DarthPenguin

Hi Aurik, i'm slightly puzzled by the above. I like the structured nature but what is puzzling me is this : if you need to pass every section to pass, with every item being an 8/10 minimum to pass, then surely if the maximum you can achieve on a section you are asked to re-perform is a 7.9, this leads to an automatic fail as one section is now below 8/10? Is it a general rule instead where the sections should be 8/10 but the examiner is allowed to use their discretion where appropriate (tbh 7.9 isn't exactly much different from 8.0 anyway). Am just curious, i do like the idea that you get a clear score though. Seems a really good system, as if you get access to the score and the criteria it gives you clear guidance on where to prioritise improvements.

Verlander got his long overdue WS win last night then. Have to favour the Astros to win it now - can't see them not going at least 1-1 in 2 games with the Phillies. I'm quite conflicted on the Astros: on one hand they are clearly one of the best teams over the last 10 years but then they did have that cheating scandal. Cheating in baseball is a funny one: some cheating is accepted but some isn't it seems like. The steroid players get vilified for cheating (which they did) but there are several hall of famers who openly cheated (and admit it): whether it was spitballs; , marking the ball; using tar etc on ball; taking amphetamines to perform better (can't see how this is different to steroids personally) and many more (i think someone admitted to corking their bat but not 100% on that one). It almost seems like cheating is fine unless it is betting related (totally understandable) or steroid related. Part of me would like to see them go back through the hall of fame and asterisk all the players that were found to have cheated in the other ways - for consistency. I'm not a fan of cheating but i don't see how you can selectively exclude some but not others. Anyway that was a bit of a tangent! Will be interesting to see the rest of the series. Also, if the Phillies lose i wonder if they will continue to spend massively to try to get over the hump: Judge is available and Ohtani might be too!

Yeah he is doing a really good job acting wise. Star Wars side story wise the one i am most looking forward to is Ahsoka, really interested to see where they take it. Acolyte is intriguing too but i would like to see more about it also. I watch star trek too: we are finally watching the most recent season of Discovery and near the end. Must admit though it is my least favourite star trek show. Watched 'Strange New Worlds' first and that was superb - they did an excellent job with that show i thought. Neither of them match up to DS9 in my book though - that was possibly my favourite of the trek shows. I liked the overarching plotlines that ran through it

Just posting an update here as i have always found a 'few months down the line' update to be very helpful for me when purchasing items. Still happy with the gi. Colour wise it is still bright white and no issues with stitching etc. Does crumple a bit after hanging to dry so can be a bit awkward to iron but that's no big deal. Still comfortable. Only minor gripe i have is that it is really baggy i think. That may be due to them talking me into taking a 6.5 rather than the 6 so nothing i would mark down for but i would bear it in mind if ordering something. Generally i wear a XL or XXL in everything i buy and i find this loose, but still fine to train in and that might be someone's preference. Myself, i probably prefer something a little more fitted (might be a legacy form my bjj training where the gi's are quite form fitting) I would still recommend it but i would say just to check / be careful on sizing if ordering

Anyone else been watching this? In case my username didn't give it away i am a big star wars fan! I've been quite enjoying it, not as much as some people who have been raving about it but i think it's solid. I particularly like the fact that the imperials are finally not being morons! Main gripe is i would have preferred it to be about a different rebel rather than Andor. Since we know what happens to him in Rogue One it inherently limits the story. I would have preferred a new character to be introduced into the same story as then it could progress anywhere and grow organically. What do the rest of you think?

I always look at it as you don't need to score 100% to pass. Tbh if you performed every technique perfectly then you should likely be a LOT higher than whatever grade you are testing for. Everyone has something to work on. I was told that attitude is a big thing for our grading examiner. He puts a lot of store in it and it can swing things when they are borderline. I see his point tbh, someone with the right attitude that is borderline will likely take his feedback on board and work on it really hard before testing again. Worst case you fail and you get independent feedback from an expert on something you need to work on to improve. At the end of the day self improvement is what is important anyway, to be the best martial artist YOU can be. What does your passing / failing a grade mean in the grand scheme of things anyway, it is about your own journey and development. I tell all my classmates the same before we grade and most of them think i am mental! I will try my best and if the examiner thinks that is good enough then i get a grade, if not then they tell me what i need to do to get it next time. I don't want a pity pass, i want to BE a belt not just have one. If not i wouldn't have decided to regrade!

Interesting game last night: combined no hitter, only 2nd ever world series no-hitter and the starting pitcher is now the only player ever to be involved in 2 combined no hitters with both of them this year! This has the feeling of a 7 game series. Will be interesting to see who comes out on top. Alvarez seems to have cooled down a little from the beating he put on my Mariners but if he heats up again that could be the decider!

Excellent strength sessions, you're killing it! Rows look like they are progressing nicely too

Wednesday 2nd November Karate session Warmups this was slightly different to usual, more aerobic (more running round the hall) and less static stretching. Kicks actually felt looser during the session so this was fine with me! Kihon Practiced grade kihon techniques. Comments were fine which is good! Kata Did multiple runs of Heian Yondan. Was curious how it would go since i have not been able to make it to class for several weeks due to illness. I was practising it in the house working on the areas that the instructor had pointed out before. Was pleased with how it went, the areas he had mentioned before seemed a bit better. Got a few comments but they were straightforward ones to implement : slow down the initial two moves even further, leave the 'receiving hand' out longer for each of the empi's (i was pulling it in as if pulling a head into an elbow strike as i thought that was the form so a simole fix) and to time the last two moroto-uke's to land when my foot touches down in the stepping forward into back stance. I'd been working a lot on making it clear it was a back stance i was stepping into so this is a logical next step to clean up. All in all i was happy with it. Might still be on track for the December grading it seems - if not i'll sit March Kumite Quite a bit of kumite practice. As usual i paired up with the 2nd and 1st dan males that were there and we rotated amongst the three of us. Firstly we performed some restricted work with the only techniques allowed a kizami-tzuki or a gyaku-tzuki to attack. Was an interesting drill. Did it taking unannounced turns and if you went to close before striking the reciving partner was allowed to just kizami tzuki you in the face (lightly) to show you had your distance wrong. Then we did multiple rounds of free sparring. Went well, i find that my lead leg chudan yoko geri keage seems to get a lot of success, i don't see a lot of my training partners throwing it but with my leg length i can reliably get it up and under the guard for a body strike. Got some feedback from the instructor that i had started to display a bad habit when sparring with shorter people and i was leaning forward slightly into them. I told the 2nd dan that i would like him to clip me in the head every time he catches me doing it as i really don't want to make that a habit - will get me ko'd. He found it an odd request but agreed lol. The 1st dan is just a little smaller than me (he's about 6'2") and said i don't do it with him at all, so it must just be with the smaller folk. I told him the same too: any time he catches me doing it in sparring give me a light dunt in the head - that will sort it! They have my full permission: would much prefer that to a full force punch from someone down the line! Few more rounds of kata at the end of the class. Good session, enjoyed it and got a few good things to work on going forwards

Thanks! Should hopefully not be as constrained for too much longer - the main issue is getting the kids to bed, i put one to bed and my other half the other. When they are both old enough to go to sleep easily themselves then it frees up more time - will also let me get back to judo!

Your understanding is correct i think - they are some of the things they changed! The istari were definitely 3rd age and the 3 elven rings were later and Sauron in his other guise was directly involved in making them. Didn't massively change the story though. The mithril origin changing is a bigger issue for me tbh but i'm just viewing it as a show that is loosely based on the books and trying to enjoy it for what it is

Excellent costumes though i won't deny i was more jealous of the arcade machines! Excellent collection!!

the contact part is a funny one sometimes. It does vary style by style, school by school i find. As an example i've been told at my shotokan class that i should be striking with power and would hit the opponent if not defended (obvious caveats of don't go in like a truck on a kid or a much older/smaller person) but for similar grades/ages students that if they don't block it it is then their fault if they get hit. I actually got told that at a grading if i am leading with the strike and the Uke doesn't defend it properly then failure to hit them would result in me being marked down (as my distance wasn't correct etc). Have trained in other styles thought where the expectation would be that if the student missed that it should be stopped and just touch them at most. Relative skill levels and recurrence are relevant i think. If you hit your opponent more than once because they can't defend it then you need to revise what you are doing / take a look at things. I do agree with bushido_man though!

they condensed several thousand years of in book history into a few years but i think they did it smoothly tbh. Also the 'stranger' that the harfoots meet is not included in the story for this time period at all (assuming it is the character most believe it to be). I did like the identity they chose for Sauron though. It was easy to spot quite early on but i thought it made the season more interesting personally

Baseball is an interesting game - i think i saw a stat that McCullers hadn't given up a home run from a breaking ball in 650 off speed pitches thrown this season! Then he gives up 5! It really is becoming a Velocity game now - the stuff that a lot of the top pitchers have is crazy now. I remember when it was a huge deal that Zumaya could hit 100; the big unit had a scary fastball because it was 97/98. Now it seems everyone decent sits at 97/98!

Tuesday 1st November Lifting Session All sets were supersets. first set of bench press was followed by first set of kb cleans, second set by first set of KB goblet squat. Triceps pushdowns were superset with KB towel curls. Got main part of workout finished faster than expected so added in some arm work - it is listed within the prescribed assistance work anyway and i don't do enough of it! Erred on the side of caution with the assistance work since i don't often do such a dense workout but pleasantly surprised as managing it all fine Bench Press 20kg x 8 30kg x 3 42.5kg x 5 50kg x 5 57.5kg x 5 42.5kg x 5 42.5kg x 5 42.5kg x 5 42.5kg x 5 42.5kg x 5 These felt easy as expected since the TM used to calculate was lower. Concentrated a lot on form, exploding the concentric up fast and tried to work on holding an arch for benching. I usually don't but i know it is ideal form so thought it was worth working on while i am using lower weights KB Clean (reps are per hand - did Left and Right) 16kg x 6 16kg x 6 16kg x 6 16kg x 6 16kg x 6 KB Goblet Squat 16kg x 10 16kg x 10 16kg x 10 16kg x 10 16kg x 10 Triceps Straight bar pushdown (superset with the KB towel curls) 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 KB towel curls 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 20kg x 10 Captains of crush grippers S x 10 S x 10 S x 10 Total workout time : 38.5min Total poundage lifted : 5022.5kg density : 130.45 kg/min

My (hockey) St Louis Blues went 24 straight years of making the playoffs without even getting to the Stanley Cup Finals. It took them 51 years from their inception before they won their first Stanley Cup. I feel your pain. thats true though i will see your 24 years and raise you the Marv Levy Bills reaching 4 superbowls and not winning one! For that period of time there were three certainties in life : Death, Taxes and the Bills losing in the Superbowl! I was going to ask if you were a fan during those years. I remember those Super Bowls. I also remember the Bills beating my Chiefs in the AFC title game, losing Joe Montana to injury. Oh, Marty-Ball, I remember those days.... It is also odd to see how quickly people forget. I went to the Bills london game a few years ago in a bills Jersey with Thurman Thomas name and number and had a few people pointing and saying who was that, he doesn't play for the Bills!!! This was in our still crap days too so no excuse that it was new Josh Allen fans!

3 days per week works better but the issue is the other half flatly refuses to let me have that many evenings per week plus martial arts training due to us having 2 small kids (one is 2.5 one is almost 6). I was doing 3 days per week throughout the covid lockdowns and it worked best but 2 days is what i can generally get away with. That plus karate once or twice a week and ideally bjj once or twice a week seems to be as much as i can fit in and also allow for recovery etc. I try to get to bjj on lunchtime at work and take my son to the karate which means that on a usual week i can get in bjj mon, lifting tues, karate wed, bjj thurs and lifting Sat Thats why i thought the new programme might work best as it should let me get the lifts in but also get a relatively high workout density. A quick google about seemed to show it was a oft used 531 template for martial artists / mma guys and is actually the one that Wendler recommends. If you have a better idea to point me towards then happy to take a look! Age wise i will be 43 in December and i work in a professional job (i'm an actuary) so typical work days are 9 til 6/7 Mon-Fri with the odd time needed at weekends etc if that helps

Now that the show has been finished for a little bit, and people have had some time to reflect, whats the general verdict? Myself i enjoyed it. I think it picked up in the last few episodes quite a bit and am curious about the next season. A Few quibbles but on the whole i think they did a good job

i pretty much go Star Wars themed whenever possible so i have a vader with glowing red eyes that looks quite spooky. Xmas gets a Palpatine on top of the xmas tree; instead of an Elf on the shelf i have a Vader on the shelf etc.

quick update - took longer to recover than expected (hence the lack of updates to this thread!). Finally feeling better now though so going to try a gym session tonight. Have also decided to slightly adjust my programme. I have been following a 2dpw 531 programme pretty much continuously but i thought it was worth tweaking it a little now. Often when i go to lift i end up on a short timer (45min/50min) before i need to be back to help out with the kids, which means i often don't get to do quite the assistance work i was planning to do volume wise) so i think i am going to shift slightly to a 2dpw 531 krypteia variant. This involves supersetting in some of the assistance with the main lift and should allow me to get everything done faster. Programming based on the time now should allow me to plan everything in advance and get exactly what i wanted to do done in time. Structure goes : Set 1 of main lift Set 1 of assistance lift 1 set 2 of main lift set 1 of assistance lift 2 .... set 10 of main lift set 5 of assistance lift 2 for the main lift sets i will use the 531 percentages for the relevant weeks but the reps for the main lift will be 2 warm up sets, 3 'percentage sets' for 5 reps each, 5 sets at the weight of the first percentage set for 5 reps. Assistance rep ranges will be adjusted based on the lift but ideally 10 reps. Will start out lighter to start with to get used to the additional workout density Am also adjusting the TM downwards to start the programme. Took the weight i managed 5 reps for in prior routine and have taken 80% of that for the TM. Increases will be either applied at the end of every 'cycle' or the end of every 2nd cycle. i will see how it is going and adjust accordingly. Goals from the programme are to increase overall strength and get into better condition. This should then carryover well to the martial arts training

Must admit that i am curious about this. How do you guys go about conditioning your toes appropriately at the start? I can see that for an experienced practitioner it may simply be a case of gradually applying more force to the kick, since the toes can already handle it. Am more curious what you do for brand new students. Roundhouse kicks with the toes are definitely a devastating kick - i think that it is what the MMA fighter Giga Chikadze has been doing and he has managed several brutal ko;s from them. I was also thinking that it might be a useful thing to work on a little in case of a kick going wrong when kicking with the other parts of the foot. While it might be a minor risk that it would land in the same manner as a toe kick, it could happen, so might be worth training for a little.

It's a good sign that the other students already feel like they can come to you with issues. Is always a tough thing when someone goes from being a student / one of the masses to any position of authority (be it in martial arts or the workplace) and managing the personal relationships around the transition. Sounds like you are doing a good job! Also, while it is never good for someone to be hurt (goes without saying), if there had to be someone involved in a minor incident that necessitated the class being given a reminder it maybe worked out well that it was your son - it demonstrates clearly that you are fair and don't play favourites! Sounds like the instructing is going well - Excellent!

Personally i am hoping for the Astros to win for two reasons (one of which i will admit is a little odd). 1) I would like to see Verlander win another world series. He is a clear hall of fame pitcher and i think he has been a little underappreciated throughout his career (doesn't have enough CY Youngs i think etc) 2) I am slightly odd in that i prefer the clear best team to win rather than an underdog or someone "getting lucky / getting hot at the right time". I was hoping for a Dodgers vs Astros WS for that reason. I think most people could see over the entire season that the Astros were the best team out of them and the Phillies. Is kinda like the Giants teams that won 3 world series and were never really the best team in any year - they just got hot really I'd also like to see Verlander win a game regardless of the final income - for him to be 0-6 in WS games is slightly crazy!

My (hockey) St Louis Blues went 24 straight years of making the playoffs without even getting to the Stanley Cup Finals. It took them 51 years from their inception before they won their first Stanley Cup. I feel your pain. thats true though i will see your 24 years and raise you the Marv Levy Bills reaching 4 superbowls and not winning one! For that period of time there were three certainties in life : Death, Taxes and the Bills losing in the Superbowl!