bushido_man96

I do not know of any at this time in my training and what I have read so far. For tournaments my Sensei has me throw my kicks high because they "look better" and to be able to compete with competitors that do not do traditional katas. I agree. Not many did. More do now, but just because a kick is thrown high in a kata performance, doesn't mean that it can't be done lower, in application.

Well, Wa-No-Michi, you and I see eye-to-eye on more things than we thought. I agree with you here, especially with adults. Not that I don't think anyone can change, but only if they want to, not if I want them to. I don't really think that this is the case. At least, not that I have seen. As a parent, I think it is important to relay to our kids to respect our neigbors, and try to teach that accordingly.

I see this approach by people at times, too. That's when I adhere to my philosophy of "whatever you train in the MAs for, self-defense should be a side-effect of the training." In the end, the teacher decides if the student has put in enough work, effort, etc. in order to advance. So, I feel that in a way, we can control what they take from it. So, no matter what they like about the classes, I would try to make sure that they still take self-defense skills with them. If I can hide that fact from them until they realized that they needed and used them, then I guess I'm just that damned good!

I agree with you here, WNM. I have tried and tried to get the guys outside of class to not call me Mr. Walker. I prefer my first name, or just Walker. What is even more funny is that when I am at the Aikido class, the sempai there that tends to teach the Saturday classes, and did take the TKD class for a while, still called me Mr. Walker...in the class that he was teaching! I finally got him into calling me by my first name. But, at the same time, its nice to see the respect there, too.

I'm not so sure that leg kicks should be a part of "point" tournaments. Perhaps they could be, however, the problem is that too many people who don't practice the control with them could end up taking out a knee. And you wouldn't want to use thrusting kicks to the knee area, like side and front kicks, as they would be tough to control, not to mention the fact that the other guy may run into them at the same time. For full contact, I'm all for them, though. I think the strategy of the low kick lends itself better to higher levels of contact.

Thanks for the tips there, tallgeese. That helps. I guess the key is, instead of trying to be what I'm not at this point (a grappler), trying to use what I know to rectify the situation. One of my concerns, though, is with work, if I took a guy down, and he attempted to squirrel away, or drag me down, is can I get away with striking a downed guy? Also, I made a change to my workout listed above; I did some front kicking before my TKD class, and I plan on trying to do more of it, to just get more kicking work in.

Congrats to Lewis. Well-deserved.

I'd imagine that most of the hand-to-hand training of the Japanese military isn't too much removed from what other countries do today. Most of the training is going to cover weapons usage, formations, scenarios, etc. What they did duing WWII, I wouldn't know.

Yes, I would maintain the "core time" in which the curriculum of the style would remain; forms, one-steps, etc. Then, in my ideal world, the blocks would be established, and then rotate, so the ground fighting block would rotate around every 3 months or so. Something like that. I like this approach, too. I did this in a class with the knife hand strike that we use in basics, using the chamber motion as a cover to an attack to the head, possibly seizing the attacking arm (in a perfect world), and then the attack with the strike.

I've never been a big Eastern school of thought kind of guy, but I do think that mushin does have some establishment in our Western processes, in the form of training muscle memory. With that said, I think that at times, as students we are told that we "should flow," and then its left at that. How? Teach me! I think that this is probably realized by training in simple, repeatable, and adaptable methods in scenarios that would start out ideally (like one-steps), and then move into more dynamic training approaches. That's my beat-around-the-bush idea, anyway.

I think that it is important to look at the kind of competition that you do, too. Olympic TKDers train in a lot more anaerobic ways to attain the ability to go in shorter bursts, but they don't neglect the aerobic aspect, either. If you are going to fight in rounds, then you should do some of your training in rounds, too. Boxers train in rounds, as do TKDer's. Things like sport specificity should tailor your training methods, too. If you also train on a "seasona" type of circuit, getting some periodization training would be of benefit, as well.

I understand what you mean by your points system, now. The ATA does it that way, but I never saw any problems with it. Now, what MAists choose to train or not train when it concerns competition, I leave each to their own devises. The bad mouthing and what-not is not appreciated, for sure. But, don't judge all the same way. Instead, look at each person as an individual, choosing their own path of behavior and the like.

In our school, when the students test for their 1st dan, they have to write a short essay on what TKD means to them, how it has been important in their life, and what it means to receive their black belt.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Thanks, tallgeese. That helps clarify a bit.

Good information, John and beast. I try to keep confidence as a high priority. I try to walk with my chin up, and with an open eye around. Teaching others to do the same is important, too.

Very nice. I haven't seen the Director's Cut. May have to look into that one. Another one of my favorites is from this movie, Gladiator, but its not the Russell Crowe movie. This one starred Cuba Gooding Jr. and James Marshall as high school-aged kids that got into an underground Boxing circuit, ran by Brian Denehey, and helped by Robert Loggia. Its a pretty good movie, and the last fight scene that Marshall has with Denehey is a classic, in my opinion.[/url]

As for this fight and the MMA Picks, ShoriKid really cleaned house, didn't he? I really miss seeing these on a regular basis, because I just don't know anyone out there.

I don't think that the overall approach has changed that much...at least not where I have trained. Perhaps I have been fortunate. Personally, I'm too big on the Master, Mr., sir/ma'am stuff. I do it at school I train at, but I have seen at the Aikido club I train at, things are a touch looser. BJJ schools, from what I have heard, are all on a first name basis, too. However, I think you can still do things this way, but still demand the focus and attention needed to teach effectively. If you need to use the sir/ma'am approach to establish that focus, then I say go ahead and use it. Attention and focus are important for just about any kind of training, in my opinion. It sounds to me like the instructor there now is more interested in being everyone's friend, as opposed to teaching them.

Pads are nice for throwing and takedowns, but if you don't work on that stuff, then the garage would work well. You can do breakfalls on hard flooring; it just makes you learn that much quicker...

12-10-08 Push-ups: 15, 2x5 with my son crawling on my back. Those are fun. 12-11-08 Front kicks: 3x10 each side, back leg, not much higher than waist level. I focused on more of a thrusting kick, than a snapping kick, as I don't care for the snap kick as much. TKD class: 6:00 - 7:00. We went through basics without as many rest breaks, which was nice, and although I get tired, I feel like I am still fairly strong. The last bit of basics, we got to do our own combinations down the floor, and the last set we did as slow techniques, which was a nice change. We then reviewed a lot of forms, which is always nice. I slowed down my form a bit, and broke it down to work on some things. I got to thinking about it so much that I miss-matched a section of it. That's ok, though...I fixed it. After one-steps, when class was over, we messed around with one of them, which has a takedown with a punch follow-up. One of the colored belts was asking about trying to put on an ankle lock after being taken down, and from there, we got into the resistance/fighting it game. The good thing about this is it makes you think about having to deal with someone who isn't going to just lay there. Since my ground game is rather non-existent, I would tend to revert back to strikes, but that isn't always good on the ground. My question is, how would I work to train this aspect with partners, to work into the more resistance stuff, and is there something in particular I should focus on?

Ed makes a good point there. Just go out and do it. I can understand that you want to set high expectations for yourself, but part of successfully attaing goals is in setting measureable and attainable objectives to use as stepping stones towards those goals. Maybe you are asking too much of yourself too soon. I think that if you just go out to do it for the fun and experience, then maybe you'll take some of the pressure off of yourself, like Ed suggests. Then, it just might come to you.

Very nice. I'd agree that putting the two together would be a nice mix. The ability of Judoka to break balance and sense and feel movement while standing would go so well with the BJJer's ability to do this on the ground. I imagine he has a pretty high level of sensitivity perception.

Thanks, John. I'll check it out, too.

Something I thought of tonight after class, when I was having one of those "if it were my school, I might try it this way" epiphanies...was what about doing a block training, like, say, take a month and work on knife defenses. Take a month after that to block off for ground fighting. Block the next month for something else. Doing this might also allow one to arrange for instructors that tend to specialize in different areas to be scheduled for appearances.