JR 137

I tie mine the second way you described. I don’t do it for the aesthetic reasons of having it look like a single belt though; it just doesn’t get tight enough for me. When I tie it like that, it loosens up and moves around too much. It goes up, down, sideways, and comes untied. After trying it the second way you described, it stays put and tied. I guess there’s a little too much slack in the belt for me when I have it crossed in back. There’s only one other person in my dojo who ties it like me. I saw him doing it a few times in the locker room and asked him why. A few weeks later I decided to try it, and I haven’t gone back to the other way. The tails go about mid-thigh or so. I’m not fan of the tails being really long. Not that I’m the fashion police, but the WKF guys who wear their belts with the tails going past their knees drives me crazy.

Congratulations and best of luck to you. Just remember to keep at the hard training now, as the test will sneak up on you sooner than later.

I thought I read in Black Belt Magazine back in the day, that Royce Gracie had a black belt in I believe Shotokan. It wasn’t written by a Gracie nor a big name BJJer that I remember, so obviously there’s some credibility issues. Wherever I read it, it was stated that he studied the style to be able to better pick it apart rather than gain proficiency and/or techniques from it. For some reason or another, I remember sitting in the library of the community college I attended and reading it in a magazine. It was written as “he did this to...” instead of “I did this to...” The library had a subscription to Black Belt Magazine, and it was around ‘95. Take that as you will. I feel like I just said a lot without saying anything at all

Even the best techniques in the world won’t work very well if you know they’re coming. It’s an odd thing in the dojo - you spar against the same people for however long. They figure you out. Things that don’t work anymore have you wondering if they’d actually work against someone who doesn’t know you. Then you start thinking if the things that do work for you will work against an opponent you don’t know. Here’s an example... I like to throw a combo that goes jab-cross-hook kick-back kick. When I first started at my current dojo, it worked out great. The hook kick never landed, it everyone charged in after it, and right into my back kick at their stomach. I went down the line doing that combo, landing that back kick every single time. After a little while, everyone caught on. I haven’t landed it in as long as I can remember; everyone knows the back kick is coming and just side steps it now. This is where competition comes in IMO. You’re facing people you don’t know, and they don’t know what you’re going to throw (unless they’ve scouted you). If it consistently lands in that setting where they don’t know you, there’s a good chance it’ll work when you really need it. Not a guarantee, but at least it’s more likely than not.

As a school teacher and a karate student, I can say this... We are all nightmare students. And for the most part, we are all model students. “Nightmare” in some ways, as we can challenge our teachers (in a good way); and model in other ways, as we accept our teachers’ teaching. I currently have and have previously had many “nightmare students” who always asked questions and wanted to know more than what I was teaching at that moment. The more questions that were answered, the more questions arose. As with any half-way intelligent person, the more they learn, the more they realize they don’t know. I currently have and have had many “model students.” The students who do everything as they’re told, accept the teacher’s explanation, and keep at it. The best students are the “nightmare students” as you’ve put it AND the model students simultaneously. Being the nightmare student is extremely aggravating if they’re not buying into anything being taught. The teacher feels like “if you don’t believe a word I say, why are you here?” The model student who isn’t a nightmare simultaneously is the most boring student. I say, they do. No questions, no answers unless I ask them specifically. My first year teaching, I had easily the most overall intelligent group I’ve ever taught. Everyone did pretty much every assignment, and did it to the best of their ability. It was also the absolute worst group I’ve ever taught - no one said a word. I don’t lecture very much; I give a brief explanation to get things going, then I ask a lot of questions. I let them come to the answers; my job is to keep them on the right track and tweak things. This group said nothing and offered no answers. Every question was like an interrogation. At least 10 times during the 40 minute class everyday, I’d say “don’t be afraid to be wrong. If you’re capable to answering every question correctly, you shouldn’t be here. There’s nothing wrong with being wrong; I’m wrong way too many times a day to criticize anyone.” Then someone would finally raise their hand. And it was pretty much the same person every time. I really liked that group, but I despised teaching them. They were the truest nightmare class for me. It was 40 minutes of pure torture for me. I felt like I was the only person in the room. Every one of those kids scored 90 or higher on the state exam, and they were taking a 9th grade class and test as 8th graders. Be the positive challenge.

in your middle paragraph you mention that there is a Chinese influence on Okinawan karate but only acknowledged to a lessor extent?? i am not sure what you mean. did i understand you correctly? there is a direct link to the Chinese and it is very obvious one. its not a hidden fact today. it was down played during WWII but its never been a secret. i find it very unlikely that there is a Thailand influence to Okinawan karate. as far as where did Chinese kung-fu come from..well there is a theory that it traveled over the silk road from India. that the Budhidharma legend was probably many people traveling over many years. the Chinese leaned from the Indian fighting styles which had Yoga like forms. In turn it is believed that the Indian culture picked up combative fighting from the Greeks. Alexander the Great and his men who practiced Pankration when not in battle made it all the way to the edge of India. it is well known that many of his men stayed and the Greeks had a practice of assimilation into the other cultures rather than dictate its own culture upon those that it conquered. while many laugh and mock at this idea it is the most probable lineage. The Indians defeated Alexander the Great's armies, they clearly had their own martial culture and a civilisation that predates Ancient Greece. I think the attempt to trace MA back to the Greeks is dubious at best and a bit sinister at the worst. I think it is unlikely that Muay Boran influenced karate through anything more than a passing glance. I just don't see it in anything that has survived to the present. That being said I would love a look at Ti. I am curious as to whether Karate was meant to be an advancement from a base of Ti, or just an alternative for the upper classes. [/b] Karate was absolutely certainly not meant to be the reserve of the upper classes. It was Gichin Funakoshi that coined the term Kara Te Do that we've since abridged to simply karate. His goal was very openly to take his style to the masses. He tried to get it included in schools as part of the physical education programme. He tried to get it into the military, most notably the navy, as a fitness training programme. He wrote letters and to and tried to organise demos for many institutions. Even the name kara te do was carefully chosen to make it more palatable to ordinary Japanese citizens, and he pushed it as physical training requiring no equipment, self defence, and spiritual betterment. Funakoshi's karate is not a replacement of early systems of to de, or te, shuri te, naha te etc, and tang te and whatever other local names applied to local style variants. It was simply the consolidation of organisation of what Funakoshi had learnt of such styles. He knew that the only way to get karate to be widely accepted was to ditch the culture of relative secrecy, and local cliques, and introduce a formal structure. Even the kata he selected to be in his style were carefully selected from several styles so as to include what Funakoshi considered to be the most useful core of all the styles he'd practiced. He even renamed a load of them to make them more palatable and less obscure, and broke up and rearranged some to make them easier to learn. Most notably with pinnan / pyung ahn being split into 5 and renamed heian. I'm not sure you'd find the older styles these days. Good luck in your search though. I suspect they'll have been lost, effectively swallowed up by the styles we know today. What you might find interesting though is if you look at styles like aikido and some of the Chinese styles, while superficially they look quite different, after a little while I think you'll see that they share a great deal in common, but just have slightly different teaching methods. There are 2 Okinawan schools/ryuha that claim to be quite old/true to their old was - Ryuei Ryu and To’on Ryu. Ryuei Ryu is allegedly the karate as taught by Ryu Ryu Ko, one of the Chinese masters that taught a few of the Okinawan fathers of karate. The name Ryuei Ryu Somehow means Ryu Ryu Ko’s school. To’on Ryu was founded by a senior student of Kanryo Higashionna. Higashionna was also Chojun Miyagi’s (Goju Ryu founder) teacher. To’on Ryu some how translates to Higashionna’s school. To’on Ryu claims the karate they teach is exactly as it was taught by Higashionna, in contrast to the changes Miyagi made with Goju Ryu. There’s not a lot of information out their on either system. Ryuei Ryu didn’t leave Okinawa nor have any public showing until the last 20 years or so. To’on Ryu’s founder was allegedly asked to head up or play a significant role in Goju Ryu after Miyagi’s death, but declined on the basis that Goju wasn’t willing to let go of Miyagi’s additions and changes, and they wouldn’t call it To’on Goju Ryu. That was according to Meitoku Yagi, the karateka chosen to lead Goju Ryu by Miyagi’s family.

As far as sidekicks go, I’m not surprised that it’ll topple over. Sidekicks are more of a thrusting/driving kick than others. People complain that freestanding bags will get knocked over by stuff like that; it’ll make a heavy bag swing pretty wildly too, so it pretty much is what it is. Running and jumping kicks will do the same. I really liked the Wavemaster XXL. I liked it mostly for the shear size of it, as it’s easy to do a lot of different height kicks and in combination with punches. If the Torrent’s moving about starts to really bother you, I’ve got a great fix that worked great for my BOB XL; get one of those industrial mats from a place like Home Depot. The big and thick rubber squares with the holes in it. No more turning, sliding, etc. While it still rocks a bit, no more loud slamming either. And it should rock a bit, otherwise there’s too much stress on the stem.

IMO it’s even worse. It’s seemingly not strong enough to even support its own weight for any length of time. I saw a brand new one, fresh out of the box at a local store. It was a newer version of the previously bent one. My kids played with it and loved it - 5 and 7 years old. Less than two months later that same one was folded in half just like the old one. Not a mark on it, and it was up on a shelf. Every one I’ve seen was either bent in half or had a crease that you could tell it was on its way if you’ve seen them bent before. I really wanted one for me and the girls. I’ve got better ways of wasting a hundred bucks or so. Check this video out. Notice it bends near the bottom of the “Century” writing every time it’s hit. And it’s reportedly brand new out of the box. Here’s a follow up video from the same guy a few days later. The bend at the same spot is significantly more noticeable. He rescinded his recommendation. After a little while, that bag is just going to flop over at that bend. And A LOT sooner than later. There’s an Arashi 110 version of it that seems better. Same exact thing happened to every one I’ve seen. I know, I really want one too. But I’ve got better ways to waste $100. Taking the girls and my wife out to a $100 dinner would be far better investment. Edit: I just remembered... when I bought my BOB XL, Century’s website had them on clearance for something like $35. And I still didn’t buy it.

This is going to sound harsh, it that’s not my intent; I’m genuinely saying this in a good tone of voice so to speak... You seem genuinely unhappy where you’re training. If that’s the case, leave. If it’s a waste of your time, leave. If you’re not getting what you signed up for, leave. Life’s too short to get all frustrated about a hobby. I know people hate that word, but unless you’re getting paid to train and/or compete, paid to teach, or are using it as education for a future career; it’s a hobby IMO. If the thought of being a white belt all over again has you cringing, you really should evaluate what exactly it is that you’re after here. Are you there to wear a belt and tell anyone who’ll listen that you’re X rank and/or will be Y rank soon? What’s the belt going to do for you that your skills aren’t doing? Are you going to wave it around at a potential attacker and scare them off with it? Do you really think they care? Royce Gracie has a great quote - “Your belt covers 2 inches of your (explicit - backside is forum friendly); you cover the rest.” If you’re as unhappy as you seem to be, and this thread is now at 4 pages with no change anywhere in sight, the answer is to start looking elsewhere. Why does it have to be TKD? What about another style? Look at everything around you. Pick a good school, not a style. If you genuinely can’t find anything better, then stay put and change your expectations. I know it sounds harsh. If we were actually talking instead of writing, it wouldn’t sound harsh at all.

I’ve got a torn labrum in my shoulder (kind of like the knee meniscus in the shoulder). I can do everything in class except push-ups. I hate being the guy who doesn’t do them while everyone else is. I do other stuff, but in my head I’m thinking everyone else thinks it’s a cop out. They all know and don’t care; it’s all in my head. I know, it’s nothing compared to everyone else here. I just wanted to say it for full disclosure

Wow! Small world! Yeah, I'm 4th generation Autosomal Dominant PKD myself. The only living members of my family with it are my dad and my two sisters. Dad got a transplant back in 2007 though, and is doing awesomely! Neither of my sisters nor I have faced the worst of it yet. My kidneys are probably in the best shape of the bunch, not sure why, perhaps because I have always had abnormally low blood pressure (at the doc last week it was 103/62, which is really good for someone with PKD, since it causes hypertension). I think you are right on the money about seemingly conflicting age of diagnosis for AD PKD. Because a healthy person has more than 2x the necessary kidney tissue to function, you wouldn't expect that you'd detect a decrease in kidney function for a PKD patient until more than half of your kidneys had already been destroyed by the cysts. Those are some big cysts at that point. An ultrasound can pick them up long before that point, but most people don't get kidney ultrasounds for fun. It seems like a good idea that you got a diagnostic ultrasound. I'm 32, and when I was your age mine were already 2.5cm in diameter each and too numerous to count. Even so, I've been told that I'm on a slow track course of the disease, and if I play my cards right, I may not even require a transplant until my mid-70s. Given this, even if you have PKD, it sounds like you are unlikely to be on a time course fast enough to require a transplant, unless you expect to live to over 100. Still, I'm not a medical doctor. If you really want to put that nail in that coffin, you could always get genetic testing. As for the hypermobility, not everyone gets it, in fact not even most people with PKD get it, but PKD patients have a higher probability than normal folks. The way my doctor described it, cystic disorders in general (not just PKD) tend to have high co-morbidity with connective tissue disorders because they often arise from an abnormality in the production of extracellular matrix. I consider myself lucky though. I'd rather have trick joints than IBS or brain aneurysms. My heart is...well, backwards (?) but so far as I know, that is unrelated. Backwards heart is pretty interesting. My cousin has a really weird, and really cool abnormality... He has PKD. He was born wyan extra kidney somehow. 2 kidneys have cysts. The extra one doesn’t. He’ll be his own live kidney donor when the time comes. As far as my family and goes with dialysis and transplants, the ages are all over the map. My oldest uncle started dialysis in his mid 20s. A few of my mother’s siblings haven’t started dialysis yet, with the oldest that hasn’t started being almost 60. And physical condition and lifestyle seem to have nothing to do with it. Just a really odd disease.

I thought about picking one up a while back. A few weeks later I was in the same store I saw it in (Dick’s Sporting Goods) and it was bent in half; kinda like flopped over about 1/3 of the way up. I’ve seen it in several other stores, and they’re all the same, or you can clearly see it developing. Most Century stuff has a year warranty or so. Call them up and see if they’ll do anything for you.

Welcome to the forum

Congratulations

You are not alone. I have polycystic kidney disease, which means that I will eventually need a kidney transplant, and I must avoid hard hits to the kidney area, lest I expedite that process. The same mutation that causes this condition causes the ligaments throughout my body to be more lax than they should be, which means that I dislocate joints easily. Just since December I've dislocated my left elbow, my left thumb (twice), and two toes on my right foot. Toes and feet are indeed rough. There's no way to rest them, so healing takes a lot longer. Probably the worst injury I've had was a broken T12 though (caused by my spine bending backwards further than it should have, and my chipping off the process). When I was a kid I always had braces on my feet and wrists, and would just sit on the side in PE class. I always had a bit of discomfort. I thought that was as good as it got. It wasn't till high school that I found my way to the dojo. Since then I've built up a lot of core strength and have helped take the strain off of my lax joints with about 20 extra pounds of lean muscle. It makes a world of difference in my quality of life. Polycystic kidney disease runs in my family. My maternal grandmother had it, and 8 out of 9 of her children (including my mother) have it. 2 have passed away relatively young from complications due to it. I’m one of 4 children; 1 has it, 2 don’t have it but aren’t old enough yet to be 100% sure they won’t get it.* I don’t have it. A lot of my cousins on my mother’s side have it. I guess you can say I know too much about it without actually having it. I guess you could say I got lucky. * I was told by a few specialists that if you don’t develop autosomal PKD (the genetic type) by age 28, you won’t develop the disease, as it hasn’t been seen to start after that age. Reading the PKD Foundation website, they say symptoms can start as late as 40. Kinda has me scratching my head here. Maybe they don’t see cysts start initially developing after 28, but there might not be symptoms until 40 at the latest? All I know is I was ultrasounded every year, with my last one being at 30. My doctor had to argue with my insurance company to cover it at 29 and 30; they reluctantly did due to my family history. I’ve never had any kidney problems though. I’ve never heard of the joint laxity associated with the disease before. None of my family members with it have ever mentioned joint laxity. They’ve only relatively recently found the gene (I think around 10 years ago?), and there’s still a ton of stuff they don’t know and are finding out. It’s quite an odd disease.

Welcome aboard. Regardless of what anyone tells you, 20 IS too old... if you’re looking to be an under-18 champion. Or if you’re looking to dominate the dojo like Kramer did...

Welcome aboard

I haven’t experienced this, so I can’t give any truly first-person perspective. And I agree with Brian 100% here. Here’s my thoughts and somewhat related experience... You’ll never be Soke, Dai-Soke, the the Regents group who’s tragically passed, nor anyone else. But on the flip-side, they would’ve been you. What works for you personally probably wouldn’t have worked for them; what worked for them wouldn’t have worked for you. The only thing you can really do is what’s right for the students and the organization. You may take a different path to get where you want the organization as a whole to go, but in the end I’m sure you’re taking it to the same place they were trying to take it. Easier said than done, and I don’t envy your position; but I have the utmost respect for your intentions. Intentions are what’s truly important here. As to the melancholy feeling, I wish I had some advice. If you’ve got a way to truly and fully overcome the loss of people close to your heart, I’m all ears. My great-grandmother passed away in 1995. Easily one of the most influential people in my life, and one of my favorite people in the world. There hasn’t been a single day where I didn’t think about her. My grandmother (her daughter) passed away almost a year ago now. Same thing. I know there won’t be a day I’m alive that I won’t think of both of them. I drive by my grandmother’s house every day on my way to and from work. I look through her window and get a huge lump in my throat every time. No idea how or when that’ll ever stop. I’m sure it won’t. All I can do is accept it. No point in ignoring it nor trying to bury it. When I pray, I thank God for allowing me to have known them the way I did. I have no regrets. The most painful thing for me is my kids will never know them as I do. They’ll pretty much be little more than people from stories their dad tells them. Time eases the wounds, but it’s never fully healed mine. Sorry for the novel and selfishly pouring my heart out here. All you can do is honor the past, take the organization into the future, all while staying in the p moment. Edit: That last line isn’t mine; it’s paraphrased Akira Nakamura’s (Tadashi Nakamura’s son).

Welcome aboard. I too know what it’s like to have people not want to hear about MA. Fortunately there’s this forum. Lots of great people here.

It’s great having you here, MatsuShinshii. Congratulations on 1,000 QUALITY posts. I’m all the wiser for having read your self-described “novels.”

Happens more often than you might think. Mental disability, drink, drugs, or even just being very sick and disorientated can make someone lash out. I know. But surely the mindset should not be the expectation to fight? The expectation to have to use non violent restraint perhaps. But surely not to fight. That being the case, I can't see that martial arts are the answer. Define fight. Depending on the healthcare setting - psychiatric, emergency room, etc. there could very well be the expectation to defend oneself and/or restrain a patient to prevent the patient from harm to him/herself and/or others. The setting dictates the expectations. In a traditional doctor’s office, there shouldn’t be the expectation. Working in an emergency room where people are brought in drunk and/or under the influence of drugs, have dementia, etc.; it’s generally a matter of when you’ll need to defend yourself rather than if. Yes there’s security and coworkers to help, but there’s no shortage of time alone with a patient and even if help is within vocal distance away, it’s still a matter of them getting there. I know plenty of healthcare workers in these settings. It’s not an everyday thing, but definitely somewhat regular. I’d recommend a grappling art that’s thorough in standing grappling. Wrestling, judo. MT’s clinch work should be sufficient though. Striking would be a big liability. You should look to restrain rather than strike. Striking (and throwing) would be a very last resort IMO. Tactics should probably fall in line with security and LEO work.

A huge portion of martial arts is muscle memory. Repetition is key here. The more reps, the deeper and somewhat quicker it’s ingrained. But they’ve got to be quality reps or else mistakes/flaws become ingrained. Then there’s cognitive memory. The more reps, feedback from a good instructor, and different looks they get from sparring partners, the better. Again, so long as it’s quality stuff. Physical activity demands quantity and quality. The more skilled and technical the activity, the more the benefit of extra reps. Look at baseball. Hitting is about as technical as it gets. I’ve heard an analogy of baseball hitting vs golf - as difficult as hitting a golf ball where you want it to go is, imagine trying to do the same if the golf ball was moving at you at 80 mph in an unpredictable manner. Ask an honest and good baseball player how often he needs to see live pitching, and he’ll tell you he needs to see it every day to keep sharp. MA is similar. But there comes a point of too much. One has to factor in burnout and overtraining. Too much will mentally and physically set the MAist back until the find their balance. It’s a tricky balance, and different for everyone. I see trends that seem to exist in both dojos I’ve trained at. Brand new students usually come in 2-3 times a week. They’re excited and want to do more, but the curriculum’s a bit limited so there’s only so much they can do. Once they get to the intermediate level, say 4th or so, they start coming more and more. Quite a few come in 4 times a week for several months. They’re very excited and have been progressing for some time, and everything’s going great. They see the improvement and the people around them acknowledge it more. Then they plateau. However they usually plateau more in their minds than in actuality. And promotions are further apart; instead of promoting every 3-4 months, it’s every 6-7. The race to the next belt starts becoming middle distance running instead of a sprint. The ones who were double promoting here and there because they were around so often and genuinely improved quicker than the norm aren’t anymore because the material’s more in-depth and physically demanding. They start to realize that it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. As they progress further, they realize it’s not a marathon either; in fact it’s not a race at all. Why? A race has a winner and a finish line. There’s no finish line in MA. Barring extremes of being physically unable to ever train again. So long as one’s not overtraining and becoming mentally and physically burned out, has quality reps, and isn’t ignoring their true responsibilities in life, more is better. But those are some realistic and very big ifs.

Piriformis muscle(s) too.

I’ve taken a few too many shots to the head. At least that’s what I’ve been told, as I don’t remember ever actually getting hit in the head. Yeah, I think I’m getting too old to keep fighting. Tai Chi would be a good change. I knew it would happen sooner or later, I just thought it would be later.

That’s not a bad theory at all.