JazzKicker

Thank you all, appreciate the recognition!

Luther, I'm surprised you ignored my first 2 paragraphs and took such issue with my brief comments about cultural differences. I can tell you have a different "basis" than mine- but mine goes waay back with instructors and grandmasters that were pioneers and originators. Prime source or 1rst generation, not 3rd generation. I don't know about "American TSD", I didn't even know that was a thing, but it seems to me if you're going to use Japanese terminology, to the OP's point, calling it karate would be consistent. it really doesn't matter much anyway! When I started TSD 40 years ago, it was in a large, insular organization founded by one of Hwang Kee's early black belts (hint: Chuck Norris' first instructor in Korea). Technically it had a lot of commonalities with the Shito-Ryu I'd learned from a Japanese national from the 1950's university system, but the TSD training format was much more militaristic, formal etiquette. The TSD GM brought over quite a few masters from Korea, but they all left quickly after they became established in the US. The organization all but pretended the MDK didn't exist. My perspective changed when I branched out to other styles, and, KMA related, trained in Hapkido with a Korean instructor, and his step-father was a founder (hint, he was in Game of Death). This was when I discovered a lot of what I'd been "indoctrinated" in was... not exactly accurate- and, I'll concede, appropriation is too strong a word, but perhaps... well meaning pretentiousness?

I'll stand by my post from nearly 4 years ago, but add some thoughts based on my own cross-fertilization experiences. TSD is really karate, and more. Put a TSD black belt in a shotokan class, they'll be able to follow right along and not see anything completely new or different. Forms, they'd have to follow along and navigate some subtle differences. But take a Shotokan practioner, put them in a TSD class, they probably wouldn't have done nearly so much jumping or spinning kicks, and their forms would look much more rigid, snappy, fast, even. The funny thing about the Americanization, it really is "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", bordering on cultural appropriation. If you look at a group like World Tang Soo Do, or even the videos with Pat Johnson- you'll see few, if any Koreans. Dojangs have Korean flags, Americans bow, use lots of formality and almost military etiquette, yell "Yes Sir" and mispronounce Korean terms, it's kind of embarrassing.

I would echo the usuals, like humility, respect, self-control, perseverance. There were times in my career that I wished the meritocracy and seniority structure of the more formal traditional martial arts actually applied in the corporate world. I would add, though, something I learned when I grew into the JKD and MMA worlds- "Let it Go and Don't Hold Back!"- when it's time to fight, forget self control.

As part of my initial training in karate, and then Tang Soo Do, I learned the basic terminology for counting, techniques, body parts, commands, etc., especially Korean. However, in TSD my instructors were Americans, not native speakers, so we were all "singing in a language we didn't understand" . A few years later, I had a Korean-American Hapkido instructor who corrected some of my misunderstandings. Recently I've been watching "k-drama" action TV with subtitles, so I was inspired to start learning actual conversational Korean and the Hangul characters. I'm using a language app and some online resources. One thing I was able to do was translate the characters on my old belt and a t-shirt, to see if they actually said what i thought they did! I may not find much practical use, since I don't know any Korean speakers right now- I used to work with 3 Korean Phd.s! But I think I'll get more cultural insight, and it may open some unexpected doors.

https://www.nj.com/olympics/2024/07/paris-olympics-help-a-nj-family-heal-from-the-pain-of-a-stolen-dream.html When I first started karate in 1981, it was at this club. I also did some judo, but these guys were world class, so I stuck with karate. My sensei was Yone, the late grandfather of the competitor in this story. His father, Nick, was my age, though i didn't know him at the time- the Olympic boycott was just before when I started there. His Youtube videos started showing up on my feed, though, so I'm happy to see they're still at it all these years later.

I do the Tang Soo Do version of Seisan. Usually the TSD forms are pretty close to the main Japanese styles, due to the derivation from Shotokan. However with this one, I've seen more variations, like in Ryu-Kyu kempo.

If they could invent something that promised losing weight, better sleep, longer life, improved mood, reduced anxiety and depression, even keep you out of jail, they'd make a fortune. Or you could just quit drinking. I used to take breaks, like dry-uary, but for too long alochol was a habit that flirted with too much. Hangovers, etc. got to be too much, and I quit once and for all a year and a half ago.

Went back to class last night. The corner lot where the incident occurred is now completely vacant, no cars, no hangers-on. and a For Sale sign posted. I think nobody wants to stick around to answer questions from the cops.! So that's that.

The club I train at now uses a room in a church the instructor is an elder. It's in a pretty rough city, but it has a fenced in parking lot, and I can keep an eye on my car from inside. No concerns the last 6 months I've been training there. But with the warmer weather, people are hanging around, partying in the lot next door, on the corner. No cops in sight- this is the hood. We train Tu-Th nights. Well, I read online, last Wed.s night there was a double homicide on the corner- car crashed, air bags went off, both occupants were discovered shot dead. No suspects. My guess is some kind of gang violence. I'll keep training there, but I am a little spooked. Hapkido won't stop speeding cars and flying bullets!

This reminds me of many years ago, we had a student somewhere around his late 40's, he was a smoker. He had sewn a pocket for his smokes inside his gi top. Not that he had them in there during class. Go figure. Sadly but not too surprisingly, he died of a stroke a year or 2 later.

thanks for the encouragement and personal story I feel fortunate my situation is a very mild one. There's a student in my club who monitors his HR with a watch, because he says if he goes up too high, he can faint

I was recently surprised by a diagnosis of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. it was picked up when I went in for a colonoscopy, and they hooked an EKG up to me before the procedure. At first, I wrote it off to being dehydrated and possible side effect of the prep med. But, 2 weeks with a Holter monitor confirmed I was in a-fib 20% of the time. I have no symptoms, no other risk factors such as overweight or high blood pressure. No recommendations for any lifestyle changes, etc. Just keep doing what I'm doing, keep training. Only thing is, taking a minimal dose of Metoprol, a beta blocker. I'm told this problem is common, and even young athletes can have it, though the most common cause is age. I'm 61, never had to take any meds before, so this is new to me. I've always been keen to use diet and exercise to forestall health problems, but this seems like a case where there's not much to do. If anything, I can cut back even more on the small amount of coffee I drink, and be more conservative about the intensity of cardio I do, not push peak heart rate so much. Who else manages this as part of their training, and what do you do?

The short answer is, their rank is almost certainly bogus, and the comment about your own rank only confirms this. Go watch a class, have a chat, but be skeptical. Change is inevitable. Enjoy where you are training right now, and that you're able to. When the time comes for your instructor to close his school, there will be some kind of transition, and your fellow students will be looking for a place to train as well.

It's been over 20 years since my last regular training in Hapkido. There was a small club in my town, I was a TSD black belt, and there were 2 Hapkido black belts who ran the dojang, until it changed hands and became a JKD/MMA club, which I stayed with.. Fast forward to present day, I knew one of the instructors was still around, I've been looking for a place to train, and sure enough. I found his business card on a farmer's market bulletin board. We got in touch, and I'm excited to be back at it.

To borrow from the joke about jazz, Martial Arts isn't dead, it just smells funny! I think the kind of people that would have been the hard-core training types back in the day now elect for the MMA/BJJ scene. I was watching some tournament videos on YT recently, and training reels on FB, and a lot of it was cringe-worthy.

I don't know what's currently done in colleges in Japan or Korea, but if you could get a degree in martial arts, I would think they'd have figured it out. At least in those countries things seem more standardized.

I used to do a yearly retrospective and make New year goals in my training log. Last couple of years, it's just been a retrospective, highlights, lowlights, a summary. The goals were always the same, stay in shape, avoid injury, keep the weight down, get out to at least a couple of seminars. Not too specific or measureable. Sometimes goals don't work out, and it's not apparent all at once. I learn from that, too. Running is a good example, an obvious goal is to run a faster pace, a longer distance. I tried that for a couple of years, then plateaued and was troubled by injury. Now I've cut back on it, since I really only took it up more seriously because it was efficient, simple, solo- but I didn't enjoy it as much as martial arts or get the mental benefits. Recently I reconnected with an old training friend, and I've be going to his Hapkido classes. I'm excited to be doing that again, and it's all coming back quickly. My goal is to stick with that.

One part of your story that jumped out at me is you now have an infant and a toddler. It's no surprise to me at all that your karate practice has been disrupted for the last couple of years! I'm a late-in-life dad, my daughter is now almost 6. It completely changed my life's routines, and it changes your identity and what's important, too. I had a hard time adjusting, and went to therapy for a while. Karate may give you inner strength and perseverance, and patterns for coping, too. Parenting takes a whole different toolkit than martial arts provides. If you have 2 kids I don't have to tell you that. Just consider you're in a different club now, it's normal to have different feelings.

This is a timely thread for me, I've been thinking about how and what it means to train martial arts late into middle age. I turned 60 three months ago I don't train regularly in a groups setting anymore- my old gang moved on or aged out, we got together a couple of times before the holidays last year, but it didn't last. I look around for new places to train, but mostly it's kiddie TKD or MMA (and I'm done with rolling, ground & pound). I do solo training and keep fit other ways (running, cycling, walking). Sometimes I ask myself, am I out of shape or am I just getting too old for this? I realize I'm not going to train like I did when i was 35 or even 40. I'm trying to find that Taoist middle way. I see various memes on FB threads of old masters (the ones that aren't fat with a bunch of stripes & patches) and I wonder, how do they train? Who do they train with?

Back when I wore white uniforms, before I learned to go easy on the bleach, I had a heavy canvas gi. As we began kicking in class one night, the crotch of my pants ripped at the gusset seam, front to back. It was pretty drafty after that!

There are, sadly, people who think vaccines are poison, that it's their body, their right to refuse, etc. Well, more of those people are dead now, or were close to it. I think it's quite reasonable for a club to require vaccination. It's not without precedent, after all! I can tell you personally, the boogie man is still out there, I had it last month despite vax'd and boosted. It was not pleasant, for several days, and I'm glad it wasn't worse.

I'm thinking about a fresh approach, that will be more fun and with less self-imposed pressure. That is, not so serious. Just treat training as play, and enjoy it. That flies in the face of both traditional and sports science based approaches, I know. I've done both, for decades! But in the last 8-10 years, I've been on & off, coming back to it but unable to muster the routine, the intensity, that I used to have. Training for the next belt, or a competition. Training for "life and death" self-defense. Or, only train hard, at the most practical things, and forget the rest... it's all so fraught. Anymore, I just like how it feels, to stretch out, punch and kick, the mental space I get into doing forms. Maybe that's enough, right?

I started in Shito-Ryu at the same age and got just as far. Then I went off to college, and hooked up with a Tang Soo Do club. Forms were pretty much the same. I went through the black belt ranks and moved on to other things from there, but all these years later I still do those forms. Have fun with it! And if you get stuck, have a question, now we have YouTube.

Imagine you're walking down a path, and every few steps, you find a lovely pile of pebbles. You pick them up and carry them with you. After a few stops, eventually your hands are full, your arms are getting tired. You love all these pebbles, but you have to put some down. If you want any new ones, you have to put down even more. You put down the ones you don't like so much anymore, the ones that are too heavy or too sharp. That doesn't mean you shouldn't have picked them up to begin with, it just means you're done with them.