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Home: Leg stretches Ki Cho Hyungs (Il, E, Sam Bu) Pyung Ahn Cho Dan Chil Sung E Ro Hyung Self-defense techniques One-step sparring exercises BOB: - jab, cross, uppercut, hook punches - other hand strikes - finger, elbow, and forearm strikes Class: Was guest at Shurenkan dojo; exhausting workout, but no sparring; will have to speak with Sensei if private lessons available

In many ways, we are the sum total of our experiences, so it can be quite difficult to have a different mindset--or want to. What works best is an open mind, taking in, evaluating, and then deciding what's right for us. When we say "Western," I don't see us limiting ourselves to the US; it's as European as it is American. Do we Westerners alone take out the challenging, or do all cultures have their own preferences when it comes to challenges? I'd say it applies to East as well as West. Then you've established a code for yourself as an individual, Wa-No-Michi. You're more fortunate than most; you have a direction, sailing a tall ship with a star to guide you.

Makes toast so imperial that each slice reminds me of "The Empire Strikes Back."

The power of the dollar. And it was Pres. Calvin Coolidge, who never said much, but did say in the 1920s, "The business of America is business." Hmmm . . . John, I believe that the good people of Hong Kong tweaked Pres. Coolidge's statement just a bit. ("The business of Hong Kong is business." )

When I developed tennis elbow, which came from overworking with weight-training and gripping exercises, the pain wasn't in the elbow joint, it was in the upper forearm, on the outer area. As you haven't referred to gripping pains, but when you bend the elbow, as a non-medical person who suffered with tennis elbow, I would say the diagnosis was incorrect. Perhaps the doctor misunderstood you, or, unfortunately, was not listening attentively to your description.

Sounds completely normal--and fun to be with--to me. He has yet to learn the boundaries. Children who reach out and find the boundaries, often by getting into a bit of trouble, usually grow up with healthier outlooks on what they can do than self-limiting children, who are those that set where they think the boundary is--well within a safe zone. An excellent idea. Have Ethan in a setting that is dynamic and yet encourages self-discipline. He'll work with others while expending youthful energy, and he'll find that there is a way to be his energetic self with a positive outcome. Shotokan, you've got to let Ethan give it "the old college try." (I know, he's only five, but a little hyperbole now and then won't hurt.) Have fun, Ethan!

I've had elbow problems in the past, and I noticed you said "when I bend it," as well as "out of the blue." I discovered at one point that I was irritating a nerve in the elbow, feeling an ache there upon bending it, and that it did come and go. The root of the problem was where that sharp bone is at the end of the forearm, that outer area; even though the whole joint ached, that was the origin. If you feel it gently with your fingers, you'll notice it's got an indentation in it. There's a nerve that runs there. You could have irritated it, and one way of doing that is by elbow strikes, such as repeatedly slamming back against a target (as though someone were behind you), or another elbow strike similar to that motion and impacting with that particular spot against the target. I also found that at those times the position my arm--and therefore my elbow--was in was too cramped in the bent position when in bed, likely contributing to the nerve's discomfort. Should a doctor say there's nothing that can be done for it, Shotokan, that's a cue to get a second opinion; I've received this answer before, and have had success with a fresh point of view. What I made sure I didn't do, though, was to say too much (as in Dr. So-and-So told me . . .). Let the second doctor make determinations without preconceived notions.

We haven't been referring to striking with the elbows, Shotokan; we've only been referring to guarding and blocking with them, particularly the area you referred to in your original posting, the ribcage. It's doubtful your Sensei would permit this, and might even give us a good piece of his mind if he thought we were advocating that his students spar with elbow shots to one-another's heads.

The uniform is purchased separately, and while you receive a new belt with a color promotion, the testing fee is $40. I don't know if you're able to attend five days a week, Shotokan, but it's great to know that you can. Also, you might find that if you can't attend class on a "regular" day in your schedule, you can make it up on another day that can be sqeezed in.

Home: Leg stretches WaveMaster: - Front kicks, different types - Crescent kicks, w/ and w/o step - Roundhouses, w/ and w/o step - Roundhouses, MT-type - Side kicks, w/ and w/o step - Back kicks Class: With my children. Another new special needs student added to class, a child who knows both my boys already and is the same age.

I'm not familiar with Nagarjuna, Bill, but I see from your posting that he was a critic of logic in that he understood that even logic has its limits. Aristotle is considered the father of Western logic, and yet paradox still exists in Western logic/logical thinking. (I have an old Funk & Wagnall's dictionary that has as the first definition of paradox "A statement seemingly absurd or contradictory, yet in fact true," and the second definition as "A statement essentially self-contradictory, false, or absurd"--rather like two definitions at odds on defining "paradox.") Would you then say that the question "What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object" is a paradox, absurd, or simply a semantics game in the guise of logic and therefore both are nonexistent? When I wrote my thesis for philosophy, I made reference to Timothy Sprigge's "absence of space" example. Essentially, Sprigge suggests that space--even what we call "empty" space--is actual, actually exists (as in it can be measured, such as the "empty space" between two objects, or, if two objects touch, it is not that there is no space between them, but that they have met at a particular point in space). The absence of space is, to Sprigge, impossible for the human mind to comprehend. True absence, true "absence of space," is just beyond us, because we always place something "in" space, and even "empty" space holds some definable quality, extension coming to my mind. Do you mean represented by yin and yang. Bill? Even in yin and yang, there exists the "dot" that represents some of the opposite in the other, much as a man possesses a drop of estrogen in his system, as a woman possesses a similar drop of testosterone. I've wondered why the Koreans use um and yang, obviously influenced by the Chinese, without the "dot" that represents some of the opposite within one-another. Truth . . . What is truth (or Truth)? I think of the question, "Is truth the opposite of a lie or the opposite of a mistake?" Interesting, as it's opposite the Western concept, which goes back to Socrates and his pupil Plato, that "treeness" is identifiable, is noted, is recognized that the tree may be recognized, though every tree, even of the same type, is different from every other. A caveat not to confuse the map for the territory? I had a discussion with a friend some years back, when I was taking art classes. He had picked up that one of the main problems of people who are learning art is that they are not drawing or painting the object that is their model, such as to do a still-life of a chair. They draw or paint their idea of a chair with characteristics similar to the model. However, in experimentation, when the model, again, the chair, was turned upside-down, the budding artist was much more focused on detail, on correctness, so that if the drawing or painting were turned "upside-down," the resemblance to the model, the chair, was much more precise. When you say "the thing in itself," Bill, it makes me think of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, whose "das Ding an sich" translates as exactly that--the thing in itself. According to Kant, there are so much phenomena coming at us, that we lack the ability (our minds depending on our senses to take in information) to strip the phenomena away and see "the thing in itself." Aldous Huxley wrote The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell, in which he explains what was considered legitimate research in the "mind-expanding" drugs that later came to be controlled substances as hallucinogenics--the "psychedelic" drugs. He insisted in The Doors of Perception that he did, indeed, see "the thing in itself," but could only do so in this chemically-induced state of mind. Perceptive.

With a twelve-month contract, $90/month for the first family member, $85/month for the second, and I'm the third at $80/month. No contract is $100/month. These are NYC metropolitan area prices, so I'm not surprised by them, and there are students--as in still-in-school students--who go up to four days a week. Adults can, too, but I'm only aware of one "veteran" and one novice (a just-started-two-weeks-ago white belt) who do four days.

An excellent idea, Kalania. In the beginning, you'll likely find it's more like exercise using martial arts, getting your body prepared for martial art applications to come. Good for her. I'll bet she's a doll. You're right, Mom, it'll be a good thing for her. She'll have a blast.

Actually, Tallgeese, there's a weight-training system called "hundreds" that has the weight trainer do large numbers of the same exercise as much as possible, dropping the number of reps (some also drop the poundage) per set until hitting the hundred figure. I understand that it starts out with a relatively low weight, but if you keep going at that weight, it weighs a ton ("suffer" to quote your posting) by the time you're reaching that hundred figure.

I remember being told that, in my art, if it's a minor error at a lower belt rank, the examining judge can make arrangements with the instructor about retesting that error within a shorter period of time, like a month. But if it's a higher rank, then the waiting period is until the next regular testing time, and it's the full test all over again. I felt badly for a woman who trained intensely for a dan test and made an error that caused failure. She has to wait a year for her re-test, and it'll be the entire test again.

I remember reading that the majority of new businesses lose money during their first year or two. Breaking even is actually a business success when you're starting something from scratch. In the past, I was friends with the owner of a gun shop who was certainly knowledgeable and understood costs, but said that he had to save before opening his shop, so that he not take any money from the business which he needed to put right back into it. When he was able to take home a "salary" from his new business is when he felt he was established.

Ki Cho Hyungs (Il, E, Sam Bu) Pyung Ahn Cho Dan Chil Sung E Ro Hyung

I'd say #24 was my favorite in terms of creativity and hard work making it. #15 came in last for me (and maybe a lot of other people, too).

While they were all interesting, the "exact second" captured on film, it was one of the bullet photos that caught my attention. The red light bulb held by the rubber hand has a bullet flying through it and, looking at it, it's going from our right to our left. Examine the bullet. It looks like it's got a flat head, meaning it's a "wadcutter" for paper targets, to make neat instead of jagged holes for scoring purposes. I think the bullet entered the bulb a bit high on the right, with the smallest of disturbances demonstrated there, and exited the bulb with its energy expended so strongly that it didn't punch its usual neat hole, but knocked out one side of the bulb. I used to handload, meaning I put the cartridge together by purchasing the components and using a device with a lever on it for completion, and I used to experiment on occasion, too.

My instructor's teacher calls it "Eye wars," and definitely believes it's an attempt to intimidate. She's judged so many sparring matches that she feels she can tell by the eye contact--or lack of it--if one of the opponents is intimidated by the other.

There's not much someone can do about the first and third observations, except to be aware that this is how the criminal mind works, and to concentrate on the second observation. I didn't read the article, but in thinking about 1, 2, 3, I wonder if I wouldn't have presented them as 1, 3, 2, simply because, IMHO, 1 and 3 practically point to 2. At any rate, it's something that's within one's power to control or to control as best as humanly possible. Paranoid/paranoia . . . Dysfunctional and downright unhealthy. Awareness? The right path to take.

You're the kind of person who doesn't want something handed to him or her, Kyokushin. You're a realist regarding the test as well as your abilities, and you've taken this quite philosophically. Your instructor must be proud to say, "This is my student."

Thanks for the translation and link, Bouncing Swords. When I put it into a search engine, nothing came up; when I put it in as one word, as you've written, sites come right up just fine. I see from your link that it's offered at Stirling University. I think that it's a great thing for a college or university to offer a martial art, and at Stirling there's another offered there as well.

I didn't like what I saw; no, not in the least. Concern for children's safety in a martial art should be at the top of the list. The question isn't actually if children should do MMA so much as what they are allowed--if not encouraged--to do, based on their instructors and their parents. MMA, to me, demands greater supervision; this is not a case of lax but of improper supervision--and "Parental Guidance Suggested" is out the window from what was presented.

Class with my boys, and one of the children I was assigned to work with is a boy who's even younger than David and Patrick, but who is rather a quick learner, shown tonight when I did defense against wrist grabs with him. Moment of the night: The children had to do an obstacle course, which included a "tunnel" made of body shield targets. Dad was clamored for to join in, and I somehow squeezed through the tunnel (on my belly), then did the hops (including calling out "I can do it!" like the kids), then hitting several squeaky things on a WaveMaster. My face was probably beat red under the beard.