Zaine

It's that wonderful time of year when we all set resolutions for the upcoming year. What are you martial arts (or non-martial arts) related resolutions this year? Before you choose, let's talk about making resolutions. I'm sure we've all made goals that we have failed to stick to. 12 months is a long time and bad habits die hard. The best way to create new habits (e.g. exercise more) is to create short term goals as "mile markers" to the longer term results you want? Do you want to lose 50 pounds? Break that up into 5 pound increments. That way, you have a better idea of where you are in the process, and you have a lot of different victories planned on the way. Want to just exercise more? Instead of committing to going to the gym 5 days a week from the jump, commit to 2 days a week and re-evaluate once a month if you're wanting to do more. Furthermore, find an exercise (or program) that you have fun doing! Exercise doesn't have to be a chore! I like riding bikes, so when I want to exercise, I ride a bike or stationary bike because I like doing it. When you like doing something, you're more likely to do it without having to convince yourself to do so. Finally, don't feel the need to set long-term resolutions. A few years ago, I made a resolution to do 1000 kata in January. I accomplished it! It was a lot of work, and some days were easier than others, but it was a lot of fun and it felt good to finish. That good feeling helped me set other goals throughout the year. Now, without further ado. Martial arts resolutions: Grand champion in a tournament This is ultimately a goal that will be realized in January 2027. The circuit I compete in holds their grand championships in January after all the regular tournaments of the year have finished. Still, this goal will help me remember to train consistently so that I am placing well in the regular tournaments so that I qualify. Even if I don't achieve this, it will still result in me becoming a better martial artist. Learn Nipaipo I just like this kata and have had my eye on it for a while. Continue Kobudo I love kobudo Publish something related to Martial Arts I am thinking about potentially pivoting this into just making more karate content for tiktok/social medial. I could do both, but I don't want to overload myself. My passion is writing, so I usually default to that. Non-martial arts resolutions: Fully heal from tendonitis In September, I developed tendonitis in my right foot. It has been rough to deal with and I have let it tank my mental health. It has also kept me from training martial arts since September. Be more proactive with my mental health 2025 was a rough year for me. With medical issues, and a hospitalization for mental health, it wasn't my best year. I want to be more present in 2026 and more active in my management of my mental state.

$100M isn't a bad price, but I think Paul let his ego get the best of him in his decision to accept this fight. Like you said, he's a novelty boxer. Part of the bit is the tendency of people to hate watch the bouts in the hopes that he gets knocked out. It's possible that he took this fight to deliver that and create a comeback narrative, but there had to be a less painful way of doing so. In any event, I would be lying if I said I didn't watch the highlight reel more than a few times.

Congrats to all the winners!

I'm sorry to hear about your struggles. Martial arts for me is a solace and I often fall into it deeper when I am struggling with my mental health. I'm deeply saddened to hear that the martial arts community at large, a community that has made me feel so welcome and understood, has made you feel isolated. If you feel comfortable talking about it, I am interested in hearing about your experiences with martial arts. You have posted in the past about not meshing well with the sensei in your dojo who teaches the classes that you are most easily able to attend. Do you think that another dojo might be a better fit for you? That said, and I want to be clear on my stance, if your mental health is suffering because of your involvement in martial arts, then you need to prioritize your mental health and withdraw from martial arts as a whole. At the end of the day, martial arts is a hobby for most martial artists. If this hobby is having a negative impact on your life, then the only people who would put you down for leaving it behind are people you should not be associating with. Martial arts are optional, and while I love martial arts and wish that everyone would do them, I understand that there are a lot of things that need to be worked on in the broader martial arts community to make it a better, more welcoming place. Take some time away. If you end up getting the itch to come back, find a dojo promotes a culture and community that works for you. If you never feel the itch to return, that's okay too. Again, I'm sorry that your community has let you down and impacted you in a negative way. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

In the event where x=martial arts, then sure, I understand what your argument is. However, there are a lot of variables here that might need to be considered. Karate, for example, often favors the defender in its core techniques. We're also assuming the bully is as dedicated as the victim to practicing their martial arts. However, size and strength are a factor in situations where there is equal training. The more valuable training here will be the situational awareness that the potential victim has. Martial arts, especially when taught to children, aren't solely about the techniques themselves. Training also imparts discipline, self-confidence, higher awareness, and in many cases, a cooling of the more aggressive tendencies. I doubt that a public school teacher is going to take the time to delve into the bunkai of every kata that they teach and given our understanding of assault statistics against children, it will be far more useful to focus on training the students on how to escape an adult than other children. When I teach a kids class, my lessons often involve the assumption that, should they need to employ their training, it will be against an adult (in which case the focus is on distraction, striking specific targets if necessary, and escape). You're seeing martial arts training as a means to an end for fighting, but when teaching children, that is almost never the goal. As an aside, you bemoan the lack of others giving you no opposing argument but you have not met them with an opposing argument in kind based on your description. You have simply pointed out how their reasoning is, in your opinion, faulty. Do you think that it would be good to teach martial arts in school? Why or why not?

In schools that teach the same style, especially when those schools are linked by organization, I think the argument for maintaining previous rank is perfectly valid. I see no reason why one student who does JKA Shotokan should not maintain their rank when joining another JKA Shotokan school to further their education. Of course, I would expect that they be required to prove their skill level in whatever way is appropriate. Usually, attending a few classes with the new dojo gives the instructors all the information they need on whether the student is telling the truth about their previous rank. Outside of these situations, however, I see no reason that any instructor of a different system should be expected to agree to allow someone transfer their rank to a new system. I have a Nidan in Matsumura-Seito Shorin Ryu, but when I began Shobayashi Ryu I took a white belt. I did this because I am not a Nidan, or even a Shodan, in Shobayashi Ryu. I have a command of the basics and the kata were easy for me to adapt to despite the differences. However, the belt and rank for Shobayashi represents my education in Shobayashi. It didn't take away my training in Matsumura-Seito, nor did I get partnered with people far below my skill level when needed. Rank is merely a useful tool for instructors and students to gauge where they are at in a curriculum. Perhaps my 7th kyu belt wasn't an accurate representation of my overall skill level, but it was an accurate representation of what I was currently learning in Shobayashi. In turn, my ability to assimilate into Shobayashi at a rapid pace because of my previous training was recognized in that I was tested more frequently with time requirements waved when necessary. In the end, rank matters a lot more to those who have not been in martial arts long. Practice long enough, and you begin to realize that rank is merely a representation of understanding within a particular system. You wouldn't, as a karate black belt, walk into a BJJ gym demanding to be recognized as a black belt. The skill set is different. Wearing a "lower" rank is not a big deal and perhaps it takes reaching black belt to understand that, but it comes to all with time. I'm also not sure what you're getting at when you say that it complicates things or creates unresolved problems between schools to compete at your highest rank. It has never been an issue at tournaments that I have attended. When I go to tournaments, I am not representing the school, but my own training. Could you expand on what issues you see being created here?

Congrats!

Sorry, I should have been more clear. Where did you find this information? I would like to read into it myself.

I don't think him adding things negates the statement that he insisted on teaching everything that Itosu passed on. As to the final statement, I don't know enough about Itosu's personal karate to make a comment on his teaching Tomari-Te. I was under the impression that he was largely in the Shuri-Te camp. Do you have more information about his study of Tomari-Te?

I can't find a source for this. Where did you hear this story?

If you're good with audio books, I find that older books work a lot better when listened to. I do read a lot of science fiction. Sci-fi/Fantasy is largely what I read for entertainment.

I'm not really a horror movie guy, they just don't interest me that much. That is, unless there are zombies involved. I love a zombie movie. Night of the Living Dead wasn't the first zombie movie I ever watched, but it is the one I probably I watch the most.

I share your worries, Bob. The negative impact of AI use aside, as a writer and scholar I hate what it's doing to academia and creative writing. AI should be a tool to assist us, not take over. I don't want to see AI videos, I don't want to read AI stories, I want human interaction. In this, I saw someone post either last year or early this year that "AI accidentally made me believe in the concept of a human soul by showing me what art looks like without it." There was an AI model that, despite not being initially designed to do so, learned how to detect cancer far earlier than we could. That's what AI needs to be used for.

Excited to see what you think about it! The language can take a minute to get used to, but once you do it's smooth sailing.

+1 for reading Frankenstein. A lot of books from that era are written to the audiences of that era and can feel archaic to modern readers. Frankenstein grips you, though. Mary Shelley hit it out of the park. Also, it's the first sci-fi novel ever and, if nothing else, understanding the origins of sci-fi is a really interesting use of time.

One can only hope!

We're really excited for the upcoming Frankenstein by Guillermo Del Toro.

I posted this and then had more thoughts. I want to come back to this point, in particular, because doing this really created a lot of growth in my martial arts. As we know, kata is not a choreographed fight. No one with any actual understanding of kata who was unfortunate enough to need to use their training in a real situation would start doing pinan shodan to get out of it. Instead, if they have worked the techniques in pinan shodan with a partner, they might be inclined to use a particular technique from that kata in their attempts to get away from the confrontation. By adding restrictions to your kata, you open up lines and variations in your technique. You start to ask yourself "how would this work if I couldn't take a step? How would this work if I couldn't extend my arm all the way?" These questions and concepts can then be drilled with a partner. You end up exploring more than the surface level of a kata. It's an incredible way to gain understanding. When I started doing this, I was already a black belt. The growth you experience as you rank up becomes increasingly incremental and you learn to look for the change in different ways. Doing this, on the other hand, was anything but incremental for me. It really pushed me towards growth much faster than I had expected.

It really depends on what I'm doing. Sometimes I go slow to help emphasize techniques and feel them through. When I do this, I often employ some amount of dynamic tension (similar to Sanchin). Sometimes I do it faster than I would normally go so that I can push myself. When I do it for tests I do it at what I consider a normal speed. A valuable practice is changing up the cadence of your kata. What does it look like if you can't move your feet? What does it look like in a space too small for the kata? All this changes, of course, when you want to compete. The kata becomes less about the effectiveness, and more about the performance. You benefit from taking dramatic pauses, going fast with some sequences, and slower with others. This may seem silly, but I have found use in practicing kata this way, as well. Plus, if you're doing demonstrations (in public places or even just in front of peers) it does look cool if done with skill.

I've been enjoying it immensely. It's can be hard to teach your children, especially at first. You're their parent, and kids have a hard time switching into that mode of learning rather than just being your child. Anyone with a child who was in school during lockdown can tell you this. However, it is very rewarding.

I do think that there is some nuance here. If the TKD tournament restricted poomsae (kata) to only TKD forms, then I can see an argument being made that the black belt should be allowed to compete in a lower rank for the poomsae section. However, personally I disagree with the argument as presented. A black belt in another system will, all things being equal, have much more technical prowess over their poomsae than someone at the same level. In this case, all roads, regardless of merit, lead to the competitor only competing in the BB divisions.

It's almost a rite of passage to ruin a white gi with bleach

I take an active part in a local tournament circuit. When I started attending that circuit, I was either a 4th or 3rd kyu. I went as a black belt, because that was the highest rank I had attained. It didn't matter to me that I wasn't a black belt with the current school. I had attained a black belt in my first school. For me, there was of course the ethics of competing at a lower tier. It's unfair to the other competitors who trained very hard to compete. More than that, though, was that I had no desire to compare my skills to lower ranks. Playing a video game using cheat codes isn't nearly as fun as playing it as intended. Similarly, I want real stakes. I want to be able to lose. I want to be up against people who are not only at my skill level, but above. I want to learn. I can't do that sweeping the green belt division. Similar to what others have said, if I found out that anyone was lying about their rank to get an easier competition, they would be expressly forbidden to coming to any more tournaments.

My first student was my child. Unless you want a more philosophical answer, in which case I was my first student.

I would take it to a cleaner. Cleaners are pretty inexpensive, just do some research to make sure that you're taking it to someone who looks trustworthy.