sensei8

One time, a student was asked by a visiting Sensei... "What's your rank?" "Sir, I'm a Black Belt" the student proudly answers. And even though the visiting Sensei was wearing his Yudansha, the student still asked the question... "Sir, if I may ask, what's your rank?' "Sir, I'm a beginner" answers the visiting Sensei "No you're not" the student excitingly retorts Sure I am! I don't know everything, and in that, even though I'm a senior Yudansha, I'm always learning; each and everyday! When I train with those outside of Shindokan, I'm learning something new. As odd as this might sound, I'm always learning something new within Shindokan. Even further more, I'm always learning something new about myself. Bottom line, while I'm a senior Yudansha, I'm only in a beginner in the wide world of the martial arts. And you know what? I'm fine with that, as a matter of fact, I'm mostly proud about that!! Your thoughts!?

Very interesting. One I hadn't thought of, if ever. Thanks for that Patrick!

SOLID!!

Imho, it just doesn't take a lot of force in the groin area to get the attention of my opponent. I remember one time while I was on the floor writhing in pain for a solid half hour and this was due to a gracing glance to my groin by our Dai-Soke to prove a point to his most mule headed student...me. A lot of our most Shindokan senior practitioners hate to grapple with me because I'm always actively attempting to strike and/or grab at the groin area with much success. I'm sadistic when it comes to stuff like that.

Yes, by all means...WELCOME BACK!!

Good luck, and I'm of the opinion, that you'll do GREAT!! Remain calm & have fun!!

Now, that's an excellent article: very informative across the board...thanks for it...I enjoyed it a lot!!

It's so easy to tell when a student or anybody for that fact has been holding their breath during Kata...when finished with said kata....they're breathing becomes deep/labored! Hard to disguise that when the body needs air. I tend to mark low when I see this because proper breathing is so important.

Cheering for the Steelers huh? Just kidding! I'm just jealous that these two teams are fighting for 1st place and the Cowboys, well, aren't!! Maybe we'll get some fine 1at or 2nd draft picks out of it!! Co Cowboys or someone!!

Solid post!! Its funny how age effects you. I work out with one of the BB's 16 year old sons, mainly because this kid scares the other kids his age, but this kid will not tap and he is still young enough that he can bend certain joints like his elbow beyond the typical break point. Every time I work arm bars with this kid he's always telling me, "hey I didn't tap!" Oh to be young again...and flexible....and, well, you know, at my age, everything is an "and"!!

Joe, You've brought to life the old saying... "Necessity is the mother of all invention!!" Awesome and thanks for sharing it!!

Various systems have various interpretations of the bunkai of kata, and like all bunkai in all traditional kata there is more than one bunkai that exists for every move. The last movements of Passai are primarily a slow sweeping motion which is feeling in the dark for your opponent, then upon touching them your first hand is reaching out and grasping their arm/coat/etc and pulling them in while the other hand is reaching for a nerve in the area where the neck meets the shoulder. I absolutely agree with you! And what I presented to the forum was only one bunkai, however, in Shindokan, what I presented to the forum is the first bunkai of many that's taught to all in our student body. The dark/blind bunkai, I can see that it does have viability to it, and I thank you for explaining it to me.

Very solid post!! One of the things I'd add is that the breathing, in Shindokan, must be coordinated with all foot movements, and one must remember to relax following the breathe, and in that, not remaining tensed, and that is so one can transition into the next movement(s). However, that goes in concert with what BDPulver said... "...there's different breathing techniques for every aspect of Karate. but all are the same it depends on what what is doing." Learn how to properly breath ASAP!!

Anything's possible, but, nothing's guaranteed! There are just way to many parameters to each and everything in the martial arts...including just for points.

I worded the question purposefully the way that I did. See, no one wants to have an arsenal of techniques that are ineffective. So, I just used the word "techniques" for no other reasons than that. And if one gets knocked out and one doesn't get any experience out of being knocked out, well, then one must've got knocked WAY WAY out.

I'm ALSO "in the favor" of the second choice of the poll as well because IF I've felled my opponent in the first place, AND I've not created the desired seperation/space between myself and my opponent, well, I better know what to do with my felled opponent NEXT to keep the momentum on my side!! Sometimes, we're darned if we do and we're darned if we don't.

Chuck Norris created the education associations United Fighting Arts Federation and "KickStart" (formerly "Kick Drugs Out of America"), a middle school and high school–based program intended to give at-risk children a focus point in life through the martial arts. http://www.kick-start.org/index.html Even though Chuck Norris is the founder of KickStart, it can only be found in 43 schools in Texas, which shows us that it's not that easy to get into USA schools.

I'm only spitballing here, but, I believe that the reason(s) for UFC having so many rules boils down to one thing...availability!! UFC wants to be in multiple venues across the USA, and to be allowed in this state or that state, rules have to be adopted no matter how far it is from how it was in the UFC 1,2, or 3. This is my guess!

Cowboys lost to the Saints. When Wallace had the ball strip from him....that was the OUCH of the day!! This year is over for the Cowboys, imho.

There's nothing like a well made turkey sandwich...YUMMY!! = drolling

Welcome to KF!!!!!!

Once you no longer ask these type of questions!! It's normal, at the beginning of ones MA journey to ask these type of questions. Can I? Should I? Will I? Would I? Could I? After some time, the questions will still arrive but the context of the questions will change. Kumite until the wheels fall off and then some, but, there are NO absolutes when it comes to the martial arts.

Oh yeah, I'm not interested in the parents "teaching" because I want it done RIGHT!! Parents mean well when they take the role of "assistant instructor" at home or the parents show what they know, which might be good or bad, depending on if I'm constantly having to fix what the parents broke. I just want parents to be involved in their kids' martial arts. And if this just means that the parent(s) are there at the school to show their support, than that's fine with me. But, I just won't hold my breath for this miracle to surface for the reasons that I've already stated in my previous post.

I'm very glad to hear that you left that school/instructor!! No instructor should be yelling at their students. Beside you being a student, you're also a PAYING CUSTOMER and you shouldn't be subjected to that type of instruction/environment. This brings me to my favorite saying...NOT ALL BLACK BELT CAN TEACH!!

Solid post!!