marmaduke

I just found this thread. I'd like to offer my 2 Cents. And a few questions. The black belt is irrelevant? I don't think so. Would he have attacked the robber if he was NOT a black belt? Would he have had the same confidence? The fact that he was a black belt was probably a contributing factor to the robbers death.

Between my son and myself... Colecovision with an Atari 2600 adapter Gameboy Color Gameboy Advance Gamecube with the gameboy adapters PS2 PSP and....

Lets see. The girl did her Kata and it was approx. 3 minutes long. very complicated, very involved. My son did his for about 45 seconds. Didn't even move from his spot. Lets just say it was very boring. Basai Dia or Giam would have been more appropriate for him. Plus he knows one that is approx 5 minute long that I can't begin to pronounce. (I always call it Chunking KungFu) This one would have put her to shame. Does he do it? N-o-o-o. Besides, Judges like long complicated Kata's from Black belts. p.s. He did TekkiShodan. As far as I'm concerned, that was beneath him.

Lets see. The girl did her Kata and it was approx. 3 minutes long. very complicated, very involved. My son did his for about 45 seconds. Didn't even move from his spot. Lets just say it was very boring. Basai Dia or Giam would have been more appropriate for him. Plus he knows one that is approx 5 minute long that I can't begin to pronounce. (I always call it Chunking KungFu) This one would have put her to shame. Does he do it? N-o-o-o. Besides, Judges like long complicated Kata's from Black belts.

My son is 17, the girl is 19. They were the only two that signed up for Kata. Even though they were together, according to the judge, they were supposed to be judged according to their rank. How well they do their Kata according to their rank.

I could not believe it! My sons Dojo had a tournament Saturday. My son (Black Belt) was matched up with a Purple belt. He won the coin toss, let the girl go first. She did this long Tia Chi Kata that took several minutes. then my son comes up and does this tiny Yellow belt Kata that must have taken 45 seconds! One of the judges couldn't believe it either. He sat there watching a fly on the wall. didn't know what to say. I left and sat in the car for the rest of the tournament. When It finally ended, I asked him why he threw the match. All I got was a lot of yelling that he didn't. Other than the fact that he likes this girl, I can't believe he would throw a match for that.

I had it happen to my son several times. First school he was at, he got as far as Blue Belt before we started having problems with the instructor. As soon as the contract expired, we left and went to another Dojo (Luckly it was the same style). Everytime he goes to one state tournament, the instructor from the first school is always there judging the events. Whenever my son gets her for a judge, you can be guaranteed he gets the lowest score. Even though the other judges give him higher scores. And the reverse can be said about her students. No matter how badly they do a Kata, she always ranks them high. With the amount of judges just walking around, they should be able to find judges who are not related to the students for fair judging.

If you're on prescriptions, and you take the medicine once a day, ask your doctor if he'll give you a prescription for twice a day. Then your medicine will last for 2 months and you'll only pay half the amount for the year. I also told my doctor about my financial problems and he gave me 6 months of prescription samples for free. One good thing, my son got his Black Belt December 16. since then, I haven't had to pay for his Karate lessons. as long as he puts in 11 hrs a month teaching time, he's free. My wife also got a job at Wal-Mart. Now we have a 10% discount card on all our shopping there. Might sound good, but its not. We still had to sign up for a debt consolidation agency. hopefully we can survive the next 5 years. And gasoline is killing us. We budgeted gasoline at $100 a month 2 month ago. that went out the window now with gas at $3.50/gal.

As a parent, I'd like to offer my 2 cents. If you are planning on mentioning gear, are you selling it from the Dojo or allowing the students/parents to buy it where they want? My sons Dojo recommends you by the gear from them as its approved by the instructor. (for insurance reasons) My opinion, its safer buying from the Dojo, even if it costs a little more, and know you have equipment that is "Sensei approved" rather than finding something cheap on the internet, and having it fall apart after 3 or 4 uses or actually hurting someone else. If you allow the students/parents to buy off the internet, at least have them show you what they want to buy before they buy it for your approval.

I think that this book looks interesting as well. I am considering picking it up here in a month or two. When you get into it, let us know what its like. Dissappointed. I ended up buying the book. Library screwed me up and I got tired of waiting. Got it for $5.00 used. Excellent condition. Appears to be autographed by author. Can't tell if its real or just printed that way. But anyway. book started off interesting, but then fell apart at the end like the author was running out of ideas and just patching stories together. My son is trying to read it now. If you're interested in reading it, I won't go into details. Had I gotten this from the Library on time, and after reading it, I would not go out and buy it for my own library. I'd rate this a 6 out of 10.

This is a little off the topic but cute. I noticed a lot of new Black Belts are called Shodan. The Black Belts in my sons Dojo are salled Sibak. I just checked Wiki. Shodan is Japanese and Sibak is Chinese. And you'll never guess what Sibak means...teachers assistant. Go figure.

I read thru the last post and need some more help. My son has a tournament this weekend. My wife has spent the past 2 days trying to get my sons Gi clean. (14 oz. ProForce) Sweat stains, dirt from wrestling, laying on the floor, etc. Does anyone have any tips on getting a Gi absolutely white? Right now, my wife has one stain that refuses to clean. Borax, Zout, Prell, Oxyclean, scrub brush... nothing seems to work. Any help?? p.s. My son picked "this" uniform to wear. Otherwise we would have given him a newer, clean one to take. So we're stuck.

"I agree! There are few things as rewarding as teaching" I saw your comment and I just had to butt in. Teaching is not everything. My son got his Black Belt December 16. I'm very proud of his achievement. He's 16, has been training for 9 yrs and is the youngest Black Belt at the Dojo. Currently, there are 2 other "resident" Black Belts. And 4 others that come and go. When my son got his Black Belt, I was expecting a whole new world of studying and training. That has yet to happen. My son was presented with a set of Kama's as a Christmas present from the Sensei. With an understanding that he would be training with them. Going on 4 months and still waiting. Right now, the only thing my son and the other 2 Black Belts are doing are taking turns teaching all the classes. My son is at the Dojo 9AM Saturday morning and doesn't leave until 3PM if not later. Teaching. I do enjoy watching him teach and he does get a kick out of training the little ones.( I made a joke once of teaching the white belts Bassai dai to make it interesting and he actually started it without the Sensei noticing.) But you got to admit, 4 months of teaching without learning anything yourself is kind of a letdown. The only thing that makes it work is that I don't have to pay for him anymore. As long as he puts in 11hrs a month teaching, he's free. Otherwise I pay by the month. Boring, but makes it worthwhile. He's reached a "plateau" and it looks like he's camping there.

In my sons Dojo, as a student progress's thru the ranks, they are expected to purchase weapons/training gear/protective gear. As they progress thru the ranks, they are given a one page sheet with all the requirements on it. How many times they loose it or if they don't have sparring gear, they they complain "no one told me". Or at worst, the parents refuse to buy it. Having it in a permanent manual should correct the problem and make it the parents/students responsibility.

What are you refering to as embroidered? I went thru this in December. My son got his Black Belt then and I wanted to get him a belt with his name on it. Looking around, I found places that embroidered the name all the way thru the belt. You had a reverse image on the back side. I was told this was a "poor job" of embroidery. I found Shureido that actually splits the belt and does the embroidery on one side of the belt, then sews the belt back together. Only problem is that they only do their own Shureido belts. Cost around $60 for the belt and embroidery. But it looks great. Another thing. Shureido only embroidered in Japanese. I would have preferred Chinese, but I never found anyone that could embroider Chinese. I did ask a local sewing place about embroidery and showed her the belt I had. They couldn't do anything like that.

I'm currently waiting for "American Shaolin" from the library. Ordered it 2 weeks ago. The reviews have been great, so I have to see for myself. Other than that. I'll read whatever catches my eye. Just finished "The Loch" and "Thud." Strange. "Thud" took me a week to finish and "The Loch" took me 2 days. Trying to read "Excalibur Alternative" right now. I'm mostly into Sci-Fi and Fantasy. But the library REALLY has a poor selection. Only 4 small shelves. And one whole shelf is devoted to books by William Shatner. Don't know about his stuff yet. May have to try it or start travelling and trying different libraries. Would love to start a series, but not from the library. I tried the Spiderwick Chronicles last month. Its a 5 book series but I was never able to get book 2. (Even ordered it. Never showed up). It looks like the library has lousy series sets. 3 or 4 series and usually 1 or 2 are missing. Not really worth trying to order and wait for a missing book.

Call this a promotion if you want, my son got the key to the Dojo last night. After teaching one of the earlier classes, my son walked up to me and handed me a key with the biggest grin on his face. For some reason, the instructor gave him his own key to the Dojo. He's 16 and got his Black Belt Dec. 16. So now, there are 3 Black Belts with the Dojo key. Mabe back-up incase no one else can make it. We also have a Dojo mascott(don't ask. long story), and she has her own key. So with the instructor, there are 5 people with keys. My son thinks its better than a 2nd Dan promotion.

Thanks everyone. I went with the Tung Oil. It seems to work good, but I'm getting a slight shine to the wood. Feels O.K. though. Oh well. Must be due to Winter. Have to see how it looks in summer.

Excuse my spelling. I am familiar with Bassai Dia. Bassai Sho is new to me. I occasionally run into it on the internet. Is this a normal "train as you get there" Kata or is this not used very often.

Does anyone have any experience washing a Hakama? Black Tetron according to label.

I'm sorry, but I have to butt in. As a parent who sits in on his sons class, EVERY class, I have to put my 2 cents in. What I would like to see in a new student is maturity. We just got 2 little girls, white belts, around 8 yrs old. They must be friends, the only thing they want to do is play during class. If the instructor tells them "Kibadach"(horse stance), they can only stay in that position for 3 seconds then they start clowning around again. The instructor likes to play a stereo during class. We have another boy that likes break dancing when no one is looking. Other kids, during a class, just wander off the matt and go sit with their mothers. There are days when I keep thinking half the class must be ADHD. And on the flip side, we have the youngest girl in class. She can't be more than 5 and about as tall as a grasshopper. She is perfect. She listens, she can do a horse stance and stay there and can even do a kata. She is a joy to watch compared to the other kids.

If anyone is interested. I bought the shoes from the Sensei. I gave in and figured If my son might need something out of the ordinary somewhere down the line, the Sensei might be more willing to help out. No re-percussions, no bickering, just a happy kid. Thats all that matters to me. (Accepting roundhouse kicks to the rear if required)

My sons Sensei, how do I say this, "insists" parents buy MA supplies from him. I'm the first one to admit I'm into saving a buck. I'm always looking on the internet. I'm looking at some Ringstar sparring shoes for my son. The Sensei sells them for approx. $70. I just found a web site that sells the exact same shoe for $30+$5 shipping. I may upset the Sensei, but I can't see loosing $35. Any other instructors have the same rule? What would you do?

I wish it was that easy/cheap. I had some shoes picked out from Tiger Claw but the Sensei said they were not sparring shoes. So even though he could walk around on the matt and practice/excersize with them, they were not good enough for sparring. Mabe I'll give e-bay a shot anyway. Who knows. thanks for the tip.

The Sensei says I can pick out what I like as long as I check with him before buying. I was looking cheep first, but decided to splurge instead. I'm looking at these... http://www.ringstaradvantage.com/purchase.cfm?id=1 So, I guess my first dumb question is do you wear socks with shoes like these or not? p.s. My "child" is a Black Belt. 1st Dan.