Cool stuff I learned this week

[bushido_man96]

At kyu gradings, you get individual feedback from the instructor responsible for your evaluation. At dan gradings, the feedback is more general, where each member of the board gives feedback to the candidates as a group.

Keep in mind, before a dan grading, students have to complete a 12 week prep cycle, where you are given weekly feedback and evaluations on exactly what the test board is looking for. The sessions are usually run by our CI, but he also rotates in some of the other members of the test board, so you can hear what they may be looking for. So in effect you're getting your feedback before the test instead of afterwards.

Very cool, thank you. Do you and your fellow students learn of whether you passed or failed right after the test, or do you have to wait some time?

[aurik]

Very cool, thank you. Do you and your fellow students learn of whether you passed or failed right after the test, or do you have to wait some time?

Generally the test board will discuss and tally scores, and after a few minutes will announce the pass/fail list.

[bushido_man96]

Very cool, thank you. Do you and your fellow students learn of whether you passed or failed right after the test, or do you have to wait some time?

Generally the test board will discuss and tally scores, and after a few minutes will announce the pass/fail list.

I like that, and I think that is how it should be. For some reason, in any TKD school I've been a part of, the testing results have to be sent to the headquarters school, and then rank certificates are printed and sent out from there.

[aurik]

I like that, and I think that is how it should be. For some reason, in any TKD school I've been a part of, the testing results have to be sent to the headquarters school, and then rank certificates are printed and sent out from there.

Kyu grade certificates are handed out at the testing. Technically Dan gradings are sent back with the student’s entire packet back to the hombu dojo, and the certificates are sent back over Master Thompson’s signature. However I have never heard of a situation where a student did not receive the rank certificate after being recommended by the testing board. Our test board is headed by an 8th degree, and they have promoted up to 4th degree independently. For 5th degree and up our CI generally invites Master Thompson out to run seminars and preside over the testing board.

[aurik]

Saturday's class turned out to be much better than I expected. Saturday is nominally the family class -- all ages all ranks (6+). We had a good sized class, but not quite so large that we had to send half of the class to the upstairs dojo. Before class, Kyoshi asked me if I wanted to run the class, and I said "sure". Since we had a number of white belts and yellow belts in the class, I slowed things down a fair bit, and made sure to state all of the techniques in both Japanese and English. Warmups and hojo undo techniques went pretty well, and I've been continuing my practice of pop-quizzing the students on the Japanese vs English names. When we got to Sanchin kata, I moved to the back of the class, where I could watch the white belts and low-ranked students perform their techniques. When I watched them perform the kata the second time, I found a key teachable moment, and worked the whole class through the fundamental chamber / strike / reset / step sequence. I noticed that the white belts were struggling, but there were also some yellow and green belts who could use some practice.

I then paired the students up for kotekitae, and had some of the brown belts teach the white belts, and then checked a few students here and there. I then divided the students up with the younger white/yellow/orange belts working with T (a junior black belt in his prep cycle for full black belt), and I worked with the adults and higher ranked students on their two person drills -- started with the fundamentals and worked my way up. I rotated students and gave them feedback as I saw each of them.

At the end of the class, we ran kata, starting at Kanshiwa and worked all the way up to Seiryu (required for 2nd degree). When you only have 5 kata between white belt and nidan, this is manageable. I then bowed the students out, wishing them a good weekend.

The REALLY cool part came after class when I was getting ready to head home. Kyoshi came up to me and told me that I should start putting a bio together for my teaching license application. Needless to say, I was floored by this -- I've only had my shodan for about 6 months, and he's already talking applying for a teaching license. He was apparently very impressed with the pace and way I was running the classes, so he thinks that it may come much quicker for me than most students. Of course by that time Zach was saying, "Dad can we go home noe? Dad can we go home now?" So I didn't have a chance to talk to him much more about that.

Again, I thought it was very cool, but I figure I'm just going to do the best I can by myself and the students and let the promotions come as they may.

I got news that the CI and his wife are heading back from Okinawa today, and they sent a video of the Karate Day celebration in Okinawa -- you can see them performing Kanshiwa and Shushi no Kon at about 11:25 here:

[DarthPenguin]

That sounds really good on the teaching licence. Sounds like you are doing a fair amount of teaching already and that it is going well so it seems like a logical progression.

I know it is going to require a lot of work to get the licence granted but it sounds like you are on the right track!

[bushido_man96]

That sounds really good on the teaching licence. Sounds like you are doing a fair amount of teaching already and that it is going well so it seems like a logical progression.

I know it is going to require a lot of work to get the licence granted but it sounds like you are on the right track!

I agree here, that's awesome! Keep up the good work! Karate:

[aurik]

Sadly this has not been a good training week. Last Monday I was in class, and about halfway through class, my right elbow/forearm started sending shooting pains when I would pronate/supinate the forearm to certain positions. I was able to finish out the class, but it continued to get worse. I spoke to a doc, and it looks like a muscle strain in the forearm right at the elbow. I tried training through it last Saturday, but about 10 minutes until the end of class things flared up again even worse. So I'm taking this week and next week (since I'll be in Dallas on work travel) off, and I'll see where things are when I get back.

I had planned on finding a Uechi-Ryu school in Dallas to train with, but I'm really thinking that the best course of action is to rest the arm that week and just let things get better.

I think this happened during kotekitae, where my partner struck me directly on the elbow a few times. I didn't think this was a big deal at the time, but that's the only thing that was really different about that Monday's training. I'll need to be more careful with him in the future.

[sensei8]

Sounds like taking 2 weeks off to rest the nagging elbow is a very wise decision on your part. Might drive you batty as well as strange to not train, but the docs advise seems quite paramount in this regard.

Rest and take it care because the floor will be there with welcoming open arms when the time is right return to the floor.

Oh yeah, careful while at home because an unwelcomed movement around the house, like chores, might irritate your healing elbow in such a way that returning back to the floor might be an unwelcomed delay.

Hang in there, Ken!! Is there such a thing as writers' elbow that might interfere with posting at KF might be prevented.

[bushido_man96]

Sorry to hear that, Ken. It sucks when injuries set back training. In the meantime, you could probably get lots of kicking practice in. Train around the injury, and perhaps you won't go crazy missing it.