bushido_man96

I'm not trying to force students to change their minds. But I think we do ourselves and our school a disservice by not prepping students early on for the idea of being a post-1st dan student. If a student tells me they want to quit, I'm not going to beg them not to. But I am willing to ask "why?" and have a discussion to figure out what I could have done differently to perhaps retain the student longer.

It seemed to me that what was found in the research is more tailored towards kids. That makes some sense, as they have shorter attention spans. Our Little Lions classes typically only last half an hour. But as an adult, I really prefer a longer class, if for more than anything to get lots of reps in. The only really good thing I've seen come out of it so far is that each of the half-hour sessions is really focused. That first being forms and one-steps is good for memory retention and warming up for the sparring drills that come in the next session. I still stay for the hour, so it really isn't changing how long I attend class.

Welcome to KF, @John Moscato. Here's what I found with a Google search: https://kenwoodkarate.com/ - says it's right there in Baltimore. https://www.karateshorinkan.com/dojos.php?state=Maryland&country=USA - this one says they have a school in Baltimore as well. https://www.threedragonskarate.com/ - this one's a Goju-Ryu school, if you're willing to go that route.

The Nemean Fight System, by Greg Koval. He also has a youtube page of his thoughts and training methods that I found interesting. He was a TKD stylist:

I took a spin side kick right into the nose once. Not a good time. Spent about 20 minutes in the restroom to stop the bleeding.

That is great, @aurik. I think planting that seed early is the key.

I found that a problem on our previous mats. The puzzle mats we have now don't have as much "sink" as the previous ones did, which much nicer for balance.

2/17/2025 TKD Class: Forms/One-Steps Class: 5:30 - 6:00 pm. Got right into it, doing Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung, Do San, and Won Hyo hyungs. Followed that up with Choi Yong, Choon Jang, Yoo Sin, Se Jong, and Gae Baek. I finished by walking through three-steps 1-12. TKD Class: Sparring Drills: 6:00 - 6:30 pm. Loosened up with high knees down the floor, and same walking backwards back. The CI and I did some body conditioning work: punches to the abdomen, and then leg kicks to the inside and outside of the front leg, going back and forth. Then we moved to footwork drills. He put a focus mitt on the ground that acted as the point of revolution (I guess you could say; we worked around the mitt). The front foot starts close to the pad. We started with simple stance switches, then moved to a 45 degree angle side-step. The idea is to step with the back leg to the 45 degree angle forward to line you up with the next side of the mitt. The 45 degree step is much like stepping into a front stance, and if the mitt is the opponent, you are keeping the body bladed and cut off from them as much as possible. The other foot then just slides into place as the front leg in your fighting stance. We went around the mitt this way twice, then switched stance and went twice around the other way. I like to add in various attacks as I'm at the angle; strikes and kicks, depending on the distance. After that footwork, he simplified it a bit to just stepping the back leg to the 45, and then stepping back to stance you started in, hands kept in defensive positions. Next was focus mitt work, with two mitts. Flashed out for five techniques, then we switched. We did this several times. Then we moved to the kicking shield, and flashed the kicking shield forward for a front leg side kick. Towards the end, I was throwing switch reverse side kicks. We did three each side and then the next person took the shield. Aikido Class: Weapons Class: 6:50 - 8:00 pm. We worked with a shinai today, doing two-person drills. We started with tips crossed and feeling the line, and attacker's job was to apply slight pressure to "flick" the defender's shinai off the line, then spring forward for a shomen. After doing that for quite a few reps, the defender got a job; when the attacker sprung forward to attack, the defender moved forward off the line (tai sabaki) and blocked high while moving, then followed up with shomen to the attacker's head. I love the two-person drills, and getting several reps in was lots of fun, and I'm picking up on little things I need to fix. That session finished with a game of "The Last Samurai" since we had a young one in the class. Although it was a game, I did find myself applying the sword principles and learned a few things while doing it. After the youth session was over, the sensei and I worked on a knife disarming technique called udegarame, which basically translates to "entwining the arm." I found it easier to do on the right side than I did on the left side. It finished with a great pinning maneuver that I found very tactically sound. As we were working and talking about some transitions in the technique, kazushi came up, and he talked about how by focusing on my own structure, and keeping it sound throughout the technique, it will do the work of kazushi for me. 2/18/2025 Martial Arts Nerd-Out Session: 6:00 - 9:30 pm. The Aikido Sensei, me, and the other TKD 5th Dan all got together tonight for a meal and a chat. We've done these before, and they are always such a good time. We just nerd out on Martial Arts together, talking about our experiences, complaints, understandings, and misunderstandings. We talked some MA history, some theory, some technique, and the state of our current TKD association and the standards in it. We talked about laying down keeping the high standards that our dojang keeps, and how we can talk with other instructors in the association about doing the same. Along those lines, we discussed what the possibility of going to visit other dojangs in our association to see what they are doing and what their approaches are in classes.

This is a great thing to do. I know I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating; it is a great way to motivate your training.

That's a rough deal, Bob, losing a caretaker your comfortable and familiar with. Hopefully your next doctor will be someone you come to trust as well.

Whatever doesn't aggravate my knees that day.... But seriously, working basic punching, either shadow boxing, more "basic" style punching and moving in stances, or working on a bag. I always try to focus on my hip twist and getting my body into my strikes, whether on the bag or in the air. I like to work on blocking movements as well, working different methods of the blocks and play around with applications using various segments of the movement as defenses and counters to various attacks.

It's 375 pages, but it's a really smooth read. Lots of stories and histories of the old masters with some notes along the way. It's not set up as just pages of huge blocks of text. It's really broken up and reads well. I think you'd enjoy it.

2/11/2025 Aikido Class: 6:15 - 7:45 pm. Thankfully, this was a long class! After stretching and aikitaisos, we got into technique work, and the Sensei had us work on techniques for our testing requirements. I did shionage from a same-side wrist grab, both omote and ura versions. We started by just working the entry over and over, which were good reps to get. Then we got into the whole technique with a finish. Lots of reps. The entry and the footwork were feeling really good, but I was having trouble with the turn into the arm control position. I needed to squat lower on the shorter student to get the balance broken. I also felt like I was going to really twist off the hand, so I ended up letting my grip go at times, which didn't help either. The ura version seemed more direct, but the omote version actually seemed easier to do. After shionage, I did nikkyo from a same-side wrist grab. This technique had the same kind of entry that the shionage version I did had, so that made the transition easier. I only worked the omote version. Lots of good work, and I really enjoyed it. I'm hoping to get set up to test soon. Falling wasn't too bad on me today, either. I mostly did breakfalls, but did do one back roll that didn't cause me any fits. I never know how that's going to go, and I'm always a little anxious about it.

I agree, @Wastelander. I think it's tougher for some of us here to wrap our heads around the idea of talking to others about "life after black belt," as the most of us here are lifers anyway. As much as I'd like all my students to love the Martial Arts as much as I do, it just isn't the case. I do think by addressing goals much earlier in the students' journeys that we can perhaps up our retention level.

No problem, @sensei8. There are actually 3 volumes, another one on Fujian, Naha-Te, Goju-Ryu and other styles, and then a volume on Kobudo history and masters. I've ordered the 2nd volume already.