bushido_man96

Here's what you should do, @sensei8. Just start writing. Start with your first subject, Shindokan history. Just write stuff. Try to be chronological, but if you need to go back and insert something, do it. Doing it on a computer might be easier, but some prefer writing on paper. Either is fine, so long as your handwriting is fairly legible. Then, give a copy to someone you trust (like me! ) who can read it over for grammatical errors, ask about clarification in spots, etc, and then can send it back to you for final approval. It's your work, and there's nothing wrong with someone else looking at to give you a different perspective and perhaps ideas on what should be added or subtracted.

That's a long grading. Kudos to you for getting to be a part of all that, @Nidan Melbourne.

I think it's a sport that got it's start in a bar. This kind of tough guy test has been around for thousands of years in one form or another. Now this one has sponsorship.

Having a bright flashlight to accidentally flash into an aggressor's eyes is a highly valuable tool. Especially some of the really bright ones that manufacturers are putting out nowdays.

I watched both, and rather enjoyed them. Thought Affleck played the character very well. As far as the Martial Arts go, after a while, I don't think I've seen anything new, and have to remember it's all choreography. But, I thought most of the hand-to-hand stuff was very direct and not too flashy or over the top. I wish I knew about Silat to be able to tell, but it's not a style you hear about often.

I wouldn't see any reason to add any more official ranking. By breaking white belt up into the three 10 hour segments, and providing a stripe for each 10 hours they have proficiency in, should be sufficient, and you don't have to add ranks and try to take more of student's money for a "testing" that really isn't. I think option 3 would be worth a try to start with. The nice thing is if you don't think it's working, you can alter it and the students won't be the worse for wear. You'll need to break things down in such a way that segment 2 builds off segment 1, and that will help retention.

6/19/2025 Aikido: 8:45 - 9:45 am. Morning family class. Aikitaisos, front break falls, front rolls, back rolls. These didn't affect me negatively all that much, which is a good sign. Shomenuchi iriminage: We started off working the entry to transition spot. I managed to get popped in the nose by a new, really raw student while being uke. When working on the right side, I felt like I was behind on everything. Like I wasn't catching up. Didn't feel that on the other side. After working that a while, we transitioned the technique into a rear naked choke. It's a really good entry for that. After that, I got to demo again. I was feeling the same issue when doing iriminage. For nikkyo, I needed to finish differently, but I got it figured out. I also managed to keep the ura in the ura nikkyo. Shionage felt rough; I was caught doing static quite a bit, but got to work it out later. I'll have one more review day and then will likely test.

6/16/2025 Aikido: 8:45 - 9:45 am. Morning family class. Went through aikitaisos, but didn't do any rolling. Katatetori shionage static ura: I kept leaning back when turning and raising the arm; I need to focus on sitting more. Katatetori shionage static omote: Need to step rear leg across first, turn hips when stepping other foot in front to affect release. Katatetori shionage dynamic, omote and ura: Same points on the leaning back. I also worked on trying to do the proper side bread fall out if it as uke. Katatori nikkyo static w/o pin: Proper footwork and drag step for good angle, and turn the hips through. Stretch.

Bradey Games's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Official Guide. I started a playthrough of that game for the first time ever a few weeks ago, and the guide has been a huge help.

I've seen these pop up as well, but haven't watched them yet. Silat is not a style you see a lot of, and if it's actually represented in the movies, then I think I'll check it out.

6/12/2025 Aikido: 8:45 - 9:45 am. I did some front and back rolls today, and it didn't affect me too negatively. Hopefully, it's something I can do more of going forward. Shomenuchi iriminage: Good motivation on the striking arm. I had too much weight on the front foot upon entry, and it caused me to have to take an extra step to perform the tenkan turn. I tried to focus on keeping the weight back more. On the motivation, I need to focus more on a horizontal motivation as opposed to pulling down on the arm so much. Shomenuchi kokyunage: This one went ok. It's definitely more direct. I could probably keep my center dropped a bit better. I worked on a proper side fall for both of these techniques when I was uke. After working these two techniques for a while, we took attacks and had to pick one of them to do on the fly without letting uke know what was coming.

It's cool when you get to meet people like that and you aren't disappointed.

It'll be interesting to see how the Aaron Rodgers scenario plays out in Pittsburg. They aren't normally a team that makes short-sighted decisions like this, and I'm not sure that Rodgers pushes them over the top into championship territory. I think Mike Tomlin typically has a pretty tight locker room, and in the past when egos have been an issue the Steelers have been more willing to let the player walk as opposed to cater to them. It just seems to be a move outside of their normal culture standards.

@sensei8, have you considered reading The Silmarillion or any of the other compilations that came after?

Hmm, seems interesting.

6/11/2025 Nothing major today. I did kick around a little bit in the house, and also did some door frame knuckle push-ups with different hand positions, and worked up to 25. Tomorrow, I plan to get back to Aikido class!

@sensei8, do you use a C-PAP?

Congratulations! This forum has meant so much to me over the past 19 years, I don't know what my Martial Arts career would look like had I not found it. The people here have made me think much deeper about my Martial Arts studies, reconsider my approaches to some things, and overall helped me become a better student and teacher. I really hope this community keeps churning along for many years to come. It's still the best Martial Arts site on the planet. Kudos @Patrick on this amazing milestone!

That would probably work well. I'd say keep the punts in the game, because playing defense is a strategy all it's own, and the way the rules are laid out in the NFL with offense being favored, short fields like that would be a huge disadvantage. I say just let the quarter play out in it's entirety.

No, there were none.

@Nidan Melbourne said it very well. Here's what you you've got to do....FIGHT! Fighting solves everything! Figure out how to fight it! Get up, and do 2 front kicks. Sit back down if you have to. Who cares if they are only to the knees? Then stand up and do 2 more. Punch, but do it slowly, and focus on every part of your body that is moving when you do it. If you can't punch like you used to, then figure out how to change it. Punch you way now. Slowly if you have to, and get a little bit more energy into if you can. Small increments, baby steps, if you will. Read, write, research. Those are easy to do in a seated position. Draw up class ideas and planners (I do this constantly). Dictate a kata out loud to yourself or someone else. It's not over now. It's just different now. But it's still there.

Where did you find this one at?

I thought it mentioned above that it is three years post Cobra Kai. Do you mean you wanted it to follow right after? I'm interested in seeing how they tie the Jackie Chan story line in with the original story line, seeing as the Jackie Chan re-make appeared to be more of a reboot that they are now retconning.

6/2/2025 Finally cleared for doing things. TKD: 10:45 - 11:15 am. Solo workout, did Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung hyungs, then Do-Gons 1 & 2 (these are all really nice for warmup because they don't have much kicking). Then I did my current form, Choi Yong, twice. I finished with some floor drills kicking. I did #1-5 front kicks, then side kicks, then round kicks, each up and down the length of the floor. I didn't worry about stances too much, but did sitting stance with the side kicks. I'm going to flesh it out some more, with stances and some strikes mixed in for an extended basics session I'll use in class eventually. Then I sat in The Rack and stretched up to about 140 degrees.

@Nidan Melbourne and @Revario, I'm glad that made sense! Thanks for the kind words!