ashworth

Hello BalkanDragon! and welcome to the forum! A great first post full of positivity! You are right, it's good to read positive stories in these troubled times! Great to hear you are enjoying your journey so far! Well done on your yellow belt grading! A martial art journey is a gift that just keeps on giving! Keep up the good work, I look forward to reading more about your journey

Season 3 is getting closer!! I have just re-watched season 1 and 2 to recap, really looking forward to what they do in season 3... What are you expecting to see? And theories?

Great work Alex! Thanks

Depends how much we are talking about, first priority would be buying our own house, put some money aside for my daughter. Then hopefully have enough to build an amazing dojo, and in an ideal world I would love the idea of running a karate club with no class fees, just membership annual fees to cover student insurance...

Do your remember you very first martial arts class? Do you remember what you thought at the time, what about that class made you want to go back?

Are you in Tier 3 then?? We are in tier 2 and able to return our adult classes as well...

Exactly, explained it much better than me, thanks My current organisation hasn’t been too helpful during COVID, but this potential new one has been great so far, feel like they are really going out of their way to help clubs recover and get back on their feet.

We completely put our club on hold throughout all of this, I have offered students videos of stuff they can do at home, but definitely wont be doing any kind of gradings until we are back into the dojo properly. They all understand we may need a bit of a recap when getting back to it, just before we stopped there was a big group grading where most of them graded to their next belt anyway. I have even had one student say he would want to re-do his last grade. Which isn't going to be necessary, we will just have a recap period to dust of the cobwebs and resume as normal.

Oh yes, no matter what I do I’ll be insured either way.

I wouldn't say its a requirement, but its normally the done thing from what I have seen, the organisation sort out all the insurances for the club and individual student licencing. Also helps with club recognition, and there can be events that members of the organisation can take part in. Some organisation also run certifications like coaching awards, first aid courses, DBS checks. Basically whatever you need to get a club running can all be done through the organisation.

I don't think there are that many UK people on here but thought I would ask just in case... The BMABA... https://bmaba.org.uk Has anyone had anything to do with them or heard much about them? They appear to be better than who I am currently with, I'm due to re-new all my registration and club membership before resuming my classes after the new year and thought it might be worth going with these guys instead...

Oh no, I'm not doing it because I feel pressure to, its something I want to do for myself. The members on here have great knowledge and experience and it's interesting reading what they have to say.

Definitely agree with your post, I used to enjoy getting home, logging onto the computer to read through the current conversations, seeing if I had anything to contribute. People have grown impatient and looking for instant responses in a faster paced world now, I know I have been guilty of this, time to slow it down. I too hope there will be a turn around. I'll do my best to contribute and help with that if I can.

It would have been possible to start up sooner, but expected the second lockdown, didn't want to mess the students around by opening back up for a little while to just close again, and being this close to Christmas it was a group decision to get the classes back up and running again in the new year, well for one location anyway, having issues with the venue for one of our locations.

I would like to think I would be able to handle myself, put those 3 in a dojo I would be confident against them. but outside of the dojo is another story, emotions will more than likely get in the way of my abilities. Only been in 2 aggressive situations before. one time was in an alleyway against 2 younger lads that started running after me. Defused the situation by simply turning round and standing up to them. they backed down and walked off, I was left confused. Second time was in a pub, I wasn't fully aware of surroundings due to a number of beers I had throughout the night. Out of nowhere a punch to the back of the head, turn around to be met with a head butt, I was absolutely fine, he caught me wrong and split his own skin just above his eye and bled over himself while being escorted out... So I still don't truly know how I would react in those situations Agree with everything that has been mentioned so far, avoiding the fight is number one priority, attempting to use any martial arts is only a last resort, its far to unpredictable.

I run a very small club (classes generally have between 3-7 students), we paused our classes when the first lockdown started and we are only just getting round to resuming one of our classes in the new year, we don't often get new students. But in the past month I have had 3 new students enquiring about starting up! Looking forward to finally getting back into the dojo! especially with new students starting.

Hi Patrick, Your thoughts do make a lot of sense. In some ways I suppose being less active can be good, I remember there being too many topics to go through so probably missed some decent topics that I could have contributed in. Totally agree with you about facebook groups, there are far too many trolls, I remember there being the occasional troll in forums, but that's nothing compared to facebook, everyone has an opinion about the topic quite often negative, and will come out with stupid comments that ruin the conversation of the post.

I remember years ago, probably a good 10+ years ago. I used to be part of many different martial art forums. They all used to be so active and it was really helpful if I had any questions about my training especially as my club at the time had their own forum. They even arranged forum meet ups, used to meet up at events like tournaments. It was just good to have that extended support and social aspect. What happened? I know that I am guilty myself, as this is the only forum I am still on, and I haven't really been that active here either. I notice that posts aren't as regular as they used to be... So what did happen? am I imagining all of this? have social media platforms like facebook been a cause of forum inactivity? I would have thought that with how many people are now online and how easy it is to access the internet, forums would thrive... Just a random thought I wanted to share and hear your views?

We do similar drills but they are mostly for the arms, upper thighs and stomach. Have never really touched on conditioning for the shins. Possibly something to look into.

Thanks for the congrats guys

Yeah we have started wearing shin and instep pads now, but I think that just encourages students to try and kick harder without fear...

Ok, I feel really bad now! I have only just seen this! I haven't been on as regularly this year, and I only just realised I had a mail from you Patrick! sorry about that! But thanks for the mention! Has been great being part of this community.

My other half is a student of mine, she really didn't hold back, I think she just wanted to kick me as hard as she possibly could, until she caught my elbow, never seen a foot blow up like that before! had to take her straight to hospital after class! crutches for her friends wedding the next day... I was not in her good books!

I'm normally a big fan of setting new year goals and all that, but this year is a pretty big year for me outside the dojo as I have my first baby on the way! very exciting times! That being said I did set myself a few planning goals: 1. looking for a new venue to expand my club into a second location (this was only to prepare and maybe by the end of the year think about opening the class) However, things escalated quickly and I actually opened the new class this week! 2. re-visit our clubs children's program and plan to open a kids class (again only planning stages with the idea it could happen by the end of the year) However due to a big interest this is actually happening later this month! 3. Grade to my Yondan So looks like I'm off to a great start in relation to my goals, already checking of the first and second goals just need to focus on the third now...

Thanks for the suggestions so far people! It is definitely helping me think up ideas!