Zaine

I really like the way you said that, Brian. It's important to season ourselves, but once seasoned, we don't want to burn under unnecessary flame.

Beneficial to whom? I certainly think that a degree in Kinesiology with a focus in Martial Arts would be beneficial as it wouldn't specialize the student so much that their degree is moot in other fields of physical education. I certainly think that it would be cool, and I can imagine "History of Martial Arts" being a course, along with a requirement to take a certain tract such as karate or kung fu with requisite dips into other tracts for wholeness of content.

At the end of the day, this is an important factor. To paraphrase a tenet of managing people, an unhappy person is an unsafe person is an injured person. Mental wellbeing aside, it wasn't worth me risking being careless because I didn't care about the results.

I'm always down for continuous sparring. When I was a kid, the tournaments my school went to did continuous sparring and I loved it. My school often swept our categories handily. Unfortunately (or, perhaps, fortunately given some of the personalities there), those aren't around anymore.

This weekend I attended a tournament. It was the first tournament that 2 of my students attended (they did great), and the 3rd for my daughter (she also did great!). I signed up for kata and points sparring, as well (I didn't place, but the competition was very tight and I had a great time). The whole time I was there, I was dreading the points sparring. I love doing the kata. I feel like performing kata for competition is a totally different beast than doing it for testing or practice, and I love how it challenges me. However, I dislike points fighting. In fact, I dislike it quite a bit. This is not to say that I think that it is somehow lesser. I fully understand its purpose and use. I understand why it's a good choice for competitions. I just don't like doing it. Matsumura Seito taught me to be okay with being hit first and that doesn't mesh well with points fighting. That isn't the fault of the event, nor of my style, it is just a fact of my training and life. I had competed and gotten first in points sparring at the previous 2 competitions with this organization, so I signed up for a 3rd time. However, during the tournament, while I was judging, something in the back of my head was stewing with worry. I felt anxious about fighting. I wondered if I thought that I was going to get hurt, but I knew that I wouldn't, everyone there was very safe. I wondered if I didn't feel well, but aside from some allergy issues, I felt great. Still something ate at me until I realized what it was. I came to this competition to have fun. I don't find points sparring fun and I was dreading it. This was taking away from the usual fun that I have while judging and participating in the competition. Once I realized this, I quickly went to the organizers and asked to be removed from the event, which they did with no questions. Afterwards, the day began to move quickly! I was having fun. I was enjoying judging without anything else going on in my head. I did kata with no worry, and judged the specialty kata event for my fellow adult black belts afterwards. I was letting a sense of obligation to get in the way of how I have fun with karate. I felt that I had to do 2 events, and that one of those events had to be sparring. Once I realized that I was there to have fun, and removed the thing that was causing me discomfit, I became more relaxed and was able to throw myself into the processes of the day with more vigor. Don't forget that what we do should be fun. We continue to do this because we find it fun and if there is something that we do out of a sense of obligation that makes us miserable, then we don't have to do that thing. Sometimes, things can be less fun (I'm not usually the first to jump up in excitement about step drills), but still enjoyable. However, if we get in the habit of doing things that makes us miserable, our love for the martial arts will wane. Remember to have fun.

I did not, but thanks for reminding me! I'll have to revisit this subject.

I've been working on having a healthy diet for a long time, so I have a pretty good routine. I start my day with cheerios or chex and a protein smoothie. I try to limit my added sugars, so I usually only have a cup of the cereal and my main caloric intake is from the smoothie. For lunch, I usually have leftovers. This means chicken or pork with some roasted veggies. For dinner, on days that we don't eat out, I'll make a protein, a veg, and usually a potato. I also snack on nuts, fruits, and carrots throughout the day. I choose those because they don't make me feel full but give me the energy I need between meals. I take a stimulant for my ADHD and am prone to undereating, so eating small snacks like these is essential to staying healthy for me as well as giving me extra fiber and micronutrients.

It depends, obviously, on the circumstances. If they have an hourly rate, I would definitely pay them that. No need to negotiate something that they have already figured out for me. If they do not, and I've never hosted a guest that I had to pay, they all volunteered so take this with a grain of salt, I think I would start around $100, depending on the depth and length of time. If they feel that their time is worth more, then we can negotiate from there.

I would love to watch Goliath and crew again. We recently introduced my daughter to Gargoyles and she loves it! In an age of reboots, that is one property that deserves to get the refresh.

In that case, I wouldn't worry about rank. Just have a class in which you teach whatever you want. Set the expectation that there is no rank at the beginning. The alternative is to continue training in whatever style and join an organization that will test you for higher ranks.

I am of the opinion that a lot of bunkai begins from someone grabbing you. Certainly not all, but for me, a lot of bunkai makes more sense if you are in a bind, whether wrist, neck, or otherwise. I am also of the opinion that a lot of the nukite techniques, such as the spear hand in Pinan Shodan, are grabs instead of strikes. It doesn't make a lot of sense to teach a beginner to do a nukite strike, but it does make sense for them to grab someone and throw them. Does it compare to traditional Shorin Ryu? I think so. I also think that the better question is: "Does the bunkai make sense?" And if the answer to that question is yes, then I think that the application is valid regardless of whether the move was interpreted that way by "traditional" karate.

They do. I have considered signing up for it, as it's only about 5 hours from my house if I ever wanted to train in person on a whim.

I ended up learning the Shobayashi versions of those 2 kata to fill it. Learning Yondan is definitely recommended, as it has a sequence that is from Kusanku in it. Godan is fun to do, though doesn't really feed into other katas as well as the others.

Your telling me. The closest one to me is a little under 5 hours away. I wish my old teacher would start teaching again, but we'll see. I've done a lot of research about MS and I am not aware of any specific reason that Soken did not include Pinan 3 - 5 within the curriculum. He certainly knew them from his time training with Shorinji, in which he held a high dan rank. My guess is that he only included the first 2 as training kata, and felt that the remaining 3 did not add enough to his system to warrant doing them over other choices.

If it were me, I would just explain that the version of Matsumura-Seito that I learned did not have the missing Pinans. It's likely that they are aware that their training is a little different. If not, then they do now. If nothing else, I would be excited to learn new kata. If you're worried that the school might dispute your rank based on not knowing a couple of kata, then that school isn't worth your time.

This is true, though some versions teach a version of Pinan Sandan now. This addition seems to have come from either Combat Shorinji, the other style that Hohan Soken taught, or was an addition from Kise or Arakaki. Since my lineage is through Kise, I am given to believe that it was his addition. In regards to the Kusanku kata, the version that I have seen performed, and that I myself perform, is a version of Kusanku Dai. Another note, there are some additions to the kata list given by Alexander here that aren't mentioned on his website. For instance, the Naihanchi kata that we do are done with a Hachiji Dachi stance, instead of a traditional horse. The Kise lineage does not do 3 versions of Rohai anymore. Finally, the Passai kata that are done are the Toyama Passai versions of the kata, and appear quite different from the Matsumura and Itosu lineage Passais.

This is the one that I got, though it's more than $11 from this seller. https://www.ebay.com/itm/266102510353?hash=item3df4f21311:g:CIEAAOSw4wZeKkK0&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAsG2JjPQeP7l7JwlzkXTavXMpaxWEB8htYaukoUkSR0WwkhjIWmJX2epkRbJ7AqrVRldI0K%2BABnVV4O4nzpbbNgcqW1%2FaPKExG0h3WGqa75rdispMTXWpEB%2F7Kii3CJgh4vUFj15tdvhkMknCmEgfefpDbcrcns3e5BKb9yp12eG4zHCPOap3ONs4NnTuJ%2BCqewKnwFpVk%2Bo%2FUoxUsRGCGDASec6xvh%2F78Kdmap6OATfK%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR87t0fnGYQ

As a counter question to this, if you are worried about your own rank in correlation to your ability to promote a student above Brown Belt, do you feel that you will be unable to achieve Nidan or even Sandan in the time that it will take for you to get a student on the precipice of Shodan?

This is a good question, and will likely have multiple correct answers. I'll give what I think should be done, and then what I did. For me, if there is still material to learn (as there often is after Shodan), the black belts should be largely training at their dojos. I have found that it is common for material to exist up to San or Yondan, and afterwards the promotions are based on what the student brings to the school (i.e. their teaching, new techniques, new ways of using old techniques, etc.). In this, black belts are certainly left largely to their own devices in that they need less attention (or should need less attention). Holding a black belt class once a week to continue their training should be enough. Shodans will need a little more guidance as they transition to less attention paid towards them going forward, but after a month or 2 I would expect them to be largely practicing in the same way as a Sandan. After you learn the material left, it is my opinion that you should be going to other schools and learning new styles to both enhance your own understanding and contribute to whatever base style you wish to practice. Learning a Korean or Chinese style after a Japanese or Okinawan one is extremely beneficial. For me, my teacher stopped teaching shortly after I got my Shodan, so I was on my own. There was more to learn (like... a lot more) that I no longer had, or have, for that matter, access to. I dived into other styles. I did kung fu for awhile, then moved on to HEMA, and most recently a different style of Shorin Ryu. I made my journey post-black belt my own. It was tough without a guide, and I'm still just a Shodan, but I have enjoyed it nonetheless.

Congrats!

It would be interesting to see some modern modifications, and maybe I can look into that as I meditate more on the daga plays. Half-swording, I feel, is the secret to Fiore's sauce, in a lot of ways. It has obvious benefits when it comes to armored combat, but it also allows the combatant to have more more strength in the bind. Whenever I spar, I find that I have a tendency (sometimes good, sometimes bad), to focus on the plays that go to half-sword over the long distance (Zogho Largo) plays.

I remember my first sparring session that was daga vs daga. It was against my mother, who has done martial arts with me since I started in 2002. We suited up in our gambesons, but on our gorgets, helmets, and gloves, and had 3 minutes of the most fun we have ever had sparring one another. I also wasn't much like the plays within the manuscript, but it was a lot of fun. We circled each other carefully before attacking, calling a point for whomever scored, and then the same thing over again. We had the benefit of over a decade of karate practice at the time, and this allowed us to augment the movements with the muscle memory we already had in a way that sword play did not allow. Needless to say, daga is one of my favorite tools to use in Fiore's arsenal. Before I get too much further, I should clarify what a daga is. Unlike the the modern ideas of a dagger, this is a Rondel Dagger. The rondel is a small cylinder of steel that comes to a point at the end. The hilts were just big enough to fit into a hand, with two circles larger in circumference than the knife itself. It had no edge, and was used exclusively for stabbing. Fiore, and other Medieval fighting masters, were concerned largely with the rondel because that was the type of dagger carried by knights. A modern dagger would be no use against full plate, and so the rondel came about due to it's ability to punch through the gaps in a plate or, if your were unbelievably strong, straight through the plate itself. Because these manuscripts were made for the upper classes, they were concerned with the type of weaponry that an upperclassman would carry. I have found that when I talk about daga plays to other Eastern Martial Artists, it tends to translate fairly easily into what we already understand. The plays start with the master unarmed against an attack from a daga. It is mostly concerned with getting either your body, or the daga, off-line from the attack and then disarming. Since the daga is a purely stabbing instrument, there is no worry about slashing and meeting it is a little safer (though it's still a dangerous instrument). A lot of the techniques are very familiar to those with even the barest grappling training. A Judoka would be right at home reading a lot of this. It isn't until the 6th master that we get daga vs daga plays. This section is shorter, and is only a few plays long before the master begins talking about unarmed vs daga plays again. These largely deal with, again, disarming the opponent and then striking afterwards. Oddly, many of the plays have the master gripping the hilt and top of the daga itself in the beginning. This is to create a greater stability when knocking the attacking daga aside. These caused me the most problems, I found, because it is not my instinct to shorten the blade in this way. However, since there is no edge, these techniques are logical in their construction. The final plays are daga vs. sword. This section emphasizes the importance of quickly closing the gap. Fiore notes that "you'll have a significant advantage if you know how to do these [plays]." I tend to disagree, as the require very precise timing. In the past, I have been whacked practicing these more than I have been successful. However, success with closing the distance is the correct way to go, and when I was successful with the play, it took away all options with the sword.

When you're a school teacher, you have to attend something called in-service every year. It's a set of meetings designed to refresh you on things like proper pedagogy and new techniques to use in the classroom. You are also encouraged to spend some time during the Summer going to conferences or attending online courses to further your education on teaching. The idea here is that teaching is difficult and a good teacher is always seeking ways to improve upon themselves. I think instructors should be doing the same. Seeking out those classes, provided that they are quality (obviously, teaching conferences fall under some regulations that require data backed research and Martial Arts has no such thing), should be something that instructors do. I am sure that there are plenty of online courses. If you're worried about quality, and I think that's a more-than-fair concern to have, then I suggest checking out some regular teaching online courses. I apply a lot of what I learned as a teacher to my dojo and it works really well, especially for children. The research for classroom teaching is out there and we have access to it. Just because we aren't teaching math or English doesn't mean that we can't use the techniques therein.

It is! It's $10 for the ebook on Amazon, or currently $25 for the paperback. Honestly, you could easily fill a small bookshelf with all of supplementary, quality writing on just Fiore alone. https://www.amazon.com/Medieval-Manuscript-Modern-Practice-Techniques/dp/9527157552/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1FDGAMS1IT269&keywords=guy+windsor&qid=1675695092&sprefix=guy+windso%2Caps%2C114&sr=8-2

He is the go-to guy for Fiore stuff. He's huge in the HEMA world in general and has several books out. I am reading From Medieval Manuscript to Modern Practice as a companion to Il Flor di Battaglia and it has given me some helpful insights into Fiore's approach, and how to approach manuscripts like this in general.