evergrey

Oh my gods! D: D: D: Oh that is HORRIBLE! I heard about this, some years back... oh gods.

Yes, trust your gut. Always trust your gut! Don't tie your reputation, your luck, or your safety in with someone who is shady, or who you don't have a good feeling about.

Danger Will Robinsson, DANGER! *waves arms around*

OSU, if you want to improve punching power and stability, one thing you do requires nothing more than floor space... get into push-up position, but instead of having your hands flat, balance on the first two knuckles on each hand- the knuckles you strike with when you punch. Have your hands shoulder-width apart. Then do push-ups, but keep your elbows in so they rub your sides. Stronger wrists and stronger triceps... you can do them slowly, and you can also push yourself up fast to work that explosive punching power a bit. Yes it hurts a lot at first, haha! It's worth it. OSU

Last night I was pretty stressed about a meeting I ended up in with all the black belts, haha! Shihan came by a little later and gave me a lesson on how mass in motion can aid in moving your opponent. We ended up dancing around together until we were both laughing and grinning. He's a crafty one, he is! *edit* Forgot to mention, he was leading with his hand on my neck and throat, lol! Only I would be relaxed by someone dragging me around by my throat... though since I didn't resist (he told me to just go with him) it was very light.

Haha true! Well, if she insists I'll go for it. But I'm betting you she doesn't have the stones for it at any rate. If she did, she wouldn't have had somebody else tell me all this stuff with her sitting back and nodding and saying they spoke for her...

OSU! Yes, I might be able to beat her. I have aggression and I am conditioned to a level of contact that she is not. But I think it would probably be better that I not. I mentioned it to my head instructor tonight. Haha, I recognized the look on his face...

OSU, yeah. I mean, she seemed to be having a great time at the event itself! That's the weird thing. Perhaps when she saw the videos, she was embarrassed? She's coming back again this weekend, hah. There, Sensei will chat with her just to make things clear. A friend of mine advised me to say something like this, should she challenge me openly there: "Really? Are you sure you want to really seriously fight? Fighting is boring and messy. You want to challenge me, not have a friendly spar? Because I am warning you right now, I am crazy and I will hurt you badly. You have 10 seconds to decide." LOL. Actually, she would probably back down from that, which would be ideal. It's a really stupid thing to challenge the paperboy over. OSU!

But can your kill-face be recorded on camera?

Man I hope you come visit my area sometime! We'd get on great, I imagine! My former mentor taught me that play was a sign of good mental health in adult horses. So it is with humans, too. Some people are more serious than others, and that's fine too, but play can indeed lead to bonding, and fun will make a lesson really stick! Plus, there's that whole fun = happy thing. It makes people want to come back. It makes people healthier overall. Of course, that doesn't mean "don't respect anyone!" Respect is good too! But you can have a heck of a lot of fun and still respect people in the end. One time when all the instructors were away, and an assistant instructor taught class, well, he normally is a sub for the kid's class. He asked "hey, wanna play some games?" Our class full of big burly fighters and cops said "YEAAAH!!!!" Man we had so much fun! I accidentally might have broken a classmate's ribs. D: But other than that, we all had so much fun! OSU!

OSU, I think we hit each other too hard to worry too much about ego in my dojo, lol! That's not to say it doesn't happen... but it's discouraged. :}

Haha, I'm glad! You're passed the sense of humor test- you are welcome to come to open sparring anytime! Though you already were anyway. ;} I loved that game when I was a kid, by the way. Man, I am feeling my age a bit. Heh.

OSU, Sensei! I am once again proud to be your student! and Bob, you have inspired me! This is for you! http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/Trololol/paperboy.jpg

LOL, OSU! The paperboy! I love it, Bob! Groinstrike- are you ever in the San Francisco Bay Area? Our event is once a month, generally. I'm sure you'd be welcome to come on down! The more the merrier! MasterPain- you get 5 internets points for that, sir. Also, did you see the pants leg takedown? lol!

OSU, Recently I had an experience that left me rather puzzled. My dojo has an event called "open sparring." At that time, we open our doors to any style of martial artist to come and play. Unlike our more formal classes, open sparring is a friendly, casual event that has very little in the way of hierarchy or protocol. The atmosphere is more like a gym than a dojo. Because there are people of so many different styles, it would be silly to demand that everyone follow a bunch of strict rules. It's kept simple- leave your ego at the door, no shoes on the mat, don't trash the dojo, don't be nasty to one another, and don't purposefully harm one another- keep it friendly. The highest ranked person there, as far as I know, is the 5th dan head instructor of my school. At this event, he shows up in shorts and a rashguard, as do most participants, since at open sparring a lot of people grapple in addition to doing stand-up. We get all kinds of styles- Kyokushin of course, BJJ, wrestlers, boxers, Wing Chun, GoJu-Ryu, Shorin-Ryu, WuShu, Shotokan, Muay Thai, just so many kinds! Now, the other thing is that my dojo has a sense of humor. We are comrades in arms. We train together, sweat together, bleed together. We train hard. We affectionately tease a bit. At rankings, tournaments, and open sparring it's very acceptable to shout advice out to anyone fighting, as a form of support and encouragement. At Open Sparring, this is especially the case. Someone well-known might suddenly get dogpiled, or the GoDan will stand up and say "YOU! Fight! After school, 3 O'clock in the parking lot!" Ed Gruberman quotes have been known to fly around, haha. So here's what happened. I invited some friends to come to Open Sparring. One was a Shotokan Nidan. Since she was especially a friend of mine, while I recorded her fighting (knee is still healing) I called out bits of encouragement. "Catch his leg if he leaves it out there!" "Keep your guard up!" "Uh oh!" Of course, others did as well. When this nidan watched the videos and heard me, she got very offended because I am a 7th Kyu in Kyokushin, and she is a Nidan in Shotokan, and in her dojo someone below her rank would never speak out of turn. I was told that since I hadn't proven myself sparring her, I was coming off as ignorant and disrespectful. I was told I would have to prove myself, and that because of my insolence I would be taught a lesson, essentially. I was also told that I came off as trying to intimidate her! Now this, to me, came off as a challenge. Me, I only want to spar my friend in a friendly fashion. Open Sparring is a friendly even, it's where we play around. Yeah, to an extent we test our styles against each other, but only in the form of learning and having fun. Now I am hesitant to spar this person, because I feel like it might have to be taken to a level that isn't appropriate for the event. And anyway, just a 7th kyu... I kind of feel like I would need to do my best to take her down in order to protect myself. That is what one does in a challenge situation, right? Not something I want to do, especially with a friend. The other thing that bothers me though is that this person was a guest that I invited to my dojo. She has no rank in Kyokushin, and seemed to expect me to act as if I should behave exactly as a 7th kyu in her Shotokan school should behave towards her. I have no rank in her style, but she has no rank in mine. I have respect for all people, as a baseline, and I certainly respect the accomplishments of others, but... I think it's wrong to go to someone else's school as a guest and be offended that they do not adapt their school's culture to the culture of your own school... especially since I and all the others follow the president of behavior laid out by the owner of my school, and my intentions were nothing other than being friendly and offering moral support, in the style of my own training and dojo. She also didn't speak to me about it directly, but had her friend lay it all out to me instead, with her there nodding along. She did not bring the issue up with my instructor either. When you visit a different school, especially of a different style, do you expect them to treat you and act like the people in your own school would? Or, when in Rome, do you do as the Romans do? Or, was it ignorant of me to treat her like I wold my dojo family? That may well have been too presumptuous on my part. Was the response I got appropriate? I'll readily admit that I bumble around in the world of Martial Arts protocol all the time. Thoughts? Had any experiences with guests, or with being a guest, that you'd like to share? OSU

That reminds me of a discussion I want to start about guests!

Man what kinda Sandan comes in with an attitude like that, and fights a green belt? That's pretty sad, haha!

Sometimes I call my primary Sensei "Sensei Meanie McMeanpants" or "Sensei Scary Man." Now, you could say that's extremely disrespectful... but I don't call him that in class. I call him that outside of class during some of our supplementary training, and only because it makes him laugh. But we're engaged, so it's a little different, lol! Don't let that fool you- he is often my harshest judge at grading, and we take our training very seriously. We can separate dojo business and relationship stuff. And I respect him like crazy. A lot of respect can be love. And I do love all of my instructors... the other two in not all the same ways though, lol!

I haven't seen any Kyokushin tournaments that did not have some kind of mat, though there may well be some... since we fight knockdown and rendering one's opponent unconscious is one potential goal, but killing them and very seriously permanently damaging them is not, I think that mats are prudent. OSU!

Oh noes, I'm so wounded!

OSU, my Shihan is always called Shihan. Sensei Wah is always called Sensei Wah in class, though some people call him "Ty" after class. My primary Sensei is called just Sensei, or Sensei Dunn by me. Everyone else calls him by his first name, as he is my instructor outside of class, but a sempai in class for others. The other black belts are called just by their first names, though sometimes I'll be extra polite and call them Sempai-firstname. Nobody else does though, lol! OSU!

You can give me a hug, Bob!

Today after class, I hugged my Sensei after we did some body toughening... I was working him over right at his limit. He worked me over pretty well too. We leaned on each other, lol, kept us standing!

OSU, I agree Zaine! I respect other approaches too though... But for me, I have a dojo family. We take care of each other. If somebody needs help outside of the dojo, chances are high that someone from the dojo will help them with it if they can. We help each other get good deals and services in our community, we protect one another, we get each other work if we can, we check on each other, and all of that good tribalist stuff. A lot of us also punch each other as a sign of affection, haha! Especially the instructors- some of them punch to show affection. OSU!

Haha Wastelander! I know, a lot of folks aren't. This friend of mine just likes to try to get me all riled up, as some long-term friends do. Also the kind of guy who I know has my back if I ever need him.