bushido_man96

I would spend 3 months on drilling and picking out forms applications, figuring out the process and working things over and over again.

Hadn't thought about this. Cool number anomaly.

Thanks, Danielle. I'll need it!

Congrats!

Everyone has offered great advise so far. If you've narrowed down your choices to two or three (including the MMA gym), then spend time each week viewing each of the classes. See different classes each week from each school. Tuesday class may have a different focus than Thursday class. As far as the experience of the instructor goes, I'd take it with a grain of salt. Learning from an instructor with 25 plus years of experience teaching is sure to gain you some valuable knowledge. But don't discount the less experienced instructor, either. He may have good ideas and methodologies, and may offer a curriculum that is more up your alley. Best of luck in starting your journey, and welcome to KarateForums, too.

Not a recent one. It was from a while back. I'll do some digging to see what I can come up with.

Not too sure. This is a good example, there's at least 16 different Kyokushin organisations in the world and many of them dictate to their Branch chiefs that to remain at the Honbu, listed are an authorised Blackbelt, then you are not allowed to train with/at specified Organisations or allow anyone from specified organisations to train at their Dojo's or attend non-sanctioned events competitions. I know this as one of the local Kyokushin Dojo's the branch chief told me I was ok to train as I was Ashihara but if I was Kyokushin and a member of XYZ, then he can't let me train with him etc. Yep, that's the inter-style stuff I was thinking of.

You need a DirecTV NFL package or something, Patrick. I feel sorry for you. And here I am, getting to enjoy every heartbreaking loss the Chiefs suffer this year in their entirety..... Speaking of which....what a thumping KC got from the Browns, who are not a good team, either.

I think the beginners are always the more care-free and dangerous in just about any task. They get excited about what they are learning, do lots of practice, then start to play around more, leading to a chance for injury. In times, this cools, like with anything, but its important for weapons to be reigned in. Perhaps the best thing a Kobudo instructor can do is keep the weapons at the school, and only allow for practice with them at the school.

As an update, our three candidates for 3rd dan tested on 12/8, and it sounds to me that everyone passed. So, we'll have a total of 4 3rd dans in the school, which means it is definitely time for me to test.

Good job!

De-briefings are good for instructors and students alike. A good class idea would be to reconstruct the scenario from start to finish, and try to find ways to avoid the confrontation and then work up to the actual confrontation, and working on defenses. Lots of value to be found there.

Kumite!

All too true. A few weeks back we were dealing with a drunk gal, and she ended up slapping me on the chest a few times when I was trying to restrain her. It didn't hurt at all, but I had that "what the hell?" thing going through my mind. It doesn't pay to discount anyone. I've seen lots of big dudes get arrested, but more often than not, I've seen the little guys be the fighters.

But do you see the issue from school to school? Even within styles, its easy to see this kind of competition for students with the lure of a "tournament champion" instructor, or some such proclamation. Many times we only see the style vs style version of student competition, but it does happen within styles, as well. Like so many issues within the Martial Arts, this is part of the ego thing, in my opinion. If someone comes to me, and asks why my school is better than someone else's school, I'm not going to give some answer to inflate what it is I have over someone else. I will only tell them what they can hope to learn from me as my student.

My mom was really limited on her flexibility, as well. But she had a good belt level side kick, and was really quick to get inside and use her hands. Its nice to be flexible, and if you keep working at it, you'll get there. Just be smart when you train, and listen to your body. There are also a few stretching routines out there that you might look into like Elastic Steel or Stretching Scientifically. Maybe those will be of help, too.

12/10/2012 One-steps: all 30 Do-Kangs: 1-4 Colored belt forms Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chuung Do San, Won Hyo Yul Gok, Joong Gun Toi Gye, Hwa Rang, Choong Moo Black Belt forms Kwang Gae Poe Eun Gae Baek Se Jong Yoo Sin Stretch. Breaking things up a bit allowed me some rest and recovery to hit some of the little things. I really slowed down and paced out Yoo Sin, and I felt good with that pacing. I may keep working at that for the testing.

You're giving humanity too much credit, they just want to make sure THEIR stuff isn't burning. Yes, that could be the long and short of it.

LOL yep! But I'm really proud of this blue belt. For the first year he was here, he was always flinching and backing away. Now he's gotten a lot tougher, a lot braver, and his talent is really starting to shine though. his voice has dropped a couple octaves too, lol! I had a brief flying lesson last night too, come to think of it. I remember hearing my Shihan say "nice, very old school!" as I was sailing through the air. I guess a lot of other women go to the mall or something for fun? Too funny!

Congrats, and glad you had a good time! That's what's most important.

I skimmed some of it, and will take it all in when I get more time. Thanks for sharing this, Danielle. There was a thread that went up a while back with a Youtube link of several different masters, one even being a Chinese stylist, I think, demonstrating their versions of a same kata, one after the other. Was it this same kata? If so, that link would only enrich this thread.

That's fantastic!

Great topic, Bob. I do agree with you. I think when learning self-defense, its important to have some levels of learning to go through, working up to non-compliance drills and scenario training where things change in a heartbeat. Alas, my school does none of this, but I work on different ideas in my head, and will find some willing partners eventually.

TKD is dominant where I am at. But, "dominant" could hardly by a wise word choice, as its tough to get MA schools running in rural Kansas. But, the city I live in is kind of a honey pot, with our TKD school, an Aikido school, a Karate school, and a Defensive Tactics club at the University. In the town I grew up in, there was our TKD school, or you could Wrestle in school.

Most people in the world are sheep. And this isn't bad. It just is. Most people don't have the capacity to deal with violence, and don't want to, and that's the mark of a chemically balanced human being. Then there are the wolves that feed on the sheep, and the sheepdogs, who have the capacity for violence like the wolves, but also have a moral and ethical code to go along with it. The bystander studies prove some good points. Its amazing how someone can yell rape and no one turns a head. I think they still teach women to yell fire, don't they? I don't know if that is because a fire would have a greater chance of affecting more people around, or what, or that fact that a fire is not a human violence, but it make people react differently.