sensei8

WARNING: Bad comparison coming... Imagine your about to go in for surgery. You're nervous. You're a little scared. Seconds turn into hours. Your nurse walks into your room to assist in wheeling you into surgery. You're now at the entrance doors leading into surgery...your nurse leans down...and with not a care in her voice she says... Your doctor was never tested ever while he was in med-school!! I'd be bolting!!

Yes it is!! Training alone is...well...lonely, inasmuch, it's akin to taking a very long walk by yourself; no stimulus.

Transitional movements and the like shouldn't be forced/muscled. And you're absolutely correct...muscling causes tension and tension prohibits free movements; transitions suffer. And when one moves this way and is meet with resistance, the natural instinct is to fight against said resistance, thus using the resistance for ones success. Pushing hand drills are all about "Working" with the resistance so that hidden opens are revealed. To be relaxed until tensions is required; but that tension must be controlled. Great topic Justice!!

Imho, it's a rarity. The more one on one with an instructor can't be denied; shouldn't be denied. The occasional one on one does help where corrections are vitally important in learning the most basic of techniques. Imho!!

Happy Birthday Alex!! And many more!!

Yellow belt. I vaguely remember mine. Good luck...relax...let the testing cycle take care of itself. You'll be greater than rain.

Water.

Both!! Use both the makiwara as well as the focus mitts. Both provide their uniqueness training elements that truly can't be denied. First time you don't hit the makiwara square; you'll notice it real fast. Stance and posture; pay a close attention to them. You've, thus far, received some pretty sound advise from others.

Congrats!! I can't remember the last time I ever saw nor heard of anyone scoring with a hammerfist...EXCELLENT!!

That's great! Love it!HA...I love it!!

Well said...well said!!

Thanks for sharing the videos...I loved them all. Kendall should be very proud of his results across the board. He handled it like a professional. I bow to him!! Way to go Dad!!

Yeah...I missed that announcement. Mo to retire at the end of 2013!! Yeah...I'll miss him too!! Please lord, let Mo have a GREAT year!! Go Yankees!!

Hold the presses!! Did I miss something?? Is Mo gone? Don't let it be so!!

As the title of this topic reads... How often do you practice Kata? One movement at a time; slowly and deliberate so as to analyze its applications each and everyday.

Mr. Dillman use to be considered one of the tops in the Kyusho jitsu field, but, somewhere, he took a left when he should have took a right; his spoken words are less dependable nowadays.

Home study is a difficult pie to enjoy. Why? Home study begs for the individual to be by themselves in every aspect of learning/training; especially effective feedback!! How is the home study student going to know if what they're doing is positive/effective/correct without the instructor being right there live!! Imho...

I would think most parents wouldn't have the knowledge or understanding of the martial arts to really know what their child should and shouldn't be learning. I don't think a parent has the right to tell a martial arts instructor what to teach their child. If they don't like the curriculum at a given school, they can take their child out of the school. Last thing any teacher needs is thirty parents all telling him how to do his job. That's the problem, imho, with parents when they bring their kids to learn the MA. They don't find out as much as they can about everything. Parents become idle in what their kids are a part of, in this case, the MA. The parent has NO right to tell the instructor anything MA related, but the parent(s) will decide for their children what's best for them. Parents need, imho, to be more involved with their children especially when it comes to the MA. Is that instructor the best for their children? Not, is this style of the MA best for their children? That comes only when the parent(s) research everything; being a prepared parent is needed.

Thank you First of all...Solid post!! My answer to your question above....Survival!! Of ourselves as well as our fellow man/woman!

Had been me...he would've been warned firmly once, after that, he would've been expelled immediately!! I don't tolerate this from anyone!!

Oyo Bunkai...can't live without it!! This is where "things" are discovered and re-discovered and changed and birthed and destroyed and understood and forgotten and...on and on and on. Oyo, for me Danielle, is the principle that allows us to inherent 'it' all. I believe that that's been happening for quite along time. Two different ethos can't always agree and/or get along no matter the topic. When you say "splits", are you referring to a separation of a group of practitioners and the like? If so, then...Yes! Why? Because we're unique and we adapt and change. Therefore, the splits do happen. Whether the splits are good or not, well, that's up to the practitioner, imho. Especially! Methodologies and ideologies are opinions, especially in the MA. Is 'it' better than the other? Is 'it' this and that? Practitioners either stand up for themselves or they allow a governing body to tell them which is better....circular or linear?

Solid post!! Wooden dummy training...can't live without it, imho.

Because it would be FUN! And FUN is GOOD!!

What can't be seen, in this case, can't be "grabbed". Speed is an important part of training.

Do we, the instructors, truly have the right to decide what a child should/needs to learn, martial arts wise? After all, I believe that the parent(s) have that right, and only the parent(s) If an instructor refuses to teach something for whatever reason(s), that too is the right of the instructor alone. Both sides have to be respected, imho.