DarthPenguin

Yeah i second this. From your post is sounds like you are (relatively) young, so i am a little surprised that you are getting quite so beat up at bjj. It is undeniably tough on the body but i have always found it is quite easy to scale back intensity in sessions and make adjustments. Almost everyone who has trained for a while has things they are careful of and (in my experience anyway) wants to work on technique more so is happy to roll more gently sometimes. Personally i rarely roll 'full out' as unless the individual is similar in size, strength and technical ability it is not good for one of the two of you (and since i am one of the larger students in my club i don't see any benefit from just smashing people). Have you been training bjj long? Is a shame to stop training something that would go well with the kyokushin and as bushido_man says the ground fighting knowledge would be good to have

Yeah totally agreed here. The degree would be supplemental. I have a family member who was a professional sportsperson and while nearing the end of their playing career did a degree in sports science and is now a coach. The sports science degree is something that i am aware of a lot of ex-sportspeople doing over here anyway, though not heard about many martial arts people doing it. Maybe the difference is that (over here anyway) a lot of sportspeople coach when they are older, which is usually the same with martial arts instructors/coaches. When younger they are still fighting/training actively. Person i could see benefitting from the course would be someone who has decided at a young age to be a trainer rather than a fighter themselves and this helps them develop skills (i'm ignoring the potential credibility issue with students)

Still all looking good - and nothing wrong with the last rep of a heavy set of 5 being a grinder. When you are really pushing yourself it often is! Numbers are going well though - excellent progress

Hurts's performance was outstanding. I don't know that I'd say he was the better quarterback; his stats were off the charts. But with the lesser amount of time that the Chiefs had possession, Mahomes made the most out of that time. Hurts is a stud. He's going to get a nice contract out of this deal, and the way he's improved over the past few years has been awesome to watch. Yeah thats all fair. Mahomes did as much as he could but stats wise he didn't seem to be as good as usual (though he pulled it out when it counted throughout). Mahomes was the safe pick for MVP and can't really disagree but i just think it would have been nice for Hurts to get it. Will be interested to see if he has made the genuine leap to top tier QB or if it is a Carson Wentz style great season with a drop off again afterwards

Yeah that all makes sense. Will be interesting to see if Purdy has just suddenly 'got it' and confounded the draft predictions or if he will become anothe Matt Cassell (one great season at New England and converted that into a decent contract and was never too great) They may have gotten lucky and got the next Drew Brees - in my head he is the posterchild for someone who shouldn't make it at QB and is great

I never realised that Vegas was that close to LA. With the sheer size of the USA i thought it was a lot further! Fingers crossed for you then. I'm looking forward to this season a lot - should be a good one!

Definitely. Was an excellent fight. 48-47 either way seemed fair to me as i was unsure on the winner of the first round. The judge who gave it 49-46 was crazy! Was nice to see that the UFC kept Volk as P4P no 1 after the fight too. Have a feeling this could be a trilogy in the offing!

Good choice. Wonderful fighter though never the same after that move to hw. Would have loved to the see the Tarver fight if he hadn't done so. Was a shame to see him keep fighting on though - never nice to see an all time great being beaten by guys who he would have toyed with in his prime

Yeah thats a shame but it sounds like it was a good experience (martial arts technique wise). Also, it sounded like Master Kim (from your previous posts) was very sensible. Maybe you could reach out to him and arrange some training with him directly? That might enable you to keep the Tang Soo Do going

Yeah good on you for doing what is right for you. I always remember getting pressure from some prior instructors to enter every possible event in competitions, and even when i had entered forms, sparring, multiple breaking events, getting told off for not entering them all - effect it had on me was i pared back my competition entries. Martial arts are an inherently risky pastime. Competitions even more so since adrenaline is added to the mix. Entering a competition out of obligation seems to me like it is a easy way to increase the risk of injury too.

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!