bushido_man96

On 4/30, I had a surgical procedure done that will hopefully reduce the episodes of vertigo that I have. The surgery went well, I was under for about 2 hours. Now I'm recovering, and am supposed to refrain from doing any physical activity for a month, and I'm to avoid leaning forward at the waist and lifting anything over 25 lbs for two weeks. That sucks. But, I'm going to try something different for a while; watching some videos from out Aikido school and visualization training. I'm going to watch the videos of my testing requirements, make notes and comments in my journal about the techniques (based off Sensei's notes from my demo), and try to visually walk through the techniques in my head. 5/7/2025 Aikido: 3:00 - 3:30 pm. Video review and visualization study. I watched all of the 7th kyu technique videos for review. 6th kyu katatori nikkyo omote: After the "stop hit" and transition to the grab, step the forward leg back into a back stance (kind of a back step, the leg stepping back is the back leg of the front stance), then cut to the ikkyo and transition to the other front stance by switching the hips through. Pull to nikkyo, then push through the elbow and zig-zag step to finish the takedown and get to the twist pin. Remember to ikkyo first, twisting all the way through and getting the withdrawing hand action, then switch to nikkyo.

To make the punches count, you're going to want to hit the vital points that can cause the most damage possible, places like the solar plexus, the floating ribs, liver punches, kidney punches, etc. The more target areas that are available to attack, the more easily one can develop a strategy to open up the vital areas. However, when the target area is limited, like to the body only, then it becomes quite easy to cover those areas and defend them. I think then the exercise devolves into a slugfest of just trading body blows until someone falls down from exhaustion or injury.

4/29/2025 TKD: 9:00 - 10:35 am. Solo workout. Warmed up with 2 minutes of rowing, then did a whole bunch of forms, both TTA and ATA. TTA: All my forms: Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung, Do San, Won Hyo, Yul Guk, Jun Gun, Toi Gye, Hwa Rang, Choong Moo, Kwang Gae, Poe Eun, Gae Baek, Se Jong, Yoo Sin, Choong Jang, and Choi Yong x3. ATA: Songham 1-5, and In Wha 1-2, spending time reviewing most of them. Finished with a nice floor stretch.

4/28/2025 Aikido: 8:45 - 9:45 am. After a brief warmup, we got into technique work. Shomenuchi iriminage: I focused on connecting with the attacking arm more, per Sensei's notes, and that worked really well to set up the technique. Along these lines, we got to play a little bit with a 5th kyu version of the technique, which started with a grab and then a shomen or yokomen strike. The technique had an interesting step off-line and straight thrust in to intercept the attack, then a pass and step to set up iriminage. After a few attempts of this variation, me and the other 6th kyu went back to our 6th kyu variation. I still need to get the tenkan aspect down. Shomenuchi kokyunage: This one is still kind of clunky, but the entry is getting better. I was doing the more direct approach with the step back instead of trying to spin the uke down to the ground. I may need more space on shorter people on the entry step. Finished class with 2 minutes of downward jo strikes with a squat, then stretched and cooled down.

Karate, It's History and Practice, by Koyama Masashi, Wada Koji, and Kadekaru Toru, translated by Alexander Bennett, and published by the Nippon Budokan. I am not enjoying this book nearly as much. More overview, less of the digging that Clarke did in his books.

I don't know if Jerry would risk signing Aaron Rodgers, because he might be the one player in the league with an ego bigger than Jerry's, and we can't have that in Dallas.

Congrats @Montana!

I saw this too. "Football decision" they mentioned. I agree. So why the doubt on Dak? The guy is doing his best. He should hardly be punished for Jerry's meddlings.

4/24/2025 Aikido: 8:45 - 9:45 am. Brief warmup, then lots of technique work for testing prep. 7th kyu Techniques: katatekosatori kokyunage ura: needed to step forward to start instead of back. katatekosatori kotegashi ura: finished in stretch. katatori ikkyo omote & ura: finished in the stretch position. 6th kyu Techniques: katatori nikkyo from ikkyo, omote & ura: finish in the stretch. Demo: the demo is how the sensei checks us as a pretest. He takes notes as we go to see how things match up to the technical standards for the dojo. All the 7th kyu listed above, with pins. I totally blanked on the pin for kotegashi, but got it fixed. Then we did the 6th kyu techniques: Shomenuchi kokyunage ura: need to pull uke to my body like a "buddy drop" after entry, then step back to finish. In my mind, I see it as a much more circular technique, and it doesn't need to be. Shomenuchi iriminage: with tenkan. Cut the attacking arm. I also tend to bring the other arm around too far, grabbing around the face like kokyonage instead of bringing the other arm just to the back of the neck to guide the head to crook of my arm. I feel I am very bad at this technique, especially when using the tenkan motion to spin and feed the technique and get uke off balance. I catch myself just taking little steps instead of doing tenkan. Katatetori shionage omote and ura: This technique has gotten better, but we've spent a lot of time on it, too. I felt pretty comfortable with it. Katatetori nikkyo omote & ura: dynamic, with pin. On ura, I need to C-step back again to the pin. I caught myself not doing this every time. Then did the static versions of each. I did not feel good about my demo at all. Some things on some ukes felt bad, forced. Some attacks came wrong and I had to adjust on the fly. Some of my grabs I didn't get secured. Overall, I was pretty disgusted with myself. Sensei, however, was largely happy with how it went. I really felt like my physical limitations caused me issues. Hopefully the upcoming surgery helps out with that. Sensei took notes and discussed them with us afterwards, and I guess the good thing is that I knew where I kept messing up, so I knew what needed to be fixed. Sensei sent me the notes in text form later on, and those notes follow. Sensei's notes: 7th kyu kokyunage: good overall. Nice hip turn through. 7th kyu kotegashi: good overall. Need leg closest to head to lock in their arm for standing pin so body can be used to do the pinning. 7th kyu ikkyo: good omote and good ura. 6th kyu nikkyo: good omote. Ura needed ura (spinning) finish. 6th kyu kokyunage: don't need to spin them down - can just get behind them and cut them to their triangle then turn through. 6th kyu iriminage: initial start can motivate more from connection at uke's arm than at uke's neck to increase ease of start and to correct/set up foot spacing for a clean tenkan finish.

If someone has come into your "space," as you have it drawn out here, then you are within your right to take action, if you feel threatened. Those are the operative words. CYA - Can You Articulate? Once you make the decision to take your action, you have to be able to explain why you did what you did. It's pretty easy to do, really: "He was so close to me, I thought he was going to hit me. He was pointing at me and yelling at me in an aggressive and angry manner, and I feared for my safety." Now, to what extent is a different story. Should you try to "lock 'em up" and wait for help? That depends on a lot of things, like 1) are you good at that? 2) how much bigger/stronger than you is he? 3) do you feel comfortable locking someone up and holding them down for a while? Lots of thoughts to consider there. A decent BJJ stylist might be ok with it. A striker might not. But that doesn't mean that answering with strikes is a less good idea, either.

4/23/2025 Aikido: 6:15 - 7:45 pm. Aikitaisos and some internals to start out; I struggled with relaxation and getting my weight down and being more rooted. After the warm, the bulk of the students did their roll-a-thon, rolling for a 5 minute stretch and seeing how many rolls they could get. I just helped out by keeping count. In between the rolls, we did do some technique work: katatori shionage omote and ura. I need to smooth things out and not stop at the transitions.

I enjoyed it, and have enjoyed reading this author. He's even shed a touch of light on some TKD master history. Now I'm reading Okinawan Kobudo: A History of Weaponry Styles and Masters. The author is Christopher M. Clarke. He's got another book I'd like to read, Saving Japan's Martial Arts.

My question to you then, @sensei8, is who will get the Cowboys a playoff win? Would you rather have one of the unproven rookies from this draft? Is there a free agent you wish they'd sign? What's the answer?

Good to hear your prognosis is looking up Bob!

Dak is a serviceable QB right now. I don't think drafting his replacement right now is a good idea. Maybe in a few years. I think the bigger issue is getting the right coaching in there, or better yet, Jerry sitting back out of the way and letting the coach do his job.