ShoriKid

Is it bad if I can use myself as both ends of the example to upper belts when I'm teaching? When I was a newly minted yellow belt, several years back, I was sparring with on of the blackbelts. Things were going well, I was looking for open spots and trying not to just stand there. I through a round kick as the bb moved forward. As he advanced and rotated his hip into a nice, crisp reverse punch, my foot met his chin. He stood straight up and toppled over backwards, eyes rolled back into his head. Fast forward quite a ways and a yellow belt with a nice Philly shell style defense, that he does naturally, cracks me with that waiting right hand in a nice, looping, upper cut. I didn't fold, but I got chicken legged and had to go fully defensive while I worked out some complicated matters. Like my name and the day of the week. Thing being, no matter how ready we think we are as black belts, there is something you don't know. Those new folks are great to point out those holes in things that we can't see. As trained martial artist we look at things from just that perspective, a trained one. We have expectations when looking at techniques and movements. We have built in reactions to things. White belts/new students don't have those. They ask the honest questions that should make you think hard and not just brush them off. They're also great to work with as a partner on a technique because their reaction is going to be absolutely honest. If it works, they move, it hurts they grimace and flinch. If it doesn't they look at you as if to say, 'Okay, now what?'. Think of them as a black belts best self imposed lie detector.

Ahhh, you've apparently never had one of those days where you appear in the credits under "stunts" have you MasterPain?

I've always told the guys that any fight you're winning is a "fair fight". If it's a real fight, you dig into your tool box and get to work, you don't have time or opportunity to worry about "fair".

Outstanding post sir. follows right along with how I was trained. Hard to keep in mind at times, but very important. The only thing I'd add to your rules for the floor sensei8 is this: -Things from off the floor don't matter/exist when you're there. I always tell my guys that any problem, social standing, personal disagreement that happens on the outside of the line(we've a taped line to define the 'floor') stay on that side of the line. We're there for training and truth.

Congratulations, definitely a mark as to their trust in your ability. Best of luck too. Teaching kids is tough stuff. Just remember to keep their attention. You lose that and it can turn into Custer's Last Stand!

JiuJitsuNation, I see what you're saying above. Do I claim to be teaching the "real thing"? Yes, at least from my perspective. If I didn't think it was "real" I wouldn't be teaching those things. Which is why I don't teach some of the things that I was shown coming up in the arts. I definitely don't claim to be teaching the only "real thing". Just mine and what I know. I'll steal anything from another person or art without shame if I think it's good. I also give full credit where it came from. If I see something that's good and real, in my eyes, I'll tell people about that. And I'll train in it given half a chance. I think where people get upset is where things happen like what happened to you. You were sold on an idea of what you were learning. In the end, what you were being taught was not what you were being told it was. You were sold a product labeled "F" (Karate that can fight). What was under the label was "P" (Karate that is pretty) and it's what you were sold. Sort of a sugar pill instead of real medicine. Where people get so mad about McDojos is when they were sold real fighting martial arts and got something else. Now, as long as what you're being taught is what you're being told, it's cool. I was in a TKD school that claimed that what they taught would put you in great shape, increase your flexibility and become skilled in the art of TKD. They didn't claim that they were going to make you a super fighter, that you could beat up gangs. So, if I didn't become a great fighter with them, I wouldn't be able to blame them. What good instructors should do, as you say, is look forward to the day when your students have learned everything you've got to teach. And they are better at it than you! But, that's why you have to keep learning, so you always improve and have more to bring to them. I have a couple of green belts(getting ready to be anyway) who have been with us and working hard for the past year and a half. Now I have to pay some attention to them when we spar. I'm teaching them everything I can. every little 'trick' and 'secret' that I've learned over the years. Things about hip movement, twist, getting core muscles into every strike etc. Just little things that add up. If I keep that back, and make them work, hoping they will discover them on their own(Like I had to a lot of them), I'm cheating them. I'm failing as an instructor. If I held back things that will help my students improve. If I taught them things I didn't believe were real and functioning. If I claim to impart knowledge or ability that I'm not. If I do these things I've gone down the path of the McDojo. If you're honest about what you're teaching/training for, then it's not a McDojo. At least that's my opinion.

It's a natural reaction. I can't see why they're upset other than it may have hurt and they weren't expecting it. Unless someone laid out a rule that says no hard blocking and told you ahead of time it wasn't your fault. Forearms, elbows and shins are natural blocking surfaces on the body.

Sort of like bull fighting. Only the bull can cut tight angles and follow you. And has thumbs. A decent wrestler can cut corners on his shot, it's not a blind rush forward. They are mobile, aggressive and used to getting beat and banged on. Clashing heads, catching a shoulder, knee or forearm to the face and head are pretty common. They are used to being knocked around and have learned to just keep coming. A wrestler is nothing if not a determined individual. You won't just defend one shot. You'll defend until he gets you down. Now, I'm not saying that a wrestler isn't someone you can stop if needed. But, you will have to walk in his world a while to have a good chance. Yes, learn to sprawl. Then lower your stance. Learn to protect your hips and how to hand fight. Think of it as very sticking trapping. If you can avoid getting sucked into a clinch or an arm drag and counter with a quick punch, your life will be better. Not every take down is a single/double leg. Lastly, move, move, move. Mobility is something you must have. Stop moving and you're begging to be set up and taken down.

If a green belt is an "advanced student's" belt, you should be able to feel a difference in your training from here on out. I assuming that as a self defense focused school you do a lot of partner work? If so, it should show up soon. I'll second Kuma's post with this, not just friendly, but honest sparring. Which, I would hope, is always friendly.

From a boy out of a Shorin Ryu background, I've trained and used low kicks for some time. Our standard sparring rules use them. Both round kicks and linear kicks are used to the leg and we use a lot of front kicks to the hip crease. In my first Shorin Ryu school we didn't use them a lot, but our instructor liked them for self defense and we drilled a lot of very close range low kicks. He liked to sweep at the ankle/calf level to unbalance or turn you during sparring. Not a thigh kick I know, but it sure worked.

I think that comes from some people being very comfortable in the guard and liking to work from there. I know I sometimes feel like I have more options from bottom on what to do. But, a lot of these are sweeps to get to top, or at least try to. Or submissions that are going to allow me to escape and stand up even if the attempt fails. We're a stand up school, but we grapple because you need to know what to do if you end up on the ground. It also gives you more options for restraint in friendly situations. Do you really want to put your drunken buddy down with strikes? Really? So for us, the subs are fun, but the sweeps and getting up and escaping to our feet is the goal. So, that's what we're looking for and drill to do a lot of nights.

Sort of like others have said, better to have the training and not need it than need the training and not have it. We've done some multiple attacker work. Not as much as I'd like, but it's hard to squeeze in everything when you're limited on training time. Emphasis is on surviving, keeping moving and keeping from ending up on the center. Things go okay when it's 2 on 1. It gets pretty hairy at 4 on 1 and it's just pray you can hit the openings before you get buried.

Being lazy cost me being first in with the debate being more like competition/sparring. You have two opposing sides, a set of rules and everyone knows what those rules are from the outset. An impartial third party is the one that determines the winner by how well you stick to the rules and how well you preform under them. Everyone who is there can appreciate the back and forth and, while you might lose, you may score some impressive points that you or your opponent come away with some insight from. Kata is not a song. Because I can't sing. Can't dance either. I like to try both when no one is around though. Kata is like a classic speech. It's set and fixed in contents. But, it has come down through time to communicate an idea. Without the history of the speech, you can't fully understand it, and much of it's meaning is lost. Once you learn that though, you can take away the deeper meaning. You just have to work at it. See, I can read speeches from ancient through the modern era and get something from them. I still can't sing it whether its a modern hit or a medieval melody.

We've got a few. Scary, for one of the guys from when we had 3 guys with the same name. Then Bobby Hill, boys looks like a grown up version of the cartoon character. D-9, as in a D-9 Cat dozer, for another fella with a determined shot. McLovin' for another of the young guys, he has that face. And lastly we have 3 guys who started together and are friends that we call the Three Musketeers.

Most BJJers have no problem with most other MA folks. Most other MA folks have no problem with BJJers. However, there are a certain number on each end of things that don't much care for one another. Most BJJ guys I've met are cool. They are happy to train in and share their art. They may not be too interested in what I, or others, are doing, but they are respectful just as long as you treat them with the same. They work hard and go out of their way to be helpful when they are training. Most traditional stylists are the same way. They work hard, love their art and are happy to share it given honest interest. Respect garners respect and they will be helpful as they can when training with someone. Then you have the trouble makers on both ends, and their problem is not too different from each other. Here's where the problem a lot of people have with BJJ comes from in some cases: BJJ, when it burst onto the scene in the early 90's came on with a claim that if you weren't doing BJJ, you weren't doing real martial arts. Many times it came with an attitude that anything else was lesser, a waste of time. If you wanted to learn how to really fight, all you needed was BJJ. That attitude wasn't the only one, but it was the one that traditional stylists had to deal with a lot of the time. Those making contact with traditionalist most often were young guns with an axe to grind. Some of those guys are still out there. The "You're wasting your time with that karate crap" crowd isn't dead and gone. It's still out there, again, mostly, but not always, with the younger guys. It's not all about insecure traditionalists standing around harumphing(or however you spell it! ) and wishing that no one had done any of this 'full contact' or 'ground fighting' stuff. Sure, there is some of that. That absolute assurance that what they do is best and nothing can top it is there for some hard core guys. And, there are guys, just like the BJJ guys who don't work stand up, who just love their art, want to perfect it and don't see the need to get into something else. What Tallgeese was touching on about the inability to safely train stand up full contact, without some serious injury, or heavily geared up(which is prohibitively expensive) is something often over looked or brushed off by grapplers. They get to go full bore and, sure you're a little sore, but why doesn't everyone else? I think I just went full blown tangent though and maybe I'll open a new thread about that when I get in from training tonight.

Stealing your list and shortening it a bit there JiutisuNation. Not overly concerned about belts hitting the floor, but we have a few of our own. Adding to the edited list above. If your belt comes off during training, that's fine. Don't forget your belt though. If you do, you'll have to "earn" it back from one of the Senseis who found it. Usually with time on the mats after the regular training is finished. Attack the rank. If you are the lower rank you set the pace and the level of contact when sparring. That being said, don't try to lay back or be passive. Instructors are to be addressed as "Sensei", "Sir/Ma'am", "Mister/Miss(es)" at all times. At the end of each class after coming to attention and bowing out, hands are shaken all around and everyone thanks each member for the training and class/hard work.

Once you can't cleanly penetrate the stack, it's all bluff and bluster. Impressive and neat, but not a display of focused technique. Coolest break I saw in person was by my first instructor. Broke a single house brick with a knife hand. It was set flat on the floor and ended up in three pieces after the strike. Still don't even dare try that sort of no follow through breaking.

It all runs back to an ugly truth that too many people don't like to here in the martial arts. Size matters. Over coming larger opponents is possible with skill and smart tactics, but it's a lot more work and a lot riskier than most people understand. A group of newly minted black belts asked how hard it was to beat someone with a strength advantage. My answer was that for every pound of muscle you give up, the level of skill you need to come out on top needs to go up by a greater factor. If you are facing someone unskilled, or of lesser skill that is your size, you should be in a pretty good situation. Start giving up pounds of muscle and the odds go against you very, very quickly. I don't claim to be a ground wizard. I wrestled in highschool, and wasn't bad, but that's been years. I've trained with good ground people, watched every video, looked at every book I could get my hands on and rolled consistently for quite a while. We had a friend come in after ending his hitch with the military. A BJJ blue belt with some NAGA comp under his belt with about 45-50 lbs on me and he gave me absolute fits. He scored the first two take downs as I adjusted to his size difference and had me working to get to good position. Once I got used to not having to off my strength and focus just technique I did a lot better. Being physically strongest in the class I normally try to just work the technique without apply too much strength. Point being that I was giving up size and what normally isn't that hard a grappling match for me became very difficult. I didn't feel over matched in skill, I was countering and moving well. But, just beating that weight and power was tough. There is, as I keep saying, a reason for weight divisions. In things like high school wrestling and grappling tourneys it's assumed that people in your brackets will have roughly the same skill levels. If you have roughly the same skill level size/weight is an advantage.

sensei8, I think he's getting to the US in some seminars this year. Washington state I believe. Doesn't help me much, but might be within travel distance for others.

"Put this here, and this here and squeeze" goes a long way toward clearing up questions or troubles. It may not answer all the technical question, but it will go a long way.

I'm very envious here Jeffrey. I would love to have Mr. Abernethy close enough to drag the lower belts, and myself, to see him for the day.

I'm going along with most folks here. So, a little Ron White wisdom. Get a helmet. Put on the helmet. Don't worry about what everyone else is saying. It's your ear/hearing. A quick explaination should clear that up for them. Martialart Some gear is needed, and the harder the contact the more essential some parts are. However, if you'r not making significant contact, you don't need all of the gear. Only certain parts. As to why learn to without large amounts of gear or with limited contact, that's very simple. If you're interested in pure self defense, at some point you have to be exposed to hard contact. In a real fight, you're going to get hit hard and it's going to hurt. If you're training for certain competion that allows, or calls for hard contact, you have to be used to it. Boxers don't go hard all the time, but sometimes they have to go full bore. If not they will be un prepared for the fight they have coming. [/b]

Got this one in the collection. So the book is a good read too? I agree, a good, fun movie. Not anything I would call "historically acurate", but a fun film.

Quality control has always been, and will continue to be, a problem in any art. Without a uniform, enforceable standard that's how things are going to be. And you can't have that sort of standard with different styles and even gyms/dojos out there unless everyone has to be in some big organization. But then who's rules do you compete by? Their's? Someone elses? My students would fair poorly under typical TKD rules. Most any TKD student would fair equally as poorly under the rules we spar with. So, if my students do poorly under a rules set they don't train under, does that mean they are poorly trained? Part of what a dojo/jang/gym needs are objective standards that every student has to live up to. If they have to know certain kata/forms, then they should be able to preform them with a high degree of technical ability, at least for their rank(I don't expect yellow belts to be great, but a brown belt should be smoking forms). If they are supposed to be able to fight well under their rules set, then they should be able to do that against anyone in that format. Even if they aren't winning, they should be technically sound and able to hold their own against people of equal ability.

Usually black gi, either ironman/heavy top or judo top. Heavier top takes the grabs and throws way better than lighter tops. Some nights though it's shorts and tee shirts especially if we're putting in rounds or just free grappling.