bushido_man96

That's cool of you to say, @DarthPenguin. I tend to do that at times, but I always like to have an instructor or practitioner's input on the matter. And visiting other schools and instructors is just always fun to do.

That sounds interesting, for sure. Makes me think of the scene in Deadpool & Wolverine where they fight in a Honda Odyssey.

To echo this somewhat, I remember when I first started TKD and was testing, there was a pretty good group of us that were training and testing together. I remember the kid that convinced me to start coming to class with him; he eventually fell away from it and I stayed. I remember when I finally tested for my 1st degree, there were two other guys that tested with me; three of us from the large group that was going through the ranks together made it to the black belt testing. Now, as far as I know, I'm the only one of us that is still active in the martial arts. I've heard it said that of the people who start the martial arts journey, 10% maybe make it to black belt. Then, it's another 10% die-off that make it to 2nd dan, and so on. I don't know if the 10% number is accurate, but the fact that the ratio keeps decreasing is true; I've seen it, as I'm sure everyone else here has. It's kind of saddening, to know those colleagues I had fell away, and they were way more talented than I ever was. But on the flip side, I'm proud to have persevered.

Thank you everyone! I do look forward to learning the new form. It has some interesting kicking aspects in it.

Thank you for clarifying, Bob.

I did pass, Bob.

This is full version of the essay I started writing for my 5th dan testing requirement. It got kind of long, as I wasn't sure how I wanted to focus the essay at the start. The first part of the essay is just kind of a history of my journey to becoming an instructor in the first place, and then later I get into what I feel the duties of the Master Instructor are. The section titled The Duty of the Master Instructor is what I turned in as my testing essay. You all get the bonus content. It's long, so I want to thank those in advance who take the time to read my ramblings. The Road to Mastery I started my Martial Arts journey in 1993. I always knew I wanted to stay with it, to keep studying, learning new things, and getting better. The more I progressed, the more I realized that it was something I wanted to keep doing for the rest of my life. I wanted to be a Martial Artist, not just someone who others knew practiced martial arts for just a while. The early years were filled with the challenges that come with learning a new physical endeavor. Learning to punch, block, and kick, coordinating both sides of the body with the hands and arms doing opposite movements. Learning to maintain balance while kicking low, and then learning to kick higher and higher. Learning to properly balance the body in several different ways through the use of stance work taught a level of kinesthetic awareness that I still fall back on today. Then there is putting all those aspects together; performing blocks, strikes, and kicks while moving methodically in the proper stances, culminating in the performance of hyungs. In these early, formative years of martial arts training, it was all about me. Sure, I had training partners here and there that I worked with, but in the grand scheme of things at the time, it was about making myself better, making improvements, improving skill, and getting to the next testing so I could start over again with a new rank. Things are a bit easier when one only has to keep track of oneself and is the only focus of training. However, I had made the decision that I wanted to be a life-long martial artist, which meant my focus was not going to stay on me all the time. As time passed and I moved up in rank, getting closer to the black belt levels, it became clear to me that my time would become less and less my own. When I achieved black belt rank, my role as a martial artist changed. Not only did I need to find the time to dedicate to my own training, I was also expected to be assisting instructors with classes. The tasks started out simple enough; lead the warmups and stretches for the first 15 minutes or so of class, then the chief instructor would step in and handle the main class content. These class warmups made me start to think about how I would organize a set of warmup exercises in such a way that the order seemed logical and prepared the class properly for further work to come. These warmup blocks laid the foundation for what was to come later as a full-fledged instructor. Time continued on, and the expectations of my instructors grew, and so I took on more responsibility in working with other students. I would be asked to work with new students, teaching them basic techniques along with how to perform the stances and move in them. This opened up a whole new world to me. It was one thing for me to know the techniques and how to do them; it was a totally different experience trying to teach what I knew how to do to new students that didn’t have the experience base I had to fall back on. It was quite a challenge, and I began learning again, too. I began to learn how to formulate my thoughts clearly and in a concise way in the hopes of getting the student to understand what I wanted them to do and how to do it. I also began to learn that one student may come to an understanding from one approach and another student can require a totally different approach. I enjoyed my martial arts training when I was focused on my own training, but as I began to teach more and more, I found that I really enjoyed that aspect of martial arts. I had decided that I wanted to be an instructor. I began teaching classes on my own. This entailed coming up with focused lesson plans that built on each other in order to move students towards their next testing. Learning to build these classes in a cogent manner took time. I wanted the classes to have good order and flow, so that one drill would build on the next, and move the students forward for what was to come in the next class, and the next class, and so on. I learned a lot in my early years as an instructor, about what approaches worked and what didn’t work, and learning how to get the best responses out of the students I was teaching. As the years pass by, students that have been martial arts practitioners for quite some time all become familiar with the rank structure within their organization. We see who the instructors are, and we see other titles out there as well. We see certified instructors and school owners. We see junior masters. We also know of the ones referred to as master instructors and of course, grandmasters. When I became an instructor, I didn’t give much thought about what becoming a master would be like. I never really thought it would be a title that would pertain to me; I just don’t see myself in that way. But here I stand, on the precipice of a testing in which, should I pass, I will earn the title of Master Instructor. This has given me pause to consider what it actually means, and how it changes my approach to martial arts training and teaching going forward. Early on as an instructor, my focus was on the class at hand for that night. Sometimes I’d stress a bit about what I would be having the students do. I think at times I would think way too hard about what I could do that the students would enjoy with the thought in the back of my mind hoping they’d come back for the next class. Perhaps this was due to a lack of confidence in my teaching abilities at the time. As time went on, I worried about this less and less and became more comfortable with building classes. My focus shifted to making sure the students were getting better at the skills they needed based on where they were in the curriculum. I learned as I went along that if I could create a quality lesson plan that kept the students engaged, no matter how basic it might be, they would benefit from the contents. The Duty of the Master Instructor When I became an instructor, I didn’t give much thought about what becoming a master would be like. I never really thought it would be a title that would pertain to me; I just don’t see myself in that way. But here I stand, on the precipice of a test in which, should I pass, I will earn the title of Master Instructor. This has given me pause to consider what it actually means, and how it changes my approach to martial arts training and teaching going forward. As I have matured as an instructor, I think about a class taught today and how it builds on the classes to come. I’ve gone from thinking about teaching on a class-by-class basis to focusing more on classes that build on each other and build the skill development of the students. With these experiences I’ve gained as an instructor through the years, I am now looking at what my role as a Master Instructor would be. I feel I should start with some simple definitions. Instructor: one who instructs; a teacher. Master: a person eminently skilled in something, as an occupation, art, or science. Therefore, a Master Instructor would be a highly skilled instructor in his or her area of expertise. For our purposes here, they would be as martial arts instructors, and more specifically, Taekwondo instructors. First and foremost, would be having command of the material to be taught, including the basic techniques, the forms and one-steps for each rank. Without complete knowledge of the material, it is difficult to prepare students for advancing in rank. Once a student reaches the black belt level, they should have the curriculum to that point memorized and be prepared to demonstrate it on demand. As an instructor gains experience by having the techniques and curriculum memorized, the instructor can begin to layer in new and various applications for the techniques, thus enriching the student’s knowledge of not only how to do the techniques, but what they do with the techniques based on different scenarios. It’s important to start looking into how an instructor matures into a master instructor. Earning a black belt is often referred to as “just the beginning” of the martial arts journey. Those of us that have stuck it out this long realize what this means. We go from black belt student, to assistant teaching, to becoming a certified instructor, and then moving on to the higher tiers: junior master instructor, master instructor, senior master, and then grandmaster for the very few that earn that title. The most obvious attribution comes from experience, lots of time spent teaching classes. Teaching different classes with varying skill levels and ages brings in all kinds of experiences to build on. I found in my time teaching kids classes that the most important attribute I acquired was patience. Kids will keep you on your toes with questions and conversations that aren’t always in line with the focus of the class. A good instructor must be able to keep the kids focused on the task at hand and must also keep things fresh for the students. It’s not unreasonable to have four to five different tasks planned out for a 30–45-minute class of 5–8-year-olds. A kid’s instructor must also be just as engaged as the children in the activities. Kids at this age learn through play, and when the instructor plays with the kids, they get more engaged. Children will often copy-cat, so an instructor must be sure to do everything as technically correct as possible and watch for their mistakes. I also found out that there were times when I had some ideas planned out in my head, but when it came down to implementing them in the class, the ideas didn’t translate like I thought they would and didn’t make much sense to the kids. I had to learn to pivot to something else really quickly in order to not sacrifice class time and to still meet the goals of the class. By learning patience, getting engaged in the classes, and making sure to be a good example are all attributes that the master instructor should be able to implement in any class they teach. Teaching classes of older kids, ages 9-13 or so, also provides some unique challenges. What I saw happening a lot when teaching this age range is the level of motivation can vary from class to class. There will be classes where the kids are fired up and ready to go, and then there are classes where they lag and drag and seem like they’d rather be somewhere else. It’s also important to point out that this isn’t always consistent throughout the class. I have had students that were tuned in and ready to go and students that appeared disinterested in the same class. As a master instructor, it is of paramount importance to be sure to get every student engaged in the class in an effort to make it the best hour or so of their day. It can be as simple as pointing out the good things students are doing to get their confidence up. If the kids look like they are shutting down in basics, pivoting the class approach and changing things up by adding some pad work can break them out of their funk. The benefits of teaching this age range for the master instructor manifest in being flexible with how the material is presented in class while still meeting your goals for that class and the classes in the weeks to come. Teaching adult classes tend to be more straightforward, in that adults that show up to class are usually motivated to do so. It can be easy to assume as an instructor that keeping the status quo of the class structure for the adults will suffice, but this is not always the case. Master instructors should use their knowledge of the basic techniques to their advantage. A good instructor will have a solid grasp of the basic techniques as well as more advanced techniques. With this good foundation, the master instructor can change how the basic techniques are approached so the students get to see things from a different perspective, and therefore challenge their own perceptions of what the basic techniques are and how to do them. I’ve found in my time teaching that the more concise I can be with my directions then the more beneficial they become for the students. Being able to present the physical application of techniques is important so a student can have a physical example to follow when learning. This is easier when we are young and more athletic, but as age and experience set it, performing the more athletic movements can be more difficult for an aging instructor. Therefore, it is not only important to be able to demonstrate technique, but also to be able to offer verbal explanations and cues in performing techniques that perhaps an instructor can’t do as well as he once could. A master instructor should be able to explain techniques in this way. Having a young, spry assistant doesn’t hurt either. A master instructor will be able to succinctly explain the nuances of techniques from the experiences they build early on as new instructors. I found it easy early on as a new instructor to get wordy when trying to explain things. As I’ve matured as an instructor, I’ve found that I can say less and get more understanding across to the students, thus allowing them to get more time training in class and less time listening to me ramble. All of these experiences help bring the master instructor to a point at which commanding a class becomes second nature and allows the instructor to run classes in the most efficient way possible. To sum up these attributes: Grasp of the Curriculum Patience Engagement Pivoting Approaches Positive Reinforcement Provide Different Perspectives Providing Layers of Application Giving Concise, Succinct Instruction With these attributes in tow, the master instructor will be able to make adjustments to class activities and provide the students with more and more advanced technique and applications in training, but the master instructor will be able to do this in the simplest manner possible. The master instructor will see that instead of planning classes one at a time, he will be able to plan the classes to build off of each other, building steady improvement over the course of months over whatever topics he chooses to emphasize, while along the way maintaining the integrity of the curriculum required for testing and advancing in rank. With all the experience gained through the early years of teaching, the master instructor will be able to produce students with solid foundations in the basics and begin to understand how simple nuances can advance their understanding of martial arts concepts. Not only will they be able to demonstrate the curriculum for testing, but they will also be able to demonstrate the concepts of solid self-defense. Therefore, as you can see, the duty of the master instructor is to help produce the next generation of master instructors, who can become the stalwarts that continue to perpetuate the art. I truly believe that a master instructor’s job is to not show the students how good he is, but to make the students as good as they can be.

From what I've been seeing, Manfred isn't interested in applying that rule.

I'd be curious as to how Bill does at recruiting...

I don't really have any recommendations on duration. We've done some okinage breathing from time to time in our Aikido dojo, but usually it only goes about 5 minutes or so. The more consistently you do it, you'll likely come up with a sweet spot that works well for you.

I went to our association HQ to test on 12/7/2024 for 5th dan. It was the first time I'd tested since 12/7/2013; 11 years to the day. Needless to say, it was long overdue. I got there early to warmup and walk through material, and got to see and talk to some individuals who used to be students at our school that have since passed me in rank. It was good to see some familiar faces. The CI at our school also came to test for the same rank, and it was nice to have someone to test with. I have to say, we represented our school very well. After a group of three of us 4th dans did our forms, we were the first group to receive applause. It felt pretty good. This month has been a rough month for me. Not only did my work schedule change in November to afternoon shifts, which cuts me out of attending regular classes, I had been having recurring episodes of vertigo that were causing me to miss work. I had an episode hit me on Wednesday night that caused me to miss work Thursday, so I was pretty apprehensive on Friday night and into Saturday morning at testing, hoping all the action wouldn't send my head into a downhill spiral. We did our third dan form and then our form, three-steps, sparring, and board breaks. All went well, and I felt good about my performance, and my head held together for all of it, even the seminar afterwards. After testing and seminar were all done, everyone was settling in to eat and I figured we'd hear back about promotions later in the week. While I was out checking out a local retro video game store, the CI sent me a photo of my new belt! So I booked it back to the dojang to pick it up, and certificates will be mailed out later this week or next. I felt confident I had passed, but one never assumes until one sees the results. It was great to see the results so soon! I passed, and our school owner passed, so now we've got a new form to learn, and it's back to work preparing our own students for their testings. I had a lot of fun, and got kudos from several people, which felt good to hear. It becomes difficult to gauge how my technique is, but when others compliment, it helps reinforce what I've been doing. I think I'll not wait another 11 years to test again!

My experience with testing and gradings, which is in TKD for the most part, has all really just been demonstration of curriculum. As a high rank, I am prepared to demonstrate any and all of the material that exists below my rank. This can be quite the workout, as we have 10 colored belt forms and then up to 7 more black belt forms, depending on the black belt rank. We also have the one-steps, three-steps, and Do-Gons, or "black belt basics," that our associations does. Fill in sparring and board breaking, and we could end up with a pretty long testing. However, I don't view it as overly intense, as there isn't a lot of other unnecessary trappings added in, like extensive calisthenics such as pushups, sit-ups, burpees, etc. We also don't do "50 man kumite" or anything like that. The only other thing we have to do as black belts is write an essay that gets turned into the GM. Personally, I would not be interested in a "boot camp" style of testing.

@KorroddyDude and @DarthPenguin, could you translate what gohon kumite and sanbon kumite are?

12/7/2024 TKD Testing: 10:00 - 1:15 pm. The day of testing, finally. Worked until 11 the night before, got home, went to bed, and prayed my head would not betray me. Got up early to start the drive at 6:00 am, and arrived about an hour early, like I had planned. Warmed up going through various forms and all. During the actual testing, I did Yoo Sin and Choong Jang, and felt really good about both. Instead of doing all one-steps, like I anticipated we would do, I did three-steps 1-6, which I had been preparing for. Got through them no problem. Had one round of sparring with a 5th dan who was actually one of our students many years ago. When one waits 10 years to test, people tend to pass one up. Athletic kid, tall, good technique. I didn't feel that it was my best spar, but then again, I hadn't sparred in probably a month or month and a half. Finished off with board breaks, and nailed them all: knife hand strike, jump front snap kick (bounced on the first attempt, but I blame the holders on that one; I kicked the board and it rose about 6 inches. A more experienced holder took it the next time, and I smashed it), spin heel kick, and then flying side kick over obstacles (three kids kneeling). All 2-board breaks, and all went down. National Instructor Seminar: 1:45 - 3:00 pm. After the testing, we got a little break and then started up the seminar. We spent a lot of time on Do-Gons. We had a lot of instructors in the room, so after the initial line-up and punching warmup, GM split the room and we alternate doing Do-Gons in groups. We did 1-4 this way, then we did each segment of Do-Gon 4 with a partner back and forth, 4 segments total. Then we did Do-Gon 6 the same way, 4 segments total. There were some who weren't quite up to speed on the Do-Gons, so it was good review and practice. After Do-Gons, we did Ho Sin Sul, but these are all pre-set, and they do them regularly at the HQ school. Hopefully between our school owners and I we can remember them and jot them down for reference. We finished up doing combination work back and forth with a partner, three techniques back and forth. I had not been to an instructor seminar in quite some time, and it was good to see a lot of the higher ranks from our organization. I have to say, our school represented itself well. We take pride in being technically sound, and I think we demonstrated that.

That's cool. Starting out small makes it much easier to implement. Keep us posted on how this affects you. It may be worth trying.

What sucks is that break usually ends up being permanent. I always hate to see that.

Thank you, @DarthPenguin. Yes, the title that comes with it is Master. I'd refer to myself as more of a Master Instructor than a "master of the martial arts." I've got a paper I had to write for the test, as well. It got rather long, so I parsed it out just talking about the duties of the master instructor. I will post the elongated article here at KF after testing and after I get it smoothed out. 12/4/2024 TKD Solo Workout: 10:30 - 11:30 am. Trying to get some work in to see how my head will react to all the action, especially spinning. I warmed up with Chon JI, then moved to Do-Gon 6. It felt pretty disconnected, but it's been some time since I've been able to train. Next I did Yoo Sin and Choong Jang (3rd and 4th dan forms, respectively). I paced myself, and they went well. I did all colored belt one-steps, then three-steps 1-6. I backtracked a bit on the one-steps, but feel I've got that handled. I finished with a brief stretch in The Rack up to 140, then sat in the sauna for about 10-15 minutes.

That Chiefs/Raiders game was what I expected. A game that was much closer than it ever should have been due to a lack of scoring in the red zone. The Raiders and Chiefs just play each other tough every time; it's what makes it one of the best rivalries in football. But still, I really just wanted to see an offensive explosion. That is now two division opponents KC has beaten on a last-second fluky play. KC defense somehow managed to make Aiden O'Connell look like a better QB than Mahomes, which was frustrating to watch. It seems KC gets every teams best shot this year. The biggest problem KC has is their tackle play. Wanya Morris just got absolutely worked all game long. The Chiefs have signed DJ Humphries, and hopefully he can play next week. That Bills/Niners game was a heck of a thing. The Niners just couldn't hold on to anything, and I thought early in the game the coaches made some questionable offensive calls. I think they should have stuck with a short to intermediate pass game and taken small chunks. They were running the ball well, too, but seemed to get away from it.

12/2/2024 Aikido Class: Morning Class: 8:30 - 9:30 am. After stretching and aikitaisos, we worked on some of our testing requirements. We started with shomenuchi kokyonage. I was working through the technique in pieces, which was making it tough to get the flow down. After doing that a little bit, and getting a little more clarification from sensei on a few things, especially dropping the elbows down and "rowing" in to break their balance, things started to click. Then sensei decided we would just "rep it out" over and over without thinking about it as much. That really helped out, and I ended up with some quality reps. It made the technique smoother for sure, especially getting the hips turned through. Next was nikkyo, from a same side lapel grab. After securing the hand/wrist, we actually go into ikkyo and then bring it back to the nikkyo position, with the hand braced to our chest. Here is where I have to make sure there is no gap between his hand and my chest, in order to secure the hold. Then it was about keeping a proper safe distance from counters, securing the other hand over their elbow, and applying pressure with a slight bow with the hand secured to the chest. I felt like this was a really productive class. I also took some breakfalls and was able to fall down and get up without my head betraying me, which is a good sign that I'm hopefully on the back end of all those issues for the rest of the winter season. If all goes well, this is testing week for my TKD 5th dan.

This is a tough one. I have a few thoughts. One, I'd like to go back to my early days as a beginner, and continue to wrestle alongside learning TKD. That would have made me a much more well rounded Martial Artist. I also wish I could go back about 6 years ago, before health problems started affecting my training. I would have squeezed in as much training as possible. I'd also go back several years to when I first started Aikido, and would have stayed with it through today.

Congratulations!

I've done rows before, and I don't mind doing them. The main point behind staying with the lat pulls is to work towards doing chin-ups. 11/20/2024 TKD: I did a pretty brief solo training session, about 20 minutes in total. I alternated forms, doing Choong Jang, Yoo Sin, Choong Jang again, Gae Baek, and Choong Jang one more time. In Choong Jang, I was working on my stand-up from the a section in the form were we go to one knee, do a round kick to the groin or lower, followed by a punch to the groin section, and then stand up and move into a back elbow strike. My knees hurt often, and the standing doesn't help, so I'm playing with ideas to make the stand cleaner. I finished doing all 12 three-steps, then stretched in The Rack. I stretched up to 140 degrees, and focused on leaning forward into the stretch. 11/21/2024 Aikido Class: This was an extra morning class added this week due to having a visiting Sensei in to teach. After stretches and aiki-taisos, we worked on kotegashi, doing a "big turn" method. We focused on dropping the opponent's hand to our hip as we turned. We finished by adding a pinning technique. Then we worked on sankyo, adding a takedown and pin as well. It was a fun class with the guest instructor. Afterwards a group of us went to breakfast and got to talk shop. Great time!

Great news Bob! Keep up the fight!

Welcome to KF, @rtiq. Great to have you here. I'm a little late to this, and it sounds like you've found a place to start. That's the best thing you can do; just get started. Getting to a school with an instructor in front of you will be a great step in the right direction. As for not being very flexible, barring any physical ailments preventing it, flexibility can be increased over time with some regular stretching and just practicing kicking. I'd also advise to keep an open mind. The style you start with may not be the style you end with, and that's ok. Keep a good attitude and keep learning, and that will take you a ways in your journey.

Hello fellow members of KarateForums.com. Today marks the 23rd half-anniversary of this fantastic website. I've been a member here for 18 years, and it's been quite a ride. This year has been quite special, as this year marks a renaissance in a way. This year culminated in the site getting a big upgrade, marking a new beginning. The new site offers a lot of added features, but retains the history that I feel makes this site a great repository for martial arts discussion; the best available on the internet, in my opinion. I recall 18 years ago when I went looking for martial arts chat rooms so I could network and learn from other martial artists. I didn't find any good chat rooms, but I did find KarateForums.com and signed up. What I found was a treasure trove of great discussion, along with a great group of members who were smart and supportive. It was a group of martial artists that was not concerned with showing you how good they were, but with how much they could learn and share. It was a most welcoming environment, and that culture continues to this day, albeit with a different set of members. That culture has been an intrinsic part of KarateForums.com for the 18 years I have been here, and it continues on, even into this new chapter of the community. KarateForums.com has also been a huge motivation in my training, and this year has been a resurgence for me as well. I've added regular weekly aikido and BJJ classes to my training schedule. I get to attend the BJJ class with at least one of my sons, if not both every so often. I've attended some aikido seminars along the way, and even got to do a seminar with a Shorin-ryu club that was a lot of fun, with more to come in the future. I assisted with our taekwondo school's second annual women's self-defense seminar. I've been able to teach defensive tactics at regular intervals throughout the year at work, which was a point of focus for me at the beginning of the year. I find it to be very rewarding. To top it all off, if everything goes right health-wise, I'll be testing for my 5th dan in TKD in December. Being a member of KarateForums.com makes all this training all the more fun, because I look forward to coming back, logging in, and sharing my experiences with this great community. With an upgraded look and new features, this version of KarateForums.com promises to continue the culture of positive martial arts discussion moving into our next anniversary, and the next, and the next. Happy Half-Anniversary, KarateForums.com!