bushido_man96

I'd be curious as to how Bill does at recruiting...

I don't really have any recommendations on duration. We've done some okinage breathing from time to time in our Aikido dojo, but usually it only goes about 5 minutes or so. The more consistently you do it, you'll likely come up with a sweet spot that works well for you.

I went to our association HQ to test on 12/7/2024 for 5th dan. It was the first time I'd tested since 12/7/2013; 11 years to the day. Needless to say, it was long overdue. I got there early to warmup and walk through material, and got to see and talk to some individuals who used to be students at our school that have since passed me in rank. It was good to see some familiar faces. The CI at our school also came to test for the same rank, and it was nice to have someone to test with. I have to say, we represented our school very well. After a group of three of us 4th dans did our forms, we were the first group to receive applause. It felt pretty good. This month has been a rough month for me. Not only did my work schedule change in November to afternoon shifts, which cuts me out of attending regular classes, I had been having recurring episodes of vertigo that were causing me to miss work. I had an episode hit me on Wednesday night that caused me to miss work Thursday, so I was pretty apprehensive on Friday night and into Saturday morning at testing, hoping all the action wouldn't send my head into a downhill spiral. We did our third dan form and then our form, three-steps, sparring, and board breaks. All went well, and I felt good about my performance, and my head held together for all of it, even the seminar afterwards. After testing and seminar were all done, everyone was settling in to eat and I figured we'd hear back about promotions later in the week. While I was out checking out a local retro video game store, the CI sent me a photo of my new belt! So I booked it back to the dojang to pick it up, and certificates will be mailed out later this week or next. I felt confident I had passed, but one never assumes until one sees the results. It was great to see the results so soon! I passed, and our school owner passed, so now we've got a new form to learn, and it's back to work preparing our own students for their testings. I had a lot of fun, and got kudos from several people, which felt good to hear. It becomes difficult to gauge how my technique is, but when others compliment, it helps reinforce what I've been doing. I think I'll not wait another 11 years to test again!

My experience with testing and gradings, which is in TKD for the most part, has all really just been demonstration of curriculum. As a high rank, I am prepared to demonstrate any and all of the material that exists below my rank. This can be quite the workout, as we have 10 colored belt forms and then up to 7 more black belt forms, depending on the black belt rank. We also have the one-steps, three-steps, and Do-Gons, or "black belt basics," that our associations does. Fill in sparring and board breaking, and we could end up with a pretty long testing. However, I don't view it as overly intense, as there isn't a lot of other unnecessary trappings added in, like extensive calisthenics such as pushups, sit-ups, burpees, etc. We also don't do "50 man kumite" or anything like that. The only other thing we have to do as black belts is write an essay that gets turned into the GM. Personally, I would not be interested in a "boot camp" style of testing.

@KorroddyDude and @DarthPenguin, could you translate what gohon kumite and sanbon kumite are?

12/7/2024 TKD Testing: 10:00 - 1:15 pm. The day of testing, finally. Worked until 11 the night before, got home, went to bed, and prayed my head would not betray me. Got up early to start the drive at 6:00 am, and arrived about an hour early, like I had planned. Warmed up going through various forms and all. During the actual testing, I did Yoo Sin and Choong Jang, and felt really good about both. Instead of doing all one-steps, like I anticipated we would do, I did three-steps 1-6, which I had been preparing for. Got through them no problem. Had one round of sparring with a 5th dan who was actually one of our students many years ago. When one waits 10 years to test, people tend to pass one up. Athletic kid, tall, good technique. I didn't feel that it was my best spar, but then again, I hadn't sparred in probably a month or month and a half. Finished off with board breaks, and nailed them all: knife hand strike, jump front snap kick (bounced on the first attempt, but I blame the holders on that one; I kicked the board and it rose about 6 inches. A more experienced holder took it the next time, and I smashed it), spin heel kick, and then flying side kick over obstacles (three kids kneeling). All 2-board breaks, and all went down. National Instructor Seminar: 1:45 - 3:00 pm. After the testing, we got a little break and then started up the seminar. We spent a lot of time on Do-Gons. We had a lot of instructors in the room, so after the initial line-up and punching warmup, GM split the room and we alternate doing Do-Gons in groups. We did 1-4 this way, then we did each segment of Do-Gon 4 with a partner back and forth, 4 segments total. Then we did Do-Gon 6 the same way, 4 segments total. There were some who weren't quite up to speed on the Do-Gons, so it was good review and practice. After Do-Gons, we did Ho Sin Sul, but these are all pre-set, and they do them regularly at the HQ school. Hopefully between our school owners and I we can remember them and jot them down for reference. We finished up doing combination work back and forth with a partner, three techniques back and forth. I had not been to an instructor seminar in quite some time, and it was good to see a lot of the higher ranks from our organization. I have to say, our school represented itself well. We take pride in being technically sound, and I think we demonstrated that.

That's cool. Starting out small makes it much easier to implement. Keep us posted on how this affects you. It may be worth trying.

What sucks is that break usually ends up being permanent. I always hate to see that.

Thank you, @DarthPenguin. Yes, the title that comes with it is Master. I'd refer to myself as more of a Master Instructor than a "master of the martial arts." I've got a paper I had to write for the test, as well. It got rather long, so I parsed it out just talking about the duties of the master instructor. I will post the elongated article here at KF after testing and after I get it smoothed out. 12/4/2024 TKD Solo Workout: 10:30 - 11:30 am. Trying to get some work in to see how my head will react to all the action, especially spinning. I warmed up with Chon JI, then moved to Do-Gon 6. It felt pretty disconnected, but it's been some time since I've been able to train. Next I did Yoo Sin and Choong Jang (3rd and 4th dan forms, respectively). I paced myself, and they went well. I did all colored belt one-steps, then three-steps 1-6. I backtracked a bit on the one-steps, but feel I've got that handled. I finished with a brief stretch in The Rack up to 140, then sat in the sauna for about 10-15 minutes.

That Chiefs/Raiders game was what I expected. A game that was much closer than it ever should have been due to a lack of scoring in the red zone. The Raiders and Chiefs just play each other tough every time; it's what makes it one of the best rivalries in football. But still, I really just wanted to see an offensive explosion. That is now two division opponents KC has beaten on a last-second fluky play. KC defense somehow managed to make Aiden O'Connell look like a better QB than Mahomes, which was frustrating to watch. It seems KC gets every teams best shot this year. The biggest problem KC has is their tackle play. Wanya Morris just got absolutely worked all game long. The Chiefs have signed DJ Humphries, and hopefully he can play next week. That Bills/Niners game was a heck of a thing. The Niners just couldn't hold on to anything, and I thought early in the game the coaches made some questionable offensive calls. I think they should have stuck with a short to intermediate pass game and taken small chunks. They were running the ball well, too, but seemed to get away from it.

12/2/2024 Aikido Class: Morning Class: 8:30 - 9:30 am. After stretching and aikitaisos, we worked on some of our testing requirements. We started with shomenuchi kokyonage. I was working through the technique in pieces, which was making it tough to get the flow down. After doing that a little bit, and getting a little more clarification from sensei on a few things, especially dropping the elbows down and "rowing" in to break their balance, things started to click. Then sensei decided we would just "rep it out" over and over without thinking about it as much. That really helped out, and I ended up with some quality reps. It made the technique smoother for sure, especially getting the hips turned through. Next was nikkyo, from a same side lapel grab. After securing the hand/wrist, we actually go into ikkyo and then bring it back to the nikkyo position, with the hand braced to our chest. Here is where I have to make sure there is no gap between his hand and my chest, in order to secure the hold. Then it was about keeping a proper safe distance from counters, securing the other hand over their elbow, and applying pressure with a slight bow with the hand secured to the chest. I felt like this was a really productive class. I also took some breakfalls and was able to fall down and get up without my head betraying me, which is a good sign that I'm hopefully on the back end of all those issues for the rest of the winter season. If all goes well, this is testing week for my TKD 5th dan.

This is a tough one. I have a few thoughts. One, I'd like to go back to my early days as a beginner, and continue to wrestle alongside learning TKD. That would have made me a much more well rounded Martial Artist. I also wish I could go back about 6 years ago, before health problems started affecting my training. I would have squeezed in as much training as possible. I'd also go back several years to when I first started Aikido, and would have stayed with it through today.

Congratulations!

I've done rows before, and I don't mind doing them. The main point behind staying with the lat pulls is to work towards doing chin-ups. 11/20/2024 TKD: I did a pretty brief solo training session, about 20 minutes in total. I alternated forms, doing Choong Jang, Yoo Sin, Choong Jang again, Gae Baek, and Choong Jang one more time. In Choong Jang, I was working on my stand-up from the a section in the form were we go to one knee, do a round kick to the groin or lower, followed by a punch to the groin section, and then stand up and move into a back elbow strike. My knees hurt often, and the standing doesn't help, so I'm playing with ideas to make the stand cleaner. I finished doing all 12 three-steps, then stretched in The Rack. I stretched up to 140 degrees, and focused on leaning forward into the stretch. 11/21/2024 Aikido Class: This was an extra morning class added this week due to having a visiting Sensei in to teach. After stretches and aiki-taisos, we worked on kotegashi, doing a "big turn" method. We focused on dropping the opponent's hand to our hip as we turned. We finished by adding a pinning technique. Then we worked on sankyo, adding a takedown and pin as well. It was a fun class with the guest instructor. Afterwards a group of us went to breakfast and got to talk shop. Great time!

Great news Bob! Keep up the fight!

Welcome to KF, @rtiq. Great to have you here. I'm a little late to this, and it sounds like you've found a place to start. That's the best thing you can do; just get started. Getting to a school with an instructor in front of you will be a great step in the right direction. As for not being very flexible, barring any physical ailments preventing it, flexibility can be increased over time with some regular stretching and just practicing kicking. I'd also advise to keep an open mind. The style you start with may not be the style you end with, and that's ok. Keep a good attitude and keep learning, and that will take you a ways in your journey.

Hello fellow members of KarateForums.com. Today marks the 23rd half-anniversary of this fantastic website. I've been a member here for 18 years, and it's been quite a ride. This year has been quite special, as this year marks a renaissance in a way. This year culminated in the site getting a big upgrade, marking a new beginning. The new site offers a lot of added features, but retains the history that I feel makes this site a great repository for martial arts discussion; the best available on the internet, in my opinion. I recall 18 years ago when I went looking for martial arts chat rooms so I could network and learn from other martial artists. I didn't find any good chat rooms, but I did find KarateForums.com and signed up. What I found was a treasure trove of great discussion, along with a great group of members who were smart and supportive. It was a group of martial artists that was not concerned with showing you how good they were, but with how much they could learn and share. It was a most welcoming environment, and that culture continues to this day, albeit with a different set of members. That culture has been an intrinsic part of KarateForums.com for the 18 years I have been here, and it continues on, even into this new chapter of the community. KarateForums.com has also been a huge motivation in my training, and this year has been a resurgence for me as well. I've added regular weekly aikido and BJJ classes to my training schedule. I get to attend the BJJ class with at least one of my sons, if not both every so often. I've attended some aikido seminars along the way, and even got to do a seminar with a Shorin-ryu club that was a lot of fun, with more to come in the future. I assisted with our taekwondo school's second annual women's self-defense seminar. I've been able to teach defensive tactics at regular intervals throughout the year at work, which was a point of focus for me at the beginning of the year. I find it to be very rewarding. To top it all off, if everything goes right health-wise, I'll be testing for my 5th dan in TKD in December. Being a member of KarateForums.com makes all this training all the more fun, because I look forward to coming back, logging in, and sharing my experiences with this great community. With an upgraded look and new features, this version of KarateForums.com promises to continue the culture of positive martial arts discussion moving into our next anniversary, and the next, and the next. Happy Half-Anniversary, KarateForums.com!

Sorry for you loss, Liam.

The Chiefs/Bills game started out great. KC squandered two drives early in the third quarter, and that made the difference. I hate seeing the loss to the Bills, but they can have the regular season win; I'll take the one in the postseason.

The fight was not as fun to watch as I'd hoped it would be. I kept waiting for Tyson to wade in and land one of those flurries, but it never happened. Netflix was just terrible. I couldn't get the fight to load up, so I had to find another way to watch it, which was less than ideal. Very disappointing. I hope that's not a sign of what's to come when Netflix airs live football coming up.

Sounds like things get crazy! I'll have to tune back in.

Something our Aikido dojo does is keep track of the number of hours trained during the time-in-grade. So being the rank for certain amount of time is one requirement, but also hitting the appropriate number of classes is taken into consideration. I guess you could say it's a combination of time-in-grade and activity-in-grade.

Almost 19 years now Bob. 11/18/2024 Aikido: Morning Class: 8:30 - 9:30 am. After stretching and aiki-taisos, we worked techniques that I'll be tested on. We did kokyonage, kotegashi, ikkyo, and nikkyo. There was a few times where I noticed I was getting on my heels when stepping and moving, so I tried to fix that. I also worked on doing a big circle on the kotegashi technique to get the positional results I wanted. For the nikkyo applications, we did a dynamic and a static version. On the static version I was able to really focus on my hip movement.

Welcome back Stonecrusher. How would you say your style differs from what you've done in Wing Chun?

I've been a pin cushion before, Aurik; no fun there. It sounds like everything else went really well, though! I'm happy for you! After Thanksgiving, you should be raring to go!