Martial Arts Instructors

I am more used to writing on my life with my birds and animals.

This entry is not on birds or animals. This is my memoirs that I wanted to write before it faded away with time.

After many years, I decided to write the above. That was not easy to write as you can read later on. That covered a strange chain of events.

There are some adult themes not suitable for minors.
There are some talk of martial arts and combat taijichuan
There are encounters of mystical strange nature.

DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE


Fragments of earlier memories of Taiwan
http://shanlung.livejournal.com/11…





Warmest regards



Shanlung

山 龍



http://www.geocities.com/shanlung9

Hey all!

I'm kind of new to this livejournal thing. But anyway, my name is Sarah and I'm glad I found a group where different styles come together. I'm 20 years old studying at Glasgow University. I'm currently learning Shorinji Kempo which I am a yellow belt in. I'll be surprised if any of yous hear of it but I hope I can make some new friends here. :)

Hey, I'm new here and very glad that I found this group!!

I am a first degree black in Kenpo. I have been taking for five years now, and instructing for three and a half. I am especially excited because I am considering opening a karate studio several years from now (have to get through college, etc).

I am looking forward to joining the discussions, I have gone through many of the situations that others have already written about.

My sensei has been teaching from his dojo for many years. Over time he has also taken up teaching one of the local colleges. I have been helping out Sensei at RPI (I graduated from there, what can I say). At his encouragement, approval (and strict oversight) leading one of the weekly classes there. I have been showing what sensei wants taught: basics basics basics. Most of the students are untested, 5th Kyus and a couple of 4th Kyus (USAF Testing requirements). The RPI students are not normally ready to take difficult throws-between only two classes a week and having the summers off, training at RPI doesn't allow for alot of frills before they graduate and move on. I will state first up: I have not tested for my black belt, I am a 2nd Kyu and working on my 1st Kyu (Probably late next year).

This year an overseas student started at RPI and joined the class. He had previously tested overseas for his black belt. He has a different way of doing things (technique, ettiquette etc), as befitting that he learned from a different instructor.

A couple of issues have cropped up: This student (I'll call him K) has a different way of doing things and is having some issues adapting to how Sensei wants to see things done. Sensei wants the basics first and foremost. K has been known to go off and do his own thing during class, or showing things or methods that Sensei had not shown, which Sensei has addressed to him on more then one occasion.

Okay.... enough back story. Sensei has allowed me to teach one of the classes without his supervision. He gives me instruction as to what he wants to see done at some other point in the week when I see him at the main dojo. The Thursday before Thanksgiving K informed me before class that he wanted to lead class that night, he was the senior student and thus wanted to lead class. Needless to say an awkward position for all around. I politely declined stating that Sensei had left me instructions as to what he wanted covered in class that evening.

I have spoken to Sensei since then and he has that he wants me teaching that class and not to give it up to K. Sensei has a way he wants things taught and since K has not been around much (despite frequent invitations to come up to the main dojo to practice with the main school) Sensei would prefer that I teach that class.

I am looking for a graceful/face saving method of informing k that Sensei has instructed me to keep teaching that class. I don't want to insult him, I don't want this to spill out all over the place and disenfranchise the junior students, but I have to be able to provide correction to the other students based upon what I feel Sensei wants instructed.

Suggestions?

Should you make students grade? Or, if they are not interested in grading, but have done the work, do you let them learn new stuff (as if they had graded) or not?

Or, as I suppose what this question is really asking, is: What do you think of gradings and why do you do/give them?

We were looking at compression and expansion tonight, specifically with regard to the jum sau and bon sau. One of the guys was having a problem with the fact that his jum sau was kept pushing down.

We were doing danchi, and he knew that he needed to drop his elbow so that his jum would stop my palm strike, but couldn't do it without actually pushing my arm downwards. After some discussion, we were looking at what he was thinking compared to what I was thinking, so I could explain what I was doing different to him.

He was thinking that he must compress and therefore push my strike down, before extending into me.

On the other hand, I was thinking about Matrix 3. I pictured the bit where Agent Smith plunges his hand into another agent's chest (who then turns into another Agent Smith). Where as my partner was thinking about going down then forward, I was thinking of just filling the gap by going forwards in my wedge (bottom of the chest as was in outside gate).

We realised that the problem was where he was focusing - as soon as he pictured the Matrix he could do it nearly everytime.


I have put this here because I think that it's important to always think about what you are trying to achieve at the end, and there are different ways of thinking about what your body should be doing. If you can't get something right after quite a few tries, find out where you should be going, and think of something that resembles a way of getting there. Everyone 'sees' things differently, so think about how you see it, or how you would describe it to someone else.

Hope this makes sense.

(cross posted to _martial_arts and wingtsun)

Yep, this is it. I'm participating in in the National Chapmionships this weekend, both sparring and poomsae. Will be performing Taebaek (despite my 2nd dan. I see no problem taking the seniors on. Huahaha. ;) Just joking, but it's going to be interesting I reckon. My only worry is that the events might clash, which my referee friend said might happen, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that poomsae is on Day 1 and sparring on Day 2.

OTH, after all that whining about the financial state of instructors and dojang expansion, I've finally figured out a way to start my own taekwondo class *and* still be able to go to university next year without having it die out. Classes start in October. Yay! I'm going to write out the details here, and I really hope you guys'll be able to give me your opinions and suggestions. It'll be great if you could elaborate for each segment too.
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Gotta go. Talk more next time. Thank you.

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If this is not allowed, please let me know and I will delete it ASAP.

Help wanted:

I live in Malaysia and I want to watch this. But I don't have National Geographic here. Can someone pls help?

http://www9.nationalgeographic.com…

Okay, have this theory about teaching kids. This is not easy to put into words, but I'll give it a shot.

It seems to me that the most successful kids that I have in taekwondo, and that I've seen in the various taekwondo schools I've been in, are the ones where the dojang functions as a kind of haven from their home life.

I'm not saying that these are abused kids finding shelter at the dojang, nothing so extreme as that (although I'm sure that sometimes it happens). What I'm saying is that if taekwondo can exist outside of the realm of doing dishes, getting good grades, and all that other stuff, kids are more interested in it and stay in it longer.

Too often I've seen (as I've discussed here before) parents who can't wait to utter the fatal words "If you just put half the energy you put into taekwondo into your homework/chores/yardwork blah, blah, blah."

And the light goes right out of the kids eyes.

It's an association thing, if parents associate taekwondo with 1)everything the kid already hates, 2)every failure the kid has already had, they'll give it up. Additionally, if taekwondo becomes just another barganing chip between parents and child ("You like taekwondo? You'd better get your grades up, then.") they'll drop it.

Of course, taekwondo can't exist in a total vacuum, but I have just noticed that the further away from the war at home/school it is, the better the kids do in taekwondo. AND I feel that given enough time in taekwondo, enough time to make progress, to see change, to realize the value of hard work, and how much hard work is really 'hard work', I think that kids will bring that into other aspects of their lives.

Does this make any sense to anybody but me? Comments? Thoughts?