Passed my 8th kyu (orange belt) test.
- Thread starter aevans410
- Start date
Congratulations 
yea the only thing thats colored in MMA is your skin hehe (normally black, purple, yellow, all those nice bruise colors hehe).
So your into the korean arts eh hehe
Aword, it sounds like you use a version of a general okinawan belt system. In most karate set ups, any grade under Black belt (shodan - which starts the DAN grade system , shodan - 1st dan, nidan - 2nd dan etc) are called Kyu grades, you may be right indeed, your system doesn't use that. In TKD, the under black belt grades are usually referred to (help me out on the spelling evo) Kip grades.
Our system of Shotokan being of Japanese descent uses a modified JKA belt system. Ours is white, red, orange, yellow, green, purple, purple with white stripe, brown, brown with white tag, brown with white stripe, black.
MA is fun, if you have the dedication and are ready to commit to them. I love taking Shotokan
So your into the korean arts eh hehe
Aword, it sounds like you use a version of a general okinawan belt system. In most karate set ups, any grade under Black belt (shodan - which starts the DAN grade system , shodan - 1st dan, nidan - 2nd dan etc) are called Kyu grades, you may be right indeed, your system doesn't use that. In TKD, the under black belt grades are usually referred to (help me out on the spelling evo) Kip grades.
Our system of Shotokan being of Japanese descent uses a modified JKA belt system. Ours is white, red, orange, yellow, green, purple, purple with white stripe, brown, brown with white tag, brown with white stripe, black.
MA is fun, if you have the dedication and are ready to commit to them. I love taking Shotokan
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Just out of interest, is Shotokan one of the MAs where you are not actually attacking each other, just acting it out?
It might sound like a dumb question, but the reason is that when I was younger I took Karate lessons (dunno what type) and got to green belt, but all we ever did was learn katas (I think that's what they were called - where you perform a routine of punches, kicks and blocks as a group and in sync). Apart from that we just did stretches and learnt the self defence side of things. Never did anything to focus on strength or having actual fights.
It might sound like a dumb question, but the reason is that when I was younger I took Karate lessons (dunno what type) and got to green belt, but all we ever did was learn katas (I think that's what they were called - where you perform a routine of punches, kicks and blocks as a group and in sync). Apart from that we just did stretches and learnt the self defence side of things. Never did anything to focus on strength or having actual fights.
Jonny, I know what your saying, and I think I can help you understand.
Any martial art can be made to be like what you described. Usually, the schools that do that share a few traits. The traits are :
1. Outlandish tuition and belt test fees (1000 dollar black belt test!).
2. Teaching kihon (basics) and kata only, kumite is either non existant or an afterthought.
3. They have an inordinate amount of black belts that are age 7 or less and they promise a black belt in 2 years.
4. They have a lot of belt colors and belt colors with stripes (mostly over 25-30 different grades to suck more belt test money out of you.
5. They require that you purchase equipment from them at a ungodly mark up (70 dollars for a middleweight (10 oz cotton) gi that should cost 40)
(now its time for me to crack a few jokes)
6. They have a poster of Bruce Lee on the wall in a karate dojo or TKD dojang, even though they can't realize that Lee was a master of kung fu and his Jeet Kun Do philosophy was based off of Chinese martial arts instead of Japanese or Korean.
7. When you get your black belt they ask you if you want fries with that.
8. Any school or club with the word "Tiger" or "Dragon" (I.E. Tiny Tigers, Little Dragons)
Anyway, these schools that operate this way have been dubbed "McDojos" or "Belt Factories". They are out to take your money and nothing more. They leave the students with a false sense of security and they end up getting hurt. Anyone who claims to have beaten up a black belt probably has beaten a McDojo black belt. If anyone tries to harm a legitimate black belt in karate or TKD, they probably won't know he is a black belt until the fight is over, they don't brag about it. McDojo's do not teach humility or respect.
Legit schools do limit novices in fighting due to the overly litigious society we live in now. Anyone will sue anyone for anything, so they have to be careful. We spar full speed, but we use sparring gear. Once we reach brown belt or above, we can spar without them. By then, the chief instructor feels we can control ourselves to the point where we won't seriously injure anyone.
Any martial art can be made to be like what you described. Usually, the schools that do that share a few traits. The traits are :
1. Outlandish tuition and belt test fees (1000 dollar black belt test!).
2. Teaching kihon (basics) and kata only, kumite is either non existant or an afterthought.
3. They have an inordinate amount of black belts that are age 7 or less and they promise a black belt in 2 years.
4. They have a lot of belt colors and belt colors with stripes (mostly over 25-30 different grades to suck more belt test money out of you.
5. They require that you purchase equipment from them at a ungodly mark up (70 dollars for a middleweight (10 oz cotton) gi that should cost 40)
(now its time for me to crack a few jokes
)6. They have a poster of Bruce Lee on the wall in a karate dojo or TKD dojang, even though they can't realize that Lee was a master of kung fu and his Jeet Kun Do philosophy was based off of Chinese martial arts instead of Japanese or Korean.
7. When you get your black belt they ask you if you want fries with that.
8. Any school or club with the word "Tiger" or "Dragon" (I.E. Tiny Tigers, Little Dragons)
Anyway, these schools that operate this way have been dubbed "McDojos" or "Belt Factories". They are out to take your money and nothing more. They leave the students with a false sense of security and they end up getting hurt. Anyone who claims to have beaten up a black belt probably has beaten a McDojo black belt. If anyone tries to harm a legitimate black belt in karate or TKD, they probably won't know he is a black belt until the fight is over, they don't brag about it. McDojo's do not teach humility or respect.
Legit schools do limit novices in fighting due to the overly litigious society we live in now. Anyone will sue anyone for anything, so they have to be careful. We spar full speed, but we use sparring gear. Once we reach brown belt or above, we can spar without them. By then, the chief instructor feels we can control ourselves to the point where we won't seriously injure anyone.
thanks for all that info, it was a good read. The school I went to was just a local thing that is held in the village general hall, ie. not a properly kitted out building used only for MA practise. They didn't have a silly number of belts though. I think it went white, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown, black, or some similar arrangement of those. Absolutley no fighting went on whatsoever, even with the brown belt people who were mostly middle-aged men. I don't remember about the equipment purchasing (mum handled that ).
).It sounds like your program was set up for sport. Many tournaments hold Kata divisions and don't require you to compete in kumite. Maybe the older students knew that. Karate in the sport sense is fine, as long as it's understood that it may be lacking in techniques for self defense.
TKD has a tarnished reputation because of this. TKD gets more than its fair share of "McDojos". These less than desireable schools teach it for tournaments only, but forget to tell the students that. I've seen a few high level TKD students fight in a street fight, they tried to kick someone in the head, and got floored. TKD can be a deadly art, if its taught for fighting. IT just hardly is taught for fighting anymore.
TKD has a tarnished reputation because of this. TKD gets more than its fair share of "McDojos". These less than desireable schools teach it for tournaments only, but forget to tell the students that. I've seen a few high level TKD students fight in a street fight, they tried to kick someone in the head, and got floored. TKD can be a deadly art, if its taught for fighting. IT just hardly is taught for fighting anymore.
Yeah, I know a girl of 17 who does ju-jitsu and has been doing it for years. When she was 16 she was attacked by a few older kids (boys and girls) in the street on the way back from ju-jitsu. I think the reason she was attacked was because she was wearing her uniform and they wanted to see what she could do. She couldn't do anything, and so she went home with a black eye and cut lip.
Would you say that the self defense classes that are available to women are useful at all? (Not that I'm interested in joining)
Would you say that the self defense classes that are available to women are useful at all? (Not that I'm interested in joining)
I think the 4 hour self defense classes are a joke. It takes men and women years of practice to be able to defend themselves with normal techniques. What makes these guys think that they can show a woman how to knee a crotch or gouge some eyes and protect themselves in 4 hours? I think they're setting these poor unsuspecting women up to get hurt by filling them with false confidence.
As far as women in regular MA's, If I had a choice between fighting a male martial artist, and a female martial artist, Id rather fight a male. Females (generally) are smaller framed and quicker. Most of the women in my school are tough as nails too.
I don't know much about ju-jitsu, but I think it would be very tough to face multiple opponents using it. If I'm not mistaken, ju-jitsu is more of a striking/grappling system meant to subdue opponents. That may be why the girl you knew was attacked successfully.
As far as women in regular MA's, If I had a choice between fighting a male martial artist, and a female martial artist, Id rather fight a male. Females (generally) are smaller framed and quicker. Most of the women in my school are tough as nails too.
I don't know much about ju-jitsu, but I think it would be very tough to face multiple opponents using it. If I'm not mistaken, ju-jitsu is more of a striking/grappling system meant to subdue opponents. That may be why the girl you knew was attacked successfully.