Isshinryu

Discussion in 'Karate' started by Light123, May 14, 2008.

  1. animefreak88

    animefreak88 Valued Member

    what were you looking for?
     
  2. Light123

    Light123 Give Up On Giving Up

    Well, I went through a listof bo katas from the Shotokan, kobudo, shorinryu, and gojoryu styles. but, unfortunately, i couldn't exactly find it. If i knew the name, it would be easier to describeto other MAists. Somehow, i justdont think it's tokumine no kun, or the other two.

    Anyway, it looks like you do awesome with the bo, but it doesn't look like whoever-it-is does well with thecamera (no offense). :D
     
  3. animefreak88

    animefreak88 Valued Member

    Thank you. Weapons have been my specialty since I was a blue belt, the bo staff in particular. As for the camera, gotta love mom. :)
     
  4. aemond

    aemond New Member

    I also study Isshinryu karate, but in New York, and am a sankyu rank. We learn seisan, seiunchin, naihanchi, wansu, chinto, kusanku, sunsu, and sanchin katas in that order. As I understand it, some schools may learn sanchin kata earlier on because it was taught to the American GIs differently. At the moment I am learning Chinto kata.
     
  5. Light123

    Light123 Give Up On Giving Up

    I've always liked the bo. When I first watched someone wield it, I thought it was a bunch of twirling, but now that i've learned a kata I see I was wrong. Videos...deceiving.

    That or they either forgot the order or didn't think the order was important. :confused:

    What is your lineage?
     
  6. aemond

    aemond New Member

    My lineage comes from Don Nagle. My school also doesn't learn any of the weapons katas until after black belt.
     
  7. animefreak88

    animefreak88 Valued Member

    Lol, actually, that is the most common order for the empty hand kata in most isshinryu lineages. That was the order I learned my empty hand kata in. The only variation I ever see is that Sanchin's place in the order can change. Sanchin is an EXTREMELY DIFFICULT kata to perform properly. Most lineages don't teach it until after the other empty hand kata because they feel that you need the prior knowledge and experience to learn and train the kata properly. Some other lineages teach it earlier on (as early as 7th kyu sometimes) because they feel that teaching the basic movements early on (7th kyu) and adding and/or building on the other elements later (breathing, muscle tension, testing) gives the kata a much better learning curve. If you learn it earlier on and build on it during your course through the ranks, you maybe be better at brown belt than someone who learned it at the end, but the person who learns it later on catches on so much faster anyway that the quality of sanchin at black belt for the most part levels out.

    Another point on the order of sanchin, many feel that you also need to have been training for an extended period for your body to handle the effects of proper sanchin training, which is the other reason many lineages teach it later (so that the body is ready for it by the time of brown belt, and if the body isn't ready by then, then there is another problem anyway). Although many of the lineages I've seen that prefer to teach it sooner only teach the movement sequence earlier on, and they still save the breathing and muscle tension until brown belt. Ultimately though, it comes down to the preference of the instructor.

    Point on kata order to the isshinryu student from new york. You said you are a 3rd kyu (lowest level brown belt correct?) and that you are currently working on chinto kata. Most isshinryu schools I have seen teach all the empty hand kata before black belt and teach isshinryu to the intermediate ranks (green, blue, purple, etc.). Does your school still complete all empty hand kata prior to black belt? Also, what did you do in your earlier ranks (white, yellow, and maybe orange if your school uses that color)? What rank were you when u learned seisan, seiuchin, naihachi, and wansu?
     
  8. Light123

    Light123 Give Up On Giving Up

    Don Nagle? Hey, me too! :D

    Animefreak, how do you know if the body is ready?
     
  9. aemond

    aemond New Member

    In my school we designate more color belts to the children to give them a sense of achievement. For adults, we have a white belt, a white belt with a stripe, yellow, green, brown, which is broken down into sankyu, nikyu, and ikkyu. White belt to green takes around 2 years of study, and then 3 years of study at brown belt. I learned Seisan kata at white belt, Seiunchin kata at yellow belt, Naihanchi and Wansu kata at green belt, Chinto, Kusanku, Sunsu, and Sanchin all at brown. And then once I earn my black belt, I begin to study the weapon katas.

    At the moment I'm learning Chinto kata, and so far find it to be physically the more difficult of the katas that I have already learned. However, if you have a low Seiunchin stance, then that kata can become taxing.
     
  10. animefreak88

    animefreak88 Valued Member

    Hey twistingtiger, I will try to answer your question as best I can, but its hard for me to put into words.

    First, I'll give you the short answer. You know your body is ready for sanchin when you can perform all the other empty hand kata at a level that is appropriate for your rank (or atleast through kusanku). So most schools, kusanku is learned at the rank just before brown belt (normally blue or purple is the color) and sunsu is learned about brown. A student from such a school is probably able to start training sanchin more intensely when they can peform seisan through kusanku at a level appropriate for a blue belt about to test for brown, but the student is definitely ready to do sanchin at full intensity when they can perform seisan through sunsu at a level appropriate for a brown belt.

    Now, the longer more detailed reason as to why that's a reliable indicator of when the body is ready:

    Sanchin kata done at 100% is VERY physically demanding on the body. Taking attacks while doing the kata is also very strenuous. To perform any of the kata is physically demanding though. And as aemond mentioned, chinto is one of the most physically demanding so far, and that is true. Although, it is also true that kusanku and sunsu are even more demanding then chinto. Performing all of your isshinryu kata on a regular basis improves your body's conditioning ( by conditioning, i am referring to your body's tolerance to the stress of snapping punches and kicks, the endurance of your power, tolerance to the stress of holding proper stances, and your cardio endurance) By the time you reach brown belt in isshinryu and can perform kusanku and sunsu sufficiently enough to get promoted to a higher rank (example, i was promoted to 2nd kyu after learning sunsu and performing it to my sensei's standard), the training of your isshinryu kata alone will have conditioned you to the point that your body is ready to start training sanchin to a higher degree.

    Also, many schools do body conditioning drills where you practice taking hits. After two years of doing this even semi-regularly, you will be much better prepared for taking hits during sanchin.

    ---Brief aside: The guidelines i've just discussed do not apply to students under the age of 16. Regardless of time training, I really don't consider intense sanchin training appropriate for anyone under the age of 13, and I feel the amount of intensity trained should be chosen cautiously with students 13-15 years of age. Sanchin at full intensity is very stressful to the bones, ligaments, muscles, and blood vessels of the karateka. This is not a bad thing for an adult or even a teenager in the much later stages of puberty, their bodies adapt to that stress and it makes them stronger and in some ways healthier. But that stress is more than what younger bodies are able to adapt to, and as a result, intense sanchin training could do more harm than good. Realistically though, this doesn't come up often because brown belts under the age of 13 in isshinryu are exceedingly rare in my experience. End aside--

    Hope this helps!!
     
  11. Light123

    Light123 Give Up On Giving Up

    Oy...for some reason I like getting hit. :D

    How does your sensei teach? I mean, do you do every kata you learned everytime you go to class?
     
  12. animefreak88

    animefreak88 Valued Member

    I have had 3 different formal isshinryu instructors, all from the same school. First was my sensei, still the current head instructor of the school (although he no longer own the school). Next, was a 4th degree black belt who worked at a prison by day (unfortunately, he was unable to continue teaching at the school due to personal conflicts). And the 3rd was the current owner of the school, who also teaches all the adult classes. I started training at the age of 11 in the sensei's general kids class. It was a much more toned down class focused on kata and basics, with the last 5 minutes of class spent racing back and forth across the training floor in different ways (bear walk, duck walk, running backwards, etc.). Given the learning curve at the school and that most students only attended 1 class a week (there were 2 days with classes available, each class 1 1/2 hours long), it takes most of the kids a lil less than 2 years to get to green belt. Given that amount of time, most students were gone before that point, so there weren't a lot of green belts when i was training. But, there was a group of us (most of them were younger than me but had been there longer) that were promising yellow belts and/or green belts. On the same night as the kid's class i attended, there was another 1 1/2 hour class held immediately afterwards. This class was for the high yellow belts and green belts that were kids, or younger teenagers (13-16). I got moved into this class shortly before i got my green belt. This class was a slightly more intense version of my other class, no more games at the end, less rest time in between practice of basics and kata, a little bit more self-defense. 3-4 months after getting moved to this class, my sensei brought in the black belt who was a prison guard, and had him begin to run the class, and then my karate training took off. This new black belt was very very strict and self-defense focused. When doing heavy bag work, you didn't practice out of a natural fighting position, you practiced out of a traditional seisan stance, and repeated failure to maintain that stance resulted in extra crunches (sometimes extra push ups). My sensei still oversaw these classes though. Most nights, the new black belt would run a class focused on one of 3 things (sometimes two of them), techniques going down the line (with or without hand targets), heavy bag work, or various self defense techniques. While we would go through this class as a group, sensei would pull us off to the side one at a time and we would go over our kata with sensei. Then, near the end of class, we would sometimes do some of the kata together as a group. During this time, I gained the discipline, respect, and love for karate that I have now, it was these more intense classes that helped me grow up as i went through puberty. It was not unusual for my sensei to have me (and my other peers) to come in other times during the week before or after other classes for extra one on one kata training (it was also in this off time I was started on my weapons training).

    When I was 15 years old and had my brown belt, I was told to start attending the general adult classes as well. They had two available nights of classes a week as well, each class being 2 hours. The warmup exercises were FAR more intense, but once I got past that, it was actually easier. The black belt running those classes (currently owner of the school, although my sensei is still head instructor) was not as strict as the class I had become so accustomed to. This class was a much more cut and dry setup. Warm up exercises with basic techniques practiced at the end of the warm up. Water break after that. Line back up, and it would normally either be time spent going over self defense for half the remaining class with kata taking the other half, or kata for the entire class after water break (this is the monday class setup, the wednesday class setup is sparring then kata instead of self defense then kata). Although this black belt was less strict (possibly not strict enough), he was very good with weapons, and I credit a great deal of my bo staff ability to adding his weapons knowledge to the basic foundation of weapons training my sensei had laid for me. In this adult class though, you were always training the kata you were currently learning while doing others when requested to by a black belt, but at least once every 3 weeks, if not at least once every other week, the entire class would do all the katas together as a group.

    During this time, my sensei would occasionally run the teenager's class if the prison guard couldn't be there. But now that the class was known as a stricter class, my sensei made it difficult in completely new ways. I recall one night in particular, the sensei seemed very laid back, and he even had us use our bo staffs to help us stretch, a very easy laid back warm up. Fun, interesting, kinda easier class, I remember thinking to myself. But after warmup, we all lined up with a partner at the heavy bags, and he the sensei preceeded to humble us by in the same laid back demeanor, he had us throw over 300 kicks into those heavy bags in that single class.

    Sorry for the extremely long answer, but I had fun on reflecting on those old days of training. :)
     
  13. animefreak88

    animefreak88 Valued Member

    But to answer the 2nd part of your question (i realized I had only addressed the 1st part in such detail that I'd never given you a clear answer to the 2nd part, lol), no, the isshinryu school i come from does not do every kata known every class. Normally, its the kata you are learning and 1 or 2 other ones you already know. (normally one you are still having problems with sometimes or the one that the black belt hasn't seen lately).

    At the taekwondo school I go to now, the students normally only focus on the form currently being learned while in class, yet there are nights where students do all of the forms they know.
     
  14. Light123

    Light123 Give Up On Giving Up

    Sorry to make you write an extremely long post, but I had fun reading it. ;)

    At the dojo I go to, we normally start by doing our "way steps". and after that i run through all th e katas i currently know, sometimes including tokumine no kun. (after watchingyour video a few times, i'm startingto think thats what it is). then we may do one of three things:
    1. discuss bunkai
    2. learn new techniques
    3. start on a new kata
    At times where necessary, a fourth option is present where sensei adjusts things in my kata. :D It is a privateclass. I go in every friday for about an hour and sometimes igo in more than once a week. my sensei isnt strict and sometimes we find ourselves just chatting, so i start doing something to get back on topic.

    Fun stuff
     
  15. animefreak88

    animefreak88 Valued Member

    Your bo kata probably is tokimine no kun. Keep in mind, that was what I did at a tournament, that's not how I traditionally do the kata. At the point where I do the double swing with the staff followed by the downward strike, I only do the one swing which stops in the center traditionally. Also, I know in the video that I only did two thrusts prior to that swing, but that was just a mistake in my part. I had stepped wrong on the first thrust, so I left out the 3rd thrust to get my stances lined up and back on track. Also, the horizontal strikes in the kata's main attack sequences are traditionally taught as temple strikes with the bo angled 45 degrees (the back hand ends up on your belt as you do the strike), but I was originally taught to keep the bo horizontal by my sensei and i choose to still do that for tournaments since keeping a bo parallel with the ground displays greater precision and control of the bo than angling it. (also, from a combative standpoint, i would still only angle the bo about 15 degrees to hit the temple of an opponent since the power is the same between the angles, but a full 45 degree angle aiming to the temple has less range then the 15 degree angle).

    Sounds like your school is a good training environment. Personally, I do best when the formal classes are very strict and downright nitpicky, but are accompanied by informal training sessions that are much more laid back and experimentation oriented. Sometimes, you can get the informal training benefits just by practicing a few minutes after normal class ends (which is what I often did at my isshinryu school) My TKD training was a strange change of pace from my isshinryu, but I try to come in some days before the after school martial arts program kids arrive (for better or for worse, my TKD school is a commercial martial arts studio, still produces quality black belts though) and do informal training with the black belts there. These are very laid back sessions with lots of talk and joking, but time spent practicing stuff that is new or difficult for me. After getting a grasp of a new skill during my informal training, I then start practicing it in the formal classes to refine it. This blended method has always worked for me, and has helped so much since I started my TKD training that I can now throw the higher TKD kicks as good as many of the black belts at this TKD school (i could only kick as good as their higher intermediate ranks when i started at the school 6 months ago) and I can even get more snap and crispness in my lower isshinryu kicks when performing them in self defenses or in kata.

    Hopefully you will get to learn the bo-bo kumite soon. Its a prearranged fight with bo staffs that you do with a partner, but I consider it to be one of the most useful training exercises I ever did with a bo staff.
     
  16. Light123

    Light123 Give Up On Giving Up

    I'm pretty sure I'm getting close to bo-bo kumite. My previous class, we went over some bunkai for tokimine no kun. Personally i like the "baseball bat" part the most. :D

    Do you think i should master isshinryu before i go anywhere else? i'm thinking about adding another style to my training. Probably one of those that made my dad a tough cookie (that is, Arnis, shotokan, kickboxing, circle jiujitsu, ryukyu kenpo, JKD).
     
  17. animefreak88

    animefreak88 Valued Member

    I most definitely feel you should wait before cross-training. I am training in Taekwondo now, but I didn't start training in that until thanksgiving 2007, yet I received my black belt in Isshinryu in August 2004. I have two isshinryu friends that have done some cross training in american kenpo (they couldn't stick with it due to other commitments though), one was a 2nd kyu, and the other was a 2nd degree black belt. All of these instances, the cross training is after a strong foundation is already in place from the isshinryu training. Personally, I feel you should pursue Isshinryu, you seem to have a good training attitude that could persevere you all the way to black belt. Although you have a strong Isshinryu foundation at brown belt, I feel that brown belts are much better off preparing for their black belt tests than starting something new. Earn a black belt in isshinryu, then wait at least a few months after receiving a black belt, when you are "used to it" so to speak (the transition itself is a great learning experience but that's an insight you are probably better off discussing later on in your training), then ADD another style to your training (you don't want to replace one style with another, you want to add). Although I don't attend my isshinryu school regularly, I still practice my isshinryu regularly, and am still improving my isshinryu forms as well. By the time you are a black belt comfortable in your own shoes, you will know what your strengths, weaknesses, and interests are in terms of martial arts, and if you choose to cross train (isshinryu is one of the most well rounded styles I have seen so cross training is not a universal necessity for isshinryu karateka), you use those strengths, weaknesses, and interests to choose what to cross train in.

    I took a year off from training because of college and issues i was having at my isshinryu school. After a year, I missed it so much I had to get back into it. Because of those issues and schedule conflicts with work and college, I wanted to try a new school though. My strengths were that I have fast punches and decent weapon control (my bo staff ability has only recently reached the level its at now). My interests were split between doing better in competitions and learning more varied but easily applicable self defense, and my weakness was that I was not a very good kicker. When choosing what to train in, I wanted something similiar enough that I'd catch on quick, but different enough that it could address one of those areas in a way my isshinryu training could not. I chose the taekwondo to bring my kicks up and address my biggest weakness, but it has also helped me learn to relax with all my techniques more, which has improved my all around speed, balance, and reflexes.

    Several of the early Isshinryu black belts in the united states cross trained in bando, a style that focuses on defense with weapons and empty hand self defense. This built on the strong self defense and weapons foundation that these black belts already had from their isshinryu training.

    If you cross train too early (before black belt), you end up not getting a good footing in either art and end up as a "jack of all trades, master of none", yet cross training after a foundation is set refines the martial artist that you already are and can in some ways offer new insight to your original style (isshinryu in this case) that can help further your mastery of your original style.

    Short answer, wait until after black belt to cross train, that way, the cross training would make you better than you would be without it, but if you cross train too soon, it will make you worse than you would be if you only did one style.

    By the time you are ready to cross train, you will have a pretty good idea what would be best for you to cross train in.
     
  18. Light123

    Light123 Give Up On Giving Up

    Speaking of college and issues, they do get in the way of many pleasureable things. Martial arts is a true pleasure. I was telling my mom that if i fade from school for some reason, I want to just study martial arts. I'm the only one on her side of the family that knows anythin about martial arts. My love for it probably comes from dad? No, it comes from my heavenly Father. Are you Christian? The definition f "isshinryu", one-heart way, fits nicely with John 14:6 "And Jesus said, "Iam the Way, the life, and the truth; no one comes unto the Father except through Me." "

    Anyway, I guess cross training will have to wait. I don't know all my strength and weaknesses, but i know i pick up on movement real quick, have fast hard kicks and punches, but my control and balance are off (because of my disability?). My nterests are...uhm...skill, defense, pleasure...maye. What is your motivation/
     
  19. animefreak88

    animefreak88 Valued Member

    Given the source of your motivation, you would be very interested to know that Master Shimabuku, the founder of Isshinryu, himself was a deeply spiritual person. Do some research on the history of master shimabuku, although not all the sources are consistent with each other on details, there is alot of good information to pull about master shimabuku's spirtitual side. Although I don't think its fair to call myself a christian (I haven't made a strict religious committment yet), I do believe in the following:

    1. We were created by a wise, omnipotent being (there is a god, and he is our creator).
    2. Certain events and opportunities in our lives do happen for a reason.
    3. Karma (if you do good deeds, you will be rewarded, and if you do evil deeds, you will be punished).
    4. That there is more to us humans than the tangible flesh that western medicine knows. I believe we have a spiritual essence as well.


    Now, of great interest for me to answer for you: my motivation for martial arts training. I started training in Isshinryu karate at the age of 11. At the time that I started, I was an obese child. I weighed 145 lbs. at a height of a little over 4 feet tall. I was an only child and the house we lived until I was 9 didn't have a lot of neighbors my age. So needless to say, I was grossly lacking in peer interaction skills. I have always been very intelligent, so I ended up being the fat nerdy kid that had little to no friends and was picked on very frequently. But I had become absolutely addicted to the martial arts action of the power rangers as a kid, so my parents suggest I start taking it for real. They hoped it would help get me in better shape and that I might make some friends there. I was scared I wasn't cut out for it at first, but I was intrigued and excited enough that I gave it a try. The sensei and the other teachers were very encouraging and gave me a lot of motivation. That encouragement carried me all the way to my green belt. Then, when I started training with the more intense prison guard, I hated it at first. "He was mean, he asked too much of me" I thought at first. There was a grind period here where my mother actually had to make me go a few times (not often, just once or twice out of a 3 month period). Then, after the first few months of the more intense classes, I had a break through. I could throw a kick head level. Granted, it was probably a hideously ugly crescent kick, but I could throw a head level kick. Whereas I had thinned a lil bit before, I started thinning out a lot now. I started gaining more confidence in myself. The classes were still hard, but the rewards made them tolerable. At some point, as I became even better, and reaped more and more benefits of the harder training (I was transitioning from junior high school to high school at this point), I simply became used to it. Karate was "my thing." Looking back, I think part of had finally realized that in the confusing midsts of my adolescence and puberty, that the karate training was helping make me grow into manhood. Then, taking it even further, I tested for and received my brown belt. Then, that goal of black belt, that had awed me since my first class at 11 years old, had become a tangible goal. I wasn't sure if I'd be ready when I tested for it, but I knew at that point that the test would eventually come, ready or not. Being a senior student, I started to help teach the junior students some, and found that not only did I have a knack for teaching, I rather enjoyed it.

    Then, 4 months after I turned 16, on a friday the 13th, I was the first of my testing group to test for my 1st degree black belt (we took our tests individually). In all honesty, I didn't do everything at a black belt level during the test (I screwed up my sanchin kata a lot, and one of my breaks), but I was passed, as they felt I would grow into a black belt who would exceed those initial standards.

    By that point, I ate, slept, and breathed karate about as much as a 16 year old male could (at that age, girls can be such a distraction ;p). Then, as things changed at the karate school, I fell into a training rut, I had regressed without even realizing it. I realized this during the onset of my senior year of high school when a black belt who had left for the air force when I had started attending the school came back having been honorably discharged. For the next year and a half, I cycled between improving past my former peak, and regressing, as schedules kept me from training with this other black belt regularly. Finally, halfway through my first year of college, the other black belt was too busy to be attending, and I couldn't bear the discontent of my rut anymore, I felt like some of the changes at the school were holding me back, holding me in that rut. So, I decided to take 1-2 months off to self-train myself. I knew that this decision would hurt me in terms of getting my 2nd degree black belt on schedule, but I had decided I'd rather be more skilled as a 1st degree than a 2nd degree who had been promoted primarily on the merit of attendance. I wanted my 2nd degree, but I felt I needed more progress to be deserving of it, and this decision felt like the best way to make that progress. It started out good the first few weeks, but then I got sick and had to stop training, and then I never got back into it. I would sometimes try to meet up and train with my best friend (who is an isshinryu brown belt), but I never resumed my regular training. At first, since work, school, and my girlfriend were keeping me so busy, I didn't mind at first. But then, as more and more months went by without training, it went from being a nuisance, to being upsetting. I was starting to miss it so much that I was beginning to get depressed over it. I found out that a few months after I left, a student from my testing group (he had tested for black belt one month after me) had been promoted to his 2nd degree black belt. My best friend had also stopped attending the school, for reasons mostly the same as mine, but he went to a big tournament and our sensei had seen him there. My best friend told me that sensei had said, "the longer you stay out of it, the less likely you are to come back." It struck such a powerful chord within me, I felt like those words were almost said to me through my friend (the fact was sensei wanted my friend to at least go back and attain black belt because his training effort had made him deserving, but it struck me that powerfully). My friend called our prison guard instructor seeking advice, letting the instructor know that I was no longer attending as well. The prison guard instructor said that he was not the least bit surprised to hear I had stopped attending (before leaving, this instructor was having many of the issues I was having, and knew that I wouldn't settle for less). I remember my depression growing over the whole thing while I had wrapped my brain around those two conversations, trying to decide what to do. I wanted to train again, but not at my old school, granted, some time off may have healed the rifts, but there were still some of the issues there, and I was convinced (and still am in retrospect) that I would have merely fallen back into my rut and left the school again if i tried going back. This was even harder when you consider that my isshinryu school was the only school in the area, and that every other isshinryu instructor in the area who taught on a smaller scale (YMCA, boys/girls club, etc.) was affiliated with my school.

    Finally, I reached a breaking point. I was overweight again, and I felt weak, I felt out of shape, I felt myself starting to get winded from going up the stairs at my girlfriend's house. I couldn't take it anymore, I missed it too much and had to go back somehow, but I was convinced I needed something different. There was a taekwondo school in my hometown that was a year old. The owner of the school had once owned another school, but the old school had become a borderline mcdojo at one point (i say borderline because although the black belts were proficient to a reasonable standard, the school was heavily commercialized). I had been shying away from this school for that reason, but at that point, I didn't care, I decided I should do the mature thing and at least watch a class before i finalize that judgment in my mind. I watched a class, the class was very short, but the head instructor, was very knowledgeable, and also very, very proficient. The school worked in one year contracts but offered 6 weeks at a trial cost. I was impressed enough with what I saw that i gave the 6 week trial a try, and ended up loving it. The school is still a commercial school, but there were skilled black belts there who set a higher bar for me to train to, and most importantly, it was a school where EVERY STUDENT THERE WANTED TO IMPROVE WHEN TRAINING. The classes were kept short and to the point to help keep it that way. I have enough martial arts knowledge that at that point I didn't so much need a great teacher as I did a great training environment, and the environment I needed was at this taekwondo school, plus the instruction was good. I have since flourished. In the first 3 months, I regained everything I had lost in my year off and had improved my kicks slightly passed that point. Its been 7 months now since I started there, and I am at a level that I was never at before. I have finally made the progress that I felt I had always needed for my 2nd degree in isshinryu. Although there are some differences in the styles, there are enough similarities that I was told to wear my black belt to this school, and I have caught on to the differences so quick that I have been offered to help as an assistant instructor at this taekwondo school when I am there. I even work part time for the school, doing some helping with sales booths here and there and helping clean up and/or teach when available to (they work around the schedules of my main job and school). The only downer to working at the TKD school is that I'm not allowed to train at any other schools (I had started to drop in semi-regularly at my old school, to avoid burning bridges and to earn my 2nd degree black belt, but I decided to go back later and work at the TKD school for now, its a better job for while I do my last year as a full time college student, plus the teaching experience at such a large school will be invaluable for when I eventually teach on my own, which I've always wanted to do), but its a fair rule and I don't mind so much since i have isshinryu friends I can train with on the side and my isshinryu is still improving just from time i take aside for self-training in between TKD classes. Even better, I will have a key to this school too.

    I gave you my whole martial arts history here in such detail because I feel its the best way to answer my martial arts motivation. Martial arts training played such a big part of me growing into manhood that it is now a part of who I am as a person. If i'm not doing martial arts, I'm not in touch with a very large part of myself, and there's not a person around who can be emotionally healthy while having lost touch with part of themself. By the time I graduate with my bachelor's degree, I will have been martial arts training for half of my life already. By the time I have a child that is of a age to start training seriously (although some things can be taught as early as 3 or 4, I think a student should be at least 7 or 8 to start really learning karate to make some serious progress), I will have been a black belt for half of my life.

    My progress motivates me to push myself in training, and I now love the grueling training that I once hated when I was younger, but martial arts training itself, although it does have a slight fitness motivation to me, I no longer need motivation for just plain martial arts training, since it is so integrated to who I am as a person.

    Btw, as for my isshinryu training, once I have completed my associate's degree, I plan on reverting back to being just a normal student at the TKD school so I can go back to training at my isshinryu school (its already been agreed that when my time of employment ends, i can train at other schools again, just not while i'm on the payroll and doing sales work, etc.). Since my foundation is in isshinryu, as is my overalll style preference, I plan on teaching isshinryu when I teach on my own (i may add some of the different tkd kicks to broaden a student's horizons, but the training will still be 75% isshinryu as i learned it).

    Lastly, if you don't mind my asking, what is your disability?
     
  20. Light123

    Light123 Give Up On Giving Up

    My disability is neurodegenerative. As an infant, i was diagnosed with Friedreich's Ataxia. It causes damage to my nerves and muscles, which in turn causes deafness, visual impairment, and lack of balance. Zlot of people that have the disability areconfined to a wheelchair; however, i havent let myself be put in one (I hate them) nor have i letany orthopedic therapist give me sissy equipment. i would rather do things the "hard" way. I use a walker to get around places. Somehow, it doesnt seem like the disability has gotten worse (i dont take any meds).

    My disability is one of the reasons i started training in the martial arts. I believe it will help me somehow. A lot of times people may expect a lot less from me ("can he do this?", "can he read?", "can he ...can he...?"), which justmakes me laugh because these people dont know the extent of my abilities despite my disability. Sometimes this misjudgment becomes a reason for me to study martial arts. But ever since i started college, i've been training myself to care less about these judgements and just use it as an advantage against the "bored bad boys". :p

    As I said before, i use a walker to get around places. i've been doing my isshinryu training from a chair. but recently i started practicing seisan while standing with my friend holding me up from behind. I picked up on the whole kata (turns and such) from this position like the second or third time, but i'm still not sure how to move my feet when i turn or if i step after i kick (before the circle, y'know?) I've decided this is how i will do it for the tournament.
     

Share This Page