Rick_72

My kids attended an after school program at the dojo for the last 4 years. Where they not only had Karate training 5 days a week, but also incorporated that hard work into their school studies while being tutored by their Karate instructors on their daily school homework. My oldest son also attended night class's when I attended mine. So basically he was training anywhere from 2-4 hours a day 5 days a week. When he took his Shodan test he was held to the adult standards, while he fought students his own age he demonstrated his self defence and Tuite on a teenage student 5 years his senior.

I always find it funny when people bring up size, strength, and fighting ability (meaning fighting child vs adult) when talking about child black belts. There is absolutely no reason to judge whether or not someone deserves a belt based upon those requirements. I've met, and sparred with plenty of black belts senior to me, whom I've beaten....some easily. I'm an athletic, 6' 1", 185 lbs male. Its only natural that using the training I've been given that someone that doesn't match up with me physically is going to be at a disadvantage when attempting to execute their techinique's on me. A belt is earned by knowledge of the system, and the mental capacity to weild that knowledge. The size and age of the student really has nothing to do with it. The respect issue is pretty easy too. I'm a 34 year old Shodan, should I not show respect to a 24 year old Sandan who's been training 3 times as long as I simply because they were born a full decade after I was? Respect is shown to our instructors because of the time and sweat they've dedicated to learning the things that we want to know, and then bascially putting their training on hold to teach us (only one of our instructor's is a paid employee of the school, and she teach's 4-5 class's a day from 3-8pm). The reason I'm lumping all black belts into the instructor catagory, is because all of our black belts must teach, its part of our syllabus. My son has his junior Shodan, and I'm proud to say he's the youngest ever bestowed that rank in our school. I've been to Okinawa, and I saw plenty of young kids running around with black belts wrapped around their waist's. Do our kids not warrant the same opportunity because their not Japanese? I mean plenty of our schools are training at the same level as theirs aren't they?

Tough to say really. Could be he started training when he was like 10 years old. Would twenty years of experience be enough? Many people receive their Shodan in three years. There's a lot of factors you have to take into account. How many days/hours a week did/does he dedicate to training? Is he exceptionally skilled at his art? I tested for Shodan in three years, but I attend every class available at the school on a weekly basis. Which add's up to about 12 one hour class's a week, broken down beginner, intermediate, and advanced. I did so because it was always my attitude that without continuing to practice my basic's and my conditioning that my advanced learning would suffer. I would say the same thing I'm sure you'll hear a lot with this thread, go in and watch a couple class's then determine for yourself if you think they teach well. With a previous martial arts background, it won't take you long to determine if you want to attend training there. Just keep in mind, ever dojo you go to after your first one is going to be different. Not necessarily better or worse, just different.

We practice both Passai Sho and Dai in Matsumura Seito Shorin Ryu, however, I'd have to re-look at the Bassai's to see how similar they are. There are different versions of Passai's (based off of discipline), just like I'm sure there are with Bassai's, but I'm pretty sure Passai and Bassai are supposed to be similar in technique. At least that's what's been explained to me. Some styles call them Passai, some Bassai.

I'll see if I can find a clip of it out there. If not, I'll ask my Sensei if its alright if I have myself filmed doing Seisan and post it.

That is basically the same version of the kata that we practice in Matsumura Seito...I guess because its the Matsumura version haha. At any rate, our technique's look different, but almost all the same technique's are used there. There is a variation at the end, as we don't have a kick at the end.

See, that is a difference that we have. We don't do the push-ups and sit ups for our testings. There's no set number of push-up's/sit up's we have to do, we just have to do them if we make any mistakes....then redo the kata/technique we messed up. Incidentally, I passed my Shodan test two weeks ago. I can't remember the last time I was that tired.

When point sparring try to strike as quickly as you can then you might not have to block . When your free sparring, or continuous sparring, you'll want to move out of the way of strikes more than actually blocking them. As you said though, keeping your hands out away from your body is going to give you the best reaction time. Much to the pain of those I spar with on a regular basis, one of the technique's that I use to block those middle kicks is dropping my front elbow on their foot/ankle from that higher face guarding position. That allow's me to bring it back up quickly to defend a kick/punch combo, and it makes your opponent think twice about kicking there again.

Stances. Just like has already been said, Shorin Ryu has a more natural upright stance than most other disciplines. The amount of cat stances you do will be dependant on not only the particular style of Shorin Ryu, but also how sport centric the particular dojo you are attending is. There's nothing wrong with sport Shorin Ryu, as the bunkai is all still there, but you'll notice that there's a little more flash in some of the technique in empty hand, and kobudo.

Isn't it amazing when you watch the Okinawan Karate version's of white crane kata's next to white crane based Kung Fu forms how the Chinese origin's of Okinawan Karate really make themselves evident? There's a couple of white crane Kung Fu forms on You Tube that pop up when you search Hakutsuru, check them out side by side and you'll see what I mean.

If he's planning on putting out that magazine, I'd love to know how to get on the mailing list, do you have any more info on it? He's actually been recommended by my Sensei (also a long time student of Fuse Kise) to a fellow student at the dojo I train in (Matsumura Seito), because that fellow student is moving home to Texas very soon. My Sensei told him it would be more than worth the drive to train with him.

No one, and I mean no one can ever acurately predict the outcome of a fight they haven't had yet. It doesn't matter how much training, in anything, that they've had. If you train in martial arts for the rest of your life, and yet are never involved in a fight/physical altrication, I challenge you to look back on your life and honestly be able to state that your time was wasted. If you want to test your Karate skills, get into a ring with another practioner and go to town on each other. Have fun proving each other's technique's work. Don't wish for a real fight that you may not like the outcome of. The outcome may have absolutely nothing to do with your skill level or practicality of your training, sometimes its just dumb luck that wins a real fight.

I've never trained seriously in Aikido, however, I do know an Aikido instructor, and have participated in some of his class's. I can tell you this from my limited exposure, Aikido, while from what I've seen is a great art in itself, you'd be surprised how much it opened your eye's to some bunkai in your own Karate kata's that you may have never known was there before. I've stated before that I really didn't start seeing all the potential bunkai in my kata until I started practicing my Tuite in my later Kyu grades. Aikido is not only a great self defense art, but from all I can tell would also open up your eyes to much knowledge about the human body and how it can/can't be manipulated.

Double bone block, front kick combination (done at the same time). It looks powerful and graceful at the same time in kata, is simple to do, and is effective in both kumite and a real situation. Sure there are some more advanced technique's that I like better, mostly Tuite, but this one is the simplest to actually land on my opponent.

Their behaviours are exactly what's in question in my opinion. At the risk of getting into a conversation about moral's and Karate, would you hand a loaded gun to a psychopath? Why put fighting arts, which applied correctly could seriously harm or kill a person, into the hands of someone with a horrible attitude. I think he should be working on their attitudes along with their physical skills, its all part of Karate training. Pull rank? Isn't it his school? Isn't he Sensei? What he says goes, in all of his students Karate world, period. Its not a matter of pulling rank, its a matter of a respectful teacher/student relationship. He's put you in a position of authority in his school, he's got to back that up with actions. He doesn't have to boot them out of his school, he just has to use a little tough justice on them to teach them that bad attitudes and real Karate don't go hand in hand. I'm sure that its every Karate person's dream to be able to pass on what they've learned to as many people as want to learn it. However, the facts of life are that teaching Karate, and running a successful business can be very different aspects of the same life. Unless your independantly wealthy, you either have to go to work for a living, or you can have your cake and eat it too by teaching your Karate full time. The facts of business are this; students with poor attitudes chase away other students, and cause new students to not wish to continue their training, and a few bad apples chasing away the rest of your students will not make for successful business. Not being successful in business when trying to make a living from your Karate and still remaining true to your art, means that you have to go back to a 9 to 5 to feed your family, and more often than not means the closing of your Karate school. I'd say he has a serious choice to make, unless he want's to stuck teaching the few bad apples in a broom closet at a local community center that will let him teach his class in their facility for free. I'd say, never turn away a student that's enthusiastic about learning. However, once that student turns out to be a burden on everyone else in the class a choice has to be made.

For Kyu grades our "tests" are just for the student to perform their requirements. Kind of like a ceremony. Our Sensei has already deemed that they will get promoted. For Dan grades the test's are the real deal. They determine whether or not your getting promoted. So you can fail them, but he hasn't recommended anyone that wasn't ready to pass the test that I've seen.

Very impressive! Oh, and I wasn't saying it wasn't true, just that I'd love to watch it is all.

I would love to see that portion of your test. After completing everything else, than attempting to go that long in continuous sparring. I did 20 minutes of continuous sparring for my Shodan test and I was shocked at how tiring it was, and we start our test with that sparring. I've been through Marine Corps bootcamp, so I understand that the human body and mind can continue a lot longer than most people give themselves credit for, but your test seems a little super human to me. I love to see it done.

This is the problem that you run into when you mix business and personal relationships. If your boyfriend has a laxed way of running his school as far as payments go, there's really nothing you can do about it, because that's probably the way he ran things before you got there. If he wants you to change it to be more efficient, he may want to sit down with the parents, or people who are actually shelling out the money for training and let them know there will be some changes. As far as someone throwing their training card at you, well I'd just throw in the shredder and say "goodbye, you can come back to training when you get a new attitude". Of course you'd want to run that by your boyfriend first . We don't have training cards in our possession. The cards are in a binder, and the school coordinator scans them as we walk through the door showing up for class. Their just to track attendance. This is why I'm a fan of contracts and billing companies personally. I don't own a school, but I feel like the contract protects me as a consumer as well. I don't have to, and don't want to, talk to my Sensei or dojo personnel about money, just Karate training. The billing company takes care of those that don't pay with notices and other things. The money comes out of my account regardless of whether I show up for training or not, so it makes me think about it on those days I'm feeling lazy and don't want to go to class. The receiptionist at our school just takes money for things like special events, seminar's, or equipment purchase's, and is the after school program coordinator.

Hahaha, I like your style!

A couple of things. First, you may want to sit down and talk to your Sensei and let him know your problem. He in turn may make an announcment during line up to the effect of "so and so is my assistant instructor, what he says is as good as if it came from me, if he tells you to do it, just do it". Secondly, I often have the same problem as a newer instructor at my school with some of the young ones. Reason being is their used to certain instructor's and haven't yet learned how to react to me. I would say instead of threatening push ups, just make them go do them. Make sure you move them off to the side and continue class. Threats that have yet to be backed up, are like a dog that barks but everyone knows won't bite. You shouldn't get angry while instructing, ever. Those that would rather argue with you, or disrupt your class don't need to be on the floor. Kindly ask them to depart the mat, and continue their push ups elsewhere off to the side. If they decide they don't want to do the push ups, or whatever else interesting things you might have them do, tell them to leave your mats and go sit somewhere that their not going to disturb your class. You'll notice that I used statements like "your mats", and "your class", because if your Sensei made you an assistant instructor he's charged you with the duties of teaching a class, and for that time period the mats belong to you, and its your responsibility to control your class. If one, or a few individuals enjoy disturbing the rest of the class than they have no business being there. As far as those that think you have nothing to offer them, well that's pretty simple. When someone say's "I don't need help with that" you can retaliate with "do you do it as well as me?", followed up by a quick demonstration. If they don't, then chances are you won't get any more statements like that from them. Just make sure you have your stuff wired and polished if your going to use that tool.

Not to hijack the thread or anything, but Neo Dragon, where do you live in NC?

Thanks! I'll let you know when I start getting into my training rythim after the near year. Especially since I'm a Marine. No I didn't have much time for anything like that over there, on any of my three tours. I just did what I could to get a good run in before it was time to work, no matter what time a day. I find that running really makes whatever I'm doing on a day to day basis more energized, and settles the brain.

We don't have seperate class's for kids and adults. Our class's are broken down by experience/grade level. Everyone learns bunkai. Why learn martial arts if you don't know why your doing something? After we line up and start class, we sometimes take the younger kids into our second studio for the class. But that's just do to space restrictions when we have large class's, however, the training that occurs on both sides is the same. Since I read someone else mentioning it, the only difference in our testing requirements between kids and adults is at Shodan vs. jr Shodan. The kid testing only has to fight continuously for 15 minutes instead of 20. The opponents are still rotated every 1 to 2 minutes to make sure they constantly have a fresh opponent. They still have to demonstrate all the same empty hand, and kobudo katas, basics and Tuite techniques as adults.

These variables are what I always come back to. I think it really boils down to an individual. What reason's does that individual train in the martial arts. I train in the martial arts because I enjoy all aspects of my training. I could care less about the fighting. I fought plenty as a teenager, and into my early 20's, and can hold my own just fine. But my maturity level was lacking, because I was lacking any training to control the desire to fight. My son is 10 years old, and has been training in martial arts half of his life. Because of that training, he already understands why that aggression must be controlled. Now that I'm older and wiser, I only wish that I would have had the opportunity to learn the way he has, instead of the way I did. Martial arts, taught correctly, IMO teach's kids how to be more mature about physical confrontation, and instills in them a drive to succeed in everything they do. Why should a kid have to "hold his own" against a 200 pound attacker? I would venture to guess that half the karateka on this board would have trouble handling a 200 pound, trained (I say trained because the practice attacker's in question are trained in the same arts that you are), attacker. Besides isn't that what his parents are for? To take care of him/her? Later on in life when their an adult they will be required to take care of themselves. How they take care of themselves as adults, will be well enhanced by the martial arts training they're receiving as kids. The jr black belt that kids receive simply recognize those kids for their achievements in the school, and in their knowledge of a particular discipline. Kids shouldn't be just given their jr black belts based on the time they've put in, but by their knowledge of their art, just like adults. What are adult black belts given for if not to recognize the achievements of that student in a particular school/style? The majority of the adults in our school aren't big, super strong, or lightning fast, and can't/couldn't "handle" the few that are bigger, stronger, and have trained longer. Should they not be promoted as they advance in the style? That kid with many years of experience, and training (who take it very seriously and actually know it) have just as much to offer to a school as adult Shodan's do, because they know the technique's better than the junior students and should be passing that knowledge on.