aurik

Many kudos to all the winners!

So I was sitting at a restaurant earlier tonight and heard someone completely butchering "The Twelve Days of Christmas". So I could best avoid it, I looked it up -- Andy Williams, "A Song and a Christmas Tree". Who in their right mind takes a classic Chrismas song and butchers it so?

Congratulations -- 4th dan is a big step!

During the Blues/Stars game Saturday evening, Stars' defenseman Liam Beschel laid a really nice hit on Blues' captain Brayden Schenn that sent him into the Stars' bench. What was even funnier was that he landed right next to Stars' captain Jamie Benn, who was mic'ed up for the game. Enjoy: Brayden Schenn checked into Dallas' bench

Our road to the dan level grading is much tougher than the grading itself. Before the grading, candidates must attend an extra class per week for a minimum of 12 weeks. That class focuses only on the required elements on the test. The instructor runs the class as a perfectionist; he (or she) will provide frequent corrections which the candidate is expected to quickly incorporate prior to being approved for testing. The classes are nominally an hour each, but they frequently run to 1:15 or 1:30, depending on the number of students. Assuming the students pass the prep cycle (some wash out due to being unable to keep the 12-week commitment), the test itself is pretty straightforward. The candidates demonstrate their techniques in rank order -- the most senior candidates will demonstrate last. The test starts with sanchin and the candidates' rank kata, individually. Next the candidates will demonstrate their yakusoku kumite, kote kitae, and bunkai in pairs. The candidates then perform hojo undo as a group and then have an oral exam. Finally, the candidates will be paired off for one or more sparring rounds. As a general rule, black belt tests will take about 2 hours, possibly a bit longer if candidates have to re-demonstrate multiple times (occasionally an instructor will ask a candidate to re-demonstrate a technique).

Many belt manufacturers will embroider your belt for you. I had mine done by Kataaro, and I'm very happy with it. For my extra-long belt with metallic blue embroidery on both tips, it was about $150, but that was over 2 years ago.

Speaking as an instructor, I'll say that a LOT of my time working with beginning and intermediate students involves making these type of corrections before they become bad habits. Looking from the outside, some may look small (corrections). However, when the student makes these small corrections they'll notice significant improvements in the efficiency and efficacy of their techniques. As a student becomes more advanced and experienced with how things are supposed to look and feel, they can start learning on their own and self-correcting (at my school we generally see this happen around 1st degree black belt). However, even the senior instructors in my school (both of whom have been training for 30+ years) still make it a point to train under other instructors from time to time (generally 2-3 times per year). Yes, you technically CAN learn martial arts remotely, but if you have a good school near you I'd highly recommend you check them out.

Congratulations! I found my test prep for nidan considerably harder and more stressful than the actual test. Once I got to the test, I knew I had prepared as best I could, and that my CI wouldn't invite me to test if he didn't think I was ready. Now you get to figure out all the new material that's a part of the next step of your journey. As Zaine said, that's the really cool part about passing a test....

I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly. A good practitioner will have excellent technique. A good instructor will figure out how to bring out the best technique in others. The second is much harder than the first, because different students learn in different ways. An explanation that resonates with one student may go completely over the head of another, and vice versa.

On the flip side of that, the Blues have scored at least one point in every game they've played since they hired Jim Montgomery. Of course, it helps that they're starting to get some injured players back. But I'm cautiously optimistic.

Our style doesn't have kihons per se; we have hojo undo, which is a brief sequence taken out of one of our kata. For example, one hojo undo is wa-uke/seiken-tsuki, or circle block/flat-fist punch. I don't know if all Uechi-Ryu dojos do this, but we will periodically practice these as a class against each other "across the floor". So we all pair up on one side of the floor. The attacker will throw a sequence of lunge punches at the defender, and the defender will defend him/herself with that technique (or some variant of it). We start this at white belt for adults, and in the kids' intermediate class (generally green belt/6th kyu and up). This is one of the way we try to keep things fresh and interesting. We also start with basic 2-person drills/yakosuku kumite drills at white belt (required for 9th kyu).

I saw that one - how the heck do you live something like that down? Fortunately the Caps won in the end, but Lindgren did get a LOT of well-deserved flak from his teammates for that one.

I'm currently finishing up Rythym of War by Brandon Sanderson. It's a re-read prior to the release of Wind and Truth this coming weekend. This wraps up the first half of his ten-book Stormlight Archive series. Given that he has already killed off one semi-main character (in book 4), I'm half-dreading who he is going to kill off in book 5. In his Mistborn series, he actually killed off both main protagonists at the end of the first trilogy. Mind you, he didn't kill them off randomly; he did it with a purpose. But dammit, by that time you were invested in those characters, and it hurt.

How is it? I may need to check it out...

And so it begins, the Great NHL Coaching Carousel. When a team doesn't perform up to expectations, it's much easier to fire the coach than it is to start moving players. It isn't always the coach's fault per se, but the coach is always accountable. I suspect the reason biggest reason that Drew Bannister lost his job is because Jim Montgomery became available. Granted, the Blues were underperforming, but they had been underperforming for quite awhile. Monty had been an assistant coach with the Blues from 2000-2022 and already had a good relationship with the Blues' management and most of the players. So when he became available, the Blues snapped him up. In his first game as the Blues' head coach, they won 5-2, with a SOG advantage of 46-31. I'm wondering which coach is next to lose his job in the Great Coaching Carousel -- the Avs have had some spectacular meltdowns this year. Last night they got pummeled by the Lightning 8-2 -- at one point the Avs' goaltender was so frustrated he chucked his stick: https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/video/avalanches-georgiev-breaks-stick-in-frustration-after-giving-up-point-goal/