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My prediction of the Rams winning it all this year has been shot down. They had chances but Seattle wins it 31-27. I don't remember what my preseason predictions were for the Seahawks and Patriots, but I know I did not have them anywhere near the Super Bowl. Now we have two weeks to hear about how the Seahawks should have given it to Marshawn Lynch on the goal line ten years ago. Oh yeah Edit: This makes nine times in ten years that the AFC Champion was either the Patriots (4) or the Chiefs (5). The one other was the Bengals in the 2021 season. Seattle is the early favorite

I've been very remiss in updating this thread. Kenneth is in his sophomore high school season. He started the season at heavyweight, and wrestled one tournament at that weight, taking first. Then he dropped to the 215 lb weight class, and has been experiencing success there. His first few meets were rough, but he's placed 3rd in 4 tournaments so far at 215. We just had a really tough tournament here in town this weekend where Kenneth went 5-4 over the two-day meet. He's edging closer to 30 wins on the season.

1/16/2026 BJJ: 6:45 - 8:15 pm. Some 2 minute warm-up rounds, then we went to work. We worked from the outrigger position into side control. After quite a bit of positional work there, we progressed to working on finishing with a gift wrap, Kimura, and armbar. I felt behind all the time while drilling and rolling, but I also felt like I was doing some good things. Bottom side control still sucks. I finished with 2 live rounds, 2 minutes each. Stretched after.

1/13/2026 Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. During basics, I tried to be faster. When kicking, I varied between speed and lockout. Had a good stretch after basics. For one-steps, I worked with white belts and low and high green belts, so good review. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Several rounds of free sparring, with the kids. The older kids are being fast, aggressive, and are athletic. It's pushing me, which is what I need. I was never fast or athletic. I had kids work on their offense and "moving the defense" by attacking a certain zone to get the hands to move there and open up another zone.

Good to see your updates. I've been having trouble posting lately, too. Here's to making it regular again!

So true, and I agree that falling properly will probably be more utilized than actually defending oneself.

Good to see the update! Best of luck on your upcoming test. I'm sure you'll knock it out of the park!

I've seen the ads, but haven't watched a match yet. I wonder if it's a pro league styled after Freestyle wrestling, which is spring wrestling here in the states, along with Greco. We have tournaments that are combined Freestyle/Greco, with Freestyle usually going first. Much different style of wrestling than folk.

The switching of head coaches always means there's a chance for even more instability for the team moving forward. I don't think a lot of fans truly understand or appreciate how hard it is to get to the playoffs in the NFL, let alone just assume they should win a Super Bowl with a good QB. Dan Marino had one shot a Super Bowl title in his career and never saw another one. Poor Jim Kelly lost 4 in a row. You just never know. On the flip side of the coaching carousel, I got my wish and the Chiefs brought back Eric Bienemy as OC, who helped produce some of Mahome's best seasons. Looking forward to next year. Seahawks beat the Rams for the NFC title, and the Patriots are back after winning the AFC title. I think Seattle will be the Super Bowl champs.

I hope this link works from Utube, but at the 27 minute mark you'll see Nahachin Sho as we do it.

We don't do Sanchin. We practice a more natural breathing, but in Shorin Ryu Matsumura Seito, old style Shorin Ryu, not this "new and improved" crap that's so prevalent now days, we do all 3 Nahachin kata starting with our 4th - 6th kata in line. One of the core elements of Nahachin stances is a shoulder width horse stance, toes facing straight forward, knees bending outwards. It hurts until you get used to it. Your feet feel like their digging into the floor, regardless if it's a wood floor, cement, carpet, padding or anything else. The tension is quite large. OSensei Soken Hohan, great nephew of Bushi Matsumura, is considered the foundation of our current system. As to Nahachin being a "simple" kata, it's not so simple when you practice it long term. It has some really incredible bunkai in it.

Yeah. I live near a military installation which generally has cheap and fast alteration services, but a karate gi might be a little too weird even for them. I’ll probably just try to do it myself. I did my first one as a teenager when I first began karate back in the 1980’s, so I should be good as long as I can figure out my wife’s new-fangled sewing machine! And I had to look up the Arawaza supplier out of curiosity. Holy cow! $545 for a karate gi!!!🥋 I think I will stick with the $84 Mugen for now at least, since ANY gi I’d wear right now would fit me as well as Steven Segal’s gi fits him! 😄

37 seconds!! If you blinked, you might’ve missed it. That’s all that it took the Penguins to score 3 goals in the opening game against the Oilers Thursday night. That was the fastest 3 goals in Penguins history and the fastest 3 allowed goals by the Oilers. Penguins won that game with the final score of 6-2!! GO KNIGHTS!!

I have to agree with some of the other posters here. Mugen is a good deal only if you don't need anything altered. Depending on the size of the gi and how much alteration you need, you could end up spending roughly $200 before that Mugen is ready to be worn on the floor. Even with international shipping, you'll end up spending a similar amount or less on a Shureido or Tokyodo (both companies hem pants and sleeves for free). The cut of both Shureido and Tokyodo are known to be big-boy friendly. The lack of in-house alterations doesn't make Mugen the worst deal, though. The title of "worst deal" goes to Arawaza. That Black Diamond is nice, but by the time I'd get one altered at the local shop, the overall cost would be ridiculous.

I am a fourth dan in Shorin-ryu Shorinkan and a fourth dan in Goju-ryu under Hokama Sensei. Sensei Hokama says, "Goju-ryu is a bottle of water. Sanchin is the bottle, Tensho is the cap, and the water represents all Goju-ryu methods, all mixed." I like this analogy. My Sanchin dachi and Naihanchi dachi are essentially the same ,both shoulder-width, with heels slightly out. In both of them, I am sitting heavy and compressed. I am absolutely comfortable staying or stepping. My weight is right in the middle. If I am pulled, I am not going to use my toes to stop it; I try to go lower. The length of my Sanchin stance is toe to heel plus 2-3 inches.my back hip is pushed forward and engaged . in my opinion, Sanchin is a fundamental kata as it is all about structure. Tensho and Naihanchi are not fundamental kata unless you do them and treat them as such; otherwise, both are fighting kata. For me, Sanchin is about muscles and bones, and Tensho is about tendons. Naihanchi is my self defense kata along side Seisan.

Just a little help with fat boy sizing for everyone since gi sizes are generally based on height rather than chunkiness. I got a size 8 Orange Tag Mugen yesterday. Planning a trip to the Philippines next week and they have a couple of nice, traditional Japanese karate schools there. I haven’t been in a karate class or karate gi since 1996 so I figured something lighter was in order rather than the Tokaido or Century Iron Man uniforms I last wore 30+ years ago. I’m 5’8” tall but I’m also 295 pounds, around 42” at the hips, and 53” around the chest and around the waist at the navel. KI suggested a size 8 when I called. I just tried it on fresh after a cold wash and hang dry. Starting from top to bottom: the shoulders have lots of room; the sleeve length is not bad, only two or three rolls of the stitched cuffs and it’s about where I like it, the arm hole openings where your hand is at are huge; the left side flap ties won’t butt up and cinch all the way, but there’s easily enough to tie the strings together, same on the right side; the jacket skirt was really long reaching down to my knees, however, once I cinched up a size 8 belt around my waist, the Bavarian tumor above it took up all the excess fabric and it looked fairly normal at a mid-thigh length; the size 8 belt ears had about 8” of hang-down floppiness. The pants had about 3” of looseness at the waist. I could pull them up over my navel and simultaneously give myself a wedgie and a cameltoe and they were almost the right length for floor dragging American style, but rolling the 1” stitched seam about five or six times put them at the classic Japanese low- to mid-shin length. I’ll probably tie them under my Bavarian tumor so I don’t cause an international incident requiring medical attention in the groinal netherworld. Hemming is planned. The fabric is light but stiff. No shoulder liners to rip out. A little scratchy right now since it’s not broken in. I predict it will last quite a while.

I think it’s important to note that the meaning of kiai as it pertains to karate isn’t a deep one. The kiai was not practiced in Okinawa until it was added by the Japanese. The kiai actually came from kendo practitioners who brought it to karate when cross training under Funakoshi. It’s entirely possible that the Koreans may have been practicing the kiai (or “kihap,” as they call it) just as long as, if not longer than, the Okinawans. If we are to search for a deeper meaning of the kiai, then the answer is best found in kendo rather than karate.

What the instructor said makes sense if omitting things is for a purpose other than reducing or eliminating redundancy. And I’m all for that, though not to the same extent as Wastelander. I’m a bit of a traditionalist, so I’d limit the elimination of kata to only the ones developed after karate was introduced to mainland Japan. In my opinion, the Pinans are defining katas of Shorin-ryu. Tatsuo Shimabuku didn’t teach the Pinans, so it would make sense that he would differentiate his style by calling it Isshin-ryu.

Monday 19th January Karate Session Standard session again. Worked through all grading required kihon plus lots of reps of kata. Also got confirmation of date for my Shodan grading in March

Sunday 18th January Lifting Session Back squat 20kg x 5 40kg x 3 60kg x 2 80kg x 1 99kg x 3 99kg x 3 99kg x 3 Bench press 20kg x 5 40kg x 3 60kg x 2 70kg x 1 81kg x 3 81kg x 3 81kg x 3 Romanian Deadlift 72kg x 3 72kg x 3 72kg x 3 Assisted pull up with 25kg band 7 reps 6 reps 6 reps Standing military press 32kg x 10 32kg x 10 32kg x 10

Friday 16th January Lifting Session Back squat 20kg x 5 40kg x 3 60kg x 2 88kg x 5 88kg x 5 88kg x 5 88kg x 5 Bench press 20kg x 5 40kg x 3 60kg x 2 72kg x 5 72kg x 5 72kg x 5 72kg x 5 Romanian Deadlift 64kg x 5 64kg x 5 64kg x 5 64kg x 5 Assisted pull up with 25kg band 6 reps 6 reps 6 reps Triceps pushdown (straight bar) 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 Standing military press 31kg x 10 31kg x 10 31kg x 10

Monday 12th December Karate Session First session back for 2026. Standard session. Not massive numbers so lots of reps of kata, which are always needed!

Sunday 11th January Lifting Session Back squat 20kg x 5 40kg x 3 60kg x 2 88kg x 5 88kg x 5 88kg x 5 88kg x 5 Bench press 20kg x 5 40kg x 3 60kg x 2 72kg x 5 72kg x 5 72kg x 5 72kg x 5 Romanian Deadlift 64kg x 5 64kg x 5 64kg x 5 64kg x 5 Assisted pull up with 25kg band 6 reps 6 reps 6 reps Standing military press 31kg x 10 31kg x 10 31kg x 10

Friday 9th January Lifting Session Back squat 20kg x 5 40kg x 3 60kg x 2 83kg x 5 83kg x 5 83kg x 5 83kg x 5 Bench press 20kg x 5 40kg x 3 60kg x 2 68kg x 5 68kg x 5 68kg x 5 68kg x 5 Romanian Deadlift 60kg x 5 60kg x 5 60kg x 5 60kg x 5 Assisted pull up with 25kg band 5 reps 5 reps 5 reps Standing military press 30kg x 10 30kg x 10 30kg x 10

Yeah i have to agree. Can make an argument that Ukemi is the skill you are most likely to use in your life and the one most likely to save you from injury or severe harm. People don't get in that many physical confrontations but everyone has fallen on a patch of ice etc. at some point in their life