Zaine

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.

I'm looking for some feedback on my Chinto. I'm using it as a secondary kata for an upcoming tournament next month. I feel that I'm close, so I'm looking for that extra oomf. Some notes: I'm not doing it at full power here. I don't typically train at full power for kata until the last two weeks leading up to the tournament. Even then, I only do so a handful of times. I want to take care of my flesh prison. This is a version that goes 45°, which I'm sure is clear but I like my information to be redundant. In 2 spots, I've replaced a return to kumai with with a double punch to a downed opponent. Both from a practical standpoint, and an aesthetic one, I think this looks better. If you have perspective that suggests otherwise, I'm happy to hear it. The tournament will be largely TKD practitioners with roughly 10 - 20% non-TKD styles. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CiGp_HGDAzj/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

The class went so well. It was 3 kids, including my child. It was fun, and the time flew by. The other instructor and I worked really well together (which wasn't a surprise, we knew that already). On a personal note, it was really, really cool to see my daughter, who knows some Karate already, help out the newer kids. I'm always proud of her, and this was one more thing to give me those good Dad feelings. I can't wait for the next class.

Today is my first class in my own school! I'm rearranging my living room, teaching a handful of kids and adults from my kiddo's school for free, with friends of friends paying a monthly tuition. I'm so excited! This has been a dream of mine for so long. A few months ago, a Nidan friend of mine (who is co-owner with me) said that despite their 30 years that they didn't feel qualified. So I gave them the advice that I would give anyone, that their experience is good and that they should teach. Then I realized that I had those same objections to opening my own school, and if I would give the advice to others with ny experience, I should give it to myself. It turned out that my Nidan friend had a very similar dream. To take the breadth of their experience in multiple systems, and combine that into one system. So, we combined our resources and today's the opening Salvo! [/img]

Congrats Alex!

I've been working on that idea as well. I actually have been studying how to do this kind of tailoring and one of things I plan to start with is an inside pocket, as this is a little simpler than pants pockets. The only problem I'm running into is finding a way to not show threads on the front. There are a couple of options here, just need to test which one feels the most comfortable to wear.

The amount of things I see instructors putting down, having to look for those things, putting things in their top, those things falling out... I'm surprised it's not a huge phenomena already.

I happy that my post helped you, Brian. I've been where you are, during that break. It was constantly a struggle to find motivation to be the Martial Artist that I wanted to be. One of the best things about finding a dojo to go to again was finding people to talk to about Karate. It's been a little over a year since I started going back to dojo training. In that time, I've rocketed from Jukyu to Sankyu and made friends that I cannot imagine not being in my life. One of those friends quickly became my best friend in the realm of Martial Arts. They have 30 years of training to my 20, but we are of an age (they started much younger than I did), and we both have a varied background in Martial Arts. We are starting our own school next month that combines what we know so that we can pass on this knowledge that we have. All this to say that I definitely support your idea of just finding people to talk about Karate with. Whether you're talking about history, application, or just silly stories from times gone by. When I started doing that, which began as me coming back to this wonderful community in full-force, instead of just lurking, I found that I no longer cared that I hadn't stepped inside of a dojo or learned from a teacher since 2011. I'll give you that I am only 32, young by most standards (not my 8-year old daughters, though; to her I have one foot in the grave). However, I've convinced my mother, who is 52, to start getting back into it and she has noticed that her body still has far to go. Obviously, I don't know how old you are, Brian. However, being an expert in mental health due to my own lifelong battle with Depression, Anxiety, and ADHD, and my graduate studies as a mental health counselor, I hope that I don't overstep a line here. I think that the pandemic and quarantines have caused a lot of us to reflect on life. Therapy appointments rose so much during the pandemic that we suddenly began experiencing a shortage of therapists. We couldn't keep up with demand. I'm not here telling you to get therapy (though if you want therapy I definitely support that, I think that everyone should see a therapist at least once in their lives). I'm just saying that reflection is the mental health theme of the last 2.5 years. As I reflected on my life and my accomplishments, I found that I came up short. It wasn't until my wife and my family called me silly and showed me all the things that I had done that I snapped out of it and realized that not only had I accomplished an honestly insane amount, but that I still had so much to give of myself. I wonder if that's not what you're experiencing now, as well. Regardless (and I know that was rambling but I do have a Master's in English so I'm prone to it), I know that the advice and insights that you have given here have helped me greatly in my journey as a Martial Artist. When I was on the KF Staff, I often looked to your wisdom in how to present myself as a representation of KarateForums. I think that you'll find the fuel to turn your spark into a roaring blaze once more.

Does anyone know of any good Tinbe-Rochin resources? My current dojo doesn't learn it, and there aren't really any schools that I can sit in on in my area that do either. I know that there are a plethora of YouTube videos. I also know that for $50 I can buy a video from Jesse Enkamp that goes over the basics and teaches a kata. However, I was hoping that someone here could point me in a direction to someone or some document specifically so that I'm not just throwing myself at the whole internet during research.

That's awesome! Uechi-Ryu is a lot of fun! (In all fairness, I should warn you that I would probably say this about most, if not all, styles). I have a buddy who does Uechi-Ryu and he loves it. Make sure to update us after you start! We would love to hear about your experiences.

To your point here, when I was doing Longfist, the CI didn't use a rank system. He just taught you the next thing when you were ready. Sometimes, he would teach you the next thing if he thought that it would help you understand and become proficient with something that you were currently struggling on. It was a really refreshing thing to be a part of.

When I moved away for college, and then back home to find that my teacher had closed the dojo and stopped teaching, I struggled for a long time on whether I could call myself a Martial Artist. I learned from people outside the dojo. I took up Longfist and Southern Mantis so that I could round out my training, but looking back, a large part of it was to feel like I was still a Martial Artist. I don't regret my experiences, but the reason remains. I now know better. I was practicing (and still do) almost daily (I take Sundays to rest), and when I'm not practicing physically, I'm thinking about it constantly. Being a Martial Artist is a mind set that comes with training. To your point above, Bob, I love talking about Martial Arts. I've talked to a lot of people who got to some kyu-rank and then quit for whatever reason. Every time, they always feel regret, or a sense that they aren't a "real" Martial Artist and every time, I tell them that they are incorrect. Once or twice, these conversations have led to them going back to the dojo. It is absolutely enough to have been in it. To have loved it, even momentarily. To still think about it from time-to-time. For some, Martial Arts is temporary. For others, an endeavor that we know will never be truly finished. It's allowed to be different things for different people. Great post, Bob.

Agreed, and they're my preferred. I've tried a lot of different gis, but I always come back.

The issue you run into with this is that bunkai serves a very different purpose than a bout does. We can mold our understanding of a bout via kata and bunkai. We can shape our fighting styles around bunkai (I certainly do). However, to actually employ bunkai in a fight is a tall order. On one end of the spectrum, if we take the opening of Pinan 1/Heian 2, a lot of schools interpret this as a break. On the other end, the speed of a bout has a different cadence from self-defense. I don't necessarily want my other hand above my head. We can change these to be more suited for a bout, but at the end of the day I'm not sure that we would want to.

There are competitions that do continuous fighting. It's still based on points, but there isn't any stopping. Then, of course, you have Kyokushin tournaments. I don't think that Karate as a whole will ever get away from the point fighting system. If the idea of Karate as self-defense is to throw a technique or two and then walk away from an opponent who is incapacitated, then the idea of points fighting is a pretty good one. The issue we run into, then, is that from a sports standpoint, this system of sparring promotes making contact with the opponent instead of throwing a technique that is going to have stopping power. I don't necessarily see anything wrong with this from a safety standpoint, but I do wish that judges would score people based on a little heavier on whether the technique was thrown with power and intent than whether it made contact. However, all this said, I think KarateCombat is the answer you're looking for here. A full contact, Karate specific, sport that has the continuous fighting that you're looking for without losing the karate aspects of fighting. I would love to see more KarateCombat style smaller competitions.

Mugen is the "high quality" version of KI International. The Lexus to the KI regular Toyota Camry. Higher quality parts and a look that you recognize. They're good GIs, and when someone is looking to upgrade for the first time from their light-weight one that the dojo provides I usually recommend Mugen. Good quality without being a burden on the wallet. DarthPenguin mentions Tokaido, and I would put them on par with that. Not quite the prestige of Shureido, but still a very solid experience.

I've heard a lot of reasons to break away from an organization, from things as noble as "The head is abusive and I can no longer support them now that I know," to "The head wouldn't let me wear blue gi pants with a black top." As long as I'm floating somewhere above that then I think I'm good.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe I read that John Hackleman, Liddell's trainer, had kata removed from his curriculum that he taught at the Pit. Apart from donning gis and belts, it is difficult to tell it apart from some sort of kickboxing at this point. I couldn't tell you. I had to Google what kind of Kemp Liddell learned. I don't follow celebrities much.

Kempo is an odd phenomenon to me. There are so many versions of it and a lot of them (this one included, it seems) does that thing where in their 2-person work they throw all of those strikes, do a take down, and then once again throw a lot of strikes. I'm too unfamiliar with Kempo in general to understand why they do this? That said, the founder seems to have the experience and resume that I would expect. A few placements at state and national tournaments. You likely find the kata awkward due to his background in Kajukenbo, which tends to take more inspiration from Chinese Martial Arts than their Japanese counterparts. It seems that the founder's teacher in particular added a lot of Kung Fu into the system. Overall, it's more comparable to Liddel's Kempo, they both come from Hawaii. Parker Kempo, on the other hand, tends to be more Japanese in it's inspirations.

I love seeing these positive updates, Bob. It really warms my heart, you're often in my thoughts.

You know, the idea of a free market is that when someone sees a gap that they have the opportunity to fix it. I recently started taking some new medicines for my ADHD and have found that I have a lot more time on my hands recently. Maybe it's time to make my million dollar idea into an actual million dollars.

There's a Shoshin Karate school in Albany that looks pretty good.

I mean, the title says it all. I've been thinking about this a lot, and I'm ready to rant. I've been thinking about the lack of pockets in my gi for quite some time now. I want them, and a lot of people that I've talked to also wants them. There's no reason that some company isn't just flooding the market with gis with pockets. I know that Century has a pair that is perpetually sold out, and I'm sure that there are other companies out there that have the same, but I don't have them. I'm also not very good at sewing. So it's not like I can just sit down and take care of this problem myself. I have a Master's in English and Creative Writing. I'm an ideas guy, not a sewer. And I know that there are reasons that we don't, but those are in the past! But John, you say, why would you want things in your pockets during an intense class. I don't! I want to be able to have stuff in pockets as I walk up to class, or to a new dojo where I'm not sure that there is a changing area. I want to be able to use them in informal classes and lighter training at home! I want functionality! I want options! But John, you say again, you could snag a finger! I won't! My gi top usually rests over where pockets would be, and my hand does not often go to where my pockets be unless chambering in which I have a tight (but relaxed) fist which means that the closet finger I have to the pocket is my pinky; safely curled into the palm. But John, you say, tournaments don't allow you to have pockets when competing. I know, and I think that's silly! Am I going to reach in with a gloved hand for some pocket sand? That's a DQ even if I got the sand from the ground! Even so, I currently own 3 sets of gi pants. I can just have a separate pair for when I'm at a tournament. Or, I can protest this oppressive, no pockets climate that the tournament elites have created. It's would be my choice if there were pockets. Look. All I'm saying is that gis with pockets are an easy win. They could even just make them custom for each order and get more money. All I know is that I want to keep my personal belongings in my pockets and I wear a gi so much in my life that it seems insane that I can't do that here.