How do you start a class?

[TaoBoy]

Do you go the traditional bow-in route or just get stuck straight into it?

To get the ball rolling -

My school starts with (kneeling) meditation to clear the mind before class. Facing the (non-religious) altar we bow in and then stand and salute our instructor. At the centre of the altar is a mirror, so in essence everytime you bow in, you are bowing to yourself. We practice this to prepare for training and the open our minds for the lesson.

And you...?

[SevenStar]

longfist - bow to our sihings, then to sifu, then to the grandmasters.

judo - bow to our instrutor, then to the masters

bjj - just get on the mat and train.

[TjD]

welp, we dont do a whole lot :)

normally most of us get to class 10-15 minutes early then do our own warm-ups

if sifu has something special planned (ie not letting us chi sau or whatever we feel like is going to suit us best that night), we usually do some other warm ups/punches/kicks, then a siu lim tau; then we get started

so basically, either warm up yourself and get working, or some warm ups then a siu lim tau

only real formal thing we do is do that fist in palm thingy whenever we enter or exit the kwoon (whats the name of that anyways?)

[Sho]

Chan Family Choy Lee Fut is the name of the game. We bow to grandmasters and then bow to si hing tai. Same routine when ending a class.

[Kempo Guy]

In my Taiji class, we just sort of meet and start out with some standing meditation and basic exercises...

In my other classes (grappling and JKDC) we just show up and start training.

Coming from a traditional martial art background, it took me a little while to get accustomed to this sort of thing as I was used to 'lining up', sit in 'seiza' and 'bow in' etc. I like the informal approach better.

KG

[DragonzRage]

I start class by exchanging tasteless jokes with my trainer and the other guys and then jumping rope for about 15 minutes.

[yenhoi]

Start Class:

Jump Rope 1-3 rounds.
Medicine ball randomness.

End Class:

Jump Rope 1-3 rounds.

[PHILBERT]

We bow into a photo of the late Grandmaster Yip Man, current Grandmasters, then to each other. There is no bow to the instructor other than when we bow to each other.

[anton]

Originally posted by TjD

only real formal thing we do is do that fist in palm thingy whenever we enter or exit the kwoon (whats the name of that anyways?)

Most CMA's will refer to it as the "salute". I can't remember the Chinese name of this gesture. It was the way we'd greet sifu or any sihings, and pay respect to portraits of the founders.

[Kilik]

Well, get to class 15min early warmup, stretch

Go upstairs and bow to our altar which has a painting of Dao Mo and seven statues which represents certain traits that a martial artist should have, like Buddha which means happiness or a dude with a scroll which symbolizes wisdom. etc

We then stand in ranks and greet our trainer usually a si-sook, and then get stuck in to whatever, usually block physicals and then technical training

yep...