bushido_man96

Wow, 15 years on staff! I didn't realize it'd been that long! I feel truly blessed to be part of such a great community, discussing something that is very near and dear to me in this world. At first, I thought KF was a great place to come and talk about Martial Arts. As I've gone along all these years, I've found that KF is just a great place to come and talk with good people about anything; I've shared ups and downs, highs and lows, within my MA journey and from life in general. Outside of my immediate family, I've never found so much great support and camaraderie. I can only hope that I've given back to this community as much as it has given to me over the years. Thank you everyone!

Oh, that's great.

7/26/2021 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 245x1, 290x5, 290x5, 290x5. Bench Press: 45x5, 95x5, 115x3, 135x2, 165x5, 165x5, 165x5. Neutral-grip Chins: 3, 3, 2, 2. Deadlifts: 135x5, 185x5, 225x5. Back to pulling deadlifts. I still have the pain in my back, but it didn't change in any way deadlifting, so I'm back at it. Bench is still going well. MA Training TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. Black Belt Class. We did Do-Kangs 1 through 3 (did 2 twice), then got into self-defense. We did some choke defenses, based off the Krav Maga system. Mainly worked front choke. 7/28/2021 MA Training TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. T-shirt Class. I spent a lot of time teaching in this class. I had the students pad up, and worked them on several contact drills. I had them stand close enough to each other that they could throw a front leg side kick without stepping and make contact, so they could start to get used to the idea of being kinestheticly aware. After that, it was a side kick counter drill, using a block and side-step, and setting up "crossing the T" to start attacking. Then we moved on to round kick counters, countering with spin side kicks. 7/29/2021 Firearms Training Range: About 5 hours of range time. Duty pistol, backup, rifle, shotgun, and bean bag round qualifications, along with use-of-force training and review. I had a really great day at the range with my pistols. I was 46 out of 50 with my duty pistol, with only 1 off from the 25 yard line, and 47 out of 50 on my backup, with 2 off from the 25 yard line. I was one off on each of the rifle and shotgun, too, but I usually have all of them on. Not sure what happened. But overall, very happy with my performance with the pistols.

7/23/2021 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 245x1, 285x5, 285x5, 285x5. Press: 45x5, 85x5, 100x3, 120x1, 144.5x4, 1, 3, 2, 2, 3. Neutral-grip Chins: 3, 2, 2, 2, 2. Press wasn't going well, so I just decided to do as many as I could at a time, break for a few minutes, then throw it up again, to get 15 total reps.

Welcome to KF, Jack! I've read a book of Graden's, and still have it in my library. Glad to have you here!

Are they planning on spinning it off!? Boy, I really hope so. I did rather enjoy it. The final season was a pretty good one.

7/21/2021 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 250x5, 250x5, 250x5. Bench Press: 45x5, 95x5, 115x3, 135x2, 160x5, 160x5, 160x5. Assisted Chins: 100x10, 100x10, 100x8, 100x9. TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:30 pm. T-shirt class. My first night back in some time, so I paced myself. I did Choong Jang a few times, and did some basics up and down the floor. Later, I kept time and center judged sparring.

I read a book titled Black Belt Management by John Graden some time ago. I'm not sure if it's the best, but it might be worth a look.

7/14/2021 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 250x5, 250x5, 250x5. Press: 45x5, 85x3, 115x1, 141.5x5, 141.5x5, 141.5x5 Assisted Chins: 100x10, 100x10, 100x8, 100x7. Missed a day, so back for a Wednesday light day. 7/16/2021 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 275x5, 275x5, 275x5. Bench Press: 45x5, 95x5, 115x3, 135x2, 155x5, 155x5, 155x5. Neutral-grip Chins: 2, 2, 2, 2. Decided to give bench press a go. After a few reps, I started feeling it in my shoulder again. One of the guys at the gym suggested widening the grip slightly. I did, and it seemed to have helped. 7/19/2021 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 245x1, 280x5, 280x5, 280x5. Press: 45x5, 85x5, 115x1, 143x5, 143x5, 143x5. Neutral-grip Chins: 3, 2, 2, 2, 2.

That sounds like great news moving forward, Bob. I'm glad you've found a doctor that will engage with you.

You can find instructions all over the internet for different versions of makiwara, if that's what you're interested in. The Wavemaster standing heavy bag is hard to beat, too. Although it won't swing like a nice heavy bag, you can work around it, and you can roll it out of the way to a corner when you're done.

Excellent! Enjoy your journey together!

I do whey protein shakes as well, with creatine added in. I don't currently do a multivitamin.

7/7/2021 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 250x5, 250x5, 250x5. Press: 45x5, 85x5, 115x1, 141.5x5, 141.5x5 141.5x5. Assisted Chins: 100x10, 100x8, 100x7, 100x7. Still sticking with the Wednesday light day, at least on squats. Still no deadlifts yet. 7/9/2021 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 245x1, 290x5, 290x5, 290x5. Press: 45x5, 85x5, 115x1, 143x5, 143x5, 143x5. Neutral-grip Chins: 3, 3, 2, 2.

Yes, thank you for the update. It does sound interesting. Like Danielle, I share concerns about not being able to instruct in person, and losing that interaction.

Your not wrong, but let me offer a comparison. When I did Thai kickboxing, we were told to "hit as hard as you can" and now that I am training Taekwondo/Korean Karate, I am told by my instructor that I should "snap it real quick, dont worry about power" My best way to compare is, power kick does more damage but has a longer reload time. Speed base kick is more rapid and has a less reload time if that makes sense. Although one thing to mention is, lots of Korean martial artist tend to start with speed, proper mechanics, attention to detail and flexibility. Afterwards, they start adding more and more power to it. This is something I noticed from Tang Soo Do and Taekwondo. You're talking about two different ways of kicking. "Snap" implies "pulling," to me anyways, so you aren't delivering it all into the target. When executing techniques, does someone try to be slow on purpose? Especially if the result sought out to do damage? I guess we could take an example of watching guys kick in the UFC, or other MMA events. I don't think they are kicking slow, nor do I think they are "snapping" their kicks. Yet they are very fast. They want to follow through with their kicks...I guess this is what you mean by the "loading" time? Either way, the equation doesn't change, no matter how you are kicking: P=Fxd/t.

I'm not sure that whole styles were lost, but I'm sure there were great teachers with their own methods and outlooks on training that were lost at the end of WWII.

Oh ok I see what you're saying now. Yeah removing all those aspects would be really sad and you definitely would lose a lot of what makes the art what it is. This is truly sad to see, I believe it bled over into TKD, when it got started. That, combined with the fact that the influx of a sense of building Korean nationalism, and using this to differentiate TKD from it's roots in Karate. Although the skill levels that can be seen in Olympic TKD can be exciting to watch, I don't think it's what the vast majority of TKD practitioners should be training for.

I remember working together on various grappling aspects when we trained together, Bob. I kind of planted that kind of seed with the "new management" of our school, and I believe they've been doing more and more with it in self-defense training.

I saw that WCA is lead by Ian Abernathy (Big fan of his bunkai breakdowns and own some of his dvds) Ive always liked his approach to bringing practicality back to Karate, but I have to say, I swear the guy rarely blinks his eye in his videos!! Seems like a solid associatiin thats UK based I've seen orgs like his, and I believe Stuart Abernethy (for lack of a better analogy, he's the Iain Abernethy of TKD...) has or is is part of an organization that is set up for like minded Martial Artists to have a path of communication and to set up training, seminars, discuss protocols for testing their methods, etc. I like the idea of joining organizations like this, that are more focused on things like training methods and goals, as opposed to determining a course curriculum or technical foundations.

6/30/2021 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3. Press: 45x5, 85x3, 115x1, 140x5, 140x4, 140x5, 140x1. Assisted Chins: 100x10, 100x9, 100x7, 100x7. The back pain lingered from the deadlift from the previous workout. I could really feel it going through the squat, especially into and out of the bottom, so I stopped at 205. Press went ok. I think I miss grooved the second set, only getting 4. Skipped deadlifts. 7/5/2021 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3, 225x1, 245x1, 285x5, 285x5, 285x5. Press: 45x5, 85x5, 115x2, 140x5, 140x5, 140x5. Deadlifts: 135x5. Long lay off after hurting my back. Squats went well, and didn't notice any extra pain going through the full range of motion, so I backed the weight off a bit and got 3x5. Press as well. Tried to deadlift, but it hurt too much.

Training for "speed" and not "power" isn't really possible. Power is a product of speed. Being fast equals being powerful.

Congrats!

This is interesting to consider. I think it's interesting in that, for a high percentage of the people who will ever practice the Martial Arts, most of them will never have to experience an actual self-defense scenario. However, they may very likely face a lot of competition, either at tournaments or in class, if they choose to. Therefore, not being as exposed to the need to use their self-defense as much, it doesn't linger at the forefront of people's minds. It is unfortunate if that is the case, and I have a great appreciation for those that keep the self-defense aspects going in spite of this.

As a student of the Martial Arts for many years, and instructor myself, I really hate to see this kind of advise given out. A student can get good at multiple styles, especially ones that don't have a lot of crossover. If a student has the time to devote to a couple of disciplines, and is willing to do it, then they should do it. Well, I think this depends. What kind of fighting are we talking about? Are we talking about competition? Then yeah, being in peak physical condition, along with being really talented, is important for successful competition. If we are talking about self-defense, cardio is still important, but not nearly as much so for surviving a self-defense situation, as it's not likely to last as long as a competition bout is. When it comes to self-defense, I'd rather have lots of time in skill and drill.