sensei8

I appreciate your sentiment wholeheartedly!! After all, we take everything to our grave: knowledge...experience...determination...etc...!!

I agree!! When it comes to building things, I've a green thumb; those skill sets are beyond me!!

Solid post!!

After 53 years in Shindokan, I still don't know our Kata's!! Why?? I'm constantly learning more things about them...the more I train them, the more I learn; I don't know everything...I'm not expected to know everything!! Shu Ha Ri...over and over and over and over and over...until the day I die. I'm very well versed in Shindokan Kata's, as well as many other Kata's outside of the Shindokan circle, however, after 53 years, I believe that I've still barely scratched the surface. Yeah, I've scuffed the heck out of the surface, but, still, I don't know everything because I'm not perfect. I don't want to know everything about anything, especially MA related because if I know everything, then what's there to learn?? That would be a very lonely existence!!

Impression!! Whether the initial or the long lasting impression favors the good or the bad, it starts with the MAist. One chance to begin the building a wall of trust or a wall of discontent...one chance!! Impressions can be manipulated verbally and/or physically; the fine line becomes the proponent of concern as to what's effective and what's not effective. A MAist with a plethora of knowledge and experience can tear down those walls for a selfish agenda or strengthen the wall for the betterment of the MA. My mandate that "Proof Is On The Floor" far outreaches some cleaver, well thought out words that I started spouting out decades ago because it sounded and/or made me appear important. NO!! I started chiming "Proof Is On The Floor" because I ripped the blinders off my big fat head because I saw with my own eyes one MAist after another promote themselves as a brand of their own; far fetched self-importance at the expenses of others, MAist or not. A MAist doesn't have to try to impress me with a grocery list of accolades and the like...NO...the unseen witness...the floor...will do one of two things...acknowledge or deny!! Impressions not impress me at all!! HONESTY...now that impresses me!! Demo or not, the true MAist is spotted quickly within an ocean of MAist, and without all of the bells and whistles, and as the tides wash away the grime, all that remains will be that true MAist who just executed an effective demo!!

Get some elbow pads...trust me...to train the nunchaku for the time being!! One of the fewest kobudo that while learning it, you actually are beating the tar out of yourself all by yourself!! No pain, no gain!!

I had blinking training, which is to say, 2 weeks of Tang Soo Do, before I trained for a year in TKD, while I was a JBB in Shindokan. To be frank and honest, I couldn't tell the differences between the three. Only difference that stands out between the three is that TSD and TKD kicks were much higher than Shindokan kicks, which are waist down. All three had nearly the same techniques; I couldn't tell if I was in a TSD or a TKD or a Shindokan dojo/dojang from the surface.

Oh here I go again... Good = Resisting!! Bad = Non-resist!! You want to bore the tar out of me, then put on a demo where one always wins, and one always losses...guess who always wins, no matter what?!!?

While the word "hidden" raises many MA eyebrows, and to that extent, I can understand the raised eyebrow. It's true, there's NO such thing, well, there shouldn't be, anything "hidden". However, I've taught my students that while there's nothing "hidden", whatsoever, there's the assumptions that said movement in said Kata is a block, for example, and the raised eyebrow lifts up even more so when they learn the many things that a block isn't. To the inexperienced, that, whichever that might be, is "hidden", however, those with experience know that there's no such thing as "hidden", just unlearned, for the moment. Those are "hidden", I suppose, because to a beginner, to any student, learning that said block isn't a block like they had imagined it, that revealed technique wasn't "hidden", because it has been there for quite along time...and the truth shall set the student free...assumption is the mother of oops, and my bad!! How many kata's do I know?? More than I should and/or want to know!! It's not the quantity, but it's the quality!! Imho, any Karate school must teach Bunkai, if not, then that school isn't teaching anything of value.

Congrats, RW; very well deserved!!

Happy Birthday, Devin; and many, many more!!

Semantics are alive in the MA. The techniques of Tang Soo Do combine elements of shotokan karate, subak, taekkyon, and kung fu. But I believe that Hwang Kee, as with most founders of their "unique" style of the MA, did all that he could do to make sure that his newly found Korean Karate, Tang Soo Do, didn't look like anything else. But guess what, imho, the similarities are quite striking, after all, just how many different ways can one kick and punch?? Whether you switch to shotokan or not, will be up to you!! And if you don't care about the politics whatsoever, then cross training in either might be what you're looking for; nothing ventured, nothing gained. After a few layers are peeled away, they'll both look and feel the same. Good luck, and please let us know about your findings!!

Welcome to KF, OneKickWonder; glad that you're here!!

Yeah, I'd watch it!!

I like this too!!

I wholeheartedly agree with this!!

GM Young Ik Suh's form of TKD doesn't teach the sine wave. Of which, I'm very thankful for. The practice of the sine wave, especially the overly executed sine wave drives me dizzy. Are we on a carousel now?? Shindokan teaches, and this is our way, that the sine wave kills the power at the apex curve (the very absolute top of the power curve). Many styles of the MA shy away from the sine wave; so, there must be something in that!!

Nope!! I wouldn't ask for my money back!! Why?? With everything, there's a season for one thing or another. Today, all blocks...tomorrow, all kicks...down the road...all punches...whenever I feel like it, I'll teach something else. After all, I'm the CI, not the student!! The student came to me, I didn't come to the student!! The curriculum is a guide that's not etched in stone; no matter which road one travels one, doesn't matter, just as long as the student reaches their destination. Let the CI be the CI; trust him/her to guide you on the path he's chosen for YOU!! Patience...patience; things come to those who wait, but things do come in their own time.

Whenever you want to; after all, it's YOUR journey!! And if you do, no matter how often you do, don't vex over it because it's just a thing, and life gets in the way!! Go...don't go...it's your decision, and I've never counseled a student on missing class...ever!! Why?? I'm not a students dad!! I mean, if a student wants to give me free money?? Who am I to argue with a student when it comes to money?? Their dad!?

There it is. Right on tract. I agree!! I avoided that because in the OP, said... So I steered away from that; Shindokan doesn't teach blocks, just receiving said attack.

Here's where I might appear like I want to jump off a cliff, and some here might want to help me jump off a cliff by pushing me off the cliff...so...here goes nothing... Whenever I see a picture or a video or whatever other media type, and I see the practitioner training/practicing, not producing a commercial for profit, but for their own personal desire, at home, wearing a full blown gi, I think either ego or showing off, is that practitioners sole intent. That practitioner doesn't need to wear the full blown gi at home because the floor reveals everything; knowledge and experience...the whole shooting match.

As long as I can remember, yet, I've not reached a final conclusion as to why practitioners of the MA wear a full gi whenever home to train/workout!?!? One photo after another...one video after another will depict the MAist in full gi while at home training/working out. I'm not passing judgement whatsoever because what a person does in the privacy of their home, is their business; I can respect that wholeheartedly...and I do!! Wearing the gi pants and a t-shirt...but a full blown out gi??

Welcome to KF, Jason Brinn; glad that you're here!!

Yes!! Why?? Because it's available to use!! Why not?? Imagine me not using any available part that made my car to be my car!! If I've not ever used it, that doesn't mean that I shouldn't or can't use it, it just means that I choose to not use it, like cruise control, until I need to use it. One day, I decide to use my cruise control, and it helps me. I'm glad that it was available for me to use, even if I never use it again. Why not use the mirror in my bathroom, especially, when it's in the bathroom for a reason of convenience?!

I think that your school's thoughts are fairly universal. Yes!! I was just speaking from my experiences, and not from an assumption outside of Shindokan.