Seeing them graduate.

[Fred.Rowe]

Tonight is graduation night at the high school. The event always draws a huge crowd of hopeful parents and family members of the graduating class.

I'll be going, not as a family member or a parent, but as a teacher.
Not math or science, but martial arts teacher. There are four seniors graduating tonight, that hold black belts, they received at my dojo. Three females and one male.
I'll be sitting in the crowd applauding eagerly as each one gets their diploma, knowing that in some small way I have contributed to their future success.

If you compare the two pictures you will see that they contain the same people; just six years apart. Each of them made black belt except one of the girls in the front row.
They were a great group to work with.

My congratulations goes out to all the seniors graduating.

Go for it!


Fred

 

[indian george]

That's cool:thumbup::thumbup: Leatherface

 

[Will Leavitt]

Congratulations.... you should have made them line up just like the other picture... unless you did? lol

Is your dojo in your house? Okinawan style karate? (I know we've had this discussion before)

I know when my son graduated I had some weird moments when he and a bunch of the boys I used to coach walked..... I could still see them as the little boys on the ball field..... ah well can't keep them small without putting them in a box.

 

[Fred.Rowe]

Congratulations.... you should have made them line up just like the other picture... unless you did? lol

Is your dojo in your house? Okinawan style karate? (I know we've had this discussion before)

I know when my son graduated I had some weird moments when he and a bunch of the boys I used to coach walked..... I could still see them as the little boys on the ball field..... ah well can't keep them small without putting them in a box.

The dojo was in our home. It took up the whole basement. The style; Shuri Ryu.
Sadly, we closed last March. My knees gave out along with other body parts.
There was good news from my oldest ranking belt. He is putting up a building on his place and will reopen the dojo next year. :thumbup:
He is a good teacher and will be an asset to the new batch of young ones coming up.

Fred

 

[Will Leavitt]

The dojo was in our home. It took up the whole basement. The style; Shuri Ryu.
Sadly, we closed last March. My knees gave out along with other body parts.
There was good news from my oldest ranking belt. He is putting up a building on his place and will reopen the dojo next year. :thumbup:
He is a good teacher and will be an asset to the new batch of young ones coming up.

Fred

Understand about body parts giving out... had to quit Aikido, got to the point I couldn't even kneel during class, I thought it disrespectful to have my feet pointed at our Sensei.

Glad to hear about your students carrying on, perhaps you could do like our Sensei did, he retired from 95% teaching duties and had others carry on under his supervision?

 

[Fred.Rowe]

Understand about body parts giving out... had to quit Aikido, got to the point I couldn't even kneel during class, I thought it disrespectful to have my feet pointed at our Sensei.

Well said!

Glad to hear about your students carrying on, perhaps you could do like our Sensei did, he retired from 95% teaching duties and had others carry on under his supervision?

It will be interesting to be in the dojo with a cane at my side. But hey, canes make good weapons too.
I am honored, that my teaching has inspired one of my students to carry on the Shuri tradition.:thumbup:

I love the Akido style. A close friend that teaches in Parkersburg going on 28 years now is kind enough to let me sit in on his classes. He always reminds me to "not get violent with that crazy karate stuff"
I respond, " don't throw me in the air and break anything "



Fred

 

[Will Leavitt]

It will be interesting to be in the dojo with a cane at my side. But hey, canes make good weapons too.
I am honored, that my teaching has inspired one of my students to carry on the Shuri tradition.:thumbup:

I love the Akido style. A close friend that teaches in Parkersburg going on 28 years now is kind enough to let me sit in on his classes. He always reminds me to "not get violent with that crazy karate stuff"
I respond, " don't throw me in the air and break anything "



Fred

I studied Iwama style (the direct, simple style O-Sensei taught at his first dojo) My Sensei, Sensei Meyers, was the student of one of O-Sensei's personal students, I'm very honored to have been so close in lineage. Our dojo is free which allows them to be very selective in the students. All but one student (me, I have a serious martial background though) when I studied was a black belt in an another style making randori an interesting time.

I used to make a point of going to the advanced class so I could have more time with Sensei Jennings but it made for interesting situations when I was the nage for advanced students mainly because I didn't know some of the falls. I counter a lot of techniques out of habit and most of the advanced students naturally flow to another move that would have me wondering how bad it would hurt when I landed. Another funny story that may illustrate the different between Iwama and the "other" styles of Aikido is our use of atemi. I was the nage for a guy that hadn't been to class in months, he snapped a sankyo (wrist lock) on me and dropped me hard, no problem because we'd never worked together before. He kept snapping them hard even though it was obvious he was hurting me unecessarily. When it was my turn to uke I delivered the atemi uppercut hard enough to clack his teeth and snap his head back rather hard and when he lost his center I ended with a throw. The whole dojo got silent, Sensei Jennings kinda of glides over, "should have blocked." We continued, I stayed with the hard uppercuts and he started blocking.

Changing the subject somewhat... there was a 2 hour show on Oxygen where some Aikidoka from Canada travelled to Japan to try to become an inhouse student. They showed the current grandmaster, O-Sensei's grandson, doing randori. Simply incredible to watch someone that graceful dealing with 5 attackers and not hurting them (well much )