Hi, my name's Tim. I'm quite new to the whole GKR thing, and even newer to this. I'll hopefully have some interesting things to add to the forums from a beginners perspective. If not then you'll have to get used to me boring the pants off you cause I'm going to post anyway lol.

Righto
Glad to have you here Tim!

Feel free to post on anything you like.

Tom.

Welcome, Tim. What W16 said ^^^^. Post, comment, ask questions. Asking is the best way to expand what you know. If you wait to be told something you could be waiting forever.


Mick

Yo Tim
Sorry for the late reply.

Any questions please ask away..
Remember - keep an open mind to new ideas that you may not learn in class

Hi Tim, remember Sensei Si just before Christmas?

T'was me

No longer with GKR.... Hows your training going? Who's teaching Billigham now

Hi all, just joined the forum. Never really done one of these things before so I am bound to make loads of mistakes. Not even sure if this will end up in the right place, but here goes!

Hi Jingo - doing ok so far!

Welcome to the forum. Any questions or comments, feel free to ask.

Tom.

Hi Jingo, nice to have you onboard.

Thanks guys. I'll try and keep up with you all.

Hi Pleb,

You are no longer with GKR - why is that?

I hope that you have found a new direction for your karate and not given up altogether.

I can't remember if I've posted my reasons on here or not. I have a few reasons but...

Yes, I went on to do Wado Ryu style. I'm enjoying it very well indeed.

Glad you found a style that you like. Good luck with your journey.

Hey people, was surfing through the net to find out about karate and other martial arts and found this site, only just registered as I'm still going through all the old posts. I mean i have spent almost 2 days solid going through them and still only touched about a quarter at best. Learning a lot about martial arts as a whole and what you people think about them. I'm a 7th kyu in GKR and find myself fascinated by Martial arts, the only thing stopping me from experimenting is a lack of funds. Feel my chosen path in life is to help others learn karate but know without money that path could take most of my life.

Hi lastchancer

Welcome to the forum!

First things first. Better to concern yourself for the first 5 to 10 years with improving your own skills, before you start to worry too much about helping other people with theirs. It you train yourself consistently and long enough, that time will come naturally of its own accord.

Mike

Aye thank you. I've read what you say on that, its just I'm not too sure what sort of future I can have unless i find myself an easygoing job that pays a lot and has flexible hours. I find i keep adding an extra class here, a few more hours at home their and it keeps building up. Running out of time to have a life outside of Karate i think give a month or so

Understood. I think its important to go through a 'compulsive-obsessive' phase of training at some point. How long it lasts, how intense etc etc varies from individual to individual. Its also important, in the long term, to have a life outside of karate.

Personally I do a 9 to 5 job, I just make sure it doesn't intefere with my evenings, which does invetibably limit my earning potential but is a choice I've made.

Your own training has to come first though, even as a teacher, you can't help others if you're own training is flagging. If you want to become a good teacher then I strongly suggest you focus purely on your own training for some years to come.

Mike

Name: Bruce
Location: Perth, Australia
Train at: Kalamunda Kickboxing

Currently doing Zen Do Kai and Kickboxing. Done heaps of other stuff over the last 20 years or so but never in one place long enough to get particularly good

So yeah..

Welcome along Bruce.

Feel free to jump on in and let us know about kick boxing or zen do kai...
i think you're the first member to be studying those styles.

Know that feeling all too well I'm afraid...

Supposed to have graded a couple of years ago now but with exams and everything - it's hard to find the time to get my fitness up, ahh well..

Hi I'm new to this forum. Have tried other forums but not enjoyed the experience and I am still getting the hang of how to do all this.

Anyway, I train in GKR karate in Adelaide, South Australia. I am currently 1st kyu. Hope to grade to Shodan-ho at the end of this year. Am I scared? AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I also teach a kids class and a general class.
Love kata. Love/hate relationship with kumite. Couldn't spar for peanuts until about 3rd kyu - just proves that miracles do happen!

Hope to enjoy exchanging info and chatting with you all.

Barbah

Wecome aboard

Hi Barbah,
Hows it going? Welcome aboard, have fun, and enjoy yourself

Tom.

( Just out of interest which class (general or juniors) do you prefer to teach?)

Hard to say. Teaching kids is a challenge in terms of keeping their attention so I turn some exercises into games. Every time I see their concentration lagging (class as a whole) I use a game to finish the current exercise and that gets them going again.

I think I do enjoy teaching adults more only because I'm not naturally a 'kids person'. I do have challenges with adults too - especially older males who do not like to be told (in fact, males of all ages can take issue with me being female). I do have fun with my general class too, though.

Barbah

I hear you

I have been training with GKR now for four years, teaching for the last two.

I teach the Dandenong and Pakenham Dojos in Region 7 Melbourne

Have only just found a number of forums and will be recommending them all to my students.

I am definetely looking forward to Melbourne hosting the next World cup in 2009

Hi S. Doddy, Welcome aboard!

Tom.

Welcome aboard Doddy

hi peeps. I'm new to the forum, hope everyone's ok?!

Just wondering if anyone competes in the NAS in either UK or elsewhere? I'm preparing myself for that and the uk nationals at the moment (it's my first time in the female open!) but i'm well chuffed i even qualified!

Hi Hashi, welcome aboard!

Nope, never done NAS (I dont think they had it over here when I did GKR) but a few others here have......

Tom.

Hey all, just thought I would quickly give a quick thingy of me! I live up in Newcastle Tyne in the UK train in region 11 and still loving it after exactly 3 years!

Hi Liam, congratulations on three years training. I'm Si, and I only live down the road in Middlesbrough.
With it being winter, most of the forum members are hibernating. Either that or they just cant be bothered to TYPE!

Well actually Pleb since most members are Australian it's summer and everyone is out in the pool trying to cool off. It's just way too hot in the offices of Australia.

Excuses excuses.

(Wish I lived where it was warm)

Spent a lot of time in Boro' many years ago. Lovely little village called "Yarm"
Never short of a pub that place

No too hot here to hibernate (Often 44 degrees is just too hot to do anything) will leave that until I am in the UK at the end of January!

Yarm is still nice... Expencive property, too.

Lovely ladies too

Thanks for the welcome... I know middlesborough. Had to work there recently, and it was in Yarm or near Yarm I was working! And, yeah the ladies down that way are very very nice.

my names craig i'm from bunbury western australia
i'm currently a shodan with gkr been training with them for about 7 years
previously trained in shotokan and wado ryu with a bit of TKD when i was younger
planning on doing some weapons training one day (when i've got more time)

update: no longer training with gkr having a break then gonna join goju ryu.

Hello there, I also quit GKR a few months ago now and have been training in shotokan for about a year now.

would you mind telling why you decided to leave? or PM me if you do not wish to speak publically about it...

many factors have played their part in me leaving gkr
probably to many to list here but basicly managment don't have the capacity to deal
with volatile situations such as individuals which have the ability to cause major disruptions
within the instructors ranks.
one such individual went on personal vendeta to tear our region apart after she didn't get the support from the other instructors when
she took a disliking to the new rm.
she wanted all of us to walk out on all our classes until such time as the new rm resigned !
noone supported her so she and her little band of followers caused many issues for many instructors
i won't get into details but some pretty wild accusations where made that resulted in police involvment on more than one occassion
as you can imagine this was not a very good time but we all weathered it and continued training
the rm eventualy resigned for various reasons her being one of them and lack of support from management
on dealing with her.

moving on a couple of years and she got a class back even after admitting to what she had done
we protested but to no avail. kancho believes everyone deserves a "second chance" .
she proved him wrong and continued to stir everyone up but we couldn't prove anything
one of our instructors stood up and told the rm what he thought and didn't back down on his opinion and promptly got shown the door
never to be allowed to train with gkr again ! so much for "second chances"

once again we got on with our training despite our frustrations
enter the last straw
my 14yr daughter who has been a 1st kyu for 3 years and has attended the last 4 bb gradings and has
been to every pre assessment class with the zd (400 k round trip each time) and shihan every time he came over,
was knocked back for her black belt again for no good reason.
even though there where several that did grade that had only had their 1st kyu for 6 months.
i sat and watched this grading instead of training like i normally do
and as far as i'm concerned she was ripped off. the whole grading process is severely flawed
and obviously biased.
my daughter put her heart and sole into it and all she got was pain.! so much for reward for effort !
we also videoed it and i have reviewed it and still come to the same conclusion.(she did better than i did when i got mine )
she wasn't the only one, there was inconsistencies everywhere
people on the sidelines where stunned to say the least.
therefore after all the years i've spent training and teaching for gkr i can no longer stand the political bs anymore.
so i'm hanging up my black belt and i'm moving on to become a white belt again.!

craig

Welcome cwolf, and congratulations on 'emptying your cup'. There are many people who are simply not prepared to do that.

Mike

Hi Craig

I'm sure you'll enjoy it! Any reason for goju in particular? Or did you just find a club and it happened to be goju? Just curious, the instructor is more important than the style base.

Also, if you ever happen to be in Perth feel free to drop by.


Mick

thanks mike, yeh your right some aren't able to see the bigger picture and realise that the belt isn't as important as they think.!
i'd rather be a good kyu grade than a crap arrogant black belt.

"I'm sure you'll enjoy it! Any reason for goju in particular? Or did you just find a club and it happened to be goju? Just curious, the instructor is more important than the style base."

i'm certain i will mick. I could have done something else other than karate but prefered karate so goju was the choice.
not a hard choice mind you as the head instructor is a 7th dan shihan and some of the other instructors are 3rd and 4th dans.
i went and watched a couple of classes and was verry impressed with it all and spoke to shihan after the class and he has the most
awesome attitude, really top bloke that just cares so much for his students and the art.
he has an absolute ton of knowledge and is so willing to help you out with anything.
a couple of my old gkr students and a couple of ex gkr instructors have already been training with him for a while
now and they have nothing but praise for him and his organisation.

craig