Patrick

Hey all, As we head into the last 10 days of our monthlong 25th birthday celebration, I wanted to invite you to participate! While most threads that we have published during this time are open to participation, there are three specific ones that I would like to draw your attention to: What Does KarateForums.com Mean to You? An invitation to reflect on how the community has impacted you personally. Answer Our Member Interview Questions If you were not one of the members invited to do an interview, I would still love to hear from you via this thread. 25th Birthday Check-In An easy way to say hey and acknowledge the milestone. I'd love to have you participate in any of all of these, as it's a great way to share with the community, talk about what makes it so special, and allow others to get to know you better. Thanks for reading, Patrick

ABS has added a fun component to the game. I'm not real sure where it leads, though.

For our 25th birthday celebration, we're publishing an interview series with members from our community. Member Profile @DarthPenguin (View Profile) Joined: December 3, 2021 Posts: 1,423 KarateForums.com Awards: Member of the Year (2024), Community Spirit Award (2025), Funniest Member of the Year (2024), Health and Fitness Contributor of the Year (2023), and New Member of the Year (2022) Interview Where are you from? Glasgow, Scotland. Why did you get started in the martial arts? In common with a lot of people, I originally got started due to having issues being picked on. Started to train a lot from a very young age (trained 3-4 times a week from age 5) and found it was very useful in removing being bullied/picked on! Why have you continued to practice them? Mainly because I enjoy them, to be honest. Have had the odd period of time out due to injuries, having kids, etc., and the resultant time impact but have managed to get back to them and still enjoy the training (though I do have to remind myself I am no longer in my 20s!). Please briefly describe the styles of martial arts that you have taken. Over the years i have trained in quite a few styles, though I prefer to focus on those I am currently training in as I can see those being the ones I stick with from now on! Nowadays, I train in Shotokan (which I trained in when I was a lot younger but have returned and started again from white belt), Judo, and BJJ. What is your grade or level? Currently back up to 1st kyu in Shotokan, 6th kyu in Judo, and blue belt in BJJ. Do you teach? Nope, not good enough in my view. I have annoyingly high standards in whom I believe should be teaching! What are your first memories from training? A couple. I remember being a small boy at Shotokan training with a boy who had a plastic arm due to amputation near the shoulder and whenever he blocked, it hurt a LOT. I also remember being 7 and passing my brown belt under a well known Japanese Instructor and looking around to see it was literally myself in the middle of the floor at a large sports centre with spectators allowed. It was rather nerve wracking, and I still remember it! The 80s were very different! What has been the highlight of your training? I don't really tend to think of training that way - it is something I enjoy, and there are always good and bad parts. Most memorable part, though, was the first seminar I attended taught by Rickson Gracie and being very pleasantly surprised with how approachable he was and how much he genuinely seemed to care about people learning from his teaching. What do you do when you're not training? I try to get back into some kind of shape by lifting, etc., plus am kept busy with the kids. Both of my kids are into martial arts with my eldest being very into Judo, so that keeps me busy, too. What do you do for a living? I'm an actuary. Who are or were your martial arts heroes? Film-wise, I always liked the old Jackie Chan films and personally preferred him to Bruce Lee with that then over time changing towards a preference for Jet Li and then Donnie Yen, particularly his more realistic films. Real fighter-wise, I always liked Shogun Rua and Fedor Emelianenko a lot, plus Bas Rutten was always amazing. I have also always liked Chris Eubank (the boxer) and a few others. I have always really liked watching combat sports, too, so if I was to list all the fighters I liked then i would be here all day What are your favorite martial arts films and/or shows? I don't watch them as often anymore (closest I get nowadays is anime like Dragon Ball or One Piece with my son), but my favourite martial arts film flip flops between Ong Bak and The Raid. Both are awesome. Where do you see yourself going in your martial arts journey in the next few years? I am due to sit for my Shotokan Shodan this year so hopefully I pass that fine! Longer term, I would love to get to Sandan in Shotokan and ideally also Judo and BJJ black. It would be a tough ask (and likely hurt a lot on the way), but it would mean a lot to me. Do you remember how you found KarateForums.com? Why did you join? I cant remember to be honest - I think I was Googling with something I was curious about and the site came up. I had a read and was interested and then signed up! Why did you stay? I found it quite interesting and there were a lot of really useful bits of information available. You've been a member since December 3, 2021. During this time, how has KarateForums.com changed in your eyes, if at all? The general atmosphere and culture seems unchanged though it does feel like people have been a little less active over the last couple of years. Seems to have taken a little bit of an upturn recently though! How, if at all, have you used KarateForums.com in your classes or training? I have asked a few questions in the past about additional flexibility work and some of the responses were really useful and pointed me in interesting directions, though I still do currently have the flexibility of a steel bar! Are there any members here who have had a particular influence or impact on you? I find @bushido_man96 to often have a lot of interesting stuff to say. He seems to have a very similar outlook on the martial arts in general, and things like physical fitness alongside them, to mine, so U often get a lot out of reading his posts. Plus, he is a lot more experienced than me so it is always informative!

It's funny, I was actually just reading through this page: https://www.baseball-reference.com/friv/abs-challenges.shtml Baseball Reference just launched a page with ABS challenge data, and it's pretty interesting.

Hey all, As celebrate our history in honor of our 25th birthday, one of the areas that we have reflected on is the KarateForums.com Awards program. Through these awards, our community recognizes some of the outstanding contributors to KarateForums.com. As part of our ongoing celebration, we published a retrospective of the KarateForums.com Awards, where you can take a deeper look at the history of the program. We've had 24 iterations of the awards, where 69 different members have been honored 211 times, with members casting a grand total of 2,534 votes. As I considered addition ways to pay tribute to our history, I thought it would be great to have KarateForums.com Awards honors listed on member profiles, and so we have gone back and done so. For example, please see the profiles of the most recent members who were honored in our 2025 edition: @bushido_man96, @DarthPenguin, @KarateKen, @Spartacus Maximus, and @Wastelander. The 25th annual KarateForums.com Awards will kick off in October. Thanks, Patrick

Thank you for sharing with us, @Montana, and for all of your contributions over the years.

For our 25th birthday celebration, we're publishing an interview series with members from our community. Member Profile @Montana (View Profile) Joined: April 18, 2007 Posts: 989 KarateForums.com Awards: Instructor and School Owners Contributor of the Year (2024) Interview Where are you from? Born, raised, and lived in Montana for the first 55 years of my life, except for a stint in the US Army. Currently near Deer Park, Washington, and HATE IT HERE! Why did you get started in the martial arts? I started in January of 1975 because of the Bruce Lee movies mainly. I found it fascinating! Why have you continued to practice them? I've always been amazed at what you can do in the arts. How you can manipulate bodies. Please briefly describe the styles of martial arts that you have taken. I've only "taken" one style. Okinawan Shorin Ryu Matsumura Seito Karate. I have taken many hours of watching other systems in how they do things. What is your grade or level? Yandan (4th Dan Black Belt). Do you teach? I taught from Fall 1978 thru early 2005. What are your first memories from training? There were many, too numerous to list. What has been the highlight of your training? Meeting the head of our system, Sensei Kuda Yuichi, during his first trip to America, sponsored by my sensei, Denny Miller. This was in June 1978 when I tested for Shodan before Sensei Kuda. What do you do when you're not training? Work, work, and more work... What do you do for a living? Currently, I drive school sports teams wherever they have to go for competitions. Who are or were your martial arts heroes? I don't really have any martial arts heroes. Where do you see yourself going in your martial arts journey in the next few years? I'm retired for the most part. No longer actively teaching, but I do a little judging and help out a dojo or two now and then. Do you remember how you found KarateForums.com? Why did you join? It was so long ago, I really don't remember how I found it, or why I joined. Why did you stay? I found the discussions interesting and informative. I don't always agree with what is presented, and my big mouth has gotten me into trouble more than once on here, lol. You've been a member since April 18, 2007. During this time, how has KarateForums.com changed in your eyes, if at all? There are less people actively posting now than there were. I guess we've hammered it all out? lol. Are there any members here who have had a particular influence or impact on you? There aren't many doing the same system on here. I read what they post, agree or disagree, sometimes add my own perspective. I can't really say anybody on here has influenced me.

Thanks @DarthPenguin! Glad that you like it.

Hey all, As we've celebrated various milestones over the years, one of the questions that I have come back to, time and time again, is this: What does KarateForums.com mean to you? The question tends to surface randomly when we are reflecting, but when I do ask it, as I did when KF turned 10 and when we turned 20, or when the question is highlighted in articles (like these by bushido_man96 and sensei8), we get the most amazing answers. They talk about the community, the people in it, and the feeling that it has created. In honor of our 25th birthday, I'd love to invite you to reflect on this question and reply here. What does KarateForums.com mean to you? How have the members in it supported you? Thank you for taking the time and for sharing with us. Patrick

Thank you for sharing this with us, Bob (@sensei8)! Your earnest nature is something that I've always appreciated, and it shines through here. I appreciate you.

Hey all, As part of our 25th birthday celebration, I would like to announce the launch of our new Training Logs forum. I went back to try to find when members started to use our forum this way, and I found a training log that @Symphony-x started almost 20 years ago, on November 29, 2006. In January of 2007, @bushido_man96 (Brian) started a thread that was open to all, and many people have used that thread over the years. Although it has 5,674 posts in all, only 1,893 of those belong to Brian. In fact, 7 other members have posted more than 100 times, and the thread has been viewed over 500,000 times. That encouraging environment that Brian created inspired several other threads over the years, including a martial arts technique log from @gzk, and individual training log threads from @Karate4Life (here), @Wayofaswede (here), @DarthPenguin (here), and @camotheman (here). In honor of this interest, we would like to try to give these training logs their own space, which will hopefully encourage continued logging by those who already do it - and new threads from additional members thanks to this fresh burst of encouragement. Ultimately, it could also be good to separate them from more traditional discussion threads, as well. A big thanks to Symphony-x for starting the first one (that I could find) and Brian for building the momentum that helped members to share their regular training habits here with the community, which is really what leads us to starting this new forum. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know. Thank you for reading. Patrick

In this forum, you can create an ongoing thread where you document your training. The definition of "training" is open-ended. It could be exercise and physical training, your martial arts training, or perhaps some other form of training. For inspiration on what your thread might look like, please see examples by DarthPenguin, Wayofaswede, and camotheman. If you're not quite ready to start your own thread, you can also contribute to bushido_man96's training log, which is open to all. Thank you for reading.

Thank you for the kind words, Brian (@bushido_man96). It's very touching to read, not just what you said about me, but especially how deeply the community has impacted you over the last 20+(!) years. It's such a beautiful thing. In turn, you have played an important role in making this place as special as it is and are one of KarateForums.com's greatest champions. Not in the "I won a tournament" martial arts sense, but in the personal sense, as an unselfish, thoughtful supporter of what this community can be at its very best. I am grateful for all of your efforts on staff, for your contributions here, and for your friendship.

For our 25th birthday celebration, we're publishing an interview series with members from our community. We did this back in 2013, and bushido_man96 was one of the members that participated. Member Profile @bushido_man96 (View Profile) KarateForums.com Sensei Joined: March 31, 2006 Posts: 31,212 KarateForums.com Awards: Community Spirit Award (2025, 2024, 2022, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006), Staff Member of the Year (2025, 2024, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2016, 2009, 2007, 2006), Health and Fitness Contributor of the Year (2025, 2024, 2022, 2020, 2019, 2014, 2013), and Article of the Year (2014, 2007) Interview Where has your martial arts journey taken you, since November 2013? Since 2013, I’ve hit several milestones. I tested for and passed for 4th dan in December 2013. In December 2024, about 11 years later, I tested for and passed my 5th dan. During that time, the Taekwondo school where I assist with teaching changed hands. I also went back to an Aikido dojo where my good friend is the sensei and have been attending regular classes and attaining rank. Incidentally, my hiatus from Aikido also lasted that 11 years. I’ve recently started attending regular Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes. In addition, I’ve had some opportunities to cross-train. What is your grade or level now? Taekwondo: 5th dan. Aikido: 5th Kyu. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: White belt. Combat Hapkido: 4th Gup, but no longer active. When I asked you the highlight of your training back in 2013, you mentioned an ATA instructor certification camp, instructor seminars with Grandmaster Sun Yi, attending a G.R.A.C.I.E. course taught by Royce Gracie, and connecting in-person with @sensei8. Do you have any new highlights to add? I’ve attended several different defensive tactics courses for work and have been building a curriculum for the department I work for. I was excited to achieve the rank of 5th dan in Taekwondo, which I had put off for far too long. I also helped build the curriculum for a women’s self-defense seminar that our Taekwondo school holds every year, and I assist with teaching it as well. My favorite highlight, however, would have to be the cross-training seminars that I’ve been able to be a part of in a teaching capacity over the past few years. In the first cross-training weekend that we had, the seminar consisted of sessions taught by three different Taekwondo instructors (myself, the owner of our school, and another instructor from Colorado Springs, Colrado), two senseis from a Shorin Ryu Karate dojo, my Aikido sensei, my former Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach, and my former defensive tactics head coach from our local university. Each instructor was able to present material pertinent to their particular styles and journeys, and it was open to the students of each of the schools, as well. I immensely enjoyed teaching and training in these seminars. I learned a lot, and the best part is that all of the instructors get to sit around and nerd out about martial arts together. Each time we teach, it challenges me to come up with something I feel good about presenting to the group. The last few times we were short a few of these instructors but, by and large, we have a consistent group that meets to cross-train at least a few times a year. Where do you see yourself going in your martial arts journey in the next few years? Over the course of the next few years, I plan to continue to consistently train in Taekwondo, Aikido, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, with a focus on continuing to attain rank in Aikido and hopefully Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. How would you sum up the last 13 years of your life? Boy time flies! Over the past 13 years, I’ve had two children graduate high school and enter college, my youngest started high school, and I’ve become a grandfather three times over. I’ve also had my 20-year work anniversary with the sheriff’s office, along with my 21st wedding anniversary. Chasing kids’ sports and activities, chasing martial arts goals, and life in general has gotten busy! My wife has also pursued new goals in her professional life and has recently attained another degree and started attending graduate school. Things are picking up! Why are you still visiting KarateForums.com? I continue to visit KarateForums.com because it is the constant in my martial arts life. My work schedule throws my training into flux throughout the year, but KarateForums.com is always there for me to go to, even when I can’t train. The community here is supportive and encouraging and I always enjoy dropping in and reading posts, offering some comments when I can, and learning things from the members here. Being a part of KarateForums.com has become a part of my martial arts life. It also keeps me accountable to my own training. If I’ve been lazy, reading posts on training logs or posts that are questions about training, they’ll give me the kick in the pants that I need to get off my butt and get back to work. What’s changed in the community over the last 13 years? Traffic has ebbed and flowed and members come and go (and some come back again). I really think traffic is back on the rise now. The site migration has been a most welcome improvement (I was nervous about the change at first; you know, change and all…). Some things in the forums have been consolidated and renamed, but overall, the experience is still the same. The same quality of community exists here. What do you think it says about the community that we are doing this again, so many years later? It speaks to the quality of the members, the moderators, and the culture that has been developed here. Like training mandates in so many martial arts (but often fails to exemplify when it comes to trying to discuss them), KarateForums.com is built upon respect, humility, perseverance, self-control, and indomitable spirit. It honestly goes back to the vision that you, @Patrick, founded the community on; a place where any stylist with any amount of experience could come and express their thoughts, ideas, or questions, in an environment that encourages discussion instead of conflict. There’s no chest pounding, there’s no condescension. The community has been built on respect and courtesy, and it continues to thrive because the members here realize that so much more can be learned and achieved from each other by interacting in this way. When we spoke back in 2013, you were a Sensei, and you are still one today. Why have you remained committed to the community in this way? The simple answer is because I love it. I enjoy the community and being an ambassador for the community. When I found this site, I really fell in love with it and with the interactions in the forums. When I was asked to join the moderation team, I learned more of how and why this community is so great, and being able to continue to foster the culture here and being able to work to maintain such a great community is very rewarding. I’d like to end by repeating the last three questions I asked you previously, as I think these answers can change over time – or not. But they are worth asking for the sake of identifying what makes this community so special. How, if at all, have you used KarateForums.com in your classes or training? This is kind of the same answer as last time. I really try to approach my training in different ways depending on the day. It’s affected by conversations I’ve had here at KarateForums.com. Someone might mention something in a post about an approach to a technique, or about a strategy or nuance of sparring, and I’ll think about it and take it into class with me and see if I can use it or try it and see how it works with what I’m doing that particular class. Someone might make a point about something in class, and I’ll compare and contrast that with how someone here might have related to it. It helps me to think of the martial arts on a broader level as a whole and helps me to think outside of my training boxes. Are there any members here who have had a particular influence or impact on you? There are so many! Last time I mentioned sensei8, @DWx, @tallgeese, and @ps1, and there were so many more that I interacted with quite a bit that have been gone for some time. Since that time, members like @Wastelander, @aurik, @Spartacus Maximus, @DarthPenguin, and @Wado Heretic have all been influential to me. I know there have been more, and I apologize for leaving anyone out! I’d like to list the entire roster! Can you share a memorable moment within the community where you received great advise or an experience that really affected you and your martial arts journey? Aside from my previous response, it’s very difficult to recall one particular moment over any others. The support that I’ve received from the community members always go with me when I teach a class, or attempt a grading, or attend a seminar, or teach a seminar. Just knowing I can come back to KarateForums.com after a class or other event and share my thoughts and experiences here affects my martial arts journey.

Thank you for being a part of this community, @Drew! I appreciate all of the contributions that you have made. Patrick