Holland

My original shureido is now 15 years old and it has held up well. Frayed but still good looking. You will enjoy that obi.

About 4 years for me in Isshinryu...though the school I run now, you can get it in 3 if you are really really motivated. Took me two years pretty steady to get it in Okinawan Kobudo.

I agree and disagree about the cabone vs. Shureido comments. I own a pair of each and think each has ups and downs. The Carbone are easier to use, but I think that the shureido look a little better in action. Both are fine weapons...but all things included...if you are not familiar with both then I would go with the shureido. You know what they look like, and most likely you have held a pair. Most people use the middle sized pair of shureidos. I have a pair of the longer and the medium, but at 6'2 I prefer the medium sized pair. Also, you can often find shureido tonfa on ebay. Mr. Carbone's stuff usually can't be purchased used.

I run Cape Fear Isshin-Ryu in Wilmington NC. My home dojo (under Tim Cunningham) is Tarboro Martial Arts.

Personally I consider myself a traditionalist...though I do have the rank of Jr. Black Belt in my dojo. Regardless of how long someone has been training, the earliest someone can test for a full black belt in my dojo is 15...thus they could, in theory be a ni-dan at 17 or 18, and san-dan by 21. Like was mentioned above, I have a serious problem with 12 year old ni-dans as well as 15 year old san-dans. The mental and spiritual training in martial arts should count as something and keep such things from happening, but of course it does not.

I would say a size 5 works. I am 6'2 and 235 and wear a 5.5. You would want a 5 because I think a 4.5 would be too short if you are 6' tall.

Man of my own heart....replied just like I did before actually reading the rest of the responses...

Put feet together, fake that you are about to conclude, and then continue.

I run a relatively big group and over the years a goodly amount of funny things have happened. We have a guy in our dojo that our ranks me...its my school, but he used to be my instructor and he still lives in town and thus comes to work out with us. He is a really stern and old school type of instructor who views karate as kind of a mini-military. He pretty much is a "take no crap" kinda guy. Anyhow...we have this girl start up who is eight years old. She is exceptionally hyper, ADD, and scatter brained to boot. She was out in the parking lot of our dojo at the same time the elder black belt was getting his stuff together to come inside. She sees him, and I guess in a hurry to show him what she learned from the last workout, sprints across the parking lot right at him and kicks him in the groin. While this would have been funny if it had happened to any of my black belts, the fact that it happened to him made it all the more funny. He came in, looking sour and walked up to me and asked the girl's name. I told him her name and he simply said "that girl will never, and I mean never, make it to black belt." He declined to even tell me what happened for about 20 minutes. Needless to say, when he did, I laughed.

I run class at my school from 6-9:30 on Thursdays. On Friday I drive up to my instructor's place (2.5 hours one way...) and work out from 7-10 On Saturday morning I go to Kobudo class here in wilmington from 11-12:30, then go teach a kobudo class from 2-3:30. Then I have class from 4-7:30. Sunday-Wednesday I work out on my own mostly. About once a month I go to a Shitoryu class from 8-9:30 on Tuesdays.

In Wilmington NC, I would say the average is about 50-60 bucks a month. I charge 10 bucks a month since my dojo is an outreach ministry of my church...no rent...no worries!

I really don't think this is feasible. While I agree that one could learn the physical moves, I think that it is impossible to get mentally and spiritually indoctrined into a style in a year.

Dangerous animals should be only kept in a zoo. Now exotic in the "burmese monkey" way would be different...that's okay as long as the person knows what they are doing. Since the apartments I live in do not allow dogs, I own a hamster. His name is Sanchin.

Wear a cup.

I started Tae Kwon do at 8 and did that for 3 years. Then I started Isshinryu and have been with it ever since. I just think that some people have "the itch" to do martial arts and are not happy until it gets scratched. I am definately one of those people.

It depends on the situation...with my instructor I only know him as "Sensei" to me that is his first name. He is old enough to be my dad and if I did not call him Sensei then I would call him Mr. Cunningham. To me, this is a term of affection, because he truly is my teacher and mentor and also one of my best friends. On the other hand...I also run a dojo and at 31 more than half of my adult students are older than I am. Many of the others are right in my age group and thus I would feel awkward about one of them calling me by anything but my first name outside of class. To be honest I am not really a ball buster about being called Sensei in class...at least in my adult class. Most of the kids from our group even call me Sensei at church.

No doubt. My wife, who is a black belt in my dojo, does nails for a living. If she were to seriously mess up her hand it would hurt her livelihood.

I grew up with a father who played rhythm as a professional bluegrass guitarist. I don't do that genre at all but I do play. I have a fender telecaster and a 1975 Guild D-25 acoustic.

Huzzah! I am a high school P.E. teacher and I also run a fairly big martial arts school. I think the two work well together and I have found that being skilled at teaching one rolls over into the other. And since I basically get paid to play soccer and flag football all day, I think its about the coolest job in the world.

I am also an unbeliever. Let me see someone do it with my own eyes.

To me its about quality more than quantity...however if someone is such a hard nose that they can only keep a few students then that can be an issue as well. For whatever reason my school has been insanely successful. Given, as an outreach ministry of our church we have very minimal dues...BUT no one ever seems to quit. Since 2000 we have promoted 14 adults to black belt and we have about 80 regulars right now. Our adult class...which has only a sprinkling of teenagers, averages 30 people a workout. I think in our case it was a combination of good karate, paying attention to details, and the fact that the first 7 people I promoted to black belt were 27 years old and older. That gave us a very mature black belt core. But enough about us....you can check our site out at https://www.capefearisshinryu.com if you want. I will say that what you have going on right now seems like it is successful. I would always rather teach a few students, with no debt, and no pressure than I would to run a school with bills to pay.

I really like the wavemaster XXL's....for 200 bucks I don't think there is a better bag on the market.

At my school (both the one I own/operate and my instructor's) the most dedicated and serious students can get to sho-dan in a little over three years. I would say that the average student takes about 4 to 4 and a half though. It ranges from school to school, student to student.

I have had students learn kata from videos only to find that we teach that same form slightly differently. If you think you are bored now, wait until you get your next rank, already know the kata and have three months or more of doing something you learned as a blue belt. Patience is certainly necessary for success in the martial arts. If you trust your instructor to teach you, and think he is competent at what he does, then go at his time. If you think he is an incompetent hack, then go find a new instructor.

My weapons instructor is friends with Master Oyata's senior guy, Jim Logue from SC. He and his students have nothing but praise for Oyata, his students and his style.