ashworth

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

For me old belts simply get used as a training aid in the dojo

only thing I can think of right now is turning down an offer to take over a shotokan class I used to train in, as the instructor had to leave, at the time I wanted to focus more on myself, now I realise that it would have been beneficial gaining that kind of experience

But can't this be a bad thing? if someone has never done martial arts before and a bad GKR class is all they have ever known that can put them off of martial arts... There are some half decent people in the club, but the standard is far too inconsistent...

White Yellow Orange Green Blue Purple brown white stripe brown brown black stripe Black

I have around 20 students, and offer private training, can spend a lot of time working on their individual weaknesses

name of the club on one side in kanji and my name in katakana down the other side

around 11 years from when I first started training, I changed clubs a couple of times,

I agree that once you gain your grade, the you are always that grade, and would let them wear that grade if they came to my class again. do you think that this should be the same for the lower rank belts? so far you have only mentioned black belts... what about say a yellow belt, or any other colour?