bushido_man96

It's really quite simply a matter of how the sensei teaching the curriculum wants to teach it. Some are good with weapons first and only. Some are not. It could be that a sensei wants to see what kind of discipline and dedication the student is willing to put into training before putting a weapon in their hands that can become a dangerous force multiplier. For others, it could simply be because that is the way it was when they learned it and that is the way they will do it. They just follow the same method they learned. I'm fortunate in that if I wanted to, I could just learn the weapons curriculum at the Aikido school I attend. But it's only offered one day a week, unless the sensei chooses to do a weapons day during the other classes. In the end, if your options are limited, you'll just have to make do. Or don't. Your choice.

8/20/2025 Aikido: 6:15 - 7:45 pm. Warm-ups and aikitaisos, brief internals work, and then right into technique work. We did lots of defenses against the lunge punch, or stepping straight punch: Kokyonage "buddy drop": After taisabaki outside the punch, getting deep (and not focusing on blocking the hand so much), monkey grip to the inside shoulder, tying the elbow to the hip and using the "rowing motion" from aikitaisos (funakogi undo) to break the posture, step across behind them and finish on the other shoulder (but really happens at the same time). I have to keep the rowing close to me, and not out and away from me. Variations including grabbing the collar at the back of the neck instead of hooking the shoulder to break balance and apply pressure into the hips through the small of the back. Kotegashi: From the same punch attack. After the taisabaki and "block," a tenkan motion sets up the kotegashi. Jujunage: The attack was a same side lapel grab followed by a face punch. Taisabaki outside the punching arm and pass deep at the shoulder. Then the other hand seizes that punching arm and the other uses the arm grabbing the lapel as a lever into the other arm, as an armbar. It's a "crossed arms" throw. Again, step deep and don't think of the hand so much. Last up was "free work," and I chose to work shomenuchi ikkyo omote and ura, both of which are a technique for my rank.

Ha, my deflection worked! Just kidding! I do like the concepts you've laid out. Instead of talking a specific technique, which can be limited, concepts can be applied to various situations and are therefore more successful. Or rather, they make techniques more successful. We discuss this at times when I bring up passing and pinning attacks. When doing this, I also like to incorporate foot movement to get off the line (taisabaki basically). I always like to gain a position of advantage as well. Great stuff @sensei8, and I look forward to the rest of the discussion.

8/15/2025 BJJ: 7:00 - 8:30 pm. We worked an armbar/triangle/omo plata transition from guard for a chunk of class. Good movement pattern work and review. Then we went over the camping position again, and a variation on it from half-guard. Three rounds of open mat. I got taken down three times by a female wrestler, which was fun/not fun. My takedown game is trash. I got to where I could see some transitions into the positions we've been working. Now when I get there, I at least have a plan in mind.

8/7/2025 TKD Testing: 6:00 - 8:00 pm. A pretty good testing overall. Seeing lots of improvements, and still things to work on. More to follow in my testing evaluation post. 8/8/2025 BJJ: 7:00 - 8:30 pm. More work from the knee-slice/outrigger/camping position, working low head/high head transitions. The positions apply pressure in different ways. The high head position puts your lower body into kind of a wrestler's sprawling position, with hips heavy into your partner's hips. Top player worked to beat the knee shield and get to the high head position. Then we eventually worked to scurrying to half-guard so we could work to a pressure pass. Or, if you could get heavy pressure on stacked knees you could pass to side control. Then we did free-rolling from that start position. I can see some things that are going on, I just have trouble stopping it. I think the key is slowing things down, or getting things to slow down.

Requiring that kind of thing is taking a lot of choice away from retired athletes and families. Offering the services are one thing, but requiring them is another.

8/5/2025 Aikido: 6:15 - 7:45 pm. Aikitaisos, with a focus on staying rooted. I was able to do some ukemi today without many side effects; forward rolls and breakfalls, and back rolls. Then technique work. 7th kyu Katatori ikkyo: Worked on blending the cut into the takedown. 5th kyu Shomenuchi ikkyo omote (my rank material): Entry is not a stop, but an intercept that blends to redirect the energy of the strike. I focused on this. Blue and black belt rank Front kick defenses: Outside the kick, kokyonage "kihon," with hand to cheek, pull to me and throw. Then kokyonage "buddy drop," step outside, then behind and pass, pull down and back on the shoulders (keep the pull close to me). Then stepping inside, kokyonage to the neck (like a football stiff arm, or more like a tiger mouth strike towards the throat, but just below on the chest) intercepting on the inside line. After these, it was technique work of our own choice. I did an irminage kick defense sense showed us, along with a kick defense takedown to a "calf slicer" for control/pin. Fun class.

My biggest regret is not keeping up my Spanish. Being bilingual would have been of great benefit.

This is a bad idea, folks. Doesn't anyone remember the Terminator movies....?

7/28/2025 TKD: 6:00 - 6:45 pm. This was more of a solo workout. Do-Gans 1-6, and I did three-steps 1-6 between each Do-Gan. Stretch. 7/31/2025 TKD: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. I worked the arms in basics again. My hands were shaking a lot; it's always more noticeable on my right hand. Choi Yong went ok. I did some technique work with a high orange belt on the side with kicking, especially side kicks. White and high orange belt one-steps. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Working with lots of lower ranks. Some of them are getting more aggressive, which is good. Self-Defense: 7:00 - 7:30 pm. Punch flow drills, then we worked some trapping to random self-defense, locks and takedowns.

7/24/2025 TKD: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. I taught this class. Added in more kicking to the upper body basics. Then got the students through their forms and one-steps. BJJ: 7:00 - 8:00 pm. We worked from a 50/50 position, working/defending heel hooks. Later on we worked from a backside 50/50, then to a 90/10 position. I tried to apply the defensive applications that were explained in the seminar from the week before, with some success.

Probably due to the sport aspect. I've always had instructors that worked in some of the self-defense aspects, and we always learned how to fall, if even rudimentarily. In Aikido, we spend a lot more time on ukemi, and it's a different level of attention to detail.

7/22/2025 TKD: 5:45 - 7:00 pm. Traditional Class. My knees were giving me fits today, and one of them gave out while stepping in stances in basics. Took a while to finally get it warmed up. Lots of pain especially in the front stances on the front knee. Had a decent stretch after basics, and then Choi Yong was decent again. I did white and green belt one-steps. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Five rounds. White belt x2. Low green belt that was pretty aggressive, and has some good things to build on. 2nd dan, tall teenager that did not want me to get close to him. He kept his distance well and I had to lure him in. 2nd dan, adult, also tall (the kid's dad, actually), we worked each other really good. He commented that I set him up and tricked him on some points, and he got me at times as well. My arms were dead after that match.

Just because you don't like someone, or how someone does things, doesn't mean you can't still learn something from them. There are egos on both side of this; yours and his. If his won't flex, then perhaps yours might have to, at least for a time if you think you can gain something from his teaching. Which to me, it sounds like you probably could. The important thing to remember is that what he teaches you doesn't demean what you already know. You are just adding to your knowledge base. Take what you learn in class, and then on your own time, work it from your own training philosophy. Take notes, maybe ask some questions here and there on the side so as not to cause an issue in class. If after a time you don't feel like the training is beneficial at all, you can always move on. I'll say this, from my time in grappling class, there is nothing theoretical about rolling. That's one thing BJJ and Wrestling benefit from. A lot of instructors could benefit from that kind of exposure. Best of luck to you, and let us know what you decide.

Terrible all around.

I don't think there would have been The Rock had there not been Hulk Hogan first. RIP. Condolences to his family.

7/20/2025 BJJ Seminar: 3:00 - 5:30 pm. 3rd dan Scott Miller came and hosted a class at our do-jang. We started out with hand-fighting drills, and he gave us the 6 'Ps' of hand-fighting: Push, Pull, Pin, Pass, Pummel inside, and Posture. We did several rounds of hand-fighting, trying to break balance and get the other pulled across the centerline. Next we worked on leg lock defenses. He talked about several principles for defending leg locks: Smash, Separate (the legs), Spin with pressure, Hide the heel, Hand-fight, Intertwine, and Turn toward the toes. We drilled these from a position and worked to an armbar. From there, we went on to try to defend a standing leg lock attempt where we underhooked the same side leg then rolled around on the shoulders to pull them down to a knee bar. I found all this a little difficult. I hadn't been at the regular sessions due to work, and they had been working on leg locks quite a bit. We did one from the top player kneeling and getting to an omo plata. After all that, the session was opened up for open rolling. I did several rounds. One fella helped me with dealing with side control, keeping the frames inside and knees/elbows together, and bridge to shrimp away. It just tends to take a lot of effort, but I feel like I have a few more tools to use now. He also helped me work on some variations of the scissors sweep with the top player loaded onto the knee and kicking out the other leg, or scissoring if my foot was set up outside of their leg. He also talked about "wrestling up" instead of pulling back to guard. I found this quite a useful tactic for teaching in DT.

7/17/2025 TKD: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. Arms were sore from the day before. I did some spin hook kicks on the speed bag. They connected nicely, but my body didn't like the consecutive spinning. Basics were good. I did Choi Yong, and it was probably my best performance of it so far. Kept my balance well for the most part. After forms, I was the continuous attacker for one-steps. Instead of sparring, we did one-technique and two-technique drills back and forth.

7/16/2025 TKD: 5:30 - 6:00 pm. Forms/one-steps session. Chon Ji, Do-Gon 1 and 2, Jung Gun, three-steps 1-6, Choi Yong. Also watched to the other 5th dan do Choi Yong. 6:00 - 6:30 pm. Sparring drills. Paddle work: FL front kicks, FL round kicks, FL side kicks, FL outer crescent kicks, FL outer axe kick. Then we did target recognition utilizing those techniques. Then I took one of the white belts and worked on spin outer crescent kick, BL round kick/spin outer crescent kick, BL round kick/spin side kick, and repeat round kicks to different levels. After class, I held the re-breakable boards for the same young white belt, and he broke with a side kick on each leg. I really let my hands fly in forms tonight. I had better speed than I'd had in quite some time. I really fatigued my arms. The kicks on the pads felt faster, too.

I saw this news as well. Terrible. I get tired of people shifting blame. He's the one that made the decision to play football. The NFL did not force him to play football. It's a tragedy for all the victims involved, the families of the victims, and the shooter and his family.

7/15/2025 TKD: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Rank class. I taught this one. Added in a few different basics. Some of the low ranks really need to work on their side kick technique. The next time I teach this class, I'm going to change basics up and really hammer side kick technique. 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Sparring class. I taught this section as well, but also padded up and joined in with the class. We did footwork floor drills to warm up, then did restricted live sparring. The first round was FL round kicks only. Second round was BL front kicks and FL round kicks only. For the third round, anything went, but the only technique that counted as a score was a reverse punch. For the last round, I allowed everyone to find a partner that they hadn't sparred with yet, and I made the taller person spar from their knees (had to be on at least one knee at all times). I got some comments later in the week from some of the students saying they really enjoyed the class.

7/8/2025 Aikido: 6:15 - 8:00 pm. The summer camp was in full swing, so this class fed off the sensei's progression in the previous camp sessions. We did a lot of iriminage variations. Towards the end, when we were doing just random technique work, he threw me in with the black belts. I thought that was pretty cool. After I got my head cleared, I was able to flow into some techniques.

7/1/2025 Simunitions Training: 3:00 - 4:00 pm. Ran six scenarios, and it went pretty well. 7/2/2025 TKD: 5:30 - 6:30 pm. Do-Gan 2, taught Chon Ji and one-steps to white belts. These students are new ones since I've been back, and the CI wanted them to have someone else's perspective. Choong Jang, Se Jong, and then Choi Yong several times.

As @sensei8 mentioned, we got together quite a few years ago now and trained together for a weekend. I got to meet @Patrick at a conference in Kansas City. Both were great experiences.

I would look for something new I can learn from a trusted Martial Artist, or a trusted Martial Artist from within my style that might have a different skill set than I do and could open those doors to my students.