aurik

Our dojo has 2 floors - we have mats on the downstairs dojo, and hardwood (bamboo) floors upstairs. I find that it's harder to balance on one leg on the mats; I also find the mats tend to get slippery a lot easier than the bamboo floors. However, I definitely do not like falling on the bamboo floors!

I broke my left ring finger on my green belt (rokkyu) test when I snagged my finger on my CI's pants leg while blocking one of his kicks - that took a month or two to heal. I also jammed my right thumb at a black belt training session when I tried redirecting a partner's kick and didn't tuck my thumb in properly. That was sore for a month or two as well. Also, in my very first seminar with Master Thompson, I was doing ashikitae with my CI's younger brother, and kicked him in his forearm. I got a bone bruise that lasted about 2-3 months. Nothing that made me really stop training, but I had to adjust my training to deal with those injuries.

Many of the people I talk to who are not well-versed in the martial arts think that earning one's (first degree) black belt is the goal of the martial arts. I have spoken with a couple of coworkers whose kids did karate or tae kwon do. "Yeah, they earned their black belts". And that was it. Our CI, on the other hand, tells students as they get into the green/brown belt ranks things like, "you don't start learning the really good stuff until you reach black belt". And "a first degree black belt just means you've mastered the basics". His school also reinforces this. At any of the adult classes, the first 1 or 2 rows of students will be black belts (or junior black belts) who are continuing to train. Our school currently has about 8 nidans, 3 sandans, 1 yondan and 3 godans who continue to train regularly as students.

I have to admit, this four nations face off is MUCH better than any all-star game I've seen in the past. I watched the USA/Canada game it brought out the skill and passion of all the players involved. I hated the fact that the Canadians decided to boo the USA national anthem (this is about sports, not politics for pete's sake). When the game started with 3 fights in 9 seconds, it definitely sent the message that this is not just another all-star game.

I really enjoy doing our 2-person drills with a partner who really pushes me to do my best. There are a handful of partners I truly enjoy training with -- they are strong enough, fast enough, and skilled enough that I need to be at my best to keep up with them. It's a real joy to train with partners that bring out the best in you.

I've run into this a bit with my son. Our style and organization time-in-grade requirements for every rank, and minimum age for (adult) black belt ranks. One thing that has frustrated him to a certain degree is that I have progressed significantly faster through the ranks than he has -- mainly because of the minimum age requirements. I started at our dojo about a year after he did, but he started out as a junior belt (ages 4-6). When he aged out of that program, I was already several promotions ahead of him in the kyu/dan ranking. Also, he wasn't always wiling to put in the minimum classes required, so the CI would sometimes have his test date slip a month or two while he caught up. By the time he was able to test for shodan-sho (junior 1st degree), I was testing for my senior nidan. Likewise, by the time he is old enough to test for adult shodan, I'll most likely have tested for sandan. I keep having to remind him that martial arts is a lifelong journey, not a sprint to the next belt.

So in trade news, the Hurricanes just told the NHL loud and clear that they plan on making a serious run for the Cup this year. They just pulled off a huge 3-team deal with the Avalanche and Blackhawks to acquire both Mikko Rantanen and Taylor Hall. (Frankly I'm shocked that the Avs traded away Rantanen, he's been a huge part of their team for years). The Avs get Martin Necas, Jack Drury, a 2025 second-round pick, and a 2026 4th round pick. The Blackhawks get a 2025 3rd round pick and take on half of Rantanen's salary. Needless to say, the Canes have dropped the gauntlet. We'll see how the rest of the NHL responds.

Congratulations! I still haven't hit the 1k post mark. You will become my inspiration.

Most of the instructors I have interacted with, especially the ones who have been awarded shogo titles, prefer to be called "Sensei". We always refer to our CI as just "Sensei". Any other (full) instructor is "<name> sensei". The exception is our CI's father, who we refer to as just "hanshi" - he doesn't insist on it, but we just do it out of respect. When the head of our organization visits, he simply asks to be called "Sensei". I have yet to run across an instructor in our style who insists on being referred to by his/her shogo title.

One of the nice things is that Japanese pronunciations are very consistent across the board. For the vast majority of words, they are pronounced exactly as they are printed. There are a few common words that a vowel sound will get dropped (the trailing "u" in desu being one of the common ones). However it's definitely not like English where you can go through something even though you have a cough. Yeah, English pronunciation & spelling sucks.

Last Saturday was my second test in Matayoshi Kobudo (for hachikyu). I was originally scheduled to test in December, but due to the cardiac surgery in November, I had to miss too many classes to qualify to test. No biggie, I'm still training and moving forward. We had four candidates at the test: I was testing for hachikyu, Daniel and his son Ian were testing for rokkyu, and Michael was testing for nikyu. The way our CI runs kobudo tests is that each rank has a new set of required material, but the tests are cumulative. So my new material was sai no hojo undo, but I also had to perform bo no hojo undo dai ichi as well. This means that the higher rank the students, the more material that needs to be covered, and the longer the tests need to run. Daniel and Ian had to run bo hojo undo dai ichi and dai ni, and technically I only had to run dai ichi. However, I volunteered to also do dai ni, since I am feeling reasonably comfortable with it. (Our CI will teach you whatever he feels you're ready for, so we'll often work on things that we don't have to test on for quite awhile). Over the past 6 months or so, I've also been training with the 6.5' untapered purpleheart bo that I made. That bo is probably twice as heavy as the untapered oak bo I have, so when I brought in that 6' oak bo to test with, it felt light as a feather. I felt the test went really well. I was able to get good speed and power in all of my techniques, both with the bo and the sai. In addition to the formal test material, he also ran us through the first bo kata (shushi no kun); even though that is not required until shodan. All in all, I felt that I put forth a really good effort, and I got some good feedback on how to improve things for future tests. And yes, we all passed. I'm attaching the obligatory photo in front of the nafudakake:

My CI has had to tell students that they were no longer welcome to train with us. Most recently it has happened with older teens as they start getting into their strength/size, and their control doesn't come along with it. The last student was disinvited after he cracked another student's ribs while sparring, and this was not the first instance of him injuring another student. It wasn't just that he had poor control, but he also didn't seem to care. He had just earned his shodan-sho, and he never even returned to pick up his diploma.

Sadly I was out of town on 12/31 so I had to watch a replay of the Winter Classic. I thoroughly enjoyed my Blues trouncing the Blackhawks 6-2, and the fight by the captains in the second period was a nice bit of extra punch.

Congratulations on the double promotion! I understand the struggle to train regularly with family obligations. Keep training and keep moving forward!

Many kudos to all the winners!

So I was sitting at a restaurant earlier tonight and heard someone completely butchering "The Twelve Days of Christmas". So I could best avoid it, I looked it up -- Andy Williams, "A Song and a Christmas Tree". Who in their right mind takes a classic Chrismas song and butchers it so?

Congratulations -- 4th dan is a big step!

During the Blues/Stars game Saturday evening, Stars' defenseman Liam Beschel laid a really nice hit on Blues' captain Brayden Schenn that sent him into the Stars' bench. What was even funnier was that he landed right next to Stars' captain Jamie Benn, who was mic'ed up for the game. Enjoy: Brayden Schenn checked into Dallas' bench

Our road to the dan level grading is much tougher than the grading itself. Before the grading, candidates must attend an extra class per week for a minimum of 12 weeks. That class focuses only on the required elements on the test. The instructor runs the class as a perfectionist; he (or she) will provide frequent corrections which the candidate is expected to quickly incorporate prior to being approved for testing. The classes are nominally an hour each, but they frequently run to 1:15 or 1:30, depending on the number of students. Assuming the students pass the prep cycle (some wash out due to being unable to keep the 12-week commitment), the test itself is pretty straightforward. The candidates demonstrate their techniques in rank order -- the most senior candidates will demonstrate last. The test starts with sanchin and the candidates' rank kata, individually. Next the candidates will demonstrate their yakusoku kumite, kote kitae, and bunkai in pairs. The candidates then perform hojo undo as a group and then have an oral exam. Finally, the candidates will be paired off for one or more sparring rounds. As a general rule, black belt tests will take about 2 hours, possibly a bit longer if candidates have to re-demonstrate multiple times (occasionally an instructor will ask a candidate to re-demonstrate a technique).

Many belt manufacturers will embroider your belt for you. I had mine done by Kataaro, and I'm very happy with it. For my extra-long belt with metallic blue embroidery on both tips, it was about $150, but that was over 2 years ago.

Speaking as an instructor, I'll say that a LOT of my time working with beginning and intermediate students involves making these type of corrections before they become bad habits. Looking from the outside, some may look small (corrections). However, when the student makes these small corrections they'll notice significant improvements in the efficiency and efficacy of their techniques. As a student becomes more advanced and experienced with how things are supposed to look and feel, they can start learning on their own and self-correcting (at my school we generally see this happen around 1st degree black belt). However, even the senior instructors in my school (both of whom have been training for 30+ years) still make it a point to train under other instructors from time to time (generally 2-3 times per year). Yes, you technically CAN learn martial arts remotely, but if you have a good school near you I'd highly recommend you check them out.

Congratulations! I found my test prep for nidan considerably harder and more stressful than the actual test. Once I got to the test, I knew I had prepared as best I could, and that my CI wouldn't invite me to test if he didn't think I was ready. Now you get to figure out all the new material that's a part of the next step of your journey. As Zaine said, that's the really cool part about passing a test....

I couldn't agree more wholeheartedly. A good practitioner will have excellent technique. A good instructor will figure out how to bring out the best technique in others. The second is much harder than the first, because different students learn in different ways. An explanation that resonates with one student may go completely over the head of another, and vice versa.

On the flip side of that, the Blues have scored at least one point in every game they've played since they hired Jim Montgomery. Of course, it helps that they're starting to get some injured players back. But I'm cautiously optimistic.

Our style doesn't have kihons per se; we have hojo undo, which is a brief sequence taken out of one of our kata. For example, one hojo undo is wa-uke/seiken-tsuki, or circle block/flat-fist punch. I don't know if all Uechi-Ryu dojos do this, but we will periodically practice these as a class against each other "across the floor". So we all pair up on one side of the floor. The attacker will throw a sequence of lunge punches at the defender, and the defender will defend him/herself with that technique (or some variant of it). We start this at white belt for adults, and in the kids' intermediate class (generally green belt/6th kyu and up). This is one of the way we try to keep things fresh and interesting. We also start with basic 2-person drills/yakosuku kumite drills at white belt (required for 9th kyu).