bushido_man96

9/17/2025 Aikido: 6:15 - 7:45 pm. Brief internals work, then aikitaisos, where we focused on staying grounded. Along with the grounding was keeping the body connected and staying centered (I don't really think those things are ever separated). We did a tenkan with front kick drill to help with keeping centered upon completion of the turn (the tendency is to lean back upon finishing the turn, or sitting back on the leg that is moving). Don't want any lean or readjustment to kick. I liked this drill and will be doing it more often on my own and in TKD class. We did do some forward rolls. I kept crashing my shoulder. Sensei said he'd take some time to work on it with me when we can link up. Spent a majority of the class working on yokomenuchi soumen iriminage, but against a knife attack. Entry is in/angled toward the knife forearm/elbow with the lead arm to jam/intercept/kazushi, other hand secures at wrist. Then circle the arm up high to keep the blade away and get into position. Finish is modified by wrapping arm around the head and taking them down, secure the knife side as an armbar on the knee, other hand pressure point at the corner of the jaw. After spending time on this, we did some jo-dori. My rolling had to be limited tonight, but when I did it, it was ok.

I read that Belichick and the Tar Heels are discussing buyout options already. Apparently, there's more than just losing going on. My initial thoughts were to just stick it out; it's not like UNC has expectations like Ohio State, Alabama, and other contenders. Let it play out over the course of four years and see what Belichick can build. But there appears to be more than that going on. Allegations of lack of communication on gameday, a divided locker room, disorganized coaching staff, and the fact that Belichick has been "weird" and "distant" over the past two weeks. A lot of parents are upset with the fact that he closed practices to New England Patriots scouts after the coach had stated he was committed to developing players for the next level of football. He needs to clean up the act around there and get his ducks in a row or this will be a failed experiment.

We usually do the form once like this, and then the students do it once at their own count, that is, once they've got the form memorized. I like to teach it count by count, and then as they get better, add in rhythmical nuances.

Those are all great. The one I've really focused on is self-awareness. Another thing I preach about is being able to articulate the actions you took to law enforcement after the incident. Saying the right things are tantamount to keeping yourself out of more trouble.

This is honestly the first time I have seen it. My understanding is that it was a daughter interacting disrespectfully with her dad, who is also the CI and likely teaching the class that it occurred in. I believe it was likely a series of events that snowballed into the temporary demotion taking place. She had to test each time to get back another rank. When she wrote her 1st dan essay again, the questions reflected the issues that she had to resolve, which to her credit, she did.

I have not heard of that, but after the few times back to the gym and the results afterwards, I'm starting to wonder if strength training is something I will be able to continue to do. It seems my head does not tolerate it well. 9/16/2025 Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. I taught this class. It was a big class, too! It was exciting to see. We had 16 total, including me teaching. We had two fresh-out-of-orientation white belts, so I stuck to the normal basics protocol. However, one of the new white belts was actually a red belt in the Karate school we have here in town. The school closed, and the instructor recommended our school for her to go to. She's catching on pretty quick. There are some technique adjustments for her to make, but those will fill in pretty quickly. I'm sure she'll skip some ranks as she tests. For forms, we had white, low and high orange, low and high green, high blue, 2nd dan and 3rd dan. One-steps for same colored belts. I had the white belts work with black belts to get some good reps in. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. I joined in for this one. Several rounds with colored belts, working on various things. My legs were heavy and dead on me. Last round was with the 3rd dan. I'm trying to spar taller than I am, sliding while kicking to close distance and the like, cover ground more, etc. Nice stretch after. Wrist hurt, knee hurt, back hurt.

I just get smashed every session.

9/12/2025 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 195x3, 205x1. Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 75x5, 80x3, 85x3, 90x3, 95x2. Barbell Curls: 45x10, 45x10, 45x10. Triceps Push-downs: 50x15, 50x15, 50x15.

9/11/2025 Aikido: 9:00 - 10:00 am. Aikitaisos, then worked on kaitenage for our rank. There are 4 variations for the test, and we did 2 of them. I need to draw the "cut" parallel w/uke's initial direction. We talked about atemi - I need to think about my striking principles more w/my techniques. If I'm in a good striking posture technically, then the technique is probably going well. Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. Basics, then real brief stretch. Choi Yong, then low orange and blue belt one-steps. Head wasn't feeling great. 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Sparring. I ran drills in this class to start. From closed stance, assigned attacker did a front leg round kick to the body and the defender would block with the rear arm. I've been seeing low ranks doing too much "fencing" while sparring, trying to block all the kicks with the lead hand while the back hand/arm does nothing. The attacker could do a #1 round kick or a #3 round kick for distance. After some rounds of that I had the attackers do a higher or head level front leg round kick so the defender could start using the upper hand on the cross block to defend the high kick. The cross block is a double block with the rear hand staying low and the lead hand going high to cover for the possibility of the kick going to the body or the head, or a double kick. We did several rounds of this drill and had the defenders add a counter punch after blocking. BJJ: 7:00 - 8:15 pm. Three rounds of warmup rolling, then into class focus. The focus this month is on side control (ugh, my favorite...). We played games where the bottom person tried to re-guard and the top player tried to maintain position. We then progressed the drills to the top player trying to isolate the far arm, head and far arm, or near arm. Then we progressed to trying to get the bottom person up on their side. While drilling and trying to maintain the top position, I found that by getting off my knees and onto my toes (like I used to yell at the boys to do when wreslting) I could circle and maintain the top position better and for longer. I didn't free roll tonight as my head was bothering me too much and I didn't want to set anything off.

Bills vs Dolphins has the possibility of being a tight game, but I'd lean Bills. With Fields likely out vs the Buccaneers, Bucs seems the more certain pick.

Yep, I hadn't heard about this story until now. And I probably won't think about it again. I'm more concerned about the three uncalled false start penalties on tush-pushes during the Chiefs/Eagles game.

9/9/2025 Aikido: 6:15 - 7:45 pm. Head was feeling funny today, so I didn't know how class was going to go. I only took a few falls; lots of taking techniques to a stretch point. We did aikitaisos, then technqiue. Yokomenuchi sokumen iriminage (5th kyu): I'm making improvements on this, flowing better. I worked on not standing up tall when entering with arm across chin. Also worked on drawing the other arm back (hikite) and getting it twisted to break balance. The finish is the aikitaiso sayu undo/sayu choyaku undo; key at the end is not a drop but a thrust/downward thrust across the shoulders. Then we did a variation on it using a pass-through block/intercept (I likened it to a block/pass/pin minus the pin), then to the iriminage or gokyo. We also hit lots of tangents on different approaches and applications.

There was a lot going on with this testing, even though it wasn’t one of the bigger testings. Here’s the big one: We had a 2nd dan, who is the daughter of the CI, managed to get herself bumped from 2nd dan back low brown belt due to some…respect issues; not with everyone in the school, but more along the lines of father/daughter dynamics. When your are father/daughter at home and then come to class, it can be difficult for kids to switch to the instructor/student dynamic. I never got the exact story of what took place to cause the rank stripping, but that’s the gist of what caused it. That 2nd dan in-a-brown belt had to test on the three brown belt levels to get back to her 2nd dan rank, and today marked her finish of that journey. She was basically doing the 1st dan testing all over again as a skunk belt; all forms, all one-steps, sparring, board breaks, and writing the essay again and reading it aloud before testing. She has matured a lot, and it was great to see. Ok, onto the performances. When I mention the 1st dan recommended, she’s the one I’m referencing. 1st dan rec: good power in Do-Gons. She made her low rank forms look like black belt forms. Great power, technique, focus, etc. She had a few brief memory hiccups, but nothing terribly egregious. During a sparring match with an orange belt, she worked with them, helping them out. White belts: good stances, transitions, and power in their form. In one-steps, their distancing was pretty good, but their stances needed focus. I see this often in one-steps at the lower levels; the students are worried about blocking a technique, where their targets are, and everything going on up high that they forget about what their legs are doing in the stances down low. The group of white belts looked very good sparring. Orange belts: needed to clean up stances a little bit, along with some transitions to front stances. The forms have some more difficult transitions, which add to this. The square blocks needed some correction. I told them not to rush their one-steps. In sparring, the orange belts need to work on their blocking skills some more. I’ve had them working on drills in sparring class to help with this. I see too much “fencing,” where low rank students are trying to block everything with their lead hand. One of the high orange belts is quite flexible, and it I asked her to show that more in forms, one-steps, and sparring. Overall, all the students showed great power in their forms, and I told them to keep it up. I asked them to add focus, and to concentrate on the stances and transitions. At the end of testing when handing out belts, the CI got a bit choked up giving his daughter back her rank, and didn't quite have his thought sorted yet. I stepped in and told her that when something like that happens, a person can handle it a couple of ways. One, they can just quit and not deal with it. Or two, they can take responsibility, hold themselves accountable, and get better. She chose the latter, and that has made all the difference. The CI was able to gather his thoughts and summed up how proud he was of her, and they both had some tears. I made them hug it out before breaking the testing.

9/8/2025 Strength Training Bench Press: 45x5x2, 95x5, 105x3, 135x1, 135x1, 135x1. Deadlifts: 95x5, 135x3, 185x3, 225x1, 250x1.

9/5/2025 Trying to get back to some form of strength training. Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 185x3, 185x3. Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 75x5, 75x5, 75x5. I'm going to play with the rep range and try a 5/3/1 approach. I want that last set to be somewhat heavy, but doing heavy 5's makes pressure build up in my head.

Congrats @Revario!

I like this book as well. Lays out a lot of good thoughts to consider. I also think that many young men are confused about what self-defense actually is. Yapping with someone and getting into a fight at a bar is not really self-defense. Sure, you have to defend from attacks, but it's much more along the lines of mutual combat than an unprovoked attack.

These are great thoughts to keep in mind for everyone, not just MAists. Most people don't realize how complicated things can become once they enter the legal system, let alone do they consider the mental health considerations after the fact if seriously injuring or taking someone's life.

I've seen something similar to this. A guy that was in our TKD college credit class actually had quite a bit of experience in Olympic style TKD, and was from Greece. He was very quick, a good sparrer as far as the Olympic rules went. I don't recall exactly, but if he wasn't a black belt he was a very high colored belt rank. But, our TKD organization uses the Chang Hon forms, and he had to learn them, so his rank was dropped to white belt (he did skip some ranks as he went along in the colored belts). He competed a few times at our national tournament and some others we went to. So he was usually sparring below his actual experience level, and shockingly, he won. I also had to start over as a white belt in this organization. I was a 2nd dan in my prior organization. I never competed as a colored belt rank in my current organization, as I thought it would be disingenuous to do so. Once I got to black belt, I did compete. The scenario you mention, if I was running a tournament and found out afterwards, I'd make a call and let them know they were not welcome back to my tournament.

9/3/2025 Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. I taught this class. In basics I worked extra on the side kick chambers. I'm a real stickler on side kick technique, and the side kick is a big part of Taekwondo. Forms consisted of white, low orange, and low green blet. One-steps for same. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. I did a few rounds of regular sparring to warm up, then changed it up. Next was one round of kicking only with the front leg, then one round of kicks to the head only. Next was situational drilling for three rounds. Students were set up in an open stance, and the attacker did a back leg round kick and defender would block and counter with a reverse side kick. I had them attack for one round and defend for the next. The last of these three rounds was more like free sparring, just limited to an attack of a back leg round kick and the defense of block/counter reverse side kick. I was trying to get the students to begin to recognize the attack and counter it. I had one adolescent girl break down crying twice in class. I tried to figure out what was wrong, but she wouldn't answer so I just had her sit out until she calmed down. She broke down once in basics and once while sparring, and sparring wasn't due to being struck. She struggles in class, and I'm trying to get her to move more deliberately, and I pace the class pretty quickly. I do this at times to get the students to think less and go more. I think this frustrated her.

My biggest regret is that I quit wrestling after my 8th grade year.

8/28/2025 TKD: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. This is kind of silly, but I got angry with myself because my hands shake so much and I can't control it. I decided to just squeeze my fists together even tighter, causing them to really shake, very noticeably. This went on throughout basics. Stretch after basics. For forms, I did Choi Yong twice. I'm still having trouble with balance on a back leg round kick repeat side kick. One-steps were low orange belt. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Lots of working with kids and low ranks. Unfortunately, BJJ got canceled tonight.

8/27/2025 Aikido: 6:15 - 7:45 pm. Warmed up on our own then we got right into technique work. Yokomenuchi sokumen iriminage (5th kyu): Omote and ura versions. Ura was much more difficult, with a tenkan (a back turn) and then continuing to twist. On both versions I must focus on drawing the arm across my body (drawing my hand to my ribs). This helps with kazushi. We did the same technique against a knife attack (yokomen). I also concentrated on trying to fall properly, as the way I'd learned to fall in TKD and Hapkido was a bit different. I did a little video review of previous ranks before class.

8/26/2025 TKD: 5:30 - 7:15 pm. Several sessions overall. Bag Circuit: 5:30 - 5:40 pm. One of the rooms at the gym has been converted to a "Boxing Room," with several different hanging bags. I did a pre-class circuit, 1 minute on each bag, 1 minute rest, 5 rounds total. 1. Kickboxing on a standard sized bag. 2. Headache ball, or double-end ball. It doesn't work great due to not being tethered to the floor properly. 3. Kickboxing on a heavier bag. 4. Long, slender bag (I think they might be called banana bags?), focusing on low shin kicks and elbows. 5. Round bag, uppercuts and hooks. Traditional Class: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Taught this class. Regular basics, then forms: white, orange, low green, high green, high blue, 2nd dan and 3rd dan. One-steps for same. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Taught/participated in this class. Two rounds of regular sparring, then two rounds of making them switch feet after stepping back to their fighting positions. They had to keep that other foot forward as much as possible. I wanted them to get more comfortable sparring from the other side. Then two more rounds where I made them keep their front feet inside the square (puzzle mats). They could kick with the front foot, but it had to go back down inside the square, or they had to switch the other foot into the square. This was to get them more comfortable with sparring in close quarters. Any techniques were allowed, but I told them I didn't just want them punching because they were close. My left wrist is really bothering me. The round of bag work with uppercuts/hooks really hurt at times. Made me focus more on form and rotating my wrist and arm the right way to nullify the pain. And something funny tonight; one of the green belt girls kicked me right in the face. She threw a round kick that I blocked, but she doubled it up (I thought she was dropping it to the ground). That repeat kick caught me right in the mouth! Keep my hands up!

Chiefs lost another receiver to injury after Xavier Worthy collided with Travis Kelce. Worthy has a dislocated shoulder with no time-table to return. Rashee Rice is on suspension for the first 6 games of the season, so the word is that Hollywood Brown's receiving role will be expanded. And once again, some younger receivers will probably be playing more often. I think they need to get Smith-Schuster some more targets. He was looking pretty good, and is a solid veteran.