ashworth

I had an idea suddenly come to me for an interesting topic, hopefully it hasn't been discussed before, apologies if it has! What was your first impression of your sensei/instructor, (if you remember) what were they doing at the time when you first saw them. If you have had a number of different instructors feel free to talk about them all.

Just checking keep us posted on how it goes, hope everything works out for the best. Best of luck

Definitely make sure that it is away from the dojo and not after class, you want to be away from that environment to make the conversation a bit more neutral. After class he may still be in the role of "Sensei" and as you have said that you have a friendship outside of the dojo thats where you want the conversation to be, outside of the dojo, as friends. When I read your scenario I imagined it was my student (who is also a friend, and is actually going through the process of becoming an instructor...your not him are you!?) If I was the sensei I would rather this conversation take place outside of the dojo... That is just my view anyway...

Sorry to hear this is happening to you and effecting you both outside of the dojo as well.. Best thing I can think of is to figure out exactly what you would like your role to be in the dojo, whether its to just be a student or if you do want to assist every now and then, once you are sure what you want arrange to meet outside of the dojo and have a heart to heart on the matter, it is not worth losing your friendship outside of the dojo as well. explain exactly how you feel, see what he would like from you as well. Maybe talk to him about what goals you should be setting yourself so that he can see that you still want to progress with your training and maybe that could motivate him to help you out more in class like he does with his "true students"

You are still a karate-ka regardless, not being able to do a certain kick head don't make you any less of a karate-ka, karate is about striving to be the best you can be and that is different for everyone. Don't feel disheartened, it will come just be patient, speak to your instructor about various exercises that can improve your flexibility for this technique, and remember that it wont happen overnight. I have a student that had a similar issue, was flexible enough to easily kick head level with a front kick, but side and round kick couldn't, wasn't until around his brown belt grades that we saw significant improvement with those kicks.

So how many real kicks do you think he done in the video?

Still in the process of coming up with final goals but do have a couple that I know I want to do... -get my fitness back up to what it used to be, that will include using the gym after work, going for runs, and possibly going on a diet! something I never thought I would have to do. -get back into my Iaido. -work on advertising to try and attract more students. -expand my MA knowledge a little bit more, seeking out other instructors and places to train. -Find more tournaments and get back competing.

I nailed pretty much of my personal goals, and I would say about half of my MA goals, I did get back to Iaido but had a few things get in the way and then I ended up moving which meant I was a bit too far away from the Dojo I was going to but I have found a new one where I am that I'm hoping to check out in the new year

Ask your instructor more about the bunkai, we partner up and practise certain applications from kata on each other so that we understand where the kata is coming from. I have had students in the past show a strong dislike for kata, until I demonstrate the possibilities with different bunkai examples.

Hello, have always been interested in the Seishin Gi, but never taken the plunge and bought one, does anyone here have a Seishin Gi? thoughts on how it compares to other Gi that you have?

Enjoy it! I'm jealous that I don't have something like that with my club, take full advantage

Massive congrats! many people stop after shodan, well done for being one of the ones that kept going! Out of interest as it was just kata how long did the grading take? did you have to do any application work? or just do the kata?

Curiosity question - how do you collect payment? By that I mean everyone hands you, say, a $10 bill every time they walk in, or can they pay in advance? My former Sensei taught a cardio kickboxing class that was strictly pay as you go. He issued cards that were bought for a certain amount. Every class, he hole punched everyone's card. Once there were no classes left on the card, they bought a new card. A dojo I was looking into before I joined my current one did the same thing as a pay as you go option (you could also pay a monthly membership instead). At the moment they just pay cash when they turn up, although I am thinking about offering the chance to pay in advanced similar to the method your explained.

Pretty simple for me, my students turn up, pay for that class, and train in it. That is the way I prefer it, everyone else seems happy with it as well.

Keinosuke Enoeda would pretty much be at the top of my list, my instructor used to speak about him a lot.

Like what has been said, I believe that both have their place, and I teach both realistic and sport karate. We need the realistic teachings so that we don't go out into the world in fairy land, arguing with an attacker because he hit you after you clearly scored a point first, there is no referee on the street, its your responsibility to stop the fight... and at the same time I believe that the athleticism gained from sport karate can be good to help keep you in shape and be help increase your speed and reactions, both which could help in realistic situations. In my classes I do make a point of saying whether its for self defence or for sport so that the students are aware of what they are aiming for.

Like what has already been said, too much could go wrong, its really not worth it, the only type of instructors that I could imagine doing this, are instructors that are full of themselves, power hungry and feel like they have something to prove. I couldn't imagine doing it, I would feel so bad!

haven't been asked that before, anyone that knows me knows I'm the dude that does karate, and knows what a big deal it is to me. I have been doing it since I was 5... If I speak to someone that I haven't for a while, they ask if i'm still doing it, which after writing that out I realise can be quite a normal question, but I almost feel insulted that they need to ask. I will be doing it for my whole life, there is no doubt in my mind about that. part of me wishes that I will live to be past 100 so that I can be doing karate for longer...

Good luck for the testing and the tournament! What events are you doing in the tournament?

Congrats! Sandan is a great achievement and milestone keep it up!

Sounds like a good way to get your class shut down... if they had an incident running the class there would be major consequences...

Black belt student... Okay, so I'm having a student approaching his Shodan, he will actually be going for it in a months time, this is the first student I have had attempt their black belt (have been teaching around 6 years now) and I am really excited about the event. It's just amazing seeing them train hard and achieve a big goal like that, I'm more excited about him getting his black belt than I was when I got mine! So it got me thinking, I want to somehow celebrate the achievement, both for the student and for the club. Do you remember your first student that made it to black belt? what did you do if anything to celebrate the occasion?

We tend to only shut for Christmas holidays and resume first week in Jan, have closed before due to holiday's and that but now I have a student that's about to become an instructor and will be able to run the classes whenever I am away.

Exactly what the others have said so far, in my classes when we do sparring, to start off the first couple of rounds very slow and light, I make a point of saying for these rounds the objective isn't to score points, its to throw out different combinations for your partner to block, so they have to work at a speed where they can both block the techniques coming in, naturally as the round goes on pace will increase.

One person that inspired me through a big part of my training was an instructor called steve, he was a guy in his 50s that was always looking to push our classes to the limits and get involved in the class as much as he could and do it all with us. I wanted to keep going and get better because of the hard work that he put in to give us hard classes like that.