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Is he from the Dominican or somewhere like that? Could be that is something legal from where he's from. Not condoning it, but different cultures have different norms.

Cleveland pitcher Emmanual Clase, who is being investigated for rigging bets, has made a public statement defending himself. Clase has plead not guilty and argues that the text messages the FBI we misinterpreted and are not about illegal sports betting. What were the messages about? Rooster fighting. Clase claims that the messages were about rooster fighting, something he does as a side hustle. That is not his legal defense, that is just his public statement. Glad Mr. Clase has cleared that up for everyone. Sheesh.

Another crazy story, it has been one after another. New York Jets defensive back Kris Boyd was shot on the lung on Sunday morning in Manhattan. He is currently in the hospital and in critical condition. Evidently Boyd got into an argument with another person outside a restaurant that got heated and lead to the shooting. The suspect remains at large.

Rika Usami's speed is lightning. If I had any criticism, it would be questioning if she could hit a heavy bag that way, and what would happen if she did. Her pacing is excellent for demonstrating technique, posing between moves, and it works for her style of karate.

11/15/2025 BJJ: 10:00 - 11:00 am. Open mat. Worked from mount position, with bottom player focusing on framing at the hips and trying not to let the arms get up above the top player's waist (which exposes them to isolation and submission and generally other sundry options). Bottom player was also to focus on getting an elbow planted into the ground inside the top player's knee, along with getting slightly onto that side. Top player was trying to isolate an arm. I had a wrist pinned but gave it up because I felt like I couldn't do anything with it; I let go and tried to scoop under the arm. I can't do that! Coach pointed me to a solution: I should have "walked up" to a higher mount position. While working this situational drill my arms got tired and really gassed out. We also switched it up where top player worked on a back step to avoid half-guard and get to side control. If we got caught in the half-guard, we worked on fighting out of that. I was working with another short, stocky guy like myself and found myself quite off balance in the mount position, which made things even harder to deal with. I couldn't get both knees to sit on the ground to straddle, so I always felt like I was teetering or tottering. We had a guest coach from a few hours west of us come in that coaches at the other schools that we are now under the umbrella of. He was really great at helping me out, and since we are affiliated, we'll probably have some more visits from him.

I am exactly the same way. If it's sitting there waiting for me, then I don't have to buy when I want to read it. I'm now poking my way through Heavy Bag Workout by Sammy Franco. It's got some interesting ideas on changing up heavy bag training.

KC needs to win out, at the very least, to get it done. They also need some help in the form of Jacksonville dropping three in a row or something, and Baltimore needs to stop rolling along. KC may have a chance, but they don't control their own destiny, that's for sure. Dropping that first game to Denver was a huge blow.

11/14/2025 Heavy Bag Workout: 1:20/1:00. 3 rounds orthodox boxing. 3 rounds southpaw boxing. 3 rounds kicking focus on the tall skinny bag. Stretch in The Rack. I need to work on my reverse side kicks on the tall skinny bag (banana bag?). I don't land the kick right, and it jams up my heel is a weird way. Can't really explain what I'm doing, but no I need to fix it. Maybe that's just not what that bag is for? I also downloaded a boxing round timer app on my phone that lets me set the round time and rest time at whatever intervals I want. Awesome addition.

There are quite a few schools out that there that have over a dozen fukyugatas and another dozen taikyoku katas on top of that (I'm exaggerating here, but you get the point) before you finally get the Pinan or Heian series. Thankfully, my school isn't one of them, but if that wasn't the case, I'd consider it "fluff" that needed to go.

It won't get any easier this week, they play the 8-2 Colts on Sunday who are coming off a bye week. Then the play the Cowboys on Thanksgiving, so that one will be easier. Also, they will get another shot at the Broncos on Christmas Day. If KC can get in, they will have a chance to get back to the Super Bowl, though they might have to win three on the road in the playoffs. A few teams have done it, and those teams also had great QBs. The Packers did it when Rodgers was there, I think in 2010, they were a wild card and won the title. Then in 2020 the Bucs did it with Tom Brady, three on the road and won a home Super Bowl. It's rare but it has happened. With the talent, experience, and coaching that KC has they might be one of the few teams in history that can pull it off.

Soon I am going to start Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. It has been on my book self about six months, which might seem like a long time to get to a book, but for me it is not at all. I've got many books that have been on myself for well over a decade that have never been opened. There will always be more books than time to read them. Thus is life.

They beat the struggling Blues but today they lost to the struggling Wild. Minnesota has 22 points, fifth in their division, and gets the OT win against Vegas 3-2. Both teams seemed unhappy with the officiating. Hey, at least Vegas won the Cup a few years ago, this is season 25 for the Wild and they have never been to the SC Finals. Slow start for both teams to this season.

Well Live by the Sword Die by the Sword. Dan Campbell and the Lions went 0-5 on 4th down attempts Sunday night against the Eagles. The aggressive style has been his approach to coaching the team since he took over in 2021, and often times with great results. Not this game. Eagles win it 16-9 and improve to 8-2. Philly looked good on defense, pressuring Goff the whole game, deflecting several passes, forcing an INT, and getting the stops. They also looked sharp on special teams coverage. Lions drop to 6-4, putting them in third place in the division behind the Bears and Packers. We now have the Eagles, Rams, and Colts all at 8-2, and the Patriots and Broncos at 9-2. Other division leaders are the Steelers (6-4) Bucs (6-4) and Bears (7-3).

This is terrible to hear. Condolences to his family. KC likely ended their consecutive run of division titles, playoff appearances, and Mahome's streak of playing in conference championship games with that loss to Denver. On a high note, Travis Kelce is now KC's all time TD leader, passing Priest Holmes.

11/12/2025 Ten minutes of dry fire, focusing on trigger finger resent and it's movement, and making adjustments accordingly. 11/13/2025 Aikido: 8:45 - 9:45 am. Another 6th kyu and I did demo on katatori sankyo omote and ura, and the forward and backward nage versions. I got to shore up some issues I was having with the sankyo lock. Then we worked munestki kotegashi, which is another of our testing requirements. Slide/angle step forward, parry/block at the shoulder for the entry.

11/11/2025 Heavy Bag Workout: 1:15 min rounds, 1:10 rest. 4 rounds orthodox boxing. 4 rounds kicking. Stretch in The Rack. Choi Yong x2. I need to take some time to work on the kicking segments. Strength Training Leg Press: 255x10, 255x10, 255x10. Incline Bench Press: 45x5x2, 95x5x2, 105x5, 110x5. Standing DB Press: 15x10, 25x10, 30x10.

This is interesting. I can't think of anything that I wouldn't teach; maybe use some different approaches, but can't think of not teaching it. But I definitely don't think I get to teach everything that I want. On the other hand, there are some things in our curriculum that I would rather not teach, like our black belt three-step sparring. I honestly don't think it offers anything constructive to the curriculum and is just curriculum for curriculum's sake.

11/8/2025 BJJ: 10:00 - 11:00 am. Open mat. Rolled a warmup round then coach suggested working on over/under position on the legs when inside guard. We worked a pass and also being able to transition to camping position. I kept posting up my underhook side leg to try to create pressure, and that was a mistake; my leg got wrapped an ruined everything. After several rounds of that situational sparring, we rolled one more round. Coach said looked like my conditioning was getting better. Part of this is that I'm just making myself keep going, because if I stop, that's bad.

Think of the nunchaku like a nut cracker. Two ends applying extreme amounts of force on a central point. Now, think where you can apply that force, such as wrists, elbows, neck, feet and ankles.

Tough loss for the Vikings today as they drop to 4-6 after a 19-17 home loss to the Bears, losing on a FG as time expired. Chicago is kind of a quiet 7-3, a big improvement over where they were a year ago. They are winning some of these close games, five of their seven wins are by less than six points. Last year they found crazy ways to lose those games. The Bills bounce back after a blowout loss to the Dolphins; they win at home against Tampa. The struggle continues for the Falcons, Giants, Cardinals, Commanders, Titans, and Bengals, all who lost again this afternoon. Jacksonville got a big blowout win against the LA Chargers and are 6-4, Chargers are 7-4. Right now, the 7-2 Seahawks and 7-2 Rams are in a tight game, Rams lead 14-12 in the 4th. The Broncos and Chiefs are in the third quarter, tied at 13. Big game tonight between the Eagles and Lions in Philly. This is the time of year the contenders start to separate from the pretenders. Let's Go! Edit: The Rams have defeated the Seahawks 21-19, Chiefs and Broncos now tied at 19-19 in the 4th. The number 19 is showing up in a lot of scores today, that is unusual. 2nd edit: Broncos have defeated the Chiefs 22-19. Another close win for Denver, moving them to 9-2, tied with the Patriots for best record in the NFL.

More sad news connected to game sport of football. Laney College coach John Beam, known for his role in the Netflix series Last Chance U, was shot on the college campus Thursday, and died the following day. The Las Vegas Raiders released a statement on their website showing support for coach Beam, who has been coaching football in Oakland for decades.

The first place I’d look is the ISKF website, since that’s the largest Shotokan organization in the Americas. Next would be JKA (both AF and WF). From there, look at WTKO, JKS, and SKIF USA. All of these websites have dojo directories.

In the history of teaching martial arts it isn’t unheard of for an instructor to change their material. Sometimes by adding something or removing another. Even in the most traditional lineages there are those who, for whatever reason, do not teach everything their own teacher taught them. It could be a certain technique or an entire kata/form. For anyone teaching, is there anything you learned from your instructor(s) that you do not or will not teach? What would motivate you to make such a decision?

Hello, Welcome to the voting period for the 24th annual KarateForums.com Awards! Through these awards, we recognize just a few of the individuals who have made outstanding contributions to KarateForums.com in the past year. You submitted your nominations and, from those, we have our KarateForums.com Awards 2025 nominees. In all, 11 different members have been nominated in the various categories that make up this year's awards. They are @KarateKen, @Nidan Melbourne, @Zaine, @Spartacus Maximus, @aurik, @DarthPenguin, @bushido_man96, @sensei8, @Wastelander, @crash, and @Himokiri Karate! KarateKen was nominated in 4 categories, the most of any member, followed by Spartacus Maximus, bushido_man96, sensei8, and Wastelander with 3. Our historical award numbers have been updated and new milestones have been reached! Congratulations to Spartacus Maximus on reaching 20 nominations (now with 22, 6th all-time) and KarateKen on hitting 5 (now with 7, T17th all-time)! I also wanted to highlight Wastelander for reaching the top 5 all-time. Previously, Wastelander was T5th (technically in the top 6), and now is T4th. With the ballots crafted, it is now time to vote. What You Should Know Before Voting These awards take into consideration all community activity between October 19, 2024 and October 18, 2025. You should vote based upon activity during this period - not activity before or after. To vote, you must have a KarateForums.com account with at least 10 posts made on or before October 18, 2025. You cannot vote for yourself. If you do, it will be removed. Your votes will be kept private. We do not publicly reveal who voted for whom. Please do not attempt to artificially inflate our vote totals in any way. This includes, but is not limited to: Trading votes, encouraging people to vote indiscriminately (publicly or privately), sending spam and any other behavior that could lead to results being artificially skewed. Members found to be participating in these activities will be disqualified from nomination in any category. Please note that you do not have to vote in every category. You can vote in as many or as few as you would like - please go for as many as you feel comfortable with. The more valid votes we receive, the better! Categories The categories are listed below. For each category, you will find a link to the ballot where you can vote. Member of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/52457-awards-25-member-of-the-year/ Community Spirit Award https://karateforums.com/topic/52456-awards-25-community-spirit-award/ Staff Member of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/52455-awards-25-staff-member-of-the-year/ Funniest Member of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/52454-awards-25-funniest-member-of-the-year/ Karate Contributor of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/52453-awards-25-karate-contributor-of-the-year/ Health and Fitness Contributor of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/52452-awards-25-health-and-fitness-contributor-of-the-year/ Instructors and School Owners Contributor of the Year https://karateforums.com/topic/52451-awards-25-instructors-and-school-owners-contributor-of-the-year/ Vote Now Please vote. Voting will be closed on December 6, 2025 at 8pm Eastern (UTC -5). Please do not post your votes in any thread. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to private message me or reply here. Thank you for reading and for visiting KarateForums.com. Your participation in these awards is what makes them meaningful. I can't wait to see who you vote for this year. Sincerely, Patrick