jaymac

Make sure you do find a school that offers seperate classes from children's classes. Now I am not saying do not expect teenagers to young adults to be in your class, but avoid situations where young children are being taught at the same time. I think most dojos offer trial memberships. Try it out. As for tournaments and stuff like that, I can't really help you. I practice shotokan and we do not go to tournaments or practice for point sparring; however, I have learned from this forum that there are many shotokan schools that are considered sport MA and not traditional. You are just going to have to shop around to find what best fits your idea of a good school.

I sort of agree with Rathe here. Instead of waiting for him to come to you and talk, go to him. Show him that you are interested in what you are doing. I don't know what style you are studying but ask him to assist you with kata or with a self defense situation. In our school, our instructor usually never pairs up with new students. He only pairs up with individuals who feel comfortable with him already. He usually picks the highest rank in the group to be his partner. Some instructors are weary about putting there hands on others until he/she is sure that the student is comfortable with close contact situations, and comfortable with takedowns. I enjoy my instructor, but he is not my friend. He is my mentor. If he doesn't talk to me on any given day, thats ok. I am still learning from him even if he doesn't have time to stop and chit chat.

Some of the kata might be similar, but I do not think Shotokan and TKD are that close. I know on previous posts, others have mentioned that Shotokan is a sport style karate. Our dojo and instructor are not. We do not train to score points at tournaments. I have gone to a few tournaments on my own and have seen TKD practicitioners and never saw any similarities. In fact, most of the TKD students did not compete in anything but sparring. They did awesome high kicks and even some jump kicks. It wasn't until coming to this forum that I first heard of Shotokan being a sport oriented MA. We train for realistic self defense situations. Do traditional kata and spar to really fight, not score.

Keep in mind that most places offer a trial membership, so instead of watching, participate in a few classes and go with the one you enjoyed the most.

And the best way to learn is to teach.

I was online yesterday and happened to find a ninjutsu school located in or near Buffalo N.Y. I don't know the website, I happened on it. Try to google Buffalo N.Y. and ninjutsu and see if you can get in touch with that instructor. Maybe he can help you out.

Matt, you can go to any local sports shop that does embroidery in your area and find a winter jacket you like. Usually, they will order one that will fit you. This way, you can pick it out and have it specially sized and ordered to your liking.

We are a Shotokan school. Our instructor did show us jump kicks but it was for demonstration purposes. You know, to make things look flashy. We did have to learn the jump kick for Kanku Dai. I do not feel jump kicks are appropriate for sparring. It is too obvious when someone is going to do it. We have young black belts who love it and I warned them about using it. Next time I sparred one of the kids who used it on me, I took him down. After that, they all were hoping to spar someone who would jump so they could take them down. Don't know if I proved anything at all there.

You are completely 100 % accurate DeeBoy.

It is amazing that I can barely remember what I did yesterday, but on that horrible day 5 years ago, I can vividly remember every moment. What a loss.

Ok, I am a huge Buffalo Bills fan. Now I do not expect the Bills to go to the playoffs, but I did expect them to get crushed last week by the Pats. Boy was I surprised that they did not just lay down and die for them. I was really impressed with their play. Sorry Patrick, but I actually think the Bills have a chance against your Dolphins. I can't wait until Sunday. I will go get some pizza and wings now and just sit, wait, eat, and smile! Woo Hoo! FOOTBALL!

What an honor that must have been for everyone involved.

It really seems this post has gone pretty far from "what makes a person a true martial artist." Taking a Martial Art for most people in the U.S. does not make them a warrior. It is not the same at all as training in the services and doing time in another country fighting a war. Martial Arts at one time was used to train individuals to be warriors, now it is something wonderful being shared and passed down by individuals who have trained most of their lives to keep Martial Arts going - no matter what style of MA it is. Who cares what MA is the best or who is the best. The only important thing is that you are doing it, giving it 100%, and never thinking that you have mastered the Art, because that is when you will no longer learn. I train because I love it. It may save my life one day. Is my style the best - who cares. Am I the best - pretty sure no. But I am good at what I do and it has made me a better individual in all areas of my life.

Another thing that may work for your scoring point issue, when your opponent comes in and you are just blocking, push him off and counter with a kick. Gets a point almost everytime.

I was just going to say that. Little kids love flashy stuff, but if you work with individuals of more mature age, hard and flasy moves are more discouraging.

If you are doing it for a record, get ahold of guiness world records and ask them what their requirements are for most punches in 60 seconds.

Brandon Fisher, in my above quote, i was not meaning to quote and disagree with you. I actually am responding that I do not necessarily think that a person who wins lots of trophies at a tournament makes that individual the best. I think that each style whether it is kung-fu, karate, aikido, boxing, UFC...whatever, has something awesome to provide to the world of Martial Arts and to the individuals who train in these multitude of styles. I take Shotokan over others because I enjoy the training and because I think my instructor is awesome at what he does and gives to his students. That doesn't mean that maybe one day I might not train in another style and give it 100% just as I have given to Shotokan. Everyone has the potential of being the best at representing MA by just going and doing it and passing their knowledge on to others.

Very well put.

The irony is that Im somewhat saddened by people that think martial arts is more about respect/discipline than it is about fighting. Look at any martial arts tournament and tell me whos regarded as being the best martial artist- its the guy whos carrying the trophy- regardless of how nice a guy he may or may not be, hes regarded as the best because he beat everyone else. I disagree with this only because our school does not go to tournaments. Any tournament that I have gone to was on my own. The individuals that I saw at these tournaments were awesome at what they were set out to do at that tournament. On many occassions I have come out on top because of a tie score and was asked to do a second and different weapons form, or a second and different kata. I won because I practice all the time to be good, not to be good at a tournament. Many of the people I competed against were not prepared to do a different form because they were only good at the one they had come to do, so a tournament isn't a great judgement system on how one person or one style is better than the other.

I don't think he would have wanted to leave this earth at his young age, but he left doing what he loved. He was inspiring to watch because he showed pure love and respect for all animals.

That was great bushido man!

I feel for you Richard Gregory. I purposely do not mention names of any individual student or instructor of our school just for the same reason: paranoia. Even though I can only speak highly of our school and instructor, it would not be taken well if I mentioned names.

Just putting an ad in your local paper for so many free classes is a good way to get students. Another is to hand out paper gift certificates in halloween bags with the candy. Hint Hint: halloween being only a short time away. My cousin used to do this for her gymnastics class and I thought it was a great idea.

When our mom's told us to wear our jackets or we will get sick, they were unknowingly fibbing. You cannot get sick by not bundling up. You have a better chance of catching a cold off of the handles on a shopping cart than by not wearing a jacket. Your immune system weakens by stress, lack of sleep, unhealthy eating, and unhealthy habits, (and other reasons )not necessarily by weather.

Mine is really just meat and mashed potatoes and maybe corn or peas and I mix everything together. I could eat like that everyday. I'm hungry.