bushido_man96

Best one yet!

3/23/2017 Wrestling Practice: 6:30 - 8:00 pm. I was Kendall's practice partner this night, and we worked on all varieties of takedowns, situational wrestling, top and bottom moves, etc. A good workout for this old man, for sure. That boy is getting strong, too. 3/28/2017 Department DT Training: 12:00 - 2:00 pm. Covered combatives and weapon retention in and out of the holster. 3/29/2017 Defensive Tactics Club: 1:30 - 2:30 pm. Covered Personal Defense Seminar (PDS) curriculum. At the end of the time, I had each of the students come up, demonstrate a technique, and teach it.

Bob, yes, I've got videos of everything. Just not on my phone for easy download. I've got a camera with SD cards we are storing everything on. The State tournament went very well for Kendall! And day one, he won his first two matches, both by pins. The second match was against someone he'd wrestled earlier in the season and pinned, and he pinned him again in the second period. This win put him into the semifinals, and it also guaranteed that he would at least place again this year. That was a huge accomplishment, as he had never accomplished that on day one. So, match three comes up, and he goes up against a really big, pretty physically mature, kid. Really tall and really strong. Kendall ended up losing this one, getting pinned in the first period. I think he tried to go for a throw too soon, instead of trying to lock up and wrestle a bit. But this kid was good, and he ended up taking 2nd place. So, day one is over, and its to the back side of the bracket. Day two starts, and Kendall has a really long wait before he wrestles. The benefit of losing your first match in the semifinals is that you end up quite a ways ahead on the back side of the bracket. He had to wait for two rounds on the back side to be finished before he knew who his opponent was. And, as fate would have it, he got pitted against the same kid from his district that he had beaten two times before, lost to in Hays, then beat in subs, and the beat him with a pin at districts. The kid had learned since then, and he was not going to be thrown again. But Kendall went out and wrestled a really clean match, and got points off escapes and reversals, and ended up winning the match 5-0. With this win, Kendall sealed the deal on his goal this year; go back to state and place higher. That win put him into the 3rd/4th place match. I was so very jacked up after he won that match, and so was he. The kid he was going to get paired up with looked like a pretty solid kid, and appeared to know what he was doing with tying up and getting control of his opponents, so I was expecting a tough match. But, it was all gravy then, because he had met his goal, but now wanted just a little bit more. So, after the 5th/6th place matches were finished, there was a break in the action to reset the mats and tables for the finals. They did a really cool thing they call the parade of champions, where the 5th/6th placers get to parade in, and then come shake hands with their opponents, then they bring in the 3rd/4th place matches to shake hands with their opponents, dismiss them, then bring in those wrestling in the championship matches, who get to be introduced by name and club, and meet and shake hands with their opponents, as well. Kendall got to be a part of it, so it was really cool for him. With all that fanfare out of the way, it was sit and wait for his match. They set it up so that the 3rd/4th place matches were on one side of the floor, and the 1st/2nd place matches were across from them on the other. They started at the lowest weight class and went up from there. But each one had a full mat, which is really nice for the competitors. Well, Kendall went out for his last match, and I was ready for a really drawn out challenge. But Kendall had a different plan. His plan was win it now, and he did just that! After some circling with this kid, who outweighed him by every bit of 10 lbs, Kendall moved in, put the headlock on him, threw him to the mat, and pinned him before time ran out in the first period! We were both so excited, he placed 3rd in the state tournament! He came off the mat, found me, and boy did we have a celebration! He did such a good job, and worked hard all season long, practicing usually 3 times a week, and usually multiple practices on the days he went, and it all paid off for him. It was a long two days, but a great weekend, and worth every minute spent there. As for his district rival, he ended up placing 6th, in his first year at the state tournament. He is also the only victory Kendall had that he didn't pin. And the two have become pretty good friends throughout the season. His parents are great people, and I enjoyed chatting with them during the season, too. And his coach is a guy I went to high school with, and is a great guy, as well. So, this just about sums up the season. We are planning on hitting a tournament in Nebraska this weekend, too, so I will post results afterwards.

Lots of good thoughts already mentioned here. The truth is, you won't know until you see what the instructor has to offer. He won't have the amount of experience that the 4th dan has. But, given a chance, he might have some very good experiences of his own to pass on to you. Will your growth be hindered? No, I don't think so. Will your progress by different? Likely, but that could happen by switching to another 4th dan, as well. What will hinder your progress, though, is not training at all. So, if it were me, I'd opt for the brown belt to teach me for a while.

I think this depends a lot on who is doing the teaching. Many of the eastern systems seem to invoke ideas of integrity, honor, respect, etc. Many of the western styles invoked the ideas behind chivalry. Most, however, came out of societies with class systems, and lets be honest, not everyone was treated equally. Whether it was always taught, it is hard to tell. However, I do think that most societies that trained its warriors trained them to have some form of respect for others. Except the people on the other team. And we all know what happens during the spoils of war. I think it is their responsibility. The parents is where it should start. Some parents don't do a good job, and some kids just don't learn. So we hope they pick it up in other places. Shared, not sole. Society should put forth good examples, and laws are established to determine what is right and what is wrong. Hopefully punishments are the deterrent to doing wrong. Again, shared, but not sole. At the end of the day, my job isn't to raise someone else's child. That being said, I feel like I've got a good moral compass, and if I can help by pointing those I teach in the right direction, lead by example, hold them accountable, then I should do that. I'm not sure what you mean by this. Once the age of reason is hit, accountability should be a thing. Parents assume some accountability with their children. Once they hit maturity, they need to be accountable for themselves. No. Although I'm sure he was a great guy, I'm also sure some of his thoughts, ideas, viewpoints, beliefs, etc, wouldn't match up with mine. Again, no. I think this will vary from person to person, based on their own life experiences and upbringing. I have a Christian upbringing, so my own morality is shaped by that. Martial Arts, in all honesty, is just a thing we do. It has no feelings, it has no conscience, it doesn't know right or wrong. It is those who practice and teach and learn the Martial Arts that add their own views and outlooks on life into what they teach. Most people are well-adjusted, and will teach in a well-adjusted manner, and it will usually perpetuate that way.

Mine was Gae Baek. I absolutely loved that form, and did it a lot. Since I've been in my current organization, it was probably my most successful form in competition, too.

Its good that you've explored and found a club that fits your needs. A lot of instructors lose sight of the fact that the journey belongs to the student, and not to them. Enjoy your new training environment!

Congratulations, Safroot! Very well deserved indeed!

3/21/2017 Strength Training Bench Press: 45x5, 95x5, 115x5, 135x5, 155x5.

Keep at it, Bob! You're doing great!

Its easy to get caught up into all that. Sometimes, having so many options available causes a bit of an overload. But, I think its a good problem to have. Glad to hear you made a choice and are giving it your full attention. Maybe after you've committed some time to it, you could consider adding another option to study.

All instructors have a different approach to teaching, and students have different approaches to learning. Some people like the drill-sergeant style instructors, and some don't. That doesn't make one style any more real or fake than the other. You mentioned the stress factor of training. If you don't enjoy training, then you probably won't do it. At the same time, you don't want to be pampered to the point that your training won't be effective. It sounds to me that what you have at your school is a pretty good arrangement, and it works well for you because it sounds like you are pretty self-motivated. Fear not, you are doing real Karate.

Thank you, Bob! Districts went well this past weekend. Kendall wrestled three matches, and won all three by pins. In the third match, he did a very rough duck-under that he got a takedown with. It was good to see it, but its obvious that it needs a little work. In his second match, against our challenging opponent this year, he managed another throw via headlock, and worked it into a pin. So, it was a good week, and he had a good night of practice on Monday evening, as well. He goes into the state tournament as a #1 facing off with a #4. We leave Friday to get to weigh-ins, wrestle Saturday, and if things go right, wrestle on Sunday, too.

3/15/2017 Defensive Tactics Club: 2:00 - 3:00 pm. Did some mitt work with punching and kicking combinations. Strength Training Press: 45x5x2, 95x5, 95x5, 95x5, 135x3.

This is something that comes with time and work. Use one-step sparring to work on this, making sure you are far enough away to throw techniques with power and speed, and not make contact. As you get more comfortable, start closing the distance more and more. This will start to come together in sparring as well. When you spar, don't think "slow," think "smooth." I say don't think "slow" because then you will be slow, and that's not ever good. But, there is a saying out there for training that goes "slow is smooth, and smooth is faster." I hope this makes some sense. Work on being smooth and getting the combinations to come together smoothly, and as you get more comfortable, they will speed up.

Ok, the run to State has begun. Subdistrict championships were held in Phillipsburg this past weekend, 3/11. Initially, the setup was a three-man round-robin, but one of the kids scratched due to illness and a funeral, so Kendall only wrestled one match, and fittingly enough, against the kid who beat him the previous week at our local tournament. Kendall went out, changed some tactics, and wrestled very smart, and got the win, and almost had a pin. Now, we head to Garden City for Districts, which is going to be a 4-man round-robin, which means that barring injury, he will qualify for state. The only thing to be decided is the scedeing, which will be flushed out based on the records, head-to-head match-ups, and pins that take place in Garden. Updates will follow soon thereafter!

3/8/2017 Defensive Tactics Club: 2:00 - 3:00 pm. Worked on some pistol disarms and retention.

It may be that you are trying to turtle up somewhat? Just absorbing the blows, however, is not a good idea. When you find yourself doing this, you should try to get yourself to move to a better position. I like going forward, personally. When you turn side-on, you take away the number of weapons you present to your opponent. Some folks can make this work; Bill Wallace comes to mind. But not everyone can be Bill Wallace, and he did it mainly because of an injury that didn't allow him to use one leg as well as the other. My advice would be to start training yourself to not do it. I think you should be able to keep your hands up and be able to move and defend at the very least. If you can't, then you've probably sparred past your conditioning level and need to rest a bit. Its hard to train well when you are exhausted, but at times its important to learn how to push yourself through it. Its likely that your conditioning level needs to come up. This is tricky, and everyone will approach it differently. If you are fast and can set up angles and dart in and out, it likely won't matter much if you decide to kick or punch. It also depends on your body structure. You might be shorter, but your legs could be a similar length to theirs still, in which case you would have the same reach with the legs. I'm assuming your legs are shorter than this tall opponent you have, so we won't assume the latter. The key is going to be working angles to get inside, using good footwork. If you can get to angle and line up with their centerline, then you can attack forward and they have to adjust to meet the angle you've created. If you are good defensively, then you can set the opponent up with fakes and feints and use blocking and counterattacking to get inside. A lot of this will come with time spent drilling and sparring.

I agree here. Have you cut some of your Shorin Ryu classes to make time for the other styles?

Welcome!

Welcome aboard, syed1!

Welcome to KF, RyanMMA! Glad to have you here!

3/1/2017 Defensive Tactics Club: 1:30 - 3:00 pm. Worked on some block/pass/pin drills with the club members.

I'm not a big music workout guy. If its there, great, but if not, I'll still work out just fine. If I had a choice, some old AC/DC and the like is what I prefer.

Keep up the good work, Bob!