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Thank you Bob! Nogi for the most part. They do a gi class on the first Friday of the month. I missed it this month. 3/12/2026 Aikido: 8:45 - 9:45 am. Morning class. Loosening and aikitaisos, then technique work. Katatetori kaitenage omote: This felt pretty good. Stepping was smoother. Katatetori kaitenage soto: This is the more direct version, without the extra step in the beginning. This one felt good, too. Katatetori kaitenage ura: This one is getting better. I'm still trying to adjust the footwork. It didn't feel like I was muscling things around as much today. Yokomenuchi sokumen iriminage: After I stopped overthinking the footwork, this one smoothed out. I still have to focus on drawing the hand to the hip and giving a little twist for kazushi. During the first technique, the sensei and I had a little fun with looking at some transitions to some things that would be more practical for me to use at work. It was a little nerd out session, really, and it's always fun. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: 6:45 - 8:15 pm. Couple of 3-minute warmup rounds during which I got some pointers with getting past half-guard. Class focus was on back control again. We started out working with the top player trying to retain the position and isolate the head or an arm. Bottom player was trying to escape or re-guard. While on bottom I found the baseball bat grip on the arm and bringing over the head helped with the escape. I also found that when I would pressure back into the top player while on bottom and worked on getting my head to the floor, that helped with getting my back to the floor and getting out. When on top and getting pressured back, we progressed to letting a hook go and repositioning the hips back under the opponent to prevent escape, or releasing the hooks and going under the legs, then lifting and sitting back up and getting the chest-to-back connection re-established. We progressed to working to a RNC or armbar for finish. Funny point: in one of the drills, I had a baseball bat grip with my thumb around the wrist, and somehow this got me into a spot where I couldn't release the grip and my own thumb was blocking me; it was a thumb lock! It led to getting me armbarred. We finished with open rolling. Coach said I'm doing some good things movement-wise, I just got to keep at it. I rolled with a new guy who had wrestled in high school, but was a few years out of high school. While we were rolling he bellied out and I eventually worked a crossface into a RNC for the tap-out! It felt pretty good.

Back from the state tournament. On day one we found out just how tough a tournament this was going to be (which it always is). The number one seed was a great big grown man...looked like he had a mortgage. He won the 6A high school state championship...in the heavyweight division...and he showed here to wrestle 215. Also in the bracket was the 3-2-1A state champ at 215. Kenneth had wrestled him once this year. He was a senior, but a more normal sized individual; I could see Kenneth growing into something like that in two years. Kid was a great kid, too. First match up, Kenneth was undersized compared to this kid. He was big; not as big as the 1 seed, but big and quick and strong. Kenneth ran with this kid all three periods, but lost 15-4. He did a great job hanging with this opponent, and the kid couldn't pin him. And as long as you don't get pinned, anything can happen. First round loss sent him to backside. In his second match up, he was again facing another opponent taller than him. He's been seeing this theme over the past two years, though, and I tell him he has to slay giants. I've seen him develop his mental approach to the point that this doesn't bother him anymore. He just expects to be smaller than the others, so he doesn't care. The first period was spent on their feet jockeying for position and ended scoreless. Kenneth chose bottom to start the second period. He did a Peterson roll to get the reversal, kept pressure on, and the opponent based his legs out. Kenneth set a suicide cradle and won with a pin to advance. Third match up was against a previous opponent. This kid lives is a senior who lives in the same town as us but goes to the public school. We've known him for years from our affiliation with the wrestling club before this new one he's in started up. Good kid, too. Kenneth was 0-2 against him this year, counting a week ago as his only loss in districts. First period did not go well; Kenneth was holding him off for most of the period but got taken down and turned at the end of the period. It looked like he going to get pinned, but he held on just long enough to get saved by the bell. He was down 11-1 to end the first period. I can't remember who had choice, but neutral was chosen. Then wrestling happened. The opponent started running at Kenneth, and Kenneth was able to use the momentum to throw him over straight to his back! After a few counts of nearfall, it was a pin. That win allowed him to make it to day 2. After the match the opponent came over and was chatting with Kenneth, and was just such a good sport about the whole thing. Day 2, first match up. I'm always super nervous for this match. Win and move on, lose and go home. We had watched the opponent, and he had a very good and very technical headlock he threw. He wasn't a great big kid, right around Kenneth's size, but definitely older. They tied up and the opponent got to double underhooks really quick. He cinched Kenneth up and tried to step in and take him over, but Kenneth countered with his own throw and took to his back for 3 points. He didn't have something quite locked in, because the opponent was able to squirm out of the nearfall. Kenneth said later he lost an arm and that was the kicker. Kenneth tried to bring his back to the mat, but he bellied out and they got to front headlock position. Kenneth defended a takedown counter and they went out of bounds. They reset and the opponent worked an escaped For period 2, Kenneth had choice and chose neutral. He tried to work to double underhooks but couldn't get them set. They jockeyed a bit more, but the headlock came, hard and fast, and that was it. A tough loss that ended the tournament for him. I was encouraged, though; he did wrestle with this opponent very well. Kenneth had a teammate that was in the finals, so we stuck around because Kenneth wanted to support him and help coach him. I got to see the finals matches for the 215 bracket. The 3-2-1A state champ won the championship against the 6A heavyweight champ in impressive fashion. He controlled his opponent throughout, fighting for a couple of very tough single-leg takedowns. It was a great match. The first opponent Kenneth lost to ended up placing 3rd, and the second opponent he lost to ended up placing 6th. I think there are some positives to take away from that. I was super proud of him. He fought his rear-end off, and didn't give up, and he never lets himself think he can't win a match anymore. The good news is going forward is that a freestyle/Greco club will be meeting for a few hours on Sunday afternoons, and he's looking to continue at least with practices, which is great. Spring wrestling makes winter champions. The freestyle/Greco state tournament is held at the same place as folkstyle, too, in May. Who knows? Maybe we'll come back and give that a go.

Auston Matthews is out for the rest of the season with an MCL tear that he suffered against the Ducks on March 12. Matthews is the Maple Leafs team captain and arguably the best American born hockey play in the world right now. The injury happened as a result of a cheap shot by Ducks defenseman Radko Gudas, who collided with Matthews with intent to injure, according to the officials. Gudas was ejected and has been given a five-game suspension. Way too short of a suspension. Gudas has a long history of suspensions, maybe not Tom Wilson long, but long. This was not a hockey play; it was an intent to injure. Gudas should have been suspended for much longer, maybe the rest of the season, but no surprise the NHL department of player safety got it wrong, as they often do. The league should take a long and serious look this offseason for how they hand out punishments like this. Too often the offender gets off easy. It's time for an overhaul.

The old school response is NO, Go away! Then the kids come back and ask again. You say NO. Then the 3rd time, you hand them a broom and a mop..... The McDojo way is, Sure, here's a free uniform, just pay for 1 year in advance, or you can join the Black Belt Club for 50% off.... I wouldn't take it too seriously, people ask questions, say they want to train all the time, and mostly nothing comes of it. It is kind of odd ("in this day & age") that a grandmother would approach a random guy in a community center to interact with children. If it was me, and I at least knew them by sight, with an adult guardian present I'd show them a couple of things, pique their interest, and recommend a school.

One thing we are stressing in our test prep classes is the concept of "sincere attacks". The attacker does a disservice to the defender if he/she does not perform an attack that will strike (but not injure!) the defender unless the defender performs the proper defense and counter. This is the reason we use shinai instead of bokken when training our bunkai -- if you smack someone in the head or the hands with a shinai, it'll hurt a bit. If you do the same with a bokken, you'll likely injure him, possibly seriously. I speak from experience; I've been smacked in the fingertips and the forehead with a shinai once or twice. It's no fun and a harsh reminder of why as the defender you need to intercept the sword attacks before they get any momentum. (Yeah, nobody's going to attack you with a sword, but a baseball bat or pool cue is a more realistic possibility).

I passed out the Century MA catalog, every single type, like candy to everyone, even non-students; I had a wholesale account for as long as I can remember!!

I might suggest other places that the grandmother could go, but if you don't want to teach children that is valid. If you don't want to teach at all, that is also valid. No need for justification beyond that.

I'd be sure to clarify that part about "I'm not allowed to teach children" because that makes you sound like a predator. It's the times we live in. I don't understand the part about "the only one of his art and lineage". Lost me there what that means in reference to this. If you, the MA Guy, have permission to teach adults, just explain that to them. If you have permission to teach adults, but don't want to, just tell them you're a student and don't teach. Pretty simple to me.

It would have been shocking if someone like Sensei8 wasn’t familiar with the “Chuck Norris” catalogue. Practically anybody teaching martial arts or running a store had piles of these. They would hand them out to new students when they joined and then whenever a new issue came out. Always looked forward to going through it, even when not specially ordering anything.

I definitely remember that!!

Anyone remember the old Century MA supply catalogue that was printed up to the late 90’s? Chuck Norris was in too many adds and too many cover pages to count. For a long time he was just the MA gear add guy. Been a fan since finding out about his authentic training in martial arts; military career, and of course the movies.

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.