Spodo Komodo

Knives are relatively heavily restricted and if you use one in self-defence, even in your own home, and kill someone you will be treated as a murder suspect. A 78 year old man is currently finding that out in London. Story here. A walking stick is better than a golf club as the Police may still decide a golf club is an offensive weapon. It is the weapon of choice for taxi drivers so they are on the look out for people carrying clubs without reason. I could fake a bad leg easier than an interest in golf , Which is why I mentioned La Canne. I had some basic instruction in the art when I was a member of a Bartitsu club at university and found it both highly enjoyable and effective as a defensive art. It is a shame it is not more widely practiced as it is more suited to life in a modern city than Jodo or Koryu Kobudo.

In the UK there is little point in learning to use firearms or knives, you just won't have them with you when you need them. Sticks, La Canne, Bo, Sai and Tonfa all have techniques that can be applied to things that might well be to hand. The more simple the weapon the more it can be applied to other situations. Firearms and blades have specific techniques with limited transference (well, moreso for firearms than blades) but something that can be used to strike, trap, trip, lock and jab will always have currency.

The Seitei kata which are the standardised forms used for grading and competition purposes have standing variations for those less able to perform from seiza. I trained alongside someone who had both knees removed by the IRA years ago and he could do nothing once he was kneeling. He graded from standing and eventually adapted those koryu kata which were not suitable for his disability so that he could demonstrate the main technique without having to go too low down.

That applies to the Tao, something which is beyond words (although people like Lao Tzu gave it a good try), not to kicking someone in the face which is not entirely beyond words. The saying is often trotted out when someone wants to look like they really know something but they also know if they even start to explain it their lack of knowledge will be obvious so it doesn't always work, even for the Tao. To some extent it does apply to Martial Arts because you need to feel a technique to begin to develop it, no amount of words can convey the same thing that one really good performance can. Besides, as humans we learn our skills through social means, it stops us all having to make the same mistakes over and over again. If no-one ever figured out that certain techniques were harmful to the knees and publicised the findings we would all cripple ourselves eventually. So there you go, pick the bones out of that, your mileage may vary etc.

In a full-on fighting scenario I wouldn't use just a block, as several people have said above, but I have used them purely as blocks in my teaching career. When I was teaching in a secondary school (high school?) it would have been a career-ending move to strike a student, even if they were attacking you. I have used open-handed blocks to fend off blows from fists, table-legs, cricket bats and bottles until I could either get through the door and lock it behind me or they got fed up and calmed down. A jodan uke can be useful as it disrupts the balance of the attacker if they are not particularly skilled and lean into it, allowing a valuable backward step, pushing off the blocking arm. Fortunately these days a certain amount of self-defence is allowed.

On the one hand I want to watch this but on the other I kind of liked the fact that the Danny/Johnny feud ended when Johnny said "You're alright Larusso" at the end of the first movie. Since I like in the UK and my home internet is provided by my employer I'm not likely to see this though.

I love to fish a dry fly on a limestone valley stream but it is getting a bit too pricey these days. Second best is lure fishing for pike and perch but most of the time I like to fish waggler and maggot for silverfish or small carp. Can't wait for spring again!

I played sport a lot at university - cricket, rugby (both codes), ice hockey, fencing, boxing, futsal and competitive indoor climbing. Unfortunately in the real world there just aren't that many opportunities for playing amateur sport. My local cricket club selects its members from local colleges and universities so if you don't get selected early you can't play, and that is just a village team, not county cricket. Golf costs thousands of pounds a year around here* so I am pretty much limited to a friendly kickabout in the park rather than playing in a team. *although the greenkeeper doesn't start work until eight so dawn golfing trips in camouflage are still free...

This thread sure makes me appreciate where I live. I practice outside a lot and the worst that has happened to me is a wheezy bulldog slobbering on my foot and a fox once ran off with my post training banana. Someone from the council once took a photograph of me and I thought I might get banned from the playing field or something but, rather cheekily, the photo turned up on their website as an example of the diversity of local sport. I wouldn't hesitate to use an area already used for other sports though, as a martial artist I usually find I have a lot in common with runners, climbers, crossfitters, bootcampers and military fitness people.

I am a poet and have won one national award and several local ones. I also study when I can afford to, recently getting a BA in Classics but most of the time I can be found pursuing what I like to call Proper Hobbies. Proper Hobbies involve skill, craftsmanship and a minimum of modern technology, they ideally take place in a shed or outdoors. My Proper Hobbies du jour are making fishing tackle to early C20th patterns, railway modelling and playing wargames using my own sculpted miniatures cast in good old toxic lead.

Sai, they complement kata wonderfully, develop strong wrists and arms, feel so natural to use and are useful for after training snacks of really big corn.

I'm not Japanese, I'm English and old fashioned enough to feel it necessary to congratulate my opponent for their sportsmanship, win or lose. I realise that this may not be the norm within the MA subculture but I certainly don't see it as being disrespectful in any way. It isn't totally alien to Asian culture either, when I lived in a Zen community I was expected to congratulate anyone who bested me in debate for the lesson I received. It isn't being subservient or diminishing the victory, it is about not letting defeat sow a seed around which the ego can weave a false image. Of course, you have to really mean it...

Now if I remember my school physics lessons correctly...to get rid of a red stain to your gi, just wash it with a blue sheet and a yellow sheet. I'm sure that will work, it's the scientific thing to do.

Belts are just there for the convenience of an organization, they don't have any intrinsic significance outside of that organization. I hold three different ranks with three different organizations within the one style of karate. That is entirely to be expected when dealing with something as subjective as a grading - one place recognizes my ability with kata so I hold a higher rank than at another place where the emphasis is on full-contact fighting, where my previous injuries hold me back significantly. Unless we homogenise all styles into one mishmash with a single grading standard then this is the way it has to be.

Might be worth getting your blood pressure checked. Choke holds can also cause migraines in some people but that isn't really all that serious. Well worth getting your BP done though, that goes for anyone, headaches or not.

I have managed to lose about 50lbs over a year and pretty much kept losing slowly since then. Veg is good for filling up but I don't like raw stuff either so I bought a steamer. Steamed veg is less bitter than boiled veg and supposedly a little better nutritionally. I also eat soup for my evening meal, made from 250 grammes each of onion, peppers, peas, mushrooms and spinach, a can of baked beans, a can of chopped tomatoes, a teaspoon or two of marmite and a good tablespoon of curry paste. Boil it, blend it and freeze it in 300ml portions. I saw a nutritionist and she told me to lay off the fruit, a couple of portions a day is good but green veg is better as it doesn't have the same sugar content. Apparently some doctors say that although fructose is better than sucrose or glucose it is still sugar and should be taken in moderation. My fruit intake is now an apple with my breakfast and a banana after training. I can't recommend the free food logging site MyFitnessPal highly enough. It was an eye opener to see how much sugar and salt was in my diet. It takes a while to get your favourite foods set up but once it is done it keeps track of your protein, fibre, carbs, sugar, salt etc. pretty well. Good luck!

One I have used a fair bit is an ura-mawashigeri (reverse roundhouse) to the stomach/chest, pushing off into a spin for an uraken/haito to the lower back. Its a little risky but when it comes off then the opponent is usually very surprised to catch a dig in the kidneys.

Hydration, nutrition and stretching. Make sure you are on top of the first two and stretch well during cool down, gentle stretching on your sore days can help a little too. Alternatively learn to love the burn.

Politics is what people do in all organizations when they feel threatened, aggrieved or bored. I can't possibly see a future for any Martial Arts organization without some politics as the alternative is a mono-culture of sycophants. I think that some political dialogue is a healthy thing as long as it is seen as secondary to the actual business of learning and teaching the art, when it becomes someone's main focus then they really should look at what they are contributing to the common well-being of the group. Lets face it, politics has led to a variety of styles within individual martial arts. Some styles suit people better than others but almost all were born out of political disagreements or stylistic disagreements that became political. However, once the initial disagreement is over then the styles should have the maturity to keep in contact and learn from one another, then everybody wins.

You could always cross-train in something very popular for the social aspect as much as the training. That is pretty much how I got back into Karate from Iaido. It never hurts to have a bit of grappling alongside your Karate and since Ju Jitsu is flavour of the month at the moment you are likely to find a vibrant scene nearby.

I would stare at it for a few seconds, say "lesson plans?" in a puzzled tone and shudder at flashbacks to my time on the chalkfront. But that's just me. Would it be of any use to you or your students to be an instructor in the Teaching and Curriculum Department for the 2016 Testing Cycle? If yes then I would ask the powers that be exactly what they are looking for in a lesson plan and then draw up some plans as vague as possible. The plans would cover the essentials but leaving a lot of room for dealing with students who need a bit of extra demonstration and practice (I was that student once, and still am a lot of the time). One thing I learned from teaching maths was that half a lesson looks the same as a full lesson on paper and leaves time to catch the stragglers while padding out the time for the more gifted. If no then bin it, decline politely or make excuses of not enough time as the situation dictates.

Not many things annoy me but one pet peeve is predictable sparring. This is mainly a trait in younger karateka who have come to a proper class from a McDojo where they pretended to do karate rather than putting any effort, awareness or thought into what they are doing. It is easy to get a point off them just by doubling a technique, they are expecting kick-punch or block-punch not kick-kick or punch-punch, especially if you double the technique on the same arm or leg. I also like to throw a trap, lock or pin in there just to really take them out of their comfort zone. The last guy I managed to get in a good head and shoulder lock nearly had a full-blown panic attack, needless to say he is a bit more wary while sparring now.

Sounds like you are in the right place now. Congratulations and enjoy your training!

You didn't misword anything, I just put that in for anyone else who might be reading this. I know a lot of people trawl the net for this kind of question before starting out and I didn't want to put anyone off joining a group without considering the situation. I completely agree that the makeup of the class is suspicious but I can also think of a couple of reasons why it might be so without anything necessarily being wrong. I am getting on a bit I suppose, eeh it were hard back in the day Now that definitely rings alarm bells to me. Any MA class that offers status (black training kit) in exchange for cash rather than ability or effort is promoting a fairly skewed set of values. I would definitely avoid in that case.

The dojo is well rated but you have to look at who is doing the rating. My first dojo was very much a McDojo but had excellent references from well respected people. Reputation needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, especially when the setup is overly commercial as this appears to be. I wouldn't be worried about everyone else being at the other end of the syllabus per se, you learn far more among experts than you do among beginners and with your previous experience you should advance quickly. The biggest alarm bell to me is that 18 month contract together with the class full of brown belts. That sounds like a problem with student retention. I like to see a good spread of grades in the class as it shows there is something for everyone. If the lower grades are missing you have to ask why - was there a break in recruiting or did they find to difficult to live with the brown belts for some reason. As for discipline, it seems to be going the way of the dodo. When I started you got single knuckle push-ups for smiling in the dojo, now I get told "chillax, this ain't the army bruv". My gut feeling would be to keep looking but training almost anywhere is better than not training.