sensei8

If venues like the UFC allowed the competitors to do anything and everything, yet with only empty hands, allowing no rules to be just that...NO RULES...no tapping out...no ref to save the down and out...no time limits...nothing... Just how long do we truly believe that that type of combatant would last??

With all due respect I must disagree with you that all MA's are this way. During class you are correct. Do what the instructor says. After class we have a question/answer exchange in which the students are able to ask any question and to question anything that was taught. The reason you do not question the instructor during the class is as simple as it takes to much time away from training, it's a distraction and it's not respectful. However there is nothing wrong with asking, "why are we doing this" or "why is it done this way", etc. fill in the blanks. If an instructor is not willing to teach, meaning showing the technique/ application and then be willing to explain and even answer, then I would leave that school. Because I said so does not work in combative arts. The student must have an understanding of what they are learning and why they are learning it. If not, how do you know it works? So no, we are not all alike. This is sad. We utilize the language to teach because my Shinshii's teacher was Okinawan and could only say a few words in English so he taught the way his instructor taught him. Not to be cool but because this was the way he was taught. As a Hachidan I knew what the Kanji said, I knew what the words meant (or at least represented) and could to some degree utilize that language in class. Over years it is picked up and you begin to understand more and more of the language. I must confess I am my Shinshii's student and as such teach using the Japanese or Uchinaaguchi (Hogan) languages. Since the art is not American and was taught to me in this way I carry on those traditions because to be honest we don't have words to properly describe some of the Hogan words. Having said this, all too often this is not the case and the language is used without understanding and your master instructor might understand the writings but all too many don't. If you do not speak or at least understand the words don't use them. If you can not pick up your arts grade certification and read what is on it, you shouldn't be using it. A short story. Years ago I had a student ask to train. I interviewed him and one of my questions is if they have had past experience. He said yes and produced a grade certification that said nothing about martial arts whatsoever. In fact it said nothing coherent. It was just words and some where not even words but made up jibberish. When I asked for his instructors information and called him, I was told that he used the same cert's that he was given by his instructor (of course some mystical person that could not be contacted because he lives in the mountains of Japan and has no phone or address). The bottom line is, many use this to hide their fraud. Others use it because it's tradition even though they have no idea what it says. If you do not know what the Kanji on your Gi says you should ask. There are no stupid questions, only stupid students for not asking them, or stupid instructors for not answering them. A student should be encouraged to ask questions. This is how we all learn. If an instructor says you can't ask questions, you should ask where the door is because you should be using it to leave. An honest instructor is not afraid of questions. He may not answer them until you have a better understanding of the art but they should answer them. If not they are hiding something. If a student blindly follows instruction without question this is a cult not a Dojo. Those that are afraid of being questioned have huge ego's and little knowledge. Think about it. Solid post!! I'm the CI, but in being the CI I do not own my students. They are not my property to do with as I wish. Even as Kaicho of the SKKA, I'm not holding my position and title over their heads; they can come and go as they please, and they are not accountable to me. I'm accountable to them. Yes, in my position as their CI or as their Kaicho, I've a range of authority within the dojo or the Hombu, but that is limited across the board. I can use the smoke and mirrors to aide the pageantry, but when the smoke clears and the mirrors are shattered, what one is left with is the pageantry of the MA, and that way is the way of emptiness. To do this or to do that to make one appear more than what they really are, are the acts of a vain and insecure MAist. That pageantry props the illusion, and releases the beast that lives within that MAist. I've seen one particular style of the MA use the pageantry of the MA negatively to the Nth degree; to me, that particular style is using the pageantry of the MA to cover the ineffectiveness of what they are proponents of. I'm done with the pageantry of the MA...the pageantry of the dojo...and in that, change is inevitable, and the time has come to eliminate the pageantry from my dojo as well as from our Hombu. The pageantry is not what a student has come for. That student came to learn an effective means of protecting themselves, and their loved ones, and their friends, and the innocent. Let's put the student first, and the Hombu/Dojo last, once and for all!!

Solid post!! I don't allow them to have a moment of pause, especially the younger ones. I keep them moving...doing something; I take their energy and run with it. It is said that the attention span equals the age of the student. An 8 year old has about 8 seconds, and not 8 minutes before that student is bored out of their skull. If you like to talk and talk and explain to the Nth degree of what you're teaching, that 8 year old has only remembered 8 seconds of what you've said. However, put action in the words, well, now you've got that 8 year old for 8 - 10 minutes. Aha, after those 8- 10 minutes of activity laced in with verbal instructions, you better shift the gears up, otherwise, boredom takes root once again. With children, I believe my secret weapon or my secret ingredient is...I become that age group for the entire time of class. 4 year old students, for example, armed with that 4 second attention span and the energy of TNT, I simply become that 4 year old and I play with them. It might take that 4 year old 6 months to one full year before they ever test, but they'll have learned, and they had a blast all at the same time. Even that 4 year old's parents forget the testing cycles, and that's because all are having fun!! Btw, adult students are not much different!! No matter the age of the student, they must be challenged at all times!! That's the job of the Sensei...Instructor...CI!! Challenging doesn't mean overwhelm; do that, the battle is lost before it even began. Especially that very first class; you've that one chance, and only that one chance to make that positive impression. Make it a good one!!

Some might not like my answer... I don't care if the students might differ one iota, because the student must come to me to learn Shindokan. In that, there's no difference because I'm no different. Students of yesteryear or the students of today might appear different on the surface, however, the student must STILL come to me to learn Shindokan, not vice versa, and the manner of how I teach Shindokan is what THEY, not me, must adapt to. To be for sure, my methodologies and ideologies have matured...seasoned over time, but the core of how I teach Shindokan is of Soke and Dai-Soke.

To the bold type above... No matter the level of experience of the MAist, the MA is not something that we're made to do at birth. The MA can be a difficult thing to grasp across the board. Some things that we learn are easier to grasp, and while other things that we learn are more difficult to grasp. It's those difficult things to grasp of the MA that are more appreciative whenever we have our "Aha" moments. Your difficulty with kicks, whichever kick it might be, is something that you will learn to appreciate over time. The countless hours of training just one kick isn't an act of futility, but more of an act of appreciation. Look up Shu Ha Ri. This MA principle is littered, if not riddled, with many, many moments of appreciation of growth. This...that...is the MA; we'd have it no other way!! Appreciate everything that is the MA because there was an infinitesimal moment of life where you...me...others knew nothing about the beauty, and just how difficult it can be, and is, to grasp, that's of the MA. That time was yesterday, and it was today, and it will be tomorrow. Train hard...train well!!

Great responses and advice from each of you, thus far; thank you!! I will absorb everything said with an open heart and mind. I'm just trying to be me...to be real...not to show off, but to handle what I know I can handle because that warrior lives within me. This is just me, this is how I've rolled for most of my MA journey...and yes...I did say most of my MA journey. That's because I'm only human, and I've my flaws, and sometimes I run all over being burned out from time to time. But without my students, I've no reason to step on the floor these 53 years on the floor; my students are the exclamation point of my MA journey. Here's what I did 6 days straight this week, and this is how I roll, because I don't know any difference, but for the time being, while Afib does its thing, I will do my thing irregardless. Stretching/Warm up 15 minutes CARDIO StairMaster 22 minutes Levels 1-10 Floors 60 Heart Rate 158 Calories 250 1 minute at Level 1 2 minutes at Level 2 1 minute at Level 3 2 minutes at Level 4 1 minute at Level 5 2 minutes at Level 6 1 minute at Level 7, 8, 9, and 10 (20 seconds each level) REPEAT 2 minute cool down TreadMill 25 minutes Calories 180 Heart rate 126 // Max Heart rate 183 Minute breakdown: At 25...2.0 Incline...2.0 speed At 20...2.0 Incline...2.5 speed At 15...2.0 Incline...3.0 speed At 10...2.0 Incline...2.5 speed At 5...2.0 Incline...2.0 speed 2 minute cool down at 2.0 Incline and 2.0 speed Rowing 2000mm 10 minutes and 34 seconds Calories 106 Heart Rate 162 // Max Heart Rate 179 Tension level #10 33 rows per minute FREE WEIGHTS Dumbells 25lbs 3 X 10 standing curls 3 X 10 bench kneeling pull ups NO REST BETWEEN Incline Pull Ups 3 X 10 w/ 10 second rest Shoulder Shrug 90lbs 3 X 10 w/ 10 second rest Long Pull 70lbs 3 X 10 w/ 10 second rest Rope Pull Down...Triceps Pulls 60lbs 3 X 10 w/ 5 second rest NO REST TRANSITIONING FROM PULL DOWN INTO TRICEPS PULL Rope Pull Up Curls 3 X 10 w/ 5 second rest Triceps Press 60lbs 3 X 10 w/ 10 second rest Seated Biceps 45lbs 3 X 10 w/ 10 second rest Leg Extension 100lbs 3 X 10 w/ 10 second rest Air Squats 8 X 10 w/ 20 second rest Pec Fly 50lbs 3 X 10 w/ 10 second rest Seated Leg Press Single Leg: 300lbs 3 X 10 w/ 10 second rest Both Legs: 700lbs 3 X 10 w/ 10 second rest Stretching/Cool Down 15 minutes This is just an abbreviated workout. In Afib, I've got to give the Afib its respect. Out of Afib, well, I'll tear it up...for example, an hour and a half on the StairMaster, at Levels 7-10, is a walk in the park for me. 3...4...5...hours doing Kata or Kihon or Kumite or Bunkai or Tuite or whatever, is a walk in the park. And for me, it's necessary!! Is this moderation?? If not, and if its wrong, then I don't want to be right because I don't know anything else. However, yes, there has to be an "However", because, while I train the way that I do, and I've done it with the rubber meets the road for along time, I must consider the following: *My wife, Linda!! *Our children, Nathan and Krystal!! There's no reason, no matter how bad I might want to train like a locomotive, nor is there a season, that I have to die from a heart attack while I'm at the gym or dojo or wherever; it's not worth it and its not more important than my wife and children!! I know one thing, I better learn moderation, and I better learn it now!!

Allow me to provide some very general background. My new Primary Care Provider (PCP) has everything I need from my doctor. However, what I don't need from my PCP is him trying to be my Cardiologist, and this, right there, is where I drew the line, and set him straight. My new PCP increased my Metoprolol from one pill to one and a half, in the hopes of lower my heart rate to around 48bpm. My PCP doesn't like that my average heat beat is 86bpm, and he wants me to wear a Holter Monitor from 48 hours to 3 days, or one that can be worn at all. These are just some of Cardiac Procedures that my PCP is wanting to perform. "As my PCP, I need you to treat everything that's not Cardiologist related; that's where my Cardiologist is the expert!! Please don't assume a position that you're not an expert in!! Would you be willing to work alongside with my Cardiologist in the area of exchanging ideas concerning my well being. I don't need either of you to keep information from one another. I don't need either of you to change things that the other is trying to do what's medically designed help me!!" My new PCP says... "We're competitors with one another!!" I then sternly said..."Not with my life!!" This introduction leads me to the crux of this post... When is competition, beyond the scope of the various sporting events/venues, OK or not OK?? When the MA Governing Body VS another MA Governing Body?? When MA school VS another MA school?? When Sensei VS another MA Sensei?? In closing, my Cardiologist told my wife something quite alarming about the increase to my Metoprolol from one pill, to one pill and a half. If my heart beat per minutes drop below 50 bpm for one hour, get me to the hospital ASAP because with the Afib, I could die.

Congrats on your kicks improving!! In time, and only then, will you kicks improve across the board even more so; height, power, and appreciation. Yes, I did say appreciation. Oftentimes, students are their worse enemy; downing themselves when they've not even scratched the surface of whatever troubles them. You're in the beginning throes of being that beginner student, and no matter what, you can not rush the nurturing of the Kihon whatsoever. No matter what, every question deserves an answer, however, that answer must come from your CI; that's where the final authority lies. Have fun with it, yet be serious with it!!

Here's what the Holter Monitor looks like... https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=849557358556038&set=a.849557381889369.1073741830.100005053440349&type=3 One of my students, when she saw it, called my Robo Cop, I just chuckled and smiled. 4PM came and went last Saturday, and I returned the monitor as asked. Dr. Child's nurse called me today, to give me the results of the Monitor and this is what I was told: *Average heart rate is 86; average heart rate in fine *Baseline Afib; no symptoms occurred Exacting details of the Monitor, as well as the proposed plan, will be defined at the next visit, on November 13, 2017.

Developing solid power consistently will take time under the watchful eye of your instructor. No matter what, without the understanding of how the hips are the key of unleashing that power, nothing that matters will never come. Understanding the key that unleashes that sought after power lies within the proper usage of ones hips if everything; power is in the hips!!

Very solid OP, JR, very solid!! Here's where I might offer different contrasts to what others have and/or are experiencing across the board. Shindokan Saitou-ryu's founder, Soke Fuyuhiko Saitou, right from Shindokan's inception, Soke didn't want to follow the status quo of many other Okinawan Karate founders!! How the other founders taught, drilled, trained, walked, talked, moved, stood, and whatever else might have been the acceptable methodologies and ideologies of those times, was their thing, and not Soke's. Soke had wanted nothing from them whatsoever!! Soke refused to join them!! Soke declined every invitation to join their Governing Body, if they had one!! Soke was ostracized to the Nth degree because of this. Soke cared less of their opinions. So much so, that he left Okinawa, and relocated in the USA, namely in southern California. Soke had one student, Yoshinobu Takahashi, and had no interest in teaching anyone else. But time does soften a hardened heart. Classes with Soke and Dai-Soke were a test of patience on both sides of the fences; Sensei and Student. Both Soke and Dai-Soke were emphatic taskmasters, and offered no apologize at all. Classes were long, and you were drenched in sweat by the end of class, each class, no matter age or rank. Classes were monitored by age as far as the length were concerned...Kid classes were usually 1 hour...Adults were usually 2 hours...Black belts, including JBB, were no less than 3 hours...Godan and above were no less than 4 hours. As a Hachidan, I've been under Soke and/or Dai-Soke for 6 hours. 6 days a week!! However, the Hombu was open 6 days a week, and students had to attend no less than 3 classes a week. Black belt were required to attend no less than 4 classes a week, and Godan and above, had to attend 5 classes a week, but only if they were In-House Black Belts. Kata's were taught to us within the given rank. What I mean by this is each rank has Kata(s), and we weren't taught that Kata(s) until we were thoroughly vested in Kihon, at Soke and Dai-Soke discretion, not anytime sooner. We students were run the gambit...A to Z...Z to A...and then some.

The real meaning of Karate is that Karate is very quite personal to the Karateka!! Your movie link in your OP, was just that, a movie of entertainment value, and in that, there remained nothing that I would grasp to be the real meaning of Karate. I don't take Karate lightly, nor do I take Karate as a means of entertainment; I do, however, take Karate extremely serious, and this seriousness begins from day one on the floor.

No subtitles?? Not interested in that, for one. For two, I don't usually watch MA films/Movies because I can't watch them for the entertainment factor alone; the MA Sensei in me won't allow me too. Still, I appreciate you, Bulltahr, in sharing it with us; others here at KF just might enjoy it.

The one thing about black belts being handed out like candy is that you'll get either a sour one or a sweet one!! If you get my meaning!

Is it 4pm yet?? Man!! Sometime last night while I slept, one of the 5 leads, the Black one, came off. I can only guess that it fell off around 0500-0945. Just as soon as I noticed it, my wife, Linda, reattached that lead back onto me in the exact spot. We were given a chart that shows exactly each of the 5 leads attachment locations are. I pray that the recording signal wasn't degraded and/or compromised. I did record that event on my Holter Monitor Diary, as required by the hospital. Less than 3 hours before I can get this thing off me!! Driving me crazy!!

Can I please say this....OUCH!! I've not experienced anything like what you're experiencing. I've had knee surgery when I was much younger, and that was no picnic whatsoever. I believe that you'll follow the orders of the doctors and any other medical professionals while on your journey to reach full recovery. It might seem like forever for you when all is said and done; patience is that virtue. Frustration will visit quite often, especially if you don't find things to do to keep you mind off the recovering process, and how long it seems to be taken. Your decisions around the Championships are understood, and appreciated wholeheartedly!! When the time is right, in 2019, you'll take your rightful place on the floor with your team, and kick butt!! Just don't rush the recovery process because if you do rush it, you'll aggravate the injury more, and cause undo further complications, and you'll lengthen the recovery time. Hang in there!! I got your back!! You've my undying respect, now and forever!! Heal well...heal right!! You're in my thoughts and prayers!!

Solid post!! In my youth during my high school days, I trained in TKD for 1 year, earning a Green Belt under GM Young Ik Suh. What DMx lays out, is pretty much what GM Suh put his students through. Now, GM Suh's black belts were amazing through and through, and their jumping kicks were breathtaking. GM Suh's flying side kick, was literally astonishing. How so?? With each and every flying side kick, and with only taking 1 step, his head would grace the ceiling tiles above him!! And the power that accompanied it was pure!! Now, Shindokan doesn't have any kicks above the stomach/waist, and this is for certain, we've no jumping kicks. However, that 1 year, and the continues cross training with many, many TKD GM's has helped me to add many TKD kicks to Shindokan. Want to beat your enemy?? Then train with your enemy!! That's why I went to GM Suh in the first place. To learn the kicks of TKD that were beating me in one open tournament after another...I had had enough of eating TKD kicks. And those jumping kicks, and that Axe kick were the bane of my existence. So I learned how to adapt! After that 1 year with GM Suh, I understood, but still had much to learn, those TKD kicks much more clearer. I didn't come up with my answer to what I was searching to defeat, or at least match, my TKD practitioners, and that was this. Jam them!! Jamming a TKD kick ends the completion of said attempt. That was Shindokan...being up close and personal...and jamming techniques is a vital part of Shindokan's close range techniques. But, again, I'd follow closely to what DMx has advised you, and that my advice as an idea, but not as a solution. DMx...that's your solution, imho!!

Great advice, thus far!! I'd say... Stay at it, Kumite, that is!! Try to not be discouraged while training Kumite!! I know, that's easier said than done! Highs and lows will occur more than you will ever imagine, and when the lows come, LEARN FROM THEM!! When the highs occur, and they will occur, don't be overly confident because being overly confident can backfire faster than a speeding bullet. The more you engage in Kumite, and against different practitioners, the more you'll formulate, and recognize that which is incorrect and that which is correct. Only time can unleash the seasoned Kumite veteran. What worked against one practitioner might not work on another practitioner, and again, only time can teach you how to recognize it quickly, and then adapt where you need to. Study your opponent Study yourself Make a plan Carry that plan out This formula will race through your head a trillion times each time you step on the floor to engage in Kumite. Don't fear contact because it will happen quite often. Remember this...Knocked down 7 times, but got up 8 times!! Train hard and train well!!

Today, Friday, October 6, 2017, at 3:55pm, I had a Holter Monitor installed today. The good news is that I only have to wear this monitor for 24 hours. So, tomorrow, Saturday, October 7, 2017, at 4:00pm, I'll return the monitor to the hospital where I had it installed. My cost, with co-pay, $596.00!! That's $50.00 per month for about 11 months. OUCH!! This 24 hour monitor monitors my heart!! Substitutes any Stress Test!! Cardiologist will interpret the findings, and plan for what to do next with my returning Afib!!

I've chosen to place this topic here, Instructor Central, because I believe that the CI, as well as the Governing Body, are the proponents of the pageantry that exists in the MA, yesteryear, today, and in the future. The fault, must have ownership and accountability, and in that, I've assigned those properties to the CI and/or the Governing Body. Is the pageantry found in the MA really necessary?? No matter the style of the MA, that pageantry exists in the very fibers of either the Governing Body and/or the school of MA or both. Hard to avoid it, and if one avoids it willingly, that individual(s) are shunned forthwith with provocation. Let me please preface with this thought first, so as in the hopes you'll know where I'm coming from. Is that tradition?? They'll have you believe it to be so because they want to justify their reason(s) to its existence. It seems to me that the pageantry are done without reservation and without ever missing a beat. No change in what's to take place in order of which they occur; like clock work!! The students of the MA aren't ever asked, no!! The student of the MA is told what to do!! Until the pageantry is erased, or at least toned down some, from the MA, in the manner of which I've seen it these past 5 decades, I doubt that I'll ever shadow much MA events. The rules and regulations of the CI and/or the Governing Body are important, however, some of the rules and regulations frame that very pageantry. The MA schools and their Governing Bodies are just equally guilty of parading the pageantry, and the Master of Ceremonies is none other than the CI!! I stand before you guilty of being that proponent of the very same pageantry that I've grown tired of over these many years. There's an order in everything found within a MA school and Governing Body, this to be for sure. 1> Meet and greet with bowing 2> Bowing into the school...bowing onto the floor 3> Lining up command 4> Bowing to the CI...bowing to the Shomen...bowing to guests...more bowing 5> Brief Announcements and the like 6> Calisthenics 7> Reviewing with more bowing 8> Lessons with more bowing 9> Drills of the varied types to match today's lesson with more bowing 10> Kata and/or Kumite with more bowing 11> Ending calisthenics and more bowing 12> Closing announcements/homework assignment(s) 13) Bowing out No, this list isn't to its exacting order because things are done at a whim of the CI, yet staying within the core of that classes lessons for that day. Also, not all MA schools do half of what's listed above, and not because either way is right/wrong, it's just how things differ one school of the MA to another. Yet, again, we're told!! Not asked!! Lead like the obedient students that we are!! The Dojo Kun, aka, the dojo rules and regulations are an understood part of the dojo culture, but not all of their rules and regulations should remain, however, without rules and regulations, anarchy is birthed, and the culture of learning is tainted. Don't even get me started on the pageantry that accompanies Award Ceremonies and the like; that's where the pageantry really starts to take a life of its own. No, I come to learn the MA!! I want to learn the MA, but without all of the pageantry, like bowing and this and that and ten other things. Why all of the bowing?? I'm not of that culture, and while I accept and understand why there's a lot of bowing in the MA, and bowing is of many cultures, in the USA, bowing is not part of our cultures. Dojo Pageantry, imho, isn't necessary, and slowly but surely, I want to eradicate it from my dojo, short of the Kun. And it possible, I want to eradicate the unnecessary pageantry from our Hombu as well. What's necessary and what's unnecessary?? That which takes anything away from learning the core of ones chosen MA. I was raised in the deep throes of Dojo Pageantry my entire MA life. Soke and Dai-Soke were born and raised in Nanjo, Okinawa, and perhaps that's all they knew, in which, they gave no thought or concerns that they were not in Okinawa, but that they were now in the USA. It was their Hombu, and by gosh, they were going to do, and insist that we obey, what they've done their entire live. I didn't know better; I followed and obeyed what I was instructed by Soke and Dai-Soke. That was then, this is now!! Maybe my old age is starting to show, and causes me to change my thinking on many of things that are MA related. After all, I'll be 60 years old in a couple of weeks. Imho!! Your thoughts??

Having visited my new Cardiologist, Dr. Darwin Childs, earlier this week, so that a plan can be formulated on how we should address the unceremonious return of my Afib (Atrial fibrillation), this past June 2017. Dr. Childs etched out a careful and orchestrated formula to attack, some 30 minutes later, a plan was put into motion. *Increased my Metoprolol ER from 25mg to 50mg *Install an Holster Monitor for 24 hours [Which I got today, Friday, October 6, 2017, at 3pm central time, in which I'm wearing as I type this post.] *Follow-up on November 13, 2017 to discuss my options (Live with Afib for the rest of my life with medication...Have another Cardiac Inversion...Have a Atrial Fibrillation Ablation) Sounds good to me!! Whatever we do, I just want to lower the risk of a stroke to the most minimum to zero!! Yeah, I'm scared!! So, I asked Dr. Childs a quite pointed question... "What should I do and/or not do as far as the gym or the dojo or exercise in general??" I asked, Dr. Childs. ...In which he gave me a very pointed answer... He gave the same answer that every doctor has given me since October 4, 2016, when my Afib was first diagnosed in Houston, TX. "Moderation is the key!!", says pointedly Dr. Childs..."Moderation" This brings me to the question for my fellow KF members... JUST WHAT THE HECK IS MODERATION BEYOND THE DICTIONARY DEFINITION?????? I don't know how to do moderation in the dojo or in the gym or in any exercise or what have you!! I've not received the success that I've earned in the 53 years in the MA, specifically in Shindokan Saitou-ryu Karate-do and Kobudo by training in moderation!! Moderation is alien to me, especially in the realm of the MA. Moderation could walk right up to me and smack the living tar out of me and I wouldn't recognize that it was moderation that just tag and bagged me!! 1. the avoidance of excess or extremes, especially in one's behavior or political opinions: "he urged the police to show moderation" synonyms: self-restraint, restraint, self-control, self-command, self-discipline, temperance, leniency, fairness Yes, I know I should, no, I must obey Dr. Childs' advice, because if I don't, I could have a heart attack while at the dojo or the gym or wherever I might be while I'm engaged in some physical activities. I'm no longer that 20 something year old person; I'll be 60 this October 18th 2017!! What in the world is MODERATION????

However, isn't there another way to show respect without the pageantry of bowing?? We're not asked to bow, we're made to bow, in which we obey as though our lives depended upon it. I'm all for the respect and all, but way to often, I see the pageantry done as though the individual being bowed to is quite near worshiping. I use to stand before Soke and Dai-Soke in complete obedience in pure awe, as though they were Godlike in appearance and mannerism; and with just one glance, I'd melt away to nothingness. In my youth, I feared them, in which, I blindly obeyed them without question(s).

Came across the below question today while I was on FB, and I thought that it might make a decent topic to converse about here at KF. No, I don't always do, nor do I always expect it from my visitors, MAists or not!! The Pageantry of the Dojo, as I've labeled it, has to end!! While I respect the meanings behind why MAists bow, it's a foreign culture to me because I'm not from a culture that regularly practices bowing outside of a dojo/dojang/club/etc.. While I don't always bow in and out of a dojo I'm visiting, there are other tangible ways to show respect than bowing. Respect has to be earned, not given blindly!! Imho!! Your thoughts?

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

My right side when I'm standing in front of facing you...Or your left side when you're looking down at your belt??