evergrey

Sounds more like an extra kyu, really. In my lineage, a shodan-ho was sometimes given as recognition for some great service, but wasn't the same as a real shodan, which still had to be tested for. This wasn't something that involved getting charged or anything.

We had someone take two groin punches last Sunday. Haha the guy throwing them felt bad- first one, he was aiming for the stomach but the guy whose groin got hit blocked and sent the blow right to the worst possible place.

Superior intelligence aside, ask him how many kata he figures the gorilla needs to learn before it has a fighting chance. I'm going to go ahead and question the superior intelligence claim of someone who thinks they can beat up a gorilla, heh.

Pressure points don't work universally. Some people aren't really affected by them much at all. Me? Well, they hurt, yeah, but I'm likely to just be motivated to hurt you more. I've tried 'em on some people and not done anything. Others, I win the war of attrition with them... but I would never try to rely on pressure points to save my life in a real fight. It's amazing what anger can overcome, and it is just not a reliable form of pain compliance. Not everyone is easy to numb, either, though I have managed to numb a couple arms and legs with a hard strike to a nerve. I have seen some crazy things happen with tameshiwari, but I haven't ever seen someone actually knock a person out with a little touch or any kind of energy work. I think some of those "chi masters" have just hypnotized their students and programmed them to respond to certain triggers... whether the "chi masters" are aware of it or not. I'm also not going to just outright discount everything though. There's a lot of interesting stuff out there in this wide world of ours. I sure haven't seen it all. OSU!

Haha, yes, bodyguard. :} It's either that, or they think I must be someone who will quickly fly off the handle and start breaking bones. The chances of me losing control and doing something like that have been reduced since I started training.

OSU! Haha, it's funny you should mention this story, Bob, because I was just told a story the other night after class by a shodan that practically grew up at the dojo! She told me about one time when she had some project for science class. She decided to see which style could break the most bricks. Of course she was a kid and there isn't really a comprehensive way for a kid to test this, so she just went around to a bunch of different schools, gyms, and dojos and asked the instructors if they would take part. She recorded how many bricks each teacher broke at once, and she went to her own dojo last and asked our Shihan. He said, "okay," and stacked up 17 cinder block caps, which are 2 inch thick slabs of concrete maybe 16 inches long and 6 inches wide. He said "hold onto this bench, I'm going to stand up here to break it," and proceeded to smash through all 17 bricks in one go. Heh! He's really amazing at that focus, and that LOOK. Back in his full contact days, my Sensei watched him chase a guy off the mat three times without even touching him, he was so good at turning that energy on and radiating "DANGEROUS AND CAN SEE THROUGH YOUR SOUL." Shihan hasn't been to the dojo in a couple months and I really miss him. I don't know what to do with myself without somebody yelling at me, lol! I have to say though, when you've been stared down by someone like that enough, lesser men have a reallllly hard time being intimidating, haha! But he doesn't bully and he is one of the kindest people I know. Er, don't tell him I know that, lol! I think that a truly great person in the martial arts has not simply mastered the ability to destroy- he has also mastered temperance, and the ability to NOT destroy when he knows that he could. OSU!

Maybe when the gorilla is like, 3 weeks old.

It can get to 100 degrees in the dojo at times, maybe even more. Heat exhaustion and even heat stroke are a real danger. We have had someone pass out and hit their head before... not worth the risk, imo. Sometimes people have to wait to go get water for the end of an exercise, but they generally don't have to wait long. If someone starts to get dizzy or seriously overwhelmed, they are to sit on the floor immediately, not wait to ask permission. At my dojo people tend to only ask or sit down if they really feel that they need to. I haven't seen it abused, except by one particularly lazy kid, and they were onto him very quickly.

Haha, glad to know it's not just me!

Oh man, I worry way more about hurting my opponents than getting hurt too! After I broke a classmate's ribs, I've become rather paranoid. It's taken some time for me to get to the point where I feel comfortable pounding on even the black belts again. OSU!

OSU, I had 9 fights tonight, and 1 kata. I can't remember a bunch of it! Actually, I couldn't remember a THING about the kata, even the moment after I finished it! Anyone have this happen? I admit that I did also pass out at this grading, a little bit. Blacked out anyway. It was after I'd done my 5 rounds of kumite in a row. My lungs are messed up because of my asthma being aggravated by a refinery fire in my town, and I am VERY prone to heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Everything was fuzzy and grey by the end of my 5th round, and I couldn't think. I could barely stand. My Sensei had to guide me out of the ring and back to my seat on the mat. Once I sat down, I got REALLY REALLY hot and my blood was pounding... then I stopped feeling hot and stopped sweating, and everything went grey, then black. Somehow I didn't fall over, lol! Good thing, because the kid next to me was really really tiny. I didn't get hit in the head very hard at any point, no concussion or anything like that, just... can't remember a lot of it. I've forgotten chunks of my gradings before too though. Sometimes it happens when I meditate a lot before going up to do my kata or kumite. I'm just sort of... I don't know. Gonzo? My mind is just not there. I don't think, I just... DO. And then I cannot remember it. Is this at all familiar to anyone, or is it just me? Oh, I was testing for my 5th kyu. My dojo is weird in some ways, and one of those ways is not telling us if we passed or not right away. Not sure when I'll find out, hah! OSU!

A friend of mine made this handy guide to how GENERALLY uptight different ranks are about getting input from others, especially low ranks. http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/takingcomments.jpg

OSU, solid post, DoctorQui!

Just my regular dogi I guess. :}

I have one judo gi that was a gift from my former mentor. He is skinny as a bean pole and no way does it fit me. It might or might not ever, but I still treasure it. I have one top from a set, my first dogi. Good medium weight gi, but the pants were not up to the task of containing my hips. I split them in class, heh. I also split a shodan's pants in class, lol. Well, he split them beating me to a pulp. I have two pants, both inexpensive lightweight. One pair I bought to replace the nice ones that I split. I hemmed them myself. I am not good at sewing. These are now my backup emergency pants. The other pair go with my one jacket with the Kyokushin kanji on it, though it is printed on and half washed off, heh. The main pants and jacket were a gift from the head instructor at my dojo. I need like three full pairs, but I'm poor, lol! I think I'll use some fabric markers to color the kanji back in, for now...

OSU! *bows to you*

Welcome! I'm just over in Richmond. :}

How interesting! Welcome aboard!

Hello, and welcome.

Welcome back.

Hello and welcome! :}

MasterPain, I have seen some of the games you guys play, and they are awesome. 20 sized dice!

"Uncle Darwin is calling collect- would you like to accept the charges? Oh. Oh, you would? Well then."

I think winning a bunch of tournaments is one way to sort of "prove" the style, if tournament fighting is something that is done in styles close to the one you are wanting to teach. Get a reputation. That is what Mas Oyama did.

Haha thank you! This fellow's whole library was up for sale, but most of the books got snapped up pretty quickly. I wish I'd had money, I would have bought the whole thing!