age's different techniques are appropriate to be taught to students.

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One of our beginner training drills is to have the attacker come toward the student, and the defender put their hands out in the attackers face, palms toward the attacker, and yell stop. I was practicing this with a 4 year old boy, who hit me in the chest with his palm instead of putting his hands in my face. He was just trying to do the drill, not trying to be inappropriate in any way. Rather than explain to him that you don't touch girls there, I just demonstrated why it is important to put your hands in the attackers face instead. No one was offended, no harm done. When it comes to girls working with boys, or men working with women, no one need be offended. So long as everyone has good intentions and uses common sense there shouldn't be any problems.

One of our teens who is testing for 1st dan next week posted on his facebook ""the amateur practices until they can do it, the professional practices until they can't get it wrong"

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