1982, erm I was 10 started karate 2 years later,


blimey so im an old one as well for here, yet baby faced with smooth skin.................

McSensei is old then............................but still incredibly fit and handsome

Youuuu...whipper snappers

Parents heh? Just won't ever understand the young folks modern ways!

Anyhows guys I think we've successful killed this thread....unless anyone has any Yudansha stories I think we should lie this one to bed now....

Anyone ever done the baseball bat sparring drill?

Basically,the soon to be blackbelt puts his forehead on the end of the baseball bat which is stood upright on the gorund. He then runs around it as fast as possible ten times. Afterward someone is waiting to spar him,lol.

Hello Brian:

I wanted to keep this topic active. Hope nobody minds? It was not my rite of passage, but a woman I knew of who was part of a very famous NYC dojo who was supposed to face a gauntlet of men (c.15-20 men) and spar them full contact... apparently done sequentially without pause or rest.

Every single aspect of her art, her knowledge was exemplary, every portion of the test to that point she had done perfectly and beyond! She refused to take the sparring portion of the test. Her refusal was formal but polite... She was probably late 20's and between second and third trimestor pregnant (visably very pregnant). When she politely refused she was literally then taken into a back small office and yelled at for slightly less than an hour by the three senior most students (20+ year martial artists who were definately old enough to understand as they were 40-50 yo men) that SHE was the problem, and she had to spar, pregnant or not!!!

She left them immediately after many, many years of training with them... and found better training from someone with eyes and a brain which functioned.

A true story.
J

If that is true-and I see no reason why it shouldn't be-the club should be shut down and the instructors never be allowed near a dojo again.
If I heard a story like that near where I lived I'd be round there like a shot with one or two aquaintences to have a quiet word.

This sort of behaviour reflects poorly on all Martial Artists of every distinction.

(VTG rant over!)

It is a party trick,except the sparring part.
You'd be surprised at the imigination some of my instructors have had.