bushido_man96

That's great stuff! Love the connections there! I can't wait to see season 4!

That's a great point, Danielle, and I like your approach to dealing with that angle.

Maybe I'm calling them by the wrong name? I was doing these: Yeah, the "skullcrusher" typically stops over the forehead. You're doing an LTE. 6/4/2021 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 205x5, 225x1, 245x5, 265x5, 280x5. Press: 45x5, 65x5, 85x3, 105x1, 125x1, 150x2, 150x2, 150x2, 150x1. Push Press: 160x3, 160x1. Deadlifts: 135x5, 205x5, 225x1, 275x5, 315x1. I had family come to town to visit for most of the week, so I missed Monday and Wednesday's workouts. Friday was a try to get back into it day. I did ascending work sets on the squat, with the hope of doing the top set of 280 for 3x5 on the following Monday. Press did not respond well to the days off, and perhaps should have been backed off a bit. I will try 150 again on Monday and see how it goes. I tried to finish with a few sets of of push press, but my arms were worn out. I did manage a heavy single for deadlifts.

Every brand of escrima/arnis stick I've bought have all started to splinter out after some decent amount of contact drills. Does anyone have suggestions for a set of sticks that won't start to splinter out and can hold up to lots of single and double stick drills?

Great points Spartacus It's a fine line as you want parents to be engaged and involved with their child's learning, but if it goes too far the other way you get parents who couldn't care less and just treat it as daycare. A helpful tactic might be to: 1, make sure the parents understand to not participate in the classes, and 2, talk to these active parents after classes, and give them a list of a few things to have the student work on at home, complete with cues of what to work on in the techniques. They get to help, and hopefully leave your class time to you.

Great points!

It's important as in instructor make sure you cover important points in training, and make it fun for the students. In an ideal situation, the student is there of their own volition, and wants to be there, and therefore is engaged prior to even getting there. However, not all situations are ideal. When a student is being lazy, and you can tell that they are there because the parent wants them there, then you are already fighting an uphill battle. The way I would handle this scenario is three-fold. First, I'd have a talk with the student, one to one, and find out if they are truly interested in the class or not. Hopefully, you get an honest answer. From there, I'd move to speaking with the parents, and talking to them about your observations of the student in class, and how to handle that moving forward. I wouldn't want to push an unmotivated, lazy student into a testing or grading, and it wouldn't be fair to those who do work hard and engage in class. From there, I'd bring the student and parents together and find out how to solve the issue. If it means the student leaving the school, then so be it; it would be much better than burning the student out on something they don't want to do, anyways. Perhaps, the key to that student's enjoyment lies elsewhere. Bob is right; not every black belt can teach. I also believe that as hard as a good teacher may try, they just might not be able to reach every single student out there, where another instructor might. This could be the case, as well, and they might need to seek a change of scenery.

5/28/2021 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 245x1, 280x5, 280x5, 280x5. Push Press: 45x5, 95x3, 115x2, 135x1, 160x5, 160x5, 160x5. Deadlifts: 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 245x1 275x1, 315x5.

Agreed. Always, always, always ask to watch a class. If they don't allow you to, I think this sends up a red flag, and makes the decision process easier.

I agree with you, Bob. It's important to open up and see things for what they are, and not necessarily how they look in comparison to how you've done it in the past. Very much a carryover of some of the topics struck in our discussion on the Tao of JKD.

I think Karate, along with other "traditional" styles, are making a comeback. I don't know if it has more to do with the "downfall" of MMA, or the rise of Karate in popular culture with the likes of shows like Cobra Kai. Either way, it is welcomed. As an aside, I don't think MMA is losing popularity or is falling by the wayside. By and large, MMA is the avenue that Martial Artists that want to compete professionally take. MMA has evolved so much, and the athletes competing there are truly elite athletes. Not everyone who gets into Martial Arts is going to be an elite athlete, nor do they all want to train that way. So, I believe styles like Karate and Taekwondo will always have students ready to step into their ranks. I also believe that as more pro MMA athletes step aside and retire, they may look to the more "traditional" styles (or look back to them) in order to fill that void in their world.

Welcome to KF, Ruler of Demacia! Those are all great points. Set the goals, and go about achieving them; what happens along side is gravy.

Danielle, instead of skull crushers, have you thought of trying lying triceps extensions? It's a great triceps exercise that hits all three heads of the triceps and uses a larger range of motion. It's also easier to load incrementally. It's a great ancillary exercise for helping out with bench and presses. 5/26/2021 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 245x5, 245x5, 245x5. Press: 45x5, 85x5, 105x2, 125x1, 150x3, 150x2, 150x3, 150x3, 150x3, 150x1. Assisted Chins: 105x10, 105x10, 105x9, 105x9. Light squat day. Second set of press went sideways on me. I think I misgrooved rep 2 some, as it was a struggle to get up, so I tried to breath at the top and catch rep 3 with a rebound out of the bottom. It didn't work. Rest of the sets were good, though, so only thing I can think of is a misgroove. Superset press with the assisted chins. When I get to 4 sets of 10, I'm going to lower the counterweight.

What a ride, Bob! I'm so glad you were able to get everything sorted out! God is good!

That is an interesting, and I believe fairly accurate, take on kata and how it came to be. I also agree that kata are a form of standardization now. Kata is a template, showing how you'd like to see moves performed, when in actuality, there will be variances based on movement, the opponent, etc. But, the kata is the reference point you strive to achieve in application.

We should strive to express our inner selves through art to improve the world. Art can be expressed in so many ways, too; physically (like Martial Arts or dancing), musically, or through drawing/writing/painting, etc.

5/24/2021 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 245x1, 275x5, 275x5, 275x5. Press: 45x5, 65x5, 85x3, 105x2, 125x1, 147.5x4, 147.5x4, 147.5x4, 147.5x4. Assisted Chins: 105x9, 105x9, 105x7. Deadlifts: 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 245x1, 290x5, 290x5. Going back to linear progression on squats for the time being, but keeping Wednesday as a light day. Press went well today, hitting sets of 4. I superset the presses and chins. Interestingly enough, the second set of deadlifts seem to go up better than the first set.

Yes, Danielle, that is annoying, too. In our classes, we actively discourage the parents from participating in that way. I'm kind of hypocrite about it, though, as I constantly get on my kids in the other sports they do.

That is great to hear. It's been so long since we've had an adult female in our classes. It's great to see.

I've seen it on there, and was a fan of the video games as a kid, but I haven't pulled the trigger on watching this. Did you find it enjoyable, Patrick?

Wow, cool to see a member from the beginning! As far as choosing a style for your kids goes, I'm biased, but find TKD to be a great style for kids to practice. However, I wouldn't rule out any other styles. Also, it's easy to find an MA kids program; most schools run them. But check around at other schools, even if they don't offer a "kids program." You might find an instructor that doesn't focus on kids, but has a great approach to teaching them and making classes fun for them. It might also be a great instructor for you to learn from. If you are interested in other options in which you yourself might not be able to train, there are some great local Kid's Wrestling programs out there, and Wrestling is a fantastic sport for kids to get into. It's great for teaching them accountability, and for encouraging them to put the most into their training.

Great retrospect. I think instead of asking, "Is it still relevant?" the appropriate question would be "How do I keep it relevant?" If this includes different ways of looking at the self-defense aspects, application training, etc, it's important for us as Martial Artists to continue to work and to make sure what we do is still relevant.

I think we've been pretty fortunate to have a good group of parents in our school. Most of them don't seem to take any issues with how we run our testings, who tests and when, etc. I see this happening with kids in our educational school system, though, and most of them don't tend to find interest in our MA schools.

I hear you on the consistency. I'm suffering through a crappy work schedule that precludes me from making it to classes right now. But, I've been able to keep up my strength training, so I take solace in that. If my schedule balances out here soon, I hope to start doing some some solo training at the TKD room.

IMHO, if you're training/learning totally online, without a partner to practice techniques on, you're wasting your time (and money). You learn the moves, but you're not getting the experiences of someone actually attacking you to see how the technique works. Without a qualified teacher to critique you, how do you know your doing techniques flawlessly? You may think you are, but ... IMHO, if you're getting certification from some online course, it's only worth the paper it's printed on. I had a guy come into my dojo years ago claiming he had an 8th Dan in karate. being ever the skeptical person I am I asked a few obvious questions, like "What system?" He didn't know. "Sensei's name?" He didn't know. I said "How can you become an 8th dan and not know the name of the system or your sensei?" He said it was online and took him ALMOST a year to get the rank. I asked him to show me a kata, he had no idea what that was. He did show me some stances and blocks, but they were very, very sad, slow and weak. His punch would have broken his wrist and hand, his kicks lacked any semblance of power or control, and he stood with straight legs. I asked him why he was there and he told me he wanted to be an instructor at my school. (I'm trying really hard not to laugh through all this). I asked him if he knew any of our katas, of course he didn't. Asked him to show me blocks, not even close. Philosophy? Nope. After about 45 minutes I sent him on his way with a little lesson on taking online course. I told him he's going to get himself killed if he started telling everybody he was an 8th dan black belt, because eventually somebody was going to challenge him and he was going to get a severe beating. I did offer to let him into my class as long as he NEVER mentioned his 8th dan or online training again. He left and I never saw him again. This, sounds like the ultimate online nightmare, and what most of us tend to think of happening when someone mentions "online training and promotion" (although, I was surprised to see he was "allowed" to reach 8th dan...).