ashworth

So I run a karate club that is still quite small, a few years ago I made my longest serving student into an assistant, and has been helping me run the classes for a good couple of years now. I have decided on promoting him into a full instructor, as a recognition of his hard work an dedication over the years. This is exciting for me having another instructor in the club, and to mark the occasion I would like to give him some kind of gift, have been thinking of a few ideas but wondered if anyone here had been in a similar situation, or wonder what you would do in that situation, what would be a nice gift to your new instructor...

Have made a fair few goals for this year, but my main martial art ones are: -At least think about 4th Dan. -Spend more time on kobudo and hopefully grade a couple of times (Recently started kobudo officially toward the end of last year...) -Take a more in depth look at bunkai of the more advance kata and teach more bunkai related content in classes -Possibly start a kids class.

After doing karate for the past 22 years I have always wanted to get into Kobudo, have looked into it a lot, seen loads of videos online. But have never found a school close enough to be able to seriously get into it. Recently I have come across traditionaljapanesemartialarts.org. (The English on this site isn't the best...) They offer an online training solution to my situation, you sign up and pay for the content, and submit video of yourself for assessment by Shihan Nishiuchi (Have seen many videos of him before on youtube). Now I have never really been fond of the idea of solely learning an art this way, it can be useful to help supplement your training but only as an extra on top of your training. That's what I have always thought anyway... But what are your thoughts on this? Have any of you come across this before? anyone trained with him?

Looking at their website and seeing that they are a multi-style organisation I would assume it is made up of a number of different clubs run independently, and the association just provides insurance cover along with odd events throughout the year. Similar to the organisation that I am with. Therefore it would likely be up to the individual club instructors whether they accept your rank, which could be down to a number of factors, how different the style is to the one you are trained in, what their policies are on students transferring from other clubs. Many may let you wear your belt during a probationary period for a certain amount of time and then award you what grade you would be best suited...

been training for over 22 years now.. One thing I know for sure... I still have a lot more training to do!!

Yeah I'm feeling like I'm going to have to admit defeat and seek out therapy, never had to do this before, maybe its a sign I'm starting to get old!

Ok about 2-3 months ago I was competing at a tournament, first one back after a couple of years, event was called up sooner than I expected and I didn't get a decent warm up in... I performed a head level kick and felt a bit of discomfort as though I had slightly pulled a muscle, and thats what I thought it was, however it has only been getting worse, the pain is in my left leg, high up as though its at the bottom of my hip, kind of just below my left bum cheek maybe where my leg meets my hip I'm guessing. But I get an intense pain when performing front kick with my left leg, or when I perform side kick and round kick with my right leg...I'm actually starting to feel it slightly when walking up stairs... I'm normally quite a flexible person, could normally kick way above head height with ease... I am looking at going to get this checked out properly, just wondered if anyone had experienced this before or might know what it is I have done...

Different instructors may interpret being successful in different ways, is the whole quality over quantity scenario. As an instructor I would rather have between 8-10 students that are dedicated and turn up to training multiple times a week and trully put everything into it at home as well as the dojo. Rather than have 20+ students turning up once a week that may not even make that and most wont put in the training at home that they should... Just my thoughts

schools here don't go back until next week! its normally the first week of September that they go back, never go back whilst still in August!

I always feel it is dependent on the child in question. I can take children on from 5. But I tend to prefer from 6 onwards...

Running their own class I would like to say at least 21, reason for this is a previous club that I was with gave me my own class at 17, I was no where near ready. To start with all I was doing was filling in for the instructor, but the instructor never came back... I didn't stay with the club much longer than that. But it really is dependent on the individual I guess...

I stopped when I was about 12 but only for 2 years, started up again at 14 with a new style Stop due to family issues, missed it and wanted to get back into it.

It takes a particular set of skills in order to be effective during sparring, like speed, reaction time, technique, distancing and timing. A "talented" individual may have better speed and reaction time than the more experienced, but the more experience have learnt exactly when to use those skills at the right time, he can be as fast and as athletic as he wants but if he hasn't learnt how to use it then he will lose against the more experienced.

It wouldn't bother me either way, happy to go else where if there was another art I wanted to learn, but then it would make things a lot easier if I could learn that art from my current teacher, as I would already feel comfortable with them and their way of teaching..

Welcome to the Forum! Hope that you enjoy your stay

Okay looking at the Oi tsuki technique, or lunge punch. Have seen different styles do different things with the hips... example 1 - stepping through punching with the hips off. example 2 - stepping through punching, when you start the technique bringing the hips off and at the last minute snapping the hips back on as you finish the strike, leaving you with your hips square... what is it that you do and why?

We also practise this, in fact I made the students do this in my class last night

With Dan graded visitors I allow them to wear their own black belt, I couldn't imagine asking them to wear anything less. They have worked hard for the grade and they are only visiting every now and then for a class. But I have a situation now where a black belt (2nd Dan in Shotokan, 4th Dan in Yong Gi Do) rather than just being a visitor is regularly attending class and pretty much changing over to our style, (which is very similar to shotokan) We did have a little chat about grade, but since he is now joining us I feel we may need to have a more in depth chat, he has said that he isn't too bothered about grading, just wants to train, which I am fine with, I'm happy for him to keep wearing his black belt and get up to speed. But I do need put a grade down for him on official documents for his member and insurance book. Just need to work out how I am going to approach the situation, have any of you ever been in a similar situation?

I thought Michael Jai White had his Black belt in kyukoshin rather than shotokan? Will be interested in the replies to this as I have recently gained a student that started in shotokan, got to 2nd Dan then went onto Yong gi do, another Korean Style with similar kata and now they have joined me and going back to the shotokan way of doing things...

An interesting point, I wouldnt recommend stopping breathing altogether, like sensei8 said proper breathing is very important in kata. Reminds me of something my Iaido sensei said about breathing in the seitei forms, the whole from should be done on one breath. (the seitei forms are short forms that may only consist of a couple of cuts, unlike kata in karate) but was still very hard to do in one breath...

I have about 16 Tattoos, everyone I got for a reason at particular stages in my life, I dont see them as intimidating. A couple I have are martial art related, name of my club in kanji on my leg, my name in katakana on my upper arm, and a shotokan tiger on my back...

Hey! welcome to the forum!!

congrats on the grading!!

Nothing Wrong with practising what you learn inside the dojo whenever you can, I encourage it in fact, obviously don't over do it too much at the start, and do try to get to class as much as you can, too much practise out of the dojo without guidance can pick up bad habits...

Hello! welcome to the forum!!!