bushido_man96

Ouch, cracked ribs. Do you remember how you did that? Remember to just stay patient, and get back to training when you can. Otherwise, you could end up missing a lot more than 4 more weeks. Keep your chin up.

I'm glad that we were able to provide you a little guidance in this matter, slowhands. As always, referring to your instructor will tend to help you the most.

Better to have and not need, than to need and not have.

Edit: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Andrei Arlovski....Fedor...Sub Josh Barnett vs. Gilbert Yvel....Yvel....KO Matt Lindland vs. Vitor Belfort....Lindland...Dec Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou...Sobral...Dec Bobby Green vs. Dan Lauzon...Green...Dec Kirill Sidelnikov vs. Paul Buentello....Buentello...KO Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira....Nogueira....Sub Jay Hieron vs. Jason High....Hieron...KO Mark Hominick vs. L.C. Davis....Hominick...Sub Antonio Duarte vs. Albert Rios....Duarte....Sub Brett Cooper vs. Patrick Speight....Cooper...KO

That was interesting. I'm not sure I got the knack of it, though.

That might be worth a try.

1-22-09 TKD class: 6:00 - 7:00.

You touched on the importance of gaining proficiency in another post, but it fits here, too. I think that it is important to realize that this is what the rank system is for; more important is making sure that these proficiency levels are achieved before a student moves on. These small building blocks of proficiency will build the foundation for a good black belt.

Nobody ever wanted me to get to one because it would always be followed with one hundred side kicks for the whole room. Those people must have developed some solid side-kicks, I wish I got to do that aswell hehe. One of my old instructors would use what he called "concentration" side kicks. You'd grab a piece of wall to hold your balance, then chamber for a side kick. Kick 5 seconds out, then hold..........................................then 5 seconds back, then.....hold.................................and repeat as often as necessary.

Good post, Joe. I think I would put proficiency in with the #2 and 3 in the heirarchy listed in the original post that ironsifu made. Its an important step on the road to mastery, for sure (oops, there's that work again...).

I'm not so sure nutrition has to come first, though; you can start working towards fitness, nutrition, and self-defense skill at the same time.

1-20-09 TKD class: 6:00 - 7:00. 1-21-09 100 push-ups log Week 3, Day 2: 14, 19, 14, 14, 19 = 80

1-19-09 Defensive Tactics: 8:15 - 9:15. We spent time going over what we plan to present to the Jailers for the upcoming DT class. Weights Bench press: 190x5, 6 was failure Seated row: 170x6, barley got 6 Military press: 105x9, need to go up Lat pull down: 150x6, 7 was not a full rep Triceps push down: 135x6 Machine curls: 45x6 Cardio: Bike for 20 minutes. Stretched. 100 push-ups log Week 3, Day 1: 12, 17, 13, 13, 17 = 72

1-19-09 Week 3, Day 1: 12, 17, 13, 13, (max) 17 = 72. This felt pretty good on the arms. 1-21-09 Week 3, Day 2 14, 19, 14, 14, (max) 19 = 80.

Those are good questions, Dobbersky. Is it just a matter of dates?

That's what ended up happening to me; now, I mostly fight southpaw.

I didn't say that those that train like me are limited to poor skill. In the years that I have spent learning and teaching, I have seen very talented individuals come in and go out, and I have seen individuals come in and develop talent over time. When it comes to developing talent and skill, the rank system comes into play for most schools. A white belt, in my mind, isn't going to, and shouldn't perform like, a black belt. Now what an instructor has to do, is evaluate what level of development at the white belt level is acceptable to move onto the next level, and how long that should take. You can see differences is approaches to this method when you look at the requirements of Japanese Juijitsu and Brazilian Jui-Jitsu. BJJ takes longer, and puts different emphasis on different skills. So in the end, is it fair to compare the skill level of the BJJ black belt with that of the JJJ black belt? Should the JJJ practitioners adjust their teaching and curriculum to be equal to that of the BJJ practitioners? I don't know, but is should bring up some more good discussion.....

I think this is what causes the main confusion, and thus is the biggest problem with using the term "mastery" in the Martial Arts. Taking your shooting example, there are scores established that determine your skill level; marksman, etc. In the Martial Arts, we don't have that. It becomes much more ambiguous. Sometimes, it is based off of an achieved rank, or years in service, so to speak. At other times, it can be related to competition skill level, like the Lopez's in Olympic TKD. So, we don't have a determining factor when it comes to "mastery" of the Martial Arts. It would be easy to take someone like Bruce Lee, and use him as the measuring stick. But not everyone is going to be, or can be, Bruce Lee. It would also be like saying that every soldier that comes out of every society should be like the Spartans. It just won't happen, based on cultural biases and what is important to them or what they do.

I think Pittsburg will take it, though. Warner has been a great story this season, but I think it ends in Tampa with a loss.

I had a classmate that used a stomp a lot. I just usually ignored it, but it worked for him from time to time.

I guess once you get used to making the transition, then it wouldn't be a big deal. Just practice.

In my experience, "take a break" has been equated to "never coming back." Too bad, really. That is a problem with society today, I think; we try to shelter everyone from failure.

I used to spend some time on it, but haven't much recently. I would do some hang clean and some power clean, and sometimes clean and jerk. I have done barbell and dumbell versions. I like the exercise, I just haven't done it in a while.

I agree with this kind of set up. If you want to work a technique, doing it this way will help you integrate the focus technique into the rest of your training. I think Maywether as an example is a bit skewed. This guy is a professional athlete and fighter, who would have spent upwards of 8 hours a day training, most likely 6 days a week. The typical Martial Arts practitioner doesn't have that kind of time to devote to training. On the flip side of that arguement, you could look at George Foreman's jab when he fought Michael Moore at age 40 something, and when he fought Ali or Frazier when he was younger. I wouldn't say that his jab was better, but he could still win the title.

I think the heirarchy makes sense. I wouldn't use the work "perfection," for the fact that we just can't be perfect. Like tallgeese mentions, the term "mastery" can be difficult to describe, as well. It comes in so many forms, that it is hard to discern at times. Ali was a master fighter. But he may not have been a master trainer. However, in relation to the approach that you use as an example, this may be alright; its just a matter of finding what it is you can master. However, there are different ways to come into this mastery. Presentation of techniques will usually follow a level of difficulty; simpler techniques before the tougher ones. Kind of like mathematics, though, the tougher techniques should build off of the simpler ones. For example, side kick, back leg side kick, spin side kick, jump side kick, etc. You probably shouldn't be doing a back leg side kick until you get your front leg side kick down, and on and on. However, I don't think that it is necessary to master the front leg side kick before moving up to the back leg side kick. I think that once you get to the understanding level, then you can begin to build on the skill learned, but you still continue to revisit the previous skill(s), in order to continue your improvement.