Zaine

Please don't spend a large amount of time stretching out daily. You can overstretch your body and doing so will cause you to not perform as well; especially when it comes to static stretches, which a lot of martial arts studios practice. I recently saw a video that used a good metaphor for this: imagine that your muscle is a rubber band. If you put a rubber band in a freezer and then take it out cold and stretch it then the threshold to it breaking is going to be quite low. However, if you stretch that rubber band while it is warm then it can stretch for much longer before breaking. This is true for your muscles as well. When we prepare for any exercising we should be doing dynamic stretches. That is, stretch out while moving and even then we should not be doing this for much more than 5 minutes because, again, when we over stretch we actually create a bigger chance of hurting ourselves. So be careful with your stretching practices. Tension can come from stress and other areas as well. I suggest looking at some relaxation techniques, yoga, or changing the way you stretch if you're just doing static stretches.

Well said Heidi, thank you!

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

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

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

That's cool that you're still present in your dojo. I think that shows commitment. Are you doing PT?

That's a tough one, but I have always been fond of doing things with my hands. At the end of the day, I love jabbing. It sets up so many other things and is just a quick little reminder to your opponent that they are getting close enough for me to act.

In the end, it's the work ethic that really separates the wheat from the chafe. Like I am fond of saying: Martial arts is 30% classroom training, 70% solo training.

Congrats! Well deserved!

Wow, I'm glad that you are alive and recovering! It's good to have you back with us!

On the point of having another instructor do the test: I like it as well as long as there are uniform standards and sometimes there aren't, especially in a larger organization. This is easily solved, however, by a testing board (which is something that many schools do for higher tests anyway). When I got my Shodan, my board consisted of my instructor, and 3 other instructors from different systems. It took one instructor writing fail on their paper to fail me as the passing status had to be unanimous. While these other instructors could not have a perfect idea as to whether or not I was doing the kata correctly (in fact, I had forgotten the entire nunchaku kata and confidently made the movements I did up as I went) they were close enough in practice to judge whether or not my mindset, technical skill, and fighting prowess were up to the level of Shodan. I think this is invaluable for any Shodan test as it gives a different perspective on your own techniques. As for the testing cycle, I certainly understand Jr 137's points. Tradition, rite of passage, etc. are all very important to the journey. After every test I felt a sense of euphoria upon the confirmation that I passed. However, when we take this away and reserve it for higher ranks, such as Lupin1's karate school, are we really taking away from an experience? I guess what I'm trying to ask is this: if we took away a testing structure, reserving it for higher ranks, are we limiting the growth or encouraging learning? As a school teacher I teach my kids to love learning and I try to make the knowledgeable about the material that they have. It's worthless to limit oneself to what is going to be on a test. If we take away this cycle, and focus more on imbuing a love of the material and being more open to what they learn and when they learn it will that be more beneficial or less beneficial to the student? I feel as if I've convoluted what I want to say so to close: say a student is learning Pinan shodan and they have grasped it firmly enough to move on to nidan but have not progressed in other areas enough for a belt test then often they are held from learning nidan until everything else is in place. This can stagnate the students desire to come back. If we didn't worry about tests are meeting requirements, we potentially free ourselves from teaching requirements and move to teaching what they are ready for (assuming that the techniques and areas that are not up to par do not affect whether or not they can handle learning a different kata). I hope what I'm trying to say is coming across.

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

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

The last student I promoted to brown went this way. I watched him for the past 2 years of training, saw where he was at at the belt prior to brown belt (we have 3 brown belts), and decided he deserved his first brown belt. I called him out at the end of class, opened my briefcase and handed him a certificate and belt for 3rd kyu. Simple, huh? No pushups (they do those every class anyway), no massive kata drills (these do kata every class anyway), and no sparring (they do that most classes anyway). Esentially, that student had been testing weekly (every class) for the past 2 YEARS! Personally, I don't see a point in a "formal" testing process like you described. I've actually been thinking about this a lot lately. Why do we subject students to testing? Is it simply because of tradition? We know they're ready. We often hear, and say, that a sensei would not be testing a student if they did not believe in their readiness. If we only test those we feel are deserving, ready, and (most importantly) capable of passing, then why do we test? It's an interesting topic and one that I think deserves deeper consideration. That being said, those requirements are fairly standard and seems to be the same ones (more or less) that I was held to when I tested for that rank. Good luck!

I agree with JR here. Clearly you're invested enough to be worried about it. While no joy is apparent now, you are willing to try anything to bring it back. Talk to your Sensei and ask him how you can help get others in. Also, talk to your friends about coming with you. If your Sensei expresses desire to get more students then great! If not, or you can't get anymore, then find a place where your desires are met. Nothing squashes a martial arts journey faster than a loss of desire to go, and if you really want to continue then you must enjoy it on some level.

This one hits it for me. The worst part is when you will see them brag that they are the "ultimate fighter" because they have a "better understanding" of techniques across multiple disciplines, then, when asked to perform some of these techniques, they show only a cursory knowledge of them at best. Grrr.

It would be cool to start a thread on here where we can post the videos. This way, someone can respond to someone with a response video. It would be a pretty good opportunity to see how things are done by other people and learn some new kata.

I agree with Nidan Melborne here. I will go further and say that you should wait. I think 3rd kyu is a perfect place to start cross-training. That being said, do some research. Look at the kata you have learned and watch other systems do it, look at the way you punch in comparison to other school and you will learn to appreciate the way you do it. You will be better at picking up nuances in your own style by seeing the differences in others. I think that every martial artist should "know" other styles, whether that be by doing them or researching them. No style claims to be the be-all-end-all, only practitioners do, so it's beneficial to look around.

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

Congrats! Well deserved!

Like Bob I only experienced some arm soreness from the bicep down. I would maybe take a look at how you are doing your sai exercises. Especially with new weapons we tend to overdo things (nunchaku was the big one for me and I had many a bruised knuckle because of it). Take some time to take to your teacher to see if anything is not quite what it is supposed to be. While soreness is often a sign that we are simply working a new muscle group, it can also be a sign that something is wrong.

This has always been my favorite myth surrounding not washing your belt. It goes along with not washing you gi either (provided that you begin with a white gi and transition later into black). It's just so ridiculous sounding to me! How dirty and caked with mold and grime would a belt have to be to become black?!

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

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

sensei8 makes a great point about stretching properly. What are you doing to stretch currently?