bushido_man96

Brian, since you mentioned the chest protectors, are there specific rules for sparring with females? I remember a past posting in which there was sparring between a male and female student, but the manner in which he sparred (he was the one who posted) was objected to. One of the responses was that he should have checked with his sensei if there were certain rules he was to follow. When I took fencing, my female fencing partner wore a different protector than I did, so a rule wasn't needed. No, there aren't any rules differences. Same for all.

Same here. I'm pretty daft when it comes to numbers. If I could spar with numbers, I'd whoop on them, good.....

They basically make each season a stand-alone series, don't they?

I was just wanting to get some feedback on the Saturday classes that those here teach or go to. What times do you have them? Are they mixed, or special? What times seem to be the best for you? How many students typically show up, and how big is the area you live in?

If the movements are that important to your style, then it is important to spend time drilling, drilling, drilling them. That way, they can move onwards and upwards. However, I do think it would be a good idea to find some other movements that can be worked on with them, too, in order to keep the pace of the class going. Maybe pair movement, or technique work with bags and such, to shake things up for them. Let us know how it goes for you. I wish you well.

I agree with you here. I also think that this is the main sticking point with the schools that like to hit basics hard and heavy; the instructors might be concerned that by jumping in too early that by not locking down the basics, they won't be able to throw good, strong techniques. I also think that it has something to do with the schools being heavy curriculum based, testing-focused schools. What is being overlooked is that no predator out there is going to wait for someone to develop their basics before they attack them. So, better to get used to that 2-person movement early on.

2-19-09 Pre-class warm-up; wall-kicks, not setting the leg down Side kicks: 2x5 each leg Round kicks: 2x5 each leg Also practiced some jumping and spinning kicks on the Wavemaster. TKD class: 6:00 - 7:00. Class was going good, and about half way through, the instructor got paged out with a work emergency, so I took over the second half of the class. We got to do a little bit of sparring at the end. At the end of class, I also made a comment about one-steps that probably revealed my opinion of them in general. I told the class that there were a lot of things we could do related to sparring, and not just sport sparring, that could lead into more applicable self-defense. I mentioned something to the point of one-steps being great if you ever get attacked by a statue.....we need to move on to more resistive movement exercises.

I think that actually taking some class time to prep and practice board breaking is important in building success in breaking. Our school does not do breaking in class; only at testings and demos. I am not a fan of this at all. I think it should be practiced, just like any other aspect of Martial Arts.

Neither does our school. From what I've seen of the sine wave in forms, it doesn't allow for a lot of power or combination movement to be done. I prefer to do it without.

Actually, I think it might benefit you the most. If styles like Enshin and Ashihara actually use a lot of the body movements that your Aikido has instilled in you, then this will help you adapt more quickly to the style. Also, the Karate style will help you learn how to put the different kicks and hand techniques into use with that same type of movement, which you most likely didn't get in Aikido. I think it would improve your skill set immeasureably.

That's a very interesting tradition that I'm honestly not familiar with myself. Do you know where that originated from? Yes, it is different. Is this something that is unique to your own school?

I do both. I study Aikido with the American Aikido Association, and I have been doing Combat Hapkido for about 3 years now, I think. Combat Hapkido is pretty straight forward stuff. Low-line kicks and hand techniques used as distraction techniques to facilitate the techniques. We do some circular motions, but not to the extent that Aikido does. I have only been doing Aikido for about 7 or 8 months now, I think. From what I have seen, Aikido is based a lot on using the energy of your opponent, if he gives you some, or the energy you give the opponent, if he is more static, to initiate the circular, spiraling, spherical types of movements that generate the momentum for the techniques. There are rarely any striking techniques involved. In class, we spend at least an hour doing Aiki movements that involve a lot of turning and spinning, and the breakfalling techniques, before getting into the actual technique work. These spinning and turning movements are what build the foundation of the movements used to produce the energy to do the techniques. I am still growing in both, and I have more experience with the Hapkido than with the Aikido, so my experiences here may not echo those of the more experienced. However, Hapkido does have its roots in Daito-Ryu Aikijitsu, so there are some similarities in the two.

Well done, Kez. It sounds like it went very well.

Our contact level is pretty moderate when we spar. Its supposed to be body displacement at tournaments, so we make sure to make some level of contact on the chest protectors. We don't get into full-on, heavy contact.

You could say the same about Wrestling, too. There are a lot of kid's Wrestling programs out there. Its a different style, for sure, but they are both based in combative systems. I don't know that TKD and Karate schools are "aimed" at children, but the curriculum of these styles lend themselves well to teaching children. They naturally gravitate to it.

I do think that stance work is important for all aspects of Martial Arts. However, I think that it should not be done soley stationary, but focusing on the transitional aspects of stance work, using an opponent that resists at varying levels, allows one to get a really good handle on how the stance becomes effective movement.

Diego Sanchez vs. Joe Stevenson...........Sanchez.........Dec Dan Hardy vs. Rory Markham.................Hardy............KO Nate Marquardt vs. Wilson Gouveia.........Marquardt......Sub Chael Sonnen vs. Demian Maia..............Maia..............Sub Josh Koscheck vs. Paulo Thiago..............Koscheck.......KO Terry Etim vs. Brian Cobb......................Etim..............Dec Junior dos Santos vs. Stefan Struve........Struve...........Sub Per Eklund vs. Evan Dunham..................Eklund...........Sub Neil Grove vs. Mike Ciesnolevicz.............Grove............KO Troy Mandaloniz vs. Paul Kelly................Kelly..............KO

I agree, DWx. Unfortunately, our classes are pretty much mixed. And we just started doing some different basics, and it is tougher for the 6 new white belts we have to catch on.

We have board breaking required at the brown belt levels, but we don't do any kind of conditioning for it. I think board breaking is a good way to demonstrate power in technique.

Updated Fight Card: Diego Sanchez vs. Joe Stevenson Dan Hardy vs. Rory Markham Nate Marquardt vs. Wilson Gouveia Chael Sonnen vs. Demian Maia Josh Koscheck vs. Paulo Thiago Terry Etim vs. Brian Cobb Junior dos Santos vs. Stefan Struve Per Eklund vs. Evan Dunham Neil Grove vs. Mike Ciesnolevicz Troy Mandaloniz vs. Paul Kelly

I like the most of them, but Super Mario Bros. 3 has to be up there, along with the New Super Mario Bros. that was on the NintendoDS. It was a blast.

Very well said, ps1. Spoken with experience behind it.

I wouldn't say that one should add partner work for the sake of partner work, but for the sake of learning to interact with someone, on some level. It doesn't have to be intense to be beneficial. Nor am I saying that basics are not important to Martial Artists. However, even with 30 minutes of basics, I think you can still find some good, productive partner drills that can be taught, even to lower ranks, using very simple movements, like the chambering position of the knife hand strike or the middle block. Its never to early to learn to cover and counter. Here is another example; I am a 3rd dan, and I still do the same basics in our traditional classes that the white belts do. I am not saying that I can't benefit from 40 minutes of basics up and down the floor, but I could benefit a lot more with 40 minutes of two-person drilling, self-defense work, or sparring. I realize that my school isn't like all schools, either. But, I don't think you can learn to fight or defend yourself as effectively with solo drills as you can with multi-person drills.

2-18-09 Cardio: Bike for 25 minutes, followed by a brief stretch. We were busy today, so I didn't get to everything I wanted to.

One thing that I have seen with back injury recovery is that you really have to take your time. You can't hurry it, because if you do, you'll end up keeping yourself out for even longer. Its really touchy, and because your back does so much, it is going to affect and be affected by everything that you do.