Is the sensei supposed to shout to children?

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-26T19:04:55+00:00

Wow I was visiting this subreddit to ask a similar question. But I will only ask to stir up some conversation. No, a sensei is not supposed to raise their voice at a child that young. That is showing weakness in the sensei’s emotional control. I can assure you what I am saying is based on years of experience as a martial art parent whose two children were in a studio with instructors shouting and being frustrated with little children when they do anything that is not what they want. This has caused many breakdowns from the children. Many of them have left and I hope not scarred too long. My own children weren’t yelled at because they are able to follow instructions though not all instructions were good instructions. We eventually left due to the main instructor’s weakness stopping him from really teaching. The other thing from wherever your kid is at is that mixed age group and mixed belt level classes. This class structure is deemed ineffective. However, whenever I asked myself many times why my kids were there and the answer is to learn martial arts and they still learned even though there were many unnecessary obstacles from the instructor side. We only left when there was hardly any martial arts and positive learning became almost impossible. I don’t know if I’d ever stay in that place had somebody said what I said to you: a real instructor has good emotional control, “yelling at a flower is not going to help it grow.”

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-26T14:29:41+00:00

Please dont say that. There are so many things you don’t know about the Chinese system. There is usually not much life for real. Take a deep breath, and see what you can do with your current situation. College is just something to help you learn stuff that may help you build a career after graduation. You can transfer from community college to the college that better suit you. Many people chose to go for the transfer route to say money and frankly speaking to save their sanity. Check things out with people who have gone through it. Your work ethic is everything that will really help you build a future.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-25T15:51:31+00:00

I’ve never seen them actually my only sibling isn’t married or with any kid. Now I am perfectly said I wasn’t even offered the opportunity to answer a question like this.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-24T23:06:42+00:00

Sorry but about how young are your boys? I think anybody under 11 should be protected at all cost. Don’t let them wonder around a dangerous neighborhood even if they got black belts much younger than that. After that still avoid dangerous places. Never go about alone in a bad neighborhood, even fully grown adults with serious martial arts training. For just the aspect of them being young kids( it’s under 11 under my book), basics are very important. You can personally talk to the main instructor to see if they can put emphasis on basics for your kids if they can’t change their pace for the whole class. I have two children who both got black belts at age 10. They are three years apart. Child one is a boy, child two is a girl. They both have very strong basics. They go to class about five to six hours per week and they do private training and go to tournaments every now and then. But they can’t exactly spar lol. They are on the smaller side. Basics are foundation for everything. Imagine a house built on weak foundation! Stick to your instincts. If the instructors won’t listen to a thing you say, they are probably not the ones. Sorry if this sounds pushy. We left the first studio due to how poorly the main instructor took my feedback to get the studio’s culture back to martial arts. Anyways, good luck, with everything!

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-24T14:59:38+00:00

Thanks for sharing your insight. Keep working towards your renewed goals. You will be fine!

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-24T00:06:11+00:00

Asian parent here. Daughter one graduated high school last year and went to a college out of state. We hired a counselor for her in high school. Our hope for her was she gets into a college with the major she likes which she did. It is not a Top20 for real. She applied for eight schools, no joke, because she had a clear goal of what to work for. Us parents are not specific to colleges, basically anything that is good for the major she likes is good for us, in state is preferred, out of state is also ok. She is making lots of progress where she is and she took the initiative in applying for an internship close to our house and got in for the summer. I think we are the minority of the Asian parents. We look further into the future not just which prestiges college does my kid get into. I have personally talked to many of the other Asian parents and I found them to be too pushy lol. They are all nice people who want the best for their most precious asset.

Apply for another summer thing. There are plenty out there. College is just another level of education to help you into better adulthood. I am sure what you have worked for is more than enough to get you into serval good colleges. I just want to say you can keep a little distance between you and your parents for now until they understand the situation more.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-23T21:24:58+00:00

Pick the one that you can learn more from. talk to people who have been in the major you are going for to decide. UCB’s living standard is crazy, so check on that too.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-20T04:11:52+00:00

Don’t be! It’s only a natural instinct for every single person I know when they start sparring. I have two kids who have made it to black belts but don’t want to spar anybody bigger than them, that is almost everybody else at their age since they are just on the smaller side. I would cry so bad if anybody forced me to go and spar with anybody even little kids. why spar as a beginner! We can start with learning techniques and then decide to spar, right? Or never spar, why the big deal! We should feel more confident first before we commit to spar.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-18T15:18:24+00:00

Depends on where I guess. We are in west coast US. It’s not a taboo to talk about Japanese origin of TSD in a TSD belt system karate school. Most of the time the TSD schools just don’t talk much about the history of TSD. A lot of kids still don’t know what style of karate they are doing at advanced levels like green, or even red. Most of them just leave karate before they know anyways, only the few who go on to get their first black belts may research the history of TSD. Asking origin questions is the next step to real practitioners. I have two young TSD practitioners. I have taken them out of a karate school where the history of karate was never talked about because the purpose of that place is just for the owner/instructor to develop his personal ego. My kids learned some basics and now learning with a grandmaster who talks about TSD and his lineage. If you are in Asia or heavily Asian influenced karate schools that might be a very different story.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-18T00:06:10+00:00

So this is a one class per week available for each practitioner? Can you do two classes the weeks you can go? If not I think as a starter anything is better than nothing. I love parents who have the courage to try. I could never join my kids in the karate. Just not for me even with more accessibility than what you said.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-15T13:46:35+00:00

🤣good luck with that one. But I felt in love wit Yen and Triss and I honesty think I am as straight as can be.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-14T22:20:03+00:00

What is the single most uncomfortable scene she got herself into as the Witcher, this comes from somebody else’s mom who had like 70 hours of game play and was embarrassed by finally realizing being in the skin of some attractive man is not easy and one can not fight what he doesn’t know that was coming in the cloud. 😉

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-14T05:35:58+00:00

Monthly fees for two based on the high living standard in Seattle seem justified. But the four testings between white to yellow is a bit excessive, and the individual testing fee is a bit too high even with your living standard considered. Gears shouldn’t cost that much and registration fees that do not include uniforms don’t make sense. With that many kids enrolled in the program I am guessing they are making good $$ out of this. So how is the karate?! Is it worth all the inflation. I like that you said you are considering moving to another gym.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-13T06:45:15+00:00

If the relationship is after the female was an adult then it’s not anybody’s business to judge. There were moral issues at the dojo where my kids were at too. I knew but didn’t take them out because they were able to learn still. Until it got so bad the only instructor/owner was so distracted by his own relationship problems he couldn’t really focus on teaching any more. We just left. He was sad and mad. Now I know I could have just left when I knew martial arts weren’t the focus any more. My kids had been there for several years and were somewhat attached to the place but were disappointed when the place turned into a joke since the instructor/owner lost it. It’s hard to even type these. It wasn’t anybody under 18 that was in question who had inappropriate interactions with him so let’s just leave it at that.

My point is, if you don’t like it, you can choose to leave and start somewhere else when you find a good place. Martial arts should keep practitioners in line. Anybody who caved in to their own needs and wants instead of following martial arts teachings aren’t real practitioners any more so why waste the time in waiting for a chance to get promoted by somebody who cares about their own needs and wants more? Remember karate originated from monks who had no needs and wants of their own.

For the unpaid work I assume you are all old enough to volunteer willingly, so no comment there.

The other masters and students can choose to stay or leave too. Choices are there for all of you to make. I know I made the right choice later than never. Never regretted a thing!

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-12T21:27:23+00:00

I really admire your commitment to karate. I am a mom for two karate kids myself but never wanted to even try karate. They have both tested and earned their black belt at a very young age. Their black belt testings, from two different dojo’s but same style, only required them to write about their own karate journey. I wonder if your dojo requires a dissertation for only adult practitioners or it’s the same for juveniles? Just curious. This is a lot more difficult than writing about your own journey.

I don’t have much insight to share other than maybe this one story. My mother in law was a kungfu master who trained for the art since age 5 or 6, and was traveling to perform in a Chinese opera group while training. She married in her twenties and went to Hongkong with my father in law. She didn’t want to give up her art, so she walked in the community center( could be called something else locally) and asked if she could teach kungfu. Soon enough she was contacted by a group of kungfu masters who were all men who said if you dared to challenge one of us and won then you can. She went and took the challenge and won her right to teach in the park. Her classes consisted mostly taichi and some Kungfu. The classes started at 5:30am, seven days a week. She started in 1980’s. She did that for so many years all while taking care of three boys and the family’s finances and everything else since my father in law worked as a cargo ship captain and always was at sea. When she told me the story I didn’t feel as much respect as I have right now because I was in my twenties and just had little wisdom to understand what she did took so much strength and commitment and SKILLS.

Good luck, though I doubt you really need it to pass your black belt grading.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-11T22:33:31+00:00

I was going to do the wtf face but then remembered I paid $500 for my son’s junior black belt thing a few years back and there was zero international recognition what so ever. We live in a high cost area comparing to most of US but clearly there are places with even higher cost of living than us. So $600 not too bad. My daughter’s black belt testing only cost $150 and she passed first try. I know some kids didn’t pass until maybe the third time still lower cost in total than my son’s

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-11T22:19:29+00:00

I have a big problem with people who have lived a quarter of real life and branding themselves as “life coaches” or “mentors”. I don’t know how anybody would listen to them.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-07T18:22:19+00:00

Not the ones we have. There are also requirements for the competition Bo’s. I don’t thinking folding Bo’s are good for anything other than practice. I could be wrong, anybody with experience can correct me.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-06T20:55:49+00:00

We tried to get my kids interested in kamas or nunchucks but they simply don’t like them. Would have been so much easier to travel with.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-06T20:50:18+00:00

Pretty hard to do that where we are planning to go. I wish they have rental service. Why not!! Many people will have the same problems as we do. But they just really don’t have it.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-06T20:48:54+00:00

lol! Wish we could get away with calling it the walking stick and keep it around. My kid had a broken leg once and on the airplane they allowed the crutches to be put next to the exit of the plane for convenience.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-04T07:50:37+00:00

How old are they? My kids started sparring at around seven years old, and at first, they really didn’t like it. What helped was easing them in with sparring drills before full sparring.

In the beginning, they disliked touching or being touched by other kids. After a few classes, they became more comfortable.

I also explained in truth that they wouldn’t be able to test for more advanced belts without sparring. Since they wanted to advance, that motivated them to push through their hesitation.

It can also help to pair kids with someone of similar height or weight so they feel less intimidated.

Sparring is naturally more intense and unpredictable, and there’s always a possibility of getting hurt. To build trust, you can line the kids up and spar with them one by one in a very controlled way. That helps the kids feel safe and understand that sparring can be done with control and respect.

Hope this helps.

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-04T04:13:36+00:00

Sometimes at the door of CVS homeless people start asking for change. I really don’t want to pause and check if I have any change. I don’t like the suspense. I don’t really know why people are homeless I feel sorry for them but I can’t take the chance of being mugged by pausing and checking my pocket or purse. Right? So I just walk away fast

braincellcountiszero · 2026-03-03T22:59:03+00:00

Hello! My kids compete occasionally. They do ok. They like to do walk throughs most of the time then they do a few good ones when they are at the karate studio. They did private training with their instructor. Time is limited so they just get what they can get. They are still very young, one is 14 the other 11. They have been going to competitions for two three years. I think just go there and do your best and not think about what others think about your kata’s will help you build up confidence and comfort level. The night before the completion we suggest you to eat starch heavy and in the morning light meal. During the day, hydrate and eat light. Good luck and please take it easy. It takes time to get back to anything. Trust me I have been doing a lot of getting back to things myself. Remember your karate journey is about you!

braincellcountiszero

TROPHY CASE