bushido_man96

10/4/2023 TKD Class: T-Shirt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. I warmed up with all 5 Do-Kangs, and then rolled out the heavy bag, strapped on the rebreakable board holder, and went back to work. I started with just one grey board, doing punches. I got it with the right hand, but not the left. Went down to a blue board the left hand and got it. Kind of the same deal with knife hand strikes. On reverse knife hand strike, I got one blue board on each hand. For kicks, I did back leg round kicks and spin heel kicks, using one grey board for each kick, both sides. One of the many things I don't like about this rebreakable board setup is that I can't rotate the boards between having the crease going horizontal or vertical; it's always vertical. Round kicks I prefer to have the grain vertical, as well as front kicks. I did not like the way the right leg round kick felt on contact with the board being horizontal.

Apparently, this practice was the norm in the early days of Okinawan Karate training. It makes sense, as well, as everyone's body is different, and everyone has different abilities. Also of note is that we tend to change how we do things as we age. Knees and backs get old and creaky; I don't jump around as much as I used to. Physical limitations tend to cause us to change how we do things.When Martial Arts worked into the mainstream, and organizations started being created, the need to systematize and codify things became the norm, and hence we have a lot of practitioners that now learn something a particular way, and are fearful of changing it due to maintaining "tradition," when in fact, traditionally, things would change for someone over time. Granted, time and experience are necessary to determine whether a change is necessary or not.

Is this not quite risky though - a semester of varying arts is just enough for a lot of people to become a danger to themselves - erroneously believing they 'can fight' and getting into situations that they shouldn't? It's the instructor's job to hopefully explain this to the students. Also ideally, there are enough higher ranked students to help with the class that let's the others know kind of where they stand. In my experience, however, by and large, I don't see people thinking that way. I don't see it any different than a student who attends classes for a few months and then quits of his own accord. There just isn't much you can do about those people.

That sounds like a great training experience, too. It's funny what can change when the rules change. The KISS principle really does ring true. 10/3/2023 Knife Training Course: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm. This was a one-day law enforcement focused knife training course. The course opened with some classroom time, covering use of force, legal concerns, and the like, along with watching some videos of knife attacks that happened to officers on-duty. The instructor finished the classroom portion with a cutting demonstration on a thick roast on a stick. He showed what a sharp 3 1/2" blade could do, your typical tactical folder. After the classroom stuff was over, we moved to the meat of the class. We did unarmed knife defense, knife vs knife defense, and some disarms. Lots of drilling and lots of reps. It all had a very Filipino base to it, which was a lot of fun, and I'd had some work with some of the principles years back with a buddy of mine that had worked in another DT system. We trained with blunt folders, and my right arm is scraped and bruised from the wrist up to the biceps. I asked about some differences in dealing with longer blades, and the instructor provided me with some longer blunt blades (fixed blades) to work with my partners with, which I enjoyed even more. He had some book recommendations, too, so I'll be adding to my MA library soon. This was a very new concept to me, and I had an absolute blast at this class. If he comes back next year, I'll sign up for the training again.

10/2/2023 Aikido: Weapons Class: 5:00 - 6:00 pm. We did bokken kata 1 and jo kata 1 (but we did jo kata on the opposite side as well). The Sensei did some explanations of a few things, but he took what he called the "Eastern approach" to teaching; basically, a lot of watching the instructor and repeating, and getting quite a few reps in. Due to his nature, he did break down a few things here and there, but for the most part, I spent the time trying to mimic his movements. We did the forms all by count, which helped, and there was another black belt in the class to watch as well. The last few we did were done more in sections as opposed to a proper count, but still done piecemeal, which helped me follow along. In all honesty, I kind of enjoyed this approach to class, and I really think a solid hour of doing just one of the katas would be very beneficial in just getting the base movements down. Using the class the next week to start breaking things down and getting into the nuances would be awesome. I really enjoyed this class. TKD Class: Black Belt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Pre-class, I warmed up with Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung, Do San, and Won Hwo hyungs. For warmup, one of the other students did some pretesting items, so me and the other black belt went through some random floor drills I pulled off the top of my head, and finished with a forearm conditioning drill. After that, we did what the CI likes to call "Ho Sin Sul sparring." We basically have all legal targets, grabs are allowed, etc. We don't go full speed (although we tend to speed up at times), and we start with one person going on the offensive first, and then it's counter and attack, then it kind of goes free-form after that. It gets interesting. If we get to far into getting tangled up, we reset and start again. I did pretty well, for the most part, protecting myself and countering and trying to move. My movement could be a little better, especially when it comes to checking kicks. The one time I got myself into a bad situation was when I foolishly decided to try a spin side kick, and gave up my back, and body locked and probably would have been taken down. So lesson learned, which confirmed what I already knew. For it's limitations, there are still some good things to be learned from this kind of sparring.

Congratulations Danielle!

Sounds like you'll have a nice little training hall there!

It sounds like seeking out another venue isn't likely, but if it is an option, consider it.

The Aikido sensei and I know each other pretty well; while he was climbing the ranks in Aikido, he also took our TKD classes as offered by the college for credit hours. He's well aware of my rank and experience, as I am of his. He mentioned while we were training that he was moving me along in some aspects, due to my already advanced training. I thought this was kind of cool. I also feel comfortable asking him to back things off and be more basic if I feel the need to. 9/27/2023 TKD Class: T-Shirt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Some pre-class stretching in The Rack, along with some pre-class kicking, focusing on my technique and base foot pivoting, especiall for the side kick. After getting through all six Do-Kangs, I decided to work on side kick board breaking. We have a board holder we can attach to something, along with rebreakable boards that attach to it magnetically. Unfortunately, the only thing to tie the apparatus to is a Wavemaster sanding bag. This is less than ideal, as that damn thing likes to move around a lot. It makes clean breaking a challenge, as do the rebreakable boards. I did some step-behind side kicks on each leg, 2 boards then moving up to 3. Next, I tried back leg side kicks, and that was just a mess. I couldn't tell if I was breaking, or if they were breaking on the rebound at times. I tried spin side kicks after that; left spin side went just fine, but the right leg was all over the place. Targeting was way off, not getting spun enough. Need to practice this more. With the bag flying all over the place like it was, I used another bag right behind it to try to stabilize it a bit. It helped some, but not much. However, I will probably continue to frustrate myself by working on it again next week, too.

fingers crossed! I've just splashed out on a decent amount of new equipment for the house so am looking forward to getting back into it using the new gear Is there anything more motivating than buying new equipment?

As am I. I'm hoping to get back to the weights within a month or so.

Very little. Several years ago, when I had a bit more time on my hands, I did join the Aikido club, attended classes, and even tested once. Things happened and I fell out of it. Right now, the class times meet up with my TKD class times, and as much as I'd like to go to classes 5 days a week, I just don't have the time to do so. But when he mentioned this class and it's time, I decided to jump on it. I did have quite a bit of time in Combat Hapkido, along with rank, so not all of the material is foreign to me. I do enjoy going to that class and wearing a white belt, though.

9/26/2023 Aikido: Weapons Class: 5:00 - 6:00 pm. We worked with the bokken today, which was a lot different from the jo. It was just me and the instructor, so a great one-on-one session. He started by showing me an actual katana, and the details of drawing and sheathing it (trickier than I realized), then we got into the actual lesson. We worked on the 5 guards: Chudan, Jodan, Gedan, Hasso-no-kamae, and Waki-gamae. We worked on the positions of the arms and elbows, posture, and stance. The stance is very different to me, but I'm getting used to it. We also did a few sword thrusts (tsuki, I believe), one stepping slightly off-line with the lead foot and thrusting, and another stepping off-line with the left (rear) leg and then thrusting. We also worked on shomen-uchi and yokomen-uchi. TKD Class: Black Belt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. We opened class with a review of three-steps, and I got through 1-9, which as pretty good. After getting through 1-6, my and my partner worked 6-9 repeatedly, and I feel like I've got them down now. Just have to keep up the practice. I opted not to spar in the back half of the class. Perhaps I'll feel better about it next week.

Congrats, DP!

9/20/2023 TKD Class: T-Shirt Class: 6:45 - 7:15 pm. A shortened class for me; I was running late with all the errands I had after getting off work late, and dipped out a touch early due to having some more errands to run after class and before getting home to make supper. I did spend the time learning Do-Kang 6, going over it in it's entirety several times. A little bit of stretching in The Rack after that, and I was done. Got pretty tired doing those sets; I'm pretty out of shape right now.

I could also ask my wife if it's okay for me to sleep with another woman. I didn't actually do it; I just asked, right? This could be the same thing. I fail to see the resemblance in these subjects. I think asking the instructor if it's ok to buy his own belt would not necessarily spark thoughts of infidelity to his style.

Alright, it's been a while. Health has not been good, and had to make a trip to see the specialist about getting things under control. I've not done anything since 8/23, and finally got back into some classes yesterday. 9/18/2023 Aikido Weapons Class: 5:00 - 6:00 pm. We opened the class with some Okinaga breathing, which was a very new experience for me. We did 4-cycle okinaga, and he would clap some small wooden blocks together to signal when to change. First clap, breathe in slowly; second clap, hold; third clap, breathe out slowly; fourth clap, hold. Holding after the exhale was new, and very uncomfortable. The cycles got longer each time, which added a new element as well. It will take some getting used to. After that, we did the first three jo awase. We did a bit of individual drilling, but then moved into doing them with partners, which was fun. The third one took a little while to get going smoothly, but it came together after a while. This pretty much finished out the class. This video shows the jo awase of Kobyashi Ryu, which the instructor said are done similar to ours. The first three are a decent indicator of what we did, but I felt like we were closer together. Another main difference was that we did all the initial strikes to the face. TKD Class: Black Belt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. That's right, double-dipping today! We did a forms review class, getting through all my forms, up to 4th dan, 16 forms in total. Since I hadn't trained in quite some time, I didn't over reach on the kicks, because I didn't want to pull something. It was a good review, and still a good workout. I had a few balance issues here and there, but nothing too egregious. The idea of doing the Aikido weapons class stemmed from a coffee session that myself, our CI, and the Aikido Sensei had to talk about how the demo in the quad went, among other MA topics. It was a very enjoyable discussion, and as the conversation went on, the Aikido mentioned the weapons class he had, and the time falls pretty good with my schedule, so I told him when I got to feeling better, I'd go check it out. I'm hoping to keep it in my schedule, as well. I really enjoyed it. There were a few things I was clumsy with, but I didn't mind that at all.

Oh, cool. I did watch/finish the series, and enjoyed most of it. I'll be interested to see what they do moving forward; if they'll get into the Simon Belmont portion of things, or what they'll do.

I wrote an article on this topic several years ago, but I didn't cover the aspect of teaching what one learns online. I would say that if someone approaches you and asks you to teach that particular thing to them, I'd be up front and tell them that you learned it online by watching and mimicking a video, and you wouldn't be the authority on teaching it. But if they are still interested in doing it to, then just agree to work together and offer each other feedback, do research into it, and the like. Just lay it out there; who knows, you might end up with a good training partner.

Lots of interesting points made here. I think there is a lot of MA exposure out there anymore for the general public to see; TV shows like Cobra Kai, the UFC, and other fighting leagues just to name a few. You get Martial Arts in Marvel movies, the Star Wars franchise, etc. So there is lots of stuff to view out there. The problem for the general public is separating the wheat from the chaff. I think in the end, it's important for student to at least get the journey started. Hopefully exposure increases, and students can start to see the difference in quality from different schools and such. It'd be nice to be able to visit different schools, but not everyone is in a metro area with 13-16 options for training; they may only have 1 or 2. But by starting the journey, and taking it seriously, I think the students will eventually come to understand whether or not their instructor is credible or not, and make a decision to move on or stay put.

Bob makes lots of good points here; there just isn't much you can do about this. The hall can choose to rent out it's space when it likes and to whom it likes. As long as they don't interfere with your agreement in regards to the time and space you are entitled to, it's all good. Now, what does suck is if your student is tied up in it, especially if he's the one that spearheaded this movement. I can understand someone wanting to make some money and have a job doing something he enjoys. You noted that the Kickboxing school is the one that set this up, but you didn't specify that your student was the one spearheading it; if that's the case, then I think having a discussion with this student is in order (if he's still an active student with you). If he is no longer your student and has severed ties with you, then there's not much you can do on that front, either. If he is still your student, have a discussion with him. If he is the one that is going to be teaching at your locale, then perhaps it's time for him to decide which school he wants to be a part of. Or, you can choose to allow him to stay on with you. I think at this point, it's really up to you. It's really a crappy situation, and pretty crappy of him to pull it on you like this.

In the end, you could check with your instructor to determine if it would be bad form to buy your own belt.

The testing prep you are doing sounds great, and it sounds like your instructors are really serious about producing quality black belts, which is awesome. I enjoy reading these updates, and it sounds like you are doing really well, and should be proud of yourself. Also, caught the "wiry" reference.....good stuff!

8/11/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 205x1, 245x5, 245x5, 245x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 105x3, 115x2, 142.5x5, 142.5x5, 142.5x5. Deadlifts: 185x3, 225x2, 285x5. 8/14/2023 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 225x2, 250x5, 250x5, 250x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 105x3, 115x2, 145x5, 145x5, 145x5. Deadlifts: 185x3, 225x2, 290x5. Meniere's kicked in after the deadlift set. Had to sit down for a minute to gather myself. Things have not been good lately. TKD Class: Black Belt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Did a lot of Do-Kangs, which was good review, and also some three-steps. ------------- So, it's been a rough span. I've had a couple of episodes, missed a day of work because of one, and then I had one hit late last week while on duty. It was not a good thing at all. I have an appointment coming up at the beginning of September with the specialist, so maybe we can make some progress. I've been reassigned at work, so on day shift now, and the schedule is a bit tight. 8/21/2023 TKD: 4:30 - 6:30 pm. We had a booth at our local college set up, and we spent the time doing some demos of forms, one-steps, and board breaking, along with providing information for the Martial Arts Alliance, which includes our TKD class and the Aikido club/class. The Aikido students were alongside us, doing some of their own demos, too. 8/23/2023 TKD Class: T-shirt Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. I spent the evening trying to get Do-Kang 6 memorized. I've got the first 3 segments down. Did a few board breaks; a two-board palm heel smash (twice with the right hand, and tried the left hand...didn't go), and also did a downward hammer strike, right handed, twice. Broke well, but it felt like I was bouncing off those rebreakable boards. Stretched a little, and provided feedback for a few of our young black belts sparring.

Hopefully things line up for you here soon, and you can get the procedure done.