All Activity

Many fans outraged about the cost of World Cup tickets, with seats in the bleachers going for over 2,700 dollars each. Seats near the field were 11,000 dollars each, and one report of four lower lever seats behind the goal are on the resale market for.... are you ready for this.... four seats will cost you...it's worse than you think.......over 2,299,998.85. Or 2.3 million in short language. You're crazy if you pay that! Imagine if you spent that money for tickets and the only goal of the game was in the other net.

Patriots coach Mike Vrabel has been accused of tampering in an attempt to get AJ Brown. However, the NFL has decided not to investigate. Also, the integrity of the Coach of the Year award is being questioned now that Vrabel has been caught having a weekend getaway with a reporter who votes on the award. Vrable won coach of the year in 2025, taking the Patriots from last place all the way to the Super Bowl in his first years as head coach.

Was watching an old episode of Matlock where Don Knotts claims to have a Gray Belt in Karate, something about a belt specifically for senior citizens. I assume this a just for entertainment, but has anyone heard of a gray belt rank? Or what special rank exclusive to those who are seniors? I never have.

Wild lost in double overtime to the Stars. They now trail the series 2-1. Kings and Sabers both up against it tonight, they either win or will be facing the dreaded 3-0 deficit.

Pro Bowl isn’t interesting to me anymore; so boring. BJJ in the Olympics?!? No. Getting rid of wrestling and weightlifting would be a mistake because they’re both tradition for as long as I can remember. Doesn’t mean that the IOC will replace wrestling and/or weightlifting, but one will never know. Flag football?!? For an Olympic athlete caliber?!? Change is inevitable but give me a break.

In all honesty I am looking for a Tonfa maker. I am also looking for someone who can source and works with Australian woods. I am seeking Gigdee or Ironbark. I also know it will be hard to find and expensive to make.

Yes, I do a pre-pivot whenever I throw a roundhouse kick. I had a right knee injury whenever I was a JBB. That injury proved to be quite troublesome. Whenever I threw a roundhouse kick, my right knee would hurt something ferocious. So, with the help of my sensei, I learned to pre-pivot with every roundhouse kick. Overtime my right knee improved and got much stronger but the pre- pivot still remains, and I prefer to kick with my left leg, like Bill Wallace. No. I do not telegraph my roundhouse kick whatsoever because I’ve matured in my techniques.

I'm not to excited about flag football. It'll be great athletes doing athletic stuff, but it's a far cry from what I know as football. I don't even watch the Pro Bowl Games anymore as they really don't mean anything. I don't think BJJ gets into the Olympics. There was talk of getting rid of Wrestling. The problem with the Olympics now is it has become a vehicle for NBC to sell advertising and drive the eyeball numbers. If it doesn't rate, then they'd rather pull it, regardless of whether or not the sport is a highly competitive traditional sport. Dropping sports like wrestling and weightlifting would be a huge mistake in my eyes, as those sports have the basis for international competition for a long time.

4/22/2026 Strength Training Squat: 45x5x2, 115x5, 135x3, 155x3, 175x3. Deadlifts: 185x3, 225x2, 255x1, 255x1. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 95x5, 115x5, 135x3, 160x2, 190x5, 190x5, 190x5. Lat Pull-downs: 127.5x10, 127.5x10, 127.5x10. I had that twinge going on in my lower left back, just above my hip, again. I couldn't pull my deadlift for the triples. I did a light squat to warm up the deadlift, but even the light squat got affected by the back twinge. I think on bench I may have to move to sets of 3. Reps 4 and 5 really get to my head the heavier the load gets. I finished with the lat pull-downs to get more pulling in since I couldn't do the deadlift work.

4/17/2026 Strength Training Squat: 45x5, 115x3, 135x3, 155x3, 175x3, 195x3. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 132.5x5, 132.5x5, 132.5x5 Lat Pull-downs: 125x10, 125x10, 125x10. My knees and hips and back were extra creaky and achy and sore today, so I worked up a pretty light squat.

I agree here, although I've never really heard it put that way before. A drill I like to do is to start by using a chair or something for balance, and I'll pick my side kick chamber straight up (like a front kick to the front of my body, but I'm looking sideways as that's the way I'll kick). Then I'll turn the hips over and lift the heel slightly and pivot at the same time. No kick. Just lift, turn hips/pivot, then back, then down. When I turn the hips over, it turns my chamber from vertical to more horizontal with the heel of the foot that would kick more at the target. You can take the same approach with a back leg round kick chamber by bringing the back leg up (we bring the leg up high, like we have to bring the chamber over a stool or a chair) and pivot the base leg as you bring your front leg forward to point the kicking knee at the target. I also teach what I call a "pre-pivot," which @sensei8 will recall from our training time together. Here's an example of how I do it. In our class we will do a combination in basics consisting of stepping our front foot from a back stance into a front stance and reverse punching. Then we follow up with a back leg round kick. What I will do after the punch is "pre-pivot" my base foot by pivoting the toes out slightly, then proceeding with the back leg round kick, finishing the pivot as I snap the chambered leg forward as described above. I find this helps with finishing the pivot further around upon completion of the kick, so I don't end up cutting the kick off. I find it's also easier on the knees, and the older and some of the heavier students I teach it to find it quite helpful. I use the methods above to help teach students that it's important that your base leg isn't playing "catch-up" to the kicking leg. I want my pivot to be just a little bit ahead of the kick, that way I'm not putting all that stress on the base leg by letting it lag behind. That's when knees get twisted and ligaments and such can get damaged. Our style opens the pivot up quite a bit, usually close to 180 degrees on round kicks and side kicks.

4/16/2026 Aikido: 8:50 - 9:50 am. Morning Class. Lots of work on 5th kyu testing requirements: Munetski kotegashi with pin. Shomenuchi kotegashi with pin. Yokomenuchi sokumen iriminage omote with pin. Yokomenuchi sokumen iriminage omote with tenkan with pin. I don't like this one. I worked on the tenkan and generating spin at the elbow along with hikite. Shomenuchi ikkyo omote with pin. I need to work on blending with the strike better. I think I'm rushing it. Slow and smooth, smooth is faster. Shomenuchi ikkyo ura with pin. Ditto. Aikido: 3:30 - 4:30 pm. Club Class on campus. Got to review the rest of 5th kyu material: All four kaitenage variations. All three sankyo variations. Also got to review the kotegashi and ikkyo techniques with the club student. I'm still working the kinks out of the techniques that have the extra turning motions. This is usually BJJ night, too, but instead of training they had a pizza night because it's the head coach's last night before leaving. He's moving to Hawaii, and he'll be missed. I've learned a lot from him and enjoyed how he ran the classes. But we will still be having the classes, so I should be back in class next week.

What is the "headquarters" position?

4/15/2026 Strength Training Squat: 45x5x2, 135x5, 155x3, 180x3, 200x3, 225x3. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 95x5, 115x5, 135x3, 155x1, 185x5, 185x5, 185x5. Power Clean: 95x3, 115x3, 135x3, 135x3, 135x3. It was nice to see two plates back on the squat.

Four games on Tuesday and three of the teams that lost game one, won game two. They were the Bruins, 4-2 over the Sabers, the Mammoth, 3-2 over the Golden Knights, and the Lightning, 3-2 over the Canadians. All those series are tied 1-1. The Avalanche beat the Kings 2-1, and take a 2-0 lead as the series goes to the city of Angels. Three games on Wednesday. Keep your stick on the ice!

Perhaps you have been taught to do it differently, but your ankle really has very little to do with the pivot while kicking, because you should be twisting your entire leg at the hip. You may have heard the phrase "open your hips" in discussions on kicking, and that refers to this. The only flexibility you should need in your ankle is enough to either lift the heel or the ball of the foot slightly off the floor, depending on which way your style kicks.

Just great!! I suppose I’d rather have the Ducks and not the Oilers. Either way that series won’t be a walk in the park. First my Knights have to eliminate Utah.

I also believe that the IOC has enough contact sport events to add Karate. Besides, enough interest has to be present to sway the IOC.

Monday 20 April Karate Session Warm ups then we split out and did some kihon. Lots of focus on both the hip rotation from angled to square for certain combinations, plus on remaining rooted in your stance. We then worked a little on kicks, focusing on the 'snap back' and also on making sure everyones toes were properly retracted for mae geri. After this we worked on kata : running through Heian Yondan, Heian Godan, Tekki Shodan and then Bassai Dai

Saturday 18 April BJJ Session This session was all about passing from the headquarters position. Was a really good class. We worked either a smash pass to the right, if your opponent stopped that then a knee slide to the left or if feeling fast a backstep variant. Really good session and a lot of good concepts that i will attempt to keep using!

That decision in the olympic final when the ko'd fighter got the gold pretty much did it for olympic karate tbh. Most people watching olympic sports have a passing interest in the sport they are watching, and for most of those people to see someone get knocked out and be presented with the winners medal just looked wrong. If they want it to succeed then they either need to move towards a full contact rule set or at the least the more old fashioned shobu ippon rules i think. You can't have someone getting hit and winning if they want to stay in it. I must admit i was surprised to see flag football in the games though - it is hardly the biggest sport! BJJ gets rejected for the games even though it has a huge participation base now since the talent is basically split across USA and Brazil and they dont like that for olympic sports. While i like the NFL, Gridiron football is only played in the USA with a variant in Canada. That isn't really enough for Olympic inclusion i think, plus flag football isn't a big name anywhere!

McGregor has ballooned up in weight (but it doesn't all look like fat) so will be pretty tough to shift. Doubt he could handle it in with the bigger name guys at the bigger weights so i doubt he will be back now tbh

After an impressive 6-1 victory on Saturday by the Wild, the Stars bounce back tonight and win 4-2 tying up the series as it now shifts to St. Paul. In the other games on Monday the Hurricanes win in double overtime, and the Flyers take game two, so both go up 2-0 in their series. If the Flyers and Hurricanes hang on and both advance, they will face each other in the next round. Also, the Oilers beat the Ducks to take a 1-0 series lead. Winner of the Oilers/Ducks will face winner of the Mammoth/Golden Knights.

This didn't happen, but now Dana is discussing that Connor might fight in 2026. And the saga continues.........

It surely has been quite physical. Even though my Knights won over Utah with a final score of 4-2, fight’s were abound; love the way the referees have no fear in handling the players whenever a fight might or does occur.