sdargie

Where I come from being a martial artist wasn't something to brag about either...but look at us now!

Last sunday tested for 8th gup (3rd rank, we count down) and there were a few times when I thought through the technique and then thought, "I'm not going to do ___" and then proceded to execute the wrong technique perfectly. I did Tiger strike instead of Tiger claw, but corrected myself. Double round kick instead of double front because all I heard was "double kick". I missed one step in Taeguk 1 and had to do it again which throw off my concentration for Tiger Rising, which I did again but had regained my composure then. All in all the test went very well and I scored perfect 10s in most of the aikido portion, which I was really proud of, but it goes to show that I have more work to do in being in the moment.

I have a really sensitive gag reflex too so I trimmed the sides down on a regular one 'til I didn't want to throw up. Now I'm not sure if I left enough to absorb all the shock of a punch though...

We didn't have an AP music class either. I found a college professor who lived nearby and took private theory lessons from him to prepare for it. I know my college wouldn't accept the credit but it was for experience and bragging rights.

That's a very valid way of approaching meditation but one should keep in mind that like any martial or cultural art, meditation is just a vehicle to enlightenment and as such consists of hundreds if not thousands of little enlightenments along the way. Don't be discouraged if don't you feel a massive switch go *click*. Everytime you feel a light go off in training or in a conversation with someone or reading something, you've become enlightened. The trick is to discard it as though you've always know it and keep learning and searching for the next breakthrough.

Yo.

Congrats on the Calc score! I busted my hump all year in high school and barely scraped together a 4 so I can appreciate the wheight of that 5. Anybody take the music AP exam in high school? It wasn't too common in my town. I and another kid were the first in 7 years to take it and that guy didn't actually take the test, he just signed up.

Just to go back a sec.. There are three kinds of force; reasonable, excessive and deadly. Anything falls under the realm of reasonable force if it MIRRORS the threat to you. It is reasonable if you kill a guy who was shooting at you but not if you kill a guy who took your wallet.

Well, you understood correctly. Some forms of meditation use an open or "natural" syllable or a candle flame or some point on the wall to focus on. The point being that once they focus completely on on thing, there are no distractions left to get in the way of total awareness of (insert appropriate goal based on religion, philosophy, etc).

When I "meditate" I just consider it a time to quietly rehash techniques in mind, fight against myself in slow motion, think about things that are bothering me or ways to improve things I am happy with... Basically, I shut out the world and take stock on how I'm doing physically and mentally for a little while, usally on the T to and from school and work. One of my roommates is a practicing Buddhist and far more elaborate routines than I do but I can't pretend to say what he uses the time for.

I would be very appreciative if someone had some exact info like that for Massachusetts. The best I've come up with from rooting around the internet is that it's ok to own almost anything in your house or dojo but you can get in huge trouble for having them on your person or in your car. So if somehow they misteriously end up in your house or dojo, don't ever move them. Hopefully there are some people here who are more educated on the subject than I am.

I've been reading a few books on it and while it hasn't affected my techniques, it has improved the application of those techniques.

My favorite part is how it said to not practice ki after a full meal. Wait half an hour or you'll get cramps in your aura I guess.

Makes me drool just looking at that list.

Hi.

Mostly likely. If your body pushed through a limit you are probably using energy for growing and healing instead of staying conscious. It's the same reasons that babies sleep so much; ridiculuosly drastic changes in the body.

There's such a wonderful sense of family in our dojo that even during belt testing we can't keep from smiling and joking no matter how formal and serious we begin. Our testing cycle today is going to be different though since it's the last one before our Sensei moves to Norway.

Roughly 20 minutes by T. I used to live in the building next to our dojo though.

Congrats!

Hello.

BRIAN REAGAN!!

The sidestepping is still true but the knockaways I am referring to use the side and back of the blade so that the blade isn't damaged like you said. There is a ninja defense that uses the blade of the sword but that may fall under a different ideology.

Not true. Having trained in both I can tell you that both swords have a form of "reposte" or knockaway that allows them to parry their opponents sword and step straight in. If anything, the katana has more ways of stepping in than the sabre does because the katana weilder also has parrys on the vertical axis while the sabres are restricted to the horizontal axis in order for their parrys to work and still set up a lunge. Keep in mind that a katana might slice through a sabre (or at least render it useless) a clever fencer wouldn't even allow the swords to touch and just junge at openings.

Rather than set definitions by geography which don't accurately specify between external and internal workouts, why not think in terms of yin (internal arts) and yang (external arts)? You need to do those yin exercises (breathing, meditation) so that your yang (striking, kicking, physical toughness) is more focused and precise. You need to do yang exercises so that you completely exhaust your energy and learn how to find that yin on demand (endurance, stamina, mental toughness).

Part of our art is Ninjutsu, but I haven't read enough to discuss the strategy beyond keeping your goals clear in your mind and taking the most efficient path to attaining them. I do know a tiny bit about the history of Ninjutsu, though.