Unbelievable!!!

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Ok, I was at training tonight and we had a new guy turn up, great, he is trying out a few different things to see what works for him, good idea, but some of the things he has come up with, wow!

The thing that this stems from, he went into a Freestyle Karate club, a fresh starter no prior knowledge, and was told if you pay extra then you could be a Brown Belt by Christmas!!!!! How the heck is that possible?!

Personally, I’m teaching with a view to developing people and passing on my knowledge, trying to bring out the best of the individual. Maybe I’m being a little idealistic but the ability to pass on your knowledge and see people grow, to become the best they can be that’s got to be good hasn’t it?

If you want to be a Brown Belt, or a Black Belt, go and buy one, will that make you one? If you got your Brown Belt in 3 months how valid would that actually be? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing to be honest.

Along with that, would you want to be associated with that sort of thing? How would you react if someone came to you and said, I can get a Brown Belt here in 3 months, how soon would I get that with you? Are we turning into a production line, just churning out Black Belts all over the place? To me, it loses it’s meaning surely?

Rant over…For Now!

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Back to Normal!

Hi All

Sorry it’s been quiet for a while, I’ve been getting married! which sort of took up a lot of my time!!

Normal service will be resumed, but it is odd getting back into it!

Cheers
Ian

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Congratulations On Your Grading!

Last night saw the club receive two new Brown Belts.

Greg Wilson and Steve Lloyd both went for their 1st Kyu at Scarborough on Thursday evening, after a somewhat physical grading both performed very well showing good knowledge, committment and skill levels to pass. So a huge well done to both.

Picture below shows two tired but happy people.

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No You Don’t Have To Be 100% Fit To Train!

I wrote the post a few weeks ago asking if you had to be 100% fit to train as I was getting
annoyed by weak excuses!

Anyway, last night I got both sides, one guy turned up training, I’ve hurt my arm, had to
have steroid injections, but it’s grading time soon, is it OK if I just go through my stuff
at the back taking it easy just learning the moves. Absolutlely, refreshing to hear, you
don’t need to go hell for leather all the time. It is possible to train around your
injury…usually anyway.

The exception would be a new starter, well a hopeful new starter, she keeps coming down
with her other half, he’s training and getting on with it and she’s frustrated because
she’s had an operation on her breastbone and can’t. Now that’s an injury it’s not so easy
to train around.

But not impossible, there’s still stuff you can do, wrist locks how to apply them, escapes
from joint locks, chokes, strangles etc. Just going to have to be very careful about
progressing, obviously falls and ground work are going to require a lot of time, but how
about strikes, I think some of those could well have an impact on the thoracic cage and
need to be careful with. Need to think about that one a bit more I think!

That’s the beauty of our art though, there’s so much we do that you can train around a
specific injury.

It’s all a challenge, and as an instructor keeps you on your toes.

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A Promising Night At Training.

Hi all

Maybe there is fresh blood out there still interested in Ju Jitsu Training after all.

It’s always the same isn’t it, you get no new students along for ages, then they all come at once. I must admit that I was starting to get a little concerned. Recently as you’ll know from the posts, we had four students grade for their Black Belts, and at the moment we have another two who are getting ready to go for Brown Belt. Then there seemed to be a big gap to the odd one or two who occasionally turned up at lower levels. I was getting a little concerned really, as to how it would look to a newbie that might turn up and look through the doors and see a group of 8 blokes, at Brown Belt or higher and how intimidating that might be.

It could be that they may take it as re-assuring, a lot of people to learn from. However, I fear not, that first step throught he door is the worst as you may well remember yourselves if you’ve been training a while, and I think that it could be just that little bit too intimidating.

But then….Last night, I was talking to some students, turned round to watcht the seniors warm up after the juniors had gone, and was shocked to see 15 Seniors on the Mat!!!! Excellent, even better, half of them were relative newbies, white belt or lower. Brilliant. Really re-assuring to see that fresh blood come in to the club, new challenges, new ideas. All Good.

What else was good to see was two of the recent Black Belts helping out with the teaching, both Juniors and Seniors and rising to the challenge to take their training to the next level.

Leaves you hopeful as to the future really!

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