Zaine

Congrats! Well deserved!

That's great! We would love to hear more!

Foam rollers don't work as well as advertised. The benefits of them are negligible, both for increasing flexibility and muscle recovery. Finding exercise and movements that put the IT Band to work are far more effective. Yoga has some stretches that will increase flexibility here, I would start there. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/9118 https://www.top-form-fitness.com/articles/Foam-Roller-Study.pdf

I keep my foot straight. If doing it this way is uncomfortable for you, start with a small number. Do it 5 - 10 times with no weight like that until the discomfort goes away. Go up in reps from there, and after you feel no discomfort, add weight if you want. Start slow, and then work your way up. You likely feel discomfort due to the flexibility issues already present.

Obligatory statement: I am neither a doctor, nor a physical therapist/chiropractor. I wanted more hip flexibility as well, and this is what I came upon. Seek a doctor's advice before starting any new exercise routine. So it is just stretching more, but it's a little more than that. You want to be doing the right kind of stretches. What worked for me was focusing more on dynamic stretches, even when I would stretch statically. I focused on stretch kicks, lunges (both regular and side), and squats. It's important to remember that your hips are connected to things, so when you want more hip flexibility, it is important to make sure that you are increasing your flexibility in all areas. 1) Stretch kicks These are pretty simple. Keep your leg straight (but do not lock your knees), and raise your legs as high as you can. Do this forward, backward, and to the side. The side is the one that will help most in terms of hip flexibility, but, again, getting your whole lower body is important for wholistic stretching. 2) Lunges Side lunges for side and roundhouse height, forward for front and back. Go as deep as you go and commit to going deeper with time. 3) Squats Pretty straight forward, and you already do 90/90s. Squats use your hips. Using your hips increases hip flexibility. 4) Static Stretching Static stretching is not the best way to achieve flexibility. Our muscles like to move around, and so dynamic movement gets us better results without the increased strain. However, static stretching after a workout can be relieving, and warmed muscles won't strain as much to stretch as cold ones. When you static stretch cold, start as easy as possible. I like to lightly, and very carefully, move my hips/legs/muscles up and down or back and forth, going from light strain to more intense. This helps get the muscles moving and more closely resembles dynamic stretching.

Congrats to Zach! That's awesome!

The issue with that is that Modern Sport Karate is, and should be, concerned with safety. A great way to lower participation for your tournaments is to have a reputation of people getting hurt unnecessarily because people keep throwing full powered punches. Tournaments cost a good amount of money and the organizers need to recoup that money and make a profit for it to be a worth while venture for them.

Can you post a link to the video you watched?

Welcome to KarateForums!I'm interested in this decision. Why only books? With the variety of video we have available, I feel like it is much easier to learn from a video than a book. I feel the two combined could be quite a valuable learning experience. Agreed. Scientifically speaking, we learn best when we expose ourselves to a variety of learning modes. The more ways you can learn something, the better.

I did body weight fitness and kata practice last night. Body weight: Pushup - 15 - 20 x 3 Sit-ups - 15 x 3 Oblique Crunch - 10 x 3 (each side) Leg Raises - 10 x 3 Mountain Climbers - 20 x 3 Sledgehammer work - 5 minutes Katas: Chinto - 5 times Shimpa Sho - 5 times mirrored Kyoku 4 - 5 times Kusanku Sho - 3 times Passai Sho - 3 times Overall: 15 minutes of kata

There are a lot of people who can help you with this. Marketing is a difficult part of running a school. You didn't mention what steps you're already taking, so I'm going to assume that you have taken none. I would reach out to a marketing firm and find out what they can offer you. In the mean time, Instagram is a great way to put eyes on your school. Post pictures and videos. Do videos of students and yourself doing kata. Have videos breaking down those kata. Buy ad space on social media. Buy ad time on your local public radio and tv network. Find out when your local grade schools are doing a field day and ask if you can do a demo there. Go to your local colleges and ask about their martial arts clubs, see if you can network with them. When you go to tournaments, are you huddled in a group? Or are you talking to other instructors from different schools? Are you talking to the tournament organizers to get your name on their radars, potentially to help sponsor a tournament? Is there a rec center near you that you can post flyers in? Get exposure, is the gist of these tips. Make sure that people know your name. In Alabama, there is a lawyer named Alex Shunnarah. He buys every billboard he can. You cannot go down the highway without seeing his face. He's a meme, at this point, but he's also embraced that. You cannot think "I need a lawyer" without thinking of his name. Be the name that people think of.

Most of the two person self defense is taking directly from the kata. At this time, the only thing that isn't taken directly from the kata are the things that I have taken from our basics that they learn at White Belt. One of the very few gripes that I have about the Shobayashi/Shudokan dojo that I currently go to is that they don't have enough Ippon Kumite that is focused strictly on bunkai, so that was fresh in my mind as I was writing out the curriculum. This was something that my original teacher did poorly, but that my current dojo does well. It's a good suggestion, and one that I have already incorporated.

Welcome to KarateForums!I'm interested in this decision. Why only books? With the variety of video we have available, I feel like it is much easier to learn from a video than a book.

I did an hour of intense Karate last night. My competition partner and I drilled our kata to it's core. The plan is for them to do it regularly, while I do a mirrored version. We've begun practicing at full power, which has thrown off our timing a little, but we got it back at the end. It's very close to being as perfect as we can get it. Otherwise, I warmed up with 15 minutes of calisthenics and body weight exercises. I'm at the point (again) where I no longer feel loosy-goosy or sore after these, so it might be time to increase my speed for my runs.

They are wise people, I am finding in my adult years. If 16 year old me heard present me saying this, he would scoff, but even he would know that this is true.

Very true, and there is a lot of foundation that needs to be set for this. The appendices are sparse at best. The Return of the King was delayed as he finished it, and he couldn't actually include it in the first edition because it would cost too much. Despite this, Tolkien felt that the books were incomplete without at least some of them. Largely what we have of the 2nd age in the appendices is the chronology and background stories for context in Appendices A and B. Definitely not a lot to go on, especially when compared to The Silmarillion, which the show does not have the rights to. There was a lot of heartache about this, but overall I like that we're getting to see the cracks in between. The Silmarillion tells of big battles, big heroes, and has a mythological viewpoint. Getting to see an interpretation of the stuff in between, and not just Númenor, is fun and it makes the world feel real. Similar to you, DarthPenguin, there are some things that I'm not thrilled about. I don't particularly care for the romance between Bronwyn and Arondir. I would have preferred a slower build to that, with Bronwyn being someone who Arondir admired and then later began to love after adventuring with her. Overall, I agree with Brian. The story has been nice. It feels like Middle Earth, and the boringness isn't necessarily bad. A lot of history happens in between battles and it's great to that at play. As a writer, I would prefer a little more "showing" and less "telling," but I can get over that considering that a large part of that desire for me is because I already know so much.

Thank you! One of the perks of having ADHD is that I can commit a lot of background RAM to thinking about this! My partner and I come from a schools that had less of a curriculum and more of a "when I think you're ready" type of deal. The latter has it's advantages, but I was a White Belt for a year and that was probably far too long. Having a distinct, clear path to the next level helps everyone. We will have a website, along with a social media suite. We're looking designs for websites and pricing everything out. We're also working on designing a logo for patches that will also serve as our profile pictures. Once we have that done we will start creating social media content.

When I was a teacher, and constantly as a Dad, I found that I often repeated the words that my Mom and Dad told me when I was frustrated with a task. They always told me "It's okay to feel frustrated right now, you can't help what you don't know. What you can help is learning the steps and getting better." This reminds me of that.

I found it a little boring as well. I'm hoping that today's ep will be increase the tension a little more. That said, I think that the show does a few things really well. The shots that they use make the world feel like a younger Middle Earth. I think the choices of scenery and editing they did were great. I also think that they did a great job making the Orcs feel scary in the series. In the movies, the Orcs are the enemies that mostly amass on the other side of the battle field, or are so comical that you have trouble taking them seriously. Rings of Power does an excellent job making them feel like a threat.

Sorry, I meant to say that Shodan was where we really began to get katas that used a lot of hips.

You make a good point about grappling, and I agree. I don't think pockets for grappling arts are advisable. Not only are they a rip point, but could potentially harm your partner as they create points in which fingers and toes could get snagged. For those, maybe a little inside waist pouch for mouthguards, as you say, would be best. Overall, I envisage this project as being focused towards gis that you train in, and not ones that you compete in. That said, I'm still brain storming ways to reduce rippage. Being that these are clothing items that will be used as active wear, trying to find a good solution has been a fun challenge.

Thanks Bob! I should say that I am using about 75% power here, just not engaging my hips like I should. That's an issue that I've frequently had in the past. A lot of Matsumura Seito (or at least my Sensei's interpretation of it) generates power from the back, -choosing to save a lot of hip movement for post-Shodan techniques. Why they did this, I cannot say. It has created a need for me to consciously apply hip movement in my kata and I often forget while still going through the learning process for kata.

I have it split into 3 parts: Kata, Kihon, and Kumite. Seems obvious, and it is, but having those split into columns of written out, actionable items helps remind me what the students need to learn to advance, and gives them something tangible to look at when they're wondering what they need to work on or still learn. Under the kata section I list their kata. My partner and I are working on recording all of the kata so that they have a visual representation of it to remind them of this-or-that move when needs be. Right now our biggest kata load is 5 kata for Gokyu, with most others having 3 or 4 depending on the complicatedness of the katas learned at that rank. Kihon lists which fundamentals they are learning for the first time at that rank. Except for those learned at White Belt, the kihon largely relates to things that they will learn in the next rank. I.e. for Rokyu, the students will learn the basics of how to use a Bo, along with some drills to gain comfort. They learn this at Rokyu because they learn their first Bo kata to get to Gokyu. This is also the place that I put milestones. For the kids class, sparring starts as they get ready for Hakkyu, so under kihon I have listed sparring so that they know it's a requirement. Finally, kumite is where the 2 person work goes. There's a list of self-defense techniques that are based on the kata they are learning at that time. Any multi-step partnered drills go there as well. For grading, we're still fleshing out the particulars. In general, we both want there to be a cardio aspect to the test. In the past my teacher would take us through all the basics at the top. We both feel that cardiovascular fitness is important so we want that to be there, increasing in intensity as they go up the ranks. Then a demonstration of kata, and then sparring (sparring an instructor the first time, and then others as the hit the levels necessary for that). The Shodan and above tests will be different, but we're far enough from there so planning that hasn't been a priority. We both tend to agree that it should fit the Karateka testing for Shodan, so we'll likely have a foundation of things and then customize from there. As far as whether someone is ready to test, we're both of a mind here, as well (it really is great to work with my partner, they will say an idea that I was just thinking about). Overall, we feel that Karate is about personal growth. What is the measure of a Shodan? Is it that they are technically perfect? Or is their improvement? We tend to believe that it is in the improvement. Now, this isn't to say that we don't have certain expectations. We're not going to test someone who can't do a kata correct just because they've gotten better. However, no one will ever do anything to perfection. Has the student achieved the best possible performance of a kata that they can in this moment? If yes, pass go.

Thank you for the encouragement! We're still in the process of finalizing a curriculum (which will most definitely change as needs be) for the back half of the kyu ranks. It's very exciting.

Thanks, Brian! I should have been clear (here and elsewhere) that I really was just looking for feedback on how I perform this, regardless of whether it's correct in sequencing. Hips were something that I was noticing as well. Good to get a second opinion saying the same thing.