Zaine

It absolutely counts. I buy myself presents all the time. Yesterday, my focus mitts that I was hoping to get before Christmas came in.

I've never even thought of using sweet potato. That's an incredible idea! The menorah Velcro idea is really cute! I love that!

When I was a teenager, I really wanted to be a chef. If you knew nothing about me, then you knew that. For years, all I got for Christmas was cooking materials. Finally, I started giving people lists of things that I wanted which, notable, included no cooking materials.A couple of years later, I finally stopped receiving them.

Did anyone get anything martial arts related for Christmas? I didn't this year, but my kiddo has been asking for nunchaku so I got her a pair!

Congrats on the grading!

How did the scan go?

Luckily, I have the privilege of working from home 3 days a week, so I can get up every hour to bust out 3 kata. On the 2 days that I am in the office, my building has a fitness center that I can utilize. 10 kata a day would still be 310 kata for the month, which is still awesome!

12/21 MA Training: 30 iterations of Kusanku Dai. I wanted to see what kind of time it would take to do 30 kata back to back, for the occasions when I only have a single slot of time to practice for next month. It was about 35-45 minutes, which was perfect. 30 minutes: Training with my daughter. She's really gunning for that yellow belt. I keep telling her that she should train to learn, but I remember going for 9th kyu. It can't be helped and I'm just happy that she's excited about it.

A great resolution! I can't wait to see it done!

It's a great homage to the older arcade cabinet games of my childhood. Updating them to make it interesting without trying to break the mold. Exactly what I was hoping it would be.

The new TMNT beat-'em-up, Shredder's Revenge, is excellent. I've been playing it with my kiddo and it's been a blast.

Congrats! Well deserved!

Happy holidays! Latkes are so good. I make them all the time!

12/20 Bike Ride: 30 mintues, 11k

Ask a doctor. I know that isn't what you want to hear, but it is the best, and only, advice that is legitimate and sound. The internet is full of people trying to sell you the next best artery cleanser or power diet. If you can, go to your doctor and ask this question. In the meantime, follow general best practices. Go for walks. Make sure that you are eating nutritious meals. Take care of yourself. Go see a doctor.

Hey everyone, it's that time of year again! What is everyone's new year resolutions? It could be Karate related or general. The only one I have, and I usually one pick one, is to do 1000 kata in the month of January. I wanted to do something fun, that I would enjoy doing in the process. Resolutions work best when the goal is obtainable and something that you already have started doing. I did the math, and I need to do 32.26 kata every day, or 2.7 every hour for 12 hours. I have decided to learn and perform Kusanku Dai for an upcoming tournament in February, so a large portion of my practice will focus on that (thank you Wastelander for having a clear video on YouTube of one that is close enough to my style's version for me to compare). However, I plan on sprinkling others in to keep things interesting.

12/19/2022 MA Training: 30 minutes of solo training, followed by 30 minutes with my daughter. She was very excited to continue training after the tournament, which only confirmed that her placements did nothing other than light a fire under her love for Martial Arts.

You bring up something here that I've been thinking about lately. As stated above, I disagree, even though I personally seek out schools that include sparring as a non-negotiable for myself. Specifically, it's that martial arts teaches you how to fight.I think certain martial arts teach you how to fight. Kyokushin, boxing and it's children, etc. all teach you how to get in a ring and fight someone. However, I don't think that's what something like Shorin Ryu teaches you, necessarily. I think traditional karate has absorbed sparring and stand up fighting out of desire to either stay competitive with full-contact arts, or just out of love for them. However, I do not believe that kata and the focus we should have on bunkai are conducive to this. I believe that karate, at it's base, teaches us how to defend ourselves and desperately hopes that this is enough. Full contact stuff, in my opinion, is a necessary add-on, but not one that takes away the martial aspect.

I told her that I tried to play Minecraft and did poorly. She called me a noob and then was very condescending about the fact that "I wasn't doing too bad, but maybe stick to creative mode..."

Of all time? Wow, what a question. 1) Getting my Shodan. I started when I was 11 and got my Black Belt just before my 18th birthday. I grew a lot during that time, as we all do as children. More than anything, it felt like the moment that I became an adult. 2) Starting my own school. The last 3 months have been amazing. I can't wait to see what the future holds. 3) Seeing my kid take a passion for martial arts. I'm just so dang proud of her. She's really an incredible kid.

Hey everyone! As I mentioned a few times, I attended a Karate tournament yesterday and I have returned to give a report. Overall, it was a very successful tournament. I got there early. I didn't mean to get there so early but doing so gave me a chance to help set up and pick a good spot for my stuff. Roughly an hour later, the black belt meeting started. Once that was over, the tournament began. I spent the bulk of my time judging kata and sparring. I love doing the judging, I find it to be a lot of fun. Getting to talk to the other judges about their perceptions, what they look for, and how they ascertain the performances is always interesting. I make sure to pay attention during these moments to become better at judging myself. This was my second tournament with this group, and also my second time judging. I made some great connections last time and furthered those connections this time. If nothing else, I networked my butt off just by being myself and helping out. In my eyes, this is a great win. After another hour, it was my child's turn to compete. She started with kata and got 4th. She was disappointed that she didn't get a trophy, but she handled it very well. The judges, after it was over, took the time to give her some really good feedback that I was actually about to give her myself. They were both supportive, and reaffirming. The experience here was really positive, and not getting a trophy really lit a fire under her. I was thankful that there were no participation prizes, which I personally abhor. It helped her learn a good lesson on losing with grace, which she passed with flying colors, and furthered her motivation to come back better. I was, and remain, eternally proud of her. Afterwards, it was her turn to spar. She lost her first bout, but the improvement from this one to the last was monumental. She scored 2 points to the opponents 6. Every time she had a hit scored on her, she giggled gleefully. She was really having fun out there. Her next opponent, having fallen into the loser’s bracket with my kid, was frustrated. During the fight, before anything any points were scored, she accidentally kicked the center judge with a spinning back kick (which happened very far away from my kid, so she threw it very early). The judge gently coached her, and she responded unkindly. This resulted in a win for my kid, and a 3rd place finish! I was so proud of her for remaining respectful and approaching the whole experience with the idea that she was here to learn and have fun. Aside from her own accomplishments, it made me feel good; both as a father and her teacher. I tell all of my students that they shouldn't be here for accolades, but for fun and learning. My daughter showed that attitude in spades, and the other instructors there took notice and complimented her on it. Later, she was worried that no one would take her 3rd place trophy seriously, but my wife and I made sure to explain exactly why she deserved it. Afterwards, a whole day of judging for me. Luckily, the kiddo got to go home with my mother so that she wasn't bored for the rest. That let me really focus on being present, and I was extremely thankful. Finally, it was my turn to go up. We started with kata. I performed Seiunchin, which I've linked below. I've been running this kata daily, 10 - 15 times, and the results speak for themselves. I competed against 2 others, and they did a great job. When I got the top scores, I was very pleased and very surprised. However, my arduous work paid off! I placed first. Afterwards, I competed for grand champion along with 3 others. I ended up scoring 28.9 and the winner scored 29.0. I can't be anything but happy with my performance, and the winner certainly fought hard for the win. I've extremely pleased with the outcome. If I'm losing by 1/10 a point, then I'm doing pretty good. Next was sparring. There were 3 of us, and I had the bye. The bout was close, but I managed to push out a win for 1st with a score of 7 - 6 in the very last second of the match. My competitor was tough, and I don't feel that either of us made any error. It was 2 black belt competitors who put up a great fight. No more, no less. Afterwards, I fought the winner of the "executive" matches for grand champion, and he mopped the floor with me 2 - 7. It was a great fight, and I learned a lot. Points fighting is still foreign to me, and a lot of my instincts rely on being fine with a strike against me and then coming in. Obviously, that doesn't play well in points fighting, and so he got a few kicks on me due to that. However, even above that, he was an excellent fighter and knew how to use his body type to his advantage. He deserved the win, and now I know how I need to train to get better. I couldn't ask for a better result. That said, this is the second tournament in a row with this league that I placed 1st in my division, so I'm just happy that I could successfully defend my title. That said, I’m not sure that I will do it again in the next tournament. I prefer a different style of fighting and while there is nothing wrong with points fighting, it just isn’t for me. Overall, my results definitely speak for themselves in relation to my skill. I am overjoyed with how I did, and that I placed 1st in both events that I competed in. More than that, I am very happy about the relationships that I forged yesterday, and those that I deepened. This circuit is very clearly based on mutual respect and admiration, and I feel that I have found a good group of people to tie my own school to going forward. If there is a world in which I was not happy about that, then it wouldn't be me. https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmUcMRSjenv/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Good luck! Don't push too hard! Your instructor knows that you're ready, no need to go all out if you're not 100%!

I know that feeling! My kid still yells at the screen with headphones while playing Minecraft. Not sure what is going on that needs yelling at, but I'm given to understand that the yelling is well-deserved.

12/15/2022 MA Training: 1 hour. Did a sparring class at a friend's dojo as a warm-up for the tournament this Saturday. Since leaving the dojo I was at, I don't have a lot of opportunities to spar (not that I did at the last place either, as they only spar during the informal classes and only if there are enough people). This was a good opportunity to knock off some rust.

12/13/2022 30 minutes of kata training, followed by training with my kid again. 12/14/2022 30 minute bike ride. I might go for a walk later. It feels really nice here. Tonight, more training with the kid. She wants to nail the competition and is pushing herself to practice. Nothing that is too much for her, but it does me proud.