Teras Kasi Archive

Shaolin Tao (goin on a year now, and it beats the crap out of tae kwan do)

Muay Thai, San Chou, Tong Sue Do(sp), Japanese Bushido Karate, American Bushido Karate,American Boxing, Philipino stick fighting ( incomplete), jujitsu and nourthern shoalin style kung fu, all wrapped up into a nice style i liek to call "whatever works at the moment", ive been at this a long time and did alot of double and triple training, i only officially hold rank in Japenese and american karate and Tong Sue Do.

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RyadhiMakkar wrote:

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SilLum wrote:

I hate to sidetrack this thread, but what does everyone think about the type of training places that give out black belts to childeren of a young age? To be honest, if it were up to me, I would say 17/18 at the very min should be the requirement. Why? because anyone below that age obviously cannot possess the sort of strength that can overcome an adult. I mean, I see childeren at the age of 5/6 getting a black belt. What the hell? do they think they can defend themselves on the street, where there are no limitations, and people don't `play by the rules`?

I think it installs a false sense of security in the child, and should be disallowed. I mean, although there are some that say `a black belt is merely the first step into the art`, it IS a rank regarded as a level of expertise in most arts, and I really doubt any child can be mentally as well as phyisically mature enough to handle such a thing. I have heard people say, and I echo, that when two people in a fight meet with level skills, the stronger person will always win, without fail. A child of 5 or 6 does NOT have ANY strength.

It's silly.

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Our dojo has solved this by adding several belts for those 18 yrs and younger. It's less a question of strength and more a question of experience. I'm physically much stronger than sensei, but have never come close to besting him in kumite. He's anticipating my every move and counters every offense.

For the juniors we offer several other awards, but being a traditional school we don't stress awards and belts. We only wear unmarked white gis, with the exception of the black belts who are allowed to wear our clan patch over the left breast. We spar early on and stress what works in combat-we leave the flashy moves to the fly-by-night schools.

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i agree with sillum on the issueing of ranks to less mature students, and i liek your dojo's way of dealing with it, personally i don't believe in the whole ranking system involved you either learn it or you don't, and if you don't learn it you are an inferior fighter.

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seant9 wrote:

Since I have seen it more than once in this thread, I would just like to point out that the belt ranking system used in many martial arts was not "created for westerners". The colored belt ranking system was developed by Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo. Karate picked up this ranking system through Gichin Funakoshi when he introduced Okinawan karate to Japan. Since then many martial arts have adopted it, in particular Japanese arts that abandoned the older menkyo system of grading.

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That may be true for the japanese martial arts, but I do a Chinese martial art, and one which was at one point only being taught in secret in china because martial arts were illegal. So they didn't have sashes, or belts as the japanese decided to call them, or they got arrested.
When the two masters of our style moved to australia and set up their respective Gwoons (chinese equivelant of dojo), they instituted the sash system to allow easier management of their larger student body.
So it was, in truth, invented for us westerners. Sorry to dissapoint you. *wink*

Ok, firstly:

` i think marshal arts are for pussies...o yeah, and wannabe's
ebso
have fun! `

I'm willing to bet that pretty much any good martial artist will smash the hell out of you in less then 10 seconds. So that eliminates `for pussies`. Wannabe's? I think you'll find that when these `Wannabe's` work hard enough, they become people like Bruce lee, Muhammed ali, etc. So...*shrug*.

`Yes, but if you're taught the proper techniques, strength doesn't come into it. Whilst some Martial Arts do concentrate on strength and power techniques (usually newer ones), most are about disabling/overcoming an opponent using their own force or by applying techniques that do not require strength. Jab a knuckle into an attackers ribcage in the right spot, for example, and no matter how big the difference in your sizes, you'll take them down.`

Monkey, while its true that there are certainly some arts that do not require much force, they are rare and few in between. Not to mention, the types of schools that give black belts to children at such a young age are 99 percent pathetic, money making schemes, which have posters such as `Guaranteed black belt in 2 years!` bla bla. It's sad, but it's true. Even considering that some schools may teach children such a technique; can someone so young grasp it? You must admit, its a lot easier teaching someone how to hit a punch bag with a hook, then show them how to put someone into submission using pressure points. Considering the very, very small percentage of schools that teach technique without force, narrowed down to the ones that teach the LEGITIMATE version, narrowed down to the ones that teach the ones that can be really used for self defense situations, and can be grasped by childeren...:/ it's just too small a factor. The fact is, there are SO many kids that have a black belt in arts like TKD and Karate, or whatever, and think they automatically can kick ass. Then they step into a fight, and get nailed like hell. It's apalling to see how some schools dont even teach sparring! *shakes head*