ashworth

At the moment I'm only running a small club, two classes, one for kids and one for the older students. for me to break even with the cost of hiring the dojo I only need 3 students! which is good for me as I prefer teaching small classes of between 5-10 to focus more on students individual needs.

1) How did you first become interested in martial arts? Was bullied as a young kid, and I Loved jackie chan! 2) What discipline did you decide to practice? Karate 3) Why did you choose that specific discipline over the other disciplines? was the first discipline I found in the area, ended up loving everything about it, the art itself, the sport aspect of it. 4) What is your skill level within your martial arts discipline? average, a Dan grade black belt running my own classes 5) What other things do you like to do? (When you're not in the gym/dojo, what else do you like to do with your time? This can be physical or nonphysical pass times) I captain a pool team in an amateur league, also play on a dart team, 6) What are the first 3 martial arts related brands that come to your mind. (FIRST, not BEST). Blitz, Tokaido, Shuriedo 7) How do you decide what martial arts gear/equipment to get? (How do you select one type or brand over another?) Depends what I need, with some items I know what brands are better quality 8 ) Roughly how often to you buy new martial arts equipment? I normally put an order in once a month 9) Where do you get your equipment from? Is there a reason for this? Blitz mostly as I have a trade account set up with them so get it for a good price

Allllllllll the time! every time I'm at work, Martial arts is the biggest thing in my life so takes up the most of my thinking time...

In terms of kobudo I would say the sai.. no reason why really, just always the one I have leaned to... if we are talking about weapons in general then thats easy, the Katana! hands down, nothing else even comes close

The point of this post is to get views on having an instructor from another club/style come along to train in your class.. I have been teaching properly on my own for about 4 years now, my instructor due to personal reasons had to leave, leaving me in charge of the classes. There is only so much we can achieve by training on our own, we sometimes need to stand in line and just focus on being a student again and follow the instructions of another instructor... Thankfully I do know a few other instructors that are happy to have me train in their classes, one of them being my very first instructor from about 19 years ago. But there are some who don't like the idea at all, that will make you feel unwelcome and awkward by being there. What is up with these people? I'm not their to poach their students or anything, all I wanna do is train!! Your thoughts on the matter?

My club is still relatively new, but one of my very first students I am currently training up to be an instructor, as he will be my first one, I'm not exactly running a course for him, just have one on one sessions every week, training him how to spot mistakes, how to correct them, and just the general aspects of teaching a martial art class. He also assists me in our current classes, often taking small groups in the class, soon I'm going to let him loose with running a complete class while I watch. I have been doing this with him for over a year now, its more like a apprenticeship type of thing that we are doing.

I would say definitely ask your sensei if you can spar more in class, how often do they do kumite in your class? I wouldn't want any of my students going into a tournament without sparring in the dojo first, to let them know what to expect, and get a feel for it...

Open Hard to say no to parents that want to see their kids during a grading, but I do make sure they aren't near the mat, in our last location there was a separate room that had a view into the dojo so parents used to sit in there. and luckily for my adult gradings normally no one wants to watch them, except for one time a higher grade aikido-ka decided to pop in to see how I do things, was nervous myself! let alone the ones grading! So yeah my gradings are open to all, but I do prefer it when everyone is on the mat with no one watching...

I had my mother join my class for about a year,

I love this time of year and coming up with all the goals I wish to achieve in the following year, I don't always reach everything that I set out but that is going to change this year! a number of personal goals to do with finances, then theres my MA goals! continue and increase my karate training and study including seeking out other places to train. get back into Iaido and keep it up. those are my main focuses at the moment.

With an old club I used to be with...To start with I liked the idea at a young age, I did think I was too young at the time but only agreed as I thought it would only be teaching as an assistant in the class rather than running classes on my own. It was like this for a few months, then due to an instructor leaving they wanted me to take on the class on my own, I did quite agree with it at the time but decided to do it anyway, at that time I was no where near ready for such a role, I was nervous as hell, had no control over the kids, unprepared, but somehow managed to push on, and now in some ways I believe this experience helped shape the way I teach now, being thrown in the deep end really opens your eyes sometimes. Anyway after a few differences with another instructor I decided to leave that particular club and went to a shotokan club back to just training for me. After gaining my Shodan with them and feeling 10 times more prepared, with the blessing of my shotokan sensei I started teaching my own class completely my own choice, and I'm glad I done it again and didn't let my first experience put me off, now I'm a Sandan and have some great students, one of which has started teaching with me as an assistant and its nice to pass on my teaching experiences to him. I feel it has made me stronger as an instructor and in my own life.

Thanks for your reply, Not looking for full contact, touch or semi contact is fine. point fighting, kata

Hello, I run a small karate class, and looking around to try and find some more tournament circuits to enter my students in. we are based in Essex so ideally looking for something within a 3 hour driving radius. does anyone know of any? thanks in advance

This is one of my favorite quotes,something I intend to bring my family up with in everyday life, and I completely agree with it. Karate for me doesn't stop in the dojo, I believe a true karate-ka should try to apply principles they learn in the dojo to their everyday life. This quote in particular means a lot to me. no matter what gets thrown at me, win or lose the important thing is that I learn and take something away from the experience and be able to develop myself a little bit more. well it makes sense in my head

I don't have children yet, I hope to in the future and can see myself being stricter and expecting a higher standard of discipline from them if they were to get into the martial arts (I really hope they do!) instructors that teach their own children... did you find yourself being stricter on your own children if they are in the dojo?

Well Haven't been to any of their events yet, but I do know a 5th dan aikido-ka that teaches in my area, comes across as a very wise and nice man, has helped me in the past, and we also share a student as well, I respect the man a lot. through knowing him I have come into contact with others(via facebook) that I believe are in the same association but seeing some of the things they post they are not in the same light as him. Either way I plan to look into them a bit more, a quick look on the internet told me they aren't the best equipped when it comes to running a user-friendly website.

You always get them, the best thing I believe you can do is to simply not let it disrupt your training, if you train with complete focus you should be able to zone out such behavior, in fact think of it as a test of your focus. let it motivate you to train harder and be an example to the others in the class to show them how they should be training. If it really does get bad maybe consider speaking to the instructor, when I started having enough kids coming to my class I started running a separate session for them before the adults class.

Wasn't entirely sure where to post this, it kinda relates to running a club so I thought I would post it here... Just wondering if anyone has encountered Bushido Zazen internation martial arts society? what are your thoughts on it? I know a couple of instructors in the organisation and hold them in high regard, just wondered if they are a good organisation as a whole? Thanks

I started when I was 5, used to be bullied at school and a local karate club posted a flying through the door, parents signed me up and I have been training in various clubs ever since!

I remember a few times after class where we are all in the car park, instructor included, and we have just been talking, sometimes up to an hour! Now as an instructor I talk to everyone, all the parents of the children, everyone gets a high five as well, something I just started doing one day and then became a regular practise, the kids love it!

after 18 years My body still seems to function adequately, knees click more than I would like, and my hip sometimes doesn't want to play ball. But doesn't hinder my training.

Never!

Exactly what I do with my kids class! they do anything to be able to play dodgeball at the end!

Practise doesn't make perfect, perfect practise makes perfect...

If I can do it, you can do it