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Aren’t the Raiders just a hoot?!? Can’t decide if I admire Raiders trying to improve them as a whole or not!! Let’s see what happens next season.

Anyone who is an instructor or assistant instructor can sit on a test board for candidates up to one rank below their rank. So as a candidate for sandan, the voting members of my test board must be at least yondan or above. We like to have at least 5 voting members of a test board, but for higher ranks that isn't always a possibility. For example, Heather may be testing for Godan in our testing cycle, depending on if Master Thompson (judan, head of our organization) approves it. Tests for ranks of godan or above are generally abbreviated tests which only involve demonstrations of the core kata (Sanchin, Seisan, Sanseiryu), along with an oral examination UNLESS the candidate is also testing for their shihan license. In that case, the candidate is given essentially the same test as for yondan. We test for *all* ranks; as a Hanshi Judan, Master Thompson can promote candidates by himself for any rank up to Kudan. I'm not sure what the process is to promote a candidate to Judan, but I believe it involves the Zen Okinawa Karatedo Renmei, which (I think) is an organization of 10th degree black belts who evaluate, test and promote other 10th degree black belts. Since I will not live long enough to test for a 10th degree, I'm not worried about that particular detail Another interesting detail I learned is that they are looking at "pre-testing" the instructor candidates for nidan and sandan. We typically do our dan gradings on a Sunday afternoon. In previous gradings we had a morning grading and afternoon grading. What they are looking at doing now is testing the instructor candidates on Friday evening or possibly Saturday, and then using our newly promoted instructors to form two complete test boards, so we can run two tests concurrently. We have four instructors testing this cycle (two for nidan, two for sandan), so that would give us enough instructors to have two full test boards running concurrently. Our school is growing slowly and steadily -- as evidenced by the difficulty in finding a parking spot on certain evenings But our CI is also doing an excellent job at retaining students through and beyond (first degree) black belt. In any given adult class, we generally have at least 4 or 5 black belt trainees.

sounds like a really positive class! Being able to advance and keep your position etc. is definitely a win. If a decent wrestler then that would be a nightmare anyway so again don't be too disheartened! Final one, if you felt like you had a good match then that is what is important. Definitely sounds like it is coming together Is it still just nogi or you guys training in the gi now too?

Maxx Crosby now appears to be staying with the Raiders. NBC Sports reporting the Raiders have announced Crosby is no longer on the trade block. Could it be that Crosby's failed physical made the Raiders believe he isn't tradable? Maybe he would have failed the physical if he had been sent to another team. There were options, the Bears had expressed interest, according to Yahoo Sports. I am guessing they are not the only ones who would consider trading for one of the best defensive players in the league. Srange turn of events. The Vikings have signed Kyler Murray.

We’re all students of the MA; that will never change because humans don’t know everything and we’re not perfect whatsoever. Even whenever I was teaching at my own dojo forever and a day, I was still training with my Sensei up to the day he passed away. Instructors can choose whomever they want to teach, and at the same time, the instructor can choose to not teach at all, even if they’re allowed to do so.

Just a question for the sake of argument about teaching martial arts: what do you think you would do differently? hypothetical situation: After recognizing you as “the martial arts guy” from the community centre(your frequent solo training place) a grandmother and two school age children come asking if you teach/how much for lessons? The MA guy has never taught formally or outside his instructor’s school. He knows he has been explicitly allowed to teach. The MA guy is still himself a student. The MA are very commonly considered a children’s activity; and assuming the adult was asking for the children MA guy refuses. Politely MA guy explains that he is allowed to teach but will not teach children. He also explains that although he would be the only one of his art and lineage, MA guy is himself a student and still training with his instructor of the last 10 years.

Uechi-Ryu has 3 core kata: Sanchin, Seisan, and Sanseiryu. Our other kata were developed later as "bridging kata" to help students transition between the core 3. I guess technically if Uechi-Ryu "owns" any kata, it would be our 5 "bridging" kata, since they were developed specifically for Uechi-Ryu.

The same thing is often said about Shorin ryu. It is a saying to emphasize the importance of the kata as a fundamental kata, central to the style and recognized as such in a general sense. Sanchin, Naihanchi or Seisan are not really the property of, or even exclusive to one specific style or lineage. They are, however considered to be characteristic of certain styles. All Uechi-ryu and Goju-ryu (Naha-te) include sanchin and seisan in some variation. As every Shorin ryu (Shuri-te) style and off-shoots have some version of Naihanchi.

Of course the NFL wants their revenue to grow because after all, the NFL is a business, and a business wants to make money; that’s why any business is around…to make money. 18 regular season games, and the NFL is wanting to push for a 20 game season?!? Money over the wellbeing of the players. Once again, practicality no longer exists whenever money is involved.

Who you going to get? I’ve no idea who to get to replace Dak but there has to be some QB somewhere that can be better than the choke artist Dak.

Imho, Vegas excuse for gouging tickets is because Vegas is the entertainment capital of the USA. Hogwash!! Saw on the news her in Vegas not too long ago that Ticketmaster had a major glitch of some type that highly affected the Metallica ticket prices; tickets were in the thousands of dollars. Don’t get me wrong, tickets in Vegas are very steep. Tickets to the Sphere are ridiculously high anyway; according to the Sphere, it loses millions of dollars a year.

I greatly admire your dedication to your health for all of these years. Thank you for allowing us a glimpse into your journey of maintaining your health.

I respect that wholeheartedly.

How is your Testing Cycle panels formed for your Senior ranks?!? In Shindokan, we test up to, and including, Hachidan.

Okay, I guess I overreached with that statement. But the first half, "Uechi-Ryu is Sanchin" is definitely true.

. You’re not implying that Sanchin IS the property of Uechi-Ryu alone?!? Imho, no matter the Kata, all Kata are for every practitioner of the MA. I’m not strictly a Shindokan practitioner that only trains in Shindokan Kata because other Kata from other styles do offer a model of effectiveness that I can’t deny.

YAHOO!! Congrats to Kenneth for making it to state tournament; he’ll do great!! Sounds to me Kenneth has his head screwed on right now because he believes that he can fix that issue. That’s the mind of a great fighter!! Hang in there and please convey my deepest support to Kenneth; he’ll do whatever he needs to do. He’ll do great!!

Uechi-Ryu is Sanchin and Sanchin is Uechi-Ryu (maybe not QUITE on the second half of that statement). If you look at our organization logo, it consists of a stylized globe overlaid on the flag of Okinawa. And written over this are the kanji for "SANCHIN". It is the first kata we teach, and 9 out of 10 classes begin with warmups, technique exercises, and then Sanchin kata. We have a saying "all is in Sanchin", or "always return to Sanchin." All of our stances and kamae are derived from Sanchin. For example, our zenkutsu-dachi can be described as "Start from a Sanchin stance. Move your forward foot about a foot or so forward. There you go" Our version of Sanchin is significantly different from the Goju-Ryu version and its variants. Our Sanchin-Dachi starts with a solid base. We start with feet about shoulder width apart, one foot slightly ahead of the other (the toes of the back foot are roughly in line with the heel of the front foot). The front foot twists in about 30-45 degrees. The karateka then bends their knees and settles down into the stance. In this stance, the legs are like coiled springs, you can absorb forces coming at you, or you can quickly snap a kick at an opponent with either leg. The arms are held out in front of the student. The elbows are roughly one fist distance away from the ribs, the hands are open, and the fingertips are roughly level with the shoulders. When we strike, the striking arm draws back along the side of the body, and the fingertips will trace the top side of the opposing arm. When the arm is fully chambered and the shoulder muscles stretched (somewhat like a rubber band), we strike with a nukite to what would be the (same-side) shoulder joint on our opponent. The strike is done quickly, but when the strike ends we tense the arm with kime. This goes back to the original name of our style, Pangai-noon, or "Half-hard Half-soft". Our strikes are soft and quick until they make contact, and then we tense. We also practice shallow, circular breathing during Sanchin, and the breathing is usually NOT synchronized with our strikes. We inhale into the hara (think about the space right near the navel), and exhale with a "sst" noise. This keeps the abdominals tensed in the event we get struck there. In fact, during Sanchin we typically keep most of the body tight for protection -- especially the lats, traps, forearms, legs, and muscles around the neck. It is common practice among higher-rank students to test this protection (and stability) by pushing, pulling, or striking the student in various places -- the abs, pecs, traps, forearms, and upper and lower legs are all possible targets. Trying to explain our Sanchin in a single post is like trying to disseminate 8+ years of learning into one post -- because that's what this is. As Sanchin is the foundation of our style, I am always learning new lessons about Sanchin (and then applying them to the rest of my karate). Here is a clip from a seminar with Kanji Uechi (great-grandson of the founder) discussing Uechi-Ryu kata, especially Kanchin (required for sandan) and Seisan (required for shodan). The most common phrase he uses in this clip is "Return to Sanchin", especially when discussing how to make a sequence better. If the audio is muted or muddled, you'll want to go to your YouTube settings under "audio track", and select "Japanese Original". Apparently with his accent and frequent use of Japanese terminology, YouTube's AI decided he was speaking Japanese.

I think a black belt should have some competence. Should a newly promoted shodan be expected to be able to beat a Hell’s Angel at the local roadhouse? Probably not. But a random guy at the local bar who caught you looking at his girlfriend? Probably. A black belt who can’t hold his own against a random untrained attacker reflects poorly on the dojo.

Week 5 test prep class is in the books. For this class, Heather invited David to help teach, and she asked him to focus on Parker and me for our drills, kata and the like. David is a godan and has his shihan's license, so he is one of the few that are liable to be on our test board. (You can only sit on a test board if you're 1 degree higher than the rank the candidate is testing for). Of our instructor pool, only 7 of them are able to sit on a 3rd degree test board, and 5 of them are related to our CI in some way (his dad, stepmom, wife, or younger brother). I like David. He has a very different way of looking at things -- he earned his black belt (not sure what degree) in aikido before he started training in Uechi-Ryu. As such, he tends to have a more soft and "flowy" way about him. When he gives feedback on something it's usually very different what Heather or our CI or most of our other instructors would give. He just looks at things in a different way. And since he's also going to be on our test board, it's important to know the things he is looking for in our techniques. The class ran in the usual format, and I found Heather picking on Parker and me more than in previous classes. Little things that I didn't know were supposed to be a thing. For example, in our kotekitae drills, she pointed out we didn't have our hands chambered for the first drill (where we were supposed to), but DID chamber when we WEREN'T supposed to. And honestly I didn't know that was actually wrong -- I'd probably been doing that way for several years without a correction. One thing I did mention to Parker was on the test, go ahead and hit me as hard as he can. We're only expected to do 10 repetitions per side (instead of the usual 25 or 50), and it'll make both of us look good. There are only a few people in the dojo I wouldn't be willing to say that to, and all of them are related to our CI (his dad or one of his brothers). Next up: dan kumite. Again, David was asked to focus on us. In this drill, our main feedback was that as the drill went on, our targets tended to drift from where they were supposed to be. We started out targeting right where we needed to, but we weren't quite striking at our partner near the end. So something else to work on. Next came our bunkai. David mentioned to Parker that in certain places he needed to make his motions "bigger". For example, there's a sequence where the attacker comes in with a right/left punch combination. The first punch is countered with a block and hammer-fist to the temple. The second is countered with a block and boshi-ken to the jaw. David said that we should make those motions bigger -- this is a performance, and bigger motions give the impressions of power without expending a lot of extra energy. He also mentioned that there are a few places where we need to enunciate our moves more. All in all, Parker and I both felt that was probably the best performance we've done on that drill. Lastly, we practiced our rank kata. There have been 3 sequences I've gone through in my head and worked through over the past week, and I'm starting to feel much better aboit these. They're the sequences that make the kata so hard, comparably speaking. Well, I felt that I did much better this week. Main feedback -- slow down and ensure I enunciate my movements. I was struggling to get through the kata that I was going faster and faster. So now the feedback is slow down. I can handle that. Oh, and also there was one sequence at the end where David said "make these moves bigger". Not grandiose, but make them definitely more pronounced. Next week the dojo is closed for spring break, so I'll need to do extra training on my own so I don't lose my momentum. But I'm feeling really good about things. I'm not even halfway through the prep cycle, and I'm feeling like I'm getting really dialed in and ready to look REALLY good on this test.

My wife and I have always stuck with fixed-rate mortgages. They may be slightly higher than adjustable-rate mortgages, but you don't have to worry about them suddenly adjusting on you and your payments going up. We actually got REALLY fortunate back in 2022 or so, we were able to refinance our house; we went from a 30 year note at 4.5% to a 20 year note at 2.25%. Our payments didn't change much, and we were able to take 5 or 6 years off the length of the note. We want to pay the house off in 5-10 years, but with the interest rates so low, we get a better return on investment putting the money somewhere else. However, my wife wants to convert to part-time in a few years, so at that point we may just pay the house off completely if we have the cash to do so. Every so often I'll get a mortgage company asking me to refinance my house or take out a home equity loan. I laugh at them and tell them my rate and that I'm working on paying the home off to free up that cash flow. They then talk to me like I've grown two extra heads or something.

The NFL is now considering adding a game on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. The change could be as early as this upcoming season. Hard pass. This is a bad idea for a few reasons. One is that the elements of scheduling it with short rest, and how that will work, since college football is still playing that Saturday. Are two teams going to play on Sunday then on Wednesday night? Or is there going to be a bye week before, and two of the teams coming off the bye will play? Or one team off a bye and the other off the Thursday game the week before? Where is player safety in all this? The NFL always talks about player safety but then they add games and shorten weeks. As usual, it is money before everything in the NFL. Even if all those questions had good answers, I still hope the answer is no. It's too much. We don't need an NFL game Wednesday night, three on Thanksgiving, then another game on black Friday, all in the middle of the week between full NFL days on Sunday's and the MNF game. The NFL continues to spread out the games over more dates and more different services. Network TV, cable TV, and multiple streaming services. It's simply getting too oversaturated for my liking, and too expensive. It is likely that if the Thanksgiving Eve game were to happen, it will be on a streaming service. Sometime in the next couple years the NFL will announce an 18-game regular season, with more games going overseas. The league has scheduled nine international games for 2026, with that number expected to grow in coming years. When the NFL announces, they are going to an 18-game regular season, and they will, it is possible there will be a push for a 20-game regular season, possibly eliminating the preseason all together. Why? Because the ratings and ticket prices for the regular season are much higher than preseason games. The quality of the product will go down while the revenue of the league goes up, which, in the end, is all the NFL really cares about.

3/11/2026 Strength Training Clean & Press: 65x1, 75x3, 85x3, 90x3, 95x3, 100x3, 105x3. Clean & Jerk: 110x2, 115x2, 120x2, 125x2, 130x2. Deadlifts: 155x3, 205x2, 240x3, 240x3. I enjoyed getting more cleaning and more overhead work in. However, I do believe my knees will ache tomorrow. I want to use cleans as warmups for deadlifts, but I'll cut back the total reps next time. I think I'll preload the vitamin I as well.

3/10/2026 Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class, I taught. Which was probably a good thing, because my knees were really achy tonight. Got through most of basics, while still helping some of the lower ranks with a few things here and there without slowing the rest of class down too much. We had white, low/high orange, high green, and low brown belt forms and one-steps. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Started off with several rounds of sparring. One of the things I noticed and talked about was using good footwork when retreating. I have several students that are pretty aggressive moving forward, but when they feel jammed up and want to make space, they basically walk backwards. I talked about the speed advantage of someone moving forward while someone else is moving backward. After several rounds of sparring I had the students pair up in a closed stance and close enough together they could lock hands to help balance each other. I had them work on repeat kicking drills, with their partner helping them balance while providing a target for them. First I had them do repeat round kicks, 2 at a time, middle/high, middle/middle, or high/middle, depending on their ability. They did that back and forth for a bit, and then I switched them up to front kick/round kick, focusing on the pivot and hip switch to go from the front kick to the round kick. After the class time was spent, I gathered the twin high green belts and worked a floor drill with them to help them get down the circle block/#2 front kick/reverse punch section of Won Hyo. They've been struggling with putting the block together, so I broke down the block into a few segments and them had them gradually smooth it out. Hopefully it helps them out. If not, I'll try something different.

3/9/2026 Strength Training Press: 45x5x2, 75x5, 95x3, 120x3, 120x3, 120x3, 120x3, 120x3. Triceps Push-downs: 50x15, 50x15, 50x15.