DarthPenguin

Am sure i have seen things years ago about degrees in Taekwondo, so this might already exist. Am torn as instinctively it strikes me as more of a vocational subject. I can see how you could gain a qualification in it but it strikes me as more of a (to use UK parlance) College rather than University qualification. Also how would you pick the styles etc and what would happen with injuries? For a more academic subject you can still study with injuries (i had to plenty of times!) but if the martial art itself is part of the qualification then if you had a bad knee injury and had to take a year off training does this mean you would have to delay finishing the degree? For me an academic course would be more like "Sports Science for Martial artists" with classes in kinesiology, biology, diet-related courses etc. Some history too. With the aim of producing professionals with academic skills tailored to the area and the martial grades being something that the student does on the side themselves (i imagine that most students in such a course would actively train)

Thanks for the response - very informative! I've always had a lot of respect for kyokushin guys toughness - i used to jokingly say that you never would want to get in a fight with a Thai guy as they would even tank a bat strike to the head and i place Kyokushin guys in a similar level of toughness! My shotokan class generally spars continuously most of the time, but the lighter contact would make a massive difference in transition i think. Whenever i have messed around with full contact in the past it quickly becomes apparent why weight classes exist! Are you finding that the training goes well with your bjj or do the physical demands clash a little?

All makes sense - the difference in my head with something like F1 is that F1 is a one off destination even per year and i could see lots of visitors travelling for it (something that Las Vegas is very well equipped to handle). Sort of like the NFL games in London which always have an excellent turnout as people travel for them. Since baseball is (basically) played every day for 6 mths i was curious if they had the population to support it but sounds like they do! I remember the Orioles issue, it was to do with the tv rights market wasn't it? Each team has a 'territory' and he classed Washington as part of his. From dim memory i think there was some kind of special territory agreement at the time. I can't think of a team that would have a territorial argument against a Las Vegas move though. Fingers crossed for you then! Though i must admit that it is slightly disappointing when teams with a good heritage move locations - it is something that almost never happens over here. When people talk about it it gets shot down and there have been demonstrations!

Nothing to be discouraged about! Lifts are going well and the press is always the slowest one to improve for everyone / quickest to stall out. Is there a particular part of the lift where you are noticing it becoming harder than other aspects? Maybe worth adding in a couple of accessory movements to help with sticking point? Maybe even worth trying a new variation like a push press - it looked like when you added in snatch grip deadlifts it really helped your main lift; might do the same?

Sounds good. Out of curiosity, how did you find the physical demands? Were they about as expected or harder/easier? (i doubt easier since kyokushin is known for it's hard training but you never know!)

Ouch! At least it has been identified though so you can get it fixed. Health always comes first so hopefully it all gets sorted soon!

Should be a lot of decent quarterbacks available this off-season for the Raiders to pick from. I think the Packers might finally have had enough of Rodgers - while he was winning 13 games and collecting MVPs it was hard to let him go but he looked like he had slipped slightly this year. 49ers will likely let a decent one go too : if they are happy that Purdy wasn't a flash in the pan then it's between him and Lance for QB1. Likely that Garropolo is the one available but he has shown he is willing to stay as a decent paid backup : Lance might not accept that and might come up. Am looking forward to this season, though as a Bill fan we are close to the window closing : need to get a decent running back ASAP and hope that we get over the hump this year as a lot of guys will be needing paid soon!

Yeah congrats to the Chiefs, it was one of the best superbowls i can remember for a long time! Is also the first time in ages i have thought that there was a genuine case for the MVP going to a player on the losing team - personally i thought Hurts was the best player on the day by a decent margin (fumble aside). Superb game though and was nice to see the Philly cornerback admit that it was a penalty and was fair to call it - thought that was pretty classy on his part

Interesting! They have been saying for years that the stadium needed massive renovation / replacement with the team threatening to leave but i always though that when it came down to it they would end up staying. One question i do have - is there sufficient population in Las Vegas to support a few of major sports teams (Raiders, Golden Knights and Athletics)? I know it has a lot of visitors but for something like baseball which plays so many games i'm not sure if that would be sufficient. Could be interesting though - but as a Mariners fan i hope it is a total trainwreck!

Thursday 16th February BJJ session Really enjoyed this class! The usual instructor was here (it has regularly been taken by the main club instructor who is a black belt but this class is meant to be under a brown belt). Reason i like it is the brown belt teaches this one as 'heavyweight jiu jitsu' so not full of 'whippity fast stuff' which suits me so so much better! We were still working on passing open guard, this class being dedicated to butterfly. First pass was hug opponents legs together tight, reaching round them at the knees. to be used against an opponent with their elbows and knees tightly together in butterfly. then reach for an underhook with outside arm and 'spin them' until you fall into side control putting a lot of weight on them. Liked this one a lot Next one was if opponent straightened their legs out to push you away. Post head onto mat on one side, driving shoulder into belly and then walk round the pass as before (not explaining this one too well!) Third was to a more open butterfly. Taka body lock and on the side of the deeper hand post your head on that side into hip and use head to complete bodylock. make sure my knees are in tight folding opponents legs as much as possible. then with free arm reach under and pull over the far foot, passing it past one leg and trapping it. then drive weight down and finish pass as before. Multiple rounds of rolling. Managed to hit a bow and arrow choke on an experienced guy so i was pleased (also got caught a few times but that always happens). Managed to pass guard several times in most rounds and also felt like i was 'floating in side control' much more smoothly.

Wednesday 15th February Karate Session Warm ups Usual warm ups performed at beginning of class though slightly different order for the stretching Kihon Performed usual grade kihon. There was a slight variation to the sequences to check everyone was actually doing them as asked and not just on autopilot (which i liked) Kata Several run through's of heian godan. Good feedback and just working on improving things further Kumite Decent amount of kumite tonight. Lots of rounds. Doing a mix of leg only sparring, hands only and free sparring. Really enjoyed it!

Tuesday 14th February Lifting Session Seated overhead press 20kg x 5 25kg x 5 30kg x 5 32.5kg x 5 37.5kg x 5 30kg x 5 30kg x 5 30kg x 5 30kg x 5 30kg x 5 KB Swing 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 E-Z Bar curl 30kg x 5 30kg x 5 30kg x 5 KB side bends 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 Total poundage : 4645kg Time : 28min density : 165.9 kg/min

Mon day 13th February Bjj Session Working on open guard passing. Started with a 'skywalker' pass to someone in seated guard which involved a step through with right leg to beside their right side, foot close to hip and then down to knee on belly. Had to start from a really low 'wrestling shot' style position. Seemed ok but not a technique i think i will ever use. Then worked on torrendo pass. Got a couple of different details that made it work much better.. Turning hands a little to turn opponents hips away from passing direction. Worked a lot better. Have never liked this pass but this made it a lot better. Then several rounds of rolling. Was really pleased as i had looked up a baseball bat choke set up on youtube the day before and i managed to pull it off in rolling with another blue belt Overall a really good session. Was especially pleased as had been ill all last week

Interesting. Regarding the knee pain, a few years ago i started to get some really bad knee pain in my left knee and on the outside of my thigh just above it. This was when i was training hard at a TKD offshoot over here. I spoke to a friend of mine who in a physio and he took a look at my mobility etc and he said that the issue was likely cause by all the jumping kicks, with my doing lots of very shallow partial squats (in essence) as part of the jumps and that it was leading to an imbalance in my leg muscles, combined with the landing impacts. What he recommended at the time was to work on strengthening the inner parts of my things and my hip muscles and i went on a regime of lots of sumo stance deadlifts which cleared it up. I was thinking about this the other day as i think i am going to find a spot in my routing for sumo deadlifts too as i think the hip pain i am getting with some kicks is due to a weakness in that area that i need to strengthen. Anyway I might have just been rambling (and this might be no use) but thought it worth mentioning in case it was something that might help!

very interesting, i've never come across these types of rankings anywhere i have trained here in the UK. We appear to be very vanilla over here for most styles that i have encountered: a variety of coloured belt grades and then dan grades going in single steps up to a maximum of 10 (is possible i have just not encountered any of the more esoteric ones) One thing i have noticed on here is that there seems to be a lot more variety / flexibility in the USA. Might simply be a function of the sheer size of the nation since it is (in my mind at least) pretty much 50 country sized entities in a collective. When i view it that way, then things being a little different in New York say when compared to Oregon is like things being different in the UK and the middle east, which wouldn't be a surprise!

yeah. Tbh i can't see anyone at LW beating Makhachev. Only one i can see having even a slight chance is Chandler since he hits like a truck - always a chance of a one hit ko - though unlikely

Congrats! Enjoy the month of having the shiny belt

That makes a little more sense now - i wasn't aware that ITF and WTF were so different : sounds more like learning a new style of karate so starting again from white makes total sense! For the knee pain, could the squatting same day have anything to do with it? (or does it happen on non squatting days too?). Killing it on the press though! I'm always envious of heavy presses lol

What i noticed was the 'rip stop' style ones i have seemed to have decent movement but the heavier cotton one didn't. Though is probably best to just use a karate gi at karate and a bjj gi at bjj!

There can also be positives from the mixed age classes (providing there are enough people to keep the sparring etc separate). Having skilled adults there can give the kids a clear target/view of where they can get to with dedication and training. That can be a useful source of inspiration for them

Nice to (virtually) meet you!

Interesting thoughts! For myself i always found that front squats had a quick impact on my abdominal strength and i noticed i could perform more ab-work in class when doing them. Back squats though strengthened my legs more and i think led to more powerful kicks / other leg techniques. It possibly also comes down to how you perform your back squat. I typically do quite a high bar back squat with a lot of knee flexion as i prefer it that way. For someone with a really low bar squat the answer is likely different. The downfall of front squats is that they ultimately can't be loaded as heavy as a back squat, and are thus more limited.I've got terrible knees, and front squats just hurt too much. A well down, technically sound, low bar back squat is a hip dominant movement, and thus doesn't impact the knees like a front squat or a high bag squat does. Yeah i think the Back squat is more flexible : you can empathise hip dominance (as you do) with a low bar or quad dominance (as i do) with a higher bar, whereas a front squat is more restricted. One way i used to like to use them was do heavier sets as back squat and then shift to lighter sets for higher reps with front squat. As you say, it can't be loaded as heavily, so don't even try to progress in that way

Interesting observation and likely also depend on the bjj gi brand. My Atama ones probably have similar levels of movement to my karate ones but my shoyoroll ones maybe a little less.

Am curious here - is there such a large difference between IFT and WTF taekwondo that a 3rd Degree BB needs to start again? I had (incorrectly i think) always assumed it was mainly a ruleset difference so the grades would be very transferable. I pity the lower ranks that match up against her in competitions/gradings etc!!

Saturday 4th February Lifting Session Wasn't able to get my Tuesday session in earlier in the week due to illness in the house so i decided to combine the two main lifts tonight so that they didn't get missed. Trap Bar Deadlift 70kg x 5 75kg x 5 82.5kg x 5 85kg x 5 107.5kg x 5 82.5kg x 5 82.5kg x 5 82.5kg x 5 82.5kg x 5 82.5kg x 5 Bench Press 20kg x 5 30kg x 5 45kg x 5 52.5kg x 5 57.5kg x 5 45kg x 5 45kg x 5 45kg x 5 45kg x 5 45kg x 5 These felt light (which they were) but letting me gradually build up the volume, Focused a lot on technique and can really feel my use of leg drive beginning to improve with every session Standing single arm KB press (reps = L+R) 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 These went smoothly, no grinders at all. Should be able to keep progressing these smoothly Total poundage : 7162.5kg time : 38min density : 188.5kg/min