Truestar

Saturday I attended our grappling session, we did some harder sparring and ground work and before leaving decided to play some bombardment (dodgeball) and some takedowns. That night my arm was feeling very odd. I went to a massage therapist a month ago about and after 3 sessions was able to clear up a lot of scar tissue in my elbows and forearms. But Saturday night I felt a stinging pain in my right arm. The source seems to be in my shoulder blades, however the pain is shooting down through my delts, down to my elbow and my thumb. My entire right arm goes numb for a solid 15 seconds every few minutes. The hot tub seemed to relax it last night, and after getting some knots worked out the majority of the pain is gone, but I definitely can still feel it. I might get some more serious work done sometime this week. Anybody else experience this? Any "home improvement" ideas before I can get it looked at?

When it comes to people running Martial Arts schools I'd say I respect teachers, not businessmen.

We had a similar problem, in fact this little girl is about to move up to a more advanced class. Luckily this girl joined with a friend of hers, so he was able to be there as a comfort. The first couple classes the parents stayed and she generally would stick with them against the wall. We suggested that the parents leave next class for some "errands". The little girl had no one to go to and lined up with her friend at the beginning of class. Either today or tomorrow she's going to be on her own. As an instructor I'll be there to teach and to comfort her as well as our master instructor. She has the potential to be a very good student. I know the situation you're in, that's for sure. But I don't have any great advice, I've only just started instructing for about 5 or 6 months now.

We generally tell our students they shouldn't wear their uniform unless they're either coming to the dojang, at the dojang, or on their way out to go to a home. After a sweaty night I might leave my kick pants on, but I always change into a t-shirt before going anywhere. I almost had to go to drivers ed in my pants once, I ended up skipping that class.

I have personally found forms beyond Yol-Guk to be very interesting, before then however, Chon-Ji to Won-Hyo, are not that exciting. I think it's all on the delivery. A good Martial Artist could take any of those forms and make them look fantastic and worth your time, however a run-of-the-mill kind of a person may not perform with the same finesse. So I don't completely agree with the passage.

This reminds me of a comedy skit, which reminds me of a question... Who in Gods name got so upset that they decided to raise one finger and display it!? Being a New Yorker I think I would bend it back too.

I have a real hard time bending my toes back, so ball of the foot is difficult with me. So I generally use the instep. I'll see what my shin does on the heavy bag just for the heck of it.

A 'new can of worms' was opened in another thread. Many times a person holds a rank that lets face it: they probably don't deserve. Now, we all might want to think, "It's not in our right to judge" but it is. Because of the way society has evolved the term 'black belt' is often considered as a joke. I've experienced this myself in High School, regardless of when I got my Dan rank. Should rank mean a lot more than it does today? Should schools start grading like schools used to? If they graded a bit tougher would the term 'black belt' start meaning something again? If there was an understood and universally accepted age limitation for 1st Dan would rank start meaning something?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8d1kIn4nl0 Poor guy must be so embarrassed. I'm not going to lie, I laughed.

I think balancing has something to do with a chemical in your brain, right? Any biologists?

We don't use it in our school.

Tallgeese is spot on here A 13 year old CHILD does not have the intuition and know how to teach (effective) martial arts. In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, you cant get your black belt until you're 18, and you cant even get your blue belt (1 step up from white) until 16 (15 for exceptional students). It is precisely because of this. A child is far from mastery, and far from knowing how to teach himself. Hes not even old enough to be in high school. Theres a difference between not having an ego and just being plain naiive. So even though age restrictions weren't the primary focus of this topic, it seems that age restrictions would help prevent the situation Shotokan-kex was discussing. Even if it was just a warm up what if this instructor decides to rely on her in the future? This could be a potential problem. If the instructor relies on a child to run any part of his or her class, then he or she shouldnt be teaching martial arts at all., I would have to disagree. There are times where a new student is interested and a parent may want to ask questions, the next highest ranking belt may indeed be a child. For the instructor to rely on that child for 10 minutes I don't think is something to frown on and wouldn't consider it a swag the finger move. I think it's how heavily we weigh the term "rely".

Does your school make use of the Junior Black Belt rank? If so what does it look like? Our school has a black belt with a white stripe through the middle, now it's a horizontal split between black and red. My instructor has had the idea that maybe our junior black belts will have a solid black belt, with no terminology or stripes on it, and reserve the stitching for full dan ranks. How about your school?

When you tie your belt does your school follow a certain etiquette? I've always learned my stripes to be on the left, and I seem to be the only one who has ever thought that way. Apparently in our school it's not a capital sin, however I tend to tell students that stripes go on the left. My instructor smiles when he hears this. I think one of his daughters said the same thing, so I think I learned it from her! Our Junior Black Belt rank is a belt that's horizontally split between black and red. Our head instructor's daughter actually started the rule that is followed that the black stripe is on top when the belt is tied as it's a "step closer to black belt". How about your school? Any rules? I've never heard of organizations like the WTF or ITF so I don't have any idea about how other schools tie their belts.

First Degree black belt, through Ninth. Many schools display the rank various ways. Some I've seen use stripes, some use stitches, how about your school? Our belt displays "Shodan" in Korean on the left, and a red stitched slash on the right. Ignore the pajamas! http://www.hk-gamers.net/clancyaddicts/images/tribute_bb.png

I guess I need to think more before I speak! I think my use of the term adrenaline dump was misused, however my previous description is what I think is still going on, just not through the use of adrenaline. Doh! fujau, I never thought about exercising myself that way. Several times as I walk home from school friends often honk at me, I tend to startle slightly and jerk a little rather than being calm. I'll definitely mention an exercise like this to my instructor. I'll just half to study the effects of adrenaline on the body before we dive right in.

Tallgeese is spot on here A 13 year old CHILD does not have the intuition and know how to teach (effective) martial arts. In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, you cant get your black belt until you're 18, and you cant even get your blue belt (1 step up from white) until 16 (15 for exceptional students). It is precisely because of this. A child is far from mastery, and far from knowing how to teach himself. Hes not even old enough to be in high school. Theres a difference between not having an ego and just being plain naiive. So even though age restrictions weren't the primary focus of this topic, it seems that age restrictions would help prevent the situation Shotokan-kex was discussing. Even if it was just a warm up what if this instructor decides to rely on her in the future? This could be a potential problem.

I think when I say adrenaline dump I may be misleading, but I'm not entirely sure. Generally speaking adrenaline focuses the mind and often loses the reality of itself, but when I think of the kiai I think of more adrenaline, which you would think in turn loses yourself more, but I think it brings you back to a state of control. I have no idea if I made sense or not.

If by shouting you are referring to the 'kiai', then I've always been taught it was an adrenaline dump and added tool against an opponent. Our school uses breath holds and meditation, but merely as a way of relaxing and gaining control, not focusing any energy in the sense you're speaking of. I'd wait for some more answers as other TKD schools may operate differently.

I don't really see this as an issue at all. Case-in-point; Wrestling is already a sport option in most school systems. Other Martial Arts can be taught in a similar premise without any concern. I agree with bushido_man96 on this one. Its not that much different than kids learning outside of school in any case. The same thing could still happen. As a side note, I have a friend from Hong Kong who was taught MA as part of sports classes from junior school upwards. The paragraph you quoted was my "this is what would be said by the community", my true feelings were expressed below.

The cells in your body if I can recall are anaerobic or some term similar to that. Basically your muscles need oxygen to work. Lactic Acid is the product of physical activity, and is what builds up in your muscles causing fatigue. It certainly isn't myth. Take a clothespin and use your fingers to pinch it, keep pinching it. That burning feeling is the lactic acid in a sense "choking" your muscles from the lack of oxygen. You feel a physical fatigue. Over time if you were to constantly work the clothespin, your muscle tolerance would indeed increase, meaning you could handle more lactic acid, which is an increase in what we know as muscular endurance. It's been 4 years since I took biology, I know everything I said is correct with the exception of the anaerobic part. There's two types of cell "breathing" functions, I'm not sure if I listed the right one.

There's no way I can see this in American schools, only because it would challenge the "Zero Tolerance Policy". Teaching students how to defend themselves is definitely a bad idea. If a student is attacked, and they achieve light control in order to potentially save their lives, they get suspended! No matter what! There's no way martial arts should be taught in public schools. Now for the reality aspect, absolutely. I think it would be awesome to get high schools involved in tournaments and whatnot. My dojang would always come before my school, however I would be more than glad to compete, train, and share my knowledge of the martial arts with my peers. Unfortunately my fake little ramble up top is the argument of a lot of people. Martial Arts is taught a little bit in schools, (EKP-Education Karate Program), but that's as much as I've ever heard in schools and MA.

This is an interesting concept as well as an excellent way to monitor progress. I apologize for assuming money was at the root of many stripe systems; there are obvious exceptions. No apology needed! However money does tend to be the root of many things.

Money isn't what's being used here. There are 6 stripes for each belt up to Junior black, they don't cost anything, however are merely "steps" building up to each rank.

Absolutely, I figured the leg lock wasn't going anywhere drastic so I should fight it. I've hyper extended my arm from an arm bar, so I definitely know some battles that can be won or lost.