Comments on: Black Belt Envy

By: Pan

Pan — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:49:24 +0000

i agree as long as people that have claimed they are black belts have skill, power,speed, grace, stamina, good reactions and determination. These days you rarely see that kind of person.Being a “true black belt” is the state of mind and the experience of learning is the main point.If you can execute your techniques swiftly and strongly; anybody with these qualities could and should be a “true black belt”.

By: rico

rico — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 16:32:46 +0000

i read mostly all of the post written here ,and strangely your all right

there isnt an incorrect statement as such from anyone ,youve all given your veiw from your perspective

im still a student i will be for life to see so much confusion when you all have the answer is sad

enlightenment is very simple…..
i was given a story about a boy in search for a cow lost in the forest and consumed with worry (the aswer is here)

to me shodan means someone who has some technique and knowledge who needs guidance as they cannot progress alone just as the above story

please keep on the path

By: pan

pan — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 01:21:54 +0000

that is great but you should have been tested and the instructor should need to see your skills first hand and just because you won that time doesn’t mean that everyone is a poser, just as a tip.

By: Pef

Pef — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:19:03 +0000

I remember my first street fight , was about 16 years old and about 6-7 youngsters jumped me , first i was a bit confused and little scared … but then my training took over , my body moved on its own avoiding kicks and punches , then i punched the biggest of them , one right hand punch in solar plexus ..
Next few minutes were the best time of my life , just running after one … not really a run , 3 or 4 steps and punch or kick … and they just fell down , gasping for air.

Well , few minutes later some 10 other friends of theirs were running to join the fight so i took off , but i was laughing while i ran .

Next day i went to my dojo and told my fellow mates about it , they told our sensei .. and he gave me my green belt … he said that experience was all he needed for an exam.
(btw my karate style has a blue-yellow-green-brown-black code for belts)

By: pan

pan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:15:37 +0000

My opinion of a good school is that there probably is a good number of students.Also the teacher must seem like he wants to teach and he should care about improving his students, being able to correct his students critically, and seem like he knows what he is doing. The teacher should not cherge over $138.00 if it does then it might just be a rip off.The last thing is the teacher must have at least 5-10 years of experience and be able to answer most karate related questions.If this doesn’t help then i’m sorry i couldn’t help

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:46:23 +0000

I took one semester of karate in college, and I rather liked it. Many years later now, I think I would like to get back into it. Mostly for exercise and self defense.

Can anyone give me an idea on what to look for in a good school and sensei? I’m more concerned about getting good training rather than accumulating belts.

Thanks for any ideas.

By: Pan

Pan — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 03:33:32 +0000

I am a First degree black belt and I took four- to five years and i am 14 years old training in mixed martial arts. My martial arts is not at all like the UFC fighting and I learn different styles like Krav Maga, taekwon do, Muy Thai, and very little of Brazillian Ju Jitsu. sorry to but into conversations but time should matter and belt rank also doesn’t matter like right now I have 1 and a half years of black belt training. I am guessing most of you are older than me so I don’t have much say but right now I probably have a lot of skill but I can’t really judge myself so read on if you want.
The beggining of my career was at the ymca.They were not proffesionals at all so I left.When I left I found a great place that I didn’t know of before.When I started I was doing forms and techniques like everyone but then I got moved up because of my time spent there.Although I didn’t mind being moved up, I had no skill moving up but I was still a yellow belt.I was in a generation with some tough people that way when I needed to sparr him I was totally outmatched.At that point I knew it was going to be hard if the yellow belts were hard but as I went more to train and time progressed at my black belt training I beat them so easily it was strange but then I noticed how they started to look up to me like I was unstoppable with unlimited stamina and speed and power.

I sparr against some blue belts and some beated me so obviouly I haven’t trained enough but they were afaird to sparr me because of them seeing my class. so belts do not matter. Also time does matter if you work hard and have effort your skill woud be incomparible and the other hard working people just challenges your self to do better.

Last thing is don’t worry about anything other that training yourself and improving thats what matters the most and improvement takes time.fight to break your own limits and you will definitely successful.
P.S. I hope i have been helpful to clear things up.

By: RonnieWilliams

RonnieWilliams — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 09:23:42 +0000

im a first degree brown belt in shotokan karate.
it took me 5 years to get to this point…
in shototkan we have a belt system,that when you master a kata(a series of technical moves)you are then “tested” on that kata.you are being “tested” your on ur technique and the way you execute these moves.if you pass this “test” you will be promoted to the next belt.thats how the belt system would generally go in okinawa.i would stay after class every day. just to train and work on my katas. and when i look around i see people skipping belts just to get to black.i ask myself sometimes “do these people even deserve a black belt”
they seem to treat black belts like trash.anybody can go to the store and buy a black and not have to a damn thing or even break a sweat.when it took me blood ,sweat, and determination to get to first degree brown.
this is just my out look on it you can say im wrong but this is how i see it
one can think the black belt as the dollar bill
a hundred years ago one dollar bill meant the world to some people
a hundred years ago when one would see someone wearing a black belt walking down the street they would look in awwh,knowing that this person is diciplined conditioned persistant and most importantly determined to acheive a goal
and now if a black belt walks down the street the average person would probably think the same
but for someone like me, you will always have that “what if”
the part that tells you all these things about that person then you realize he/she could be another one of those people who walk in the dogo with half effort and earn their black belt because they have a deep pocket

this is just how i see it
you can say im wrong
if you want
im only open for dicussion and ready to consider some more points and see other peoples outlook on this topic

By: josh young

josh young — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 00:54:07 +0000

I’d like to note I am an aspie and the condition is most often genetic and tends to be passed from father to son. Martial arts has a nice ordered social system that can be good for aspies.

By: DPend

DPend — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:10:03 +0000

I think the real issue here is, “What do you want from Karate?”. My son has Aspergers and doesn’t do well in organized sports. With all the anti-social aspects of his condition it’s hard for him to be accepted. He recently obtained his Black Belt in SongahmTaeKwondo (ATA) after 3 1/2 years of effort. The confidence and respect he receives as a result of his rank have done so much for him from a personal perspective I would trade it any day for a ton of Prozac. Can he fight real well? No I never went beyond Yelloe belt in Moo Duk Kwan and could dismantle him in second ( Ok I was trained by two different military combat trainers in two different styles and yes I street sparred many times, but…) The point here is that some people are born to fight and Karate will make them better and others are not. For them it’s about sport and attitude. Hopefully they would know enough to protect themselves, but they would probably never be a premiere fighter. There are things in Karate that go way beyond fighting capacity and I think it’s important to keep that in mind. For these people having the structure of Karate is more important than anything else.