obiwansbane

heh yah it is good that you have someone to rival you... at least he's your age.. in my divisions (17 and under) its a 12 year old who cleans up everytime... just work on that snap, and your form will seem much more powerful, also hold your techniques in some points... not like in a sense of a slow breathing guide or something but just snap hold it for about half a second and then boom snap again with a kiai.. anyone who wasnt paying attention to you definately is now... one last thing... this is quite subtle but WORKS regardless of what anyone says... ive seen it work get every single person from your club and anyone else you can, to cheer like crazy after your form... the judges do actually give u a slightly higher mark due to how much the crowd appreciated your form (like i said ive seen it done, dont believe me if u dont want to but at least try it) good luck in ure future endeavours

yes definately use japanese due to ure style as for what to put... i would not really add anything to it other than your name and maybe club name. If you do too much it will seem cheap, like something you bought rather than earned... just my two cents

three tips... first, u need a slight bit more snap in some of the techniques, this will cause the judges to be forced to see each move instead of letting ure kata meld into one big mush that they have to sit through second, try spinning the bo in ure open palm hand above your head, this shows a great deal of control of your weapon and scores you a lot of points in this area. Watch chris marks sampler on youtube and u will know what im talking about third, try and put out a softer form, this is just for experimentation purposes.. try and do a drunken form or something, i know our instructor does his drunken bo form when there are lots of kung fu judges, this really seems to give them a kick and he scores really high with it, if possible i will try and get a video of him doing it when we go to provincials in december

rofl 0.22 here

Stomp down into a front stance with Keikoken (omg i love that word! sounds sooo awsome when u pronounce it like ryu says hadoken)

what is the ATA? its obviously some organization of sorts but ive actually never heard of it... also i agree, maybe a first degree black belt to some1 under 15 but u should be at least 17 before they even think of letting you test for your second degree and with that you must have had your first degree for quite a while... at least thats my opinion

oooo that sounds like fun bearich... too bad we have way too much stuff on shelves and huge mirrors at the front to allow for that :'( if i ever do start up my own club and its just in a regular gym i will remember that for sure, sounds like great fun... one thing we do play though is bowling for lil kids we have the kids line up like bowling pins, and then have whoever is instructing "bowl" an exercise ball, you can dodge sideways or up, of course to add some fun we do let them use each other as shields if they arent too hyper that class... if you get hit you are considered out... works on distance judgement, dodgin, and tactics

it is though a shortcut to height. It does cause bad form and lack of power, but if you are just using it for point sparring and have no intention other than trophies it works also i need to work and trying to stand more vertically while still getting height in my kick as i tend to lean slightly too much for my liking. any thoughts on a good drill?

i guess for me its more of an opinion from training lower belts... u find that if they chamber sideways they tend to snap out instead of thrusting, so ive always prefered chambering straight as it left you with basically no choice but to have at least decent form

congrats on passing man! that vid looked brutal on the wood floor... we have something similar for our shodan, 3 round 1v1 2 rounds 2v1 and 1 round 3v1 although for us its no stopping till the round it done... u did really good though and im quite impressed... keep up the good work and once aain grats!

well if the fight is non consentual you could sue for assault, i know our school has a police officer in it everyday during school hours so its not too bad... although if i ever got in a fight i do not think i would do much in fighting back, as the kids in my HS are just a bunch of big talkers who take boxing for 6 months and think they own the world... i would probably just redirect the attacks and such while praying no weapons are pulled... eventually a teacher will break up the fight... ive seen many HS fights and they always seem to be between two brutes who just charge and clash, a simple sidestep and u won the fight...

im not quite sure i understand what you mean completly, but if its what i think it is, i chamber perpendicular (knee straight up as opposed to pointing sideways) this gives much more power IMO and allows for much more stability in no contact point sparring where you just need to get the kick in, so multiple kicks is a path that is commonly taken

hehe im sneaky about it ill judge a few little kid divisions so everyone sees me judging at least something, then i sneak off to cheer my club mates yay... i shouldve taken ninjutsu

hehe no problem i had just noticed that you had the same problem the above mentioned friend did, and i had actually talked to him about a few days before i saw your thread so the whole speech was still fresh in my mind... good luck to you

hmm, i guess i shall just have to rephrase what i already said... it all depends on what situation you are in. If you are sparring like bushido pointed out, you do not want to turn too much as it wil impede a quick recovery. If you are just going for the form do the kick a couple of times, turning your feet at different angles each time, find the one with the most height, power, and comfort, and you will know which is best for you. I myself go for between 160-170

i just wanted some input from you guys... since i am in karate, info from other karatekas would be most appreciated but all other styles i would like to know how you guys judge your students also... my question is... what differs one of your brown belts, from another brown belt that you have told is belt testing for their first degree black... where is that line where you find a brown belt capable of having a black belt around their waist.. all they have to do is prove it under pressure

why dont i get to see this! it was taken down! anyone else have another link to this vid?

rofl i dont know how old you are but this is usually how it always is... tournament starts at 9 or 10 then they get rid of lil kids and such working their way up... i usually only fight at around 2-3 so i usually just sit around cheer on clubmates etc.... also funny funny... if i was ever judged by a parent i would snap

its obiwansbane this is a really cool place and i just happened to find it when googling karate... anyways i practise in open shotokan and our club is part of the organization called COMAA, dunno if any of you heard of it but you might have.. anyways a quick question is im prob moving to Sarnia ontario, do any of you know of any clubs around there? i will of course look for myself once im sure we're moving but maybe someone lives around there and actually goes to a club there well nice to meet you guys (and girls) and i hope to enjoy my stay

one thing you need to do, is, as unfortunate as it is, distance ureself from the students... you can no longer have a classmate relationship... you should no longer be buddy buddy its ok for jokes they just slide... if i was you i would resort to using last names for adressing people up until you actually have a measure of control over the students... one you have that u can tone it down a bit... because i know that is the exact same problem that one of our 17 year old blackbelts has even though hes had his belt for a couple years... he always used to be a push over, the nice guy, who never used authority... now when it comes to him being one of the main instructors and role models for the younger students, noone takes him seriously, and he doesnt know why... its the same situation that you are in... so yah, become distant, border cold, until they realise that you are no longer their friend... they are there to learn, and you are there to teach, everyone has a place, and they must realise that theirs is lower than yours at that time....

i cant remember if u have talked to her about this, but ask about her work, and what kind of things get her fired up enough to come to the dojo a couple hours later and then go ahead and disrespect without worrying about consequences... then try and talk to her about the more philosophical sides of martial arts, and try and get her to try and be able to completely detach from everything that happened that day, and just train.. i dont know if that made any sense to you but it did to me while i was typing it... try to work with her on more the mental rather than the physical, get her to do some breathing exercises and things before class to fully calm herself down before she even enters the dojo... i think this would help a great deal more than making her do push ups, as the burning in her arms would make her more upset, and feel like sparring even less do to the tired arms...

heh really good advice.. although it depends greatly on the varied age groups you have in your dojo.. in ours we have some really young kids so that cannot be expected of them, even some of our higher belts are no more than 12 or 13 (by higher belts i mean above blue coloured belts) so they cannot really be expected to understand these kinds of concepts or be able to truly defend themselves in the street... i know i for one am confidant in my ability to at least survive if not win most any fight, but know that regardless of trainin or not, could crush those kids in a heartbeat... that is one thing i dislike about training martial arts at a young age... children tend to think they are invincible and pick fights and things (of course its not really their fault they are just children) and one day it may lead to them being seriously injured.... one they get older though those are perfect requirements.. i know for our black belt test, they actually test you on all of those aspects to see if you have learned anything in your years of training or not.

congrats! best of luck to both you and ure fiance

oh i definately just won Bladed Crashing Zephyr Blasting Infinity Perfect Brute Siege Paragon Jet

i saw that before, retinal fatigue... it truly is a pretty cool one... one of the coolest ive seen in a while