sensei8

"Don't think, feel!! Its like a finger pointing away to the moon. Don't concentrate on the finger, or you will miss all that heavenly glory.” ~ Bruce Lee In time, you'll not think about 'it', whatever 'it' is. Like you don't think about the many things that you do without thinking about it. Like tying your shoe laces or brushing your teeth, or eating or bathing...you just do it automatically. But not until muscle memory kicked in!! Same thing in the MA!! I love how you're logging your MA journey; things of great beneficial will increase your MA betterment in the long run!!

While contact might goes astray from time to time while learning the MA, it should be expected, however, it must be properly taught, and reinforced by the CI on a daily basis. Each practitioner of the MA has the responsibility of safety towards their fellow MAist. If a student disregards the safety protocol after being counseled, then that student must be expelled for the well being of the Student Body!! Sun dome!! That's the desired goal of any technique for any MAist while training!! To arrest said technique by a hair's breath from said target on a consistently basis must be taught and drilled. However, focus must dwell within each and every technique, and if it's void of that, then there's no reason to ever execute any technique. How to do that?? By properly drilling the technique with the varying properties being involved in its learning. For example... One of my most favorite drills for teaching Sun dome is quite simple, yet effective because the student receives immediate feedback as to the regards of contact... I'll hold a aluminum pie pan in my hand. Then, I'll have said student execute said technique a full speed, with focus, at the pie pan, with the explicit instructions to arrest said technique just by a hair's breath. Two things will happen. Either the student will properly arrest their technique at the prescribed distance from said target. OR The student will crush...dent...tweak...or something to that poor pie pan!! That pie pan doesn't lie!! It takes very, very little to change the shape of that innocent pie pan!! Truth is in the pudding, and in this little drill of control, truth lies in the pie pan. I more thing. For those afraid to hold the pie pan in their hand, for being afraid that the student will smack your poor hand instead; just hang a string/rope from something, like the ceiling or off a WaveMaster or a Bo, and then attach the pie pan to that string, and commence on with the drill.

To the bold type above... Ouch, but how so true!! Proof is on the floor!!

Style variances will differ through methodologies and ideologies in what you're asking. In Shindokan, we do NOT fully extend our elbows whatsoever. Just near full extension but not fully extended. Why?? We believe that any full extension will hyper-extend the elbow, therefore, injuring the elbow.

I take it that you teach Iaido in Shindokan? Is this apart of your weapons training or apart of your Tii training? Or was it added to the art as additional study? Unfortunately we do not study the sword in Suidi. I would have loved to continue my studies of the art. No!! As you know, Iaido teaches the art of drawing, where as we train the Katana for fighting!! We train in the Katana as part of our Kobudo, in which it's been a part of Shindokan ever since its beginning.

Both of them are doing quite well; win some lose some!! I miss the video's, Brian!! Keep rocking it boys!!

You're doing great across the board!! Things are falling in place slowly, but they're falling in place. You're not rushing, and you're patient, and for that, you've got to be honest with yourself while on this great and demanding journey!! You're respecting the process!!

I'm in the USA, so, I go to either Lowe's and/or Home Depot to purchase 12' stock pine boards in the width/thickness, and have them cut the boards to my required lengths. As far as bats go. Well, to break a bat to me is sacrileges because bats are for baseball, and not for the MA. When a bat breaks, it better be during a baseball game!!

Yes, that's true, until next season begins. Oh I can't believe I just said that with me being a Cowboy fan...washing out my mouth!!

For the most part, any type of screening is put on the back burner over financials across the board. I believe that the screening of students is the right thing to do unconditionally.

Super Bowl LII (52) is in the history books... Eagles finally won their first SB ring by defeating the Patriots 41-33 The unexpected happened, and the kings of the NFL, as of late, the New England Patriots have been dethroned by the Philadelphia Eagles. Time finally caught up to Tom Brady and the Patriots. Many, including myself, all ready surrendered to the strong possibility of another Patriot SB victory, increasing their dominance in the NFL. Time had better ideas...and the once king had to bow to time. They both traded score for score for 4 quarters. Then the table tilted to the Eagle side allowing them to strip the ball away from Tom Brady, not impossible to do, but rare, especially in the closing final minutes. Brady has a reputation with winning the SB, or any game for that fact, in the final seconds; he has that air of confidence about himself that some hate and some love...He has those undeniable skills. Once the ball was striped by the Eagles, and they drove to a TD, sealing the fate of the Patriots. However, time was also on Brady and the Patriots side, even though there wasn't much remaining on the clock. Patriots needed a TD and a 2-point conversion to force OT. Brady drove the team as he's done time and time again; don't leave Brady any time on the clock. And if you do leave time on the clock, your fate might be sealed instead. Just mere seconds on the clock, a hail-mary to the endzone...Eagles all around the Patriot receiver...INCOMPLETE PASS...NO TIME REMAINING ON THE CLOCK!! The King is dead!! Long live the King!! Saturday might be here, but Sunday's coming!! The game was what I hoped for, and my congratulations go to the Eagles for fighting the good fight until that fat lady sings. Everyone knows that you can't win them all, and I know that the Patriots didn't take the Eagles lightly, nor any other team that's in the SB; the elite of the elite. Brady might be down, but he's far from being out!! Brady and the Patriots missed on the elite roster of being a 3X SB Champs, but their legacy is intact. A wounded animal will come back with ultimate resolve...This too is Brady and the Patriots. Decent halftime show, imho, but it was no Gaga, who brought the house down last year!! Justin Timberlake did a fine show. Pink sang the National Anthem with feeling!! Tickets for this SB ranged from $5300 to a whopping $175,000. Many Blockbuster seats cost $15,000, but the catch there was you had to buy 2, bringing that ticket sale to $30,000!! Prices like that causes me to really appreciate the TV in my living room that much more. The commercial didn't disappoint me either. My favorite was the Doritos Chip commercial!! All in all, the commercials were quite good!! The NFL walks into the sun for the time being until it's training time once again!! For me, it's now the NBA, which for me means, the Lakers, which is then followed by MLB, which for me means the Yankee's!! How about them Cowboys!!

Solid post!! Then there's the CI who could care less one way or another!! If we, who are of deep morals and ethics across the board, and we ignore it for whatever our reason(s) might or might not be, then aren't we as guilty as those who could care less one way or another?!?!? Some don't want to be involved; concerning with only their own plight. The moral and ethics compass is suppose to point the right way, but oftentimes, the darn things broken; darn if one does and darn if one doesn't. That fine line really isn't that fine!!

To be honest, I couldn't tell much, if anything, from your video. Can you enlarge the screen view away from the boxed-in type view??

Screening a student before they join is doable, if the CI wants to spend the necessary money and time for a through background check; money and time well spent. However, that method, while good for all concerned, is a trickle flow of new students joining; the P&L statement will start screaming. I believe in order to satisfy all things concerned, the CI must be attentive to their students. Looking for those red flags, and act upon them once verified. Being proactive in the protection of the general masses as well as their own students should be paramount. Turning a deaf ear or a blind eye on a suspicious red flag only invites harm to the innocent. Bullies are immediately counseled, and if their actions continue, then they are expelled with cause!!

To the bold type above... That's because they're beginners; beginners lack power!!

OK...I'm not TKD either, even though during my high school days I did cross-trained in TKD for 1 year, but GM Young Ik Suh taught us that a TKD side kick went, well, to the side; quite similar to a Shindokan side kick. GM Suh also noted that ones eyes should remain towards the target at all times; quite similar to Shindokan. If your instructor has taught you to kick in the manner that you do, then adhere to that. If you've modified it, yet kept it effective, due to a medical issue, that I'd adhere to as well. Has your instructor seen the way you execute said kick, and if so, what was his/her opinion?? After all, your instructors opinion should be the only opinion worth it's salt. Having watched your video several times, this is my opinion... *You do have a 4 count chamber...up, out, back, and down...not an issue. *Your supporting foot does turn away from the kicking foot, which tells me that your side kick is more of a thrust, and not a snap, which is not an issue because you did say "Side Kick" and not if it was a thrust or a snap. If direction isn't important, than by all means, just call the kick, any kick, just a kick. I noticed... *Your eyes are diverted away from the target...this, to me is an issue. *Your side kick, to me, by the manner of which you execute your side kick is more like a thrusting back kick and not a side kick. This is due to the manner of which your chamber is dictated, and to me, your chamber is dictating a back kick. Unconventional?!?! I don't know what that really means in the MA!! Well, I don't!! Why? Semantics!! Whether its unconventional or not is meaningless, as long as it's effective across the board consistently!! Bruce said it the best... “Absorb what is useful, discard what is useless and add what is specifically your own” I wholeheartedly concur with Bruce's expression!! Imho!!

The MA, while it can be viewed by those who are residences of both sides of the fence, MAists and non-MAists, across a wide stroke of any type of brush, that the MA is both beautiful and deadly, it's context, after all, is to injure our attackers in the light of survival. We don't learn the MA because it's entertainment and all, but moreover, because we want to learn how to defend ourselves, families, friends, and the innocent to the very best of our abilities at all costs. The MA is construed to be a violent act, and oftentimes, the aftermath can become fatal, whether one intends it to be so or not. Not everyone uses the MA to cause ill will to another human being. Not everyone uses the MA to carry out the most heinous crimes against another human being. Not everyone uses the MA to perpetrate an evil act against another human being. Not everyone!! However, with the good, bad rears up it's ugly head against society for their selfish needs at any costs; there's a bad apple among the good apples, and in that, that bad apple gets by, which is their intent, at spoiling the bunch. Newspapers, social media, TV, and main media report story after story that depicts a MA who's used their MA skills/knowledge/experience unlawfully. Rapes, molestation, robbery, and murder, to name just a few acts of moral turpitude world wide against the unsuspecting citizens wherever they might live. So, let me ask you this, if I may... Do MA instructors have any duty to screen their students before teaching them the skills of physical violence?

Imho... Everything in the MA must fit the practitioner like a well fitting glove...everything. After all, the MA journey is the practitioners, therefore, personal, and that journey, while it can be shared, is still traveled alone. If ones school of the MA is/has taken a different path than the desired path of that practitioner, then possibly time has arrived to sojourn somewhere else to ones likens, and not to the likens of others. Whether one quits a particular style of the MA or not, for the time being or for good, that decision belongs to that individual alone. A MAist can cross-train to their desires to fill their MA voids. If a MAist was to quit a style of the MA, that acquired knowledge and experience will stay with that practitioner for quite some time or forever, no matter what!! Quitting Karate, if that be the choice...that knowledge/experience through muscle memory will still reside within that MAist. Yes, Karate knowledge/experience can be erased from the inner most of the MAist, but I do believe that the residue of that Karate knowledge/experience will still be harbored, and unleashed whenever a situation might be required of it. If Judo is the track your MA train must be on nowadays, then relish the opportunities that are before you; you must be where it benefits the betterment of your MA. The style...the Sensei/Instructor...fellow MAists...the atmosphere...so on and so forth must nourish ones learning for anything to be learned. This is what you must decide for your MA betterment to increase!! Good luck, and train hard and train well!!

Sounds to me that you're doing just fine, considering all that you've been through!!

Super Bowl 52...U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN...February 4th, 2018... Eagles VS Patriots What's your prediction, if any?? Eagles 27 Patriots 31 **Brady will retire after this SB**

The demotion of a student doesn't literally remove that knowledge and experience. It's a formal disciplinary action, but that action must be for cause, and for cause alone. When our Hombu demoted by most senior student by one grade because he omitted a criminal conviction of a misdemeanor offense on a official documentation required by the Hombu. The conviction wouldn't of barred him, but the intentional omission challenged the integrity across the board. When my student brought to me the letter, expecting me to defend him, I just shrugged my shoulder, and offered no defense for him. The Hombu has never ever changed a Shogo title, no matter the infraction; those are lifetime bestowments.

I saw a video on YouTube yesterday where a guy solved the cube WITH HIS EYES CLOSED...and he did it pretty fast while switching hands. He has some skills!! But yeah, I too would roll my eyes and walk away if the dojo I'm visiting wanted to use a Rubik's Cube, no matter the reason(s).

For me to be unstoppable, I first need to be Superman. However, the crinkle in him being unstoppable is Kryptonite. Maybe I would need to be like Thor, a God, who has no crinkle in his armor, to my knowledge. Oh well, seeing that I'm not either of them, I'll remain stoppable by being that limited human being. ::sigh::

Muscle memory is hard to ignore. After 53 years, I believe my stance would be just that...proper Shindokan stances, whether I wanted to or not.

Is the event still going?? $18 for a booth at the US Open Championship is very reasonable!! Hopefully you ended up with a profit, even if the profit was in increasing your contact network!! I was always wondering what it would be like to set up a booth and compete as well; very interesting parameters.