bushido_man96

There is great wisdom in your post! I've reread it many times - thank you! The line above sums it up perfectly as I share a very similar perspective with regard to MA. Interestingly, my approach to the same conclusion has been different. For reasons I won't bore you with I started in non-traditional MA and trained this way for many many years. It was not until recently that I switched to a traditional MA - again for reasons I won't bore you with. An unexpected result is that I believe that I have a strong appreciation for the traditional because of my non-traditional roots. And I'm really enjoying putting it all together. My journey in MA is far from over ( I HOPE! ) but if I had to do it all over again from the start I wouldn't change a thing because it's been an excellent approach FOR ME. In some respect one could say that there are many paths to take as a MA'ist, the important thing is to take the one that suits you. Thanks again for your most excellent post ! I think to experience both is a great thing, to see how each side does it. From their, its only natural that someone will fall to one side or the other. On the flip side of this, I think many "traditionalist" tend to have an aversion to change, or seeking anything different. It happens on both sides. Perhaps its loyalty to a style or instructor that causes this, but it does happen on the other end. Some "non-traditionalists" may view doing forms as a waste of time because they believe time could be better spent partner drilling or working some other aspects of self-defense. There are pros and cons to doing it both ways. The problem is that many times neither side takes the time to slow down and listen and learn from the other side. Bob, this is a great topic. Thank you for sharing your experience with us. In what ways did you experience this "aha" moment during your testing cycle?

Here is my personal experience with becoming an instructor. When I earned my first degree in the ATA, I began helping, and eventually became a trainee instructor. It was required to log 900 hours of assisting before qualifying for instructor certification camp. I met the requirements as a 2nd degree. A few years after getting certified, I took over the running of our academy. In hindsight, I was probably not mature enough at that time. But, the ATA did do a good job of preparing black belts to become instructors. I learned a lot about running and managing a class, and those lessons have stuck with me to this day. In the TTA, I reached the rank of certified instructor when I became a 3rd degree. I had been helping teach before that, and all the prior experience helped build what I became as an instructor. However, I don't think the TTA does nearly as good a job of training instructors, and reaching 3rd degree and being 21does not make an instructor.

7/3/2014 TKD Class: 6:00 - 7:10 pm. Taught again. Hit basics, lots of reps on their own forms, plus some review, one-steps, and some round robin sparring. 7:10 - 8:30 pm. Orientation with a new 10 year old student.

Congrats, Archimoto!

Happy 4th of July, Patrick! And everyone else! Let freedom ring!

Thats pretty cool! How many have you met now from the forums, Patrick?

Ok, I have some matches from a few takedown tournaments that Kendall was in over the past month. Its been nice to have him still Wrestling in some form, with baseball season going full swing now, too. These takedown tournaments have different rules, so I'll explain them as I go here. The divisions were basically put together once the kids showed up and were weighed. Age groups were Pre K - 12U, weight was 78-89 lbs, so you didn't know how old a kid you would get. Showdown at Sundown Takedown Tournament, Hill City, KS, on 6/20/2014. They got 2 points for a takedown, and if they took their opponent down and straight to their back, they could get up to 3 back points, and a pin of they got it. If you got them down and took their back, you got 2 points, but if the opponent bellied out and got to their base, then both were stood back up to neutral position. The goal is to work the takedowns. Three 1 minute rounds, 10 point separation was a tech fall. Match 1, part 1: This was against a kid from our club, and Kendall wrapped him in a headlock really tight, and got a pin.Match 1, part 2: Since it was quick, they let them continue to wrestle a while, which was nice. Kendall shot in, but didn't quite get low enough, so it wasn't a very clean takedown, and he had trouble getting the back points this time. They were stood up, Kendall shot again (he is wearing the maroon singlet), but got sprawled on. But he worked some weird headlock again, and saved his position.Match 2: He starts the match by shooting, but he has to learn to close the gap more before taking the shot. But he gets the takedown, takes the kids back, and they stand them back up. The next shot is better; he closes in. He gets him down, and tries for the pin, and really churns his legs to try to get there, but they get stood up again. Third takedown was even nicer, got good lift and drove him down, and got good cover to get back points, and gets a pin.Tiger Takedown Tournament, at Fort Hays State University Tiger Wrestling Camp, Wednesday, 6/25/2014. The rules for this tournament were similar to Hill City's, but no pins. A takedown was worth 2, a 5 count on the back got them 3, and then stood them back up. I'm not sure if there was a tech fall rule or not. He weighed 89 lbs (up 9 lbs since the end of folk season!). Match 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CoNSBKADFY My iPad stopped somewhere through the match, but I got most of it. Kendall has faced this kid in folk tournies before, but only a few times. He nailed a nice double leg to start, then followed it with kind of a duck-under single to get the back. Next, he got put in a headlock, and got taken down and held for some back points. Then he got into a funny takedown where the kid rolled him over, but Kendall twisted and got good position. They went a bit longer, and Kendall ended up winning. Match 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqVnpJmpQDI This match was against a fellow club member we faced a lot this year. He got the first points, but it wasn't very clean, but they count. Shortly after, they got to tusselling and actually turned his back, which I talked to him about not doing. He cleaned up a bit, got a takedown, but keeps getting rolled, something with some balance. He got another headlock takedown after a bunch of dancing and goofing. He learned some good tieups at the camp, but he still doesn't use them well yet. Then they got into grabby-grab phase, and the match ended. Kendall won, but he needed some work there. The camp was a great experience for him, and he learned several things that he showed me and that we add to our workouts. They should be helpful for him next year.

Why don't you get your son into Wrestling? When he goes out onto the mat, its just him and the kid across from him, and the loser has to be accountable to himself for why he lost. There's no punching or kicking, but it doesn't lack for the comptetive aspect.

Please keep us posted and lets us know how it goes. Especially if you get a televised fight.

Thanks, Alex. My Sheriff and Undersheriff are pretty supportive of what I have done so far. But, since I have had the MA experience in the past, they trust my judgement, which is nice to see. Our PD admin, however, won't send anyone to that certification course. The AC, who was the senior student at our TKD school for a long time, doesn't like the idea of ground fighting, and doesn't think it will work in tool belts. He also made a comment about "using a leg triangle to secure cuffing position..." I told him there were no triangles in the system. But, I've been told by the Sheriff that if I wanted to invite the PD to our trainings, they were more than welcome to come. We'll see if they do. Fortunately, we haven't had anyone use it yet. None of our guys are jits guys, but we do have one guy who wrestled quite a few years, and he's pretty good on the ground. So in the trainings, everyone seems to be picking it up rather well, what we've covered so far. 6/30/2014 Floor Kicks: Front kicks: 2x10 each leg. Round kicks: 2x10 each leg. Side kicks: 2x10 each leg. Dyanmic stretches: Front kicks: knee, waist, chest, head level, 10 each. Side kicks: knee, waist, chest, head level, 10 each. Stretch. TKD Class: 6:00 - 7:00 pm. 3 blue belts today, so I did a bit of modification on the basics, each did their form three times, I made sure they got through all their one-steps, and had them spar round-robin at the end of class.

I watched it as a kid. Loved the cartoons. Still got a rather large collection of the toys back home at my folks' place. I played the games on NES, too.

I'm not as concerned with the use of the term "man up" as some others are. I've told it to my son more than a few times in various circumstances. However, there are three sides to this story here. You may not think your son punches hard in relation to some, but perhaps this person he is sparring feels it differently. At the age of 50, she might be more sensitive to it than others. If she did mention it while sparring, then the partner needs to be sensitive to it and respect her wishes (if she did mention it at all). But, this works both ways; she has to be willing not to strategize in such a way that takes advantage of the fact that others don't spar her hard, and she needs to follow her own rules. Like Bob mentions, the lesser ability controls to the levels of the match. Also, talk to the instructor about it. It probably wasn't necessary for this gal to be glaring at you, and if she was willing to say things about it in front of you, then ask her about it. See if she will speak civilly with you about it. If she won't, then speak with the instructor. What's important in situations like this, is to look at the situation objectively, even though you have a dog in the fight (your son, in this case). Its tough to do, and lots of parents have a hard time being objective, or, they are objective in the extreme the other way. Try to walk that middle line. Is this the first time this incident has occurred, or is it repeating? Does she have issues with others in the class, as well? Do what you can to find these things out, and see where you can help solve the issue. I don't think your son is necessarily at fault here. If he was not aware, there isn't much he could do. She needs to speak up during the match if there are issues. Hopefully, the age gap isn't affecting this, either.

You just need to get into the UFC, it sounds like to me. I think that would be a solid proving ground for you. There are plenty of MMA gyms out there to train at, and surely a promoter will eventually see your talent and ability, and you will get a shot sooner rather than later.

He Ill Cho has books with some pretty good anatomic layouts for kicking you could look into, called The Complete Master's Kick and The Complete Master's Jumping Kick. An author by the name of Shawn Kovacich also has a series of books on kicking, each book being "kick specific," with some anatomical layouts in them, as well. I have a few of his books, and I like them. I would say the key to learning to kick the way you are talking about is to use a chair or wall for balance, and do some slower, smooth kicking. Build those muscles up, and gain speed as you go.

6/23/2014 TKD: 6:00 - 7:30 pm. Taught class. Basics, then forms, with black belts doing review, going over Do-Kang 1, Po Eun and Gae Baek. One-steps, then sparring. After a few rounds of sparring, I had them stay in groups and work on blocking and countering drills. I started out with them in closed stances, and blocking a front leg round kick with the arm of the same side they were being attacked. Several of the students have a bad habit of not using their left arm, and they try to reach across with their right to block a kick on the left side. After learning the block, I added an angle step with the block, going forward instead of back. Then, added in a punch to counter. 6/24/2014 Aikido: 9:00 - 10:00. I tried to do the 300 workout, but... Shikko: 31 runs. Push-ups: 25, sets of 11, 11, and 3. Sit-ups: 50, sets of 10. Jo strikes: 50 Forward rolls: 40...and this is where 300 stopped. I've been having trouble with my calf muscles, from a year-old injury from running around. When I would spring off the support foot for the forward rolls, it would cause a bit of pain in the calf. Well, on this day, my left calf just felt like it was a balloon that popped. I was done after that, and now have scheduled some physical therapy to see if I can fix this problem. 6/27/2014 Department Defensive Tactics: two sessions, 4:00 - 6:00 pm and 6:00 - 8:00 pm. Focused on GRACIE material: 1. Defense from punch. 2. etting in a clinch. 3. Takedown from behind. After these three, I had the officers do a free-form drill where the officer would either engage, disengage, and/or hit the takedown, depending on what the bad guy did. This got them moving more, and doing more than just rote reps. 4. Mounted escape "UMPA with trap." 6. "L" arm lock from mount. After drilling 4 and 6, I had them do a series where the officer starts on bottom, does the UMPA escape, then sets in Americana for the submission. After the suspect submits, they reverse rolls, so they keep drilling.

My school has conducted outdoor classes, though not for some time now. When we did outdoors class, we trained in our doboks. I've done outdoors training with some friends of mine at the park, but in regular clothes. But I haven't done anything like this in some time.

Glad you bumped this, tallgeese. This hasn't happened yet, and I'm really not holding my breath on it. There is still an outside chance, so we'll see. This has been coming off really well. I was hitting the DT club workouts when college was in session pretty regularly, when my schedule was allowing it. The semester starts back up in August, and this trend should continue. This should be happening after the second week of July. I will be attending a Police Krav Maga Instructor course July 6-11. As long as I pass muster, I should make the certification. I have met this one, too. I just held a session June 27th, and have a plan to schedule a monthly session from now on, too. So, half way through the year, and have 2 goals met, and one goal pending. Not too bad.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, Bob.

Kendall competed in a takedown tournament this last weekend, on June 20th, and he is currently at the Tiger Wrestling Camp at Fort Hays State this week. At the end of the camp, there is another takedown tourney, so I will hopefully have videos of those up soon.

If you are in a rooted, immovable horse stance, wouldn't a takedown specialist be able to circle around you, taking you down from behind?

Sounds like you found a good school there. Enjoy!

Full contact, bare knuckle face contact, all the time?

Yeah, I see everyone's point on the "honor" or "warrior" mindset, etc. Although I think a warrior would show respect to an opponent by fighting him with everything he has; if he doesn't, then he doesn't respect his ability as a fellow warrior....but that's a topic for another thread. My point is this: everyone says the guy that tapped for the good of the outclassed fighter did the right thing. Then didn't the outclassed fighter do the wrong thing? Everyone seems to think that the good fighter here did the honorable thing. That would lead me to believe that the outclassed fighter did the dishonorable thing. He should have realized he would be defeated, nay, nearly killed, by this guy, and should have tapped out himself.

I plan on doing videos on that also.. Cool, I can't wait to see them!

How much is too much? When you aren't spending time with your spouse. When you would rather miss your child's activities for training. When it becomes work instead of enjoyment. That's when it becomes too much. Also, when you overtrain your body and it can't recover. That's too much, too.