Uechi-ryu Journal Blog

The right diet is essential; more so when you are living out of a suitcase in a hotel.

This is a major issue for me; so often with work we can get into a routine….work, back to hotel, eat, watch tv and off to bed….repeat.

Staying focused on your Karate must include paying attention to a proper diet. When on the road (as I am now) I try to plan my meals with some balance of nutrition & convenience.

For my part I am looking at totally eliminating soda pop, fast food and late night eating.

Working in western Canada’s oil & gas fields requires a lot of travel. Like many of us we have to go where the work is. A key point is that we should try to find time to train even when on the road. 

I am now sitting in a hotel with a few weeks ahead of me; so I decided to keep a record of how I am training. I will be posting updates on how I manage to keep my training schedule without a dojo in sight.

I welcome any feedback to this common situation from others!

More to come after work!

I get comments about this subject on a regular basis…Typically once every couple of weeks someone will email asking about where I stand on ‘commercialism’ in teaching Karate.

Here is an interesting story from just a few days ago….

With a background in marketing, one of the products I offer (for free) is a short course introducing concepts of writing effective text ads to promote Karate classes. There really isn’t too much available on this so I know I have a cornered market.

My product is good, free and teaches others how to get a bigger impact for the ads they place. While I could see how people might say I am promoting some form of commercialism with this ebook… if no one came to your classes, how long would you be open?

Getting back to the story…

I received an email the other day from a teacher in Iran who is working on opening a school. She sent an email thanking me for the free ecourse as it has opened her eyes to writing ads that have an emotional appeal.

An evolution of thought to better promote Karate from a commercial product - Sounds good to me!

Even with naysayers who think to be commercial in any capacity cheapens Karate; it is an important part of most dojo operations. If you are collecting money in exchange for teaching…yup; you guessed it, you are ‘commercial’.

Sure I do sell products to members & visitors on the website; sales help keep the Journal running & allow the site to stay active promoting Uechi-ryu.

All major bonuses I say; I have no problems staying traditional in my Karate while using a commercial means to spread Uechi-ryu.

Oh, the free course on writing effective Karate ads I mentioned can be found on http://www.iknowkarate.com.

Train Hard!

Scott

The are many ways to improve your methods of teaching classes. Be it the highest senior or to the junior rank being given his first teaching assignment; who wouldn’t like to improve their teaching ability?

Nobody likes boring or unorganized classes. Even teaching your core senior students can lead to frustration if you cannot convey what you need to or the class structure is lacking.

One of the easiest ways to help this is to use the downloadable class lesson plan. In case you lost the link, you can download the printable page here: http://uechi-ryu-journal.com/downloads/lesson_plan_template.pdf

(Newsletter members you should have gotten this download link already)

Another method to running smooth, enjoyable classes is by following a few simple rules when building your lessons.

S.M.A.R.T. - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed

The first three points are examples of actual dialogue to illustrate the point.

Specific: “The purpose of this drill for the next 5 minutes is to focus on getting your knee up for the front kicks.”

Measurable: “Okay, to begin with let’s hold our front leg up in the initial chamber position; note where your knee is in relation to your belt. This is your benchmark; we will focus on raising the chamber position an additional 2-3 inches.”

Achievable: “A 2-3 inch increase in height is a realistic and achievable goal for this class; we will continue to try an increase the chamber position to reach our desired goal, small steps!”

Realistic: Set realistic goals for your classes, students need the confidence to be able to see these immediate in-class achievements. Realistic goals is nothing more than shooting for the moon one step at a time; instead of ‘demanding’ a student be able to do a particular move, technique right there in class they need to have the encouragement keep practicing to reach what ever goal you have set for them.

Timed: Spend just as much time as it is necessary to teach and reach the goals you are setting for class; drawing a drill out too long will just lead to boredom for your class; this can be especially seen when the drill is going well and the students are performing as they should be. Once the point is made and understood you should move on.

By giving a clear idea of what is expected and a precise solution to the presented problem you are building a better chance of success as the student has a clear understanding of the desired outcome.

There are many different methods to use to improve the clarity of your teaching, this S.M.A.R.T. Method is just one of a number of proven concepts.

Good luck, train hard!

Well the Uechi-ryu book is taking shape; a lot of work to edit, place photos, etc. This is so exciting!

I do not have a solid date yet when I can expect it to be released, but will keep all posted.

You may have noticed a slight delay in my responding to email and such; sorry for that. I am currently finishing up a training course which has kept me occupied for the past while; very important to my work so I had to stay away from the computer for a bit!

Anyhow I will be finishing up this program soon and will be back at the keyboard at more regular intervals within a week or so; until then…

Train hard!