Zaine

My first school put out exactly one shirt and, being that my family had been with the school since it had opened, I got one for free. It was a nice shirt, but I only ever wore it to class. I know a few people who wear MA shirts outside of class, and that's fine for them but I choose not to. Like Sensei8 mentioned, I find no reason to advertise it. MA is something that I do for me, not everyone else. Otherwise, on the days where I don't have to dress for work, I tend to wear Ts that have my favorite nerdy franchise over them.

Happy birthday KF! KarateForums is now the same age that I was when I hit 1st dan! It certainly doesn't seem like it has been that long.

HEMA is becoming more common, though! If you like it, I suggest checking out a meet up site. It seems to be pretty common to advertise HEMA on these sites. I do wish it was more widespread. It's some of the most fun you can have doing martial arts.

Welcome to KF! It's great to have you. As a fellow graduate school student good luck! How close to being done are you?

Here's a different perspective: you don't owe you old sensei an explanation. If it's easier for you to just leave, then that's fine. You're allowed to do so. If, however, it would cause you angst to not inform the old school, then do so. You don't have to do so face-to-face. An email will suffice. Don't assume that time spent makes you beholden to something. You're allowed to change your mind.

I think we need to ask "What part is mental?" The phrase, as you mentioned, is so pervasive throughout MA culture that it is one of those things that we accept without too much thought. It makes sense at the "gut check" level. We hear it and think "yeah, that checks out." But what about it checks out? I think this is what you're leading us towards in this conversation (I could be wrong). Let me add on to this then: What part is mental? I don't think we can say it's the actual fighting part. We train very hard to make that muscle memory and instinctual. Instinct is not mental it's reactional. Is it the ability to let go of the fear and let this training take over? Is it the part of our brains that lets us choose "fight" when we have to?

Welcome to KF! It's great to have you!

Never happened to me. If I were an instructor, I would likely sit down with the student and talk it out. These kind of things happen when there is a breakdown of communication. Re-establish that communication, and try to resolve the situation that way would be my course of action. If it can't be resolved, then maybe it is time for the student to find another school.

Congrats Danielle. It has been amazing working with you.

Congrats! Well deserved!

Welcome to KF, Mark! It's great to have you!

I am so ready! I actually took the day off (though to be fair, that day also happens to be my daughter's 4th birthday, and my 5th wedding anniversary). We are dropping my kid off at her grandparents and binging it for our anniversary.

Happy Birthday Bob!

Welcome to KF! It's great to have you! What you talk about is something that most of us have taken issue with one way or another. I definitely understand what you mean when you say that you feel like you're not being allowed to explore the extent of the art, and that you're not happy with the "do as I say with no questions" attitude. Questions should always be allowed. To answer your questions: 1) How passionate are you about it? You sound very passionate, and you have at least stuck with it until Brown Belt. It sounds like you would be more happy sticking with it until you have a better option. 2) Do you want to change styles? Goju Ryu and Uechi Ryu are great styles, but if you're not ready to move on from Shotokan then it won't be enough. That being said, those two are similar enough that you won't feel completely lost making the change. 3) I have a good amount of experiencing with cross training and I heavily recommend it when you are ready. What "ready" means tends to vary, but the general consensus seems to be that most people should wait after 1st dan.

Thank you for this post. I hope that she gets better soon so that she can get right back at it. You're right, as divisive as MA can be, it's also a great tool for people to come together and make connections with one another.

Congrats! Well deserved.

Welcome to KF! It's great to have you!

Sorry if I am confused but in one sentence you said steel is expensive but in another you said you have made a bearded axe, a sheild, long swords and daggers. Did you make them from wood. A bokken per-say? If out of steel, what type of steel did you use for these? High carbon between 1045 and 1095? Steel is not that expensive. High carbon steel, at least in my opinion is cheap. Tool steels can be more expensive depending on what your look for and what you want it to do, but they may not be expensive if your trying to get the best performance for a given task out of them. It's more expensive if you use the wrong steel for the job and it fails. Example: 440 SS for a long blade. I cringe just thinking about it. In fact depending on what your skills are and what tools you have or prefer you can forge or stock remove your weapons with minimal expense (files and sand paper). Forging maybe not so much if in residential neighborhoods. If you are in a residential area you not going to be able to heat treat either but you could send it out for HT for not a great deal of money. Sorry, I made them out of wood. I wish I could blacksmith, but I don't currently have the space to learn. Pre-done steel swords are expensive, at least for me, so I made a lot of wooden weapons for practicing things that the polys aren't well equipped for.

I have made a number of wooden weapons for WMA. Steel is expensive, and though I have poly weapons they are useless when practicing things like point control. To date I have made a bearded ax, a shield, two Italian-style long swords, and a few rondel daggers. I enjoy the process of creating something, so I enjoy hand made. It also doesn't make me feel as bad when if I break them. For me, it is more of a hobby that I find very relaxing.

I have spent so much time thinking about, and debating, this very thing. We have to begin understanding that secrecy in regarding bunkai is useless.

Welcome to KF! What kind of information? As for its content, it details the history of Okinawan karate. I don't know about the price. As far as I can tell it isn't a sought after book, and I don't know how much more or less valuable a signed copy of it would be. My suggestion would be to search ebay to find some kind of price history.

My mother, who has stopped telling people because of this question, usually got the same response. I find this interesting because I usually get people telling me about their MA experience, or how they always wanted to get into MA.

I think that kata are important provided that you a) learn what the moves in the kata are actually doing and b) practice those moves like you would any other self defense technique (like in step drills). This is something that I find a lot of schools lacking on, especially in the lower levels. You can be the very best at Pinan Shodan, but if you don't know the practical applications of it then do you really know it?

Welcome to KF! It's great to have you!

Well promotions usually come with a test, so it's not as easy as just accepting the promotion. If one of your Senseis think that you are ready to test, then go for it! I don't think your Sensei is setting you up to fail. Often times a Sensei will know that you are ready before you feel mentally ready. Take the chance. If you fail, then you have still learned something. I don't think that you have anything to lose. You should focus on skill. That being said, it is important to understand that belts are gateways to more knowledge within curriculum based schools. Your rank will often denote what you learn next and what you need to continue working on. At the end of the day, a Black Belt is only the beginning. The only thing a BB tells an instructor is that you have learned the basics and that you are ready to move on to the really advanced stuff. Good luck in your MA journey, and with your test.