bushido_man96

1/21/2026 Aikido: 6:15 - 7:15 pm. Traditional Class. Loosening, basic strikes, aikitaisos, then quite a bit of ukemi, and I did ok with it. The meat of the class was higher kyu material, working on several "pivot throws." They were 4th kyu and up material. Some of them I didn't mind, some of them I didn't really care for at all.

I have mixed feelings on this game. At first glance, the Seahawks look like the better team, with the game looking like an old fashioned NFC blowout of the AFC team. I think it's fair to say that New England arrived ahead of schedule; they played one of the easiest schedules in recent years during the regular season. But they beat two legit defenses in the playoffs. Mike Vrabel is an incredible coach, though, and he will get them prepared. I was surprised when the Titans let Vrabel go, and I think that was an organizational misstep, much like I think the Bills letting McDermott go. Analyzing the team strengths is interesting: QB: Darnold vs Maye. Honestly, it's a pick-'em. I think Maye gets the edge in talent, but Darnold's experience might be the edge here (and he's pretty physically talented, too). RB: Stevenson vs Walker III. Walker is hands-down the better back. WR: JSN and Cooper Kupp are much better than anything New England has in the WR department. Defense: Seattle has the better defense, but I think New England has the better coaching. I think the edge goes to Seattle. I think Seattle has the better offense overall, and the better play-caller. Weather will not be a factor in the Super Bow. To me, it all looks to favor Seattle. But that's why they play the game. Anything can happen.

1/20/2026 Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. Taught this class. I tried to get the students to focus on proper walking and posture in stances. I mentioned this in basics and in forms. I had two other black belts in class for one-steps, so while they worked with students I focused on white and orange belt students doing their one-steps. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. I sparred an opening round with the 3rd dan, which kind of sucked. After that, I led few more rounds of sparring, then I had the students line up for footwork drills. A good chunk of the time was spent on moving. Finished with blocking drills to include the six-star hit and lining them back up and swinging the blocker at them. After class I had a brief stretch in The Rack.

Well if you go dark again, I'll try to pop in here and ask where you at.

I've been very remiss in updating this thread. Kenneth is in his sophomore high school season. He started the season at heavyweight, and wrestled one tournament at that weight, taking first. Then he dropped to the 215 lb weight class, and has been experiencing success there. His first few meets were rough, but he's placed 3rd in 4 tournaments so far at 215. We just had a really tough tournament here in town this weekend where Kenneth went 5-4 over the two-day meet. He's edging closer to 30 wins on the season.

1/16/2026 BJJ: 6:45 - 8:15 pm. Some 2 minute warm-up rounds, then we went to work. We worked from the outrigger position into side control. After quite a bit of positional work there, we progressed to working on finishing with a gift wrap, Kimura, and armbar. I felt behind all the time while drilling and rolling, but I also felt like I was doing some good things. Bottom side control still sucks. I finished with 2 live rounds, 2 minutes each. Stretched after.

1/13/2026 Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. During basics, I tried to be faster. When kicking, I varied between speed and lockout. Had a good stretch after basics. For one-steps, I worked with white belts and low and high green belts, so good review. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Several rounds of free sparring, with the kids. The older kids are being fast, aggressive, and are athletic. It's pushing me, which is what I need. I was never fast or athletic. I had kids work on their offense and "moving the defense" by attacking a certain zone to get the hands to move there and open up another zone.

Good to see your updates. I've been having trouble posting lately, too. Here's to making it regular again!

So true, and I agree that falling properly will probably be more utilized than actually defending oneself.

Good to see the update! Best of luck on your upcoming test. I'm sure you'll knock it out of the park!

I've seen the ads, but haven't watched a match yet. I wonder if it's a pro league styled after Freestyle wrestling, which is spring wrestling here in the states, along with Greco. We have tournaments that are combined Freestyle/Greco, with Freestyle usually going first. Much different style of wrestling than folk.

The switching of head coaches always means there's a chance for even more instability for the team moving forward. I don't think a lot of fans truly understand or appreciate how hard it is to get to the playoffs in the NFL, let alone just assume they should win a Super Bowl with a good QB. Dan Marino had one shot a Super Bowl title in his career and never saw another one. Poor Jim Kelly lost 4 in a row. You just never know. On the flip side of the coaching carousel, I got my wish and the Chiefs brought back Eric Bienemy as OC, who helped produce some of Mahome's best seasons. Looking forward to next year. Seahawks beat the Rams for the NFC title, and the Patriots are back after winning the AFC title. I think Seattle will be the Super Bowl champs.

1/12/2026 Aikido: 6:15 - 7:15 pm. Weapons Class. Jo warmups, 4-hi, 4-low, then 4-hi x2 followed directly by 4-low x2, then starting it over again. Kumi jo again, reviewed #6 and then did #5. Kumi tachi, #4 review (at least I think it was #4). Virtual Class: 7:30 - 8:30 pm. After a nice stretch, this class started up. The sensei holds this virtual class for former students of his that have moved away. I was the only in-person attendee, other than sensei, so I got some one-on-one work. After loosening up and doing some aikitaisos, we reviewed some 5th kyu technique: Katatatori sankyo, omote and ura, with pin. Once again, hikite is showing up. Then worked the nage waza from the same. Shomenuchi ikkyo. Focused on getting the blend right and getting my arms to do the right stuff.

Mike Tomlin stepping down was interesting to me. I didn't see that one coming. I think this is the most coaching vacancies I can remember seeing in a year for a long time. I was kind of surprised by the John Harbaugh firing, to be honest. That's two of the longest tenured coaches in the NFL no longer coaching. Crazy. I wonder if Tomlin is interested in coaching again. He put a lot of time in, and has accomplished quite a bit. I've not seen the level of interest in him yet. Harbaugh received 7 phone calls within 45 minutes of being fired...and at the time, there were 7 other coaching vacancies. I think he'll get to pick the job he wants, and every other team is likely going be waiting for that shoe to drop. On a side note, both of KC's coordinators have been given permission to speak with other teams about head coaching jobs. I don't think Spags leaves; he tried the HC gig and didn't do well. Nags tried it, too, with limited success, but being an offensive coordinator, may get another shot. Honestly, as Chiefs fan, I'd like to see Eric Bienemy back as the Chief's OC.

That's pretty cool.

Congratulations, @Furinkazan!

My Aikido instructor mentioned use of Te Sabaki as well. Lot's of good stuff.

1/6/2026 Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. Focused on kime in one-steps, getting tight upon completion of techniques. Had a stretch after basics. White and blue belt one-steps. Good review. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. I assisted with this class. Our school is going to start attending some different tournaments that allow hand strikes to the head, so in sparring today hand strikes to the head were allowed. I helped some students out with some combinations using the head as the target with the hands.

1/5/2026 Afternoon shifts have ended, so now I can get back to classes! Aikido: 6:15 - 7:15 pm. Weapons Class. Jo warmups, 4-hi, 4-low, 8-hi. Then we did kumi jo and kumi tachi, which are pre-formated paired work with the jo and bokken, respectively. Class was given a choice in each exchange in numerical order, or "dramatic" order, i.e, the ones that tend to look more flashy. To my chagrin, the majority chose flashy, so I'm a little lost on the numbers we were doing. I think for jo #6. Maybe #4 on bokken. Either way, they are fun exchanges, and I always prefer my weapons work to be partner-based anyway.

12/30/2025 Pre-class, I did some speed bag work and some crescent kick stretching over a kid Wavemaster. Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. I ended up teaching this class (first class back after rotating shifts). I did do some basics along with the class and got a little bit of work in. It was a nice dive back into things. Went through white, low orange, and low green belt forms. With one of the low orange belts I emphasized for them to try to "see everything, but don't look at anything." Concentrate on awareness and focus during forms work. One-steps were done for the same. The other two school owners were present so they jumped into class and were partners with the students, so I focused on the low orange belts working on their one-steps. Sparring: Several rounds of free-sparring and combinations (for the white belt). Then went into blocking drills: 1. Lined everyone up into one line down the room, facing the mirrors. Sparring stance and moving, I came by with a blocker and swung to force them to block on the side the attack came from. Again during sparring I saw too much "fencing" trying to parry everything with the lead hand. This forced them to block with the rear hand on that side. I had them add a counter after the block. 2. I put everyone facing a partner in a sitting stance and had them do blocking contact drills that are basically conditioning drills on the forearms. The main thing I was looking for was good arcs of travel for the blocks contacting each other. I did this with inside blocks and then with low blocks. Then I briefly showed them a "six-star hit" where you contact low with the top of the forearms, then the same arm circles up and contacts with the inner forearms, then the same arm circles back to a low block contacting with the outer forearm. The students kept their forearm pads on so it wasn't a taxing conditioning drill, but more of a timing and rhythm drill, and getting the arms traveling in the proper arcs.

I imagine there are rules against that. Buying an interest in a team so one can play for it is an interesting way of circumventing the free-agent system, and probably the salary cap, which would be frowned upon I think.

12/26/2025 Speed Bag: 1:00/30 sec. 4 rounds. Spot Kendall. 4 rounds. The bag that was hung was a smaller bag than the one we usually had, and it moved much faster and I was able to get a much better rhythm going.

Kane and Wilder wrote The Little Black Book of Violence, and although it doesn't necessarily have legal advise in it, it does a good job of laying out the consequences of getting into altercations, what to expect from law enforcement, etc. However, I would tend to agree with @Montana's advise to seek out the government websites. Reading statutes is helpful in understanding what law enforcement is looking for when they investigate various violent person crimes. Speaking with local law enforcement officers is a good idea, too, especially DT instructors or use-of-force specialists.

Although I'm not looking to set concrete goals like above, my hope is to put more time into Aikido and BJJ. This will get easier when wrestling season is done. I do hope to test again in Aikido this year.

12/19/2025 Heavy Bag Workout: 1:00/30 sec. 4 rounds, orthodox/southpaw alternating. Went to spot Kendall in the gym. 4 rounds, orthodox/southpaw alternating. Went to spot Kendall in the gym. 4 rounds, orthodox/southpaw alternating.