He is not wearing a dress he is wearing hakama. These are items of traditional Japanese dress which denote samurai status. In Jitsu they are used to show that somebody has reached the rank of instructor (this is an entirely different thing from their grade which is shown by the belt). Hakama are therefore dead butch. Honest.
Yes. Our common sense rules of safety say that jewellery must be removed if possible. If this is not possible it must be taped firmly to the skin so that it will not be caught and scrapped along the floor. Jitsuka`s humble opinion is that if you can not safely remove something then you should not be wearing it. An established piercing will not close over in two hours no matter what you may have heard.
Particular dangers though are nose and lip studs. Nose studs can not be safely fixed down and will rip the nostril if they get caught. Take them out. Lip studs may look secure but if you are hit in the face they will punch through to the base of you teeth where they will cause very serious injury. Take them out. If this sounds as if I am discouraging people who have jewellery like this, I must say that this is not the case. Being extra vulnerable to punches makes it more important than ever that you learn Jitsu.
No, really, this question has been asked in all seriousness. And I will address it seriously because our town junior club recently lost a member because his church leader told him that doing martial arts movements was a form of worship to the evil Zen god. (Please to not write in and tell me that Zen has no gods. I know.)
Jitsu is nothing to do with religion. In fact one of the reasons we do it is keep the next world as far away as possible. The media however often presents martial arts and mysticism as being closely linked. To be fair, some martial arts, particularly Chinese ones, do have a lot of religious associations because they were developed by warrior monks. But that does not make them intrinsically religious. As a point of interest, the salute practised by modern European fencers is directly descended from the Crusader habit of kissing their swords before battle. The swords had broad cross hilts so that they could be regarded as crucifixes when seeking blessing. Does this mean that fencing is a secret conduit for Christian theology?
OK, that does look a little odd. Misconceptions about the rei (the bow) can arise because it is unfamiliar to Westerners and because it is used on the mat for a variety of different purposes. The bow is nothing more that politeness. Traditionally, Japanese society has very strong taboos about body contact. So instead of shaking hands or even kissing when greeting somebody as Europeans do, they rei. In Jitsu, the rei is a convenient way of maintaining an atmosphere of respect and etiquette without becoming too ritualised. We rei to the highest grade when joining or leaving the class so that the person who is responsible for us knows exactly who is on the mat at any one time. We rei to acknowledge the teacher/pupil relationship at the beginning of a lesson. We rei before training with each other to show that there is no hostility between us and afterwards to show that there are no hard feelings.
A tip for beginners though. Never drop your eyes to the floor when you rei?. Anybody who does not know why is advised to rent out a copy of "The Man with the Golden Gun".
It so happens that both of the dojos in Preston are upstairs. Anybody who can get to a dojo can do Jitsu. We have never turned anybody away because of special needs. We have trained people who are deaf, arthritic, epileptic, missing fingers and toes, diabetic and even with serious spinal problems.
The Preston Club is not unusual in this attitude.
All we ask is that you tell us about yourself and fill out an insurance form before you train so that we can build on what you can do.
In days of old, fighting was a sad necessity and knowledge of how to kill was a loss of purity. To symbolise this, students would begin training with nice clean new suits. As they went along, they would wash the suits but not the belts which would get dirtier an dirtier until they were completely black. Hence the black belt to show mastery. Over time, this was formalised to show different levels of attainment.
I have often heard it said that the belts appeal to peoples egos. This is true and not true. There is nothing wrong with being proud of what you have achieved but if that was all there was to it then nobody would stick it out.
The grades provide a ladder from the novice to the sensei that everybody can see. They can see that there is nothing magical about what the high grades can do. Everybody can do it. It is also important to point out that nobody gets given these grades and there is no requirement to get them. You have to earn them by proving to an impartial judge that you have achieved a certain standard and are ready to progress.
About GradesIt really is a requirement of many martial arts that you forswear all other training so that you do not become corrupted. This is presented as an entirely reasonable show of commitment and anything less is a insult to your teacher. Just think about that for a moment. You are paying them your hard earned money for a few hours of their time so that you can know more than you did before. And they are starting by telling you what you can and can not do during the time when you are not paying them. If you have problems caused by getting things mixed up then you are the only person it slows down. The only things that could cause long term problems are if you prefer doing Jitsu or if you are able to make direct comparisons between two techniques. So anybody who insists on purity of training is either afraid of losing you or of being shown up by you.
How are you ever going to learn to stand up for yourself if you are wet enough to let somebody like that tell you what to do with your life?