DarthPenguin

In doing my shopping around, I did stumble across a Tang Soo Do dojang in my area that also has BJJ. They require you to get a blue belt in BJJ in order to get a black belt in TSD. To their credit, though, they tell you this up front instead of having you find out after you've invested so much time. Boy I'd love to find a school like this. I had recommended the idea of bringing in some basic grappling skills that each rank would need to demonstrate proficiency in, but the idea has not taken hold. Is always an interesting one the idea of adding skills in. Intuitively i am more in favour of adding something in rather than having to attend a new style/school but that can have it's pitfalls. I remember multiple years ago (when i had been at bjj for about 1-2 years so by no means skilled in any way - not that i am now either!) attending a karate club that added in some grappling. One of the bb's was fighting an mma bout and they asked me to grapple with him to get an idea of how he was. I expected to get thoroughly handled but instead was staggered at how poor his grappling was - to the extent i told them that he should not engage in any groundwork at all in a fight (i did a 5 min round with him and was submitting him every 30seconds or so - someone good would have basically submitted him instantly). This might just be an example of one school where it didn't work out well but it did show the potential pitfalls of adding in things people aren't too skilled in themselves.

In doing my shopping around, I did stumble across a Tang Soo Do dojang in my area that also has BJJ. They require you to get a blue belt in BJJ in order to get a black belt in TSD. To their credit, though, they tell you this up front instead of having you find out after you've invested so much time. Out of curiosity, have they always had that requirement or if not then what did they do with those who already had a black belt prior to instituting the rule?

I wouldn't get too worried about this : the only time i have ever heard anyone at a bjj school be worried about attitude is making sure people are respectful to their training partners and don't hurt needlessly. Tbh attitude seems to matter more at karate (from my experience). At every grading we do the examiner comments on the students attitude and it is quite obvious that a good attitude can outweigh the odd mistake Regarding some people seeming to get promoted faster it can be down to a tonne of things : maybe the one being promoted slower is really into competition - no point promoting them too quickly and into a division that is beyond their ability. Maybe the person who 'looks like' they are so much better really arent - they might be muscling everything, using only one of two techniques, just not 'get it'. Tbh the path to a bjj black belt is so long that you will have plenty of time to make adjustments or changes if you need to en route. It will take you a decade at least (unless you are an amazing competitor at world level!). So do it if you think you will enjoy it. I wouldn't personally do it as a belt hunt though as it takes too long and there is no guarantee at all that you will ever get it.

Glad to hear it's worked out for you! Slightly surprised to hear of a rank in a separate discipline being required to attain rank in your main one, but maybe they find that it works for them. I am a big fan of cross training but not sure how it would sit with me if i was told that to pass my karate black belt i had to get a belt X in another style that i don't even want to practice.

And they are off! Opening day in the bag and an interesting day it was. Aaron Judge homering on his first at bat - maybe he will hit 80! Annoyingly for me Ohtani got 10k's (yay!) but as usual his bullpen messed up and cost him the win (boo!). I'll try to post a weekly update on a Monday as to where things stand - i thought it would make things more interesting and keep the conversation flowing!

my auto draft was interesting too! drafted 4 shortstops! So i may have one or two available for trades. On plus side it also drafted ohtani and trout, though ohtani will require a lot of attention - he needs to be removed from his pitching spot to be allowed to be DH and vice versa. Seems a bit mean to me!

Congratulations

Excellent, thanks for sending on patrick. I've sent you an invite for being 2nd mgr of dummy team. Helps keep everything transparent and above board! Any other settings/rules that anyone wants updated or amended prior to the start? Should be good - i haven't done a fantasy baseball team for ages, used to be amusing!

There might also a difference with regards to countries in the west. Speaking as someone UK based (and taking shotokan) it is not uncommon for someone to get their black belt in 3 years (from what i have seen). Most reasonable students seem to stick to the minimum timeframe throughout the kyu grades and only seem to slow (if at all at 1st kyu). Does seem to take longer than the minimum for most people from 1st to 2nd dan though. This is also under the KUGB, so a substantial and well thought of organisation

Valid point! Totally agree also, much better term

Monday 27 March Warm ups Warm ups carried out as per usual Kihon Couple of different combinations from the usual ones. All focused on correct movement of the hips and shoulders, seemed useful ones from that perspective Kata Worked on Bassai-Dai. Don't technically need to know it yet but was nice to learn it

yep an autodraft - seemed the easiest with people being in different locations and timezones. Also means that the placeholder team is equally drafted so if anyone wants to step in last minute they can take that one

I think that some of the different views also are due to the different meaning ascribed to the black belt level. Some people look at it as having completed the basics and you are now ready to learn properly, in which case i can see why some people would advocate for more dan ranks and assessments. Others (and this is the tack i think Wastelander is taking) look at it as a sign of 'mastery' of the art - you have completed the syllabus and now it is about personal development. To my mind it is more like the bjj style of black belt : once you have got it then it is down to you to develop yourself - thats the formal instruction done (though i am very very very far away from bjj bb so i might be wrong here!). Unfortunately the general public often conflate the two: thinking of someone being a martial arts master after getting bb even if it is the older school 'finishing apprenticeship' that taken 3-4 years.

Yeah it definitely does sound interesting and am curious to hear a little more. For the 'live testing' is it via a webcam or do you have to visit someplace in person? Am also curious how you are finding the online tuition : do you require a certain base level of karate knowledge to be able to reliably demonstrate the techniques and improve them from the videos? I have always found that with bjj instructional videos it does make a difference if you have some familiarity with the art etc. Sounds like you have hit on what you were looking for though which is good I remember seeing a video of a jka 7th dan training with them and performing one of their katas a while back. Looked interesting

Added placeholder team. If someone else would like to be added as 2nd manager (i think this is a good idea) to confirm that no active management takes place for the team then please PM me your email address here and i will add you. Have set the draft for Thursday and set a randomised draft order for fairness. Please let me know if any issues with this

No-one else has objected so i will do that now just so we can get things moving.

If we can't get another player what is everyones thought on my adding a dummy team : we draft it as auto draft, leave everything on auto, no trades/waivers etc (unless everyone decides it is needed for some reason) and let it run in the background. Since it is not a head to head league it shouldn't skew the head to head results and would let us get the league set up

SAturday 25 MArch Lifting Session Still full of heavy cold so cut the volume a little from plan Trap Bar Deadlift 70kg x 5 80kg x 5 95kg x 5 107.5kg x 5 122.5kg x 5 the final set actually felt easier than the penultimate one. Really focused on pushing the floor away. Standing KB one arm press (L + R = Total Reps) 16kg x 22 16kg x 22 16kg x 22 16kg x 22 16kg x 22 Triceps pushdowns 10kg x 25 Was going to do a few high rep se†s but started to feel lousy so stopped there. Also fitted in 3 sets of hip lifts at 11 reps per leg Total poundage : 4135kg time taken : 31min density : 133.4kg/min

What i would take from that is that different facets of your personality/abilities have a root in nothing - the so called empty cup. So it is rooted in nothing, then expands/branches out into something (the unfolding part), with at the root having been nothing. You could then theoretically 'prune' a branch and return to nothing restarting the whole process

on a (slightly) related noet : if you fancy filling a spot on a fantasy baseball league Aurik there is one spot left!

that reminds me of the paradox of the shaolin momks : an order of pacifist warrior monks. I think i read something once on it where they said that in order to truly be a pacifist you need to be able to fight so that you can then choose not to. Otherwise you are simply someone who can't fight. Also sounds a little similar to Kit Dale's philosophy for learning BJJ, where he empathises learning concepts and principles rather than techniques believing that you can then naturally adapt a technique to the situation if you know the concept of how one should work (he says he doesn't have a favourite technique as anything performed is dependant on the situation)

Thats true. It's genuinely a tough one (and no right / wrong answer). I can see how in a smaller style, quality control can be more easily maintained and you just have white/black/instructor. It's once things start branching out a little further that i could see the issues creeping in. You can't just go by the strength of the affiliation/main organisation. As an example (am being a little circumspect here deliberately) there is a large bjj entity who have had several world champions (produced some amazing fighters), who would objectively seem to be high standard of belt level. I also know of someone who runs one of their gyms and got their black belt in a very suspect time (one usually only achieved by top of the food chain world champs), and most people on the scene here agree that this individual does not deserve it and is nowhere near the required standard. But the strength of the parent entity makes them seem valid. When the parent entity was smaller it is a lot less likely that they would have slipped through the cracks.

It just showed how great Gretzky was that Mario was the closest to him really and the distance was still quite vast

Nothing to be embarrassed about! Life comes first, bjj will be there for you if/when you decide to pick it up again! Glad to hear that the kyokushin is going well too

Thursday 23rd March Lifting Session Bench Press 20kg x 5 40kg x 5 52.5kg x 5 57.5kg x 5 65kg x 5 52.5kg x 5 52.5kg x 5 52.5kg x 5 52.5kg x 5 52.5kg x 5 Gorilla Row (reps = L + R) 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 24kg x 10 E-Z Bar Curl 32.5kg x 5 32.5kg x 5 32.5kg x 5 time taken : 37min total poundage : 5375kg density : 145.3 kg/min Also did a few straight leg hip lift sets when i got home (placing leg on a raised object in yoko geri position and lifting leg using hips). did 2 sets of 10 on each leg. Am going to start doing these more often as i think my hip flexors need strengthened for higher kicks! Session today was quite tiring as full of a really heavy cold, but managed to get through it which was good. Amended the assistance work slightly and did a little less than originally planned but got all the sets in of the main lift and main assistance lift which is what is important.