JR 137

To those of you with a Wavemaster XXL - how’s the padding’s long-term durability? The one I used to hit at my YMCA was a bit soft, but a good soft. I haven’t hit that one in about a year or so. I was there a few weeks ago and messed around it it while my daughters were running around. It was softer than my pillow. No exaggeration. Just taking a fooling around jab at it, I hit the center support post. Obviously it’s in a public-type place and who knows what people are doing to it, but still.

How did I miss this? I guess better late than never... Happy Birthday, Devin!

Let me put this in another way. It’s overly simplified... Let’s say I need $1200 per year per student to keep the doors open and my students and I are happy with the arrangement. I could charge $100 per month and eliminate testing fees. Or I could charge $75 per month, and charge $75 for tests 4 times a year. Which ever way I do it, it’s $1200 per year. Some people think they’re getting a better deal with lower tuition; others think it’s better to not charge testing fees. Either way, the cost of attending is still $1200 per year.

I agree. Also, I have an issue with demotion if it involves the physical taking of a belt. The student earned that belt (and likely paid for it), so, to me, taking that away from someone is pretty much theft. If it is something that I felt that I absolutely had to do, I would take to the Grandmaster at the head school about just having the demotion made in the records of the HQ school. Just out of curiosity: How many schools make students pay for their belts? Our color belts are given to us (no testing fee what so ever.) Black belt testing costs something like $100, but that covers a new uniform, embroidered belt and whatever paperwork our master instructor needs to fill out to register black belts with the WT. All schools that I personally have experience with charge for testing in one way or another. The ones that don’t roll it into a long-term contract that includes tuition and testing fees up to a certain rank/time period. My school charges testing fees. The way I look at it, it’s part of the cost of attendance. If my CI didn’t charge it, I’d have to pay more in monthly tuition. Every business has a bottom line that needs to be met. One way or another they either meet it or close. Here’s an analogy... My father owns an auto repair shop. He charges labor and makes a profit on parts. If he didn’t make profit from the parts, he’d have to charge more for labor; if he didn’t charge labor, he’d have to make up that money in parts. Whichever you look at it, he needs a certain dollar amount for each job. There’s a trend lately where people want to supply their own parts to try and save money. My father charges time and a half in labor when people do that (he makes it clear). When they ask why, he tells them he needs to make a certain amount of money on each job to make it worth his time, regardless of if the money comes from labor or parts profit. Belt testing fees are the same thing. If you need $10k to cover your rent, that $10k will have to come from students no matter which way you break it down - tuition, testing, equipment sales, whatever.

I know exactly what you mean about getting frustrated by gis (and any type of clothing) not fitting right. I got lucky with Shureido. An old dojo-mate ordered a Tokaido Ultimate back in the day. He went through returning about 3 of them before finding the right one. I had my eye on one too, so I tried them on before he returned them. No matter the size, none of them fit me. It was an instance where if it fit me I’d give him the money he paid for it. After finding out Tokaido would never fit right, I blindly ordered a Shureido. Fortunately, it fit me perfectly. Since then when ordering a different gi, I always ask how it fits compared to Shureido. After getting one that fits like Shureido but not as good quality, I’ve given up on everything else. I have a Ronin heavyweight that used to fit great. Almost 3 years later, it’s still shrinking somehow. And I always wash it in cold water and hang dry it. It’s at the point that I can’t wear it anymore because the jacket has gotten so short that I constantly have to pull it down so it doesn’t come out from under my belt and the pants are like skinny jeans. I wish there was a store where I could walk in and try on different gi brands and models after they’ve been fully shrunk. Kind of like a suit store where they’ve got racks of suits. Until then, we’re stuck with mail order and return shipping fees. If you want to roll the dice one more time, Tokaido would probably fit your needs best IMO, going by my and others I know who wear them’s experience. I don’t know anyone wearing Hirota, so I’ve got no comment on them.

Singularity - have you considered a hanging bag with a bag stand?

I’ve heard that happening from several people with the Wavemaster 2XL/XXL. Watching a Torrent assembly video from Century, it appears they’ve redesigned the part that goes into the base. Rather than the base being a donut, so to speak, where the bag threads into it, the base has a shaft part that the bag slides onto. No more unscrewing and the bag part coming up. At least in theory anyway.

What, you don’t have a lathe?

I’ve seen videos of people knocking over a BOB and the like. Other than during running and jumping kicks (and stuff like that), it’s pretty much always been because of one of two things - The base wasn’t properly filled They were pushing the bag with their kicks and punches Typically when you see a heavy bag swinging wildly, such as a 100 lb+ bag, the person’s pushing it. Intentionally or unintentionally. Look at videos of boxers who know what they’re doing. When there’s no one holding the bag for them, the bag still doesn’t swing all over the place. It’s not because they’re pulling their punches, it’s because they’re actually punching instead of punching then pushing. Someone who’s not hitting it correctly will make it fly around; someone who knows what they’re doing will make the bag “dance.” Don’t get me wrong, there’s people who’ll knock over a freestanding bag even thought it’s properly filled and they’re hitting right. But those are guys like sensei8 who routinely hit a 500 lb bag

Is the Torrent bag basically a redesigned Wavemaster 2XL?

I was going to write a review of my K-11. Fit is everything. It doesn’t matter how “good” a gi is if it doesn’t fit right. Same can be said for a suit or any other article of clothing. If it doesn’t fit you right, there’s no point. The K-11 will shrink. A LOT. For perspective, when I bought both K-11s, the jacket was touching the top of my kneecaps. After several wash and dry cycles, it’s a little longer than my fingertips if I put my arms down by my side. Quite a difference. I don’t have perspective on how much the legs shrunk, as once they shrunk they were still quite long. I have to have every pair of gi pants tailored, so that’s not saying anything. The jacket and pants have gotten narrower, but not nearly as much as the length shrunk. They were a bit balloon looking on me, but they’ve narrowed just right. I’ve just shrunk my 2nd K-11 down and just got it back from the tailor about a week ago, so unfortunately I can’t take a side by side to show the size difference. Suffice to say the size difference is huge; at least a full size, and probably closer to a size and a half if I had to bet. None of that means it’ll fit you right afterwards. Shureido is notoriously a “boxy” cut. It’s a great fit for a stocky person such as me. For reference, I’m 5’9 and 220 lbs. If I were to try on a gi off the shelf and not account for shrinking, I’d be a 4 1/2 or a 5. If you’re unhappy, you should absolutely return it. At about $185 including shipping, there’s zero point in keeping it. It doesn’t matter how good the gi is, if it doesn’t fit right it’s worthless. $185 isn’t pocket change. If you’re a slim-fit kind of guy, look into Tokaido. They’re notoriously a narrow and long cut. At least the Japanese made Tokaidos are anyway. The quality is every bit as good as Shureido IMO. A little more expensive though, even when you go model to comparable model (look for a #11 material). The only thing I’d change with my K-11 is the ties. I like the ties on your Pro Force gi a lot better. The Ronin gi I own has similar ties. Taking the Shureido gi out of the bag for the first time gives a bit of buyer’s remorse. It doesn’t seem like it’s that special of a gi. The first few times you wear it aren’t anything special either. Once you’ve worn it several times you realize how good it really is. It’s very breathable, seems far lighter than it actually is, and it holds its shape very well. And it’s very soft and smooth feeling. IMO it’s a perfect gi. But if it didn’t fit right, I’d hate it. I’d never wear it.

I agree with this pretty much completely. However, I guess there’s a time and place for everything. I see someone being stripped of a title and the responsibilities that come with it. It would be an odd situation where someone isn’t fulfilling their duties but hasn’t done something outright wrong enough to warrant dismissal. Perhaps someone in a traditional and official Senpai role who’s supposed to be a leader and/or role model, yet he/she isn’t effective in that role or is no longer fulfilling the obligations. Or a senior instructor who’s genuinely continually struggling to teach effectively. Or a “board member” who’s vision is clearly off line with the organization’s. Those don’t constitute dismissal IMO, but if they’re not up to the standards, they shouldn’t have that title and role. A demotion, but not a rank demotion.

It'd be great to be able to split kids from adults in my school... not enough students, though. I frequently end up being paired off with a 10 year old green belt to train (he's the only other green belt who currently attends.) They to have us practice throws on each other... Incredibly difficult! He weighs like 70lb, and is about 4" tall. I'm 5'10" and 185lb. I do like the fact we have a total of 2 hours per session in our school, though. Having to train with the kids would be a tough one for me. There’s a few kids who are close to the adult age (14-ish) and are very good for their age. My CI allows them to go to certain adult classes. They’re pretty much the kids are in-betweeners, so to speak; they’re way ahead of the kids group in terms of maturity and ability, yet they’re below the adults. Those kids are fine, and it lightens up the class a bit. There were a few kids who were invited to take some adult classes who didn’t stick around in the adult classes. I think it was too serious for them, so they decided to stay in the kids’ classes. Nothing wrong with that IMO. If I were stuck in classes with the rest of the kids, I honestly don’t know how long I’d last. Sounds harsh, but there’s no other way I can say it. If there’s a mix and I wasn’t constantly paired up with kids, that would make it easier. Perhaps talk to your CI about it. I’m sure he/she would be willing to make some changes if possible. Perhaps he/she doesn’t know that it’s bothering you. My former dojo split classes according to age AND rank. There were a few “all ranks” classes, but he tried his best to keep it every 3 ranks or so. He had the numbers to make that work. My current CI says he’d like to do that, but it’s pretty much impossible numbers-wise. And he does a great job managing the different ranks the way it is, so I don’t know how much a difference it would ultimately make anyway. Last week, we had every full belt rank from white belt all the way through 3rd dan, except brown belt*. I noticed it as we lined up. It was just business as usual; everyone got to do some of their rank specific stuff, and we all worked on basics like we always do. We don’t have any adult brown belts currently. Hopefully that’ll change by the end of the month after my test

Monday 6:30-7:15 - kids 7:30-8 - adults Tuesday 6:30-7:15 - kata class 7:15-8 - adult green belts (4th kyu) and up * This is basically one class, with the first half or so dedicated to kata and the second half is mostly sparring drills and sparring. After the kata portion, the few that don’t stay quickly bow out. Wednesday 6-7 - adults 7-8 - black belts Thursday 6-6:45 - kids 7-8 - adults Saturday 9:30-10:30 - adults 10:45-11:30 - kids

We’ll occasionally do a kata “migi hajime” or start to the right/opposite side. It confuses you a bit if you haven’t done it before or done it in a while. We also do “ura kata” which is you do a 360 degree spin before every forward step. It gets a bit tricky too. I’m not a fan of it personally, it it’s ok. Apparently Mas Oyama would occasionally have students do it during class. After he died, it somehow became formally added to the syllabus. It’s formally part of the Seido syllabus too.

Breaking is conditioning in a way. Looking at x-rays of people who routinely break’s hands (as an example), you’ll see far thicker areas of compact bone (the outer, non-marrow area) than most other people. Similar to people who hit makiwara, Thai boxers who condition their shins, etc. What happens is the person is micro fracturing their bones. When those heal, the body lays down extra bone to prevent further damage. No different than micro tears in muscle during strength training. How desirable or functional that is can be debated; the physiological response can’t.

It doesn’t take much common sense to know a properly thrown, placed and timed punch, kick, knee, elbow, etc. will work. Is it really that counterintuitive to figure out a side kick to the inside or outside of someone’s knee will injure it? Ribs? Book to the jaw? It doesn’t take much common sense to know a choke, joint lock, throw will work either. Basic physics at work with the throws and joint locks. We’ve all had our elbow bent the wrong way once or twice, even non-MAists in non-fighting/sparring circumstances. Cutting off oxygen to the brain doesn’t exactly take much imagination to figure out what’ll happen. Anyone can learn the core techniques of pretty much any art within a few weeks IMO. And they’re all effective, excluding chi balls, chi force fields and the like. What really takes time is a few things - executing them with proper form mechanics (throwing that roundhouse kick, hip throw, arm bar, etc. correctly), setting them up correctly, knowing what to use and when, and being able to do so in the presence of fear. Mike Tyson’s right hook to the jaw will KO 100% of his opponents if he can land it cleanly and with full force. Royce Gracie’s triangle choke will KO 100% of his opponents’ if he get the proper position and sink it in just right. JR’s side kick will blow out 100% of his opponents’ knees if he can land it cleanly and accurately. The techniques work. The key is being in a position (figuratively and literally) to use it in a textbook manner. The other side of them allegedly not working is your opponent doing his thing better than you and not giving you the chance. The techniques are solid. The fatal flaw is the practitioner. All IMO. Edit: There may be some sequences/combinations that are pretty fantasy based, but the individual techniques are solid.

I smashed a big toe joint in an accident. I knew it hurt but didn't find out until a long time later that it had broke. A&E missed it when they xrayed it. But they did advise no training at all for at least 12 weeks, and to keep all weight off for at least a couple of weeks until the swelling has gone. Now comes the cautionary tale. For me, this was 3 or 4 years ago. I ignored the medical advice. I returned to training the following week. I did limit some of the things I did, and didn't kick anything or anyone for a while, but far too soon after injury I was jumping about on it. The pain never fully went. I'm fact at one point it got much worse. It's ruined now. I've basically ripped up all the cartilage in there. Osteoarthritis is in there now. I still train, but I've had to modify some techniques to work for me. There are some I'll never be able to do effectively. It's also not unusual for me to have to stop training for a few weeks at a time if I knock my foot a certain way, it becomes very painful for days or weeks. All of this because I ignored medical advice and thought I'd man up. If I'd followed medical advice at the time, my broken bones might have set right, the torn cartilage might have scarred over and at least regenerated a bit, and the whole accident might have been ancient history. So my advice is, take it easy. Keep weight off as much as possible. Absolutely don't flex your toe more than absolutely necessary yet. Give it a few weeks to recover. Focus on upper body and hand techniques in the meantime, or study theory. And in case anyone is thinking, man up, it's just a toe, in normal walking with each step a force equivalent to several times your body weight goes through the big toe joint. If pain stops it working effectively, your gait will alter and in no time you'll have knee and hip pain too. Look after your feet. They're important OneKickWonder’s post mirrors what I’ve seen a few times in my athletic training career. Get it checked out. People have the mentality of “if it’s broken, there’s nothing they can do about it anyway.” Which to an extent is true. If it’s a simple fracture (fracture and break are the same thing), they usually won’t cast it nor give you a special shoe. They’ll tell you to stay off of it. In rare cases it may require surgery. One that immediately sticks out in my mind is a soccer player I had. He came in as a freshman and complained about pain in his big toe. He’d had it going on 2 years. Apparently he never rested it. When we x-rayed it, it was still broken in the original spot; it never healed. You honestly couldn’t tell the difference between the original x-ray and the new one 2 years later. It took a good 12 weeks for it to heal (the last x-ray at 12 weeks was “good enough”). He had problems with it for the next 2 seasons. So all in all, it took 4 years to fully feel normal because he didn’t rest it initially. And that was when he was 18-20 years old. We don’t exactly heal and recover as well as we did at that age. Get it checked and follow the physician’s advice. They actually usually know what they’re talking about when it comes to this stuff

Welcome aboard

Welcome aboard

First and foremost, karate is a lifelong pursuit. Missing a few days isn’t going to change anything. Forget about falling behind; it’s not a race. People have an odd understanding of what exercise does for the immune system. Yes, exercise is great for your immune system. The thing may people don’t know is that exercise is actually worse for you when you’re sick. So... it’ll help keep you from getting sick, but once you’re sick, it’ll make it worse. That being said, I think a light warmup and stretch helps, but that’s just me. And the warmup I’m thinking of barely breaks a sweat. As far as training and improving goes, consistency is pretty much everything. But there’s got to be a balance. My family and job take precedence. I’ve been pretty erratic with attending class the last few months. My mother was very sick and I needed to help take care of her, and now I have some consistent obligations for my daughter that’s got my schedule thrown off. It really bothers me when I miss class, but I’ve got no regrets. Remember, it’s a lifelong pursuit.

Everyone’s got their priorities. I’m not the best kicker out there, so it wouldn’t bother me much. And truthfully I wouldn’t kick much in an actual SD situation. But then again there’s really only one way for me to get better at it. I’ve been in what I thought was a poorly run class once or twice in my MA time. But they weren’t ever run by the CI nor the regular assistant instructor. I remember thinking “if I paid by the class, I’d want my money back” but it was said (thought actually) in haste in the heat of the moment. Every single class can’t run exactly as you want it run or think it should be run. I wouldn’t be upset about one class or even a class every now and then not having any kicks, even if I was there primarily for kicking. There’s more to an MA than kicking, even TKD. I’d look at it as a time to improve other things that could use work. Everything can use more work. A class without sparring is a rarity for us. It’s also my favorite aspect of my training, as I feel everything is done for that purpose in one way or another. That doesn’t mean I’m going to get angry or resentful if we don’t spar every class. Not even close. If sparring became less and less often, where I was feeling that it was becoming less of an overall priority, I’d start asking myself what’s going on. If it really bothered me that much, I’d respectfully ask my instructors why. If the trend continued to the point where my heart wasn’t into training anymore and I didn’t see the situation changing or getting worse, I’d make other plans, as what’s going on isn’t what I signed up for anymore. I wouldn’t base any decisions on a once or twice occurrence. If I trusted my teacher and his teaching, it wouldn’t bother me. If I had serious doubts about his teaching and what I was there for consistently became less and less, that would be another thing. Look at the overall training; the big picture. Don’t pass judgement on the big picture based on one or two classes.

Where I come from, all the basic blocks - jodan uke, chudan uchi-uke, chudan soto uke, and gedan brai - are done with 2 hands. Once they were done proficiently and after a bit more experience, my former sensei taught them as using the seemingly non-blocking hand as a deflection and/or grab, and the “blocking” arm as a joint lock or strike. For example, a chudan uchi-uke is started with both hands coming across the chest (like hugging yourself), with the “blocking” arm below the re-chambering arm. The “blocking” arm comes out with the elbow bent, and the fist is roughly shoulder height and, and elbow close to the torso and bent about 45 degrees. The other hand simultaneously goes back to chamber. I put “blocking” arm in quotes, because the actual blocking arm is the other arm. As it’s crossing the body, it reflects the punch and can grab the opponent’s arm. After the grab, the rechamber can be pulling the arm in while the other “blocking” arm strikes whatever’s in its path or goes across the back of the opponent’s elbow, locking it and possibly breaking or dislocating it. I wish I could find video I used that example because it seemed the easiest to describe. Follow that block’s logic, and apply it to the rest of those blocks.

Honestly, the thought never crossed my mind to wear my gi while practicing at home. I used to practice at home a lot when I was in my 20s. No wife, no kids, so I had a lot of free time. I rarely get to practice at home nowadays. When I do, it’s hitting the bag. I just wear workout clothes. I’ve seen videos of people in full gi, but I never paid much attention to it to be honest. I’ve also not given much thought to the videos where guys are shirtless, yet wearing the gi pants and belt. The more I think about it, the gi seems too formal for me when I’m alone. And I wouldn’t want to be seen shirtless while working out. There’s nothing good that could possibly come from that

Things may have changed but while I was studying the art the gradings where based on a point system to get to Yudansha and above. I can't remember the exact point required as I do not have my manual handy but I do recall that you recieved points for class attendance, attending seminar's, camps and clinic's, for local tournaments, state tournaments, national tournaments and international tournaments. As far as the tournament points went you'd receive points for wins based on their grade (so many points for two ranks below, one rank below, equal rank, one above and two or more above). You'd also receive points for winning the tournament and that varied on local, state, national and international. You even received points for coming in 2nd or 3rd. We received points for Kata as well. Then you had service to Judo, assisting in tournaments, coaching, putting on seminars, for being the head coach of a club, etc, etc. Point being you had to accumulate "x" number of points to be promoted. I guess you could collect points outside of competing but I think it would take a huge amount of time to achieve your next grade. However I am like you in that I care less about what color belt I wear or if I even wear an Obi. When I was young this was not so much the case. If he is willing to teach you the art, who cares if you wear a white belt or a black. The attainment of knowledge and skill is the only thing that matters in the end. Which would you rather be - a white belt that can defeat black belts or a black belt that gets defeated by white belts? That literally is the difference in what some arts/schools teach. You can win all of the tournaments you want but the real proof of what you are is when it gets real. I speak of personal experience. Of course this is my experience and mine alone so others may vary. When I first started studying the arts I joined a traditional school and a friend joined another not so traditional school. My teacher was a task master and drilled us and almost every class I would leave with bruises, a busted lip or the like. We did not participate in tournaments. On the other hand my friend was already competing and had been promoted in grade after only two months. After 5 months I decided to check out his school and ended up joining. After a few months I had learned a few tricks and started placing higher in tournaments. After 6 months I was winning in Kumite and Kata. My speed, reach and a few tricks allowed me to dominate my competition. I thought I was pretty bad and had already been promoted twice more. The problem came when I ran into a known bully (just a mean spirited kid that liked to fight) and he started picking on a friend that was with me. I stood up to him and for the first few minutes I danced around this rather large and slow bully. I tagged him at will but my strikes had almost no effect, then it happened, he connected and it went down hill from there. I lost and I mean I lost bad. The next day I talked to my new teacher and explained what had happened. He listened to me whine how many times I hit this guy and how I had gotten beaten almost to death by this sloth. His comment changed my life. He admitted that what he was teaching me was for competition and to win points not to actually fight. I left and rejoined my other teacher and never looked back. Funny thing was that about two years later that same mean spirited kid started a fight with me again. This time the outcome was not in his favor. I knew I had made the right decision for me. Everyone does what's best for them. I am not condemning these schools for doing what their students want. However I personally feel that they should change the name of the art to something a bit more honest and stop making claims about teaching self defense. I take nothing away from the athleticism of those that compete in what I call patty cakes or fake Kata. They do possess skills. It's just not skills that translate to actual combat. To the bold above; forget about it. 98% of the stuff they teach for knife defense is worthless. If I have a knife and they try that worthless junk on me they get carved like a turkey. If you wish to learn knife defense do not look to Karate to teach it. Go train in a knife fighting system so you can get realistic techniques that do not endanger your life. I'm sure some here that teach this junk would disagree but again, if I am holding the knife and they are trying to defend using these techniques, it ain't going to be pretty. And I have only medium proficiency compared to others that devote large amounts of their life to the study. The point is a novice with a knife is going to cut an expert of so called knife defense. It's just a fact. To the underlined above; I never said that competition was necessarily bad. Its "a" way to test yourself. However if your training like you would fight you get tested every class. It's a shame you quit Karate because of this. If taught in the old ways the art is quite efficient. Maybe you'll meet a good teacher one day and be able to regain your confidence in the art. If not I hope you find what your looking for. One thing I think we should keep in mind is that IMO there’s a big difference between karate point fighting competition and judo competition. Judo awards points and/or victory for throws, chokes, submissions and pins. These are all real world fighting skills and they’re not “pulled” like a patty-cake hit in karate competition. I don’t think Judo competition is the most realistic form of competition out there, but it’s light years ahead of point fighting. From what I’ve seen, the transition from competition to actual self defense isn’t a ridiculous gap. Execute an ippon throw on concrete, and your opponent is going to be hurting. Perhaps not a death blow, ko, or true fight ender, but it’ll definitely be easy enough to transition to an effective joint lock or choke. I’m far more of a judo competition fan then a point fighting fan, and I’m not a judoka.