bushido_man96

I see the point you are getting at here, but I don't think speed is any more a guarantee to hit than size is. Speed isn't good for anything if you can't hit the target, or don't have sound technique. Speed is just another physicl attribute, like strength. Having it is one thing. Putting it to good use is another.

I believe he would be. The scenario you describe is similar to the really old masters, whom due to age and / or other natural debilitation, cannot physically train much anymore. The sheer volume of knowledge and experience they could impart to students would be invaluable. I agree, as well. I think that there are a lot of shades of grey in this question, and depending on the circumstances, one could decide either way. If someone just ups and quits the MAs, then what? Not a black belt, because they choose to stop training? I can see how some would say no, not a black belt anymore. But then again, I could argue how could it be taken away? The belt can be physically taken from us, true. But how many of us then make the argument that the belt isn't what's important, but the knowledge and experience is? It really is a tough question to answer.

Do let us know how that turns out! 9/4/2013 Taught TKD: 6:00 - 7:30 pm. Basics, forms, one-steps, sparring.

That's a good question. I think it takes time. When you get started, you are "taking Martial Arts." Once you've been at it, then you become a Martial Artist.

Our TKD instructor brought the Combat Hapkido curriculum in to supplement our TKD training. What I like about it is that I can use most of the technical training I've done through TKD with strikes and apply things here and there with the Hapkido. Its worked well for me. tallgeese makes some good points about some styles that seem to fit with others. Its interesting, and I'm not sure why its that way. Perhaps its a perceptual thing in some people's eyes.

This year marks the 20th year of my addiction. All those years have been put into TKD, along with Hapkido, Aikido, and Defensive Tactics.

But what if you hadn't trained in 15 odd years? Let's put it this way: you begin your MA training under an instructor, who let's say is a 5th degree black belt. He has to move, retire, and falls out of training, due to whatever life throws at us. Would you not respect him as your instructor throughout the rest of your life? Would you tell him that you now out rank him, and no longer respect the knowledge and experiences he passed on to you as his student? Or, do would you still look at him as that 5th degree black belt that took you under his tutelage all those years ago? Does the belt/rank automatically beget respect? Whether he was a 5th kyu or a 5th dan if he has knowledge and experience that I would deem valuable then that garners some level of respect. But is he a blackbelt if he hasn't trained in any way shape or form for 15 years? I'd say no he isn't. He was but now isn't an active one. An inactive or dormant blackbelt. Just as physical skill requires constant practice and exercise, so does knowledge. I'd wager he'd forget a good chunk of that knowledge after 15 years of inactivity. To the bold type above...NO!! I agree with you, Bob. No, it does not automatically beget respect. I should have noted in my example that there was a mutual respect present already between the two individuals I was speaking of. Now, lets add to the scenario. What if something happened and he couldn't train any more? Some debilitating disease that broke down his body, causing a slow demise, during which time he couldn't train. Still a black belt?

Good news. Interesting point your bring up, ps1.

As I've gone through my MA career, I've become wary of the claim "this style focuses on bringing down a bigger person." I think this is a catch-line many use to reel in students. If your style teaches self-defense, it teaches self-defense; not "self-defense against bigger opponents." With that out of the way, I do think that size and strength are factors that need to be taken into account when it comes time to defend oneself. The nice thing is that size/strength are at least a factor you can see coming. You can't necessarily see someone's experience until you get into it with them. Either way, just because someone is big doesn't mean your plan changes. If leg kicks are a core technique in my self-defense, then I'll kick a guy in the leg if he is big or little. What does change is if I decide I want to stay in a fight with someone that much bigger than me. Do I really want to have to fight with a 6'8", 300 lb football player? Getting tangled there would not be fun. But, at least I can see the guy is big. I can't "see" if he is a Wrestler or Boxer. Now, when it comes down to size and strength, AND skill, that person probably has an advantage. All the components together...nasty. So, you have to decide if your experience and training can help outweigh a few of those advantages, and bring you to the fore. So, from there, some choices are to continue to train, which I think most of us would do anyway, and add something to your schedule that would help add some size and strength to yourself, like lifting weights or what not. Is it necessary? No. But, it can be advantageous.

Congrats!

We don't really have a set number of lessons per rank level. We run two month testing cycles, and expect students to make at least 2 classes per week. Testing depends more on showing competence in the material than anything else.

I think some dan ranks could be a bit prideful, and not want to have others see a kyu rank scoring points on them, or good hits, etc. I expect to get tagged here and there in sparring, by no matter who I am sparring. Its all learning.

That's a big plus in the club I am a member of...we tend to keep a lot of black belts (including a number of masters) around, and we do have advanced workouts, although I wish they were weekly. Getting through black belt forms can be a challenge when you don't have the chance to work on them in class. Regarding getting either overconfident or lackadaisical, I've been a BB for over 8 years and I have yet to be anywhere near either. Even on the few occasions when I'm the highest ranking student in a workout class I usually see someone who is younger, quicker, more flexible, etc... I agree. I'm always trying to compare myself to others in the class, pushing myself so that I can try to remain one of those people that others are willing to seek out when they need help with something.

9/4/2013 Taught TKD class: 6:00-7:30 pm. Prior to the start of class, I worked a bit on some advanced kicking with a few of the guys who had some questions on them. After class, did a few more minutes of the same, kicking BOB a little bit. Class covered basics, forms, one-steps, and sparring. Our little ones need to do a better job of practicing and remembering their one-steps, so I've been trying to work them through them more and more.

That's great! Kudos to her! I agree, age is not and should not be any kind of road block to learning something new.

We don't cover any ground work for the time being. I hope to be able to start adding in some with our classes so we start to get a different flavor of things, and it would be good for our students, as we do primarily stand-up stuff.

I don't think this is the case. I've been doing forms all my training life. ATA and now TTA (Chang On) forms. The ATA forms were created to contain rank-pertitent techniques that provide physical and technical improvement as the practitioner moves up in rank. The Chang On forms were taken from Gen. Choi's own ideas, along with fragments of the Shotokan forms he had learned. The jury is still out on whether or not applications that can be taken from these forms are more reverse engineered alongside some Karate applications, or not. Whether that is the case, there fact that Chang On style forms can come with application training puts them up there with the bunkai from Karate kata. So, that said, not all forms fill the same purposes. I don't think anyone is bagging on those that do train kata for "real" purposes. What is coming into question is whether or not there is a better way to do it, and if there is, why not adapt? This really isn't kata in the sense that we are speaking of it here. Not all drill work is kata. In the argument that you are making, then your own kihon training is essentially kata training, but I think we know that isn't really the case. There is a difference between learning and drilling technique, and training kata. If we go with your argument here, then Karate doesn't have 3 K's, but only 2; kata and kumite. I think the real question is, and tallgeese alluded to it, is this: Is it really necessary to learn forms before learning self-defense applications? In my opinion, it isn't.

The key is being respectful when you go about it. Asking a question just between you and the instructor can be a better option than blurting something out in the middle of class. Every scenario is different, so make sure to approach each one accordingly.

Both good reads. Thanks for sharing them. I may have to look into that translation of the Samurai training manual. I love that stuff.

7/31/2013 At the end of the class on this night, I decided to experiment with the chamber motion of our knife hand strike as a flinch response and blocking motion. We worked from the fence instead of from the typical "downblock" position that I hate for one-steps. I thought it went pretty well, although I was "shooting from the hip" as it were. This kind of made me think a bit about teaching and learning in class. I think as instructors we are always pretty well caught up in teaching what we know, and don't experiment much with other things. Perhaps its due to looking the part of the guy or gal who is supposed to know what he/she is doing at the front of the class. But, it was fun to experiement and mess around with something with the students that I hadn't had much opportunity to play with, and just see what we could do with it. And we all learned something. 8/22/2013 This was my first ever Defensive Tactics session as an instructor for the deputies and jailers in our department. I held two 4 hour sessions, with the morning session being the one with the most takers. I worked with some of the basic escort positions that we learn in academy, and an arm bar takedown and more of a wrist lock takedown (minus the wrist lock, actually) from that position as a review. Then, I moved on to a few punch defenses working to armbars and takedowns, and then moved into the GRACIE material. We got to the punch block and clinch from behind, to the takedown and control. We also hit what I really wanted to get to, being some officer on the bottom scenarios so the officer could reverse position and get up. Most of our officers haven't really had much DT training since they were at academy, so I wanted to get something started, and hope to keep it fairly regular.

8/22/2013 Defensive Tactics Training Sessions for the Department Two sessions today, 8-noon and 1:00-5:00 pm. I reviewed some of the basic escort position arm locks and takedowns, worked on some punch defenses, and then went into the GRACIE material for the deputies and jailers in our department. I had some great help from the DT students and instructor at the college, who does a great job teaching for self-defense and LEOs, as well. I got good responses from the department, and look forward to hitting some more training times in the future! 8/24/2013 Played 3 softball games today with team mates made up of our department. We had a great time, although my calf muscles suffered from it! I managed to strain or pull them both, making me not able to run or push off at all. But, I'd do it all again. 8/26/2013 TKD Class: 6:00-7:30 pm. Our class was a big one tonight. We did get some extra kicking in during basics, doing more side kicks and front kick variations. I also hopped in to review as many forms as I could while colored belts were working on them, and sparring wasn't too bad. 8/27/2013 Defensive Tactics: 2:00-3:00 pm. The DT instructor let me teach the class today, and so I began running through the GRACIE material. I focused on stance, punch defense and timing drill to get to a clinch, and then to the takedown from behind. 9/3/2013 Defensive Tactics: 1:00-3:00 pm. I got to both teach and learn today. I taught the GRACIE material in the first half, getting into Americana from the mount, and doing some umpa escapes/reversals on the bottom. The 2nd half of the class, I learned some of their stand-up self-defense system, how they do their wrist escapes, and also a few series of movements from front and side chokes. These defenses basically included the same movements, just from different angles, and the finishes were the same, with the hands locking over the shoulder from the side with a Muay Thai grip, throwing knees to the legs while driving the bad guy foward and away, finishing with elbows as well. I'm not sure, but something made me think it might be Krav related. I liked the concepts, and felt they worked well. Open Mat Wrestling: 6:00-7:00 pm. Took my son to open mat, and I got to work with him a little bit, being a demo partner more this time than the dummy. He worked on double-leg takedowns from chops or blocks, running the half to finish, some slide-by takedowns, and also some breakdowns from the top position.

That's crazy to think about! Lots of TKD black belts out running around out there!

I don't really feel the same as other do in regards to "no kata equals no Karate." I don't think that's the case, but that's just my opinion. I look at kata and Karate as a chicken and egg argument; which came first? Has kata always been around, or were moves melded into the form of kata when training modalities changed? I think its important to look into the hows and whys of why kata came about in the first place in order to really understand why we have kata.

How you define an art as "good" depends on what you're looking for out of it. Everyone has an opinion of what is good and what isn't. You have to look into what you want out of it, and decide if that art is going to give it to you. Also, personal preference plays a huge part in what you find to be good or not. I've never been a grappler, but I'm finding some very good things in the small bit of BJJ that I've been exposed to. I have a son that is a Wrestler, so it is more his thing. I like to kick, so TKD is great for me, buy that doesn't mean I assume its the best option, or has all the answers. Expand, learn, train.

I'm not going to say a flat "no" on this. Everyone learns differently, and I'm sure there are some people out there that can probably learn pretty well from books or video media. Would be the longer road to hoe? For sure. But I'm not willing to say it can't be done. This is a very well put point. My first exposure to the Martial Arts was through an ATA school. I had some good instructors that were good technicians, and I don't regret any of the time I spent in the ATA. There are good ATA instuctors out there, and although there are some things people don't like about the ATA, that organization is willing to try to bring in new ideas and concepts to provide for their students, and the organization is willing to grow in that aspect.