bushido_man96

If you want more weight on your shoulders, doing heavy walkouts can accomplish what you want there. After you finish your heavy work set, add another 10-20%, walk it out, and see how it feels.

Congratulations, Patrick! Your tireless dedication to the quality that KarateForums.com is known for will now allow it to perpetuate into the future! This is going to be a great step for KF!

Clive Cussler's The Devil's Sea, authored by his son Dirk Cussler (Clive passed away in 2022 I think). I've also started Taekwondo, a Path to Excellence, by Doug Cook.

I'll have to check it out.

Preseason games tend to be pretty decent to get, though, so you might get lucky.

5/8/2024 Solo Workout: 4-cycle okinaga breathing in the car on the way to the gym. Didn't really time myself, just tried to extend each cycle a little as I went. At the gym, I started on the rowing machine, doing 30 second "sprint" followed by 30 seconds of rest, and did that for about 10 minutes. I'm going to extend the sprints to a minute. Went into the mat room and got Do-Kang 6 down. Now I just need some stamina to get through it without looking like a fool. Then I got three-steps 1-6 down. Finished with a stretch, and got up to 140 degrees in The Rack.

Honestly, I think the effectiveness of this kind of training with weights is overstated and not really useful. It's easy to fall into, though, because you are lead to believe that you're doing a movement pattern that is specific to your sport/activity. What you really end up doing is shortening the movement pattern from the full range of motion, and you can cause more stress on the knee by doing so. Something to keep in mind when strength training is to remember that strength is a general physical adaptation. You strength train, and you get stronger. You get better at doing your activity by practicing your activity. I honestly think you'll see better results in your MA activities if you just continue to do squats through the full range of motion, making yourself stronger overall, than you will by trying to make lifting weights look like your MA activity. My two cents, but I thought I'd offer.

Good on you, Ken. I haven't had alcohol for some time, either. Never a heavy drinker, but now I'm told to avoid it due to flaring up Meniere's, so about the only drink I have anymore is a half a glass of champagne on New Year's Eve with the wife. Honestly, it doesn't bother me. The social aspect hasn't really been an issue, either, and I find I can enjoy myself around others who drink alcohol without doing so myself. I also enjoy the fact that I keep my faculties about me when others are not doing so. A cool head in situations like that is a bonus. This is a great step forward. In no time at all you'll find that you don't miss it, and better yet, that you don't need it to have a good time with others.

That sounds like an awesome experience! Thank you for sharing it with us. Do you ever take notes after a session? I've started doing it recently and find it quite valuable when I go back to class to work on things. It sounds like you could've filled a notebook in this week!

5/6/2024 Aikido Class: 8:30 - 9:30 am. Morning Basic Class. I was early enough that I warmed up with some run-throughs of jo kata 1. I managed to get right and left side done a few times. After aiki-taisos and stretching, we moved to ukemi. I focused on my forward rolls again, trying to focus on the same thing; not crashing onto my shoulder; with moderate success. Next was technique work. We started with ikkyo. I kept messing up by stepping with the inside foot, nearly stepping on my partner's toes several times. The way he showed was stepping with the outside foot after the step back and getting the grab. I also needed to focus on rotating the hips into what I'd refer to as an over-rotated front stance. There were some nuances with manipulating the arm into position as well. We finished with gokyo, which was just like ikkyo but finished with an armbar. I needed to not crowd myself and give more space, and finish with a turn of the hips towards the armbar. I also needed to place my arm more towards the wrist side of the elbow to make it more secure.

iOL would be a Guard, wouldn't it? The interior linemen are the guards and center. Looks to me like they drafted to the needs you have listed.

Ok, then I'm confused. Does the book end before Noranaga becoming Shogun? Are there sequential books with the same characters?

Sorry I missed this! A belated happy birthday to you!

Draft has come and gone. How do you feel about how your team drafted? I think KC did a pretty good job overall. Getting Worthy was a great idea. I worry about his size, but if Reid traded up to get him, then they must be confident in his abilities to play in the leauge. DP, what do you think about Buffalo trading away the pick to KC that gave them the fasted WR in the draft? It made me scratch my head.

It appears that you can choose to watch an English dub of the show. I haven't been doing that, though. I think I may have to find the book. I watched the first season, and I was really enjoying it, until the last few episodes. I just didn't like what happened (I won't spoil at this time). I'm willing to give season 2 a shot, but I won't be as excited for it.

4/29/2024 Aikido Class: 8:30 - 9:30 pm. Morning Basic Class. We started with stretching and aiki-taisos, and moved into some ukemi, then some technique work. While rolling, I focused on keeping my arm extended out and in contact with the ground as I did my forward rolls. This helped me to keep from crashing into my shoulder, which I've been prone to do. For the technique work, we did kote-gashi and shio-nage. I tried to stay more upright when doing kote-gashi, focusing on projecting forward and fading back as I was stepping and turning. For shio-nage, I needed to focus on keeping things in contact with my head as I turned.

4/22/2024 Dryfire: 10 minutes of dryfire practice. I noticed some trigger slap going on, and worked to correct it. Aikido Class: Weapons Class. 5:00 - 6:00 pm. Just me and the sensei, and he was recovering from an illness, so we kind of took it easy and really just had a great MA discussion. I talked about some TKD history, and he hadn't realized it's roots in Karate. He talked about some of his perspectives through Aikido, and he's been doing a lot of researching on what has been recorded of O'Sensei's teachings, and what he actually meant. I guess we kind of discussed our search for truth. I also did get some review of jo katas 1 and 2. I really enjoyed our discussion. TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. Do-Kangs 1-6. I think I might have 6 almost down now. I need to focus more on a block/block/strike scheme that starts and ends each segment of Do-Kang 6.

As a Bills fan i hope you take a WR! Also, i would have preferred you to keep Snead to Chris Jones lol. It is beginning to get to a place like the old 49ers / Cowboys rivalry in the late 90s where the teams basically built a roster to beat the other one. For the Bills we need a team to beat the Chiefs, that is the roster goal! Might lead to some odd decisions on the face of it. E.g. we need a new WR but if a great lineman to try and counter Chris Jones is available maybe that would be better as it will come down to us vs the Chiefs again probably! It reminds me of the Brady/Manning rivalry, and sprinkle in some Joe Burrow in the place of Rothlesberger. I saw a post the other day where Burrow was making statements that the Bengals built their roster to beat the Chiefs. Could be him just playing that up, or could be he really thinks that. These coaches and team presidents have a tough job of building squads to compete with the cream of the crop, but also structuring the team to win the division. So hard to keep doing, and eventually there are some breaks in the cycle.

I think there's a fellow out in California named Dan Harden that you might look into.

4/14/2024 Dryfire practice. 15 minutes. Draw and fire 4 rounds, then reholster. I'm noticing the most movement when I reset the trigger. As I went along, it started getting better. I still have some moments of trigger slap as well. I missed the last department range day due to being out of town for a doctor's appointment, so looking forward to the next one. 4/15/2024 Aikido Class: 5:00 - 6:00 pm. Weapons class. Jo warmups, doing 4 high, 4 low, and then combining them. Jo kata 1, both right and left sides, and the left side is getting much better. Next was bokken kata. Got through bokken kata 1 several times, and I need to lock down the spinning maneuver at the end. I attempted bokken kata 2, and got about half-way through it. There are some interesting turning cuts in that one that I'm still fighting with, and at the end of this kata is an even more intricate spinning move (double spin essentially). I don't handle this spinning very well. At the end of class we did some tai sabaki with the bokken. TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. Pre-class stretching in The Rack. CI had to take off, so I taught the class. Warmed up with Do-kangs 1-5, but they did not look or feel great. The pain I had in my left knee was exquisite, and it made transitioning into front stances difficult and jumping nigh impossible. I didn't jump much on the last stretch of the 5th Do-kang, which is all jumps. One of the black belts just earned his full 3rd dan, so we spent time working through Yoo Sin. The other student was a 1st dan, so I gave him some little bits to focus on in Kwang Gae.

It's great to hear about the Judo class, DP. Happy for you. I know I look forward to my one Aikido class per week. It's inserted a freshness to my training that I haven't experienced in years.

I don't know that I've ever felt that way in sparring, but in thinking about self-defense applications and the way my style tends to get nit-picky in how techniques look, such as stances and kicks, I have definitely felt that way. Is it more important that a front stance in a form is technically correct, with both feet pointed forward, 70% of the weight on the front leg, front knee bent, back leg straight, feet like your walking on railroad tracks (teaching points we use in our version of front stance), or is it more important to understand how front stance works in transition in applying leverage to a technique? I think at time we fail to see the forest for the trees.

4/8/2024 Aikido Class: 5:00 - 6:00. Weapons Class. Stared with jo warmups, then went to jo kata 1, and I got it on the right and the left side. Next was bokken warmups and bokken kata 2. It was quite a change from bokken kata 1, so I didn't quite get it down. When thrusting, I need to focus on not drawing the blade back, but going to the blade as I step, in order to keep contact with the other blade. I also need to focus on keeping my body upright when cutting, and not leaning forward with the cut. Lastly, we went back to the jo and learned Shirata Kata. It was 4 segments that flip-flopped similar move sets, and was done on both sides. It was confusing, and I'll need more practice to remember it. TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. We sparred today. Against the tall kid, I need to do a better job of using my footwork to control the ring. We didn't time our rounds; we just kind of went until we were done. I sparred to the point of exhaustion and then kept going, which was very much needed. Doing spin back kicks with my right leg made my left knee hurt quite a bit. 4/9/2024 Dryfire Practice. 10 minutes of dryfire, sticking to draw and fire once, or draw and double-tap. I had some improvement on some of the double-taps.

This is a WR rich class. I'm hoping the Chiefs can find a good one at the end of the first round, too. However, they may choose focus on a DB to replace Sneed. The recent goings-on with Rashee Rice might also force KC to take a WR in the first round to shore up needs. I can't imagine he gets out of this pickle with anything less than a game suspension.

I think the only time I've ever recorded myself teaching was when I had to do so as a requirement to send into ATA Headquarters in preparation for instructor certification. Otherwise, I've never done it for myself. As with anything, I can see the benefit of doing so. If you choose to record every session, you can go back several years and see how much you've changed as an instructor. That would be interesting more than anything. But watching and taking notes on specific approaches and teaching techniques could be revealing. I do think it's a good idea to let the students know the session is being recorded. In some states, it might be required to avoid legal issues.