Montana

My sensei used just 4 colored belts when I was with him, with 3 levels for each of the green, blue and browns. A number of years after I started teaching, I added some colored belts mixed in just to add a little more color to the group. We teach Pinan 1-3, then Nahachin 1-3, then Pinan 4-5, then Passai Sho and Di, then Chinto. 1 kata per belt. As for less organized curriculum? Perhaps, but we don't put a lot of emphasis on belt ranks. As for specific techniques, 10th kyu white belts, other than a kata, are the only ranks that have specific skills needed to advance to the next belt. All students, regardless of rank, work on all of the techniques together. I try to pair a lower belt with a higher belt, generally try not to pair women together, and require them to punch/kick their opponent as hard and fast as they are capable of dealing with.

My students know they are tested every day, every class. They are tested on their skills compared to their last test. Also on their new, and old, kata. Better speed, power and accuracy. And of course, attendance and effort in class. There is no "formal" testing. No scheduled day for testing. No "need to learn certain techniques" for testing, other than their next kata. They know each and every class that I'm watching them by the corrections I make, or positive/negative feedback they get. if I have to keep telling them to correct the same mistake each class, they aren't ready to advance. If they do correct it, and stay corrected, then they have learned. Being in an Okinawan system, we don't adhere to the military mindset of highly stressful examinations. We're not looking for perfection, as perfection doesn't exist. We are looking for a marked improvement over the last test. There are certain basic things that should improve every time, such as stances, blocks, punches, kicks, and every previous kata that they've learned.

As always, I'm the oddball in the group. I've taught hundreds of "kids" between 6 and 17 years of age. Classes ran 2 hours long, twice/week. No water breaks, bathroom only if they couldn't wait. My curriculum was the same in both the adult class, and children's class, regardless if you were first day white belt, or 20 year black belt. We ALL did the same thing. Essentially, the first 20 minutes consisted of basics, warmup exercises, and stretches. By the time we were done, you should be sweating pretty darn good! lol Then we'd work on several things, from practical self-defense techniques, to 1 steps, 2 steps, combinations, etc. Then we'd do kata, starting with our first kata, all the way thru the highest any of my students knew. Lastly, we'd spar until class ended. My students knew the routine, knew what was next, and worked hard. The only testing requirements I had as white belt, basic kicks, blocks, stance, walking and first kata. After that it was based on attendance, effort and skills improvement since their last test. They all knew what they needed more work on, and if they didn't fix it, they didn't test. Period. That's the way my sensei taught us. That's the way his sensei did it in his dojo in Okinawa, and it's good enough for me. I've always worked on the KISS method. Keep It Simple Stupid

I hope this link works from Utube, but at the 27 minute mark you'll see Nahachin Sho as we do it.

We don't do Sanchin. We practice a more natural breathing, but in Shorin Ryu Matsumura Seito, old style Shorin Ryu, not this "new and improved" crap that's so prevalent now days, we do all 3 Nahachin kata starting with our 4th - 6th kata in line. One of the core elements of Nahachin stances is a shoulder width horse stance, toes facing straight forward, knees bending outwards. It hurts until you get used to it. Your feet feel like their digging into the floor, regardless if it's a wood floor, cement, carpet, padding or anything else. The tension is quite large. OSensei Soken Hohan, great nephew of Bushi Matsumura, is considered the foundation of our current system. As to Nahachin being a "simple" kata, it's not so simple when you practice it long term. It has some really incredible bunkai in it.

Personally, I wouldn't depend on books, as that may be flawed or outdated. I'd go to the government website and get it directly.

If I understand what you're saying, we call that body shifting, or "change of body". EXAMPLE: Instead of stepping back away from the attack, there are several ways, but you can step forward at an angle, shifting your body away from the attack and placing yourself closer and simultanously attacking them. Easier to demonstrate than to write it out. Old style Okinawan karate does a lot of this. Kinda hard to get the timing down, takes a lot of practice to do it automatically and correctly, but once you get it it's like a lightbulb going on and it's very effective. More for self-defense, but I have used it successfully in sparring.

You mentioned you have a school in Washington State. I don't see it listed, what city?

Think of the nunchaku like a nut cracker. Two ends applying extreme amounts of force on a central point. Now, think where you can apply that force, such as wrists, elbows, neck, feet and ankles.

Definitely wear a black belt. Although they are not the same, they are similar enough to warrant wearing the rank that they hold that is the highest.

In that situation, since Kudo and TKD are totally dissimilar systems from a kata perspective, I'd allow that. Sparring events would depend on the sparring rules.

We do our kata one sequence at a time to the call/count of the sensei. In a class of students, it's less chaotic and allows the sensei to watch each students movement. Someone making a mistake stands out pretty obviously that way as opposed to one student being on the 8th move, another on the 7th, another on the 12th and another finishing.

I saw this once at a tournament I was judging at. One of my fellow judges pointed out someone to me wearing a mid level colored belt and said "Wasn't that guy wearing a black belt and judging at a tournament last year?" So we grabbed the tournament promoter and the 3 of us went up to the guy as he waited to compete in kata and asked him. He said "Yes, I'm a black belt in a different style, but I'm a student under this other guy now." He got booted...

I started writing a big, long dissertation on my 50+ years of observing different systems I've encountered and paid particular attention to the "self-defense" techniques. I started naming names of systems and my observations as to their effectiveness in an actual fight, and my opinions, take it or leave it, as to what I felt their effectiveness would be. Upon re-reading what I wrote, and not wanting to get permanently BANNED from Karate Forums, I deleted it all before I added it to this discussion. What I taught my students is that there are different levels of self-defense, depending on the given situation. For example: If you are assaulted by a knife wielding drug addict intent on drawing blood, you would use as much power as necessary to stop that person. Is he 6;6" tall and 300lbs and charging at you like a freight train? Is your wife, g/f or child with you? Or is he your best friend that's had a few to many drinks? The amount of force and type of technique you would use would be totally different.

Think of the nunchaku as a sort of "nut cracker", but with a rope/chain. There's an incredible amount of potential power there. Any traditional art that uses the nunchaku in its arsenal should be able to show you.