bushido_man96

I would think with as litigious as society has become that these kind of schools would be weeded out by now. Somewhere like that is a lawsuit waiting to happen. An instructor being abusive like that is probably some kind of sociopath, and they should be watched out for. Tough training is one thing, but convincing your students to demean one another is not the Martial Spirit.

Years ago, I remember talk about a university that offered the chance to "major" in Karate, TKD, or Kung Fu. I can't remember if it was that Bridgeport University or not, but I think we had a discussion here about it.

This is a great way to look at it, and just thinking of it that way can really have an impact on how one trains. Great thoughts for sure!

DP, freshman here tend to range between 15 and up to 16, unless they've been held out another year or have been through kinder-prep or something like that. We drove out to the state tournament this past weekend, and we came home with a mixed bag. Those that follow me on Facebook probably saw my updates, but I'll rehash here for those that don't. Kenneth went out and won his opening round match with a pin in the second period. He got a takedown in the first period and started working on a pin, but ran out of time. He worked on trying to do a duck-under instead of a headlock but he just couldn't get to it. He did a headlock takedown in the second, and went to the pin from there. I'm not sure how old this kid was, but he was larger than Kenneth. Second match was against the kid who go on to place 2nd overall. Kenneth got pinned by the kid in the first period. Kid was really sound and very aggressive. Ended up 2nd place, so really good in a tough class of wrestlers. That ended day one of the tournament for Kenneth, with a positive; his first win in a state tournament. I felt really good about how the bracket set up for the next day. We stuck around and watched some more matches in his bracket to see who he'd be wrestling on day two. Day two came around, and his match got started. The kid he lined up against was a very big kid, and his legs were huge. My kid's no slouch, but this kid was definitely a bit more mature, and I'm guessing he was a freshman. The match started with Kenneth trying to work standing position, but he got caught in a slide-by and got hoisted off of his feet and elevated quite high in the air. I was like, "oh, crap," and then the slam. I could see him get dejected after that, but he kept fighting, and fight he did. He was the epitome of "knocked down three times, get up four," as he was slammed to the mat twice more in the same fashion, but he did not get turned and pinned. He went all three periods and in the third period got an escape and earned his only point of the match. But he hung in there the whole way, and get thrown as he might, he did not give up, and I was so proud of him for that. So he finished up 1-2 in the state meet, not placing, but I took away some positives. Next year will be his chance to be a freshman in that 14U classification. Next up is the Heartland Duals at the end of the month in Iowa.

Welcome to KF!

Thanks so much, KarateKen. That means a lot.

It looks like KC is planning on tagging L'jarius Sneed, which means they must have something figured out for signing Jones. However, if they can't come to terms with Sneed, they are likely to trade him.

If you like a nice story line and the fact that every episode is a part of a continuing storyline, you should give it a go. Third season wasn't as good, but seasons 1 and 2 are really great.

I never watched it much either. My wife had me sit through some episodes, and they weren't bad, but I wasn't overly impressed, either.

I might get into this. I haven't seen any other version of the story, so it will be my first exposure to it.

I'm like this in most of the classes I've taught. I'd like to be able to do class with the students, but in order to better watch what they are doing and give them direction on fixing things, it's easier if I walk around the room and watch and to try to see what everyone is doing while I'm doing the same thing. I don't bark orders so much as I give cues to the students to fix this or that while they're going up and down the floor.

2/21/2024 TKD Class: 7:00 - 7:30 pm. T-shirt Class. I did some bag work that pertained to just a lot of consecutive kicking. I started with front kicks, alternating legs, until my lungs just burned and my legs started to fail on me. Rest, then the same with back leg round kicks, then the same with some back kicks. After some more rest, I put them together and did front kicks until my legs were burning, then switched to the round kicks, then to the back kicks. Stretching in The Rack afterwards. I also watched the CI do a 3 brick palm heel smash. 2/26/2024 Range Training: 13 hours out at the range working with our new pistols and sights. The department upgraded to red dot optics, and these took some getting used to. We are going from focusing on front sights with one eye closed to target focus with both eyes open. We spent a lot of time working on punching out on the draw and acquiring that red dot, and of course, firing rounds doing different drills at different ranges. This first day was spent on the pistol range shooting paper targets for the most part, with some multiple target drills. We finished in the evening by shooting our department night qualification, which I shot ok, but not as good as I would have liked. 2/27/2024 Range Training: 6 more hours of training with the new gun. Also new to these pistols is a 3 lb trigger, as opposed to the standard 5 lb trigger that came on our Glocks. I do like this trigger better. We spent time in the morning working on the rifle range with metal targets, working on what was called "parallax" with the sights, which involved moving the red dot to the edges of the frame of the optic and showing we could still hit the target. We increased our range to around 75 yards, and some of the guys were hitting steel at that range. We went back to the pistol range and did some shoot and move drills on more metal targets, working on improving our times through the course of 3 runs on each drill. Some of these drills were done strong hand only and weak hand only, which I did not enjoy. We finished the day with a qualification, which I got through, but was hoping to see improvement on. Lots of practice going forward will help. 3/3/2024 Today I did about 10 solid minutes of drawing and dryfiring. I purchased a Dry Fire Mag off Amazon, which is really neat little tool. It's a magazine with a spring loaded segment at the top that allows you to dryfire a semiautomatic pistol without having to cycle it after every shot. This lets me stay focused on the target between shots and work on trigger control on consecutive shots. The red dot optic also helps me see where I'm pushing or pulling the pistol when I pull the trigger. I think it'll be a very valuable training tool.

Hey, grading for first kyu! That's great! Do keep us posted on that!

We had the district championship this past Saturday. Kenneth went 1-2, but qualifies for state as they take the top 4 and there were only 4 in the bracket. His first match he won by pin in the 1st period. He did a kind of slide-by move to get behind the kid, then took him down, turned him, and pinned him. Match 2 was a good match for him, even in a loss. First period was spent mostly on their feet, and the other kid was really clubbing him. I was yelling at him to club him back, but he wasn't hearing me. In the second period, the opponent took bottom, and got an escape point. At on point, Kenneth got a headlock, but he had too much momentum and got rolled through, resulting in a takedown for the opponent. Kenneth was able to stand up, though, but didn't quite get the escape before the end of the period. In the third period, Kenneth got awarded a point for the other kid stalling, but it was too little, too late. He lost, 3-1. Afterwards I worked with him on a form of takedown to try, and we talked about not "overthrowing" on the headlock. I also told him he probably should have taken bottom in the third period, as I think he would have been able to stand up on the kid. I think if he wrestles him again, he can beat him. Lots of stalling, and it probably should have been called more. Last match was against the kid who won, quite a bit bigger and more mature. This kid and the other loss were both freshman, and the win was against another 8th grader. With all that said and done, Kenneth goes to state as a three seed, which means he'll get matched with a 2 seed from another district in the first round. It could be a bracket full of high schoolers, but I told him to try to stay positive, and to think about working towards next year. It also appears we will be doing some post-state wrestling. Kenneth got a chance to go to the Heartland Middle School Duals in Iowa at the end of the month, which will be a fun and challenging experience.

League champion! Kenneth had two other people to wrestle at the league tournament, but for some reason, one of them decided to forfeit his matches. Funny thing was, he stood on the podium afterwards at third place...I thought that was odd, and not really deserved. Anywho, Kenneth had one match with the same kid he'd wrestled 3 times already this year, and he took him all three periods and won, 7-0. Now he's signed up for kid's wrestling, and will compete in the district tournament on March 1.

I agree, Ken. A three-peat is going to be very hard to do. It's going to be tough for KC to keep Sneed on the roster. They've already started working on signing Jones, so I think that is where they will focus their efforts. Sneed may have to sign elsewhere to get his market value, but I wouldn't rule out Mahomes perhaps restructuring again to help keep pieces for at least one more year. I'm enjoying the success now, as it can end at any time.

That's a win, for sure, Patrick. We had to replace our dishwasher recently, and I hate our new one.

Wow, thank you all for the kind words. I don't know what I'd do without KF! You all make this place a very special corner of the world for me. Thank you, everyone.

This is freakin' awesome! Don't screw it up, Disney, it's already perfect! Just build on it!I can't wait to see it all come to life! Especially the Arthurian aspects.

Congratulations Zaine! That's awesome!

That is so awesome, Noah! Watching your youtube shorts with your late sensei, your syllabus is one I'd love to have some experience with, and you deserve those promotions! Well done!

Agreed 100%. I'll admit there have been times when I'm screaming in my head "just do the kick!" But of course, it's much easier for me as I've been doing it for just over 30 years. I have to step back and solve the problem from their perspective, and that helps me grow.

2/19/2024 Aikido Class: 5:00 - 6:00 pm. Weapons Class. Jo warmups with partners, switching between 4-high and 4-low. Then jo kata 1. Got all the way through it a couple of times (on the right side). Switched to bokken, and did practice cutting down the floor, and then with partners down and back on the floor. Finished with tai-sabaki. TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. Just two of us, so we went through all of our Black Belt Basics (do-kangs), which are basically floor drills done in pattern. Did 1-5, and then spent time getting 6 down. Stretched in The Rack.

It looks pretty light-duty to me. Probably a lightweight shoe for kicking in and keeping the nasty fungi from the floor off the feet. I'd carry them in the training bag and wear them at training.

I agree that this sounds suspect. Two 10th dans and a 9th dan in the same place? Very suspect. Is it the only other option in your area? Another question I had was whether or not your current CI had a plan for the club to keep running after he retires? Is there anyone in the club qualified to take over?