Daisho

CONGRATSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!

First thing I would like to ask is, would a school of your learned style certify you to instruct others? Like if you contacted Shotokan sensei's would they advance you far enough to instruct? if not, well you have the answer right there. but... This doesn't make any sense to me. You stopped training, prior to completion, because you felt you weren't being fulfilled by gaining rank? Then you go on to say that the ranks are artificial, and that the only value is personal. That kind of scares me as to your own MA experiences. In my home dojo, no rank is given out without a major increase in applied techniques, understanding of techniques, and the ability to join on the mat and prove it. You don't take a look at a single student and say that rank around their waist is artificial, because he'll pull most students below him to pieces. Not only are our ranks respected in dojo, but we had gotten compliments from all the local schools about our guys in competition and cross-training. That's not "personal value", that's a flag on their uniform telling you exactly how proficient they are in a very well respected MA. Here I am going to agree with the above poster. This sounds exactly like the typical entry info of a Mcdojo. Trust me, I spent three years in an Isshin-ryu class that gave out BB's like candy, like 18 years back. You may in fact have something to offer others in the way of training but "free'd from rigid tradition-bound rules" etc is probably going to be a turnoff to many students. People interested in karate generally welcome the institution and all it's regulations that comes along with it. Otherwise they'd be taking kick-boxing, Muay Thai, etc. It seems like every sensei that opens a dojo without the blessing of their traditional school has all these issues with "tradition" and "rules" but then their dojo's are founded and BAM there's a rule set, and if there's any success at all BAM, there's tradition forming. The case always seems to be people don't like the traditions and rules that limit them from doing what they want to do exactly whent hey want to do it. You never see people complain about the traditions or the rules of a boxing gym, wrestling program etc. Maybe a specific coach, but most serious practitioners understand that a major investment is required to get what they want. As a teacher don't you think it's important for an instructor to have an indepth and applied knowledge of what is being taught? I mean I have no idea how your lineage school was run, but our shodans have to put in competition time on top of supervised class leading time in order for them to even begin the teaching process. Do you come from a school that one day says, ok… no need to demonstrate your ability in competition, or learn to teach at the hands of an experienced instructor, just go ahead and run a class????? Do you think that stuff is unimportant? Do you think it's unimportant that you will be the only person that will be able to grade the proficiencies of your students? That your "style" won't be welcome at most competitions, and your students will never have a chance to apply any of what you've taught them? That no students can come in from other brother/sister schools and cross-train/cross instruct and maybe help you patch holes in your own teaching? you "think" you know enough and practiced long enough to have gained "a fair level of ability"?? dude, you should not be opening your own school. you have every reason to be unsure of yourself, as no school would certify you proficient enough to teach. and even if your proficiency was there, learning how to instruct a class is an entirely different level of understanding. In my school you don't instruct anything at all as a shodan. You just up your training game and begin to compete. For people only interested in competing to master M-R, they compete within the style's events, or invitational events for traditional arts, or Judo competitions. Some choose to begin competing for MMA etc around blue/brown belt. At Nidan you can start class room training on top of your competitions. Class room being leading a class in warm-ups, working with mid ranked students on their throws etc. A nidan without sufficient instructor training isn't getting anywhere near the low levels, he's only teaching those that have enough knowledge to know if he's teaching something incorrectly and can call him out on it. which leads me to… My gf's sister teaches art in a montessori school. I don't think that has any bearing on her level of integrity. You can't fleece local students damn near anywhere, because it doesn't take much time at all for other local dojos/schools to come around snooping, and to be checking up on your credentials. That's just the way things are. That's also the reason you brought this up here. You KNOW you have no business opening up a school of MA instruction, and you're testing out the idea on the MA community. But you'll find the MA community has been plagued by hundreds of schools with uncertified teachers for decades. No one is going to tell you to go for it. And you better believe other sensei's in your locale are going to aggressively check you out. I guess you could bill yourself as RBSD, but when students are interested in that they usually look for Krav Maga/Systema etc. Not some guy that is a brown belt in traditional karate that doesn't have any quals what-so-ever. If it seems like I'm picking on you, I'm not. I'm just trying to express as thoroughly as possible that what you're doing is probably ego driven, and a BAD IDEA. If you want to return to MA and don't like SHotokan's trad rules, join up something different. You aren't a fan of rankings, so it's doubtful you'll mind starting at white again.

i used to meet guys like that every other month!

well put homeboy. i would say that i don't believe form and emptiness as a dual existence. the word water is form for the emptiness of actual water. yes the former does implicitly mean the latter, but you cannot drink the word "water" and be hydrated.

aw man wish i caught this thread earlier. gym day today: Warm-up: 40 push-up-to-squat-to-high-jump-leg-tucks thingies 30 min jog on treadmill. rowing machine: 8 mins full speed exertion power cleans romanian deadlifts stiff leg deadlifts squats leg press I'm in the process of looking for a new dojo and style, so I've really tried to up my fitness. i back to back months of losing 2lbs per, even though i'm taking in damn near 3000 calories per day (extremely clean, mostly vegan). I have appointments with a judo/bjj school this wed night, the combat sambo headquarter dojo thursday night, and a karate/jjj/judo dojo on friday… so i'll take wednesday off the gym, and lay off all caffeine so i can get some serious sleep in-between each workout.

Jujutsu - 8 years: shodan Judo - 11 years: nidan Aikido - 8 years: Never tested Tenin Rishin Ryu (Kenjutsu) - 6 years: Ikkyu (equivalent of a long time brown belt that hasn't passed black belt test)

I've been pretty faithful in my aikido training, and while it does have some great applications, i find myself relying on Judo a ton more. It has made me more comfortable with grips though, and building muscle memory and instinct when trying to control someone's arm/someone's trying to control your arms.

I agree with MMA Jim on learning MT for what you seek. Either that or a really good kick boxing program. As much as I love Judo/JJJ, if I had it to do all over again, and was mostly interested in self-defense I'd probably go wrestling/kick-boxing though. Two programs where competitiveness is extremely high, and full alive training will allow you to refine your skill to the maximum. Also one is great for striking while the other is about the best training you can find for learning how to achieve and maintain dominant positions over fully resisting opponents.

I agree. The hyper-fitness that my old dojo had required for entry is a little excessive, since everyone of all fitness levels can benefit from solid instruction. and let's face it, grappling 3 times per week is going to get any student in top shape pretty quickly if they're serious at all about it. but it also was a nice benefit when it came time to pair off and put in work on the mats.

In my somewhat limited experience of cross-training, and my massive experience in new dojo members that come from strictly self-defense styles, I can find no difference in application between sport training and self-defense. We sport train, full aliveness 99% of the class. No super killing techniques, just real Judo, JJJ, kenjutsu, and for some students, including me, aikido (which is obviously not alive training). I feel supremely confident in my ability to defend myself with the training I have, and would not hesitate at all. Sport training is great for establishing a very competitive mindset going into an altercation, and a 100% understanding of exactly how capable you are at whatever technique you're about to employ. As a matter of fact the only fight trained people I'd be nervous to get into an engagement against would also be sport trained, ie wrestlers and boxers/kick boxers. Keep in mind my cross train experience is limited to the students that come in from other arts, and one period where travel lent me the opportunity to train at self-defense systems' JKD for the month I was working as a research assistant. Edit: I'm definitely not disparaging any self-defense training at all!!!! I just feel sport training gets so maligned when it comes to self-defense and needlessly so.

man, I feel pretty lucky to never have had any real injury. But I'm notoriously bad at overtraining, or coming back from little injuries too early, and having them linger forever. honestly i think i would've passed out if i saw that much skin removed from my lower back.

that's not all that crazy, my first Miyama Ryu school in NYC was 185 per month if you signed a 3 month contract… otherwise it was 200. However I also got a great deal on a local gym thanks to two of the sensei's being co owners of that as well. so 10 bucks a month for a gym, plus 185 per month to train wasn't all that bad at all.

Longer suits, in particular longer pants, do make the kata look nicer in my opinion. we don't train any katas at all, but the school a few blocks down from us had a whole mess of isshin ryu kata. of course practice is the most important part of making anything look good, but the people saying that what you look like doesn't matter… well i just don't get. what's the point of kata aside from looking cool?

scissor sweep, scissor sweep, scissor sweep! although my Judo is pretty strong, a few of the guys at the dojo have wrestling backgrounds, and I keep winding up on my back pretty quickly even after getting my throw off. For the past 2 years I've been following that situation by getting right into my guard and going for submissions… but we have a new sensei, and he's not happy that I remain on my back and work from there as my only option. So we've been working on all matter of sweeps. against most of my training partners I can get back to my feet, or roll into a more neutral position pretty quickly…. but against the guys with wrestling backgrounds, i usually get one shot and the scissor sweep is the one i seem to be having the most problem with. 3 months of scissor sweeps has forced me to change my leg days at the gym, just because my thighs burn to the point of not being able to walk the morning after training

nothing in that video really looked legit. I mean I saw a ton of REALLY poor Judo, and students willfully falling from an instructor using techniques poorly. I don't trust any classes that promote themselves mostly with slow-motion "technique training". The technique training part doesn't interest me. I wanna see guys using the style at full speed matched up with one another.

Mon. Wed. Fri.: We use pre class time to stretch. Then jump rope, and military compound exercises (push-up to squat, thrust and jumps), and then high tempo rolling to get the muscles warm and get a serious sweat going. After that half the class breaks into 1 on 1 Judo, while the other half rolls against each other with Jujutsu. All instruction is done by sensei's watching and walking around during the class. No separate instruction time. After 1 hour we switch. Some go home after that, but following the 2 hour class there's always an aikido class that lasts about an hour. Thurs. Sun.: Kenjutsu/Jojutsu Same warm-up as Judo/JJJ class, but followed by 45 minutes or so of randori. After that we'll either suit up for some kendo matches, or work on using our aikido more as aikijujutsu with either the Jo or katana as a prop. Only 3 of us currently take both the Judo/JJJ + the Aikido + the kenjutsu/jojutsu. It's all required for rank advancement, but we get a bunch of students that are cops and mainly looking for the more MMA-ish program.

Not many "talkers" in my dojo, but it drives me nuts when I have to partner up with someone that doesn't bother to remain in the best physical shape they can. nothing is more of a buzzkill then rolling with someone that is constantly getting winded, or Judo matches with someone who hasn't bothered to cultivate any physical strength. Before I ever even got to sign up at my original dojo, I was handed a jump rope and told to go for 15 minutes. I always stayed in good core-strength shape, but my lungs and legs were burning BAD around the 8 minute mark, and 10 minutes in I quit. I spent the next 3 weeks ripping my cardio, and then still barely did the 15 minutes. AT the time I thought it was just about showing how committed you were to learning this path, but now I totally understand the frustration at seriously out of shape people having to be catered to in a training environment.

due to NY's laws regarding weapons, my dojo was forced to move into NJ, as you might know katana is a major part of our training. I've had conversations with police before regarding the issue, and did not hold back how ridiculous I thought it was that they bothered to enforce those laws. Most armed robberies take place with knives and guns, not people who've spent $800+ on a katana. We use them every class, we know how extremely deadly they can be, and we know the level of danger we must be in to ever think of unsheathing it outside the dojo. The reason the law drives me so crazy is that there is no law stopping people from carrying torque wrenches, or pipes in public. Someone wielding a torque wrench with the intent to injure is going to do every bit as much damage as he would if he was armed with a katana or any other weapon for that matter. I had spent a year in Italy back in 2003 and spoke with my cousin who is Carebineri (the armed police you see on the street), and he talked about how someone would have to be nuts to mug someone in the neighborhood I was staying in, considering there is three dojo's all on the strip that heavily train with weapons. There's always people on the street going to train, or leaving, or even grabbing a bite to eat after class. He also said he couldn't remember a single incident in a MA having to be prosecuted for assault. I was on the subway about 3 years back when a group of youths mugged a guy a few seats away from me. Now, I wasn't on my way to the dojo, and was outnumbered 4 to 1, but had I been sitting there with a katana in my lap, I seriously doubt anyone would've gotten out of line at all.

interesting thread, as I have a thread above about an arm bar, where I decided it would be of help to find a BJJ guy to help me work through some difficulty applying it from the ground. I sent a message to a BJJ guy from LiveJournal, and he mentioned flow training, and laid it out in a similar manner. In our JJJ we don't usually go from what move to the next over and again, we typically just fight one another, and during the fight we are graded on whether we applied any techniques and how smooth we did them. But I am interested to see flow training in action. I have a picture of what it would be in my mind, but has anyone come across any particularly good videos on youtube? The ones I've found are mostly just like our randori, or some role-playing slow-motion nonsense training.

hey tall, i agree. I don't typically think about which strike I'm going to use either, but i do make adjustments during the fight. The vertical punch, for me, is much easier to make minor deflections against by hand checking. If I notice the person I'm squared up against is in a proper boxing stance, or using a high guard, I do consciously open with twisting punches. However if I can get to the body it's instinctive for me to switch to vertical piston punches.

That last book Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit... is written by the Father Kennedy of Morning Star Zendo which I listed the website for above. it's only a few blocks from my house. This topic has me considering taking a trip over to the college and meeting him myself.

When I leave the dojo I'm soaked in sweat... pants, rash guard, top, even belt. As soon as class ends I wash myself down a bit in the sink, apply some baby powder and some deodarant, change into my sweats for the subway ride home, and chew some gum to get rid of the saltyness. I could never imagine leaving the dojo in my gi. Doesn't help that it's a 40lbs Judo gi Honestly the only people I ever see wandering around in their gi's is a budo taijitsu/ninjitsu class that used to be run in Central Park. I always thought it was funny that they would travel to and from the park in their black gi's, and tied off pant legs. To me, that's just asking for trouble.

Some schools focus on self defense more than others, and some styles are more realistic in that application than others. However, any training that includes sparring, whether it be primarily a sport style like Judo/boxing, or a strictly combat system, you're going to get better at defending yourself, and attacking your opponent. Regardless of the style, the fact that punches are coming your way in class, and you regularly train to deal with a trained fighter, is going to make you more comfortable when the situation does arise. Much like catching a ball, your muscle memory and instinctive reflexes will begin to act according to your training, and the fact that you'll more than likely take a few hard shots in the dojo, you'll at least understand the effects of taking a heavy shot. Over 1 hour of our class is dedicated to randori. This is because generally randori will exhaust us in under 5 minutes, and so we begin to learn how to handle fighting when our motor skills and body begin to fail us. My sensei believes this is similar to high stress training in the military. We don't expect a fight to go for an hour, but the loss of motor skills due to extended periods of randori are meant to reflect the loss of motor skills due to shock of actually winding up in a self defense situation. And we learn to get to the point that our mind and muscles react properly, even when not exactly willfully being directed. So yea, if self defense is your main priority, I would sit in on some classes and make sure that randori and sparring are a regular part of the training program. As some styles are much more focused on the expression of their art, or the philosophy and traditionalism of their lineage than they are on street confrontation.

I have very little experience in point fighting, but I would figure that letting an opponent hold another would take away the striking from point fighting. If someone grabs your gi sleeve I would figure the person being held is going to step inside and grab the gi, or instinctively go for a throw. I guess if the two combatants are trained in striking only schools, allowing holding would be ok, since both are likely to attempt to strike even while being held/doing the holding. But if any grappling is trained in the system, i would think that being held would instinctively lead to immediately being thrown or swept

I definitely see boxing has lost popularity in the U.S. As far as my own preference, I enjoy boxing more than MMA when the two fighters are well matched and top tier in skill.