DWx

Whilst we have UK/International Taekwon-Do affiliations, as far as I can see the Kickboxing school isn't affiliated to anyone and operates independently. But as they are a different "style" it doesn't matter as no governing body would intervene unless between two of its own members. Mad though to have two Shotokan clubs in the same room! When I was originally searching for venues for my club I was turned away from a lot as they had other activities on other nights which would have conflicted with us. A rival club on the same day is bonkers. It's not so much the venue I'm mad at, business is business though you think they'd have asked me if I wanted an extra day first... It's more this Kickboxing school has been in dialogue with me about other things, I provided a reference for my student, and then they book out my location without a heads up. The whole thing feels so underhand to me.

Thanks for the responses. I should have been clearer but my student is not going to teach for them now (and the original agreement was he would teach in a different town to us). To be honest they were only offering to pay him £10 per class, cash in hand, which is below minimum wage here. He'd be an independent contractor for them so they were also expecting him to pay for his own insurance and DBS (background) checks. I told him its mad as he'd lose money doing this by the time he'd paid for all that and then he's got to consider petrol driving there too. IMHO they should also be paying for his background check and insurance, not him. My student's out of the country at the moment but we chatted about this, and he had no idea they picked this venue and now has no intention of working for them but they are still trying to persuade him to teach the class for them. The situation gets a bit madder though. Last week I turned up for my regular class on a Monday. I set up the kids class and then was to leave my sister (our other main instructor) teaching whilst I went to find the venue manager and ask him to reconsider. As I go to leave the room, the venue manager appears alongside the owners of the Kickboxing school! They came into the room to look at the space. I was a bit blindsided so asked to speak to the chairman privately and he tells me that they'd told him Kickboxing is different to Taekwon-Do so there is no conflict. I asked him to consider what he thought the potential market was for people interested in martial arts and he agreed it might be more limited but he's committed to them on a Tuesday night now. It's maddening as I would have absolutely have had added the Tuesday to my timetable as I'm bursting at the seams as it is. Later I found out that the Kickboxing owners were taking photos of the room with my students in it. My sister had managed to move the kids out of the way quickly but it was disruptive to the class and we can't be sure that they didn't accidently get pictures with the children in it. So I've subsequently submitted a Safeguarding complaint to the venue manager but am yet to receive a response... It's frustrating to say the least as there's not much I can do. My current tactic is to double down on my advertising and ensure that my web presence is sparkly clean, lots of reviews from students, and making sure to emphasize that we've got extra things that this kickboxing school doesn't like UK Sport Safeguarding certifications and a wider governing body we answer to.

Hi all, After some advice how you would approach this. As some of you know, I have a Taekwon-Do school in my town and an teaching 3 nights a week, two in a sports centre and one in a small community club where I hire the function room. A few months ago one of my blackbelts approached me asking whether he could teach at a Kickboxing school in the next town which is maybe 5 miles away at most. He's recently split from his partner and times are tough so he was looking for the extra cash. (He doesn't teach for me but does help out. I can't afford to pay him because my school is not for profit and we don't really have spare money right now). I didn't have a problem with it and even chatted with the other instructor, giving him a reference although I said say I wouldn't be happy for him to teach in my town, if that were the case then I would ask my blackbelt to choose his affiliation. All good. Or so I thought. Because I rank well on Google and have really active social media, I get a lot of enquiries every week, more students than I can actually handle. Sometimes I invite potential students onto a waiting list or if it's someone who I think would get on well at a different school, especially very young children as we don't have a dedicated program, I recommend other schools in the area that they might have a chance at So today I get an enquiry for a 5 year old and I don't really teach that age group but I know the b Kickboxing school in the next town has a dedicated kids program. I go into to their website to see that they are launching new classes in my town. In my venue. This isn't even a sports centre or school hall, it is a function room in a community working men's club (might be a UK specific thing but it's essentially a local community hall for hire). What on earth do I do now? I'm a bit shocked as I gave this guy all the benefit of the doubt and recommended students to him and he chooses to launch his new program in my venue when there are lots of other school halls or sports halls he could choose. It's terrible of the venue and I will be addressing it with them tomorrow as I've used them for 5 years now and feel we've always been great tennants. I pay my rent like clockwork and keep it tidy. I don't want to move as why should I buy I feel like he's deliberately encroaching on my territory. Anywhere else in town would have been fine. So advice please? Short of challenging him to a Mortal Kombat style tournament I'm a bit lost.

I tend to stick with the basic barbell exercises: squat (both front & back), OH press, bench press, row and deadlift But I do find I feel much better when I incorporate bodyweight skills also including push up progressions, squats - pistol squats plus plyometric jumping. If you don't have access to weights then banded exercises are also great.

Happy 21st and a half-birthday to KarateForums.com! As is tradition on our half-birthday’s, a staff member is given the honour to address the community, and this year it's my turn. I’d like to use this opportunity to reflect on my time at KarateForums.com and how the community has impacted me. Truth be told, I had to look at my profile here to see how long ago I joined KF. My profile tells me I joined in January 2007, nearly 16 years ago. It also tells me that in those 16 years, I’ve spent a whopping 14 weeks of my life online here. Not surprising then that KarateForums.com has played an important part in shaping not only my martial arts journey but has had an impact on my life in general as it's been a constant for my whole adult life. I joined KF in 2007 as a fresh 2nd Dan in Taekwon-Do looking for a place to discuss the art I loved and learn more about other styles and ways of training. I came across KF by accident, but here I found a genuine community where members were clearly passionate but encouraged discussion, offered genuine advice and celebrated each other’s successes in a safe and supportive space. The school I came from was an amazing place to learn Taekwon-Do, but it's fair to say was conservative when it came to other styles and training methods, so to find somewhere to discuss topics outside of that was really great for me. The community here (and it is a community in every sense of the word) has supported me through some of the best and worst moments in my martial arts journey: Through gradings and tournament successes but also injuries and tough decisions such as deciding to leave my instructor and walk my own path. Members like Brian (bushido_man96), Bob (sensei8), Alex (tallgeese), Liam (Nidan Melbourne), Noah (Wastelander) and many more, supported and guided me through all this. I have of course Patrick also to thank for this as not only did he also support me like the others, but he created the safe space and community that allowed myself and other members to come together. When I hit “Submit” on my first post here, I had no idea that I would keep coming back again and again and that the people I interacted with here would become my friends. It’s pretty amazing to see internet strangers come together to celebrate each other’s successes both martial arts related and non-related but also to support each other when things go wrong. In my time at KF, I’ve gone full circle; beginning as a student, becoming a competitor, then transitioning to a coach, instructor and finally school owner. Not to mention milestones in my personal life as not long after I joined the site I was graduating high school, going to university, and then beginning my career. I looked back at some of my early posts here and some of them have definitely made me cringe! But what it also demonstrates is growth and the interactions I’ve had with members here have shaped how I view my training and now impact the way I teach and coach my own students. In going full circle because unfortunately I am unable to spend as much time here as I once could so this post coincides with my stepping down as a KF Sensei. What most posters here won’t realise is that the staff and Patrick work tirelessly behind the scenes to make this community what it is and without a doubt this is why the quality of the discussion is so high so a special thank you to all the staff members here. 21 and a half years is a long time for website but even more so for a forum and its longevity is a testament to the amazing community here. So happy 21st and half birthday KarateForums.com and thank you to everyone who has made this place what it is.

Great news!

I saw that you were in the Cobra Kai uniform. Were you both pretty much in agreement on who would be who or did you flip a coin or...? Oh 100% in agreement. Or more I chose and she has to go with what I want to be fair the uniforms matched our personalities

Bit late to the thread but we always do a Halloween class at our school. This year me and my sister went in Cobra Kai and Miyagi Do uniforms

Congratulations Patrick and Kara!

A wooden one with some weight to it could certainly cause some damage. Likewise one of the full size umbrellas

I've always wondered with the belt... How are you going to get it off fast enough? And I feel like then my trousers would fall down making it even harder to run away

Has anyone here ran a self defence course before? What would be your essentials for inclusion? I have a friend who has just taken on a new role at our local council; the job is basically community outreach with the goal of getting as many inactive people into sport or some sort of exercise as possible. One of their ideas is to run a women's self defence course which will also include a basic introduction to strength training and they've asked whether I would run it. The strength part I don't have to do as a PT will do that. But I'll have to create the self defence portion. We haven't discussed details but its likely to be several sessions over several weeks. The people attending will likely have limited activity levels. Because this is more a fitness thing than self defence, alongside general pointers about situational awareness etc, I was thinking of teaching: * a basic stance and the fence position * basic padwork: palm strikes, hammer fist, elbows, low kicks, stomps... * very basic defences against grabs Does this sound about right? anything I should include or any resources I can borrow for this?

This is a key step a lot miss out on. Strength to hold the kick is really important for good high kicks. In addition to Brian's exercises we do similar where we slowly extend out, hold, and then try to lift the leg up and down, figure of 8 etc. to work on fine control.

I totally get that regarding the student instructor relationship. Though I find myself becoming friends with other instructors from sister schools rather than the students. Admittedly we don't see each other that often but I'm pretty close with some of them now.

Reading this thread makes me feel odd that all of my closest friends also do Taekwon-Do. I guess it's because I grew up doing it rather than coming to it in later life so I have probably known my TKD circle longer than anyone else except from a handful of friends from primary school.