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.

Please God, NOOOOO!!!

In my dojo, as with my sensei and his teachings, I used these MINIMUM times between a students belt testings 10-7th kyu. Minimum of 2 months of training per belt. 6th-4th kyu. Minimum of 3 months of training per belt. 3rd-1st kyu. Minimum of 4 months of training. 1-2nd Dan. 2 years 3rd Dan. 3 years ETC. Just because a student has that amount of time in doesn't mean they automatically advance. Requirements and skills must be met. As for the longest time I have had between testings, it was 9 years from 1st Dan to 2nd Dan. My sensei left the state about 6 months after I received my 1st Dan and I had no way to advance. It took me 9 years to find somebody.

OMG!!!WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? NO FINGERTIP SPINNING??? NO HOLDING THE "CHUCKS" CLOSE TO THE ROPE??? NO FLIPS? Are you telling me there's somebody that can hold and move a nunchaku properly??? *THUD* Is there no end to the madness when somebody does a weapon properly???

What is your current rank and system that you study? Why do you only want to learn a specific kata, yet don't want to know the reason for the movements within that kata?

I have questions about this also. There's something specific you want to learn from this sensei? What is it? In my own experience, I've had people want to join my dojo just to learn KOBUDO/weapons, nothing else. most had ZERO martial arts background, training or experience in any martial arts, just wanted to learn weapons. My response has always been "Sure, you can join the class and in about 2+ years, depending on how you train and progress, I'll start teaching you weapons." So far, no takers...

"Average Opponent" would be your average. untrained adult walking down the street. Teen or child, that would be an average other teen or child.

This is something that has been a pet peeve of mine for YEARS! Should a child be awarded a black belt? I guess it depends on what you consider the skills a holder of a black belt should have. I agree that a 1st degree black belt is just someone that has grasped the basic skills of the art. They should understand the stances, punches, blocks and other techniques that make the FOUNDATION of the art, but are certainly not masters of that art yet. I liken it to public schooling. The colored grades are 1st grade thru high school. You can read, write, put together sentences into paragraphs, etc, but not yet ready to write a book. For me, a person that has achieved the skills required and necessary to be awarded a black belt needs the maturity, mental fitness, awareness, skills and experience necessary to effectively DEFEND themselves against an average opponent on the street in a real life, self-defense situation. Under those criteria, would a child of 6-15 be able to do that? Unlikely. What I adopted in my dojo for younger students that had the knowledge of the kata and techniques, but not the maturity. awareness or experience at the level they should have. These students were given a brown belt with a black stripe running thru it. They would have all of the perks and privileges of a black belt in class, and as long as they continued to pursue the art. train hard, show improvement, gain the "seasoning" and experience that only time can give, they would be awarded their black belt. The usual understanding was on their 16th birthday, but that was NOT set in stone, as maturity varies a lot among 16-year-olds. I always ran a small school. I wasn't trying to make a living at it, other than a 3 year period, because I feel doing that cheapens the art. I was content just paying my bills those 3 years but decided I liked teaching in my basement better.

I have a question: What is YOUR martial arts background? Joining a martial arts school, any MA school, you are looking to learn from that instructor. Don't like him/her? Quit. Just because that instructor doesn't do what you think they should do, makes for a real shaky instructor/student relationship.

I've had guest instructors visit my dojo, most were in the same system as I am. A few that were just MA friends and wanted to show us their "stuff". I've taught 8-10 seminars myself, mostly proper weapons/kobudo techniques as many systems I've judged have really poor weapons/kobudo technique. After we've gone thru that in the seminar, I pretty much open it up to whatever they want to see.

Very European, French or English design. Very cool!