Zojo Dojo

The path to black belt is littered with tens of thousands of kids who started karate and quit. Most of them in the first six months, but some make it all the way to brown belt, just to abandon ship just when the coveted black belt is so close.

This article is going to cover the reasons why kids quit: how it sometimes has nothing to do with karate at all, and how parents and instructors are sometimes to blame for the attrition rate in karate, and martial arts overall. We will also look at how we can keep kids in the dojo, and some of the advice applies to adult students as well.

Karate tries to teach discipline, respect for self and others, humility and compassion – chores overlap beautifully with this. And so I decided to see if the kind of parents who sign up their kids for karate are also the kind that make them do chores. I think you will find the results fascinating.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://zoehinis.com/2021/08/23/karate-and-chores-go-together/

It seems inevitable for many students – after years of dedicated training (or even just months), the training begins to slow down. Sometimes, it just stops suddenly, and there’s a conspicuous gap where a senior used to be. A pocket of quiet where a boisterous teen used to stand and idly nudge the punching bag while listening to instructions.

No student slips away unnoticed.

How to return to your dojo, no matter the style, nor how long you've been away. 

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://zoehinis.com/2016/08/13/returning-to-the-dojo/

You can only hope that the best of what you said made it through, and they take it with them. You hope that they remember how much you believed in them, and wanted the best for them, and that some of the lessons stick with them. If you do your job right, they might not stay with you in the dojo, but maybe a little part of you stays with them.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://zoehinis.com/2021/01/17/maybe-you-shouldnt-be-a-sensei/

So what makes a good black belt? Talent? Time? Effort? The ability to fight off multiple attackers while wearing sunglasses? Spinning jump kicks? There should absolutely be a level of technical ability, and especially maturity. The black belt is cheapened when it is given to seven year olds in American dojos.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://zoehinis.com/2021/03/30/what-black-belt-means-to-me/