bushido_man96

Congratulations!

Welcome to KF!

Welcome!

Welcome to KF!

http://www.usjf.com/public/rank_requirement.pdf I am sure they are pretty similar around the world. I view the world of judo as a completely different animal than that of karate. In the style of karate I practice, we don't really have tournaments/competitions, etc. The founder Shoshin Nagmine was vehemently opposed to them. Thanks for posting this. Very helpful. With all this in mind, using tournament performances as a guage of rank, it can put a hamper on the rank one is capable of attaining. Should an inability to be competitive be a standard regarded in rank promotions?

That sounds like a lot of fun training, Liver Punch. How did you get your family to go along with it?

I read in a Black Belt Magazine that he got to play the lead in the Broadway rendition of Road House. I'd go see that show.

I wouldn't worry about that too much, Bob. It may not be something your Dai-Soke would have wanted, but, things are different now that he's gone, too. So, changes may be in order, whether he would have approved them or not.

It would be nice to have a black belt focused class at out school, but we don't at this time. Mainly because we don't have a whole lot of black belts. Its nice to be able to get to spend class time focusing on black belt forms and the like, as opposed to colored belt curriculum.

Good advise. I think going to school and exploring options is better than something that tries to specialize in the MAs as a field of study. There are also the Health and Human Performance areas to consider majoring in, along with business, especially if one wants to pursue the Martial Arts afterwards.

I wouldn't start a kid off in the MAs until they are at least 6, and even that won't apply to every kid. Anything younger than that is probably going to lack focus enough to learn and retain anything.

2/15/2012 Deffley B Dead lift: warmup: 135x5, 225x5, 315x3; work: 350x5x3 Push press: warmup: 45x5, 95x5, 115x3; work: 163.6x5x5 Rack pulls: 395x3x5 2/18/2012 Deffley C Squats: warmup: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 245x2; work: 300x2x2 Box squats: 235x3x5 Overhead press: warmup: 45x5, 95x5, 115x3; work: 132.4x3x4 Incline bench press: 145x3x5 Front squats: 145x3x5 Back hyperextensions: 12, 25x5,10 Assisted pull-ups: 3x10 Missed Monday's workout due to a road trip. 2/22/2012 Deffley B Dead lift: warmup: 135x5, 225x5, 315x3; work: 350x5x3 Rack pulls: 395x3x5 Romanian dead lift: 45x10, 95x10, 135x5, 185x3,5,5,5

Yep that was what I meant pulse the leg by gripping the muscle to raise it. Ah, ok. I see what you are saying now. Didn't mean to steal your idea there!Heh no, great minds think alike Is it coincedence that we both do TKD? I think not!

What are the standards?

This seems like a point to expand upon, as the whole polyester pile concept just seems awful for everyone involved. Although I do consider rugby to be a great spectator sport. I've been involved in one of those piles. Not fun at all, and the one I was in on started standing, and ended up in me getting partially tased...not fun at all.Coordinating defensive tactics with multiple good guys to one bad guy should be a priority, that way we can practice communication and better coordinate our tactics.

Again, you are only learning a small part of the culture, and the fact that one uses their native language to refer to techniques does not detract from the philosophical aspect one is trying to learn.

Ok, so, what's the tournament standard to go by, then? Do you have to win to attain a certain rank? What does 2nd place get you? Let's play with this example a little bit. We use tournaments to ascertain rank. Obviously, wins is going to be the important issue here, so we won't concern ourselves something silly like losing. So, we establish that winning is what's important in determining if our rank is true. What levels do we have to fight at? Are we talking point tournaments, or knockdown or even MMA rules? After all, MMA rules will be the most all-inclusive rule set we could find. Now, if we must have wins in MMA to substantiate our ranks, then what kind of record would be sufficient enough to deem one a legitimate 1st dan? And then 3rd dan? Are the only "masters" going to be the ones considered champions, winning title fights? If we don't want to go with MMA rule sets, then we can perhaps stick to what is more commonly thought of as Karate tournaments; point sparring, where there is a break called after a point, and then competitors are reset, and start again. Proving yourself over and over again against regional competition will only take you so far, so you would have to consider national and interantional level competition to rank yourself higher than 1st dan. And I'm sure there are no politics at those levels, either. What happens when you retire from tournaments, then? Notice how guys like George Foreman are always referred to as "former heavyweight champion?" If you stop competing, then you effectively stop your path to higher rank, and deem yourself a "former black belt." We haven't even considered crossing over into grappling based tournaments, unless you consider MMA a close substitute to that. So you see, I don't think that tournament competition is necessarily a good way to try to ascertain whether someone deserves their rank or not. Yes, my arguement here is a bit extreme, but once you open that can of worms, where do you stop it? Then you get into the whole "competition and self-defense are two different things" arguement, and start back at square one. I hope this clarifies the point I've been trying to make.

Next time, tell her you did control yourself, and that she can tell because she could walk out under her own power....

Thanks for this information, Danielle.

Sounds like fun, even with minor bruising. Let me know how the training goes as you evolve with it.

It is important to practice and have a plan for when one gets taken to the ground. Good footwork can help to defend takedowns. I also agree with MP that there are a core set of moves out there that it would behoove most Martial Artists to gain an understanding of for the purposes of self-defense.

Yep that was what I meant pulse the leg by gripping the muscle to raise it. Ah, ok. I see what you are saying now. Didn't mean to steal your idea there!

That would put up red flags for me, especially if there is a timeline attached to it. Bad? Bad how? Can you elaborate a bit on it? Was their technique lacking? Did you feel they did not spar well? Fail to break boards? What were the testing requirements? This is true, and I also liked your observation that exams should be taken only when one is ready for it, makes sense. If this is the case, then most schools that follow a protocol such as this are not likely to have many test failures. So we kind of go from one end of the spectrum: "schools are lacking in integrity and standards are slipping because no one fails tests,"; to the other end of the spectrum: "its good practice to only allow those who are ready to take tests, this way, there are fewer to no failures." The truth of the matter, in my opinion, is that the possibility of a test failure should exist, not that students should be expected to fail. With this in mind, its important to take into consideration what criteria is being tested on, and what weight each piece of the criteria holds in regards to the entire test score. I disagree in the use of tournaments and competitions in being a part of a test, or using tournament competition performances as a sole qualifier in skill and knowledge. Tournaments and competition are not everyone's thing, and not all great tournament players are good at conveying their knowledge to the next generation of students (as has been discussed in other threads). Now, I make this arguement with some bias; I am not, nor ever have been, what I would consider an athlete. I don't have a treasure trove of natural talent or God-given physical abilites to work with. Along with that, I'm not ashamed to admit that I have had a very lack-luster tournament career. I've done ok in my share of forms competitions, but sparring was never really my thing. I can bang back and forth on people in class without problems, but when it comes to scoring points and the like in competition, I've never been good at it. Perhaps that means someone holds me in less regard because they know me, sparred me in competition, and handled me well. That's fine with me. But if they would want to tell me or convey to me that I am not really my rank because of my tournament results, well, I think there could be a fun discussion to come out of that. So what is important, then, is defining what the rank "should be." I would be interested to see this expanded upon. I've seen some ranks with technique I thought was poor compared to the rank they have, as well. But in discussing this, its important to have an idea of what we view of as "the standard" in mind.

Sounds nice, DWx. Was it terribly pricey?

2/13/2012 Deffley A Squats: warmup: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 245x2; work: 295x2x2 Box squats: 230x3x5 Bench press: warmup: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3, 225x2; work: 245x5,5,4 Barbell rows: warmup: 95x5, 115x5, 135x3, 155x2; work: 187.4x3x5 Hip thrusts: 3x12 Glute-ham raises: 3x6 Assisted chinups: 3x10 Stretch: standing/kneeling quads, toe touches, chest/tris/bis. Curse you bench press!!!