Zaine

Went for a run on a local greenway and halfway through did about 20 minutes of kata practice. It was a nice 80F here, which is very mild for the Dallas area, and the shade made it even better. That said, I was absolutely drenched when I got back to my car. I also very clearly did not eat as much as I needed for the intensity. Still, a great workout.

I drink a protein shake both for calories and added protein. I have ADHD, and sometimes I forget to eat. I will be hyperfixated on something or in a fugue and then suddenly 8 hours has passed. In general, I prefer to get my macro and micro-nutrients through food, and in the past meal prepping has done well for me because I can plan these macro/micro balances in advance. Multi-vitamins in the past haven't done much for me. Mostly, I just track my calories to make sure that I am eating enough to be healthy. I work out enough that I'm not trying to get in a range, just trying to get over a minimum number.

My issue with sauna suits is that clinical trials say that they only really shed water weight with the added risk of increased dehydration and hyperthermia. If you love them, that's great, just make sure you're keeping an eye on hydration and body temperature. For me, there is too much evidence against them to be worth it.

I like the encouragement to seek a partner. I think Martial Arts is at its best when you have someone to talk about it with face-to-face, and provide resistance against techniques. Sounds like a solid system for learning. Keep us updated, I'm interested to see how the program plays out in the long term.

This is the first that I've heard of it, but I like the names that I'm seeing. Seems like a Masterclass website for Martial Arts. What has been your experience with the lessons you've purchased? Anything good stand out in particular? Is there anything about the lessons that you would change?

As we think of it no, not really. Rather, the styles evolved into different things. We might find that no one studies Naha-te as it was anymore, but we know that from Naha-te we get Goju-Ryu. Is Naha-te extinct? Or did it simply evolve and take on different names? I am inclined to say the latter. (This is not to say that Naha-te isn't still practiced, just that, if so, it's uncommon at best). I would venture to say the same for kung-fu as well. Yes, dynastic traditions of Martial Arts fell off, but I have to imagine that they lived on in one way or another. Humans are really good at taking what is good and running with it (sometimes far past its use). Martial Arts is the same way. Maybe we don't see this "original karates" in name but their techniques and legacies (and lineages, for that matter) live on through the systems that picked them up.

100% okay with it. Different perspectives are really important and I love branching out and learning from other people. Especially style-agnostic orgs. I think that Martial Arts flourishes when we can get together, organized or not, and share our techniques and grow. Wastelander is right, however, that some schools might not like for you to do that. Personally, I find required loyalty to be a crutch. I generally don't seek others with the intention of moving on, but with the hope to learn more and make myself better. I was lucky in my initial school because my teacher was perfectly fine with us looking in to organizations and he allied himself with a few different schools to create a network. That was a lot of fun because it allowed us to duck in to these other classes (with permission and advance notice) and learn some different things.

Was it ever! I wish I could have stayed. 5k this morning. 28 minutes, so a pretty average time for me. I've been biking mostly this year, so I hit peak a lot longer than I would have like, but it was still a refreshing run. I usually don't work out on Fridays, but I woke up early and felt like a jog before my work day began.

We practiced finger strikes in theory, but never in sparring. Some of our kata (sesain, anansu, passai sho) had finger strikes so starting at 3rd kyu you were expected to do push ups using your fingers. We also his a makiwara board with our fingers but otherwise it never came up. When I left that school, I stopped the conditioning. I'm sure there are situations that I could use them in, but overall it would not be my default, nor do I want it to be.

I did! Thank you for the information, I didn't know that. I thought the two were 1-to-1. This is interesting, I didn't learn it with a hand held close to the body. In the version I learned, the hand is held midway on the other arm (close to inside of the elbow) as a way to load up the next redirection.

In Pinan/Heihan 1, after the first set of moves (to the left and the right), you take 3 steps forward. How was the bunkai explained to you? Lately, I've been going through the bunkai that I know to find the other applications and I'm curious as to what the people here who have learned the kata were taught. I was taught that they were subtle redirects of punches. Subtly moving a punch out of the way to open up the opponents body. Lately, however, I've been thinking about what this movement would look like if applied as a strike to different parts of the body. I look forward to seeing what y'all think?

Congrats!

Congrats! That's great to hear!

Good luck! Can't wait to hear about how you progress!

I'm definitely not an expert but I think its probably not ADHD. We have 3 we ADHD diagnoses and it's very different from each of them. She just doesn't want to be there. It could still be ADHD; it's a spectrum. That said, it's probably a moot point one way or the other. At the end of the day she doesn't want to be there and it's becoming a distraction.

I just got back from a two day trip to the Ozarks in what was essentially 2 days of non-stop hiking through the mountains. It was altogether refreshing, invigorating, and exhausting. During that time, My mother and I also got a lot of karate training in. It's been awhile since I have been able to have all that space and a kata partner. It was just what I needed.

But why is that a bad thing?

But shouldn't Karate continue to evolve? Karate began as a way to defend one's self. In that vein, the "old karate masters" created systems that work for them. It made sense to them to do things a certain way because it worked and continued to mold their art to fit what they needed. Why shouldn't we do the same? Tradition is great, but I think that if presented with the same conundrum, these same masters would absolutely incorporate ground work if they felt it necessary. Also, does the grappling in a Karate system have to be as good as BJJ? The inverse of this is that a BJJ teaching strikes wouldn't be as good. These, however, are just assumptions. They could be just as good. Splitting focuses don't necessarily mean that both suffer. At its core, a lot of what Karate is about is self defense. If, for whatever reason, I am involved in a street fight and it goes to the ground, then ground fighting will come in handy. It doesn't have to be as good as BJJ, it just has to be enough to get me out of the situation. If the best way to defend myself becomes turning my art into something that resembles MMA, then so be it. I think that our attachment to the tradition of our arts holds us back more than we think.

She might just have ADHD. My ADHD made me act similarly and my mother had a similar policy about being in it for a certain amount of time. I ended up where I am now, 19 years later and still obsessed.

My teacher in Shorin Ryu did this. Of all the things that he added, this was my favorite. I 100% agree that grappling should be worked in to Karate. When I eventually get around to teaching MA it will 100% be a part of my program.

We all have those days, but you're right. All we can do is take a breath and keep moving.

Congrats Mo!

Yeah I think Bushido has it here. My guess is that Bobby wanted to do it and the parents put Jane in there out of convenience.

No I trained in Arlington. I have actually been looking at OKCD since my CI doesn't teach anymore and I recently moved back to the area. Did you have a good experience there?

More than that, Seisan can be wildly different in different branches of Shorin Ryu. Shorinji does is a little differently from Shobayashi. The best way outside of YouTube would be to get a bunch of people together and have some good old fashioned work shops. I actually think that this would be a really cool and fun idea.