bushido_man96

Everyone only knows so many things. One of the things that makes a martial art a "Do" or martial way, rather than just a collection of combative skills, is that it contains principles and methods to discipline your life by. For instance, there is supposedly a Kanji over the door of the Kodokan that, when translated, reads "Never miss practice.". Now on the surface this appears to be a rather simple statement about showing up for Judo, but it can also be used as a basis for integrity and reliability throughout your life. This is a rather oversimplified example, but I believe the same principle applies throughout the martial arts if you have a good grounding in fundamental principles. All of these "Do's" became "Do's" due to someone who was trained in a fighting style decided to add there own philosophical and ideological lilts to their combat arts training. Then, they proceed to pass their ideologies and philosophies on along with their training, and call it part of the protocol. This appears to be a fairly "Eastern" approach to doing things. Sportsmanship and chivalry are similar "Western" approaches to accomplishing the same goals. The thing is, there have really been more good people than bad people around for a long time, and societies and families have been doing what they can to raise there kin to be productive and positive members of society for a long time. This happened before "Do's" came into vogue, and I really feel it would continue to be so if "Do's" hadn't come into vogue. You mention the sign on the Kodokan. Notre Dame also has a sign that football players pass as they take the field. It says "Play Like a Champion Today." I think it carries much the same innuendos. But, it hasn't helped Notre Dame football to very many championships lately. I agree with you completely, especially what I have in bold. We as instructors have so little time with students when you compare with the other people of their lives. I think that its important to have as positive an impact as possible in that short period of time, to be sure. But my first job is to teach TKD. Otherwise, I try to lead by example, and be a positive influence that way.

Welcome to KF! Glad to have you on board!

1/7/2013 Taught TKD class: 6 -7 pm. Basics and forms.

Sounds like a fun class. Good job!

Why a 13 year old should be knocked out is intolerable. I would have been more than upset with that situation. I would have loved to hear you "discussion" with that fella.

I agree, and that's kind of what I've been trying to relate to him over these past few weeks. Winning is great, but being able to deal with the losses, and overcome them like that, is such a valuable lesson. I've expressed to him that he has to win in his head first, then he can win on the mat. Thanks, Danielle. I wanted him to get some wins early on, because its so much easier to start off positively with a few wins in there. It may sound selfish a bit, but winning is always a good experience, and that helps out with the experiences in subsequent losses, I think. Beating the kid that slammed him was such a valuable experience for his psyche, I think, and I helped talk to him about how he knows he can win against him, but that the other kid might win again, too. So he has to keep up the hard work. Before every meet, I always ask him, "What's the most important thing today?" And he knows the answer is always, "Work hard, and do my best." Not just about winning.

Maybe it's the fact that I was a Catholic school teacher for two years, but I feel differently when it comes to kids. I feel like all adults who parents choose to put in positions of authority over their kid, be it a teacher or scout master or coach or karate instructor, has the responsibility to help the kid obtain good character. Now if you know for a fact what you're saying might conflict with what the parent would teach, then I wouldn't say it, but generally the core values of respect and responsibility and all that are pretty static throughout society. I expect those people to be decent people that won't attempt to warp my child in any way. I expect them to reinforce the values I teach my children, but not to do anything otherwise. My kids attend Catholic schools, but in my experience, the teachers there aren't necessarily any different than teachers at the public schools I attended. I had some great teachers there, too. But, anything I learned about the person I was to become came mostly from my parents.

Welcome to the Forums!

Good points by all. Staying active would be helpful, I think, by keeping you looser overall. Also good stress relief.

Look around to see what's available, and what will fit their bill. If they want to compete, kids Wrestling could be good. If you are just looking for some activity, many schools offer kids programs that he would likely enjoy. Good luck with the search.

Most sparring is set up to mimic a rule set used in competitions. Depending on the school and competition style, the techniques list will change.

1/5/2013, tournament #3. This was the his first open tournament of the year, but still ended up with only 3 in the bracket, so each kid wrestled 2 matches. Weight classes 70/73 were combined. First match was against a new kid we hadn't competed against, and he won by pin in the first. Second match was the other 2 kids in the bracket, and the winner of that match was the same kid he had wrestled the week before that picked him up and slammed him twice. Earlier in the week, I had taken him to the TKD school so we could work on taking slams, and worked on a few other things to help out as well. I spent the next few hours waiting for the upcoming match, giving him little tips and generally convincing him that he could beat this kid just as much as this kid could beat him. Keep his hips low so he doesn't get picked up as easy, and things like that. Well, we finally got to it, and he went in and went after the kid. The other kid was strong enough to just roll out of things, but he kept after him, and made it through the 1st round leading in points, 8 - 4. Second round started with my son in the down position, but he was able to reverse and fight him off, and they kept at it. He did a good job of driving his feet, and really staying on top and in good position to score points. Towards the end of the 2nd round, he was able to trip him and landed on top of him, and shortly after that, he was able to win by pin! This was a good day, as he was able to overcome his loss to that kid the week before, and get in his head that he could go beat this kid, and he did. Another 1st place medal, and he got to take another bracket home.

I think the error is that it doesn't anymore. Well, I don't know how strict the gradings used to be, but things definitely have gone downhill in terms of quality control, for sure. I think there is some truth to this. This is a tough question to consider. The journey is your own, so it should be up to you if you decide to test or not. I've been a 3rd dan long enough now that several others in the school have caught up with me, and in a way it makes me feel as though I should have tested a while back, as I've been eligible for some time. As an instructor, I would approach this carefully. I would discuss the reasons why the student doesn't want to test. As a student's skills increase, I think it important they wear the rank that they are suited to, especially if they choose to compete. Then there is the thought of curriculum. If they don't test further, does the curriculum require to withhold teaching certain things? Or attending certain classes? Are they trying to avoid black belt responsibilities? So many thoughts that could go into this.

Congrats!

Welcome to KF! I look forward to hearing your take on things.

With the end of the regular season, KC has fired head coach Romeo Crennel, and is looking to fire Scott Pioli as well. I'd heard through the grape vine that reason that Peyton Manning wouldn't even consider KC as a place to play was because of Pioli, and that he doesn't really create a positive atmosphere to play at. I don't know how true that is, though. KC also seals the #1 pick of the 2013 draft, but who to take? I would personally like to see them work a deal for Cousins out of Washington, but we'll see. I also heard Andy Reid interviewed for the head coaching job.

Its great that he understands why. It shows he is acknowledging what he needs to do, which is a good step in the right direction. I think that is how test failures need to be viewed and dealt with.

We learned the use of verbal judo at academy, and is what we usually fall back on at work. Against drunks, though, it doesn't always work so well.

I've seen ads for CBS SN but our area doesn't carry it on the package right now. Sounds like a good deal, though. I'd like to see some good Kickboxing.

Kata: The Folk Dances of Shotokan, by Rob Redmond. This book was fun to read. It had a bit of history of the kata development through China and Okinawa, and discussed, and he spends time discussing what the katas originally meant, what meaning they did have, and also proposes that the East Asian method of using folk dances to catalog things such as combat moves. Very interesting proposals he makes, and his thoughts appear to be fairly well researched. He goes through each of the Shotokan kata with a view of tournament performance; giving suggestions on how to perform those katas as taught in Shotokan, and what scorers look for in tournament performances or gradings. There are no pictures, and he references the Best Karate series often, and if you own those books, and follow along as you read his descriptions, I think the descriptions would be very vivid and make good sense. He puts a lot of thought into the descriptions, but since I don't know Shotokan kata, its tough for me to gauge. Overall, I thought the author's thoughts and interpretations on kata made the book well worth the read, even though trudging through the kata sections was dull for me. But, he does have some nice information in the kata intros, discussing the accurate translations of the kata names, and the ones that the name changes Funakoshi made stuck and didn't. If you are a Shotokan practitioner, then I think it well worth the read, even if you are familiar with the author and his writings and don't agree with them.

I agree. You don't want to end up being punch drunk. Try to simulate your training to reflect your goals here. Maybe by starting from a kneeling position and fighting up to a standing position or something like that. Or enter more hard contact competitions.

Tournament #2 of this season is in the books, and if tournament 1 was the up, this one was a down for him, and I felt bad for him for it. He just had a really rough go of it, from match one. This tournament was on 12/29/12. When I got the bracket, there were a total of 5 kids in it, which I thought was great, because that meant more Wrestling. Then I saw that the 70/73/76 lb weight classes had been combined, which worried me a little, because the year before I was told by a coach that a 2 lb difference in kids is like a 10 lb difference to adults. I had Wrestled him heavy the year before because I was afraid he wouldn't make the weight, and he suffered for it with kids that could just lift him off of them after a takedown. But, this was another novice tournament, so I thought that would likely even things out a bit. I talked with one of the coaches, and he didn't seem concerned. Match one was with a kid that stood a head taller than my boy, and he was holding his own really well against him, but, during the course of the match, he got picked up and slammed hard, twice. Feet clear off the ground, and thrown down hard, knocking the wind out of him, and I'm sure scaring him a bit in the process. He was pretty well finishing the match in tears after those slams, but he fought hard, and didn't get pinned. Lost by points after 3 rounds. My wife and I had talked to this kids mom, and she said he actually weighed 71 lbs, and is usually in the 73 lb bracket. Someone later on after the meet told me they didn't think the kid was a novice, either, but I wasn't too worried about that, and told my son he would probably Wrestle more kids like that in the open tournaments. Match two was better. He won by pin in the 1st round. But I had spent a lot of time trying to get him back on track after the first match. He really let that get into his head. Match 3 was against the same boy from his club that he Wrestled and beat in the first meet. The first time they met was a close match that went all 3 rounds, so I figured this one could go either way. But, my son let some things get inside his head. When they go to practice, they split the classes, and he is in one group, and the other boy in the other. My son is convinced that the other boy is in the "advanced" group, and is getting better coaching and learning more stuff. He lost the match on points, went all 3 rounds, and didn't get pinned, which I think is always good. But he was fussing/crying afterwards, so we went to talk about it, and he told me he went in knowing he was going to lose because of his conception of the practice divisions, etc. I told him he had beat the kid once before, and they were both pretty even, so they might win and lose against each other. But he just really wasn't having any of that, and getting him back on track mentally was tough after that. His last match was a scratch, as on of the kids hadn't showed, so he had a win that way, going 2-2 for the day. I kept trying to talk with him and keep him positive about everything, but I think that first match really finished him off for the day. But as the week wore on, we talked more, and I took him to the gym and worked on the mats on how to breath out as he gets slammed down, to try to take some of that fear away. I also worked with him on a few more things to help shore up some of his basics as well.

Adults need to learn about the laws and case studies on these things. Legal defense is a very real part of self defense. I agree. The way most MAists view self-defense and what cops base arrests off of are very different. I agree here as well. I don't think its my place to try to make character improvements on adults, or really on other people's kids, for that matter. That's someone else's job.

Happy New Year to all! Stay safe tonight, and kiss the one you love!

Just wanted to hit this up again. Please move back to Instructor Central Forum.