DWx

See I can see why his CI might be offended. I'm just postulating, but up until recently CredoTe, you were happy to wear the rank he gave you and one presumes wear it with pride? How must your CI feel if another instructor shows up on the scene, begins giving you private lessons, and you suddenly discard your belt? Perhaps he sees it as you saying that the rank he gave you is worthless or of little value and subsequently his teachings too? Might be a little slap in the face for him to suddenly have his student's valuing another instructor's teachings more than his own so much so that they say that his blackbelts are worth as much as whitebelts. I would honestly talk with your CI and explain why you have chosen to train this way. It might even mean taking your private lessons with your Ti instructor elsewhere and off dojo premises.

Good points cheesfrysamurai. If they check all those points then (in my book) they'd certainly earn my respect. Is loyalty the same as respect?

Do you think this is a difference in Western vs Eastern philosophy? Here a teacher is someone you pay to provide a service but for those cultures based upon Confucian values, a teacher is typically on the same level as one's parents. And at least to me this is how I regard my own instructor. Good points mal103. But I wouldn't say loyalty to one's teacher necessarily means your knowledge should be limited by them. In Gen. Choi's Enclyopedia (the text on Chang Hon TKD where my above quotes came from), the General lays out what makes a good teacher and a good student. In it he specifically says that a good teacher should encourage their students to go out to gyms and cross train. A good instructor should also be eager for is students to surpass them and when this happens, they should help find the student a higher ranked teacher. Loyalty to me means supporting them in their endeavors and (within reason) doing what you can to assist in the success of the school and your instructor. It also means that you carry your instructor's and school's name with you and should be mindful of how your actions reflect upon them.

You may find the increased core strength will help to support your back and ease the discomfort. Give training a go and see how you get along. A good teacher will let you sit out or skip an exercise if it really aggravates it but in general you might find the focus on a strong core and good posture beneficial to you. Of course the caveat being: go talk to your doctor and get yourself Ok'd to do physical activity first.

Great videos Noah. Tameshiwari is my favourite aspect of training.

In Chang Hon Taekwon-Do, practitioners wrap their belts only once around their waist to symbolize: 1. Ohdoilkwan: Pursue one goal whatsoever, once it has been determined 2. Ilpyondanshim: Serve one master with unshakable loyalty 3. Ilkyokpilsung: Gain a victory in one blow With regards to the 2nd point, should students of the martial arts have a duty to be loyal to their instructor? If so how far does this extend? Do you consider yourself to be loyal?

Happy Birthday to you both

I travel down to Oxford every couple of weeks to meet up and train with a group. When I was in uni that used to be around a 400 mile round trip. About 4hrs of driving each way. Luckily my parents live about halfway so I used to break up the journey a little. Still currently travelling down there every fortnught but as I moved back home it's now only 100 miles / 2 hours each way. Normal weekday training for me is 10 miles / 25 mins from home or 20 miles / 45 mins from work

I think this tends to be more applicable to Karate than other styles. In Taekwon-Do (or at least in the style I study) we really don't have a concept of bunkai or applications beyond what you refer to as basic strikes / blocks. You learn the movement in the tul and learn the application. A punch is just a punch. What we focus on instead is to learn the principles behind every movement and then try to apply them to whatever we do. We don't take an x-block and translating that action to a strangle, we just go for whatever strangle and then apply the general concepts of leverage etc. learnt through other movements.

Funnily enough, my instructor has refused situations like this before. If you want to be taught something you have to join the club properly, can't come just to kata collect or take away snippets of information back to your own school. If you learn something you have to learn it properly.

You could argue that a lot of what we regard as Martial Arts contain superfluous material that isn't immediately practical or the quickest route to learning viable self defense. Karate, Taekwon-Do, Kung Fu and the like are a long term investment whereas if you trained in a self defense class specifically you might get your return (good self defense base) sooner.

For us? We actually rented a lodge each time. Stay in Scout huts or recreation centres. They usually have several dormitories, a kitchen and then one or two recreation rooms and a good number of bathroom facilities. Unfortunately no campfire for us either. We have considered doing proper camping but the hassle of having to put up tents swayed us to the dorm type "camping". I really do like the mindset that you had here in organizing the entire camp. Dorms outweigh having to camp outside, and in the USA, it would eliminate getting any permits that most certainly would've been required, and the Rangers would've been making sure that said permits were in order, at all of the time. Very smart of you!! I think it promoted more team building too as you were in a dorm room of around 8-10 people so you got to know the others in your room really well. And since you're almost guaranteed some rain, it kept everyone drier and happier. In Britain you would really have to go to a proper campsite and book a pitch - compared to the US we don't really have national parks or places you can just go camping. Unless you knew someone that had a field or something.

My sensei said something very poignant on this matter to me once years ago. If you look at a bunch of competitors, at least in my organization (JKA), you'll see that the people winning the championships both in kumite and especially kata are seldom below their thirties or late 20's at the very lowest (many are even in their 40s). Anyone over the age of 18 is allowed to participate, everyone is obviously considered on an individual basis in a competition, but still you see this trend. My sensei argued that this is because when looking at a karate-ka's performance over time, there are two important curves to consider: the physical peak, and the mental peak. Given a full life of training most people are at their physically strongest somewhere from 17 to 24 or so (thus most Olympians being so very young). However, with age one's experience level and mental incorporation of this experience into their karate can continue to increase. Where a karate-ka is most technically proficient and actually physically able to use techniques effectively is a combination of both of these two functions. Around 35 or so a person is still fairly strong, but what's more so, in the 10-15 years of training since their physical peak, they have learned so much through experience, even just on the level of how bodies move, that this increase offsets their decrease in physical stamina and strength. After 45-50 or so, the body decreases a bit more rapidly, but if the mind continues to improve enough, one's karate can accommodate. People who have done this in my opinion are the ones that have cracked the code. They are the ones I would like to train under. Most young masters will simply not have had to deal with the experience of a declining body yet, and may or may not rely too heavily on their heightened physical state to achieve good results. So it's not that their not good, just not experienced. I think that in a system where rank reflects technical ability in the art fairly well, rank will then naturally follow this trend where most high-level promotions (whatever they may be for your organization) happen from 30 up, depending on a person's special case of course. Sometimes people think too much about strength and misunderstand that this trend of 35-45 peak is artificial, but really, there are just other factors to consider, even just on a performance level alone. This is not even mentioning contribution to the art or responsibilities to students or research or whatever else have you. Great post. Do you think this is style/organization specific? I was always told that for ITF Taekwon-Do international competition, if you don't win a title by the time you are 25, you most likely won't win one. Perhaps tuls (our equivalent to kata) are more forgiving of age but certainly for sparring, you've got to be at your physical peak or you've got no hope. But then again that may be because of what our particular ruleset promotes compared to the JKA's ruleset.

For us? We actually rented a lodge each time. Stay in Scout huts or recreation centres. They usually have several dormitories, a kitchen and then one or two recreation rooms and a good number of bathroom facilities. Unfortunately no campfire for us either. We have considered doing proper camping but the hassle of having to put up tents swayed us to the dorm type "camping".

Welcome to the forum Avatarless I helped organize a TKD camp for a couple of schools last year and have been on a few too. Don't exactly know what a typical Karate camp would consist of but I'd imagine ours wouldn't be far different. Alongside your traditional Karate elements like Kihon, Kata and Kumite training sessions, you could add in other components such as runs, fitness challenges and maybe some fun stuff too. Our schedule usually runs roughly as follows: Friday evening: Runs: we usually do 2 or 3 groups depending on numbers and ability, usually a 5K and a 10K course. Some light training, I'd suggest kihon or kata Sat morning: Some sort of fitness: in the past we have done hill sprints, sand dune running, army assault courses at a local barracks (great for team building / leadership etc.), circuit training Maybe some further kata training or kumite? Sat afternoon: Up to you but we've always done something non-training like paintballing, Go Ape (treetop obstacle course), even surfing one year. Sun morning: Hard traditional training usually encompassing sparring and tuls (our equivalent to kata). Are you preparing your own food? From experience this is something you definitely want to get right. Depending on how many people you have and what if can be a real pain to try to cook a lot of food and cook it fast. Having stuff that you can prepare beforehand or can shove in an oven with minimal effort is really going to help you. Stuff like pasta can be quick to cook and if you pre-prepare a sauce the day beforehand you can warm it back up easily. Same goes for stuff like chili. Good luck

Welcome Philip

Getting washboard abs is really just a case of body fat. Low enough body fat percentage and they'll show through. All the situps and crunches in the world won't help much with definition if there's a layer of fat on top (even a thin layer). That said, you want to get stronger and more muscular? Improve your diet and generally exercise more. Various ways for a beginner to exercise more. First of all what do you have access to? If you have access to a gym go see a PT or someone to draw up a plan for you or try Starting Strength or Stronglifts 5x5 which are popular beginner programs. If you don't have access to anything or want to use bodyweight only, popular programs are Overcoming Gravity, You Are Your Own Gym or Convict Conditioning. NB. I probably wouldn't buy them to start with but maybe Google the types of exercises and progressions they contain and see if you can find similar free programs. Chuck in some cardio like running (Couch to 5K), biking or skipping and you'll end up fitter. (Fair warning, I'm neither medically trained nor a fitness trainer)

If you hadn't heard already, Anderson Silva brutally broke his leg during his rematch with Chris Weidman on Saturday night. Video and photos here (warning!! pretty graphic photos): http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2530633/UFC-168-Silvas-leg-SNAPS-Weidman-retains-title-shocking.html Any thoughts on how the general media or public will see this? Time is calling it "a disaster for the sport": http://keepingscore.blogs.time.com/2013/12/29/anderson-silva-leg-ufc-mma/?iid=gs-main-mostpop2

Looks good. You'll have to give us a review. FWIW Wikipedia is actually not a bad starting point for anyone wanting to know more about these figures and events.

Well of course I would hope the 8 year old could prove himself both in knowledge and in skillset irrespective of his age. Otherwise he shouldn't really have the belt should he? I'm of the opinion anyone, regardless of age, should be awarded a rank if they check all the boxes and meet all criteria. Out of interest, at what dan rank do you say someone becomes a master? In my style it's at 7th dan however in some styles a master title is given at 4th dan.

I have my dan certificates in borderless glass frames in my office at home. Gup certificates are in a folder with other bits and pieces like course certificates.

A win is a win...Weidman wins!! Sorry to hear that Silva broke his leg on a check kick...OUCH!! Career ending injury I think... did not look pleasant to saw the least!

Of course you haven't Bob I merely probed your response for some further discussion. I suppose my problem is that I don't hold much value in a 1st dan. Probably because they are a dime a dozen in my style and you can obtain one after 3-4 years of training. Subsequently IMHO, why not give to young people? As sensei8 says, the proof is on the floor. Belt doesn't matter unless it is backed up by skills and knowledge.

We live in an age of instant satisfaction and gratification, therefore, the obtainment of high rank fuels the carnal fire within said practitioner of the MA. I do not think it's feasible for someone under the age of 18 to be a 2nd-3rd Dan. It goes way beyond the sense of feasibility to even imagine it to be so. Many will speak about, if the child can do what the adult can do, then why not? Rank goes way beyond technical abilities, and in that, it requires maturity. I groveled about being a JBB for 5 years, but I began to understand, about my 3rd year as a JBB why Soke had made that rule in our By-Laws. I wasn't mature enough to carry that monumental responsibility. What responsibility? The responsibility to understand that fighting isn't the only available option when confronted, and to not "show-off" to other children, and in that, it sometimes leads to the child BB bullying other kids because said child BB isn't grasping the aspect of one being humble before others. Can one even imagine a child 3rd Dan standing amongst adult 3rd Dan's, and then be paired up for Kumite, and age is immaterial!! I can see the child 3rd Dan freaking out!! Why shouldn't the child 3rd Dan engage with an adult 3rd Dan? They're technically equals...right?!? Bow, and then rock-on!! Why is the child 3rd Dan STILL in the child class, and not in the adult class with the other black belts?? Hhhmmmm... Well, that's different or that's not the same thing or whatever else??!!?? Either you can or you can't!! Doesn't this all depend on the value you you place on a blackbelt? It seems that giving a child a blackbelt is some sort of sacrilege but really it depends on the value it holds. To the bit in bold, why would that be the case only when a child is a blackbelt? The same issue could occur when the child is a brown belt or blue. Or do you deliberately not teach the person certain techniques until they have passed that grading. Surely you should instill in any child practicing MA that showing off is not acceptable and that fighting isn't the only option. When you teach them a punch or a kick you as the teacher have that responsibility from day 1 not just from when you hand them a particular coloured belt. For the record, in ITF TKD you can obtain a 1st dan at 13, 2nd at 14 and 3rd at 16. I took my gradings at 14, 16 and 19 respectively and if I pass my 4th dan next year, I'll hit that at 23. Think of it what you will but like I said, it depends on the value you place on that belt.

That's an awesome idea. Don't fancy gift shopping on Christmas eve though!