jaymac

I was teaching a sparring class and was watching several students fight a particular student whom had a great side kick. Everyone of them were getting nailed in the chest because they were not moving out of the way. I was attempting to demonstrate how one should side step this young man's fantastic kick and I was using him as my opponent to demonstrate. Yep, took his sidekick right to the chest in front of everyone. Great job side stepping that one! Great kick!

So the true answer is.... do what you are told to do, I guess. When doing kata, my gaze is always a few feet in front of me. When I bow to my instructor, I do meet his eyes. I guess before I spar, I look at the eyes of my opponent too. This was a neat post.

I will keep you and your son in thought. I can't imagine how awful this must have been. I know my animals are my treasures. I hope in time, Ryan will want to get another kitten, not to replace, but to add to his life.

I try always to find the easiest way to teach something. It makes me so happy when they get it. I love to attend my instructors classes so I can listen to him and focus on how he teaches material. It seems so much easier coming from him.

Keep your goal of starting a dojo because it is an awesome dream that you will be able to achieve, but be realistic as to when you will be ready to do so.

Do you really think in a few years that you will have learned everything you can about your style? I have been a Nidan for awhile now and would not even think to start a dojo at this current rank. I have much to learn yet and so does every other MA at a Nidan and Sandan level. I would not be doing service to students by starting a school. It should and does take years to advance through the Dan grades. What would happen if you only were a Nidan and were ready to advance your own students to Shodan or above. In our dojo, the instructor has to be at least 2 dan grades above his/her own students.

Our students have an option of breaking boards during their test. They are not required to break in order to advance, but all usually want to break anyways. We do not hold a class prior to testing to teach how to break. Usually, these are small boards and the kids can be shown proper way to break a board just prior to doing it. Everyone usually breaks the board easily. We encourage them at their next belt testings to increase the board size and then once they have maxed out on sizes, to increase the number of boards.

If there are any Kung fu schools in your area, go and check them out. I am sure you will be pleased.

Thanks for the warning.

Thank you.

I believe that law was made for me sometimes

When we have a break for Holiday, I use it to take a break and relax, or catch up on housework-----> nah - relax! Our breaks tend to only be less than a week off, it is longer, then I will train at home on my own.

You know Cross, I am a Nidan and I do not feel the need yet to find something else. I do not believe by far that I have learned all I can in my Art and from my Instructor.

Our drop outs come random. I tend to see kids quit because some parents do not like the way it is run in accordance of learning discipline. They want their child to behave better at home and mark that on their papers that they fill out at the beginning. Then when they actually have someone in the class making their child listen and learn, they drop out (hence the bad behavior at home) We see a drop out of teenage girls when they enter highschool. It is either not cool or they get involved with school activities. And some shodans drop out because they do not feel they are advancing quick enough or shodan was their only goal. Usually once someone gets to Nidan, they are their for life.

Interesting comments. I know personally, I don't take any classes off, but when we have a holiday break, I get the urge to get back there. My remotivation comes daily however with new students. They are wide eyed and ready to learn anything (and always have a blast. )

" I have a black belt too, I bought it at walmart for 10 bucks." I like when people say to me, "do you think you could take me?" I like to respond, well next week my instructor teaches us to fly, so I think after next week, I will be able to take you.

You know, punishment does not always work. In fact, sometimes it makes matters worse. Is there not one child in the group who is trying really hard to do well? Instead of punishing one or several, commend the ones trying hard. You will get more children trying with positive reinforcement vs. negative. I always point out the children trying hard by saying things like "wow, jimmy has awesome push ups. Jimmy, would you like to come up front and show the class how hard you are trying and demonstrate... " This works all the time in any situation. Kids want to do well. Help them get there. Don't punish them for not trying hard, teach them how to try hard.

I think it would be a wonderful gesture to hand down the gi, and I bet she would think so too.

My instructor was awarded Shihan at 6th Dan by his instructor. I call him Shihan because he is deserving of his title. His teachings, style, time in training, respect, and attitude is amazing. He has dedicated his life to Martial Arts and teaching it to others. I am a Nidan and called Sensei. I have many years of training and experience before another promotion. I do not consider my technique equal of my instructors, and am glad that we do not share the same title. Every dojo, dojang is different and you should address the individuals in that school as your instructor asks, but give everyone from white belt to 10th dan equal respect.

With my luck, i would hand over the wrong wallet and end up being stuck with the dummy wallet full of fake money and cards.

Just an observation that i recently made, one of the students in our school felt as an added stress relief, he would join yoga. I noticed last week that his flexibility has increased 10 fold. When I approached him about what a huge difference seen in his flexibility, he said he really attributed it to yoga. Maybe i will look into this too.

I agree with ps1, if you have the blessing of your current instructor, then give hapkido a try for awhile and see if you can train effectively in both styles. Good luck.

Honestly, it doesnt matter what this guy thinks of the training you have. If you are interested in the Art, give it a try. If you really feel you have a bad feeling about this training hall and/or instructor, do not train there. You will find it hard to give respect and be respected.

We have a general warm up exercise done at every class. We always put new students with a higher ranking kyu student or black belt at first to orient them to the training and the basics. Luckily however, we have several black belt students who can lead groups according to rank and practice basics on up to their current level of training.

I thought it looked legit. I was at a seminar once and was watching some kung fu practitioners working out together and they were quite fast with awesome control, similar to this guy. Irregardless of how fast this was or wasn't it looked like it would be an affective technique, i mean he was aiming for quite susceptible vital striking areas.