CredoTe

Yeah, they tried to rectify some of Gygax's nonsense designs / rules with 2nd Ed. Even with 2nd Ed, there were some things that mucked things up. However, a good, creative DM/GM could fiat (with minimal "house rules") things to make sense of it all. 3rd Ed is where it started to come apart for me, too. I liked a lot of the game mechanics they had in it, especially with bringing back some of the mechanics of 1st Ed, but all of the "multi-classing" and splat books required just to have a colorful character was rather annoying. Not to mention that 3rd Ed, IMHO, shifted D&D from role-playing / adventure at its core to power hack-and-slash gaming. Hero Quest was the first fantasy adventure game I ever played. My interest in it led to playing D&D. Battle Masters is a war game based upon the Hero Quest line, and is like pre-schooler Warhammer with training wheels. But, I like it because it's simple, fast, easy set up, easy tear down, and doesn't take a fortune (in money or space) to acquire an army, scenery/terrain, etc. (From what I understand, both Hero Quest and Battle Masters takes place within the Warhammer universe somewhere.)

I agree that a vast majority of people wouldn't take the time to file a lawsuit for being turned away from an MA school. I mentioned discrimination because that's the primary justification for the public consumption laws that exist in the United States, but there are others. Any business open for public consumption, of either goods or services, cannot legally turn away customers. However, as you mention, having an enrollment structure / policy is one way to enable dojos to try and pick students they feel would be worthy. However, this still comes with stipulations: when enrollment periods are open, they still must accept pretty much any student that signs up regardless of whether or not the dojo feels they are worthy. The dojos that are private, or were public but went private, use enrollment periods to discern which students they accept and which they reject. The part where you mention being properly introduced is the key for private dojos. You have to know someone, or be introduced to someone, that is a member of a private dojo you wish to join. A lot of times, even after you've been introduced, you have to have a member of the dojo elect to be your sponsor in order for you to join. Very similar to private clubs that exist.

I don't know about other nations, but in the United States, at least, businesses open to the public are not legally allowed to deny business to any customer. We could get sued for discrimination based on whatever grounds a good lawyer can come up with. There are exceptions, like if a customer goes into a business in a belligerent manner and disturbs people, then that person can be expelled from the premises. But, generally speaking, if someone walks in and asks for service (i.e. to join karate classes), then we have to serve that person. It didn't used to be that way, but it is, now. This is one of the reasons, at least from what I've discovered, that some dojos in the US are becoming private institutions (no open invitations, not open to the public, admission to join is gained through a sponsor - someone who's a member).

Another thread contains a great discussion about the sacrifices one makes to follow MA. Well, during the course of the discussion, the topic of Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop gaming came up (the discussion can be viewed here: http://www.karateforums.com/sacrifice-for-martial-arts-vt48290-10.html). So, I decided to start a new topic (to avoid swerving too far off OP in the other thread)... What tabletop / hobby gaming do you play? It can be of any category (RPG, strategy, war, etc), and trading card games (i.e. Magic: The Gathering, Yu-gi-oh, etc) and traditional boardgames are welcome, too. However, no video / computer games; let's keep it strictly to tabletop / hobby gaming. For example, I play 1st/2nd Edition Dungeons & Dragons (aka Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, or AD&D), Hero Quest, Dragon Strike, and Battle Masters, just to name a few. So, in order to begin, we all must retrieve a d10 and roll for initiative... Er... I mean, go! EDIT: 26 May 2015 ~13:21 EDT, added "Tabletop Gaming" to the thread title.

Free Beer Tomorrow!!! Woo-hoo!!!

There's only a few occasions in which we had to expel a student (no, not the same student multiple times). In each case, it involved a student that had a disagreement with us, but instead of working it out respectfully and professionally with us, the student took to disrespecting us and our dojo by directly trying to damage our reputation (and business). We had no choice but to expel each student (only one student per incident). Thankfully, the community around us knows us as a good dojo. Most of the time, when a troublesome student starts to churn, we just train harder. Usually, the troublesome student with either capitulate and fully engage in our dojo or leave (without us having to really say anything).

Agreed... Picking and choosing which "battles" ("spare time shenanigans", as you put it ) to engage in is the key. (And, D&D has become an "odd" thing, too, IMO... up to 5th Edition; our group sticks with a blend of the old 1st and 2nd Editions...) I played 2nd edition and a bit of 3rd edition under a great GM. If it just wasn't so damned time consuming... Hehehe... We call it the "Wayne's World Timewarp"... As soon as you break out the books, dice, and character sheets - doo-doo-doo-doo...doo-doo-doo-doo (space-time continuum blurring and waving)... It's 2 days later! Lol...

Happy Berfday KF! A great, big thank you to Patrick, the KF Staff, and the KF community at large!

Agreed... Picking and choosing which "battles" ("spare time shenanigans", as you put it ) to engage in is the key. (And, D&D has become an "odd" thing, too, IMO... up to 5th Edition; our group sticks with a blend of the old 1st and 2nd Editions...)

Thanks a lot CredoTe for your input. My pleasure.... Thank you for all the info and videos you post on WC / kung fu. They're reminiscent of my Hung Gar training...

Yes, great OP... Biggest compromise of other passtime things: I'm a nerd, so time given up to things like computers, gaming (D&D anyone?), and video games... Most difficult sacrifice: time with my family (wife & daughter)...

And from: Agreed... Great points!

Great video, great share... As with Sensei8, so much of the concepts shown in your video have almost identical similarities in the Ti and Matsubayashi-Ryu that I train in. The particular hand striking techniques are slightly different, but the concepts behind structure, root, and body positioning bear remarkable similarities. The kaki-uke / kakie (weighted hand / sticky hand) hand techniques we train in are almost identical to the Wing Chun techniques shown.

Solid post!! I wonder... Is it possible that we try to impress our spouse in one way or another, for whatever reason(s)?? As if my wife isn't already impressed with me, as well as being quite proud of me; not only am I a BB, but I'm also the CI. Do we seek other ways to impress our wife's while on the floor; as if she'll think more favorably towards us while we run the floor? I wonder... Hmmm... maybe on a subconscious level it could be about impressiveness... On a conscious level, my "harshness" with my wife was driven by my desire for her to be perfect because of the "it might save her life one day" mentality. Hmmm...

Wow, congrats!

Yes! This is where applying tenshin is absolutely critical... Once the concept of receiving an attack with tension is understood by a student and can be practiced with the avarice to improve it, that's when the concepts behind the uke waza turn from "blocking" to striking/counterattacking the opponent. Then, understanding uke waza as a harmonious defense-attack receiving action really starts to set in! Wastelander's methods of showing the basics of these concepts are valuable, IMHO, first to beginners, and second to any advanced students as reminders of stepping stones to get there. I agree that it becomes less necessary to devote training time to these types of training basics once they become 2nd nature to a practitioner. But, even advanced practitioners with many years of experience should at least be able to demonstrate these kinds of basics for the purpose of passing on the art to pupils.

It was exhilarating when my wife was training with us at our dojo; but, I found that I was waaay harder on her than necessary, certainly more than I was on the other students. I wanted her to be absolutely perfect! It might save her life one day! But, I quickly found that it disrupted class more than anything, and could have been viewed as disrespectful in a certain way. So, I had one of our other instructors teach and help her in class from that point forward. She actually responded better to the other instructor and learned better, and I was OK with that. It might save her life one day... So, having a spouse to train with in class can be a very positive thing. But, it can also become a very stressful situation if allowed to go that way.

Yeah, most other places, like much of social media/blogs/forums, are infested with trolls. They're not interested in intelligent discussion, only sowing chaos and discord by attacking everything... KF is rare in that aspect; the KF staff have some excellent troll slayers...

Thanks! I'm glad I could share something insightful! Interesting thoughts on Chibana. He most certainly picked up knowledge from his contemporaries, but he clearly had a great deal of respect for his primary teacher (Itosu), since he insisted on only teaching his kata, with the exception of Tawada Passai. Even then, he was specifically told to teach it by Itosu. I'm sure Chibana knew more than he taught, which is actually sad, when you think about it--who knows what was lost when he passed!? Indeed, he didn't teach any kobudo, but when asked, he could demonstrate saijutsu and bojutsu. To be fair, though, those largely use the same concepts as Ti . Part of the reason I mentioned Chibana, besides him being a companion with Kyan, is that I see strong similarities between the Tote/Ti of Motobu, Kyan, and Chibana. Yes, there are plenty of differences, but the similarities are striking... I say this because the Ti/kobudo I am training in has its roots in Chibana-ha lineage. A man named Yabiku Moden was a contemporary student with Chibana under Itosu. Yabiku was something of a kobudo legend at the time. One of Yabiku's students was Taira Shinken. Taira wanted to carry on the kobudo of Yabiku and further develop it with traditional/native Ryukyu influence. He wanted to infuse it with Ti. However, he was too old at that time to fulfill this work. He besought his friend, Higa Yuchoku, to teach his student, Akamine Eisuke, Ti. Higa Yuchoku was one of Chibana's foremost students, and trained Akamine in Ti to help him infuse Ti into the kobudo. Also, the style of Ti I train in is based on Onaga's teachings; Onaga was a prominent student of Higa Yuchoku, as well. It's defintely an interesting and challenging venture combining my Ti/kobudo training with my Matsubayashi-Ryu. I find it exhilarating...

What you showed in your video is an "intermediate" phase of uke development for us. Beginners learn the usual walking kihon style of uke waza. We then transition them into what your video shows after they've reached intermediate kyu ranks. Advanced kyu ranks through Shodan add in tenshin and gamanku concepts to the uke waza you've shown. Basically, tenshin being body position/movement, the angling movements you show are compounded with quick footwork movements (while ensure tanden is kept true) to either the outside or inside of the opponent, depending upon the situation and the desired vantage point of the receiver. We introduce full Ti concepts sometime after Shodan, when we feel a given student is ready.

Great article, great share I saw this article just the other day, but hadn't had time to fully ingest it. After seeing it shared here by you, I had to read it all and munge all the intriguing factoids... This article addresses many of the questions that keep popping into my head as I conduct my own research on Motobu, especially regarding Choki's MA lineage. It was seem that the "Shuri-te" and "Tomari-te" instruction (from Sokon Matsumura and Kosaku Matsumora) converged a bit through both Motobu and Kyan. And, the question regarding style differences, with style really just a reflection of traditions of its locale, is even more intriguing considering the similarities between "Kobayashi" Shorin-ryu and "Shobayashi" Shorin-ryu. Which brings up another interesting example in that Chosin Chibana isn't mentioned but was a close friend and practitioner with Kyan. I wonder if all three masters (Motobu, Chibana, Kyan) were just really great students of Te/Ti that absorbed whatever training from whatever Okinawan villages...

Absolutely! Shorin Ryu contains many concepts, but is prominently about transitioning from distance, to Irikumi (in-fighting/inside fighting), and ending it with Tuidi/Tuite (grappling/locks/takedowns). As many have already said, none of this is possible without properly receiving an opponent's attack.

Absolutely! I find that this is one of the most difficult aspects surrounding the discipline of training (for anything). When I find myself in a funky mood and don't want to go train, it takes me some time to build up to that "enough is enough, I'm going!" mentality... ...then I go and train and put into it what I am able to muster, and end up feeling waaay better for it. Bottom line, as you said in your OP, the time you NEED to go train is precisely when you DON'T WANT to go!

Much congrats!

Fantastic! In the beginning as I watched it, I kept thinking to myself, "All they need are some 'Street Fighter'-like energy blast animations and this video is all set." Lo and behold!!! You put 'em in there at the end!