bushido_man96

Excellent work, @aurik, and good luck on the upcoming test as well!

5/10/2026 Aikido: Video review of 7th, 6th, and 5th kyu material. 5/11/2026 Aikido: Video review again, same stuff. 5/12/2026 Aikido: Video review again, same stuff, along with walk-thrus of the techniques.

Make sure to keep up on your mental health, too.

Those were affects I wasn't really aware of. I usually only take some Flonase at night before I go to bed to help me breath better and snore less.

You hang in there, Bob. Keep fighting the fight!

Angles figure in to an extent, but not in the same way they would in standup. Instead of thinking in the terms of angles when I'm grappling, I think more in terms of position and positional improvement. Most of the time, though, I'm just trying not to die.

5/7/2026 Aikido: 9:00 - 10:00 am. Morning Class. Finally back to a class! And not too soon, as this is the only class I'll get before the testing. We did pre-test, which covers material from the previous ranks, 7th and 6th kyu, and getting things cleaned up there. We did lots of 7th and 6th kyu material review. Most of it I got through ok, just have a few things to hopefully clean up. Some of them will be called on for the test. Then we finished reviewing some of the more challenging 5th kyu techniques, to include the sokumen iriminage variations, kaitenage ura, and shionage ura. My back didn't bother me too much doing the breakfalls and getting pinned.

4/29/2026 Aikido Video Review: 5th kyu material. 5/4/2026 Aikido Video Review: 5th kyu material.

It's when trying to pass guard, and you have a knee slice on one of their legs with the inside leg and the outside leg is posted out to the side for balance. Then if you beat their knee shield you can pass to side control. Hope that makes sense.

There's a lot in here that I work with my guys and gals at work on recognizing: This can be a good indicator of which side is their favored or strong side. I tell my students to pay attention to this, especially the deputies and jailers. Watch their actions, for sure. Do they have the thousand-yard stare? Rocking back and forth can be an indication that they are getting ready to bounce, so take the initiative. Excited breathing might be a good indicator that it is time to go hands-on, or make space to use other force options. This is a big one. We do drills in slow-motion to learn to read the body's pre-contact cues. Being able to discern the very slightest weight shift (and being able to articulate how you recognized it) can be the few seconds needed to avoid getting surprised. Another key point. I would say to check the eyes here and there, but don't fixate on them, as they can deceive as well. But checking them along with the other physical factors in play will provide important information about what their plans may be. Is a suspect looking at your partner's gun? Might be time to act. Again, another huge pre-contact cue. Seeing the shoulders hunch or roll is a good indicator that something is about to happen, so time to pre-empt. Good stuff, @sensei8. I'll probably have more reactions to the later chunks of the post.

That would be a fun time!

I'd be 9 and holding...

Congrats @Spartacus Maximus!

Welcome to KF, Josh! It sounds like you have some interesting thoughts and experiences to share.

This is not uncommon for high profile rookies. Remember JaMarcus Russell?

This was not done by all police, but by this particular department. Not every department is doing this. It's not a blanket approach to law enforcement.

I agree, and it doesn't take much. You just need to get a little light on the heel to get the turn started.

It sounds kinda like what we refer to as the outrigger position. Or am I off?

4/23/2026 Aikido: 8:45 - 9:45 am. Morning Class. Lots of 5th kyu testing review. Issues still crop up in the same places, but things are coming together. And the sensei has assured us that what we are doing in class is more than passable for the testing requirements. We had 3 6th kyus in class and one white belt, so we had a very focused morning of work. Aikido: 3:15 - 4:30 pm. Campus Club Class. This class was just me and another 6th kyu, and we basically picked up where we left off on the the 5th kyu material from this morning, and ended up covering most of it. This is a pretty meaty test; I think it may take a few hours to get through. I'm still fighting the lower left back issues. I was able to fall and get up ok, just a little discomfort. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: 6:45 - 8:15 pm. Had 2 good warmup rounds, working on improving position and keeping good position. No sub attempts. I even worked a sweep in one of the rounds. Class focus was again on leg entanglements. We worked some drills for getting the position (outside oshi) with the opponent standing, then moved to destabilizing and attacking the "light" leg. When doing the drill on my left side, it aggravated my back. Not really injuring it, but just letting me know that I couldn't really push up on that side. So I was telling myself that I probably shouldn't do open mat with my back acting the way it was. I made it through the class drills without any major issues, so I should I just let it be with that. So instead, I did open mat anyways and in the second round managed to junk up my back. I had taken my partner's back and was trying to reposition using a bridging motion to throw his legs back out and sit up. And that did it. Wrecked my back. That, combined with just spending too much time on the bottom did not help. 4/29/2026 Now, here we are a few days letter and a trip to the doctor a few days ago because I couldn't hardly stand. Doctor says it's likely a bulging disc that I'm taking meds to get the swelling down. It's feeling some better, but I still can't be up and moving around for more than a few minutes before my left leg starts to go numb. I'm hoping this doesn't screw up my timetable for Aikido testing. Listen to your body, folks!

@Wado Heretic leaves a great explanation. If you don't practice the standup part of the game, then your skills in that aspect of the game will not develop. You can do all the reading and video study you want, but you have to practice with resisting partners to learn to make it work. Have you ever asked why it is that your school doesn't work on standup? I'm fortunate in that our BJJ school works a lot from the standup position, and we mostly start our open rolling from standup. This gives the wrestlers that come in a pretty distinct advantage, and I learn a lot every time I get taken down and fail at a takedown.

I'm not to excited about flag football. It'll be great athletes doing athletic stuff, but it's a far cry from what I know as football. I don't even watch the Pro Bowl Games anymore as they really don't mean anything. I don't think BJJ gets into the Olympics. There was talk of getting rid of Wrestling. The problem with the Olympics now is it has become a vehicle for NBC to sell advertising and drive the eyeball numbers. If it doesn't rate, then they'd rather pull it, regardless of whether or not the sport is a highly competitive traditional sport. Dropping sports like wrestling and weightlifting would be a huge mistake in my eyes, as those sports have the basis for international competition for a long time.

4/22/2026 Strength Training Squat: 45x5x2, 115x5, 135x3, 155x3, 175x3. Deadlifts: 185x3, 225x2, 255x1, 255x1. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 95x5, 115x5, 135x3, 160x2, 190x5, 190x5, 190x5. Lat Pull-downs: 127.5x10, 127.5x10, 127.5x10. I had that twinge going on in my lower left back, just above my hip, again. I couldn't pull my deadlift for the triples. I did a light squat to warm up the deadlift, but even the light squat got affected by the back twinge. I think on bench I may have to move to sets of 3. Reps 4 and 5 really get to my head the heavier the load gets. I finished with the lat pull-downs to get more pulling in since I couldn't do the deadlift work.

4/17/2026 Strength Training Squat: 45x5, 115x3, 135x3, 155x3, 175x3, 195x3. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 115x3, 132.5x5, 132.5x5, 132.5x5 Lat Pull-downs: 125x10, 125x10, 125x10. My knees and hips and back were extra creaky and achy and sore today, so I worked up a pretty light squat.

I agree here, although I've never really heard it put that way before. A drill I like to do is to start by using a chair or something for balance, and I'll pick my side kick chamber straight up (like a front kick to the front of my body, but I'm looking sideways as that's the way I'll kick). Then I'll turn the hips over and lift the heel slightly and pivot at the same time. No kick. Just lift, turn hips/pivot, then back, then down. When I turn the hips over, it turns my chamber from vertical to more horizontal with the heel of the foot that would kick more at the target. You can take the same approach with a back leg round kick chamber by bringing the back leg up (we bring the leg up high, like we have to bring the chamber over a stool or a chair) and pivot the base leg as you bring your front leg forward to point the kicking knee at the target. I also teach what I call a "pre-pivot," which @sensei8 will recall from our training time together. Here's an example of how I do it. In our class we will do a combination in basics consisting of stepping our front foot from a back stance into a front stance and reverse punching. Then we follow up with a back leg round kick. What I will do after the punch is "pre-pivot" my base foot by pivoting the toes out slightly, then proceeding with the back leg round kick, finishing the pivot as I snap the chambered leg forward as described above. I find this helps with finishing the pivot further around upon completion of the kick, so I don't end up cutting the kick off. I find it's also easier on the knees, and the older and some of the heavier students I teach it to find it quite helpful. I use the methods above to help teach students that it's important that your base leg isn't playing "catch-up" to the kicking leg. I want my pivot to be just a little bit ahead of the kick, that way I'm not putting all that stress on the base leg by letting it lag behind. That's when knees get twisted and ligaments and such can get damaged. Our style opens the pivot up quite a bit, usually close to 180 degrees on round kicks and side kicks.

4/16/2026 Aikido: 8:50 - 9:50 am. Morning Class. Lots of work on 5th kyu testing requirements: Munetski kotegashi with pin. Shomenuchi kotegashi with pin. Yokomenuchi sokumen iriminage omote with pin. Yokomenuchi sokumen iriminage omote with tenkan with pin. I don't like this one. I worked on the tenkan and generating spin at the elbow along with hikite. Shomenuchi ikkyo omote with pin. I need to work on blending with the strike better. I think I'm rushing it. Slow and smooth, smooth is faster. Shomenuchi ikkyo ura with pin. Ditto. Aikido: 3:30 - 4:30 pm. Club Class on campus. Got to review the rest of 5th kyu material: All four kaitenage variations. All three sankyo variations. Also got to review the kotegashi and ikkyo techniques with the club student. I'm still working the kinks out of the techniques that have the extra turning motions. This is usually BJJ night, too, but instead of training they had a pizza night because it's the head coach's last night before leaving. He's moving to Hawaii, and he'll be missed. I've learned a lot from him and enjoyed how he ran the classes. But we will still be having the classes, so I should be back in class next week.