Zaine

Thank you for sharing, Ashley. I firmly believe that the more people are open about their struggles with mental health, the more it normalizes that openness to others. The world becomes a better place when we feel okay talking about these things in public and I have spent no small part of my life talking about my own struggles with mental health in an effort to lead others into being more comfortable sharing theirs. I have been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and ADHD. It's something that I've struggled with all of my life. I don't remember a time when this wasn't an issue for me. I am on a number of medications to help control my various disorders (3, to be precise) and also have gone through CBT and therapy. I recently got TMS, which is a (very expensive) procedure that uses magnets to create new neural pathways in your brain to help the symptoms of depression. That seems to be working. I still, however, have my low days, or anxious days, or inattentive days (I'm currently supposed to be working). What I can say is that my low moments absolutely effect my relationship with martial arts in a negative way. Like you, I feel that it is a worthless endeavor. Even though doing martial arts is meditative for me and often key to getting me out of these "funks." I stopped thinking about karate altogether after my kid was born. I had too much on my plate and I was too stressed to think of extra-curriculars. I was going to school, as well. Thinking about karate made me feel bad about myself so I stopped. I even stopped visiting this forum, gave up my mod status, and disappeared for a bit because just seeing the word Karate gave me panic attacks. It was like I was losing a part of myself. It wasn't until I started up again that I felt whole, once more. Now, with the perspective that time gives, I understand that my various identity crises were connected to me selling parts of myself off to make ends meet. I am in a better place financially now, and that plays a big part in my growth back into myself. To do that, I had to answer a few questions about myself, and I now pose them to you. Feel free to answer these privately. I also posed them to my wife, because her mental health is my mental health. A family cannot function properly without all players being healthy. Sometimes, one player has to pick up for another, but the balance should be there in one way or another. Do I like who I am right now? This is a tough question to ask. The answer I came up with was no. That might not be the answer for you, but if it is, find ways to fix that. Am I doing something for my personal benefit? For me, that was things like taking time to write, do karate, and do things that I enjoyed with or without anyone else. People need time for personal development. It makes us better people and, by extension, better partners and parents. Are the people in my life the right people for me? Some where, and others weren't. I phased those that were a negative influence on me. Do I have long-term goals? I have struggled with suicide in the past. Part of that was that I had nothing to look forward to. When formulating these questions, I realized that not only did I feel better about myself when I had low days, but I had something to work towards. I got especially low after finishing my Masters degree because I felt that there was nothing else for me. Make sure that you have something that you are working towards, even something as mundane as "be ripped in 2024." Finally, is there someone I feel comfortable talking to? This could be your spouse, parent, a friend, or a therapist. I like to talk to someone who will be objective about my issues. If you have no one who can do that for you, you do now. Please feel free to reach out to me, I'm happy to be a listening board. At the end of the day, it looks like you're going through a lot right now. A lot of it is good. Being a parent is tough but wonderful and it's natural to let things like karate take up a back burner for the time being. I suggest that you continue to stick with it, like you are, in some capacity. It is a part of your identity and wanting to keep a hold of it is good. I practiced solo for years before returning to a dojo setting. I am currently dojoless and practicing myself or with random sparring nights. Continue to find those moments of self-development, even when you don't want to. Especially when you don't want to. It's what keeps us moving forward.

I track my daily steps as a result of my Galaxy Watch. I don't, however, worry too much about it as I get my cardio in different ways. My job has a program that will reward you with points that you can spend on items for working out. In that, I can convert my other workouts, like karate, into steps. It says that an hour of karate is equivalent to roughly 11,000 steps. I'm not sure how accurate that is.

My kids really love doing sparring drills. All I need to do is put on some focus mitts and they go nuts. They love warming up that way. I've seen some others that look fun. Once I saw a dojo play dodgeball to warm-up and get the energy up in the room.

I had a teacher who once insisted on finding every little bunkai application from the taikyoku kata series. He "found" a throw in the turns. He was a "bunkaist" in that he felt that every little thing had to have purpose. I disagree with that general philosophy, sometimes moves and kata are just there to bridge a gap in knowledge or technique. However, it was how he enjoyed karate and I'm certainly not one to yuck anyone's yum when it comes to their passion for martial arts. I agree with Wasteland and DarthPenguin here. This is a kata that was created to help students learn how to move. I teach it to my kids (but not my adults) to help them get used to how it feels to move around and punch at the same time.

Welcome to KF! It's great to have you!

My experience reflects DarthPenguin's. Most people holding a gun to you aren't looking for your life, they're looking for your stuff. They can have my stuff. A person with a gun will find that I am 100% cooperative. In an active shooter situation, like at an office, my school never taught us anything different than what the general knowledge is. Run, Hide, Fight is king in the U.S. when it comes to an active shooter situation.

I hope everyone had a safe 4th and kept all of their digits!

I am the oldest, so I suppose I was the mean older brother at times. My siblings knew how to give it back, however. We all have a great relationship now.

Welcome to KF! It's great to have you!

I was home schooled and I needed a P.E. activity. We knew a guy who was giving karate lessons for free. It took me about a year to really get into it, but once I was hooked... I was hooked.

I am Shorin Ryu and, at least in my style, we do use hips to generate power. What branch of Shorin Ryu do you practice?

I have a group of friends who all also have either an M.A. or and M.S. We often joke that higher degrees do not make you intelligent, but actually sap your intelligence. We become experts in one field and the price is general knowledge about other things

Dead Island 2 looks like a lot of fun! It's on my list to get to eventually.

It's certainly possible. The Pinans, in general, are derived from a number of kata, with kusanku being the seemingly primary inspiration. My guess is that he felt that 3-5 aren't beneficial enough to the system as a whole and you can get everything you need from them from kusanku, passai, and chinto.

I do have an M.A.! Thank you! Funnily enough, my parents didn't have a formal, college education. They were very much into a free exploration type of education. Their philosophy was that if we could teach it to them effectively, then we were adept enough in it to move on. My siblings and I were pulled out of school because of my ADHD. I only ever had one teacher, who was my last elementary school teacher, who was ever good enough of a teacher to handle a kid with ADHD. My parents took my proclivity to be distracted and worked it to my advantage. It allowed me to jump from subject to subject at will in a fun way. Ironically enough, my mother ended up getting her Bachelors and is now a high school teacher. Special education and working with ADHD kids has changed so much. Were I a kid now, I would probably have stayed in traditional school. Now that I'm thinking about it, KarateForums actually played a role in my education. Karate counted as my physical education and I wrote more than one paper about Karate. A lot of the information I got outside of my Sensei came from this website.

It largely depends on the state. Each state has standards that can be different. Texas, where I am and grew up, has pretty lax standards for homeschooling. While there are public standards that someone can look up and go through available for any state, my parents mostly bought various curricula depending on where I was in the learning process. There were a lot of group activities for me. We tied ourselves to a group where we would present a project once a month based on different subjects. I didn't have tests, I just moved on when I had mastered a subject. I didn't take a test until my SATs, which marked my graduation. After that, Texas allowed my father to write a notarized note saying that I have graduated and then I was done. I had a lot of freedom to study what I wanted. When it came to English, I got to read what I wanted and write reports on those books. I got to study what I wanted for history and social studies as well. At the end of the day, if I could do it differently I probably would. I don't regret my education, but I do think that I might have been better served in a traditional school environment.

I don't believe it's ever come up before! It's funny to find other homeschooled people in the wild. You never know where we are.

I haven't gotten it yet! I'm hoping to be able to on Wednesday, but that price tag is killing me!

That's a good thought, Brian. Perhaps metaknowledge refers to our principles in general. Things that contribute to discipline and our understanding of the side of martial arts that relates to character development.

I was homeschooled and would go to the church my mom worked at during her work day. My siblings and I would do our school work and then spend most of the day playing video games in the youth room that had a set-up which included many tvs and consoles for use. On Tuesdays, my mom had a 2 hour meeting and I would get to play D2 on her computer. I always thought it was funny that I was playing it in a church.

During the beta, I played on World Tier 2 and noticed that there were some pretty good challenges. I had to pay attention to the mechanics and make sure that I was doing the right thing. It was a refreshing difference from some of the ARPGs that I have played recently where it felt like I was too overpowered from the jump.

A while ago, Drew made a post giving some tips on being a practitioner of Martial Arts. In it, they mention that "The forms of Tai Chi contain much of the metaknowledge you will need to even stand a chance against some one who is trained, taller, etc." That got me thinking about the metaknowledge of Martial Arts altogether and I have been contemplating it for nearly 2 months. I feel like I have a shaky understanding of what that is, but I am curious about what y'all think when you hear the phrase Martial Arts Metaknowledge. Is it our understanding of technique? Is it the pedagogy and teaching behind a MA curriculum? Is it the ability to size up an opponent? What are your thoughts?

Same. I am typically pretty bad when it comes to PvP trophies, but I feel like I can manage 5 PvP kills to get that particular achievement. There aren't many achievements to be had, honestly. They will add more with whatever DLC they are planning, but this most of the achievements are things that you would want to do anyway. It seems fairly easy to accomplish.

I'm going Necro. Necro was the first class I played in D2 and I fell in love with it. I loved the Necro in D3, as well, and I played Necro during the open beta and had a lot of fun with it.

I wish I had the money to be able to play it now instead of wait until after launch. As of now, I'm waiting for the 14th to be able to play. My wife joked that I should start a GoFundMe since I was being so impatient about it. Until then, I'm just playing some Diablo 2 seasonal content.