bushido_man96

That's pretty cool!

2/20/2025 Traditional Martial Arts Alliance TKD Club Instructor Evaluation: 2:00 - 2:45 pm. I did double-duty here, participating in the class along with evaluating the club instructor. Two birds, one stone! First off, I'll just talk about the class and what we did, then get into the evaluation. To warm-up we did jumping jacks, push-ups, and a brief stretch. Then we went into footwork ladder drills. Most of it was both feet on the ground, hopping and switching in different directions, but we also did some single-leg hopping, which sucked for me, probably because I'm too heavy to enjoy it. After that, we did some technique work in stances: down blocks in sitting stance (which wasn't as wide of a stance as I'm used to), and then some inside middle blocks. These were done in preparation for Tae Guk 1. Next was step-sparring, and the club instructor had the seasoned 3rd dan that has been assisting and working with her lead this section. Many years ago I participated in classes with this instructor, so I was familiar with his approaches to step-sparring. It's different than the pre-arranged one-steps and three-steps I do with the TTA and that I did with the ATA years ago. 3-step sparring: attacker does three stepping punches as the attacks, defender retreats and blocks, then executes a 3-5 move counter combination, all random, but hopefully done with meaningful techniques to meaningful targets. Blocking the last attack can be a body shift to an angle instead of a straight back retreat. 2-step sparring: attacker does one punch and one kick as attacks, defender defends and counters the same as in 3-steps. 1-step punch: attacker does one punch, defender defends and counters same as above. 1-step kick: attacker does one kick, defender defends and counters as above. Doing the one-steps this way was fun and refreshing to do again. There were times when I tried to be practical with techniques, and there were times where I just had some fun with some flashier stuff. The club instructor took over after step-sparring, and lead the class through the first half of Tae Guk 1, the first WT poomsae. Me and the instructor that lead step-sparring finished it out on our own, with him helping me through the rest of it. This finished out the class. Evaluation Discussion: To start off, this would be pretty tough for anyone in her position, because we had to reschedule the initial evaluation date due to school getting canceled. She has some little ones of her own, so if school is canceled, she has to stay home with the kiddos. So with the reschedule, she was teaching a class with me, the 5th dan CI of our school, the Aikido Sensei who is a 3rd dan, and the other 3rd dan TKD instructor that had been assisting her. I would love to be able to see her work with a class full of low ranked students, but it is what it is. This is the list of comments the Aikido Sensei took down as the class was going on that he planned to broach with her, and we discussed these topics after the class: 1. You only know what you know. Don't try to "fake it," and don't be afraid to defer to another more experienced instructor in the class. 2. Feel free to do TKD research to help expand your knowledge or refresh your memory on forms or drills. 3. Show parallel respect to the instructor you have assisting you. I'm not sure if this was a result of just being lax, or being nervous, or the idea that "I'm teaching the class, so I have to show these guys I can control a class," or some combination of all those. She wasn't disrespectful, per se, but it was a little off. 4. A suggestion in class design was to perhaps move static stretching to the end of class, and do more ballistic warm-ups at the beginning of class to get the body ready. Personally, I've approached warm-ups by using TKD as the warm-up, that way there is more TKD being done overall in class. I like using basics as a warm-up modality. It just leads to more TKD getting done. Calisthenics can be a good warm-up for the body as well, but more jumping jacks doesn't help make a side kick better. 5. If you don't know the answer to a question, it's ok to say so, but also tell the student that you will refer to another instructor and find the answer. It can be tough in the moment to admit you don't know the answer when others see you as the authority, but trying to answer a question you don't know the answer to will not end well in the long run, and students will eventually see through it. Better to admit you don't know it, seek the answers, and you both learn and grow. Now, some of my own thoughts on the class and her teaching: When we were performing the down blocks and inside middle blocks, she brought up my twisting action. It sounded to me like she was going to tell me not to twist, and I headed her off at the pass and said "I'm gonna twist." She went with it, stating it was a good approach. Afterwards discussing this with the Aikido Sensei, he was under the impression that she adjusted what she was going to say when I stated I wasn't changing anything. I'm not sure what her approach was going to be there, but in the first eval session she tried to do some corrections on me like that. Here are the positives I took away from her teaching sesssion: 1. The session had much better structure throughout the class. She started with a warm-up and the footwork drills (which I think still fall into the warm-up category), moved into stretching, then technique work, then step-sparring. It was good, simple approach to class, and she had some focus to the drills. 2. She brought up the instructor that has been assisting her in some segments of the class, showing she is willing to refer to the experience of other instructors. 3. She had a decent method and approach to technique instruction, and she broke technique down better (she still needs work, but experience is the best teacher). 4. We agreed as a group that she is good for another semester of instruction, with perhaps one more evaluation. The only other caveat I had was that if she planned to do any sparring with low ranked students, I would want to evaluate how she handles a sparring class or session. I'd want to see if she can control the room and dial someone back if necessary to conduct a safe sparring session. Overall, I was pleased to see the changes she made and I was pleased to see her improvement. She's a young instructor, and should continue to improve. TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Sparring Class. Prior to class, I warmed up with forms: Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung, Do San, Won Hyo, and Yul Kok. There were 4 of us black belts there, and we all sparred each once in kind of a round-robin fashion. I hadn't sparred in some time, and it went ok. 7:00 - 7:45 pm. Situational Self-Defense Class: The CI/owner so enjoyed the varied step-sparring approach we did in the earlier club session that he decided to do it again tonight. We did three reps of each version back and forth with our partners. We did 1-step punch, 1-step kick, 2-step (punch and kick attacks), 3-step, then changed some things up; 2-step kick (2 kicking attacks), then 1-step attack/1 counter (we referred to it as the "one-hit kill" approach, so the counter had to be a good one to a good vital spot). After class, the CI and I finished things off with some body conditioning: punches to the body (20 each), leg kicks (20 each leg, 10 inside/10 outside), then the blocking sequence on the forearms, 10 sequences total.

That's so good! Another adage I've heard is, "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly."

I'm not trying to force students to change their minds. But I think we do ourselves and our school a disservice by not prepping students early on for the idea of being a post-1st dan student. If a student tells me they want to quit, I'm not going to beg them not to. But I am willing to ask "why?" and have a discussion to figure out what I could have done differently to perhaps retain the student longer.

It seemed to me that what was found in the research is more tailored towards kids. That makes some sense, as they have shorter attention spans. Our Little Lions classes typically only last half an hour. But as an adult, I really prefer a longer class, if for more than anything to get lots of reps in. The only really good thing I've seen come out of it so far is that each of the half-hour sessions is really focused. That first being forms and one-steps is good for memory retention and warming up for the sparring drills that come in the next session. I still stay for the hour, so it really isn't changing how long I attend class.

Welcome to KF, @John Moscato. Here's what I found with a Google search: https://kenwoodkarate.com/ - says it's right there in Baltimore. https://www.karateshorinkan.com/dojos.php?state=Maryland&country=USA - this one says they have a school in Baltimore as well. https://www.threedragonskarate.com/ - this one's a Goju-Ryu school, if you're willing to go that route.

The Nemean Fight System, by Greg Koval. He also has a youtube page of his thoughts and training methods that I found interesting. He was a TKD stylist:

I took a spin side kick right into the nose once. Not a good time. Spent about 20 minutes in the restroom to stop the bleeding.

That is great, @aurik. I think planting that seed early is the key.

I found that a problem on our previous mats. The puzzle mats we have now don't have as much "sink" as the previous ones did, which much nicer for balance.

2/17/2025 TKD Class: Forms/One-Steps Class: 5:30 - 6:00 pm. Got right into it, doing Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung, Do San, and Won Hyo hyungs. Followed that up with Choi Yong, Choon Jang, Yoo Sin, Se Jong, and Gae Baek. I finished by walking through three-steps 1-12. TKD Class: Sparring Drills: 6:00 - 6:30 pm. Loosened up with high knees down the floor, and same walking backwards back. The CI and I did some body conditioning work: punches to the abdomen, and then leg kicks to the inside and outside of the front leg, going back and forth. Then we moved to footwork drills. He put a focus mitt on the ground that acted as the point of revolution (I guess you could say; we worked around the mitt). The front foot starts close to the pad. We started with simple stance switches, then moved to a 45 degree angle side-step. The idea is to step with the back leg to the 45 degree angle forward to line you up with the next side of the mitt. The 45 degree step is much like stepping into a front stance, and if the mitt is the opponent, you are keeping the body bladed and cut off from them as much as possible. The other foot then just slides into place as the front leg in your fighting stance. We went around the mitt this way twice, then switched stance and went twice around the other way. I like to add in various attacks as I'm at the angle; strikes and kicks, depending on the distance. After that footwork, he simplified it a bit to just stepping the back leg to the 45, and then stepping back to stance you started in, hands kept in defensive positions. Next was focus mitt work, with two mitts. Flashed out for five techniques, then we switched. We did this several times. Then we moved to the kicking shield, and flashed the kicking shield forward for a front leg side kick. Towards the end, I was throwing switch reverse side kicks. We did three each side and then the next person took the shield. Aikido Class: Weapons Class: 6:50 - 8:00 pm. We worked with a shinai today, doing two-person drills. We started with tips crossed and feeling the line, and attacker's job was to apply slight pressure to "flick" the defender's shinai off the line, then spring forward for a shomen. After doing that for quite a few reps, the defender got a job; when the attacker sprung forward to attack, the defender moved forward off the line (tai sabaki) and blocked high while moving, then followed up with shomen to the attacker's head. I love the two-person drills, and getting several reps in was lots of fun, and I'm picking up on little things I need to fix. That session finished with a game of "The Last Samurai" since we had a young one in the class. Although it was a game, I did find myself applying the sword principles and learned a few things while doing it. After the youth session was over, the sensei and I worked on a knife disarming technique called udegarame, which basically translates to "entwining the arm." I found it easier to do on the right side than I did on the left side. It finished with a great pinning maneuver that I found very tactically sound. As we were working and talking about some transitions in the technique, kazushi came up, and he talked about how by focusing on my own structure, and keeping it sound throughout the technique, it will do the work of kazushi for me. 2/18/2025 Martial Arts Nerd-Out Session: 6:00 - 9:30 pm. The Aikido Sensei, me, and the other TKD 5th Dan all got together tonight for a meal and a chat. We've done these before, and they are always such a good time. We just nerd out on Martial Arts together, talking about our experiences, complaints, understandings, and misunderstandings. We talked some MA history, some theory, some technique, and the state of our current TKD association and the standards in it. We talked about laying down keeping the high standards that our dojang keeps, and how we can talk with other instructors in the association about doing the same. Along those lines, we discussed what the possibility of going to visit other dojangs in our association to see what they are doing and what their approaches are in classes.

This is a great thing to do. I know I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating; it is a great way to motivate your training.

That's a rough deal, Bob, losing a caretaker your comfortable and familiar with. Hopefully your next doctor will be someone you come to trust as well.

Whatever doesn't aggravate my knees that day.... But seriously, working basic punching, either shadow boxing, more "basic" style punching and moving in stances, or working on a bag. I always try to focus on my hip twist and getting my body into my strikes, whether on the bag or in the air. I like to work on blocking movements as well, working different methods of the blocks and play around with applications using various segments of the movement as defenses and counters to various attacks.

It's 375 pages, but it's a really smooth read. Lots of stories and histories of the old masters with some notes along the way. It's not set up as just pages of huge blocks of text. It's really broken up and reads well. I think you'd enjoy it.

2/11/2025 Aikido Class: 6:15 - 7:45 pm. Thankfully, this was a long class! After stretching and aikitaisos, we got into technique work, and the Sensei had us work on techniques for our testing requirements. I did shionage from a same-side wrist grab, both omote and ura versions. We started by just working the entry over and over, which were good reps to get. Then we got into the whole technique with a finish. Lots of reps. The entry and the footwork were feeling really good, but I was having trouble with the turn into the arm control position. I needed to squat lower on the shorter student to get the balance broken. I also felt like I was going to really twist off the hand, so I ended up letting my grip go at times, which didn't help either. The ura version seemed more direct, but the omote version actually seemed easier to do. After shionage, I did nikkyo from a same-side wrist grab. This technique had the same kind of entry that the shionage version I did had, so that made the transition easier. I only worked the omote version. Lots of good work, and I really enjoyed it. I'm hoping to get set up to test soon. Falling wasn't too bad on me today, either. I mostly did breakfalls, but did do one back roll that didn't cause me any fits. I never know how that's going to go, and I'm always a little anxious about it.

I agree, @Wastelander. I think it's tougher for some of us here to wrap our heads around the idea of talking to others about "life after black belt," as the most of us here are lifers anyway. As much as I'd like all my students to love the Martial Arts as much as I do, it just isn't the case. I do think by addressing goals much earlier in the students' journeys that we can perhaps up our retention level.

No problem, @sensei8. There are actually 3 volumes, another one on Fujian, Naha-Te, Goju-Ryu and other styles, and then a volume on Kobudo history and masters. I've ordered the 2nd volume already.

I guess it's time to get caught up now!

I agree that I'm probably not going to change this kid's mind, and I am no stranger to the dropouts as time goes on. It is just disheartening to see, and to especially hear someone tell you their plan. Sometimes theses students mature and come back, too, so there is always that. @Spartacus Maximus, I heard the number once a long time ago was that 10% of the students that start out training end up getting to black belt. From there, 10% of those make it to 2nd dan, and 10% of those make go on to 3rd dan, etc. I don't know how accurate that is; I'd actually reckon that the percentage is lower than 10%. I remember in my first go-around in the ATA, I started with a pretty decent group of fellow students. When it came time to test for 1st dan, only three of us were left. Of those 3, I am the only one I know of that is still actively training in the Martial Arts. I imagine if there are any school owners here that have kept records of students they had start training and records of the ones that made beyond 1st dan they could lend some insight.

The mats at my TKD school are puzzle mats. The mats at the Aikido dojo are a different kind of mat; I'm not sure how to describe them. I don't notice too much difference in training on either at this point in time. I have trained on different surfaces in the past; wood floors and concrete floors. I'd say the most important thing to do when switching up training surfaces is making sure to get to the class early enough to move around on it, pivot and kick, punch, transition from stance to stance, to get a feel for what the floor is like in regards to what you are used to. Some floors are tackier than others, providing more friction for pivots. Some are slicker than others, which can make a sudden attempt at a high kick an adventure. Obviously falling and rolling on hard floors is done with much more care and attention to detail than with mats. I don't think I'd want to do Aikido on a hardwood floor.

2/10/2025 TKD Class: 5:30 - 6:00 pm. Forms/One-Steps Class: Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung hyungs (white/orange belts), then I took the high orange belts and the recommended black belt and had them go through Chon Ji, Dan Gun, and Bo Chung again, first on my count and then they went their own count. The rec. black belt I also had do Do San hyung at his own count. Then the students did one-steps. I helped the orange belts with 1-4. The orange belts (twin girls, early teens) are very quiet and reserved, and it's been difficult to get them to put more confidence into their techniques. They know the material. They just need to DO it now. TKD Class: 6:00 - 6:30 pm. Sparring Drills: We started with high-knees up and down the floor; going back, we walked backwards and lifted the knees. Then it was stretch kicks down, and front snap kicks going back, but instead of re-chambering the kicks, we tried to hold the leg out extended for as long as we could before it dropped, working the muscles. Next, we faced the mirrors in a side-on stance and did 180 degree forward switches (by forward I mean switching towards the front shoulder), back and forth, with as little jump as possible; 20 total. After that, we broke out the focus mitts. We did a step-together-round kick-step-back drill, continuously, 10 each leg. Then we did the same kick, but instead of continuous, the mitt holder flashed the mitt and the kicker then had to react. We could pull it back fast to make them try to go faster, but my partner needs a bit of work on it, so I wasn't really pulling it back all that much trying to make her miss. This was 10 each leg as well. We did two more mitt drills after that wearing two mitts; first, was just flash the mitts out and they had to do an appropriate technique to each pad, for a total of 20 techniques. The next drill was the same, adding movement around the ring, for 20 total techniques. After the class, I briefly went through Do Gon 1 with the recommended black belt. Then after class, I had the conversation with the rec. black belt that stated he was planning to quit after getting his first dan: Aikido Class: 7:00 - 7:45 pm. Weapons Classes: I caught the last bit of the previous class (went til 7:15) and then the next class. When I came in, they were working with the jo, and addressing where the power leaks tended to be in the various thrusts and strikes. We did some work striking the bags, and also went through jo kata 1 several times. In the second class, we worked with the bokken, doing bokken kuchimata tachi #6, which is a two-person drill. I loved that, it was a lot of fun, but there are quite a few intricacies within it. We went through each segment as attacker and defender solo for some reps, then worked with a partner. Lot's of strikes, counters, and movement, and exploring various principles with the sword. Sensei said it's part of their 3rd dan's testing curriculum, but I think it's great that he gets students started on those things early. You might notice above that the TKD classes were only a half hour in length. The CI, while talking with the Aikido Sensei at our Three-Style Seminar, talked about "the need" to adjust the curriculum based off information that another student presented from studies on curriculum design for schools, or so it sounds to me. Basically, that the human attention span, even that of adults, isn't maximized after about 30 minutes, and therefore the need for shorter classes. I'm not sure I'm sold on this, not for the adults at any rate, who are more invested in coming to class than many kids might be. The results from the study may be more true for younger students, but I think there is a difference between class-room style lecture and physical education. Personally, I want at least an hour long class in order to get a good sweat going and to really delve into some material. As it stands right now, the black belt class on Mondays and the open class on Wednesdays are still hour long classes, so we'll see how this new schedule works out. I've already seen an issue arise though; the orange belt twins that came to the forms/one-steps class didn't stick around for the sparring class. I'm afraid that we might run into students taking a "TKD buffet" approach to coming to classes, avoiding what they want and attending what they are comfortable with. I'm afraid this will stunt their development and will fail to push students to work on the things they need the improvement the most in. Time will tell; perhaps I'm just the old man yelling at the clouds.

I heard something rather disheartening the other day after class. The class opened by the head instructor presenting our newly minted recommended black belt (a kid) with a memo book to write in. I'd suggested the idea some time ago of suggesting that students keep a training journal for themselves. They would date each entry, and jot down either notes from class, what an instructor told them to work on, or they did well, or thoughts on how they felt they performed, etc. I think it's a good way for students to focus their training more, and go back and reflect on their younger, lower ranked selves and where they are now. The recommended black belt was also talking about how he was looking forward to testing, because he wanted to be a member of the group of black belts in his family. I didn't realize this, but apparently his dad and some other members have trained in the past. Anyway, after class was over and I was up in the changing room, the new recommended black belt said that he plans on quitting after he gets his full-fledged 1st dan. I asked him, "why quit?" He stated his goal was to join the others in his family that have earned black belts. They apparently must have done the same; earned the rank and quit. I said, "Why not be the one who keeps training?" He asked me, "Didn't you have any goals?" I told him I was still reaching my goals. Then I said if I would have quit when I got my 1st dan, then I wouldn't have been there to train with him tonight. I told him I plan to do Martial Arts until I die. I asked him who will take over when I'm gone? He said the other instructor. I said he may be gone, too. I told him to just put some thought into it. This is most unfortunate, and it's not the first time I've seen it, especially in kids. I think we as instructors should start discussions about training beyond the 1st dan level early and often as students move through the ranks. I was not shocked by his revelation; just found it unfortunate. I'm sure others here have had the same happen.

2/6/2025 TKD Testing: 6:00 - 7:20 pm. Only three testing today, but one was a high brown belt testing for recommended black belt. All the testers did well and passed.

2/2/2025 Dry-Firing: 10 minutes of dry-fire practice, drawing, getting the red dot on target, then squeezing off a few rounds. I worked on trigger control and controlling the shake in my hands. I've found that if I put more pressure on the frame with my left thumb, it tends to help.