bushido_man96

10/9/2025 Aikido: 8:45 - 9:45 am. Loosening movements and aikitaisos, along with front kicks and their basic strikes. My balance was off while kicking. Katatetori sankyo omote: 5th kyu technique, same side wrist grab. Taisabaki just like ikkyo, and we actually get to ikkyo to start the technique, then transition. It felt really smooth; cleaned up transition on footwork, and taking slack out of the sankyo lock. To do this, I need to start the lock low, then manipulate through the elbow. We added the cut down, to the takedown, to the pin. We finished with 5 minutes of seated breathing working on posture. Sat on some pillows to help get the proper pelvic tilt. Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. Left knee was bothering me again. During basics, while doing the punch/side kick/spin side kick combination I had to really deliberately turn, pause, then execute the spin side kick due to head swishy-ness. I had a good stretch after basics. I didn't do my form due to other students learning their new material. Did white belt one-steps, then three-steps 1-6. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Working with the white belt former karateka, I focused on my footwork and distance. Sparred the 2nd dan and did ok. I kept my distance better, and set up a side kick with some feinting punches. Someone had left their chest protector earlier in the week, and the CI talked about "buying it back;" the student who forgot it would have to do 10 pushups. Turns out it was mine. So I took my medicine, did my pushups and hopefully set an example to the kids. BJJ: 7:00 - 8:15 pm. Class start time has actually been moved up to 6:45, but I hadn't realized that, so I was a little late. Working from guard now. From inside guard, worked on posturing up, securing a wrist, and stepping up on that side. While inside guard, I tried to work on "crawling up." Top player was trying to escaped, and the bottom player was trying to sweep. When trying to escape, I could easily see the transition to the camping position. I did roll a few rounds, and did ok. It seemed like I was doing better, but I think the instructor was just letting me work. With the other instructor, I almost had an armbar, but I rushed it too much and lost it. There was also a guy there from New York who is there at the college for a class. He was really good and worked me over in drills.

Chiefs win against the Ravens, drop a game to Jacksonville, then turn around and beat the Lions. I'm hoping for a winning streak to start. Rashee Rice is back next week. I'm excited to see what that does for the offense that has been picking up as of late.

10/7/2025 Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. Left knee hurting again. It got better once I got warmed up. Lots of basics ran together towards the end without a break. I was pretty tired. I got lost today in Choi Yong, which was bad enough, and the form was sloppy to boot. I assisted white/orange/green belts with forms. White and green belt one-steps. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. I tried to move more, stay lighter on my feet. The 3rd dan got the better of me today.

This really depends. At home, I don't have much room, so I will just walk through the techniques and stances just to get a review in. If I have room to do them, then it just depends on how warmed up I am and what I'm in the mood to do that day.

That's a great training exercise. Thanks for sharing your additional thoughts on it.

We are part of an association, but it's not a NGB. Testing results are sent to the HQ and they then award the rank certificates. However, this is done based off the results the judges present at the testing send in. I don't know if that differs from overseas procedures or not.

9/25/2025 Aikido: 8:45 - 9:45 am. Brief internals and aikitaisos, to include a pre-pivot on step to tenkan (my left knee continues to be a bother). Technique work: double parry pass on munetski (stepping straight punch) from closed stance. The puncher would continue to face the defender and step/turn to follow, which resets the drill and allows you to go again, or to switch who attacks each time. The defender does iriminage taisabaki; lead foot steps forward and at an angle, lead hand parries at elbow (seems to work better above the elbow), then the rear hand moves up to the lead hand to "block" the arm from moving (switching hands), then the rear foot steps up to/crossed and past the other foot, then remaining foot steps and turns to face attacker. Attacker just keeps facing the defender by turning and stepping back leg forward and through. Slick drill really, and simple. Then transitioned into an udegarmi shinoage: parry/pass, secure wrist and then other arm over top to figure-four lock, sink to break balance, turn through to front stance and throw. I need to keep their elbow to my body on the transition, keep arms/shoulders relaxed. We finished by doing multiple reps of this technique with no corrections offered by sensei. I kind of like this training modality of spending time working on a technique and it's nuances, then drilling it over and over without feedback. While doing the technique this way I could feel where I was making mistakes. Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. Left knee was still hurting, so I worked on softening my steps in basics. Had a good stretch after basics. Did Choi Yong once; I took a little more time between techniques as my head was not feeling great. It helped out the form overall. I worked on counter-balancing the reverse side kicks to prevent over-rotation. Then did white and green belt one-steps. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Mostly working with the kids again. Didn't feel like I had anything today. For some dumb reason I stuck my open right hand down into a rising kick and jammed my pinky finger really good. I was lucky I didn't break it. Don't do that again! BJJ: 7:00 - 8:00 pm. Started with 2 warmup rounds, 5 minutes each. They felt like an eternity. I ran for my life against a young athletic kid in the first round (we were supposed to be going nice and easy...), and I struggled in the second round as well. Then we drilled. More side control work. I still didn't feel like I had anything energy wise. Lots of struggles on bottom. I do a lot of work to get a little, then lose what progress I made. I did learn a ghost pass or escape that I think I can try to use. No free rolling; head still not doing great.

I keep hearing that. The other day I rolled two rounds, 2 minutes each; spent 4 minutes on my back under side control and hated my life.

9/17/2025 Aikido: 6:15 - 7:45 pm. Brief internals work, then aikitaisos, where we focused on staying grounded. Along with the grounding was keeping the body connected and staying centered (I don't really think those things are ever separated). We did a tenkan with front kick drill to help with keeping centered upon completion of the turn (the tendency is to lean back upon finishing the turn, or sitting back on the leg that is moving). Don't want any lean or readjustment to kick. I liked this drill and will be doing it more often on my own and in TKD class. We did do some forward rolls. I kept crashing my shoulder. Sensei said he'd take some time to work on it with me when we can link up. Spent a majority of the class working on yokomenuchi soumen iriminage, but against a knife attack. Entry is in/angled toward the knife forearm/elbow with the lead arm to jam/intercept/kazushi, other hand secures at wrist. Then circle the arm up high to keep the blade away and get into position. Finish is modified by wrapping arm around the head and taking them down, secure the knife side as an armbar on the knee, other hand pressure point at the corner of the jaw. After spending time on this, we did some jo-dori. My rolling had to be limited tonight, but when I did it, it was ok.

I read that Belichick and the Tar Heels are discussing buyout options already. Apparently, there's more than just losing going on. My initial thoughts were to just stick it out; it's not like UNC has expectations like Ohio State, Alabama, and other contenders. Let it play out over the course of four years and see what Belichick can build. But there appears to be more than that going on. Allegations of lack of communication on gameday, a divided locker room, disorganized coaching staff, and the fact that Belichick has been "weird" and "distant" over the past two weeks. A lot of parents are upset with the fact that he closed practices to New England Patriots scouts after the coach had stated he was committed to developing players for the next level of football. He needs to clean up the act around there and get his ducks in a row or this will be a failed experiment.

We usually do the form once like this, and then the students do it once at their own count, that is, once they've got the form memorized. I like to teach it count by count, and then as they get better, add in rhythmical nuances.

Those are all great. The one I've really focused on is self-awareness. Another thing I preach about is being able to articulate the actions you took to law enforcement after the incident. Saying the right things are tantamount to keeping yourself out of more trouble.

This is honestly the first time I have seen it. My understanding is that it was a daughter interacting disrespectfully with her dad, who is also the CI and likely teaching the class that it occurred in. I believe it was likely a series of events that snowballed into the temporary demotion taking place. She had to test each time to get back another rank. When she wrote her 1st dan essay again, the questions reflected the issues that she had to resolve, which to her credit, she did.

I have not heard of that, but after the few times back to the gym and the results afterwards, I'm starting to wonder if strength training is something I will be able to continue to do. It seems my head does not tolerate it well. 9/16/2025 Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. I taught this class. It was a big class, too! It was exciting to see. We had 16 total, including me teaching. We had two fresh-out-of-orientation white belts, so I stuck to the normal basics protocol. However, one of the new white belts was actually a red belt in the Karate school we have here in town. The school closed, and the instructor recommended our school for her to go to. She's catching on pretty quick. There are some technique adjustments for her to make, but those will fill in pretty quickly. I'm sure she'll skip some ranks as she tests. For forms, we had white, low and high orange, low and high green, high blue, 2nd dan and 3rd dan. One-steps for same colored belts. I had the white belts work with black belts to get some good reps in. Sparring: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. I joined in for this one. Several rounds with colored belts, working on various things. My legs were heavy and dead on me. Last round was with the 3rd dan. I'm trying to spar taller than I am, sliding while kicking to close distance and the like, cover ground more, etc. Nice stretch after. Wrist hurt, knee hurt, back hurt.

I just get smashed every session.

9/12/2025 Strength Training Squats: 45x5x2, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 195x3, 205x1. Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 75x5, 80x3, 85x3, 90x3, 95x2. Barbell Curls: 45x10, 45x10, 45x10. Triceps Push-downs: 50x15, 50x15, 50x15.

9/11/2025 Aikido: 9:00 - 10:00 am. Aikitaisos, then worked on kaitenage for our rank. There are 4 variations for the test, and we did 2 of them. I need to draw the "cut" parallel w/uke's initial direction. We talked about atemi - I need to think about my striking principles more w/my techniques. If I'm in a good striking posture technically, then the technique is probably going well. Taekwondo: 5:45 - 6:30 pm. Traditional Class. Basics, then real brief stretch. Choi Yong, then low orange and blue belt one-steps. Head wasn't feeling great. 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Sparring. I ran drills in this class to start. From closed stance, assigned attacker did a front leg round kick to the body and the defender would block with the rear arm. I've been seeing low ranks doing too much "fencing" while sparring, trying to block all the kicks with the lead hand while the back hand/arm does nothing. The attacker could do a #1 round kick or a #3 round kick for distance. After some rounds of that I had the attackers do a higher or head level front leg round kick so the defender could start using the upper hand on the cross block to defend the high kick. The cross block is a double block with the rear hand staying low and the lead hand going high to cover for the possibility of the kick going to the body or the head, or a double kick. We did several rounds of this drill and had the defenders add a counter punch after blocking. BJJ: 7:00 - 8:15 pm. Three rounds of warmup rolling, then into class focus. The focus this month is on side control (ugh, my favorite...). We played games where the bottom person tried to re-guard and the top player tried to maintain position. We then progressed the drills to the top player trying to isolate the far arm, head and far arm, or near arm. Then we progressed to trying to get the bottom person up on their side. While drilling and trying to maintain the top position, I found that by getting off my knees and onto my toes (like I used to yell at the boys to do when wreslting) I could circle and maintain the top position better and for longer. I didn't free roll tonight as my head was bothering me too much and I didn't want to set anything off.

Bills vs Dolphins has the possibility of being a tight game, but I'd lean Bills. With Fields likely out vs the Buccaneers, Bucs seems the more certain pick.

Yep, I hadn't heard about this story until now. And I probably won't think about it again. I'm more concerned about the three uncalled false start penalties on tush-pushes during the Chiefs/Eagles game.

9/9/2025 Aikido: 6:15 - 7:45 pm. Head was feeling funny today, so I didn't know how class was going to go. I only took a few falls; lots of taking techniques to a stretch point. We did aikitaisos, then technqiue. Yokomenuchi sokumen iriminage (5th kyu): I'm making improvements on this, flowing better. I worked on not standing up tall when entering with arm across chin. Also worked on drawing the other arm back (hikite) and getting it twisted to break balance. The finish is the aikitaiso sayu undo/sayu choyaku undo; key at the end is not a drop but a thrust/downward thrust across the shoulders. Then we did a variation on it using a pass-through block/intercept (I likened it to a block/pass/pin minus the pin), then to the iriminage or gokyo. We also hit lots of tangents on different approaches and applications.

There was a lot going on with this testing, even though it wasn’t one of the bigger testings. Here’s the big one: We had a 2nd dan, who is the daughter of the CI, managed to get herself bumped from 2nd dan back low brown belt due to some…respect issues; not with everyone in the school, but more along the lines of father/daughter dynamics. When your are father/daughter at home and then come to class, it can be difficult for kids to switch to the instructor/student dynamic. I never got the exact story of what took place to cause the rank stripping, but that’s the gist of what caused it. That 2nd dan in-a-brown belt had to test on the three brown belt levels to get back to her 2nd dan rank, and today marked her finish of that journey. She was basically doing the 1st dan testing all over again as a skunk belt; all forms, all one-steps, sparring, board breaks, and writing the essay again and reading it aloud before testing. She has matured a lot, and it was great to see. Ok, onto the performances. When I mention the 1st dan recommended, she’s the one I’m referencing. 1st dan rec: good power in Do-Gons. She made her low rank forms look like black belt forms. Great power, technique, focus, etc. She had a few brief memory hiccups, but nothing terribly egregious. During a sparring match with an orange belt, she worked with them, helping them out. White belts: good stances, transitions, and power in their form. In one-steps, their distancing was pretty good, but their stances needed focus. I see this often in one-steps at the lower levels; the students are worried about blocking a technique, where their targets are, and everything going on up high that they forget about what their legs are doing in the stances down low. The group of white belts looked very good sparring. Orange belts: needed to clean up stances a little bit, along with some transitions to front stances. The forms have some more difficult transitions, which add to this. The square blocks needed some correction. I told them not to rush their one-steps. In sparring, the orange belts need to work on their blocking skills some more. I’ve had them working on drills in sparring class to help with this. I see too much “fencing,” where low rank students are trying to block everything with their lead hand. One of the high orange belts is quite flexible, and it I asked her to show that more in forms, one-steps, and sparring. Overall, all the students showed great power in their forms, and I told them to keep it up. I asked them to add focus, and to concentrate on the stances and transitions. At the end of testing when handing out belts, the CI got a bit choked up giving his daughter back her rank, and didn't quite have his thought sorted yet. I stepped in and told her that when something like that happens, a person can handle it a couple of ways. One, they can just quit and not deal with it. Or two, they can take responsibility, hold themselves accountable, and get better. She chose the latter, and that has made all the difference. The CI was able to gather his thoughts and summed up how proud he was of her, and they both had some tears. I made them hug it out before breaking the testing.

9/8/2025 Strength Training Bench Press: 45x5x2, 95x5, 105x3, 135x1, 135x1, 135x1. Deadlifts: 95x5, 135x3, 185x3, 225x1, 250x1.

9/5/2025 Trying to get back to some form of strength training. Squats: 45x5x2, 135x5, 185x3, 185x3, 185x3. Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 75x5, 75x5, 75x5. I'm going to play with the rep range and try a 5/3/1 approach. I want that last set to be somewhat heavy, but doing heavy 5's makes pressure build up in my head.

Congrats @Revario!

I like this book as well. Lays out a lot of good thoughts to consider. I also think that many young men are confused about what self-defense actually is. Yapping with someone and getting into a fight at a bar is not really self-defense. Sure, you have to defend from attacks, but it's much more along the lines of mutual combat than an unprovoked attack.