JR 137

I weighed 220.8 this morning - after going to the bathroom, wearing nothing, and before eating and drinking anything. Weighed myself a little while ago - fully clothed, pockets full of the usual stuff, and after eating - 230.0. I didn't gain 9.2 lbs of fat today

Friday 7/14 - 220.8 No idea how I've only lost about a half a pound since last week. I haven't eaten as much as before I started, I haven't drank any soda, and I've been hitting the bag about 3x a week, in addition to 2x a week at the dojo. I feel better and my clothes fit me a little looser, so I don't know. The only explanation I have is I've been drinking a ton of water, so maybe I'm retaining it more?

I'm very sorry to hear this. The good news is you recognized it, were treated for it, and are here to tell us about it. Hopefully your cardiologist can figure out what happened, treat it, and how to avoid it from reoccurring. Perhaps it was just a temporary setback and nothing more.

Just like in any other martial art, the most important thing is the teacher and who'll you'll be training alongside. If it's the right teacher and training partners, it doesn't matter where it is. It could even be in a nursery school, so long as they've got the space and equipment IMO.

I'm glad everything went well. And it's great to see your positive outlook and sense of humor about it all. When do you think you'll get back on the floor?

10 rounds vs BOB XL. 2 minute rounds, 1 minute rest... 14 minutes peak HR zone 19 minutes cardio HR zone 146 average HR 167 peak HR 510 calories burned 1 cup chocolate milk afterwards (the best recovery drink there is!). I'll stay at 10 rounds this week, then probably go to 12 next week.

I quoted your post, but my intention was to make a generalized statement. I probably shouldn't have quoted your post specifically. I've seen a ton of posts/blogs/etc. all over the internet stating Kyokushin doesn't teach head punching and defending it. I guess my post was intended to offer a counterpoint to the overwhelming notion.

I know your post was a while ago, but I just saw it now and wanted to address the 'lack of head punching' in Kyokushin to anyone reading this... Just because head punching in prohibited in Kyokushin/knockdown competition doesn't mean they don't train and defend against it in the dojo. Oyama Dojo (before he officially named his style Kyokushin) had a lot of head punching. Shigeru Oyama said in an interview that the students would often wrap their hands in washcloths to prevent their knuckles from getting cut up by their partners' teeth. He was also saying the senior students told him to punch the jaw and under the chin (like an uppercut) to prevent cutting themselves. A while after Mas Oyama officially established Kyokushin, he banned head contact with hands and elbows because too many students were getting injured and losing training time. Kyokushin became heavily sport based for a period. A lot of the spreading of Kyokushin was through competition. People pay attention to competition and seeing how any MA works. Unfortunately, many schools placed preparing for knockdown competition very high on their priority list, and the stigma became apparent. A lot of high ranking and high profile Kyokushin practitioners left because of it. Some left simply because of it while others left indirectly because of it - many wanted to add head punching in various ways, claiming not punching to the head was unrealistic. A lot of Kyokushin dojos have smartened up since. Many of them will use headgear and boxing gloves (or similar) and punch to the head during training. The ones that do this usually start this at or near brown belt level. Some teachers did this all along. I've seen videos of Shigeru Oyama's students wearing head and hand gear and sparring with head punches. This was before he left Kyokushin in 1981. He continued this under World Oyama Karate. Just because head punching isn't allowed in competition doesn't mean it's not a part of training. Knife-hand strikes to the throats and neck, kicks to the groin and knees, and so forth aren't allowed in any competition that I'm aware of. Does this mean that people who compete in those events never practice those techniques in any way? The only kumite competition we have in Seido Juku is point fighting. I can tell you for certain that that's not the only way we train. The only time we do that is if we're getting ready for our annual tournament. And it's only done during additional specific classes for people who want to compete. In my 2 and a half years in my dojo, I've never seen point fighting outside of the specific tournament classes once a week for about 6 weeks leading up to the tournament. To say the only sparring we do is point fighting because that's the only thing people see in competition is about as inaccurate as saying Kyokushin doesn't practice head punching because it's not seen in competition.

Thread discussions often drift in forums. Just like they do in face to face conversations. Regarding if Gankaku Sho will be allowed in the tournament you're competing in, as sensei8 said, you should contact the tournament organizers. If we say yes it's allowed, and it isn't, what are you going to do? Will you say "a bunch of guys on karateforum.com told me I could do it"?If we say it's not allowed and someone else does it, will you tell them "a bunch of guys on karateforums.com said I can't do it"? Ask the tournament organizers. They'll give you an accurate answer. The best we'd do is guess.

We know that. Sorry for the sidetrack.

I hate the use of red belts in karate for anything other than signifying 9th or 10th dan. I remember being at a tournament about 20 years ago. There was a "traditional Japanese karate" school who used red as a kyu rank. I've never seen any other Japanese nor Okinawan karate school use red as a kyu rank. We were sitting in the bleachers when about 20 ten year olds from that school came in wearing red belts. My sensei nudged me and quietly said "look at all the little grandmasters." We both chuckled and I replied "I'm glad I'm not in their division; I've got zero chance against a 10th degree black belt." Your mind goes to strange places when you've competed all morning then sit and watch the kids for a few hours, waiting for the 3 kids from your dojo to finish up so you can go home.

If you're tracking your weight, you have to be consistent with when you're doing it and what you're wearing. The way I do it is right after I go to the bathroom first thing in the morning, wearing nothing. Yes, that'll be the lightest you weigh, but it's not cheating - different clothes weigh different amounts, and the amount you eat and drink will effect it too. Case in point... 3 weeks ago I weighed myself as as said above. I was 223. I went to the doctor at 1:00, and weighed 231. I ate breakfast and lunch in between (lunch was 20 minutes beforehand), drank several glasses of water, was wearing jeans, t-shirt, and shoes, and had my wallet, keys, phone, etc. in my pockets. I obviously didn't gain 7lbs of fat from 8 am to 1 pm. My wife and her mother joined something like weight watchers several years back. Their weight was all over the place because there was no consistency with how they were weighing in; they'd go there and weigh in with a group one day a week at different times wearing different clothes. It's impossible to tell exactly how much weight they truly lost or gained that way. Even if my scale is off a few pounds, it's consistent. If I lose 20 lbs according to my scale, it's still 20 lbs, regardless of if my scale's a few lbs lighter or heavier than it should be.

Just my opinions based on what I've seen... Competitive MA athletes such as MMAers, Olympians, and even amateur competitors are benefiting from it. They're looking into different strength and conditioning, flexibility, and strategy stuff. And video is far more effective at communicating it than the books we grew up with. Many traditionalists are hanging onto the old ways. Some are too stubborn to change even minor things such as warmup and stretching routines. Believe it or not, some still have the mindset that lifting weights will decrease performance. Yes, I'm stereotyping, but it's just what I've seen. IMO everyone needs to keep an eye on current scientific research. That doesn't mean jumping on the latest fad, but it does mean incorporating scientifically proven things into what they're doing; basically altering some things. There's still a lot to be said for the old school stuff. A lot of things that were basically forgotten about have come back. Squat thrusts (aka burpees) and mountain climbers were staples when I was in school. They somehow faded away, and were recently made cool again. Same for carrying sand bags and other oddly shaped and distributed weighted stuff. The old school stuff has a mental edge to it that the new stuff just doesn't have IMO. There's Kyokushin videos of guys climbing stone steps using their knuckles while a partner holds their feet, amongst other things. I saw videos of Iowa's wrestling team doing the same thing, only on their palms and inside their arena. Beyond strength, stuff like that builds mental toughness. The stuff we did when I was wrestling would probably get laughed at today, until the people laughing actually did it. Then it would probably be another story.

Friday 7/7 221.2 lbs How did I gain a pound since last week? I guess the 4th of July ice cream, missing two workouts and the ice cream and big dinner after Six Flags Wednesday did it to me. Getting ready to spend a half hour with my buddy BOB XL.

I'm a huge Metallica fan too. I have been since my cousin bought Master of Puppets and brought it over to my house when I was in 7th grade (around '87-'88 ).I used my newspaper route money the following weekend to buy Kill 'Em All and Ride the Lightning. I'm unfortunately going to miss them this tour. I'm not a fan of stadium concerts, unless it's an all day festival, they played in NY/NJ on a weeknight and there was no way I could take the next day off (it's 3 hours away), and the tickets were about $150 at the cheapest. If they do their usual tour and stop by my local arena (which they always have) or play Madison Square Garden (which they always have), I'll see them. I guess I'm not big enough of a fan to go Giants stadium on a Tuesday night for $150 (plus probably $30 for parking) by myself because no one else was willing to go for the same reasons.

I spoke to a Japanese friend about this. Actually, it was more joking around, as he was taking good natured shots at my heritage too... There's no "L" sound in Japanese, so that's part of the difficulty. And the "R" sound is supposedly a soft R, similar to when the British pronounce T as in water and bottle. If you hear a native British speaker with a heavy accent, they'll pronounce water bottle as "wa'er ba'le" (sorry, I'm trying my best to spell it out phonectically). I've seen the documentary several times. Regardless of the spelling and the history mistake, I love it. It shows people training in karate in a way I'd love to train. It's a great way of training, but not the only way. Another documentary that's along the same lines that I really enjoy is Samurai Spirit: Karate. Nicholas Pettas (former Kyokushin competitor) travels to Okinawa and trains under several karate masters and asks questions. He did several other arts such as judo and aikido in other episodes. Those were good too, but I like the karate episode best.

Different schools and organizations have different syllabi. Us telling you what goes on in ours has no bearing on what goes on in yours. If you're intent in finding out, you can ask people in your school or even a google search may reveal it. If I tell you in Seido Juku shodans do Seido 5, Gekisai Sho, Seiyunchin, and Chion Bo Kata, nidans do Koryu Gojushisho and Bo Kata Fusestu Dai, and so on, that wouldn't help you understand what your school requires. Within some schools, this information is freely available; in others it isn't. Some schools have "optional kata," which I think means they and/or the instructor chooses which kata students are responsible for. None of the schools I've been a student at had "optional kata" (I have seen that phrase on some Shotokan syllabi), so I don't know exactly what that phrase means. Perhaps that has something to do with why different students of the same rank are naming different kata at your school? Or it could be they're choosing to perform one of the required kata at that moment.

Welcome to the forum.

I have not actually heard this before. The color of thread is controlled based on your grading? I thought that was what the color of the belt was for. I know, I quoted you twice for the same post, but they're different ideas... I also don't understand why in some organizations different ranks wear different color gis, have different color trim on their gis, different patches (especially black belt club, instructor, and master). Doesn't the belt itself pretty much say all that? I'm ok with it for the little kids if it motivates them and all, but adults? Should an adult get an "awesome kicks!" patch? Do school aged children need honor roll patches on their gis? I see them in catalogs, so I know they're out there. There's a local TKD school that allows students to buy gis (dobaks?) with trim on the lapel and stripes on the pants that matches their belt. That's not just for black belts either. Why? Are they fashion conscious and want their gis to make their belts "pop" or something? It's more likely a way to sell the students more stuff, but still. I'm a fan of everyone wearing an all white gi (or all black if that's the tradition). School kanji and logos either embroidered or on as patches, and that's pretty much it. No huge logos and school names on the back, no multi-colored gis or "demo team" special gis, etc. I guess I'm old school, being 41 and all I'm with you on the patches, multi colored gi's and the like. Our Mudansha wear all white Gi and what ever color Obi they have been grade to. Once they reach Sandan the white Gi top is replaced with a black Gi top. Black belts are black. Embroidery doesn't matter. We wear one patch. We don't teach kids under 16 so I guess a multitude of feel good patches and multi colored Obi and Gi's are not needed. I think it comes down to ego really. All of the additional displays of rank and achievements go hand in hand with the multitude of titles and special licenses these days. I have seen special self defense certifications in some credentials on line. ??????????????? I thought that was what we were teaching. You get additional self defense lessons that warrant certification beyond the art of SELF DEFENSE????????????? Bottom line... EGO! "Look at me strutting like a peacock with all of my special patches, muti-colored gi, special Obi, etc, etc. This shows I am better than you because you don't have these." But what do you expect from a society that gives trophies for losing? Everybody is a winner! Pretty sad. I like your post. I guess us old stuck in our ways guys are a dying breed. We wear all white gis. Seido Juku kanji on the left chest part of the gi, and our organization's logo (Nakamura's family crest; plum blossom) on the left sleeve. That's it. Yondan (sensei) and up usually have their title embroidered in significantly smaller kanji under the Seido Juku kanji. When they're promoted to yondan and up, they're given a new gi with their title embroidered on it. I know a guy who trained at an American Karate school. They wore whatever gi they wanted, and even put whatever patches they wanted on them, so long as the patches were appropriate (didn't say master, weren't Girl Scout patches, etc). Their rationale was who cares what you're wearing, just train hard. I respect that, but I just couldn't ever do it. I saw a group picture of those guys in their gis. It gave me a headache after looking at it for about 10 seconds.

One of my summer projects is to paint the porch. I've got a lot of peeling pain that'll have to be scraped. I watched the guy across the street do it to his porch a few weeks ago. That's definitely a workout. I'm not looking forward to that project. I am however looking forward to the finished product.

I think my brother in law is a 10th dan in verbal judo. He was before he became a NYS Trooper. The most even keeled guy I've ever met. Never raises his voice, never gets excited or anxious or nervous. His drill instructors hated him in the Air Force and the State Police Academy because no matter how much they got in his face, he had no change in his demeanor.

Didn't get to work out today. I had a bunch of stuff to do - brought a truckload of 2x4s to my father's house to help him prop tree branches up (that was a workout in and of itself though), bring my daughters swimming at my fathers, etc. I thought I'd get 30 minutes in with BOB, but I'll survive.

Well I hate to disagree but Bai He Quan is very much apart of Karate. It is one of the many Quan Fa that influenced the art. The main reason most do not readily see the comparisons within the Kata is because most do not have a grasp on the history of Toudi (Karate) nor the Okinawan's as a people. Karate is the first MMA if you will. The Okinawan people collected any combative method that they found useful from many countries and many arts. The indigenous art of Ti was similar in many respects to boxing. Muto or Tegumi as the Japanese call it is a grappling/wrestling art. Muay Boran or Siamese boxing influenced Ti by incorporating many of their techniques and applications. Later Chinese martial arts like White Crane (Bai He Quan), Monk Fist (Lohan Quan), Five ancestors fist and five animals fist just to name a few all contributed to the development of what we call Karate. The reason it does not appear exactly like one style or another is because it's not just that style. The Kata is a mixture or melting pot if you will of many forms of combative arts melded into one. The Okinawan people are not Chinese. They respected the Chinese but they are not Chinese. So there fore they will not fight like the Chinese just like they do not fight like the Siamese or the Japanese. Toudi (Karate) is an art unto itself. It doesn't look like White Crane because it's not White Crane. It incorporates elements of White Crane but it's not just White Crane. Just like it incorporates elements of all of the other influences. You can plainly see the elements of the different Quan Fa throughout the Kata if you do the research. hey MatsuShinshii: thank you for that. What you wrote is really interesting. You say the okinawan people are not chinese, would you say they are not japanese also, even though okinawan is a part of japan?( I might be wrong on that part) pink I guess it depends on who you ask (or which Okinawan you ask). Okinawa is an island chain that's been annexed by Japan. Without looking it up, I think Okinawa has been annexed and regained their independence several times over the centuries. I look at it like Hawaii - while it's a part of the US, they have their distinct culture and traditions, along with mainland USA's. They're Hawaiians, and they're Americans. Some Hawaiians may not consider themselves Americans, but I think that mentality was far more prevalent a few generations ago. From what I've read and assumed, Okinawa is very similar. Perhaps not.

Today's workout... 30 minutes with BOB XL 10 two minute rounds, 1 minute rest between All punches, no kicking According to Fitbit app... 20 minutes peak heart rate, 9 minutes cardio 151 average bpm 459 calories burned 1 cup chocolate milk and a very cold shower afterwards It felt great to go 10 rounds with a bag again!

It is a bit suspect, this belt collecting. He's even a black belt in both ITF (old school style) and WTF (modern Olympic style) of TaeKwonDo which surprised me even more given all his other styles. To find time for all of this! A black belt in Shotokan, Goju Ryu and Kyokushin take 5 years respectively, no? He trained them all simultaneously? Well, he doesn't exactly have a 9-5 job. I'm sure he's got quite a bit of down time between acting gigs. And he's probably taking private lessons. There's also a lot of crossover between a lot of the arts he's studied/studying - Kyokushin is a blend of Goju and Shotokan, so he wouldn't have to learn a ton of new kata, and the hand and foot techniques are quite similar between the 3; there's variation, but someone coming from one wouldn't be completely lost. Same can be said for Tang Soo Do. Again, variations. As far as WTF and ITF TKD, how different are they? And again, variations on each other? Technique wise, is TKD completely different than karate? Perhaps it's like learning several Latin based languages; after one or two, the rest are a lot easier to learn. Or so I've been told. Edit: I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say he earned every one of those belts. He's allegedly been training since he was a kid, and having significant previous experience in other striking arts would shorten his time considerably, not to mention that he seems to be an excellent athlete, so things will come to him quicker and easier. But again - what's the depth of knowledge? If he'd stuck to one style of karate and judo all these years, would he be a far better MAist? Would he be at master level or near it?