username8517

One thing to consider is that unless the training hall is a member of an affiliation that mandates belt standards across the board, each school is allowed to create their own belt system for the lower ranks (basically everything below black). So you are correct that it genearlly does very from club to club--even in the same style you will see some variations from training hall to training hall. In regards to the half-grades, I do know that some styles and schools utilize them, but having no first hand experience or knowledge about them, I can only make assumptions. The best way to find out whether these half-grades are recognized (which I'm assuming their not outside of the school) is to ask the instructor. Perhaps my assumptions are wrong and they are a common thing in the particular TKD style your son takes and they are recognized in all schools of that style. Also, one reason why your son might be getting half-grades until he's twelve is perhaps there is a minimum age for someone in the school to have a black belt. Best way to find out though is to ask.

Here is some more video of a chain in action.

I'm holding my own as is my wife. My baby just got over a five week cold about two weeks ago. Best of luck to your wife and a speedy recovery.

Hello and Welcome

Aside from books, I've had my eyes on these

I went with 4 2 styles of karate (I only counted as one) Silat Kali BJJ

I would go with the better school. While you might not get along with the instructor, you're more than likely there to study under them. Besides, styles aside, better instructors tend to run better schools.

I rarely eat before I train, but one day I was just so hungry I had to. My wife as having some BLTs so I downed a rather large one as I went out the door. Between the mayo, bacon grease, and the heat of the dojo, I couldn't make it through class without loosing my dinner.

Never heard it called that before, but to each their own

Good advice from e&k above. One thing I would add is make sure you have a good knowledge of sensitive areas of the human body. I'm not talking striking pressure points, but areas of the body you can clamp down on hard or dig fingers and knuckles into to illicet pain. Some examples include the inner thigh, side of the neck and the top side of the forearm down the center line. To see what I'm actually talking about, do this self defense exercise (it's one that we teach our students)--have your "assailant" place you in a tight headlock and torque it down so your head is around his waist level--it doesn't matter if its from the front (guillotine style) or back (so your practically side by side)--either way is fine. Then take one of your free hand and clamp down tight on the inside of their thigh and watch how fast they let go.

Well if you do end up getting in a confrontation with a group of 10-15 guys you're probably going to end up on the losing side bad. You did the right thing last time by walking away and ignoring them. Although good way to display confidence is to walk around with your head held high. If you absolutely have to fight, car keys is always a good improv weapon.

As am I.

I loved that show when it was on.

I love a nice healthy game of paintball.

Gotcha--a bike would work fine then

If your class is primarly younger students, then yes a bicycle is an acceptable prize. However, for older students, once they get their driver's liscence, their desire to use a bike greatly deminishes. I know this sounds a bit like marketing, which it is, but for effective selling (your promotional night) you'll need to either give your customers (your students) something they want/need or something that they think they want/need.

Not really sure what kind of ideas you're looking for (class exercises & drills or how to promote it), but he's what I would probably do if I was in your shoes: First thing you have to do is get your students interested in bringing in their friends. Then once their friends are in, you'll have to work on capturing their attention. One easy way to inspire students to participate is to give them an incentive if they accomplish some sort of goal. One example off the top of my head (and I'm just going to throw out a number here)--if you have 20 students in your class, if 60% of the class (12 students) bring in a friend they as a class get a reward. The reward would be that the friends that came along get to hit you in the face with a creme pie at the end of the next class. Not the "bring your friend" class, but the following one. So if Bring Your Friend was on a Monday, then it would be at the end of class on Wednesday, or whatever days you operate one. This is for three reasons: 1). You have to make sure that they succeed in hitting their goal before you go to the trouble of setting it up. 2). It's easy to clean up. You won't have to worry about a huge mess as long as your take precaution to lay down a trash bag under you and bring a towel to wipe up with afterwards. You might need a shower when you get home too. 3). What student wouldn't want to see their instructor get hit with a creme pie? It's not going to cost you anything but cost for the creme and bit of dignity. But the most important thing is to make it clear that only the friends get to do it. This will give them incentive to come back again, even if it's only to hit you in the face with a pie. Once you have your incentive there, you will need something to capture their attention. In other words, the class has to be fun and educational at the same time. This will be the hardest part. However, one possible guideline for the night would be --general warm ups --let the friends stand aside and watch as you have the class demonstrate some forms (two or three at most) --take the friends off to the side with a senior student and work on very basic moves while you run the rest of the class up through forms --combine class and work on self-defense applications. Let your students pair up with who they brought in. It will make it easier on the buddies if they already have some kind of relationship with their partner --Do some light sparring (maybe even one step so the buddies get used to what their supposed to be doing) --End with some bag work--let the new guys and gals end out the day by beating on something hard. Make sure you once again try and explain proper technique in a fun wa Hope this helps.

Wow! Talk about irony--I want the same thing.

Too many pages to read through them all, but these are some of the funnier ones I've had said to me --"That wouldn't work" (coming from someone with two weeks of MA experience total when showing her self-defense escapes) --"What if they _______?" (proceed by showing a modification of the self defense move), "Well what if they _______?" (Show another improv self defense to counter), "Well what if they ________?" (We now have a rule in our dojo called "No What-ifs" because one kyu rank was so bad with those. The rule is unless you instructing the class you can never begin a sentence with "What if") --"Have you ever killed anyone" (yeah, that's why I'm still here in class teaching rather than in prison) --"I'm bored" (well I have quick fix for that ) --"I didn't learn anything today" (then you weren't paying attention because I correct plenty of your moves) --"Look what I can do" followed by some spastic gymnastic move jumpt and/or tumble (and what does that have to do with karate) --"Can we play games instead of working on kata again?" (in a word--NO) --"Do you think you could beat up _______" ( ) Actually had this next one said to me just last night: --moaning "But I don't want to do kata again. I already know how to do it." (well since I'm one of the judges testing you next month and I think you need to work on it, it would probably be wise if you did)

Yes, but the best part about all of the above mentioned furnishings is that unless they're nailed down tight, they'll be easy for me to "take as a sovenier"

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-1986260681870742580 I love the soundtrack added too

Ten BJJ skills I would want to focus on in a street fight--in no particular order: 1. Double-leg takedown 2. Sweeps from the clinch 3. Mount position 4. Maintain closed guard 5. Rear naked choke 6. Sprawling (don't want to be taken down until I'm ready) 7. Transitioning from someone's guard to side mount 8. Counter to common grabs (wrist, shirt, etc.) 9. Strikes & clamps to areas of opportunity 10. Standing locks (to try and defuse the situation before getting to into an all out street fight)

did you even read my post? I meant for YOU in a street encounter, not a policeman..... I think there might have been some confusion in the original post as I apparently misunderstood it too. While I can't speak for bushido_man, I know my confusion came from this part: I took that as saying if I was a police officer, what ten moves would I need to know. My ten moves for a streetfight would be greatly different than one of a LEO (which I'll have to get to another time)

Like I said, I would definately do it all over again. However, what was interesting was that everyone of us that me and the Yandan were in the same car on the five-and-a-half hour car ride back home. I felt sorry for the other two people in the car who didn't test--I mean changing clothes can only do so much to kill the smell of sweat

My Nidan test this past summer was somewhat grueling. Aside from myself there was two other students testing for their Nidan and one for their Yandan--three of us from the same dojo (the Yandan was from a different dojo but still trained under the same sensei as the rest of us). The testing was to take place on a Sunday at the end of this weekend training camp we all attended (Friday though Sunday morning) in the middle of July. Well mid-day Saturday we were informed by the host of the seminar that there would be no testing on Sunday due to time contraints and that a light workout would take place instead. After a full day of training on Saturday, there was a bonfire celebration by the host to thank everyone for showing up, etc etc. Aside from games and festivities, let me just say there was alcohol aplenty. Now the guy who was testing for his Yandan doesn't drink, but the three of us were having a fresh beer placed in our hands before the one we were working on was finished (this being done primarily by the host of the party). I got lucky enough to overhear the host let something slip about having a suprised lined up for the next day. So I immediately switched to water in hopes to avoid a potential hang over. So Sunday morning rolls around and we're all treated to a nice breakfast of fried eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, and toast. In other words, grease, grease, grease, syrup, and bread. I had a slight hang over, but nothing that wasn't managable. The other two who were drinking it up were not as fortunate. After breakfast we all started to get ready for our light workout, until one of the 8th Dans of our systems showed up and said something to the extend of "You four, come on--we have a test to do" I believe all our reactions were something aking to So we made our way to a secluded section (but yet still directly in the sun light) of the campground in 80 degree weather (that's 80 degrees at 9:30 in the morning) for testing. Testing started off with a mile jog, to which I and one other person proceeded to lose our breakfast. After the run we did about 20 regular pushups, followed by 20 elevated push up (a partner held our legs at their hip line), which was proceeded by 30 cruches, and we were allowed to end the warm ups with 50 bicycle/scissor crunches. One other person lost their lunch during these warm-ups as well. We then paired off and did all seven Yakosoko Kumite three times a piece attacking, then switched to defending so our partner could do them. That was then followed up by kata. We lined up and did the first kata in the system. Then after we were done, we had to do it with our eyes closed. Then again facing off at an angle, then off at another angle with our eyes closed, then by ourselves as the others watched, then in one square formation all facing the center. All in all, because of time constraints we only got through the first 11 katas, but we did each kata 6 times. At the end of the testing the temperature was hitting 95 and we were all just dripping with sweat. Thankfully they brought down a tub of bottled water for us to utilize during our test. And let me tell you we went through every single bottle of water there and made one of the kyu ranks fetch more. After the test the 8th Dan had a private chat with each of us about our performance. He basically told us that from seeing the way we worked on Friday and Saturday, and from speaking directly with our sensei, that this testing was merely a formality--it was more to see what we could do under stressful situation and how far we were willing to push ourselves. As miserable as it was, I would do it all over again.