Room Creativity

(1) Q. How do you plan to address the room creativity expectation?

A. I wouldn't really have much of decoration for my presentation, but some things I would put for surroundings would be a few pics (drawings) or diagrams of Karate fighting techniques.  Also I would have training mats borrowed from the small gym for the training activity that is followed by one of my answers.

(2)Q. What activity ideas do you have for answer 1 or 2?

A. An activity I plan for answer 1 is as I said in the previous question is having my audience get basic training in sliding up on their opponent (no opponents are literally there just practice).  For answer 2, I would probably have a quiz on which angles are  effective against certain offensive techniques.

Research check 14

1. Interview with 10th Dan American Karate Instructor Keith Yates

-What age did Keith Yates start training if he received his black belt at the age of 17?
-If there were more adults in their 20's training and so few kids, how long did it take to come to the time of more kids training in Karate now?
-How often did he partake in competitions and how long did he have a competing career?
-How many competitions/tournaments did he win?
-When did he decide to end his competing career?

2. Kata Training and Aikido

-Which style was the first to create Open style Katas?
-Were Katas always used for technique display in competitions or were they also used as a means of fighting?
-What is the average amount of time/days it takes to fully learn a Kata? (Of course number of techniques in a Kata can vary that answer)
-Were Katas introduced as weapon, empty handed, or both?

3. Competition

-Legitimate Karete competitions require every technique to be sufficient enough to be counted a point.
-Karate-like sports barely have any rules on technique.

Research check 13

1. US Open
-It took place in the east coast of the U.S. on July 9-10 2010.
-More than 35 countries had their competitors travel to the U.S. for the opportunity to compete and check out the Colorado Springs Resort.
-The Night of Champions was televised on ESPN.
-Every competitor had gave their best ad most difficult performances.
-Micah Karns, Cole Eckert, Austin Crain, Hunter Crain, and Kyle Montagna had made to the run-offs after winning their divisions.
-In the Form finals Jacob Pinto had displayed many tricks to enhance his performance and had won the US Open Night of Champion's award for Forms.

2. Angles in Martial Arts and Defensive Tactics
-Angling is like using brains over brawn.
-They mostly allow smaller fighters to match up to an opponent who is larger than them.
-After accurately hitting your opponent from an angle, either set up your next offense or defense since the same trick may not work more than once.
-Fighting smarter with angles helps a fighter get hurt less.

3. Official Results/World Shotokan Karate-do Championship

Answer 2

EQ: What is most important to competing as a top rated competitor in Martial Arts Tournaments?

Answer: A good competitor should have effective use of angling in their fighting tactics.

Evidence: 1. Bill “Superfoot” Wallace actually made good use of angling in sparring and has taught it to people he trained. (From The Wallace  Method to Winning Karate)

2. My main instructor teaches just about every student to angle on their opponents by practicing several partner drills and then make sure they implement it in sparring.

3. Rather than overwhelming an opponent's ability to resist, angles help undermine it. (From #37 Angles in Martial Arts and Defensive)

Conclusion:  Angling is important in a good competitor’s fighting tactics because it helps one avoid taking a hit, which is sometimes better to do than just blocking the hit because eventually their blocking arm will wear down.

The Product

Q. What is your product and why?

A. An idea I think my product is being more focused in competing more than before.  In my service learning part of the senior project, I have been working hard in class and I competed about two weeks ago in my first Team Black Belt tournament; my team mates and I may have placed second but we put our best efforts and made our instructors proud. Here's a link to my fight in the tournament click here

Independent Component 2 Plan Approval

1. What I plan to do for my Independent study component is my Karate training on Wednesdays and Thursday evenings to prepare for an upcoming tournament.

2. This plan will meet my 30 hours because I train every week, each class I train in is worth an hour and it helps me stay prepared for my other half of the plan which is competition.  As for competition it may not come very often but I will go for every chance I get.

3. This independent study relates to my Essential Question because as I said before, training helps me prepare for any competition I go to and the competition gives me the feel of being a real competitor.

Independent Component 1

1. Here is a Google Docs link to my hours log link

2.

3. Literal: a. I, Erik Leon, affirm that I completed my independent component which represents 30 hours of work.

b. What I did to complete these 30 hours was my training and teaching youth students at the American Warrior Karate school on Wednesdays for 1 hour from 7:30 to 8:30 PM and Thursdays for 3 hours from 5:30 to 8:30 PM.

Interpretive: The most significant part of my independent component was achieving my Black Belt because it demonstrates that my training was worth the hard work, although the training doesn’t stop there.

Applied: It helps answer my EQ because my training part helped me understand what it takes to be a good competitor in my point of view while training; I also help the youth students prepare for any upcoming tournament.