DeeBoy

I agree ashworth. i have a friend who has a Black belt in another style and has started training in GKR. when they start sparring my friend is always getting in trouble for using techniques that are not part of the system. they have also asked him to start teaching the kids classes because he is showing SKILLS of becoming a good Black belt. with this he now gets to train in an instructors class. he has worked with some people that are graded higher than him, that have an ego problem. so doing what hes trained to do, he throws different attacks to them and gives it back to them. I know i strayed off track a little but in the end, my friend now teaches GKR with 7 months of training behind him, but luckely has trained for 5 years prior.

no it wasnt wado ryu. to me it seemed as though these people only had turn up to pass the grading, as some of these guys werent putting in much effort. there was one person who graded to shodan, now this is an interesting position because i have never been in this situation before. An elderly man was grading and wasnt as quick, clean(technically), powerful or accurate as everyone else. this man passed and i congratulate him on his effort and success, the man I am talking about was 75 years old. I dont know what I would do in this situation, would you grade him according to the standards of that rank or would you grade him on what he was capable of?

If you havent done your research yet you might want to start now before you get too involved in some thing you may regret later down the track. Look into Kancho Robert Sullivan's history and you will find that he has been around for many years and traind in many forms of traditional karate, however, be aware that it is not traditional nor accepted by instructors, masters and ma boards to allow or accept a 2nd dan instructor/founder of their style (GKR) to grade their students to 3rd and even 4th dan whilst still on 2nd themselves. This is what happened in the early days, once these ppl were graded higher they then presented Sullivan with his 5th dan (WTF). If you have found a ma you like, enjoy and can see yourself doing for the next 10 years, then good luck to you. but while your still at the early stages, it might be worth while for you to check out some other styles and compare what you know to these other styles. also please refer to the thred regarding Black belt gradings and look at my latest reply. Good luck and train hard.

I recently watched a Black belt, Shodan and Nidan in a style I love to Hate. I wont name this style as not to offend anyone, but in what I have gone thru for my gradings (refer to page 2), this was a walk in the park. All Shodans and the one Nidan that graded went for a total time of 2 hours and 30mins. It started with ALL four of their strikes (punch, backfist, ridge hand and knife hand), followed then by ALL four of their kicks (front, round, side and back). After this they would throw this in combos. Then they would do their Kata's twice(1st time by numbers, then from start to finish) then move on to the next Kata. I dont understand how 22 people can be watched and graded by 8 instructors that are constantly moving around. after this they did apprx. 15 rounds of sparring (non contact), which I found absolutly pathetic as it was point style of sparring. I would watch someone throw a fast reverse punch to the mid section, pull their hand back, then turn their back to the opponent when they were being counter attacked. I feel really sorry for these people who think they will be able to defend themselves adequetly in a real life situation, as these people dont know any different. Their instuctors are so close minded, that one of my black belts went in to train with this style and was punished with push ups for throwing thigh kicks, uppercuts and knees amongst other strikes. If anyone ever asks me what style to train in, THIS one will not be getting my approval.

i like the sound of oldskoolkarateka's grading. my nidan grading was 5 hours long on friday night with all syllabus material being worked. we would also do 100 push ups and sit ups hourly. all this took 5 hours and would finish around 11pm, we would go home and eat, strech, and relax. then we would start again on saturday at 10am until anywhere from 4pm to 6pm depending on how well the grading was going. sat would involve a quick run thru of fri material, this would take 1 hour. then we had self defence routines eg. 2on1 attacks, grab defences, locks and chocks. then when we are all tired and beat up, we would do 30 rounds of sparring each round is 2 mins with 30sec rest. sparring would change from no contact to full contact each round and would vary from a boxing, kick boxing and martial arts style of sparring. great memories...

Benny 'the jet' Urquidez

will have to try that one

keep us updated pls...

i was head of security at a martial arts tournament one sunday, and we had three teens come up to the doors and start watching thru the doors. the girls on that door taking entry fees called me over, because these kids looked pretty dodgy. when i got over there they were asking me questions, and then started crapping on about how they could kick everyones b u t t. one of them then asked if he could have a fight with someone, so i told him to wait there. i found the biggest, scariest looking person (good friend of mine) and started walking back over to the doors, these kids ran off real quick. very funny to see.

If it was verbal i would move on. i have been in volved in a similar incident where the lady was in tears and her b/f was damaging her car. she was also screaming out HELP, and yet NO ONE was helping her. i made my way over and got in between the lady and man, and the guy then started threatening me. after about 1 to 2 mins of this more people started to become involved. the guy road off on his bike and police were called, police took 1 hour to arrive and the lady didnt want to press charges after recieving threatening phone calls after the guy left. i waited with the girl incase the guy came back, not even a thanks for the effort. anyway, i did my good deed for the day.

i watched that movie the night before my first tournament at white belt to phsyc me up, and ended up winning a 1st and 3rd place. Love that movie...

not really anythimg i wasnt aware of, the only thing that was new/different for me was if someone were to throw a straight punch (left or right cross) was to step in at nearly 180 degrees and throw a double block. forearm closest to the hand would block as usual, but the other block closest to the body would actually elbow into the front of the shoulder.That was pretty cool, sore shoulders after that workout...

i wear an all black uniform which is worn once you reach dan levels all others wear white gi and black pants. i dont care if my uniform is black, white or both. it helps soak up the sweat.

well ppl, im back from my trip to Thailand. what an unreal place. sights were great and the training was fun. i have several bruises, no concussions and lots of memories. Now, down to the interesting stuff. I went to Fairtex in Pattaya (awesome place) this place has everything! very well organised and condition of the place is great. I did 2 training sessions there one morning session and an arvo session 3 hours each. both were great workouts which is just what i needed after days of being pestered by people to buy crap. each session started with warm ups skipping light bag work and so on. we would then work on some fundamentals (punching, elbows, knees, kicks, blocking etc etc). then the sparring, this was good fun, but i think they paired me with the begginers, because the people i got to spar with werent very good in the way of fitness, offence and defence. or they saw me as a tourist and didnt want to scare me off! never the less it was fun and still an experience. i didnt really see any ppl in there training for any up comming fights or if they were it didnt look like it. anyhow, if anyone is going over there, check this place out its unreal. came back with more knowledge and understanding of muay thai i have several things i need to work on and some combos hat worked out well for me. Lougacs, thanks for the info it is much apreciated, however it was a bit late and i only read it when i got home. i am jealous of your condo. it was something i checked out whilst over there and unfortunatly its something i cant afford just yet, but will be on my wish list. Thanx for the support ppl. happy training....

Fly out today, cant wait. will inform you when i get back and let you know all the training drills and KO's i get. lol.