bushido_man96

It's difficult to determine why the Martial Arts haven't had the popularity that they one did, back in the "golden age" of Karate. I'm not sure what the state of clubs at universities/colleges is anymore, or if that could even help. Perhaps more people are driven to MMA, which I don't think is a bad thing. In fact, I think MMA can help drive some people to the "traditional" arts. At any rate, things tend to be cyclical, and perhaps we can hope for an upturn over the course of the next few years.

That sounds like a positive spin on things for sure! Please keep us posted as to how things go.

I find rep progression to be pretty useful when it comes to some of the ancillary lifts, but can also be useful with the compound lifts.

That's awesome! Enjoy your training, and keep us posted on your progress, and what all you learn!

If you could pick the faces for the Mt. Rushmore of Martial Artists, who would you pick? Who do you believe has had that kind of an impact on the Martial Arts world? This is not intended to be a "who's the best" type of conversation, but instead a recognition of those who either changed things or impacted the progression of the Martial Arts. I think mine would be Gichin Funakoshi, Jigoro Kano, Morehei Ueshiba, and Helio Gracie. I think these four individuals did quite a lot for the advancement of various styles of Martial Arts. Who would be on your Mt. Rushmore? Again, I picking this forum because I'm looking for Martial Artists from all over different disciplines. I think we could do another for each section, like a Mt. Rushmore for Karate, and for TKD, Chinese styles, etc.

DP, that's a very good point to make. Some people believe they are "starting a fight," and another may believe they are going to kill someone. Two different mindsets, to be sure. Bob, I like the points you've made. Of the two, I think the dual is easier to avoid, especially if one is able to be free of his ego. If it isn't avoided, it's usually due to egoism (but not always).

There's a lot involved with each situation, and each situation is different. Actions leading up to the encounter are important; is the person trying to de-escalate, or are they using words to aggravate the situation? What led them to the decision to "throw the first punch?" (as it may not be a punch; could be a takedown, bodylock, etc.) Was the aggressor invading their space after they asked them to back away? Did he ball up his fists or hunch his shoulders? Did he make some overt action that caused to believe you were in danger? Things such as these are important to take into consideration.

1/4/2024 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2 135x5, 175x3, 195x3, 195x3, 195x3. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 85x3, 110x5, 110x5, 110x5. Lat Pull-downs: 140x10, 140x10, 140x10. I'm going to take a different approach to the lat pull-downs. I'm going to find a number where I can't get 10 reps on the first set. From there, I'll do 3 sets to failure with a 5 minute rest between sets, and when the first set gets to 10 reps, I'll up the weight to the next plate on the stack. The hope is to drive towards doing chin-ups.

1/3/2024 TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. T-shirt Class. Before class started, I spent about 15 minutes going through or traditional basics warmup. I sat in The Rack for several minutes afterward, and got a good stretch. For class, I rolled out a Wavemaster, and did our first kicking "station," which was 5 variations of front leg side kicks. I did 5 kicks each leg. After that, I did Chon Ji, Dan Gun, and Bo Choong hyungs, then went back to the bag for another kicking station, this time 5 variations of front leg round kicks, again 5 each leg. Next was sparring. Why not, it'd only been a few months! It went ok, really, and I felt like I moved ok and blocked well. Overall, not a bad night after being off a few months due to work.

Happy New Year all!

Going back to this original question for some clarification. Seeing the way the conversation has evolved, I think defining some things is important. How do we define "overcoming" the attacker? Are we talking about standing over our fallen opponent in victory? Or are we talking about doing just enough to get away and be safe, and avoid injury as much as possible? Are we talking about two people having a disagreement, and then "stepping outside," dual style? Or we talking about the sudden violence of an ambush attack? I think identifying these parameters can add some nuance to the conversation.

It's all in the articulation of what happened. If you can articulate what the person's actions were, and if you felt they were aggressive in nature, especially if he was uncomfortably close to you, then you should be able to articulate a good case for self-defense.

1/2/2024 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 185x3, 185x3. Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 85x3, 105x5, 105x5, 105x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 280x3, 280x3. Going to try triples across on squats.

12/30/2023 Aikido Class: 9:30 am - 12:30 pm. Another day of the winter camp. This morning session was focused on keeping weight under center. The idea was to focus on keeping weight under center during the techniques, and he chose techniques that helped us work on that. So, keeping the stance work in mind from the day before, along with trying to stay centered, I think I did ok on some things. I definitely still need work, but seeing these basic principles being focused on will help in my classes going forward. I was pretty sore and achy from the previous session, but I hung in there. Aikido Class: 3:00 - 6:00 pm. Second session of the day; this one was focused on the centerline, and keeping the techniques in the centerline, and making the body work as a unit along the centerline as well. We ended up repeating some of the same techniques we had done in the earlier session, so now I was thinking of stance, and keeping weight under center (and relaxing my shoulders all the while), and now keeping the techniques in the center and "connected." More good practice, and I still have a long way to go. Six hours of Aikido isn't a bad day.

"Rage, RAGE! Rage against the dying of the light! Do not go gentle into that good night!"

Happy Holidays to everyone!

12/28/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 170x5, 195x3, 215x1. Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 85x3, 100x5, 100x5, 100x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 275x3, 275x3. Bench Press: 45x5, 65x5, 85x5, 105x5, 105x5, 105x5. 12/29/2023 Aikido Class: 9:30 am - 12:30 pm. First day of the winter camp. The focus was on footwork, watching the footwork on demonstrations, and trying to get it done right above and beyond anything else in the rest of the technique. Along with this came focus on the stance itself, making sure the balance and weight distribution is proper, and one can move well from it. We did quite a few techniques, and I don't know the names of all of them. But I did concentrate on my stance and footwork as I was performing the movements, working on proper spacing as well.

This is great to hear, Bob. You've been hanging in there for so long, and you deserve this!

12/21/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 165x5, 190x3, 210x1. Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 85x3, 95x5, 95x5, 95x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x3, 225x2, 275x2. Bench Press: 45x5, 65x5, 85x5, 100x5, 100x5, 100x5. I've really lost a lot on the deadlift. Grip strength needs to go back up. On the last set, I initially wanted to hit a triple, but I honestly thought if I pulled the third rep, the pressure in my head would have been to great, and it would have messed me up for the day. I may try doing multiple doubles and see how that works out to get a bit more volume. Bench press is still feeling ok. If I get it much heavier, I may start alternating the press and the bench each workout.

I'd love to see what a typical Hapkido class is like. I wonder if it's like the Aikido classes I attend, or if they're much different?

Sorry to hear this, Bob. That's a rough go. I hope you're able to get it under control, and that it doesn't affect your day-to-day life all that much.

Happy for you, Ken. The Lions have really gotten on track these last few years, and I think they do win that division this year. Maybe they can make some noise in the playoffs, too. It's always fun to see who jumps up and surprises everyone. The Chiefs are poised to win their 8th straight division title, if they can just keep it together for the next 3 weeks. Pacheco should be back for week 16. As an aside, me and the boys are going to the Christmas Day game against the Raiders in Arrowhead as a our Christmas presents this year. Really looking forward to it. It'll be the first regular season game I've ever been to.

12/19/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 205x2. Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 85x5, 85x5, 85x5. Lat Pull-downs: 110x10, 110x10, 110x10. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 55x5, 95x5, 95x5, 95x5. I was able to bench without shoulder pain, albeit this is really light weight. I'm going to see how far I can drive it before any pain sets it. Hopefully, gradual progression will prevent that. Range Training: 6:00 pm. Night shoot, pistol (and backup), rifle, and shotgun.

For me, it was at 1st dan. You felt you were overcharged when testing for 1st dan? The prices got higher and higher each rank, and by the time I got to first dan, I thought it was just more than necessary. The cost to test for 5th dan is outrageous. The only way it's possible for me is because I set up an escrow with my school where they take an extra $10 per month on my automatic withdrawal and stack it towards that testing fee.

In my job, the distance I prefer (and have been taught to be more comfortable with) is different than what the social norm would be. Most people probably stand between 2-3 feet of each other when speaking (around here, anyway). Especially if they know each other. I think about it this way; the distance at which you would shake hands when introducing yourself to someone is probably the distance you will remain at during the course of an interaction. For work purposes, I'm more likely stand off a ways, more like 5-6 feet away, especially when outside and dealing with suspects. This helps to see any sudden, overt movements. Just generally keeping space tends to keep us a little safer.