I guess you could but in all reality the only thing you should care about is what your teacher thinks and do the things the way your teacher is teaching you. After all he is the one promoting you. It would be a really bad surprise for a teacher spending all that time and effort, getting a student ready for testing and they are doing everything right, then they show up for testing and have changed things and do goofy little things that have nothing to do with what the teacher was teaching you. To the teacher it would be an embarrassment especially if you have an audience for testing because he never showed you all that goofy stuff. The only option would be for the teacher to fail the student. I hate to fail students but if someone would come to a test like that I guess I would have no other option. So my advice to you is trust your teacher and that he is putting you up for testing because he thinks you are ready and can do it just the way it is. Adding anything on your own would be risking doing your best and maybe even passing. On the internet who knows who is giving you advice, how much do they really know, who was their teacher and taught them and so on. Even good martial artists do things differently which still can affect the outcome of your test. So trust your teacher. I think it would be disrespectful if you didn't.

Now if it wasn't your test and you want to put something out that would be different but even then take everything with a grain of salt.

That would be a neat idea, actually. But be warned, don't post anything until after your test: the last thing you want is to second-guess yourself because of advice that sounds good, but has no context in what you are doing in class. Similarly, don't be discouraged if you get tens or hundreds of tips: there will be trolls out there, and there will always be something to improve on. No matter what you test for, you should expect to make mistakes - a lot of them.

So figure that you're going to get a lot of comments. I've seen a few students who outright quit because of comments they get - both online and in person, and sometimes, those comments were unsolicited, and some were outright wrong.

Just take a look at other people's test videos and then check out the comments. Some are pretty brutal.

Yeah il be interested, but what about private email the clips to a few of the ones you trust on here only so your not opening yourself up to the ones that don't have your best interest at hand.



It's great you're striving to better your martial arts, but only you can decide what is best for yourself, and how would your teachers feel about you taking advice from others that might not be from your art, to me it seems a double edged sword, i am curious what source of kempo are your learning from tho?

Sure I wouldn't mind looking at it.





Since I trained in the original Kajukenbo and your martial art is based on Kajukenbo, I would like to see the simularities and the differences.





I think what you refer to as the "reactions", we would call the "rotations" or the "repetitions". I can't really discuss them on an open forum because Kajukenbo instructors do not acknowledge that such training methods exist.





We do our "rotations" or "repetitions" as preparations for even more dangerous drills. Gloves and protective equipment is not allowed in most Kajukenbo schools, so getting smashed up is a common occurence during those drills.





Again, I would love to watch your videos to compare the simularities and differences.

That'd be cool. But I agree that it shouldn't be until after your test. Until then, listen to your instructor and what he tells you. He's the one grading you. But I think it would be nice. Video taping yourself and watching it is a great way to make corrections and improve it, and it's a pretty common one too. Good luck on your test.

edit

ok I get what you're doing now. I guess it's up to you as to when you want to do it, it doesn't look like it will matter either way. The whole thing looks pretty interesting though. Good luck with it.

I'd actually love to see that. I train BJJ and Muay Thai also, but I've never trained Kempo. It would be interesting to see how it all works. Email me when the video is up. Good luck on your test!

I'll give it a go! I mean why not?



Sounds good.

be going for 2nd green, nothing special, but I am planning on making a video of my training 8 weeks before the test. It will include my talking about cardio and diet (boring, I know) but it will also have me weight training, and, most importantly, me practicing kempo alone and with others around my rank. The martial arts aspect will include: My katas, reactions, bag work, and video from the test ( mainly sparring). I will post it on youtube when I finish along with the results of how I did.





So here is my question: How many of you would be interested in watching the video and giving me constructive criticism on how I did and what I can improve on? I'm 16 and have been practicing kempo for and a half years. I also practice muay thai and BJJ.