Zaine

I posted this and then had more thoughts. I want to come back to this point, in particular, because doing this really created a lot of growth in my martial arts. As we know, kata is not a choreographed fight. No one with any actual understanding of kata who was unfortunate enough to need to use their training in a real situation would start doing pinan shodan to get out of it. Instead, if they have worked the techniques in pinan shodan with a partner, they might be inclined to use a particular technique from that kata in their attempts to get away from the confrontation. By adding restrictions to your kata, you open up lines and variations in your technique. You start to ask yourself "how would this work if I couldn't take a step? How would this work if I couldn't extend my arm all the way?" These questions and concepts can then be drilled with a partner. You end up exploring more than the surface level of a kata. It's an incredible way to gain understanding. When I started doing this, I was already a black belt. The growth you experience as you rank up becomes increasingly incremental and you learn to look for the change in different ways. Doing this, on the other hand, was anything but incremental for me. It really pushed me towards growth much faster than I had expected.

It really depends on what I'm doing. Sometimes I go slow to help emphasize techniques and feel them through. When I do this, I often employ some amount of dynamic tension (similar to Sanchin). Sometimes I do it faster than I would normally go so that I can push myself. When I do it for tests I do it at what I consider a normal speed. A valuable practice is changing up the cadence of your kata. What does it look like if you can't move your feet? What does it look like in a space too small for the kata? All this changes, of course, when you want to compete. The kata becomes less about the effectiveness, and more about the performance. You benefit from taking dramatic pauses, going fast with some sequences, and slower with others. This may seem silly, but I have found use in practicing kata this way, as well. Plus, if you're doing demonstrations (in public places or even just in front of peers) it does look cool if done with skill.

I've been enjoying it immensely. It's can be hard to teach your children, especially at first. You're their parent, and kids have a hard time switching into that mode of learning rather than just being your child. Anyone with a child who was in school during lockdown can tell you this. However, it is very rewarding.

I do think that there is some nuance here. If the TKD tournament restricted poomsae (kata) to only TKD forms, then I can see an argument being made that the black belt should be allowed to compete in a lower rank for the poomsae section. However, personally I disagree with the argument as presented. A black belt in another system will, all things being equal, have much more technical prowess over their poomsae than someone at the same level. In this case, all roads, regardless of merit, lead to the competitor only competing in the BB divisions.

It's almost a rite of passage to ruin a white gi with bleach

I take an active part in a local tournament circuit. When I started attending that circuit, I was either a 4th or 3rd kyu. I went as a black belt, because that was the highest rank I had attained. It didn't matter to me that I wasn't a black belt with the current school. I had attained a black belt in my first school. For me, there was of course the ethics of competing at a lower tier. It's unfair to the other competitors who trained very hard to compete. More than that, though, was that I had no desire to compare my skills to lower ranks. Playing a video game using cheat codes isn't nearly as fun as playing it as intended. Similarly, I want real stakes. I want to be able to lose. I want to be up against people who are not only at my skill level, but above. I want to learn. I can't do that sweeping the green belt division. Similar to what others have said, if I found out that anyone was lying about their rank to get an easier competition, they would be expressly forbidden to coming to any more tournaments.

My first student was my child. Unless you want a more philosophical answer, in which case I was my first student.

I would take it to a cleaner. Cleaners are pretty inexpensive, just do some research to make sure that you're taking it to someone who looks trustworthy.

For me, it's about trust. I start bo fairly early, but I need to know that my student is going to be responsible. Do they have awareness of their body? Are they mature enough not to joke around with a literal weapon? These are all considerations. Safety is a priority and insurance claims are not cheap. I also think we can look at the demographics of Eastern martial arts and HEMA. Systems of karate have a very low barrier to entry. All you have to do is show up and pay some dues. Most schools seem to offer a gi with the first payment of dues. Furthermore, a lot of the revenue for Karate is seated in the youth classes. If we're apprehensive about handing an adult a weapon right away, then doing so with a child would be much worse. Because it is easier to have a homogenous curriculum so that one party doesn't become angry that the other is learning more, often times the difference in the content is small. You'll notice a difference in approach between these age groups, but they are generally taught everything in the same order. This simplifies a lot of the work that a dojo/dojang owner has to do, but admittedly doesn't allow for a lot of variance in those who are more interested in different aspects of martial arts. HEMA, on the other hand, is mostly adults. The barrier to entry is much higher. Yes, clubs often have loaner equipment, but you're encouraged to purchase your own gear if you plan on coming for a prolonged period of time. You still have club due, of course, but even a cheap, good trainer (e.g. Feder) start in the $150 - $200 range, and you still have to buy the accoutrement. This means a mask, gloves, possibly a gorget, most clubs recommend a certain type of sole for your shoes, you need body protection, so at least a gambeson. The bill ads up, and while buying good quality gear will last you a long time if taken care of, you're still accepting a future in which everything needs to be replaced eventually. Few parents, who already have to deal with buying new clothes, shoes, etc. every time their child grows an inch, which is a lot, want to sign up for that kind of monetary commitment. It also works against HEMA that it is so connected to historical analysis. Often, HEMA benefits from you having some historical knowledge (which members of HEMA clubs are only too happy to teach you about) and not a small amount of picking up medieval texts and reading them, interpreting them, and then drilling them over and over again. Not a lot of kids are down for the rigors of HEMA, and that's fine, HEMA has an academic flavor to it that it really enjoys and I enjoy that aspect of training HEMA. It just comes down to trust and confidence that your students are going to remain safe. When you have a bunch of adults, it's a lot easier to impress upon them the importance of not only being aware of yourself, but of your surroundings. Kids and teenagers usually build this awareness quickly as they progress, but lack the necessary maturity to handle a weapon upon joining a dojo/dojang.

There was a robot boxing movie, Reel Steel, that was a fun exploration of this idea. These, of course, were controlled by a human, but I think that it would be interesting to teach karate and other martial arts to AI and put them in a ring together.

This is the automated future that I wanted. Let me see that robot hit the other robot's capacitor clean off!

It probably was clear! I sometimes miss little nuances like that!

This line here distills a lot of how I feel about young black belts. It is our job, not only as adults but especially as instructors whose responsibility it is to guide the journey of these kids, to set a good example. Kids are sponges, and they lack the nuance to decipher when someone is good for them or bad. They're dopamine monsters, just like we all are. They will seek whatever gives them that boost. Whatever makes them feel like they have a place. What are bullys but people who are scared that they have no place in the world? When we teach karate, for whatever reason, in whatever way, we instill within our students not only confidence to stand up and face challenges, but the ability to be violent about it. This is why good instructors focus so much on the budo of martial arts. We are meant to teach honor, compassion, and understanding. No teacher worth their salt teaches that violence is a first reaction. It is, unequivocally, a parent/guardian's job to imbue their children with a strong moral compass. However, these are hardly ever the only players in a child's life. As much as I am a product of my parent's beliefs and philosophies, I also have a lot of others to thank for shaping me. Despite the philosophical issues I have with my original teacher, I will forever be indebted to him helping me (and, by extension, my parents) shape myself into the man I am today. It's an incredible responsibility, being a teacher. We're not always going to make the right decisions. The same is true about parents. However, being honest about our shortcomings and showing our students and children that we, too, are human is important. I've seen too many black belts, adult and children alike, who wear it as a status symbol. Black belts aren't meant to remove us from the equation, making us above the others. Black belts are meant to put us at the front, so that our example can make the world a better place.

Congrats!

Here is an example of the wolf whistle. It got its name largely thanks to cartoons using the imagery of a wolf (sometimes having other cartoon animals morph into having wolf like features to do so) while whistling. I think it's less about wolf whistle being his biggest regret, and more about an acceptance of the past. I have things that are much larger and personal regrets than not knowing how to wolf whistle or roll my Rs. However, these regrets shaped me. Our regrets shape us all and it's up to us to find the positive lessons in those regrets. Regrets teach us about ourselves, they are the strongest way to understand who we are as a person. One of my biggest "regrets" was from when I was 14 years old and I became physically aggressive with my best friend's mom. The fallout of that taught me a lot about who I was, and how I wanted to shape myself going forward. If I could go back, I would change how I received that lesson, but I would not change what I learned. The situation actually brought me a lot closer to all involved parties after I got help with processing what it was that was going on with me internally. It also helped focus what I wanted out of martial arts.

This is so funny because that loud taxi/wolf whistle is something that has bewildered me for years. That, and rolling my Rs.

I take Kobudo classes from a guy in Canada and we meet over the internet. We generally get together with a video call on Sundays, and then (if I remember) I send him progress videos. It's unranked, but I'm not really concerned with the rank. I just love the practice. In general, I get nervous when rank and distance training are involved. It's very difficult to tell the nuances over video, when you don't have the ability to walk around or even see everything up close. This is my biggest complaint about online training as I do it now. There are some partner drills that I am missing out on because I don't have anyone to do it with.

I don't regret anything in my MA journey. I have goals that I want to complete before I cannot any longer, but I can't find any regrets in my training.

Congrats!

I hope everyone still has all appendages and digits accounted for! We actually spent no small amount of money to have some fireworks at my grandfather's house. He lives in the country, and his closest neighbor is his sister, who lives a quarter of a mile down the road and joined us for the festivities. We had a lot of fun setting off fireworks!

In the Shobayashi dojo, the stripes are official rankings. One stripe promotes to 9th kyu, etc. With adults generally making the jump from 10th to 7th in one test.

I've been to multiple schools that segment white belts like this, and it seems to be a good plan, especially for children. In my Shobayashi dojo, the kids must earn 2 stripes before testing for yellow. The adults, on the other hand, while technically following the same path, typically don't get stripes. Stripes are an excellent way to set expectations for students, particularly for younger students. Given students smaller mile markers makes them feel like the journey is more achievable, and gives them that dopamine hit of "ranking up" with more frequency. This also helps because it allows the student to feel like they belong faster. They've made it through the introductory part of the martial arts, and are now eager to practice. So, in all, I definitely like option 3 for kids, option 4 for adults.

The breadth of Dragonlance is crazy. There are a lot of books just for this universe. I tend to stick to the main line, so Chronicles, Legends, etc. I'm not a huge fan of the 5th age stuff, and so far the Destinies trilogy (I'm on book 1) is underwhelming. That said, it's the series that got me into high fantasy. I loved dragons as a kid so a series called "Dragonlance" was always going to bring me in. Oddly enough, I had no idea that it had anything to do with D&D until much later. Perhaps that's why the FR stuff was unknown to me. My parents, at the time, were not welcoming to D&D. As an adult, I now collect the DL D&D modules and sourcebooks. I've given thought to collecting all the DL books, but with so many out of print I might see what this reprint/omnibus spree might give us. Next I am going to read Sabriel by Garth Nix on the suggestion of a friend. I have been promised a very good time with the book, so I'm trying not to hype myself up too much.

I didn't really read any Forgotten Realms stuff. Not sure why Dragonlance was on my radar as a kid but FR wasn't.

Good question. I always struggle with that. Just roll a die?