sensei8

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you...SING IT WITH ME EVERYONE...Happy Birthday dear Mo, Happy Birthday to you...and many more!! Have a good, safe, and fun birthday, Mo!!

Loved it...great movie...killed off many Avengers!! Can't wait for the next movie!!

I get a kick out of it when someone implies that a black belt holder should be held at a much higher standard because someone has a black belt. Why? Who says that that person is a black belt or who says that a black belt means that that person is even capable?? Laypersons who've not the minimum of an idea as to what the black belt truly is or what it truly isn't have spread that falsehood for as long as I can remember. Educating the courts as to the reality of the black belt, therefore, eliminating the mystic surrounding the black belt. Mitigating circumstances have to be rationalized!! Imho!!

Welcome back, Socksey; glad to see you!!

Black stripe Black Stripe?? I don't know what that means.

In my TKD days, GM Suh taught both the ball of the foot and the instep, and so does Shindokan, however, Shindokan favors more of the instep to the legs.

Marketing is everything to said school of the MA!! Without it, the school dies, and the remaining students are left with no favorable recourse whatsoever. Whatever the marketing is used, it must work for THAT school, and not for the school down the street; to each their own. I don't use the following marketing for my own reasons: However, this one has served me best: But not online...just what's in the bold type above!! For me, word of mouth, has always served me the best, and I will not turn my back on it; most successful for me!! My Sensei and his Sensei used the Ads method; passing stuff around the town. They both have heavily used the Events method both here and in Okinawa; that's how my Sensei found his Sensei in Okinawa. To each their own!!

The difference that's quite striking to me is that, in the OP video, is that the supporting foot is NOT turned a full 180 degrees from said target. That disturbs me, but Shindokan isn't any form of TKD, however, GM Young Ik Suh TAUGHT like Shindokan does when it comes to the supporting foot rotating fully that 180 degrees away from said target. To each their own!! We believe that the power apex is cut short to completion, therefore, power is diminished!! But, that's our methodology.

Congrats DaveB; well deserved!!

Solid post!!

Worst mistake - Trusting our past San-Dai Soke Circumstance - San-Dai Soke closed the SKKA/Hombu WITHOUT NOTICE, AND WITHOUT CAUSE, and LIED ABOUT INTENT!! Fix - Reopened the SKKA/Hombu under new proxy; By-Laws rewritten with some very strong legalities to ensure that the SKKA/Hombu was protected, and this in turn, protected the entire Student Body!! San-Dai Soke was expelled and the Soke types were completely abolished permanently for cause!! What I learned - To never blindly trust anyone. If someone says it's day time, I'm going to go outside to see for myself first!! Back ground - When Dai-Soke passed away, his son, Iwoa, was voted unanimously to become San-Dai Soke, at his fathers request while on his death bed. At first, business was as usual, but very shortly thereafter, the tide turned for the worse as San-Dai Soke lied that his father requested that the SKKA/Hombu be closed down and it be moved immediately back to Nanjo, Okinawa. My mistake was not seeing the writing on the wall in time; blind trust, on my part. After all, I was Kaicho; the blame is mine and mine alone!! Our Legal Team is one heck of a legal team; nothing gets by them!!

Why not? You learn the most from teaching. Physical limitations are starting to get in the way!!

What rank are you grading for??

Now that was a very pointed letter; no ambiguity whatsoever!!

To the bold type above... HUH?? All students earn the right to train, no matter the rank. That's why I'm always saying that the most important rank is WHITE BELT because the other ranks, especially black belt, do not and can not occur without first TRAINING as a White belt. Concerning the subject at hand, the other ranks before black belt have earned the right to train too. Imho!!

Then there's the other side of doing a demo for an 80 year old practitioner...BEING THROWN ON THE GROUND!! A throw is a violent act; violent for the 80 year old body that won't like that whatsoever...not many young practitioners like being thrown around like a rag doll.

With BJJ, the practitioner welcomes the ground instead of fearing the ground!! The uncomfortable becomes comfortable!! The unforeseen becomes foreseen!! The impossible become possible!! The ground is no-mans land for many practitioners of the MA that have no ground training, and that fear, multiplies ones fear of the unknown ground...BJJ dispels that faster than Tide dispels a stain on ones clothes.

Exactly!! If one doesn't believe in Kata, for example, whatsoever, and stand behind their belief, I can support them. But to be wishy-washy about whatever MA, well, I simply can't support them. It's no skin off their nose whether I support them or not because they've their mind up one way or another.

Students; good or bad or indifferent, help make the CI better on and off the floor!!

I might train up to my dying breath, but I might not be teaching up to that point!!!!

Hypothetically, among other MAists at some gathering of MAist... "Hey, I despise Kata and everything it stand for; can't stand, can't tolerate, can't get behind it, it's a waste of time and space, and anyone who trains in Kata doesn't have the minimum of an idea about anything MA." Then that very same person, after the gathering concludes, goes to his/her dojo to teach, of all things, Kata; tells his/her students all the positive benefits that can become through training Kata!! This, right here, is part of what I'm referring to, or trying to.

Books are a snapshot of the subject found in said book!! I've more books on the MA than I care to admit! ***NERD ALERT!!*** Books, like anything else doing with the MA are nothing than another form of a tool; useful or not to that practitioner is up to that practitioner alone. YouTube and whatever else is the rage of today's page are also, another form of a tool. The tool is only as important as the practitioner decides. And of course, nothing ever replaces ones instructor; the go to person on anything within the style trained in.

I try to get my guys to undermine my techniques all the time. I encourage them to doubt and question everything and anything I do. I only ask that they be vocal and voice their opinion to ME rather than someone else when I’m not there. Frankly, I love having people like you in my class. I find they stick with me the most and obviously really understand the method to my madness. If you like getting answers to the questions you ask, you’d love being in my class. That said, my personal opinion is that one should always be skeptical. I’m teaching you a science, not a religious dogma. I’ve found those that get most upset when people have questions are the ones that don’t have the answers.... Solid post!!

I used to be skeptical of spinning kicks. I still am skeptical of the more showey and complicated ones. But spinning kicks do have their uses. Perhaps more in free sparring than point sparring though. Here's one of my favourite tricks. I come in with a front kick. Nothing fancy. As basic as it gets. Or a roundhouse will do. Again the simplest kind. If my opponent manages to block it, chances are they will try to knock me by my kicking leg into a spin so that they can get to my side to counter. I take advantage of any spin they put on me and just do a spinning kick with the other leg. Usually high, on the basis that as they've literally only just blocked my low kick, chances are their guard is still fairly low by the time my other foot comes round high. I liken this principle to a wonky floor board. You push one end down and the other end pops up, so you move to push that end down and the first end pops back up. However, did, at anytime, one see someone teaching a spinning kick on the floor, then see that very same person speak negatively about spinning kicks once that person was off the floor, and away from the dojo?? That's what I'm trying to say, and I've witnessed this many times during my MA career; it disgusts me to no end. Ah, I see what you mean. No would be the answer to that specific question. But I have heard our chief instructor criticise some techniques that are in our syllabus. We're part of a wider organisation that sets our grading criteria. That includes the details of our techniques at a basic level (it's up to senior instructors to add their own experience to it). A very few times, I've heard our instructor say things like 'the book says this but nobody is going to look at you negatively if you do it like this instead'. Basically a polite way of criticising what 'the book' says. Nothing wrong, for the most part, with the CI criticizing the syllabus, UNLESS, the CI says one thing, then does another thing, without batting an eyelash. Again, one way or another, but not both at the same time.

I love and greatly appreciate the historical factors of the MA, especially Shindokan Saitou-ryu; knowing the history unlocks much beneficial components that provide ones connecting the dots. However, I know, I know, I know...but please allow me to be honest as to how I feel about this... I just don't give a bent pins about the historical factors!! Why?? Official or not, as to the historical factors are concerned, I wasn't there, and I wasn't there because I wasn't born yet. I accept the historical facts, both in and out of the MA, because throughout history, records have been kept, and verified and cataloged and who knows what else. In Shindokan, we've historical factors out the wazoo: Our By-Laws and our Densho Scrolls, both written by our Soke, as well as our Archived Records. BUT I WASN'T THERE WHEN THESE THINGS OCCURRED!! By faith, I have to believe their accuracy across the board. I'm more of a nowadays historian, but not until I was a pre-JBB, did I peak an interest of the nowadays MA history outside of the Shindokan circle. Even with that, my heart just really isn't in it...if I learn something historical, great, and if I don't learn anything historical, that's great too. I don't yell out to the top of my lungs if MA history can or can't be verified because I came to learn effective MA, and history means nothing to my being able to execute effective MA. History has its place...effectiveness has its place, however, I don't mix them together. Who did what when to whom is the furthermost thing in my mind whenever I'm training, teaching, administrating, or defending myself/family/friends/innocent. I didn't come to learn about MA history, mine or others, and important as it might be, that's up to the individual practitioner, but I came to learn effective MA. If one thinks that I'm not complete in my MA totality, on and off the floor, because of my personal views of MA history, are mistaken. Is my believe going to meet with both approval and disapproval?? Sure, but irregardless, it's still my believe.