bushido_man96

This is very true, and hardly any self-defense/Martial Arts instructors ever address this. It is very real and it is very important to get the help if needed.

5/20/2025 TKD: 9:00 - 9:45 am. Video review and visualization study. I watched all the ATA forms videos, and from In Wha 1 and up I watched each video twice. I said the techniques out loud as they were being performed, noted the moves the kihaps were on. Aikido: 9:45 - 10:15 am. Video review and visualization study. I watched all the 7th kyu material videos, mentioning key points to myself on the techniques as I went. 6th kyu shomenuchi iriminage: Motivating by cuing on the striking arm and just placing the hand on the back of the neck. Then need to feed into the crook of the elbow. Remember to Tenkan! After the feed, raise the elbow up and add spiral pressure to the hip/small of back while doing tenkan to break balance. 6th kyu katatetori shionage omote: After initial step back and securing wrist, cut through using front stance, then step to them to make contact, brining straight arm on top of shoulder and alongside head. A single big step around then to confirm balance is broken, then cut down and across shoulders and step across (or through) the shoulders.

I'm in favor of any kind of legitimate defensive tactics instruction being mandatory. It wouldn't have to be limited to BJJ. When I hold my defensive tactics sessions, they are pretty much mandatory for just about everyone in the department to attend. There are always a few exceptions though.

I don't think the Super Bowl will ever by pay-per-view. The NFL makes too much money selling the rights to the Super Bowl, and networks pay it because they can make it back in advertising.

If you wait and watch as the game gets closer, you might be able to find some tickets at reduced prices. Just keep an eye out.

When you are looking at matters like this, from a legal standpoint, then you have to consider what a reasonable person might do in this situation. Not necessarily consider what skills he has or doesn't have. What is a reasonable response to someone entering your space unwarranted? To push them away or strike them? If you felt fear for your safety, then yes. The key is CYA - Can You Articulate you actions after you take them. You are very focused on what actions one should or should not take in a scenario such as this, but what you should be more focused on is if you can articulate why you took the actions you took against this aggressor. I'm the same way, and it's what I teach in my Defensive Tactics sessions. Too many bad things can happen while backing up. For one, you probably aren't able to see where you are going and what you might be bumping into or tripping over while backing up. You might run yourself into a wall, limiting your movement; you might step off a curb and get hit by a car; you might trip on something and fall on your back, inviting a ground fight you may not want. These things in themselves are all dangerous, and add to it the variable of an unstable individual acting towards you in a threatening manner, and it adds up to not good all the way around. Agreed. This is the amount of stepping back I teach in DT. Drop step back into a good base, and from there, everything else should be forward or at angles.

I'm not sure how popular JJJ was in the US prior to the advent of BJJ anyway. I know Wally Jay had a following, but I don't know how many traditional Jui-jitsu schools there were in the US.

That's an awesome training experience, @aurik. You are right about doing the same things from someone else's perspective; it helps you to see the same things in a different light and brings on new thoughts and methods of doing things. Sometimes you don't need to learn something different, just the same thing differently, to open avenues of growth. It's really cool how he pulled Zach aside to work with him. Awesome for him.

My training times rotate based on my schedule rotation. When I am on day shift and night shift, my training usually happens in the evenings, between 5:30 and 8:00 pm. I usually feel pretty good after these sessions. When on day shift, depending on my days off, I can get to a morning session at the Aikido dojo that runs from about 9:00 - 10:00 am. These morning sessions are nice, but I definitely feel stiffer in the mornings. Otherwise, afterwards, I feel good throughout the day. When on afternoon shifts, I'm relegated to morning training, which is either the Aikido classes, or solo TKD training on my own. Other than morning sessions taking a little more warming up to get into, I don't mind training at either time. I do think training much past 8:30 pm would be a pain in the butt, and it might be tougher to get wound down before going to bed.

5/19/2025 Aikido: 10:30 - 11:00 am. Video review and visualization study. Started out reviewing all 6th kyu material, picking out little odds and ends on each one. 6th kyu shomenuchi kokyunage: I need to focus on the spacing on the entry; I think there is a little more spacing than when doing iriminage. Once I enter, I need to pull uke into that 'buddy drop' position and make sure my center is dropped when I do that. Hopefully my center is lowered the whole time, but as I step in, I find myself at times "stepping up" to uke, rising a little. From the buddy drop position (where their head is pulled to my chest and they are off-balance), I can do the drop-step to front stance and then turn my hips through to the front stance the other way to throw.

Awesome news, Bob!

Perhaps it could cut down on lawsuits. Society is so sue-happy, though, it's hard to know if it would cut down on the number of lawsuits initiated or not. Either way, I do agree that it would make officers safer. But if the training is to be made mandatory, then that means the departments themselves would need to be responsible for providing instruction and, most likely along with it, on-duty training time. It would be very difficult to mandate officers/deputies train on their own time, and spending their own money to do something they perhaps have no interest in doing. There are a lot of nuances to consider in order to make something like this happen.

As I got further into this book, it was less about the actual history of Karate, but more along the lines of "how we finally got Karate into the Olympics." I did not really enjoy it at all. Now I'm reading Patrick McCarthy's translation of Bubishi, the Classical Manual of Combat. Been a Martial Artist since 1993 and have not read this book...I know, I don't know what's wrong with me. It's the first title I've read by McCarthy, but I intend to be changing that as well. It's the version published in 2016 by Tuttle.

Chiefs will host the Broncos on Christmas Day, and Chiefs/Dallas will play on Thanksgiving, but I don't recall who the home team is.

I like all of this, but I like it better about two or three steps before getting into the personal space zone. The raised and outstretched arm also provides a nice index; if he brushes up to your outstretched hand, then he's probably got a palm heel coming from the other one.

5/12/2025 TKD: 8:45 - 9:15 pm. Video review and visualization study. I reviewed all of the ATA colored belt forms, many of them multiple times, to get some nuances down (kihap locations) and to just get the mind refreshed. Although these forms may not have much practical application, they do provide a test of physical skills, and I appreciate them for that.

We had a back control focused class like that a while back. Occupying the hands and working to get to better position at the same time is tough work. Moving and working to make them occupy their hands for balance was the key, but still hard to pull off at times.

Great for you, @KarateKen and @JazzKicker! I agree that the prevalence in society seems to be to take any chance to celebrate as an opportunity to indulge in alcohol. As a non-drinker as well, I just have to remember what could happen if I do drink, and I'm more than happy turning things down.

I agree with your points here, that a combination of the two approaches might be better, especially for newer students. I will say this; the conditioning aspect of the ecological approach can't be underestimated. As for the procedure; it came and went. It can take up to 6 weeks to realize the results of the procedure. So right now I'm in a holding pattern of light duty and no classes through the end of the month. 5/8/2025 Aikido: 4:30 - 5:00 pm. Video review and visualization study. I reviewed all the 7th kyu material videos. 6th kyu katatetori nikkyo ura: After the "stop hit" and transition to the grab, I need to pull the elbow down so as to let the hand come to about the level and same line as my shoulder on that side to present the opening to step behind. Again, go all the way to ikkyo while C-stepping back, then to nikkyo. Then spin behind (ura) to finish into the twist pin. 6th kyu katatori nikkyo omote static: Much like the dynamic notes above, but don't have as much of the "drop step" to the front stance. Everything stays much more in front. Remember, ikkyo to nikkyo, and zig-zag step to twist pin.

I do think it's something more LEO's should take more seriously, and be willing to invest their own time in. However, I'm biased as a Martial Arts practitioner anyway. Depending on the situation, it can be difficult to do. Many LEO's are now working 12 hour shifts, and work some setup of 3 on, 3 off, 3 on, 4 off, or something like that, with every other weekend scheduled off in that setup. If the day shift starts at 0700 and goes to 1900, that takes out a lot of time during the day to partake in activities like MA after getting off work. And if your work the night shift, which in this scenario would start at 1900, then you have to hope for class availability prior to that. Sure, there are the days off, but when those rotate around, it can be hard to get to something consistently. Now a serious practitioner is going to figure out a way to make it work, but others will have trouble figuring out how to make the time work, especially alongside family commitments. And not every department is going to provide officers with training time while on duty. So it can be tough to do. But, where there's a will, there's a way.

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.