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Welcome to the family! Glad to see you found what you were looking for and hopefully we'll see ya at a seminar some day.

Best wishes. And remember, shodan is the first door in a long hallway of knowledge. Give us details on Wednesday of how it went, best thing you did. Worst (if any) Lee

I think it should be a case by case basis. We all know what a Savant is. I've been a musician for over 30 years and every few I see some young kid that can play drums, piano, violin, etc with skill I will never attain. We don't teach anyone under 17 at our dojo, but I have seen 'Junior Blackbelts" at Association functions. Never really trained with them though. That whole clique thing ya know. At any rate, I would never rule out the possibility that someone 1/2 or a 1/3 my age could teach me something. You learn by teaching, you learn by watching, you learn by doing. I remember once I was in the basement dojo playing with someone's 6 year old boy. He wasn't in the martial arts or anything yet, but we were just messing around playing tug-o-war with one of my bo's. I learned something technique wise with a bo that I'll never forget clearly by accident. But I digress..... Case by case is my answer. If a 16 year old was teaching me something, I'd be open to the experience until I had reason not to. Perhaps my main instructor would be testing my temper and patience. Lee

Most definitely. I think a lot of people that say that nobody is going to grab you like that are people that get limited exposure to something like Tuite or other grapples. We were as guilty as the rest of them years ago of teaching how to do the techniques and not teaching the "set ups" until later. So someone that went to a few classes or seminars learns the technique but never how it might come into play. We are pretty adamantly explaining to the new students now that there are setups and show a couple for each technique. One real common way is when you knock someone off their balance, common human reaction is to grab something for balance. Hopefully we've positioned our forearm for the grab.

And I thought I was the only Midwesterner with insomnia.

Yes, but that advanced Jagdpanzer Tiger-Elefant kata is a bit intense.

He was quoting “The best way to fight a bigger stronger opponent is to put him on his back. “ By that, I think he was saying that prone is better than supine and I would most def concur in my experience. Opponent Supine: They have Hand/Fist available to punch, grab, slap They have Leg available to kick, trip, etc. They have eyes available. Opponent Prone: They can't see what you are doing. Have nothing but their rear end to attack with, and gaseous emissions. Yes, it is easy to flip someone from Supine to Prone IF you have control. If you have assistance sometimes that helps. Other times your partner is hindering you because they are pulling in the opposite direction, etc. So in my opinion, if I had to pick Prone or Supine for any opponent, I would want them proned out. Numerous techniques from arm bars, shoulder locks, wrist locks, to vulcan mind melds can put them there and pin them. An opponent on their back can't put all their weight into a punch or kick as said before, but if they are proned out, they can't really put anything into a punch or kick until they raise or twist to get into position. In my opinion, and from my experience training with someone on top of me in any various mounts, when I am face up I can block, punch, kick, twist, etc a whole lot better. Just look at any of the various fights that have been on TV since the UFC started. People on the bottom on their backs still can punch. On their bellies, not so much. In real life situations I've seen for the past 17 years on the streets, and particularly now that everything is on dash cameras, we get in a lot much more trouble when people are taken down on their backs. My two yen.

Greetings, We had in the old days always used various bookkeeping books, just cause they were cheap and had lines, to take role. We basically kept attendance, start date, when association dues were due, payments, etc. A few months ago I decided to do this a little different and decided to open up Microsoft Excel which I'm pretty familiar with. I'm not keeping track of the following; Attendance and Excuses for not Percentage of Classes Attended Payments Address, Phone, Email, other Contact Right or Left Handed Rank/Progression of Student Dojo Finances Phone Calls/Emails from Prospective Students Trends At any rate, Excel is a wonderful tool however I'm starting to think that Microsoft Access would be a little better. I have just taken a weeks worth of Access classes and was going to do some work on creating Access. I really have no previous experience with that software. As I run a small basement dojo, I'm not interested in paying $500.00 or something for some of the Dojo Admin software out there. I already have Microsoft Office Suite and just can't justify the expense. I'd rather spend the money on mats or other equipment or maybe a new giant screen TV for the man cave. My questions to you all are; Who else uses Access, Word, OpenOffice, or Comparable Products? What do you track? Thanks

Writing all the beautiful characters of the Japanese language in nice flowing ink. And he is pretty good. Difficult art. Like most Japanese arts they have the kyu and dan ranking system.

Thanks but nothing close there.

We discussed this in class last night and eventually the topic lead to an interesting comment. It is extremely easy to buy a rifle in America, and there are no real laws in most places about carrying a rifle around. Most are not concealable. You ever see a martial artist wig out, climb a tower, and kill 23 students with his nunchaku? You ever see a martial artist wig out, enter a McDonalds and randomly start thumping people? But which is easier to get and carry in America in general. Just an interesting thought that materialized in class. Lee

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A..... REASON ONE: COOL FACTOR OK. When I was a young one, grade school, there was a Y.M.C.A. near my house and my parents would drive past it all the time. A big huge sign was out front that said Karate. I must of seen a movie at some point and thought it was cool and wanted to do it. I begged and begged but my overprotective mother was afraid her runt would get hurt. I checked out every Karate book that was in the grade school library and got made fun of a lot. My parents enrolled me in little league baseball instead. Which I hated. I was pretty much a runt back then, though I'm not huge now. So flash forward all the way to highschool, and I decided I'd get some lessons from a guy I knew that allegedly studied something. I basically learned a few blocks, horse stance, and some punches. Don't think that guy really knew much more than that but he talked a good line. REASON TWO: SURVIVAL Further forward now and I'm working at Kmart in security and always getting in fights. Somehow the big shoplifters didn't like stopping for the 5'5" 110lb kid. I ended up getting hurt because we were not allowed to use handcuffs which led to Kmart thinking I was going to sue them. So they allowed me to get us all trained on handcuffs by the expert in the town I was working. Enter my first instructor, and Ryukyu Kempo. REASON THREE: COOL AGAIN After the handcuffing seminar I joined the Association and their classes. Pretty much it was the continual wow factor that got me through the pain of training. It was totally amazing to see how tweaking a little spot on the body could send someone crashing to the ground. REASON FOUR: OTHER THRILLS 19 years later it is still thrilling. I still learn from my elders, my peers, my students, and myself. I love to teach, it accelerates my learning so much. It is an amazing thing to know the power of the human body, and its weaknesses. Oh, and then there is that whole being a cop thing, so survival is still a part of it. Lee

I'm searching for belts that I used to be able to get in Merrium, Kansas. They were black belts and had either a 1/4", 1/2", or 3/4" stripe in Silver or Gold depending upon the rank. The stripe was full length down the center of the entire belt, not a stripe on the tip. We don't use these really any more in our system with everyone wearing the same hakama, however I have personal reasons for finding these belts. Nostalgia. Anyone seen these in the last few years? Thanks Lee

In addition to Shujika's comments, we take a portion of their first month's dues and enroll them in the association officially. We def do not get caught up in rank and color.

Give Shujika money and he'll make you anything. He is a Calligraphy Guru.