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Great information from the standpoint of a LEO; thanks, Brian!!

Fantastic update all around. Bumps are expected during the season and it seems that Kenneth meet them all with fired up vigorous energy. Ending the season at .500 is nothing to sneeze about especially with what he’s had to deal with on the mat. You’ve every reasons to be proud of Kenneth across the board. Please give Kenneth my most sincere congratulations for all he’s accomplished this season. GO KENNETH!!

Great articles, Brian; thanks!! Whenever it comes to allowable force in self-defense, you’d know better than many of us here seeing that you’re a LEO, Brian. What I’ve been telling my students forever and a day, is this, please correct me, Brian if I’m wrong. What I know is that one’s allowed “reasonable force” to end a threat…and no more. What’s “reasonable force”?? Proportionally, imminent, duty to retreat, and excessive; knowing the difference between them is essentially the responsibility of anyone, and not just a MAist. Proportionally means the amount of force must match the level of the threat. Imminent means force can be only used when an imminent threat of harm. Duty of retreat means I must be required to retreat before I can use force. Excessive force means that if I use more force than necessary to defend myself can be considered a crime. The law can seem quite ambiguous where force is involved. Hopefully Brian can help us to better understand from a LEO’s standpoint.

Here’s my 2-cents… “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”-Einstein “I’ve not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”-Edison

Impressive!! I’ve no carpenter skills of any type. I might be able to nail two pieces of wood together but that’s the extent of it. I’m embarrassed, to say the least.

The movie Miracle tells that story about the iconic game…USA vs USSR

I’m starting to watch a 6-episode miniseries on Netflix, starring Robert De Niro, titled Zero Day. It’s about an American political thriller centering on a devastating global cyberattack that implicating the highest levels of the US Federal Government. One of the characters is a NSA Operative named…Patrick O’Keefe. Kind of tickled me a bit when I heard the name, Patrick O’Keefe, which as all of you know, is the very same name of our beloved KF Administrator…Patrick O’Keefe. It always tickled me whenever I hear the name…Robert Mitchum…in old movies. I spell my last name differently than the actor…my name is Robert Mitcham. Maybe our Patrick is moonlighting as a NSA Operative…which would be so cool.

Absolutely!! There’s so much to Kata than memorizing the embusen. Because of that, drilling said kata over and over on the intricacies that belongs to said kata is critical.

That’s what’s great about a door. It opens to let people in and let people out. Meaning?? When one student exits out the door, a prospective student comes in the door. Please don’t misunderstand my coldness, but I can’t be affected either war because if I’m affected by whether a student stays or quits, then I’m not giving my all to the students who’ve chosen to remain on the floor.

I’ve racked myself more times that I care to remember. Each of those times I’d find myself curled up on the ground for about 30 minutes wishing I wasn’t so dumb. How many times have I smacked my funny bone while training with the Nunchakus or the back of my head or between my legs or the tip of my fingers/thumb?? So many times…it wasn’t that funny whenever it happened.

I just can’t reiterate it enough that we owe our students our complete respect, whatever their decision is, no matter how much we might be disappointed. You know, this might seem an unfavorable thing to say but you know what?? MA is just a thing…a want…not a need, like shelter or food. Our MA journey can’t be our students journey or even similar. Does a CI want what’s best for their students or what’s best for the CI??

I’ll pick Dr. Goodman’s brain a bit during our last follow-up for his recommendations. Such a bummer!!

Welcome to KF, John Moscato; glad that you’re here!! Sounds like you’ve an excellent background in the MA; can’t wait to read your contributions to our community here at KF. Even though I’ve an uncle that lives in Baltimore, MD, I’ve no familiarity with any Okinawan Dojos. However, Yelp has a list of 10 Best Karate Schools in and around Baltimore,MD that might be of some interest to you. Good luck on your search.

Received a disappointing letter today from Comprehensive Cancer Center that Dr. Oscar Goodman Jr, MD, PhD, my Oncologist, will be leaving on May 4, 2025 for unknown reasons. Both his dad and mom were Mayors for Las Vegas, NV. Dr. Goodman saved my life!! My Prostate Cancer is still in complete remission!! These past 3+ years under his care, I’ve come to trust him explicitly. I’ll miss his professionalism and warm bedside manner. I wish him the very best in the future!! My last follow-up with him will be on March 20, 2025. Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) will assist me in transitioning to a new Oncologist that’s under the CCC umbrella. Things like this happen from time to time, even though that doesn’t make me feel any better.

Hopefully there’ll be no fighting between the two this Thursday like there was when these two faced each other. We’ll see what we see this Thursday.

Kata is as basic as it can get when looking for something to drill. Not saying that Kata itself is basic but drilling Kata requires a lot from the individual, and that isn’t basic.

Wife and I just finished watching the final 5 episodes. I witnessed some pleasant moments that surprised me. The very last scene was the perfect way to end this series. Wonder what, if any, spinoffs will come from Cobra Kai series?!

Yankees seem to be extending Manager Cashman’s contract; news expected soon. I’m on the fence with this one because imho he made some real bad calls during the World Series against the Dodgers. I was looking over the Yankees February transactions and it seems that the Yankees are trying to improve their pitching staff, which they need to. Yankee pitcher Marcus Stroman missed several workouts. Why?? He’s rejecting his role as a relief pitcher. Why?? He believes he’s a starting pitcher. GO YANKEES!!

Thanks, Brian!! How many pages is the book you already have?

Wife and I are going to get caught up this weekend. Our son, Nathan finished watching all of the Cobra Kai remaining episodes yesterday.

Not unless I was wearing a Red Man suit!!

Our Hombu was fortunate enough to have both multiple training rooms and floors, 3 to be exact. First floor was where the main dojo was located. Its floors were hard wood. Second floor held 3 training rooms. Largest of the 3 was the Hombu’s secondary dojo; its floors were also hard wood. Next training room, on the second floor, was for practicing throws/take downs/etc; its floor was full of thick wall to wall mats. These mats were on top of thick plywood sheets. Those plywood sheets were on top of car tires that were secured to the floor. That gave the floor that one was kind of floating but in such a was that footwork wasn’t hindered at all. We students all looked at it like a cow would look at a strange gate for the first time. But training on it was like trading on a cloud. Third room on the second floor was a free workout room. Its floor was hard wood. Third floor was nothing but offices and the like. No training was performed on the third floor. The Hombu, in addition, had a gymnasium attached directly behind the Hombu. Its floor was hard wood like a basketball court would have. The gymnasium was a multipurpose facility for whatever the third floor wanted to use it for at any given day. My dojo had hard wood floors at first. In time, the hard wood floors were replaced with wall to wall puzzle mats. To be perfectly honest, I don’t think we gave it quite a lot of thought about how we trained on the different floor types whether it be hard wood or mats or unique. Whether it be at the Hombu or at any networked dojo…we just trained without not giving much concern about the floors. I suppose we were careful at first, as anyone would be whenever encountering something that’s different, especially on the floating floor.

Check this out… What do you think?? GO COWBOYS!!

Whoa!! I got to check that one out. Thanks, Brian!!