sensei8

Time is very short. Shorter than one can ever imagine or realize. In the comparison to eternity, time is just a mere speck on the horizon. What is a MAists life?! ~It's like a lighting swift swing of the pendulum of the clock of time. ~It's like the stay of the postman at the door. ~It's like the snowflake that falls from the heavens and it shines in its beauty for a moment, touches the raging stream of water below it, then it vanishes. ~It's like the sparks that fly upward from a bonfire, they flame for a moment against the night sky, and then they are extinguished forever. ~It's so little time between cradle and coffin. So little distance between our hello's and goodbye's. ~Such a short span between the babies cry and the death rattle in the throat. What shall it be?! What shall the end be?! When death knocks on the door and says that it's time to go. What will the end be?! What is a MAists life?! How will your MA life be measured??

I thank each one of you for your many kind words, they mean the world to me!! THANK YOU ALL!!

Great interview!! I want to thank you for all that you do here at KF across the board!! I personally want to thank you for helping me to reach deeply inside of myself to see that Dai-Soke and Soke weren't always right in their methodologies and ideologies in and out of Shindokan. I was raised in a very strict traditional Okinawan style of Karate, and in that, one can possible imagine just how the tone was in the Hombu while these two great karateka's were alive and quite active. To honor them, is why I still continue in Shindokan. I could never pretend to write as well as you do, but I try, and this is why I've put a hold on my memoirs, and that's because my written words aren't as polished as they need to be to get the attention of said reader, and then to keep the reader on the edge of their seats. Your MA knowledge is deep, and well refined across the board. It shows in your written words, and in that, I hopefully, one day, be allowed to share the mat with you. Thank you for everything!! I bow to you!!

Quite a list indeed!! Thanks for taking the time to create said list.

Well...I'll take my 40 year old body over my 56 year old body. I'll trade with you Brian!!

Yeah...I suppose. However, imho, I think that the division would've looked better had the Yankees won the WS. I'm partial to the Yankees, though.

Chiefs will have their hands full with Peyton...he's a monster on the field. But, I still think the Chiefs will do fine. If not, still a GREAT year thus far for the Chiefs. My 'Boys are doing ok, in that, I'm aware of how they could be doing if the year had gone the other way for their opponents. GO COWBOYS!!

Solid post!!

Solid post!! I believe that your sensei's advice should be adhered and respected. Think about what your sensei's advice is saying to you, and then, of course, make your decision. Your decision is yours to be made!! Hang in there and do what you feel is the best for you!!

Many solid posts here on the subject. Only thing I'd like to add for now is that sparring, imho, is a MUST!! Don't spar, then don't ever get into a fight. Why? The MAist that doesn't spar is one that doesn't understand how to approach any type of sparring. Sparring is akin to learning how to be an airline pilot but not ever wanting to experience the tantamount of flight. It's akin to learning how to be a surgeon but not ever wanting to experience the tantamount of the scapel. How schools of the MA will address their brand of sparring will vary; none train the same, even under the same governing body. Contact, imho, is essential to sparring because reactions on both sides of the glove must be understood and learnt. Notice that I'm not saying that training partners should try to kill one another while on the floor. NO!! Guage the contact level and in that, allow the experience help to decide just how much contact will be allowed, if at all. I need the contact! I want the contact! I love the contact. Greg, our Kancho, and I do try to kill one another. We engage with one another with one purpose: Absolute havoc!! We'll have it no other way with one another, and in that, contact is our MA aphrodisiac. However, Greg and I don't have to spar in the manner of which we both enjoy. No. We both also train in other ways that will be uplifting to our training, and in that, to not forget what our Soke and Dai-Soke has taught us: Peaceful patience with one another!! Yes, we can bang with the best of them, but, often times, Greg and I just love to do the more peaceful ways of sparring. The type of sparring that's found in many dojo's. Greg and I have never seriously hurt one another, but that doesn't mean that we've never been hurt while engaging in our way of sparring. Accidents happen, and in that, from time to time, someone's going to be injured while engaging in some type of sparring. That's why it's called an accident. To contact or not to contact, that is the question. I believe that it must be agreed upon with both/all parties, and, it must be allowed by said instructor, and in that, not the governing body. Training is a personal thing and not an administrative thing!! I believe that this is an effective way to TRAIN in sparring. If one can control, and control, imho, must be understood and achieved, imagine what said technique would feel like if it made contact. "Wow. That was close!!" is sure better than, "MEDIC!!" while training in sparring. The no-contact methodology of sparring/kumite is an effective way of teaching the aspects of sparring as ONE IS LEARNING the nucules of sparring. Have to learn how to not hit before one can learn to hit!! This method has merits! The application of sparring is as important as one learing the application of said kata(s); a vital aspect not to be ignored, imho. Applications must be understood, otherwise, flapping our bodies without means and/or purpose is about as useful as a car is without a steering wheel. Both methods above have importance, but it's how they're approched by ones instructor means the world to the sparring world as well as in the MA world. Sparring...contact or not contact...applications...and the like...sparring is critical if one is to learn how to effectively defend/protect oneself. Sparring is a game, and in that, in order to win at this game, one had better learn and train in every aspect possible because no attack is the same.

Very nice article; thank you for sharing it!! I've always viewed Catch Wrestiling as what we boys all did when we were growing up. By that I mean, we'd wrestle, as boys will do, and it seemed to always surround the game "King Of The Hill", in which ground wrestling was an important part of winning the Hill. But all in all, when I was growing up, Catch Wrestiling was just something that us boys did in the front yard, the back yard, at the playground, and/or somewhere in the house, where our moms would show us her form of it, and she always won...OUCH!! It also really gave me an up when it came to being trained in our brand of Tuite as well as in our brand of grappling and the like.

For me, I define effective as one being able to stop said attacker without prejudice and absolute.

Great interview!! I, too, want to thank you for all that you've done to support KF. Maybe one day, if that opportunity ever arise again, you'll come back to the MA floor of your choice. Thank you!!

Great interview!! I've enjoyed your posts as well without any doubt. Your humor, as others here have noted, is infectious as well as right to the point. I've always looked forward to your posts without any reservation. And as tallgeese has pointed out...I'd/we'd like to see you more often here at KF!! Thank you for all your contributions that help make KF the great site that it is.

Most definitely deserved across the board!! Congrats!!

As much as it pains me to say...[i'm a Yankee fan] CONGRATS to the Boston Red Sox on becoming the 2013 World Series Champions. Well deserved!!

A belated...Happy Halloween.

My 10 reasons why the MA isn't effective...all of the time... 1> People aren't perfect; neither is any MA. 2> Someone else, somewhere, is better. 3> Thresholds vary. 4> Guns and the like. 5> Boards don't hit back. 6> Waiting for an attack. 7> Applications flawed outside of ones mind. 8> Rigid transitions. 9> False securities about ones MA abilites. 10> There are other ways more effective to defend oneself than the MA. Add all of this together it, imho, still boils down to this...People aren't perfect!!

This experience has made me much more suspicious about a many things than I was in the past. In this area, my learning curve spiked a billion for the betterment of our Hombu and it's entire student body. Won't ever happen again...not on my watch!!

Where there's 10, there'll be 10 more that will deride the original 10 because our experiences are different and not always in tune with one another.

As the current Kaicho, I've had to put out a few fires from time to time, but either our complaints are being handled before they get to me, or our Hombu is doing a better job across the board and no one has anything to complain about. LISTEN!! This, imho, is the most vital tool one can have when addressing any said complaint. And not just listening. One has to listen to what's being said and how it's being said. *Listen closely to the real problem the customer describes. *Repeat the problem back to the customer. *Say that you're sorry for whatever happened. *Get to the root of the problem. *Express appreciation to the customer for bringing the complaint to your attention. *Solve said complaint(s) in a very timely manner.

Solid post!!

Shindokan Saitou-ryu!! Imho, Shindokan has everything that I could ask for and then some. It has an indepth grappling system that's not seen in many other main stream Karate styles. It's brand of Tuite, imho, is complete in its totality; it's a get in your face and rub your face in the ground until your face is removed type of Tuite. It's close range techniques are simple, yet they are exciting across the board. This is just a small note of why Shindokan is my favorite karate style. Is Shindokan complete? NO!! No style of the MA is complete! If a style says that it is, well, imho, they're not being honest with themselves and they're not being honest with the MA world. Soon as I meet that complete style of the MA, well, I'll quit Shindokan faster than a speeding bullet.

I wholeheartedly agree with bushido_man96!! It's not the amount of the MA that one is taking, whether it's 1 or more at the same time or at different times. No. It's, imho, what one can do with what one has at the time that it's going to be needed. I'd rather have one effective tool than a whole big large tool box full of different gadgets. However, it's always great to have a wider ability to use other tools from ones tool box because all repairs are different.

Great interview!! Your MA knowledge and insight is exciting to read because everyone learns something MA related no matter one rank and/or knowledge, and I'm no exception to that rule; I learn and you're one that I learn from. Solid across the board in every aspect in and out of the MA. Thank you for all you've done for KF over the years.