aurik

If the Avs can bring that same momentum into Game 6, they've got a chance at forcing a Game 7. Home ice advantage is a real thing when home ice is at 5000 feet. Once you've lived at altitude, you'll know that the lack of oxygen is real.

I've seen several family members succumb to the evils of substance abuse -- both alcohol and cigarettes. I recently lost a cousin (mid-50's) who abused alcohol for most of his life. My most poignant memory of him was when he got completely trashed at my mom's funeral. His father was also an alcoholic and suffered from heart and liver issues later in life. Both of them also hurt those they loved many times due to their dependence on alcohol. I truly hope you are successful with giving up alcohol. Addictions can be difficult to kick, but with the support of friends and family, things get a lot easier.

The Avs are not in the best of situations right now. They just lost Nichushikin unexpectedly until at least next year due to substance abuse issues. Devon Toews was also out on Monday due to an illness. Nichushkin may be a great player, but this is the second time in two years he's left the team high and dry in the playoffs due to 'personal reasons'. If I were the Avs, I'd seriously consider cutting him loose... except he still has 6 years on his contract with a 6+M AAV. It's unfortunate that some people react so badly to fame and fortune.

Welcome to the forum, Highland_Dancer. Good luck on your shodan exam! I hope your training goes well and you are able to put your best foot forward on the test!

Last week was... intense. Good, but intense. We had a total of four guest instructors running the seminar. Three were from the Kenseikai dojo in Okinawa: Shuuji Itokazu (7th dan), Kazuhiro Tomori (6th dan), and Shoko Akamine (5th dan). We were also joined by the head of our organization, Master James Thompson (10th dan). The Okinawan teachers arrived the prior Saturday and spent a couple days touring the Denver area. In the evenings, they ran classes in our small upstairs dojo with the seminar attendees. I attended regular classes Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then the seminar on Friday and Saturday. Sunday there was also an Aikido seminar, but after the multiple training sessions over the week (1.5 hours on Mon/Wed/Thurs, 3 hours on Fri, and 5 hours on Sat), I needed time to recover. Monday and Wednesday night were honestly my favorite part of the week -- the Okinawans ran a small class just for seminar attendees in our smaller upstairs dojo. I think there were 6 of us on Monday and 8 on Wednesday. The instructors were pretty much asked to run the classes the same way they would run them in their own dojo. So we started with hojo undo, moved to Sanchin kata and then moved on to other stuff. On Monday the focus was mainly on kihons and kata. On Wednesday, we did kihons, kata, and kyu kumite drills. To quote Mr. Miyagi, Kenseikai is "different but same". They practice Uechi-Ryu, so they have the same hojo undo, the same kata, and the same kyu kumite. However, they are different in subtle ways. For one thing, on their kata, they target different areas. For example, when performing the nukite strikes in Sanchin, we are taught to target the shoulder joint, while they are taight to target the area right below the pectoralis major. Likewise, when performing the watari-uke strikes, the front hand will strike the side right at the hip (in both organizations). In our organization, we'll strike the collarbone, while Kenseikai will also target the base of the pec. Likewise, the differences in their kyu kumite drills are subtle, but enough to drive you crazy. In our dojo, we are expected to use seiken-tsuki (flat-fist punch) for all of the finishing moves except for the last sequence, which is a shoken-tsuki (one-knuckle punch). In their organization, they are expected to use the shoken-tsuki for all of the finishing moves, except for the last one, which is a hiraken-tsuki (leopard-fist punch). One other interesting note -- since they were just in from Okinawa, Monday's class was interspersed with more water breaks than is usual for us. Not that I minded. As I mention to anyone who comes to train with us from out of state, the altitude is a thing. And it's way drier here in Colorado than you think. I really enjoyed the way they ran the seminar. We were broken up into 3 different groups and rotated throughout the dojo. One group was upstairs with Master Thompson who worked kata and bunkai. The next station was in the rear dojo where Itokazu sensei worked kata, bunkai, and how tournament kata differs. Group 3 was in the front dojo where Tomori sensei and Shoko sensei worked us with kyu kumite, dan kumite, and kote kitae (arm rubbing/arm pounding). As always, Master Thompson's seminars were extremely insightful. In one session, he discussed the "soft' aspects of Uechi-Ryu. How, for example, instead of blocking a front kick with a hammer block, you can use one hand to sense the kick, and use the other to guide it harmlessly to the side. The same principle applies to a punch, too -- gently guide it out of the way, and place one hand on his arm to sense what he's about to do. Other things he taught were how to draw power from your hara to power your strikes, how to be loose when performing the double overhand strikes in several of our katas, how to take some small shortcuts in our katas for the sake of power and efficiency. Likewise, we learned the Kenseikai version of the bunkai for Seisan, we learned how they did their kotekitae (some minor differences and one huge difference), and we learned their version of dan (yakusoku) kumite. Their version of dan kumite is abrupt, visceral, and frankly a hell of a lot of fun. For example, in the first sequence, the attacker steps in with a right lunge punch. The defender simultaneously steps in slightly, performs a left osae-uke (downward pressing block), and a right vertical nukite to the base of the throat. They get even more interesting than that. In the process of learning the dan kumite, we also briefly worked ukemi-waza (breakfalls). I had done Judo and Aikijujutsu many years ago, and the breakfalls were still really good (I got positive comments from all the instructors on them). A number of the other students struggled with them for a bit (some more than a bit). After that, we went back to the dan kumite. Later on in the day, we worked on how to run a kata in a tournament (all 3 of them are senior judges in the All-Okinawa tournament circuit), and ... more kata. It was an amazing experience. I learned a whole lot, and I'm sure in the few days since the seminar, I forgot a lot of it. I got to practice my Japanese quite a bit (since none of the Okinawan instructors spoke much English). We also had a "sayonara" dinner on Saturday night, where I learned that Itokazu sensei is a dog trainer for the Japanese emperor, Shoko sensei is in the Japanese Air Force, and has been stationed to the same air base where my parents got married back in the late 1960s, and Tomori sensei is a current police officer. It wasn't an easy seminar, mind you. Towards the end, my butt was thoroughly dragging.. But if I can try to remember half of what I learned there, I will be a much better karateka for it. [/img]

Both games last night went to overtime! The Rangers beat the 'Canes in the 2nd OT, and the Avs came back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Stars in OT. Historically, anytime a game goes to 2OT or beyond, the losing team is very likely to lose the entire series -- OT games can be brutal. So far the Rangers are undefeated in this years' playoffs...

Tai Pan by James Clavell. I just finished Shogun.

I'm pretty impressed with myself -- I picked 7/8 in the first round -- the only one I didn't pick correctly was the Rangers/Caps series. Now I only picked one "number of games in the series" correctly... let's see how my bracket holds up in Round 2!

The book is about the path he took to set up the rise to Shogun, but it doesn't actually cover the war/conflict or his ascention to Shogun, or what happened during his reign. The other books in the Asian Saga are snapshots of different points in time with regard to Anglo/Japanese relations. The next book (in chronological order) is Tai-Pan, which is set in the mid-1800's. It centers around the opium trade and the establishment of the Hong Kong colony.

Thats the thing. The miniseries ends exactly where the book ends. The stuff that Toranaga tells Yabu at the end of the show, about Selkigihara and the Anjin and his own future… that was exactly where the book ended. There is certainly room for the show runners to write a second season, but it wouldn’t be based on the book at all. Another option would be for them to write a miniseries based on one of the other books in Clavell’s Asian Saga.

Dallas defeats the Knights in Game 7 to advance. I’m debating whether I can afford to go to game 3 or 4 of the Stars/Avs series, since I have lived in both Dallas and Denver. It promises to be a really good series

While being the head coach of any major sports team might seem like quite lucrative, but being a head coach is anything but ideal because they're here today, gone tomorrow. Actually the technical term is "relieved of his coaching duties". In other words, the coach still gets paid through the duration of his contract. If the coach is terminated for cause, such as misconduct, etc, then the team may terminate his contract, but that is pretty uncommon, because lawyers need to get involved. It's not uncommon for a team to be paying 2 or more head coaches at once. Likewise, it's not unheard of for a head coach to be receiving a paycheck for more than one team at a time.

So the Avs advance to face the victor of the Stars/Knights series. Helped of course by Neal Pionk knocking the puck into his own net. There is definitely an advantage to having a few extra days off between series; it gives your guys a chance to rest up and recover from those nagging injuries that tend to crop up during the playoffs. For example, we just found out that TJ Oshie was playing with a broken hand towards the end of the Caps/Rangers series. I recall that when the Blues won the Stanley Cup, Ryan O'Reilly cracked a rib during the beginning of the playoffs, and it didn't really heal until the third or fourth round. Hockey players are just a different breed.

This week is going to be very interesting at the dojo. Our CI is bringing in 3 instructors from one of our sister organizations to run a seminar this weekend: Shoko Akamine (5th dan), Shuuji Itokazu (7th dan), and Kazuhiro Tomori (6th dan), from Uechi Ryu Kenseikai. They arrived in Colorado last wekeend, and as a special treat they'll be running classes for the seminar participants throughout the week. So last night, we had a taste of what one of their classes looks like. There were only 6 of us, Heather sensei (who also acted as an interpreter), and the 3 guest instructors. To quote Mr. Miyagi from the first Karate Kid, "different, but same". It's one of those things where hearing things taught from a different perspective can sometimes produce "a-ha" moments where something clicks. Or where you can look at the same sequence of moves and see entirely different applications. One of the major differences I noticed last night is in targeting. For example, our CI teaches us to perform our strikes in sanchin to target the shoulder joint. They teach to strike at the bottom of the rib cage, right below the pectoralis major. It's only a few inches difference, but a huge difference in effect on the target. Another thing they do differently is to break down the wa-uke strikes at the end of Sanchin into a 3-count motion. The other big difference I noticed is that in addition to the "hojo undo" exercises at the beginning of class, they practice "kihons", or other sequences derived from kata. As a rule, I really enjoy guest instructors and visiting other schools, because they will present things in a different manner, focus on different items, or just plain present new material. I can then take these lessons and a-ha moments, and incorporate them into my karate and my teachings. I'll also be seeing them this Thursday evening, and the seminar runs Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

I fully expect the Stars/Knights series to go to 7 games, but I'm still cheering for the Stars. I'd really like to go to a Stars/Avs round 2 game

So last Thursday I'm training with the black belts doing the dan kumite drills from one of our sister organizations. I first start working with Jack, who is about a year into his Shodan, and unfortunately doesn't know these drills very well. So I'm walking through them slowly. Then I switch to working with Ian, and he's getting ready to test for his nidan in a few weeks. We start training at (not-quite) full-power, full speed, and on one of the roundhouse kicks, I decide to test him by giving him a solid roundhouse kick, which he blocks with a solid X-block. Ow... that hurts my shin a bit -- clearly I need to do better conditioning on them. Later that class, I glance down to see a bit of red on the front of my gi pants. I pull up the pant leg to see that I've got a blood blister the size of my thumb that's pulled open. Well, THAT hasn't happened in awhile... It didn't slow me down, but I did pause enough to put a band-aid on it so not to leak all over my uniform and the tatami.

It's definitely true. We have seen some teams that had historically good regular seasons win the Presidents Trophy and lose in the first round just in recent years. Boston last year when they lost to Florida and Tampa in 2019 actually got swept in the opening round. Once the playoffs start everything that happened in the regular season doesn't matter anymore. Tonight, Colorado and Nashville evened up their series a 1-1, both getting three goal victories. The NY Rangers and Florida Panthers are up 2-0 in their series after wins on Tuesday night, both one goal games. Well, the Avs had the best home record in the regular season, so I'm liking their chances from here out. Of course, as the Bruins from last year showed us, what happens in the regular season doesn't mean much in the playoffs...

My bracket is: Stars, Avs, Canucks, Edmonton, Florida, Boston, Caps, Canes Avs, Oilers, Bruins, Caps Avs, Bruins Avs My neighbors across the street are die hard Rangers fans. They were super excited that the Rangers won the President's Trophy. Then I reminded them that many Presidents' Trophy winners fail to clear the first round...

Happy birthday! I hope you make the most of your special day.

How I spent my night last night: Polishing a sword and watching playoff hockey...

My picks: East: Caps, Lightning, Canes, and Bruins West: Stars, Avs, Oilers, and Preds

So it's been a while since I posted in here. Things have been going pretty well, both at the dojo and in other areas. I've continued to train about twice a week, and teach once or twice per week. I've had quite a few new kids start coming to the youth advanced class as they earn their purple belts and brown belts (yonkyu/sankyu). I continue to struggle with my new kata -- there are quite a few nuances in there that I'm still working to understand. Of course, with a third-degree form, that's to be expected. There are also some physical demands in the form that are particularly difficult for me with my knee and back issues -- but those issues are slowly clearing up. Last week, my CI informed me that it was time to move from teaching the youth advanced classes to teaching the adult classes. He's wanting to do this for a few reasons: he has a couple of assistant instructors that will soon be testing for their (full, adult) shodan, and he'd like to be able to move them to that class. Also, as instructors start getting closer to their shidoin license, he wants to make sure they can teach both kids and adults. So I've decided to move to teaching the Thursday adult class, since that's the class I normally attend. I'm usually the highest ranked student in that class. Honestly, I don't see it as an issue if there's a higher-ranked student in the class either, because a) I have mutual respect with anyone higher-ranked than I am; at this point there aren't that many of the, and b) I'm always diplomatic and respectful with anyone I am instructing. I will say it was definitely a different experience teaching an all-levels adult class last night, especially with two brand-new students in the class (as in, still in their 2 week trial period). I kept an eye on both of them, trying to keep the warmups and explanations at a level they cound follow along with. Along the way, I kept an eye out for "teachable moments", and picked a couple of them to demonstrate. For example, in one of our hojo undo sequences, on the first count we do a shuffle-step forward along with a downward scooping block, and return our hands to a "ready" position. On the second count, we do a quick snapping/flicking motion with both hands towards the opponent's eyes. Well, I noticed that one of our students had her "guard/ready" position right against her upper chest. So I had her come up in front and had her demonstrate the first step of the sequence. When she paused her hands right in front, I just calmly reached out with one hand and pinned both of her hands against her (upper) chest. (I wasn't touching anywhere inappropriate, mind you). Later on in the class, our CI had me teaching the new students (yellow belt and below) Sanchin kata, and I found a few teachable moments there. The first time through, I just walked through the sequence nice and slow and made sure the newest students could keep up. The second and third times, I kept the pace pretty slow and gave corrections as I could. After the third time, I noticed that two of the students were doing the "strike and immediately pull back" in their thrusts. So, I explained/demonstrated how you should leave your strikes out for a moment or two to allow them to penetrate and the energy to dissipate into your opponent. Teaching an all-levels class is a really different experience than teaching just advanced students, and it makes you really break things down into the basics and think about why you do absolutely everything. Until next time!

Last night's season finale between the Stars and Blues was a pretty cool goaltending battle that didn't get settled until the shootout. Oettinger made no less than two spectacular saves, and one of them was completely by accident. Towards the end of OT, the Blues had Robert Thomas set up for a perfect one-timer which he set sailing into an empty net. Oettinger knew he was beat and just swung his stick out there like "oh heck, it's going in". What do you know, it caught the puck off the stick and went careening into the corner. Clearly the puck gods were smiling on him last night: You could see it on his face when they were showing the replays on the jumbotron. The other save was when he got caught out of position, and was able to leap across the crease to stop a puck that was going in on the other side: .Binnington also had an excellent evening, but didn't have any amazing saves like those 2. Personally, I'd love to see either the Avs or Stars win the Cup this year, since my Blues are now hitting the links...

I've really enjoyed the show so far. There are significant differences from the previous miniseries and the book, but they make the story interesting in different ways. I was discussing this with my manager in our 1:1 meeting yesterday, and we both commented that in this series, the character of John Blackthorn is the real selfish jerk, which is quite a bit of a departure from both the book and the movie. And the romance between Blackthorn and Mariko was consummated in a very different way. And Hiromatsu's story ended very differently. One thing I've noticed is that even though I have been studying Japanese (on my own time here and there), I'm having an extremely hard time following the dialog without the subtitles. We mentioned that after Karate the other night, and my Sensei told us that his wife is having a really hard time following it too, and she's been getting Japanese tutoring for the past 2 years. It turns out that the reason for that is because apparently the Japanese dialect is what would have been spoken in the late 1600's, much like what we read in a Shakespearean play is the English from the 1600's. I told my wife this interesting factoid, and she asked me, "Well, how do the actors handle it" -- my answer, "Well, most of the Japanese actors are native Japanese speakers. Speaking 1600's era Japanese is no different than us speaking Shakespeare's English. A little effort for a native speaker, but really hard for someone new to the language".

If there's one place that our style is really nitpicky, it's in our Sanchin stance. However, going back to our "function over form" mantra, while I can usually tell if a student's Sanchin stance is off, the way we evaluate the form is by pushing/pulling/striking the student to check how well they resist being unbalanced (both physically and mentally). The intent of our Sanchin stance is that the karateka is rooted to the earth, able to resist being moved by an outside force, balanced and equally able to strike with any of the four weapons. All of our other stances (front stance, low stance/shiko-dachi, cat stance) are typically transition stances in order to enable a specific attack. We tend to use low stances in our forms to drop our center of gravity and set us up for throws and takedowns. The only situations we use a front stance is with a simultaneous front elbow strike -- using our rear leg and weight drop to drive the front elbow into and through an opponent. And our cat stance is typically used in a defensive sequence in conjunction with a crane block (raising the front leg to block a kick). For each of these stances, we stress the "correct form" such that it is the form that enables you to do certain things. Our front stance has the rear leg straight, rear foot flat, and body angled to create a straight line from the heel to the shoulder -- because that creates proper body alignment to transmit force from the heel up through the opposite elbow. The front leg in our cat stance is the way it is... because you can drop the heel, shift the weight forward, and be right back in Sanchin stance. Or you can quickly raise the front leg to block an incoming kick. For us at least, function defines proper form.