Montana

Speed and reaction time..both come from practice. pracitice..and then more practice!

My personal opinion is..any dojo that says they are teaching Ninjutsu, RUN, don't walk, the other direction! I'm older than a lot of you on this forum and have been involved in the arts since 1975. I saw the Ninja craze of the late 1970's-1980's, including Stephen Hayes rise to American Ninja prominence. Mr. Hayes claimed back then to have visited Japan solely for the purpose of learning the secret art of Ninjutsu. He supposedly asked around and followed leads here and there until one day running into a Ninjutsu Grand Master that agreed to teach him. Stop and think about it people..Ninjutsu is a system that was so secret, the Japanese government outlawed it with the penalty of DEATH to anyone caught practising it! It remained largely forgotten and reached the status of "mythical", but along comes Mr. Hayes, an American, finds a Grand Master of it by just asking around, and is taught all the secrets??? I'm sorry, but I doubt it. Black Belt Mag had hundreds of articles about Ninjutsu and Stephen Hayes in the 80's. Anybody with half a gram of common sense would have looked at the techdniques that were displayed there and laughed. I had the opportunity to ask the head of my system in 1978, Sensei Kuda Yuichi from Okinawa, what he thought about Ninjutsu and whether it was authentic or not. He rolled his eyes, made a "Harumph" sound and basically flew it off as a joke.

I know of a couple of instructors that quit teaching because they became disillusioned with their system. It failed them when they were faced with a real life self-defense situation, or even after multiple black belts they felt that the system hadn't prepared them for the real life world of survivng a fight.

After 30+ years in the arts, 27 of it teaching, I quit cold turkey. I have arthritis in both knees and a screwed up back that likes to make a loud "popping" sound when I kick hard with my right leg, causing my legs to go weak and falling to the floor in pain. It became a choice between teaching karate, or possibly not walking. Hmmmm..tough choice! lol

I lived in Northwestern Montana for many years, which is in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. It's pretty "isolated"..lol. I loved it and trained ouytside whenever possible. OK...OK...not like YOU mean

Well, this is just my opinion of course, but your sensei should have known what you were made of LONG before you tested for a black belt. I often wonder if there are instructors out there that never see their students...it sounds that way sometimes. Personally, and I told my students this often, "I know what you can do BETTER than you do."

And this is exactly why, or one of the reasons anyway, I love Shorin Ryu so much! It's not on every street corner, and isn't normally as commercialized as a lot of systems are. And it's real!

Why were they so short? I'm curious because every BB Grading I've ever seen or heard of has always lasted in excess of 3/4 hours to multiple days. My first and 3rd BB tests were in front of Sensei Kuda Yuichi, head of the system. Our class had been working with him for several weeks and one day he called each person, including my sensei, to come up and run thru a kata or two, and show a technique or two, then sit down as he called the next in line to do the same. After class was over we were told that we had just tested. We didn't know at the time. My 2nd Dan test was with a 6th Dan in Minnesota, and again he didn't tell me he ws testing me. We were just working out and he was showing me soem things, then afterwards told me he was promoting me to Nidan (2nd Dan). My 4th Dan was via videotape to my 6th Dan sensei that lives on the East coast. He'd asked me to tape my kata, basics and my class and send it to him. A few weeks later he sent me my 4th Dan in the mail. Again, I didn't realize there was a promotion forthcoming. We test differently than most systems, and there's not a lot of emphasis or whoopla on testing. Tests/belts come when they come, especially in the dan levels. Basically, we are tested at each class, and that's what I did with my students. I want your best EVERY class, not just during a test.

All 4 of my BB tests lasted maybe 15 minutes or so each. 3 of which I didnt even know I was being tested.

AGREED! Did anybody besides me notice that the referee was wearing heels? HEELS??? How the heck is she supposed to move? Part of ref's responsibilities is to QUICKLY get in between the fighters to breakup dangerous situations and to prevent injuries to the fighters. Again..in HEELS??? Sorry, I watched that vid twice..IMHO that whole match was a joke, from the venue, the judging, the fat old men sitting around the ring bored out of their minds and not paying attention ... HEELS???

Okinawan Shorin Ryu Matsumura Seito Karate-Do, if you're doing it the old way and resistant to changes made by some instructors of the system, is about 200 years old.

Just off the top of my head... Elvis Presley - Ed Parker Kenpo James Caan - Bruce Lee James Colburn - Bruce Lee

Long hours are no guarantee of excellence in the MA's, but they definitely improve your odds! For example, I had a longtime student named Rod. Really nice guy, my age (mid-50's at the time). He could, and did, 100 pushups and 200 situps every day, ran miles often, lifted weights, and trained in what I taught him daily. However, Rod just never really seemed to "get it" totally. He got up to his 1st Kyu (just before black), but never seemed to get over that hump needed to get his black belt. This was not only frustrating to him, but to me also. He was a decent fighter, but never really had good control. Injuries often happened with him so myself and a couple of other higher ranks are all that would spar with him. Control is required for BB. He also never seemed to get his kata quite tight enough either, despite working with him and making corrections at every class. One day it would be this technique, the next it would be something else. There was no one in my class, myself included, that worked harder at his training than Rod did..but he just never quite "got it" right.

IMO, a 30 min class is a waste of time. You hardly get a chance to warm up, and it's over. Naw, a MINIMUM of 1.5 hours..2 is better.

My instructor and I always taught a 2 hour classs, 2-3 days per week. I've seen classes that were as short as 45 minutes, and IMO, that's barely enough time to get warmed up! EVERY class starts with basic warmup exercises and basics drills. This takes around 20 minutes IF everybody knows what they are doing (beginners take longer). This is usually followed by self-defense drills (tuitte, blocks/counters, various techniques, etc. This is followed by kata practice, then finish up the class with sparring. Sometimes I wish the class was 3 hours long, but not many want to practice that long. What do you do?

For me, it would depend on what year you are referring to. I used to teach kids classes seperately from adults, but gave that up. I used to teach kids as young as 6, if they had the aptitude to actually learn, and not just be babysat.....lol In the end though, I taught 3 classes/week, 2 hours each class. Ages 14+. I gave up teaching young kids because I wasn't in it for the money, and kids classes are TOUGH! lol

Is this a martial arts class, or a fitness class? Peoples ideas of what a martial arts class consists of varies, but I've always taught my classes so that my students learned martial arts, not building better bodies. That's what they were paying me for. If they wanted to get in better shape, join an aerobics class. And yes of course, just learning and practicing the arts gets you in better shape, but what the poster described would make me want to look elsewhere for a MARTIAL ARTS CLASS.

I had the opportunity to work with 2 young Shorinkan black belts about 15 years ago, and what they were doing is very similar to what Shorin Ryu does. IMO it's a solid system with little or none of the garbage you see in a lot of systems these days.

Agreed, kenpo is pretty generic, like karate. The first thing I'd be VERY leery of is the head of the school is a 10th Dan? He'd better be at LEAST in his late 50's to have attained that high of a rank, and even so, that makes me VERY suspicious! Please, do they have a webpage you can share with us? I'd love to see it, and it would help us give you some better informed opinions.

I checked out his webpage at http://mjamartialarts.com/ which pretty much tells you nothing about his linage, anymore than you have already stated. I watched his kenpo kata, and in my 25+ years of judging open tournament kata, including American Kenpo, his kata were the LEAST dynamic of ANY kenpo kata I've ever seen. ' Yes, they are wearing AK patches, which I thought odd. My best guess is that he himself got kicked out of the system for whatever reason but continued to teach what he knew, which is AK. Interesting to note that ALL AK instructors I know would NEVER mix another system (Wing Chun) into their class. I like AK people in general, but they are VERY into the AK system and would never mix another system into it IMO. Back in the good 'ol days, if someone from AK was kicked out of their system for one reason or other, yet they continued to represent themselves as AK (ie: patches, forms, even the names of the techniques), you'd soon have several AK black belts knocking on your door (home or dojo) and telling you to stop immediately, or they'd thrash you! Yeah, no kidding.[/u]

Personally, it sounds like a fun way to take some classes, if you had the money to do so without borrowing it. I can't see where the actualy degree would be of any value, unless you wanted to hang a diploma on the wall of yor dojo showing you took the courses.

IMO, TKD and karate are similar in some aspects, just like a Volkswagon Beetle and a Chevy Impala are. both are "cars", both are essentialy mechanically the same (engine, transmission, brakes, doors, etc), but they don't look the same, they don't respond the same, they don't function the same, and they serve different purposes. Yes, they all have kicks, blocks and punches. Yes (mostly anyway) they all have kata. But to the trained (and in some cases, not so trained) eye, they are vastly different. My opinion anyway.

My origional sensei, as well as myself, trained outside in back yards, or public parks during he summer months. One of the main reasons for this is that you have a different surface to stand on (bare feet). Grass is a lot diffent than mats (which I seldom had), concrete, wood or carpet of various lengths. Not to mention that outside you'd probably have ground that wasn't perfectly level, possible very soft. I, for one, love training outside. As a side note, we even trained outside IN THE WINTER occasionally! This is in Montana, where winds and deep snow are an ever present, and normal condition in the winter. No coats, gloves, hats, logn underwear or shoes allowed. Yes, we didn't train like taht often, and not for every long (15-30 min tops). it was fun...but then, I was in my 20's too! lol EVERYTHING ABOUT THE ARTS WAS FUN!!!

Uhhh..what was the question again sensei8? I've reread yoru post twice, and honestly, I'm not understanding what you're saying bud! lol OK, I know "of" Iain Abernethy and that he's supposed to be very good, but in all honesty, I've never heard of Jesse Enkamp. I know, I know..I have my head in the sand most of the time! Just keep in mind, I'm from Montana origionally, and we really don't keep track of what's going on in the rest of the world to much. We're to busy enjoying...well...MONTANA! lol

This is an old thread I did a few years back and thought it would be useful to repost. I tried to add to it, but it didn't come up as a recent thread, so I copied and pasted it. This section often has tournament competitors asking what judges look for, or suggestions for improving their "performances" before a panel of tournament judges and referee's, so I thought it might be a good topic for discussion. I've been a tournament judge and referee since 1978 for open, all style tournaments. I don't attend XMA-style tournaments, so my comments are for the traditional tournaments. The tournaments I attend are light contact for lower belt adults and young children, and medium contact for middle to advanced belt adults. Legal target areas include the front and side torso and kidneys (the spine is a no-no), front and sides of the head and the groin. Sweeps are allowed, but not directly on the ankle/knee joints. Take downs are also allowed but must be controlled and no "slamming" your opponent to the floor. The reason for this is that we don't use mats at our tournaments. The floor is usually a wooden basketball court or tile over cement (such as a closed grocery store might have). When I first started, the only gear required was a mouth piece, groin cup and hand pads, but it has progressed to require foot pads and head protection now. Personally, I'm not a fan of protective gear of any sort because you won't be wearing it in a street confrontation, but that's just me. Depending on the tournament, competitors are lined up by age groups and belt/experience levels. Typically the sparring divisions are like this: Beginning (under 1 year experience) Youth 6-8 years old Beginning Youth 9-12 years old Beginning Youth 13-15 years old Children 16 and above go into the Adult Division. Intermediate Youth (over 1 year of experience but under brown belt) 6-8 years old. Intermediate Youth 9-12 years old Intermediate Youth 13-15 years old Children 16 and above go into the Adult Division. Advanced Brown/Black Belt Youth 6-12 years old Advanced Brown/Black Belt Youth 13-15 years old Children 16 and above go into the Adult Division The Adult Divisions are typically: Beginning Adults (under 1 year of experience) Intermediate Adults (over 1 year but under brown/black) Intermediate Adults (Brown belts) Advanced Adults (Brown and Black Belts) Sometimes we will have a division for Advanced women, but typically the women I know that are that level choose to compete in the regular Advanced Adults Division also. Personally, I admire those women and give kudos to them for stepping up and recognizing that they are holding an advanced level belt rank and aren't afraid to get in there with the "guys". Referee's for the beginning and intermediate levels can be brown or black belts, but the center ref has to be a Dan level belt. Depending on the tournament, sparring can be who gets the most points in 2 minutes with a maximum of 5 points, and the action stops when a point is called by any of the 3-5 (5 required for advanced sparring) judges. The clock only stops in case of an injury, so points are awarded fast and the action starts again immediately. The other way that sparring can run in our tournaments is 2 minutes of continuous fighting where the clock only stops if there's an injury or the action is gridlocked (basically, no action is going on. At the end of 2 minutes the 3-5 referee's all hold up their flags as to who they think won the match. Very often referee's are bad mouthed because we didn't see your point/technique that you scored against your opponent. You need to keep in mind that we are only human and can't see everything...or we see something that YOU don't see. Sometimes that great punch that you are sure scored, we see as being to far away from the opponent, or not strong enough in our opinion to be a legitimate scoring point, it was blocked, or you were so off balance that the technique wouldn't have landed with any power to actually do any good. That, and we have to have a majority (2 out of 3, or 3 out of 5) of the judges must see and agree that there was a point. Angles of view are everything in a tournament. If we can't see it, we won't call it. ALWAYS kai when you do a point! But if you kai EVERYTIME you do anything, we will get used to hearing it and tend to ignore it. Kai ONLY when you have made what you think is a good point. It's not the length of the kai (ie: a 5 second kai is way overboard) that is important, it's the strength of the kai. Now for empty handed kata judging. Because this is an open, all styles tournament, judges can't base their scores on the accuracy of the kata that is being performed for them. Although I've seen kata from Okinawan, Korean, Japanese, American and all other styles of martial arts over the years, I don't know them well enough to say whether they are doing them correctly or not, so we have to base our opinions on certain criteria. Such as: -speed -control -timing- -power -balance -focus -strength I'm typically the center, or controlling judge, for kata, so I always have a short meeting prior to the start of the event with my fellow judges. For beginning levels the judges must have at least a brown belt, with the center ref being a ranking black belt judge. For intermediate levels all judges are black belt level, with the center judge being sometimes the highest rank (but not always), or most experienced judge. We have a few "masters" that show up for tournaments, but they are sometimes VERY biased towards their own students, or they are just not very good judges, and thus are not allowed to be center judge. I also hold a short meeting before the contest with all of the competitors and give them a pep talk and wish them well. When the competition begins, the competitor approaches the judges (usually at a run), stops before them and gives their "salute" or bow, is expected to announce their name, system practiced, name of their kata and then ask permission to begin. I the motion them to begin their kata. We will typically watch 3 competitors, chosen at random representing different systems, by the score keeper sitting behind us before we give any scores. We use the 10 point system (10 being the highest) and can either score by the half point (ie: 8.5), or by the fraction (ie: 8.3, 9.1, etc) depending on the rules of the tournament. After we have scored the first three competitors this way, then each remaining competitor is scored at the end of their kata. Weapons kata can be a real challenge. Judges are picked because of their knowledge of kobudo/weapons. Again, I am typically asked to be the center judge for this competition. I hold a short meeting with my fellow judges prior to the beginning of the event and state some basic rules. First of all is the weapon of choice. Is it a real weapon, or something else? For example, I had a black belt woman enter the competition with a broomstick painted black. Man, could she whip that thing around FAST! However, because of the type of material and the weight of the weapon, she scored very low with the judges. The reason was because if she had actually hit somebody with it, as a kata represents her doing, the weapon would have snapped and caused little to no damage to them. Keep in mind, this is NOT an XMA tournament, but rather a traditional tournament. We also look for good technique. I wouldn't want to even try to guess at the number of competitors over the year that didn't have a clue how to use nunchauku, sai, tonfa, etc other than to whip them around or poke at the air. The best example I can give would be a 3rd dan black belt that laid out nunchauku, sai, bo, katana, and a few other weapons in a half circle in front of us and announced he wasn't going to do a kata, but rather demonstrate to us his expertise with each of the weapons. Sadly, and I was very embarassed for him, he was nothing short of terrible! His technique was very weak with all of the weapons, but hey, he had good KAI's! Out of a possible 10 he scored a 7, which is the lowest score we will give a black belt. My best advice, if you're going to enter a weapons division, is to use a REAL weapon, and really learn how to use it. The nunchauku, for example, isn't ONLY used as a swinging weapon. There are a multitude of blocks and parrys that can, and should be demonstrated. Under no circumstances is the nunchauku passed between the legs, around the back of the neck, twirled between your fingers like a baton, or held close to the rope/chain. Not in a traditional tournament anyway. On the bo, it is a two handed weapon. Swinging it over your head by one hand is NOT good technique or control. Nor is your ability to twirl it with one hand using your fingers. There are a few one handed techniques used with the bo, but essentially it is a two handed weapon. With the sai, kama and tonfa, learn the proper way to hold the weapon when doing a block. So many times I have seen a competitor do a high block and the "blade" of the weapon that is supposed to be blocking isn't where it should be and if the situation was real, the competitor would have their arm cut off or broken from the strike. I hope this helps you understand a judges perspective to tournaments.