DarthPenguin

Excellent! I loved Frasier though i have already heard negative things about the reboot. Hope it's good though part of me wonders where they can go - by the finale they had pretty much exhausted most sensible plotlines; fingers crossed though!

100% agree here. Tbh the size/weight is more important than the height. someone equally skilled, my height but decent amount lighter i usually feel i can 'bully' a little when sparring; someone equally skilled, shorter but same or greater weight usually feels a LOT harder (especially if they can take a hit) - it's why they have weight classes and not height classes

Thursday 5 October Lifting session Next 'breaking back in' session Bench Press 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 50kg x 5 55kg x 5 60kg x 11 Seated overhead barbell press 25kg x 10 25kg x 10 25kg x 10 Triceps banded pushdown 25kg x 10 25kg x 10 25kg x 10 25kg x 10 Called it quits there as needed to get back to the kids - intention was just to keep getting back into it which i think i managed.

It is always a tough one tbh. As a simple example i am roughly the size of the larger individual in your example (i'm 6'4" and about 225lbs in American units). My background was mainly in striking styles until i added in bjj and i always noticed the following : whenever i went to a new striking style i could usually always hold my own sparring unless someone was a much higher level than me (i mean multiple dans etc) if i was a lot bigger than them, however, when i went to bjj for the first time it was totally different (and one of the main reasons i took it up). Rolled with a experienced white belt (got his blue soon after) who was about 5'6 and maybe 130-140lbs and got absolutely destroyed. I was nigh on helpless tbh. This may just be making the point again about skill differences though. There is a difference between being big and knowing how to use your size effectively. I think there is a clip somewhere of Conor McGregor sparring Hafthor Bjornsson and handling him pretty easily due to the skill disparity. Also look at Marius Pudzianovski (sp) the former multiple time WSM and his foray into mma. He had some prior martial arts training and he will have always been the biggest and strongest person in all of his fights but that didn't mean he won them all

unfortunately this is nigh on impossible to answer accurately. All i will say is weight classes exist for a reason and you need a significant disparity in skill to counteract this eg i think most boxing fans would concur that Floyd Mayweather Jnr is a significantly more skilled boxer than Anthony Joshua but i doubt Mayweather would stand a chance if they ever fought. You mention 8 years of training but this could be a 1hr session twice a week at a mediocre academy or every day at a world class school.

I've been tempted - thought a series S would be a good thing to get for my boy when he turns 7 at xmas time (an easy joint present) and could maybe use it too! Use a Mac rather than a PC so would likely need to go for Xbox version. Thats a useful descriptipn of the game though - as someone who has several copies of Skyrim on different platforms i can relate to it being consistently good and easy to come back to (punching dragons never gets old!)

has been really good so far. Think it's going to come down to Bills vs Chiefs again from their conference. We just need a non Josh Allen running game. If we can nail that down then i genuinely think we win the superbowl. He is always asked to do too much - throw loads plus be the main running back really. Mahomes can do it too but at least he always (historically) had a decent enough rb to carry that load. Am also please to see Purdy looking good still for San Fran. Was hoping he wasn't going to be a one season wonder and so far he looks legit

Is this not quite risky though - a semester of varying arts is just enough for a lot of people to become a danger to themselves - erroneously believing they 'can fight' and getting into situations that they shouldn't? I don't know, I guess the same question could be asked of the new yellow belt who is overconfident and thinks he knows more than he does. I don't see a problem with learning, or trying out, different styles to see what fits the student. Hopefully they have the maturity to not misuse it. Yep it's exactly the same. We used to call it "yellow belt syndrome" in fact! The difference i suppose is that in a non-semester environment you know that they will be offered more training and can get past it, plus the semester isn't an end point. In a semester course it is natural to view the end of the semester as "the end" and i can see that leading someone to thinking they have learnt all they need as otherwise it wouldn't be a one semester course would it (not that i agree with this mindset!)

interesting, when i used to use these we always had the opposite issue that we could only get rebreakable boards with the crease going horizontal and for some things we would have liked vertical! Might be too expensive but if it is something you are planning to practice a lot more again maybe it's worth getting some more boards with a horizontal crease and working between the two sets?

are you guys playing the pc version or the xbox series s/x version? I loved Skyrim so it is something that is tempting but not sure if it is good enough to shell out on an xbox for!

People enjoying the new season? As a Bills fan i was slightly worried at the start but now a lot more hopeful! We are nearing the tail end of our superbowl window so hopefully they can get over the hump this year

I also recently found out that the actor who plays Dr Mbenga in Star Trek Strange New Worlds is a 3rd Degree BB in BJJ, owns his own academy and used to make his living teaching. Apparently he is extremely good. So Ed O'Neill may now be the second best celebrity BJJ practitioner!

Are people still playing this? Myself i have found that progress has slowed down a LOT. I don't play it as much as it just isn't as fun as the older games once you hit the post-campaign 'grinding' phase. I am used to it from all the previous games (i started with Diablo 1) but they have somehow sucked a lot of the fun out of it. Personally i think it is due to the level scaling but others may disagree

Is this not quite risky though - a semester of varying arts is just enough for a lot of people to become a danger to themselves - erroneously believing they 'can fight' and getting into situations that they shouldn't?

I would say that over here it used to be the main reason for kids taking them up - though i would also say that the training has 'softened over time' since i was little. I would say now that more kids seem to take them up for fun/exercise/parental nudge - maybe due to fistfights (even in self defence) becoming less socially acceptable and common. People used to have a little more honour i found - if someone picked a fight and got a kicking then it was viewed as cost of doing business. Nowadays they come back with 10 friends and weapons.

Monday 2 October Lifting Session First lifting session in months! Decided to go for a light one just to get back to moving and see how i felt in the subsequent days (was slightly more fatigued than usual but nothing concerning) Trap Bar Deadlift 70kg x 5 80kg x 5 90kg x 5 100kg x 10 These felt slightly sticky at first but smoothed up by third set. Could have gone a lot heavier but didn't want to push it too far Back squats 40kg x 10 40kg x 10 40kg x 10 took these extremely easy to get used to squatting pattern again Banded biceps curls 25kg x 10 25kg x 10 25kg x 10 took these light but they were also just as a check and as something to get me back used to moving seated good morning with kb 4kg x 10 4kg x 10 4kg x 10 i saw these online a while ago and thought i would start doing them. Felt a nice stretch in my inner thigh area when doing these so will keep them up Not going to bother listing poundage and time taken for this session or next couple as they are getting back into it sessions

sounds like a couple of really productive sessions! The side spin kick sounds useful also - sometimes these kind of reality checks are good (plus better in a training environment to a real fight). Reminds me of a discussion i had with someone years ago : our usual training was semi contact but someone asked me if i was willing to do a few full contact rounds. We were similar belt levels (so that was fine) but he was a LOT smaller than me. Checked with him if he wanted to do it but he was adamant. Then after he complained that i basically just through front kicks, jabs, the odd straight and the odd low roundhouse. Was annoyed that i wasn't trying spin kicks etc. I pointed out to him that the reach difference meant i could do the techniques i chose with zero risk to myself as he couldn't reach me. Asked him why he thought that in an actual fight i would expose my self to any risk with no benefit. Was like a light went on in his head!

As a Mariners fan i admit to being disappointed that we got close but missed out. Now i'm hoping for a Verlander win tbh - he is (to my mind anyway) a genuine great and i would like to see him have another world series on his resume. Have a feeling it will be the Braves though - Acuna is having one of those seasons that seems almost destined to be capped off with a title

fingers crossed! I've just splashed out on a decent amount of new equipment for the house so am looking forward to getting back into it using the new gear Is there anything more motivating than buying new equipment?Yep! Am quite pleased - decided to splash out on a new power rack with a landmine attachment, a dual pulley machine with 2 x 90kg stacks, a ski erg and some more kettlebells. Plan to also get a grappling dummy and some kind of punchbag (my son wants some more mats to practice his ukemi and som epunching mitts to practice on). Looking forward to playing on it all though not to building it!

Congratulations, enjoy the shiny belt!

fingers crossed! I've just splashed out on a decent amount of new equipment for the house so am looking forward to getting back into it using the new gear

Aikido is one style i have never tried, glad to hear you are enjoying it though totally agree on the white belt though- it is very refreshing to put it back on i have found though I do always try to be fair and make it obvious i have some prior experience (if relevant) - I still remember when i was trying some judo and i went with a friend of mine from a striking style we both did. I mentioned that i had trained in bjj for several years at that point so i was fine with jumping into newaza. My friend had never grappled in his life and got smashed for a couple of weeks until they realised we trained together in something totally different!

Whilst we have UK/International Taekwon-Do affiliations, as far as I can see the Kickboxing school isn't affiliated to anyone and operates independently. But as they are a different "style" it doesn't matter as no governing body would intervene unless between two of its own members. Mad though to have two Shotokan clubs in the same room! When I was originally searching for venues for my club I was turned away from a lot as they had other activities on other nights which would have conflicted with us. A rival club on the same day is bonkers. It's not so much the venue I'm mad at, business is business though you think they'd have asked me if I wanted an extra day first... It's more this Kickboxing school has been in dialogue with me about other things, I provided a reference for my student, and then they book out my location without a heads up. The whole thing feels so underhand to me. sorry i had misunderstood, i had thought that they were another TKD school and that the governing body might have stepped in. If kickboxing then it is unlikely that there is anything you can do unfortunately. Does seem pretty underhanded of them though and not something i would expect out of a decent kickboxing school either tbh. My experience is that most decent schools are usually respectful (publicly at least) towards other styles - are they a legit kickboxing school or one where a mediocre first dan has become annoyed at not being a 6th dan and decided to branch out into his/her own school of kickboxing?

Glad to hear you are feeling a bit better and able to get back to training The weapons class sounds fun too - do you have a prior background in Aikido or are you coming at it fresh?

Thanks! Now need to get my head down and work for the next couple - the 1st kyu grading syllabus is identical to the 2nd kyu (just everything needs done better) and then will try for the shodan one by the end of next year i think. Should be able to get back to lifting shortly too - taking everything gradually to be careful!