DWx

Belated happy birthday Mo Hope you had a nice day

I wonder how many KF members have jobs like law enforcement or physical education where their MA training compliments what they do. For me, my MA training has no connection to my job I work in sales importing and then selling speciality chemicals to business which make things like paints, plastics and construction materials.

Congratulations! Well deserved

I hate this saying. I work in sales (business to business) and to me "The customer is always right" results in a poorer standard of service and decreased quality level. As Tempest said, how can the customer always be right when we are the experts providing them the service? If they know everything already, they don't need us. My approach has always been that the customer should leave satisfied with the exchange that took place. That's not to say that they should always get what they want or we should treat them in a special way, but if they are unhappy we should try to find a mutually agreeable solution to the issue. Of course if there is something wrong on our end (the seller) we should try to fix it for them, but a lot of time it is more an issue of educating a customer as to why things are a certain way or why they are mistaken. Bending over backwards all the time results in resentment and poorer standards and the customer (or in this case student) will continue to demand things in the belief that they are "right".

Welcome Marlon

Congrats on opening your own school The route you go with depends on what type of information you want to record, how you want to be able to access it, and how many students you have. At our school we do have special software in place to record student details and log class attendance, but you have to pay for this type of programme and I would say it probably isn't worth the expense until you have 100+ students as it can be expensive, especially for a new school. There are of course some nice analytical features in these programmes, but I'm sure you could replicate this or do more in Excel. Excel would also allow you to record, export and analyse everything; but only if you enter this information manually. Software like Martialytics will limit you in what type of information it accepts. On the flipside it would make some tasks a lot easier as other systems like automated billing are already integrated. Then with regards to access, is it necessary for you to access this information via mobile or on the move? If the software has a mobile app or cloud service this is obviously a benefit over having to update a local copy of Excel.

How you approach this will depend on your relationship with them and the individual situation. I do think it's nice to help out when students are struggling but I would always say you are not running a charity and shouldn't feel obliged to provide free tuition. You are providing a (non-essential) service which they choose to participate in and presumably have overheads which need to be met? I think you have a couple of options: 1) Suspend or reduce their payments until they are able to meet them again 2) Suspend tor reduce their payments temporarily, with a plan in place so that when they are more financially stable they can reimburse you and cover the shortfall 3) Suspend or reduce their payments but they should offer payment in some other way, like cleaning the dojo every week or helping with paperwork 4) Ask that they do not train unless they can meet the fees Personally #4 is a little harsh and you risk losing the student. #1 is very generous but there is a risk that this could cause resentment from other students and ill feeling further down the line. So I would be leaning to option #2 or #3 as it helps them out but still places value on what you are doing.

She does know what your going to do. She is in your head dude! Also, she's been on the floor with you long enough that she does know you quite well enough; familiarity is everything. I'd agree with this, however I've only sparred with her a handful of times. And we don't see each other very often - opposite schedules in training. And she's been able to do that since the first time I sparred with her, literally. She just owns me every time we spar. And she doesn't do it in a way to show her dominance or anything else negatively. I've been wanting to ask her what it is that she sees, but I haven't had the appropriate chance to. I don't think I have any outright tells, as no one else (even the people I spar with regularly) do what she does, and my teacher hasn't told me of any. It reminds me somewhat of the few videos I've seen of Mas Oyama sparring with his students - he'd barely move, yet his students couldn't him him, and he was able hit them at will. Not that she's Mas Oyama level. But regardless, she's just an example. I'm just trying to figure out more of how some people are able to do this so I can try to incorporate it. I know, keep sparring... I have a theory that the best martial artists aren't necessarily those who are the most gifted physically. In fact sometimes I see it as a disadvantage. Of all the people I've trained and trained with, those with average physical ability can sometimes be more elite than the elite athletes that come through the doors. Whilst the gym rat or the ex-football player are stronger and faster, they tend to rely on these attributes to get by and often unintentionally cut corners because they can. For example I'm sure we've all seen the young girls who walk into the dojo and drop into the box splits before popping up and side kicking vertically in the air? Looks impressive but more often than not its not a real side kick. The less gifted student who only kicks hip level 9/10 has better mechanics and a better understanding because they are forced to. The uber-flexible student can just lift their leg up so they get away with not rotating the hips or rotating the standing leg. As a result they never fully understand what they are doing or learn the finer points whereas the student with limited flexibility must otherwise they have no hope of even reaching hip level. I spend hours correcting the teens who train with me on how to kick properly, not just to place their leg in a position, but to generate power as well. In sparring the same goes for the strong student who mistakes strength for power. At first they win all the time because they physical outpower their opponent but they tend not to learn the little nuances or learn to read the signs and react. The students who are not so strong have to quickly develop strategies and tactics to compensate for their physical shortfall and ultimately they develop av deeper understanding. Of course you do get those that both have the physicality and the mental aptitude, but in general I think through better understanding you become elite and not just by becoming stronger or faster.

Myofascial release seems to be the buzzword in the sport world at the moment. Whether directly influencing the fascia does anything is not debatable but I think most people find benefit in self-massage by relaxing their muscles and working out any knots. Mostly I just use a foam roller + hockey ball which seems to do the trick. Probably a little less messy than baby oil though I can appreciate why you might prefer it

I actually got the chance to watch some high level WTF freestyle poomse at our National University tournament a few weeks ago. Very similar in style to the new Kukkiwon poomse with most competitors opting for aerial and spinning kicks throughout.

This is a difficult topic every time it is brought up because everyone has a sort of emotional attachment to the blackbelt and a unique understanding of what the term means to them. That said, I agree with Devin in that often in the West we attach this revered, almost mythical, meaning to black belt when in reality for the rest of the world it is just another belt. Honestly the longer I've been in the martial arts the more I tend to ignore what rank people say they are. Unless you are part of the style or even school which awarded the belt, it's all meaningless and you can't gauge their "real" rank without seeing them in action. "Proof is on the floor" as sensei8 would say and at the end of the day I don't care if you want to call yourself a Super-Grandmaster.

I used them but mostly for stretching or for assisting in certain exercises e.g. yoga. Or as resistance around the leg or body when doing explosive exercises. I'd love to use them more though. What kind of martial art specific training do you?

Both but in different amounts. All the time we're pushing each other to see who can punch harder, faster, do one more rep, or outmanoeuvre their opponent. But at the same time you're also trying to help the other members in the dojo and guide them to success. It's a balance between both cooperation and competition which swings one way or the other depending on the moment. Cooperation is funny one in the martial arts. It's an individual pursuit but with many team or teamwork aspects. It's what drew me to TKD in the first place. Everyone is practicing individually and alone, yet everyone pushes one another and wants everyone else to succeed. I found MA had a better team atmosphere than the team sports I was playing.

Congrats on receiving your orange belt I think everyone, whether they have 1 year of training or 10 years, experiences this. Some days things come together perfectly but others nothing goes right. The fact that you can recognize when things aren't so good is actually a good thing; it means you are consciously involved in your training and not just passively going through the motions.

Yeah, I hadn't even got to that part yet in my suggestions. But this is another issue with simulating human tissue to strike. People move and, not only that, but they are weirdly shaped and oddly supported so you can never be sure of what you are striking.Think about a punch to the ribs... I lift my arm up and bend to the opposite side, completely exposing them and giving a huge surface. You punch hard. My ribs will break As you punch toward my ribs, I bring my arm down (but don't block the punch) and bend to the punching side to kind of ball up around where you're going to punch me. You punch exactly as hard as you did in the first scenario - it's going to take a lot more force to break my ribs vs the first scenario. Bending to the side helps slow down the impact because there's more soft tissue covering it, and by bending like that increases the surface area your fist hits, so there's less pressure. Our brain instinctually does this; we have to train to not go into the fetal position. And we train to not stand there with our ribs exposed. Another example - Catching a water ballon with a single stiff hand will break it; catching one with both hands and keeping your hands "soft" and having some give will keep the ballon from popping. It's a valid point JR. But then no material is going to move like a living human will. Bamboo, pine board, bricks, concrete, it all has its limitations. The point about tameshiwari is to test yourself and find out how much power you can generate. It's then reasonable to assume that you might be able to break a rib if you can punch through a stack of boards or bricks. Can't go round injuring our training partners all the time.

It's a bit of a broad question. Do you mean strategy during a fight? or just in general?

We're fully matted: https://goo.gl/photos/Yhoxohe3p6eUSoFN6 The mats stay down all the time and we train on them throughout the year. They take some getting used to but they are fine for kata and the like. I would say I've had less knee and ankle problems since switching to them from wooden floors and they are great for practising light takedowns and ground work (you would want something more for heavy practice). At first you may find your calves will burn as the softness can take some getting used to and you will find it will sap your energy quicker, but over time you will get used to it. If you buy new mats, in the beginning you will find them very slippy. But this will go away in time; its just due to residual release agents from when they were manufactured. One problem we find, and it may be due to our set up, but in summer they tend to expand due to the heat and raise up. But this won't be a problem if you set them up each time you train. Overall they're great and a good alternative to harder floors. My preference would still be a sprung wooden floor though.

I can't speak for BJJ, but as a beginner I would think you would still receive excellent training from a lower ranked instructor and would develop solid basics. As you progress through the ranks and start learning the more intricate details you may find you need to learn from someone more qualified. But at the same time your instructor will be progressing and learning too so I wouldn't worry too much.

I went on a course recently with one of the head's of my style. The course was about instructing and teaching and one of the topics that was brought up was promotion and demotion! For promotion at kyu/kup grades, the pass mark is 60%. Now that's hard to achieve anyway but the master running the course suggested that if he scored a student with 10% over the pass mark (i.e. 70% and more) he would consider double promoting them. However, if the student scored 10% lower than the pass mark (50%) he wouldn't just fail them but consider demoting them one belt! Have you ever known anyone to be demoted before?

Happy Birthday Liam

Congratulation Safroot

Are we talking breaking a human bone empty handed or slicing with a weapon. And I assume you mean impact across the width and not along the stem. Bamboo is actually both really strong (excellent tensile strength and compressive strength) but is also flexible allowing it to grow tall but thin and move in the wind. That's why it is used as a building tool in tropical climates. One of the comparisons I've heard before was that a standard 1" pine board was comparable in strength to a rib. Not sure how true that is? One of the parents at our club also took a set of rebreakable boards to work once (he's an engineer) and measured the impact force required to break each. I'll see if I can find what I did with the info.

Incredible work rate Bob. That kind of workout would kill me off! Bet your can really see the difference. Aside from what you're doing in the gym, have you made other changes to diet and lifestyle? Is there anything you'd wished you'd known back in November when you began working out? Edit: typos due to autocorrect!

Happy Birthday Alex, hope you had a great day!

Great question Safroot. This can really be answered in two parts: When people practice with a partner with power, what they are really doing is pulling their technique or just stopping short of their intended target. Remember strikes are meant to end behind the target and not at the target. So what you find when practising with heavy bags or pads, is that you make contact and and hit through. If you were to do the same in partner work you would be making contact and going through the target. So most practise to stop just short of actually making contact but full power in up until that point. You can't go round hitting people full force all the time so you have to reign it in and stop short of the target. This is one of the reasons I advocate tameshiwari or board breaking. As it's a quantitative measure of how powerful your strikes are without anyone getting hurt. Power on your own without a surface to strike is really a demonstration of equilibrium and stability. Power is just speed and acceleration (correct technique being a way to achieve this). Anyone can punch with speed and mass but techniques look powerful when this is done under control. Consider this video of Rika Usami in the WKF kata finals 2012: It looks powerful because the movements are crisp and sharp. Though she demonstrates speed and intent, its her ability to bring the strike to a dead stop without overbalancing or additional movement which makes it look powerful.