Zorbasan

yeh, thats pretty much what i was thinking. its all pretty much the same kick with a variation kinda like saying that a Impreza LX, Impreza GX, Impreza RX, Impreza RS, Impreza WRX, Impreza WRX Sti, Impreza WRX Club Spec in sedan/hatch/auto/manual are 28 different car models.

i always tend to listen to "eye of the tiger" and "Your the best" from the karate kid soundtrack before going in to competition (any kind, not just MA) it may sound funny, but what i mean hear is get inspired before competiting, dont just compete for the hell of it.

i agree with jiffy, if you have signed a contract, you have done so with the school, not with the instructor. at my school, which happens to be Jiffy's school, the sensei (who is BB+ in the 4 arts that the school teach) has gone to england for a month and is unable to take the classes. now jiffy, who currently only holds a BB in karate (until he grades soon) has taken over the teaching of all the classes. he is more than capable of teaching in all the styles as he has had a lot of exposure to them and they either have the same or similar techniques in other styles that he has trained in. All the students are happy to continue paying for the tuition even tho it is not being provided by the sensei. moral = if you have been using the schools facilities and have received some sort of benefit from the school, you are still liable for the payments made, as they have not breached the contract that you have entered. however if you have gone to the school and found that the lessons have been cancelled etc, then you will be able to get out of it. as for him suing for false arrest, im pretty sure he wont be able to if the evidence was strong enough to get an arrest warrant. remember, an arrest is not a conviction and does not require the same amount of evidence.

if people owe hm money from a time when he was teaching then he is in his rights to ask for it. if he was kind enough to let people train without paying then they should be nice enough to pay when they are asked. of course he cant ask for money for the time that he was unable to teach. he probably needs the money for his defence and that is why he is asking for it. remember people, innocent until guilty, if he is out on bond then im guessing it hasnt gone to trial yet. i would hope that if i were in the same situation, my students would stand by me. but, if i was guilty and put away, i would not then expect them to stay around.

no sarcasm intended at all, but i have been training MA for about 14 years now, and i have a BB in TKD and i would be struggling to know 54 different kicks. unless you count each leg as a different kick, then different directions from the same stance a different kick. could you post (or pm me) the 54 kicks, strikes and blocks that should be known

the understanding is another criteria of the black belt. again, why is it up to you (or anyone) to say "there is no way anyone can understand this at a black belt level is less than 2 years" if the student can exhibit the understanding required to be a BB, then what does the time training have to do with it. same works in reverse, you cant give someone who has been training for 10 years a black belt if he cant show the required elements to be one. so why should a person than can show everything required not be allowed to grade simply because he hasnt trained as long.

even if you are charging for instruction, they still dont really have the right to sue. any establishment has the right to ban someone if they break the rules. so if a student breaks the rules you are well within your rights to turn them away.

its not that i do it exclusively, i just find that in general i can get the upper hand this way. there are times, especially with people that i spar with regularly, know that this is what i do, and try to negate this by adjusting distance. in these situations i will do what ever art is going to suit me better at the said distance.

i got my TKD BB in 5 years, but honestly i probably could have had it in 2 but didnt want/wasnt able to test for whatever reason. time should not have any consideration on the rank that someone is able to acheive, it comes down to technique, ability and knowledge. if the person meets the requirements to be a BB, what does it matter if he has trained for 2 months, 2years or 20 years.

nothing is useless if it is done properly. this kick has many uses when done properly. ever been flicked in the butt by a towel? it hurts. this kick uses the same principal. its a snap technique, not designed to go thru a brick wall.

The problem with this statement is that you are assuming the yellow sash understands and performs the material as well as they would at a higher level. This isn't true. Just because I may have learned Seisan to receive my green belt doesn't mean at that point I was as qualified to teach it. My current years of experience have given me insight and refinement to my kata that enables me to teach it with a deeper understanding than I ever could have at greenbelt rank. Could I show the pattern to someone as a green belt? Sure. Would I be have been able to teach it as effectively as an instructor should at my current level? No way. With respect, Sohan of course they arent able to perform the technique as good as a black belt. but they perform it well enuf to get passed white sash. so techniquely, if they teach a white sash they way they do it, they should also be able to get passed white sash. the point isnt will the yellow sash be able to teach as well as the instructor, the point is that someone with no experience will get something out of learning from someone with experience, regardless of how much experience it is. does ian thorpe teach me to swim? no. will i drown if thrown in the deep end? no.

mate, at the schools i have been too, the chicks arent attractive, gi or no gi

judging by the belt system you have have described, i beleive you are talking the ITF system. i rekon the green belt is the last of the "junior" belts, in which once you move beyond that to blue belt, you are showing commitment and skill. this can be a big step for some people. i would like to say it gets easier, but unfortunately it wont, the step from blue to brown will be bigger again and then the move from brwn to black is the biggest of all (obviously). personally i got from white to pre black in the minimum allowed time (this wasnt my first TKD school tho) but then it took me 3 years from there to get my black, not because i wasnt good enough, but i wasnt ready in myself and always had some excuse not to do it. good luck with your future gradings and keep at it!

if breaking boards is part of the test, then yes, you whould do it before hand. if not then dont do it. i would have serperate classes for board breaking as there would be people that do not need to do it and it would be wasting their time to have it as part of the regular class.

there is a diference between taaching for a living, and teaching to get rich. its the people that teach to get rich, open lots of schools etc etc that can lose the artform and run it as a full business. notice i said can, not do. there are exceptions. if you only want to teach to make a living, then you can maintain the art, cos you will be able to spend more time learning and improving as you dont actually have a job to worry about. this kind of thing would be my goal, not to get rich. actually, i am building up another business to get me rich so i can have the time to learn and improve, and, hopefully teach my way, not some franchises way.

if you want to become "good" at basic self defence, then maybe a self defence class rather than a specific MA. probably a good "self defence art" would be combat hapkido, which is a modified version of the traditional korean art, with a more self defence focus.

i am doing both karate and tae kwon do and i dont think it is possible to say one is better than the other. they are infact, very similar to each other. one has a few more kicks, the other has a few more hand strikes. but they do what they are designed to do. when sparring at karate, i try to maintain a kciking distance, and use my legs as my main attacking weapon. on the other hand, when sparring at tkd class, i get in close and use hand techniques. i generally find i have the upper hand when i am sparring with someone of the equivalent grade of the opposing art (ie, im BB in tkd, so i do well against high karate grades, but only 6th kyu in karate so i do well against 4th - 6th gup in tkd) so in essence, karate and tkd are much of a muchness. i cant speak for kung fu as i have no experience with it.

as long as you are able to differentiaet between the two, there is nothing wrong with starting them close to eachother. i have done tkd for years, and when i started shotokan i was going a lot of old tkd stuff. as i was starting to get that out of my system, i took tkd up again. now i am doing both i am starting to be able to do tkd stuff at tkd and karate at karate without mixing them up too much. cross training is great. i would do more if money and time allowed it.

ok, maybe my example was a bit over the top. but my basic point is that if you know something that someone else doesnt, you are able to teach them. if a yellow sash/belt has a very good horse riding stance, for example, then this yellow sash should be able to teach a whitesash a decent horse riding stance. you dont have to be a maths professor to teach someone 1 + 1 = 2. thats the sort of thing im getting at, not having a yellow sash run a class.

the international karate series was pretty good on the ol commodore 64 also had a game on the mega old pc called "bushido" but no one else seems to remember it. some others i remember are: final fight ninja warrior shadow warrior (also known as ninja gaiden i beleive)

a yellow sash would be able to teach someone that has had no experience. if you know more than someone else, then you can teach them something beneficial. obviously you can only teach them up to your level. as long as you only teach what you know, and not something you are learning it will be ok.