bushido_man96

Your responses have always been fun and interesting to read, @Montana. It's a pleasure to have you as a member.

I was always a Leonardo fan. If I play a game, that's the one I pick first.

Man, losing pets sucks. Sorry for your loss, Bob.

Absolutely.

7/7/2026 Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. I taught this class, which was good, because I couldn't do much with the shape my back was in. After getting through the upper body basics, then the stretch kicks, front kicks, and crescent kicks, I spent the rest of the time focusing on side kick technical breakdown. I spent time focusing on the chamber position and keeping the body aligned while stepping. Forms and one-steps: white, low/hi orange, low/hi green, low blue. 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Sparring. Started with side kicking drills, just scoring a side kick with the front leg (no stepping) and the other just being the target, making contact. After going back and forth and having everyone just paying attention to the kick, I did a drill where the attacker would throw the side kick, and this time the defender would defend and throw a counter BL round kick when the attacker's kicking leg was on the way down to the floor. After some time drilling that, I had them spar a few rounds, focusing on what was learned from the drill.

7/6/2026 Strength Training Squat: 45x5x2, 135x5, 155x3, 180x5, 180x5, 180x5. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 115x5, 135x3, 155x2, 180x5, 180x5, 180x5. Barbell Rows: 105x8, 105x8, 105x8. Smith Machine Stretch, upper and lower body. And I managed to wreck my back again on squat. I don't know why that keeps happening.

That sucks. Hopefully someone gets things moving in the right direction soon.

7/2/2026 Strength Training Squat: 45x5x2, 135x5, 155x5, 175x5, 175x5, 175x5. Press: 45x5x2, 85x5, 105x3, 125x5, 125x5, 125x5. Lat Pull-downs: 145x10, 145x10, 145x10. Smith Machine Stretch, lower and upper body.

7/1/2026 Aikido: 6:15 - 7:15 pm. Traditional Class. Small class, just me, a blue belt, and the instructor, one of the nidans. We hit aikitaisos, basic strikes, and then ukemi. I still hate ukemi. I just don't do it well and feel like I'm crushing my shoulder when I forward roll. And I've been trying to panda roll more, but I'm struggling there, too. Before technique work, we did a taisabaki drill against yokomenuchi attack (which is an angled cut, or downward angled knife hand strike). After drilling that, each of the following techniques we did were based off that attack and the entry. Sokumen iriminage: The blue belt uke is weird, and I don't get the kuzushi well. He's a touch taller than me, and everything ends up odd and strange as opposed to working with the nidan. As tends to be the case most of the time, it's the drawing hand I need to focus on, along with twisting the drawing hand. Shionage omote and ura: These seemed to go ok. Kokyunage: This one was clunky, with lots of steps it seems. Good energy from uke helps. We also did a variation where we finished with a choke. Next was some "free Aikido." I did sokumen iriminage above, and kotegashi against a straight punch (one variation I used a tenkan entry). Finally, I did more of a TKD style armbar and takedown. Finished the night with some kneeling kokyudosa.

That sounds great, DP. If you been rolling on and off since 2013 then you are definitely ahead of me! I plan on getting back to regular now that my work schedule has rotated. The good and bad news is that my oldest son said he's going to go back with me. That's great, because he's a skilled wrestler. That's bad, because he's a skilled wrestler....

Thanks for the kind words, @DarthPenguin. I think I have to defer to you in the realm of BJJ and Judo! Having a blue belt in BJJ is no joke! I wish you the best of luck in grading for you shodan in Shotokan.

You've got to keep in mind the TV product aspect of it, too. Stations have other programming lined up, and although a 6 hour, 14 inning marathon might sound fun, not all parties involved are sold on that.

I make it a point to never take strength training advice from Martial Arts instructors.

I'm sorry that second opinion is so far out, @WalterJ. Hopefully though, they will have an answer for you. But, like @aurik said, there's always ways to train around injuries. Personally, I recommend...kicking! I would also recommend finding some trusted sources on YouTube to watch to help you keep your material, or whatever it is you want to study, fresh in your mind. I've spent quite a bit of time reviewing Aikido techniques by watching the videos from our dojo's YouTube page. It's not the same as training, but it's good for training the mind. While watching videos like this, I would take notes on various aspects of the techniques, keys to the steps, and things like this. I found it really helpful and logged them in my journal. Maybe you can find the same benefit.

6/30/2026 Strength Training Leg Press: 245x5, 285x5, 305x3, 315x2, 340x5, 340x5, 340x5. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 95x5, 115x5, 135x3, 155x2, 175x5, 175x5, 175x5. Lat Pull-downs: 142.5x10, 142.5x10, 142.5x10. Smith Machine Stretch. Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. Good to finally be back! As is customary, I taught this class. But I did do some of the early basics to get a little work in. Made my arms and body a little sore, which was nice. It's that first week or so of getting the Taekwondo back in my body. I also did Choi Yong once before class. Balance on the repeat kick still sucks. Basics, forms, one-steps. During basics, I used an example of a slinky, twisting it one way and then letting go so it could snap back to it's regular position. I explained that was how to help add power in the basic techniques, especially the upper body blocks and strikes; the coiling and uncoiling of the slinky. I also talked about the importance of not just stepping in stances, but having control of the support foot and driving with it to drive power up from the floor. I also emphasized the support foot in driving power in kicks, and that it isn't just a foot to stand on. For forms and one-steps, we had high orange, low and high green, low blue, and middle brown. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. I started one-steps at the end of the first "class," but didn't have much time, so I had the students pad up and spent the first half of sparring class working on one-steps. With the pads on, I encouraged more work on proper distance and actually making light contact to the pads. I taught low blue one-steps, and then helped high green belts work on their distancing and feeling actual application of the techniques, locks, pushes and pulls in the one-steps. Last 15 minutes was solid sparring, and I emphasized the students establishing the front leg.

You could have a bowl of pudding, while sitting on the floor! Then, the proof is in the pudding on the floor... In all seriousness, though, I agree Bob. Had a good day? Take to the floor. Had a bad day? Take to the floor. Get some work in. Let the floor teach you something. The floor constantly teaches me about balance.

Slow and smooth, smooth is faster.

That could be. I think Choi Brothers is the company our doboks usually come from.

6/26/2026 Strength Training Leg Press: 245x5, 285x5, 305x3, 315x2, 335x5, 335x5, 335x5. Press: 45x5x2, 75x5, 95x3, 120x5, 120x5, 120x5. Lat Pull-downs: 140x10, 140x10, 140x10. Smith Machine Stretch.

If the bunkai is so important, then why not jump straight to partner work and get good at bunkai? Then learn the form as the mnemonic for the bunkai? I don't disagree with this, as I do this myself when performing hyungs. There is something to be said about having the practice time to yourself. However, I think the most benefit, in any martial art study, is in the paired work.

Welcome, @WalterJ! You will not be disappointing!

It would have to be more than a patch. It's our association name and Korean lettering. I think I'm just stuck with it.

6/17/2026 Aikido: 8:45 - 9:45 am. Morning Class. Some aikitaisos, then some work on mai ai and taisabaki work. We did taisabaki for techniques like 7th kyu katatori ikkyo omote, which was good review. We drilled the step back and "stop" hit, then added the step/slide. Then added the backstep and cut to ikkyo. Later on we got to freelance to different finishes a little bit. Then we did technique work and geo waza limited to same side attacks. It was fun, but I think too much most of the time and don't flow well. Cool down stretch. Strength Training Leg Press: 245x10, 295x10, 330x10, 330x10, 330x10. Bench Press: 45x5x2, 95x5, 115x5, 135x3, 170x5, 170x5, 170x5. Lat Pull-downs: 140x10, 140x10, 140x10. Barbell Rows: 100x8, 100x8, 100x8. Barbell Curls: 50x15, 50x15, 50x15. Hurts my left wrist. Triceps Push-downs: 62.5x15, 62.5x15, 62.5x15. Smith Machine Stretch.

6/16/2026 Heavy Bag Training: 6 rounds, 1 min/45 sec. Mainly punching and kicking, all levels. Over-the-Bag Kick Flow Drills: 6 rounds, 30 sec/45 sec. Switching feet to get both sides. 1. BL outer crescent kicks. 2. BL inner crescent kicks. 3. BL outer crescent, spin outer crescent. 4. BL outer crescent, spin outer crescent, BL inner crescent, spin outer crescent (last kick is with the other leg). 5. BL spin round kick, spin hook kick (other leg). 6. BL outer crescent, BL spin round, BL spin outer crescent, switch and spin round. Stretch in The Rack.

This was a great month, and a great celebration. Let's do it again in another 10 years!