bushido_man96

I have most of my belt certificates kept in a notebook. There are some things that I have framed, usually because it was given to me that way. All my old trophies are down in my basement, and my belt is actually still at the gym where my usual locker is (forgot all about it being there). If I ever get my basement cleaned and organized and halfway finished, I might hang some of that stuff down there.

I agree with Bob, observing and correcting is a good way of teaching sparring. The practiced eye of a good instructor will be able to see what a student is doing, and be able to call out corrections in-match for them to try to make. Better yet, during in-class sparring, the instructor can let sparring go for a while, observe what students need to address, and then stop the sparring and initiate some drills practice to get the students the idea of what he is seeing and what they can fix.

Kenneth is weighing in right around 69 lbs, and is wrestling the 70 lb division, so he's only giving up weight when they combine. I've worked with him on trying to stay low with his hips, and on trying to keep his hips squared, and not falling on his hip when he is. With Kendall, its been about staying behind the hips and behind the elbows when he is working from the top position. When he reaches "over the top," he starts to get himself into trouble, and when he gets his hips out to the side, he doesn't have good pressure on them, and they start to get up. He's been working on that in practices. These next tournaments are all going to be tough ones. 6 and Under State for Kenneth will be a challenge. Kendall will be entering the Elementary Duals, which is a pretty special tournament. Elementary Duals consists of kids from 1st grade up to 6th grade, with no age divisions, only weight divisions. So Kendall's bracket will likely consist of 4th, 5th, and 6th graders weighing 140 lbs. I doubt there will be many kids that heavy that are younger, but if there are, they will all be placed in the same bracket. They will place back to 8th place to establish alternates, and what they do is take 6 teams to Iowa for a national competition in which the boys who qualify will represent Team Kansas at a National Duals tournament in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Top 6 qualify, but they take two alternates. Those who make he team get a custom Team Kansas singlet. So, we decided we would try this tournament this year and next since it is the last two years he will be eligible, and it will provide him with some tough competition as we build up towards his actual goal, placing higher in the State tournament this year.

Its great that you are enjoying it. Make sure to do some good stretching after each session, to help improve your flexibility. That will help your kicks. It takes time to get that flexibility.

For sure I will consider it at one stage but don't think I will start it that early though Yeah, I don't think there would be much of a reason to start them off right away. Take some time to get a grasp of the goals of the system, and how things are done, and gauge how things are going. When you feel like you are starting to have issues with some aspect of training, then maybe look into scheduling a private.

On Feb 11, '17, we went to the Ellsworth County Kids Open. It was a small tournament, and both the boys only had two matches in their brackets. Kendall went 2-0, wrestling a first year gal from our club, who he beat by tech fall at the beginning of the second period. The second match was against a kid we hadn't wrestled yet, which was a good thing, but Kendall pinned him in the first period after a quick takedown. I didn't get to see the first period of the first match because Kenneth was wrestling his first match. Kenneth was in the 70 lb bracket, and had a 67 lber and a 73 lber in the bracket. His first match was against the 73 lber, and Kenneth pretty much got picked up and slammed, and then spent the rest of his time in the first trying to avoid the pin. He did so in the first, but got pinned in the second. His last match was against a pretty inexperienced 67 lber, and Kenneth took him down and pinned him. It was a small tournament, and a short day, which was ok. Kendall took first, and Kenneth took second. The next week we took off, and we will be heading to Salina this coming Sunday for 6U State for Kenneth, and Elementary Duels for Kendall.

There are a lot of good points already made here. As mentioned, it can be very beneficial to work on fine-tuning something that you've been struggling with in class, or help you sharpen some things up prior to competition. The instructor also gets a better idea of seeing things he/she thinks you should work on to improve. If you have the time for it, then it can be a great help.

If you've taught thousands, and they've all caught on, and one doesn't, I don't know that its the CI. But, what a good instructor does is learn as much as he/she can about not only what to teach, but how to teach it in different ways. Sometimes, with a particularly tricky student, it may behoove the instructor to talk the parents and close friends of the student to find out what they are interested in, what their other hobbies might be, and things like this. This could lead one to finding out the student learns well through watching videos or some such aspect. From there, the CI can adjust his approach to better help the student.

I'm interested in what exactly he is going to file suit for?

Welcome to KF!

2/14/2017 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x, 185x5, 205x5, 3. Press: 95x5, 115x5, 5

You're doing great, Bob! Keep it up!

At our school, I don't think training is all that modernized, so to say. Basics, forms, one-steps, sparring. Stretching is done on our own before or after class (or both). Now, with that said, I think TDK (or whatever style you practice) class should be for TKD, and the rest should be handled elsewhere. If anything else, conditioning should be slotted in for 20 to 30 minutes of the end of class (probably should be extra time as opposed to taking up class time). Strength training, if it is going to be done right, should be done 3 days a week to start out, focusing on barbell training. When the novice effect wears off, switching to 4 days a week would probably be a good idea. These session should be kept far enough apart from the MA lessons in order to allow recovery to occur, so planning the training days is important, too. Now, as far as "modernizing" training goes, what would that include? Should that mean we should shed the dobok and train in more athletic-appropriate attire? Should we train in shoes? Should basics be replaced with partner drills of basic techniques? These are all good questions that I think deserve a good honest look in order to maximize training time.

Good to hear you are back in training! I'm on a hiatus right now, and it sucks, to say the least. But in time, I hope to get back to it as well.

Ah, a very good topic for discussion. This would be tough, especially with the NGBs out there. I believe with TKD, especially Olympic, a black belt rank is required for competition. This would have to be written out somehow to get rid of rank. Do I think an evaluation system is necessary? No, I don't think so, but you need some other way of determining skill level, ability, etc. In wrestling, this is done through competition. If you do away with ranks, what will the evaluation criteria? Also, does this change when and how you learn or teach certain material? I don't think it would be a bad thing, but I think it would end up meaning a lot of people wouldn't be able to feel as important as they would like to in regards to their ranks and positions (not everyone is like this, but I've seen a fair share of it in the MA world).

Feb 3 has come and gone, so can you fill us in on what transpired, Bob?

Sounds like you have hit some smooth sailing there. Congrats on the new position and being able to really do the job you want to do in your organization.

I think not having a website of some form of social media page these days is akin to not having a spot in the Yellow Pages 30 years ago. If someone only wants 2 students, then no, its not likely a big deal. But, if one wants to have a shot at being noticed by prospective students, then it is a necessity. Having a web presence is also important because more and more people today are checking their social media pages for updates, postponements, cancellations, etc. Its not just advertising, but communication in general with current students. I do think it is an important tool to have today.

Some people are just more naturally acclimated to picking up certain things than others. For me, its math; can't stand it, and never liked it, and it was always my toughest subject. I could learn, but I had to work a lot longer and a lot harder than it seemed like everyone else did. Now, its not something I would intentionally subject myself to. I think everyone has their "thing" that just seems to come to them. They probably also have something that doesn't come to them easily, and requires more work on their part.

Welcome aboard, TeamAlphaBeast! I'm an LEO as well, and have two kids that wrestle. Look forward to hearing from you!

A belated welcome to KF!

I think everyone can learn, but I also think that some people will top out at a certain level, and some people will learn quicker than others. Everyone is different, and in the end, so are their capabilities. As an instructor, what's important is maximizing the student to the best of your ability, and hope the student keeps on trying along the way.

2/7/2017 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 185x5, 205x3. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 95x5, 115x5, 135x5. Trying to work back in slowly.

Glad to hear it all went well, Bob! Keep at it, and keep us posted!

Its great that you have pushed yourself through it. It would be easy to just not do it, thinking of how bad it would be, but pushing through it at a time like this is better. Good on you!