Greetings All, looking for any inspirational tidbits that anyone has too recommend. Here’s my brief story. Years ago (over twenty) I was a serious student in a Japanese Style for over 11 years. Lately got back into taking Jui Jitsu with my daughter the last few months after she found my old belts. The gym we practice at also teaches Soo Bahk Do, so I figured I would give it a try since it’s in between our JJ days and being older I figured I could lose ten or so pounds. The Sa Bom said I could wear my old black belt but I respectfully refused since I want to respect the Korean Style and start over as a white. With that comes my ”bird in the hand” feeling. I’m a 51 yo adult having to spar and train with 9/10 year olds who “out rank” me but have the typical sloppy kid technique. I stand there knowing my white belt place is just trying to be an example to the kids in all my moves, actions and showing respect But I’m only getting the fitness aspect. I just don’t know if I can keep it up for another two years being “an example” since SBD has a time limit between testing. Has anyone else ran into this problem and if so what kept you motivated? Thank you for any and all input.
New style/ New White Belt Inspirations
- Thread starter Silverdad
- Start date
The only adults is another white and a green. Like all adults they don’t always attend class. This pass Friday I was the only adult (other than the teacher) with about 15 kids. SBD is one step sparing for us lower belts…. so NO contact anyways.
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Your first sparring partner should be weaker than you. If your first sparring partner is stronger than you, you may lose your confidence and quite your MA training for the rest of your life.
If you can beat up all
- grade school kids, and
- high school boys, and
- college guys,
you may have developed some dependable MA skill.
You use
- weak opponents to build confidence.
- average opponents to develop your skill.
- strong opponents to test your skill.
IMO, that's the best training path.
Gyakuto
Senior Master
View it as a learning experience for the children by kick the sh*t out of them
Use them like a makiwara to toughen your natural weapons. 
I think children in a mixed-age MA classes are a major factor in holding the adults back. They should be in their own children’s class.
Returned to a school a while back, where the 'adult' class was very small. My consistent training partners were essentially two 10(ish) year olds and a lady who was much older than me and not in the best shape (there were others, who were more age-appropriate for me, but those were the consistent attendees).
My instructors, who I had trained before switching schools, were shocked at how bad I was in sparring/self defense combinations when going against them, compared to what they remembered. I had to explain to them my main goal was just not to hurt the frail old lady, or the preteens, and I was having to do all the techniques on people a foot and a half smaller than me, who will make random jerky movements I have to make sure don't hurt them.
Moral is, I did not improve any of my sparring or resistance abilities while re-attending that school, and if anything they got worse by having to adapt everything. If your goal is to get back to where you were, your options are either to find a new school or encourage other adults you know to sign up. If your goal is to lose weight and spend time with your daughter, you can continue and accept a change in the focus.
My instructors, who I had trained before switching schools, were shocked at how bad I was in sparring/self defense combinations when going against them, compared to what they remembered. I had to explain to them my main goal was just not to hurt the frail old lady, or the preteens, and I was having to do all the techniques on people a foot and a half smaller than me, who will make random jerky movements I have to make sure don't hurt them.
Moral is, I did not improve any of my sparring or resistance abilities while re-attending that school, and if anything they got worse by having to adapt everything. If your goal is to get back to where you were, your options are either to find a new school or encourage other adults you know to sign up. If your goal is to lose weight and spend time with your daughter, you can continue and accept a change in the focus.
I understand wanting to start over again at white belt. You have an entirely new curriculum to learn. However, your instructor offered to let you start training at black belt level. He probably knows you will not stay engaged as a white belt. SBD is basically Korean Karate. Many of the techniques you will learn will be the same as the Karate techniques that you practiced years ago.
Typically what I do when I have a black belt student from another style start in my school, I will have them start at white belt so that they can learn the techniques in a progressive manner. I have them attend the beginner class on more technical nights such as forms or one step sparring (classes where they will need to learn new material for the next belt level). I have them attend our advanced class on nights such as sparring or kicking (classes where they already know the techniques and won't be getting lost). This way they are learning the forms etc. with the belt levels that they should be training with while still being pushed by sparring with the advanced students. Kicking nights are also a good night to train with the advanced group as they are pretty universal from system to system.
I'm not sure how your school separates their classes from rank to rank, or how their schedule works, but it might be worthwhile having a discussion with your instructor to see what compromise can be made. Maybe you can bounce back and forth between the beginner and advanced class based on an agreed upon schedule between you and your instructor. Time in grade requirements are important for new students, but far less important for experienced students. If you were a serious student of Karate for 11 years, you probably have a pretty good handle of most kicks, blocks, strikes, stances and basic sparring strategies that would be taught in SBD. I'm sure both you and your instructor would rather have a discussion about how to make this work than having you say nothing, get discouraged and quit.
Again, I do feel time in grade is important. It is also important for an instructor to know when to make exceptions. Students with a significant amount of previous experience should be that exception in my opinion. An instructor should be able to make judgment calls such as this to keep students engaged. I believe they would be doing a disservice to an experienced student my being too rigid on time in grade requirements in some instances.
My experience has been exactly the opposite. When someone with rank in a different art wants to wear that rank, I allow it. But it's extremely rare for them to stick with it.
I think it is far better if people wonder why you're wearing a white belt than why you're wearing a black belt.
Funny practice last night. Last night was my third day as the new white belt in SBD and we were practicing wrist locks. Of course I was the individual used as a practice dummy for the class demo. The BB tried locking my wrist and told me to tap before it hurts…she tried and tried but never made it work. With a smile the BB said under her breath “guess I need to work on that more” (she did everything correct..I’m just flexible.). Then she said ”try it on me”. Opps probably should not have said that. After that I let her know I was also LE..lol.
For those wondering “why” i stopped after eleven years training in Karate.. I was in the Marines and never had a set schedule to train regularly. Retired two months ago and that’s why i picked up both BJJ and SBD. Anyways, it was nice showing the other white belts last night in class “why” certain wrist techniques work…
For those wondering “why” i stopped after eleven years training in Karate.. I was in the Marines and never had a set schedule to train regularly. Retired two months ago and that’s why i picked up both BJJ and SBD. Anyways, it was nice showing the other white belts last night in class “why” certain wrist techniques work…
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There's a very good reason why wrist locks are situational, and why you should often be doing more than just the wrist lock. Honestly though, if I saw that someone was doing everything technically right and I know wrist locks don't work on me, I'd just let them know before we started, or as soon as she got the technique right tap for the purposes of the demo, and let her know later about the issue.
There are many different kind of wrist locks. Which one are you talking about? Do you have any video for it?
drop bear
Sr. Grandmaster
Interestingly I train with some guys that are so adamant wrist locks don't work they will let me destroy their wrist before they tap.
Which is not a competition I engage in.
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