bushido_man96

Chiefs are looking to franchise tag Trey Smith, and Travis Kelce has confirmed he will be back next season.

You bring up some good points, @sensei8. I'll try to address them as briefly and simply as I can. Whenever I see the word "reasonable," I tend to think about it as my line of work dictates. It's basically asking, "what would a reasonable officer do in this situation?" Likewise, for the general public, it's "what would a reasonable person likely do?" Or, "what would be a reasonable response for a person in that situation?" So, what has to be considered is what we also call "the totality of the circumstances." We, as trained Martial Artists, can be held to a different (not necessarily higher) standard than the untrained public. What is the threat? Cornered by three people saying threatening things? Drunk guy yelling at you in your yard? We can go down all kinds of rabbit holes, as each of the two scenarios I've offered here present two very different threat levels. In the first scenario, it might be reasonable to disable one person as soon as possible to decrease the number of threats; in such a case, use of a weapon as a force multiplier could be justified. In the second scenario, it might just be wiser to shut and lock the doors and call the police, and let them deal with the drunk guy. Spartan kicking that guy into the street into oncoming traffic could lead to a manslaughter charge no one wants. So, circumstances are important to consider. I can get on board with this, but again, there are always caveats. Someone poking you in the chest in the state of Kansas is defined as battery. This person is also in your space. I can count on one hand the number of people I want in that space. YOU DON'T HAVE TO WAIT FOR THIS GUY TO TAKE A SWING AT YOU TO DEFEND YOUR SPACE. A pre-emptive strike can very well be justified against someone like this. Now, I'm assuming (and you know what happens when we assume....) that the two individuals are proportional in size. What if the guy is 6'8" and 320 lbs, and little old 5'7" on-a-good-day me is the recipient of said finger pokes? Even though I'm skilled, I can probably justify a higher use of force against Goliath here due to size, strength, and probably age disparity, especially if I can't walk away safely otherwise. Clubbing this guy with a bottle or other hard object could very well be justified. Now, let's change it up, and it's your drunk ex-girlfriend you ran into in the bar when you are out with your new date. 250 lb me against 140 lb her is another disparity issue altogether. In this situation, I probably can't justify knocking her out if she gets into my space. Again, circumstances. I'd say this is pretty spot-on. The key here is CYA - which means "Can You Articulate." Can you explain to the law enforcement officers that show up what made you believe the threat was imminent? Learning how to recognize things like pre-contact cues are great for helping with this. This is not the case in all states, and especially in your own home. Some states refer to it as a "Castle Law." If you sit down at a restaurant that has a bar and some daily drinkers that start getting lippy and yappy, and you ignore them, and that hacks them off and they get more so, and start coming over to your table to harass you, you don't necessarily have to get up and leave. It may be wise to, but it doesn't mean you have to. This doesn't mean you should knock them out, either. But, if they start to get into your space, once again, this is an attack, and should be dealt with. The other thing to consider is if you try to escape, does that compromise your safety even more? If you turn your back on someone too soon, they may attack while you're not looking, which is not a good situation. What if you only choice is to run? I'm not fast, and if they chase, then I'll just end up having to fight tired. I'd rather fight when I'm fresh. This is true. Let's say you successfully defend yourself, secure the thug in a lock or hold of some kind, and wait for authorities to show up and take them into custody. Good deal, probably works out well. Now, what if you secure the thug, and have them pinned, and decide it's time to "show them what happens when they mess with me!" and proceed to ground-and-pound, or break a wrist because you can, or something like that. In the state of Kansas, that person could be looking at aggravated battery charges if those things were done in a punitive manner. Now, with that said, I'm not saying breaking bones leads to you getting arrested. If in the heat of the moment you defend a punch and break their arm, this can still be considered justifiable. Again, CYA - Can You Articulate? Articulating how you felt, what you saw, how scared you were, and all that stuff is just as important as the techniques you use to defend yourself. I don't know if many instructors cover these things with their students. Sure, they show the techniques, and how to break something if they need to, but being able to talk about these things with law enforcement post-event is just as important. Hopefully, this answers more questions than it creates... It's too bad @tallgeese isn't still around, he'd have some great points to offer on this as well.

2/26/2025 TKD Class: Forms/One-Steps Class: 5:30 - 6:00 pm. Prior to class, I warmed up with ATA forms again, doing white, orange, and yellow belt. Then in class, we did Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung, Choong Moo, Yul Kok, and Jung Goon. My head was not feeling great today, and my balance was very off. I paced myself through the forms. One-steps: low and high orange belt, getting through them all. The student I was with knows them, she just needs to do them with more confidence. We've had an 80 degree temp swing here in good 'ole Kansas, going from -20 windchill lows to 66 highs during the day. It really messes with my head. We had our twin orange belts in today, and they are so very meek. They have demonstrated decent technique up to this point for their rank, but when they do their hyungs, they are hesitant, assuming they are doing the wrong technique. I told them I wanted them to be "confidently wrong." If they think that first technique is a knife hand, then I want them to do a strong, powerful knife hand. If it's the wrong technique, we'll fix it, but I want to see strong technique, even if it is not the correct technique in the form. Hopefully it helps them gain some confidence in their technique. Aikido Class: 7:00 - 7:30 pm. We worked kotegashi and kokyonage, starting with just the entry and getting a feel for the initial movement for entering around the outside of the attack, which was cross-hand wrist grab. After working the entry, we did kotegashi. I did some very slow falling today so as not to upset the apple cart inside my head. After several rounds of kotegashi, we moved to kokyonage, using the same entry. I have a little trouble on this one, reaching over and around the head too far and hooking the chin, as opposed to just getting the jawline and then pressing the head to my shoulder. Again, slow falls. Before the end of class, we switched the attack up a lunge punch, which changes the defense on the entry a little, but it's a good variation, and I can see that type of movement in other stuff I've done in self-defense and forms.

2/24/2025 TKD Class: Forms/One-Steps Class: 5:30 - 6:00 pm. I helped with this class, leading the white belt through Chon Ji several times. She's pretty raw, and we went through it at least three times. On the last go-through, I had her just focus on stances. Then I switched to the rec. black belt, and went through Do-Gon 1 twice, once at his count, focusing on getting the hips involved in striking, and making sure he wasn't one-handing techniques like the high blocks, which I see happen commonly in Do-Gons. Sparring Drills: 6:00 - 6:30 pm. I taught this class, and used it as an opportunity to do the hogu sparring drills I've been working on. Started with hop side kicks, back and forth, making contact with the hogu. After that, the defender would defend the side kick by side-stepping forward and to the outside of the kick and blocking, putting him on the attacker's back. From there, they'd find a counter combo to the front of the hogu or to the head, or just step past and reset on their other side. We then worked side-stepping forward and to the inside of the attack and block, putting them in a position I call "crossing the T." From there, they can unload a combo on the attacker and put them on the defensive. I stressed on them to finish with a kick that creates distance, either a side kick or a front pushing kick. After those drills, I had them start again with a hopping-in front leg round kick for contact, then added block and spin side kick counter. They had to play with shifting back slightly to make distance for the spin side kick. Most of these drills were done in closed stance, but we did switch it up to open stance a little to see what it's like. Aikido Class: Weapons Class: 7:00 - 7:50 pm. Started with bokken cut/thrust sequences moving across the floor. Then we went to knife defenses. We started by working on the entries, one stepping forward into the arc of the attacking arm (yokomen strike), and the other stepping back and away from the strike while blocking with both hands (one stopping the attack, the other securing the wrist, much like an x-block). After working the entries, we did a gokyu defense (armbar), with a takedown and disarm. The key is keeping the weapon away from you while securing the arm and wrist while moving around. From there, we did an ikkyo defense; the key here was getting to gokyu first, then extending it away from you with ikkyo, and getting to the takedown and pin/disarm. Fun stuff! The entry came together nicely after several reps, and I made sure to work it both ways, and both felt pretty comfortable.

I have considered this. I've written a few articles on the matter: Overall, I agree with you. I think there are some instructors out there that believe if they are attacked, they have carte blanche to retaliate to their heart's content, and that they can chalk all the damage up to "self-defense," and it is truly not the case.

That's pretty cool!

2/20/2025 Traditional Martial Arts Alliance TKD Club Instructor Evaluation: 2:00 - 2:45 pm. I did double-duty here, participating in the class along with evaluating the club instructor. Two birds, one stone! First off, I'll just talk about the class and what we did, then get into the evaluation. To warm-up we did jumping jacks, push-ups, and a brief stretch. Then we went into footwork ladder drills. Most of it was both feet on the ground, hopping and switching in different directions, but we also did some single-leg hopping, which sucked for me, probably because I'm too heavy to enjoy it. After that, we did some technique work in stances: down blocks in sitting stance (which wasn't as wide of a stance as I'm used to), and then some inside middle blocks. These were done in preparation for Tae Guk 1. Next was step-sparring, and the club instructor had the seasoned 3rd dan that has been assisting and working with her lead this section. Many years ago I participated in classes with this instructor, so I was familiar with his approaches to step-sparring. It's different than the pre-arranged one-steps and three-steps I do with the TTA and that I did with the ATA years ago. 3-step sparring: attacker does three stepping punches as the attacks, defender retreats and blocks, then executes a 3-5 move counter combination, all random, but hopefully done with meaningful techniques to meaningful targets. Blocking the last attack can be a body shift to an angle instead of a straight back retreat. 2-step sparring: attacker does one punch and one kick as attacks, defender defends and counters the same as in 3-steps. 1-step punch: attacker does one punch, defender defends and counters same as above. 1-step kick: attacker does one kick, defender defends and counters as above. Doing the one-steps this way was fun and refreshing to do again. There were times when I tried to be practical with techniques, and there were times where I just had some fun with some flashier stuff. The club instructor took over after step-sparring, and lead the class through the first half of Tae Guk 1, the first WT poomsae. Me and the instructor that lead step-sparring finished it out on our own, with him helping me through the rest of it. This finished out the class. Evaluation Discussion: To start off, this would be pretty tough for anyone in her position, because we had to reschedule the initial evaluation date due to school getting canceled. She has some little ones of her own, so if school is canceled, she has to stay home with the kiddos. So with the reschedule, she was teaching a class with me, the 5th dan CI of our school, the Aikido Sensei who is a 3rd dan, and the other 3rd dan TKD instructor that had been assisting her. I would love to be able to see her work with a class full of low ranked students, but it is what it is. This is the list of comments the Aikido Sensei took down as the class was going on that he planned to broach with her, and we discussed these topics after the class: 1. You only know what you know. Don't try to "fake it," and don't be afraid to defer to another more experienced instructor in the class. 2. Feel free to do TKD research to help expand your knowledge or refresh your memory on forms or drills. 3. Show parallel respect to the instructor you have assisting you. I'm not sure if this was a result of just being lax, or being nervous, or the idea that "I'm teaching the class, so I have to show these guys I can control a class," or some combination of all those. She wasn't disrespectful, per se, but it was a little off. 4. A suggestion in class design was to perhaps move static stretching to the end of class, and do more ballistic warm-ups at the beginning of class to get the body ready. Personally, I've approached warm-ups by using TKD as the warm-up, that way there is more TKD being done overall in class. I like using basics as a warm-up modality. It just leads to more TKD getting done. Calisthenics can be a good warm-up for the body as well, but more jumping jacks doesn't help make a side kick better. 5. If you don't know the answer to a question, it's ok to say so, but also tell the student that you will refer to another instructor and find the answer. It can be tough in the moment to admit you don't know the answer when others see you as the authority, but trying to answer a question you don't know the answer to will not end well in the long run, and students will eventually see through it. Better to admit you don't know it, seek the answers, and you both learn and grow. Now, some of my own thoughts on the class and her teaching: When we were performing the down blocks and inside middle blocks, she brought up my twisting action. It sounded to me like she was going to tell me not to twist, and I headed her off at the pass and said "I'm gonna twist." She went with it, stating it was a good approach. Afterwards discussing this with the Aikido Sensei, he was under the impression that she adjusted what she was going to say when I stated I wasn't changing anything. I'm not sure what her approach was going to be there, but in the first eval session she tried to do some corrections on me like that. Here are the positives I took away from her teaching sesssion: 1. The session had much better structure throughout the class. She started with a warm-up and the footwork drills (which I think still fall into the warm-up category), moved into stretching, then technique work, then step-sparring. It was good, simple approach to class, and she had some focus to the drills. 2. She brought up the instructor that has been assisting her in some segments of the class, showing she is willing to refer to the experience of other instructors. 3. She had a decent method and approach to technique instruction, and she broke technique down better (she still needs work, but experience is the best teacher). 4. We agreed as a group that she is good for another semester of instruction, with perhaps one more evaluation. The only other caveat I had was that if she planned to do any sparring with low ranked students, I would want to evaluate how she handles a sparring class or session. I'd want to see if she can control the room and dial someone back if necessary to conduct a safe sparring session. Overall, I was pleased to see the changes she made and I was pleased to see her improvement. She's a young instructor, and should continue to improve. TKD Class: 6:30 - 7:00 pm. Sparring Class. Prior to class, I warmed up with forms: Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung, Do San, Won Hyo, and Yul Kok. There were 4 of us black belts there, and we all sparred each once in kind of a round-robin fashion. I hadn't sparred in some time, and it went ok. 7:00 - 7:45 pm. Situational Self-Defense Class: The CI/owner so enjoyed the varied step-sparring approach we did in the earlier club session that he decided to do it again tonight. We did three reps of each version back and forth with our partners. We did 1-step punch, 1-step kick, 2-step (punch and kick attacks), 3-step, then changed some things up; 2-step kick (2 kicking attacks), then 1-step attack/1 counter (we referred to it as the "one-hit kill" approach, so the counter had to be a good one to a good vital spot). After class, the CI and I finished things off with some body conditioning: punches to the body (20 each), leg kicks (20 each leg, 10 inside/10 outside), then the blocking sequence on the forearms, 10 sequences total.

That's so good! Another adage I've heard is, "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly."

I'm not trying to force students to change their minds. But I think we do ourselves and our school a disservice by not prepping students early on for the idea of being a post-1st dan student. If a student tells me they want to quit, I'm not going to beg them not to. But I am willing to ask "why?" and have a discussion to figure out what I could have done differently to perhaps retain the student longer.

It seemed to me that what was found in the research is more tailored towards kids. That makes some sense, as they have shorter attention spans. Our Little Lions classes typically only last half an hour. But as an adult, I really prefer a longer class, if for more than anything to get lots of reps in. The only really good thing I've seen come out of it so far is that each of the half-hour sessions is really focused. That first being forms and one-steps is good for memory retention and warming up for the sparring drills that come in the next session. I still stay for the hour, so it really isn't changing how long I attend class.

Welcome to KF, @John Moscato. Here's what I found with a Google search: https://kenwoodkarate.com/ - says it's right there in Baltimore. https://www.karateshorinkan.com/dojos.php?state=Maryland&country=USA - this one says they have a school in Baltimore as well. https://www.threedragonskarate.com/ - this one's a Goju-Ryu school, if you're willing to go that route.

The Nemean Fight System, by Greg Koval. He also has a youtube page of his thoughts and training methods that I found interesting. He was a TKD stylist:

I took a spin side kick right into the nose once. Not a good time. Spent about 20 minutes in the restroom to stop the bleeding.

That is great, @aurik. I think planting that seed early is the key.

I found that a problem on our previous mats. The puzzle mats we have now don't have as much "sink" as the previous ones did, which much nicer for balance.

2/17/2025 TKD Class: Forms/One-Steps Class: 5:30 - 6:00 pm. Got right into it, doing Chon Ji, Dan Gun, Bo Chung, Do San, and Won Hyo hyungs. Followed that up with Choi Yong, Choon Jang, Yoo Sin, Se Jong, and Gae Baek. I finished by walking through three-steps 1-12. TKD Class: Sparring Drills: 6:00 - 6:30 pm. Loosened up with high knees down the floor, and same walking backwards back. The CI and I did some body conditioning work: punches to the abdomen, and then leg kicks to the inside and outside of the front leg, going back and forth. Then we moved to footwork drills. He put a focus mitt on the ground that acted as the point of revolution (I guess you could say; we worked around the mitt). The front foot starts close to the pad. We started with simple stance switches, then moved to a 45 degree angle side-step. The idea is to step with the back leg to the 45 degree angle forward to line you up with the next side of the mitt. The 45 degree step is much like stepping into a front stance, and if the mitt is the opponent, you are keeping the body bladed and cut off from them as much as possible. The other foot then just slides into place as the front leg in your fighting stance. We went around the mitt this way twice, then switched stance and went twice around the other way. I like to add in various attacks as I'm at the angle; strikes and kicks, depending on the distance. After that footwork, he simplified it a bit to just stepping the back leg to the 45, and then stepping back to stance you started in, hands kept in defensive positions. Next was focus mitt work, with two mitts. Flashed out for five techniques, then we switched. We did this several times. Then we moved to the kicking shield, and flashed the kicking shield forward for a front leg side kick. Towards the end, I was throwing switch reverse side kicks. We did three each side and then the next person took the shield. Aikido Class: Weapons Class: 6:50 - 8:00 pm. We worked with a shinai today, doing two-person drills. We started with tips crossed and feeling the line, and attacker's job was to apply slight pressure to "flick" the defender's shinai off the line, then spring forward for a shomen. After doing that for quite a few reps, the defender got a job; when the attacker sprung forward to attack, the defender moved forward off the line (tai sabaki) and blocked high while moving, then followed up with shomen to the attacker's head. I love the two-person drills, and getting several reps in was lots of fun, and I'm picking up on little things I need to fix. That session finished with a game of "The Last Samurai" since we had a young one in the class. Although it was a game, I did find myself applying the sword principles and learned a few things while doing it. After the youth session was over, the sensei and I worked on a knife disarming technique called udegarame, which basically translates to "entwining the arm." I found it easier to do on the right side than I did on the left side. It finished with a great pinning maneuver that I found very tactically sound. As we were working and talking about some transitions in the technique, kazushi came up, and he talked about how by focusing on my own structure, and keeping it sound throughout the technique, it will do the work of kazushi for me. 2/18/2025 Martial Arts Nerd-Out Session: 6:00 - 9:30 pm. The Aikido Sensei, me, and the other TKD 5th Dan all got together tonight for a meal and a chat. We've done these before, and they are always such a good time. We just nerd out on Martial Arts together, talking about our experiences, complaints, understandings, and misunderstandings. We talked some MA history, some theory, some technique, and the state of our current TKD association and the standards in it. We talked about laying down keeping the high standards that our dojang keeps, and how we can talk with other instructors in the association about doing the same. Along those lines, we discussed what the possibility of going to visit other dojangs in our association to see what they are doing and what their approaches are in classes.

This is a great thing to do. I know I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating; it is a great way to motivate your training.

That's a rough deal, Bob, losing a caretaker your comfortable and familiar with. Hopefully your next doctor will be someone you come to trust as well.

Whatever doesn't aggravate my knees that day.... But seriously, working basic punching, either shadow boxing, more "basic" style punching and moving in stances, or working on a bag. I always try to focus on my hip twist and getting my body into my strikes, whether on the bag or in the air. I like to work on blocking movements as well, working different methods of the blocks and play around with applications using various segments of the movement as defenses and counters to various attacks.

It's 375 pages, but it's a really smooth read. Lots of stories and histories of the old masters with some notes along the way. It's not set up as just pages of huge blocks of text. It's really broken up and reads well. I think you'd enjoy it.

2/11/2025 Aikido Class: 6:15 - 7:45 pm. Thankfully, this was a long class! After stretching and aikitaisos, we got into technique work, and the Sensei had us work on techniques for our testing requirements. I did shionage from a same-side wrist grab, both omote and ura versions. We started by just working the entry over and over, which were good reps to get. Then we got into the whole technique with a finish. Lots of reps. The entry and the footwork were feeling really good, but I was having trouble with the turn into the arm control position. I needed to squat lower on the shorter student to get the balance broken. I also felt like I was going to really twist off the hand, so I ended up letting my grip go at times, which didn't help either. The ura version seemed more direct, but the omote version actually seemed easier to do. After shionage, I did nikkyo from a same-side wrist grab. This technique had the same kind of entry that the shionage version I did had, so that made the transition easier. I only worked the omote version. Lots of good work, and I really enjoyed it. I'm hoping to get set up to test soon. Falling wasn't too bad on me today, either. I mostly did breakfalls, but did do one back roll that didn't cause me any fits. I never know how that's going to go, and I'm always a little anxious about it.

I agree, @Wastelander. I think it's tougher for some of us here to wrap our heads around the idea of talking to others about "life after black belt," as the most of us here are lifers anyway. As much as I'd like all my students to love the Martial Arts as much as I do, it just isn't the case. I do think by addressing goals much earlier in the students' journeys that we can perhaps up our retention level.

No problem, @sensei8. There are actually 3 volumes, another one on Fujian, Naha-Te, Goju-Ryu and other styles, and then a volume on Kobudo history and masters. I've ordered the 2nd volume already.

I guess it's time to get caught up now!

I agree that I'm probably not going to change this kid's mind, and I am no stranger to the dropouts as time goes on. It is just disheartening to see, and to especially hear someone tell you their plan. Sometimes theses students mature and come back, too, so there is always that. @Spartacus Maximus, I heard the number once a long time ago was that 10% of the students that start out training end up getting to black belt. From there, 10% of those make it to 2nd dan, and 10% of those make go on to 3rd dan, etc. I don't know how accurate that is; I'd actually reckon that the percentage is lower than 10%. I remember in my first go-around in the ATA, I started with a pretty decent group of fellow students. When it came time to test for 1st dan, only three of us were left. Of those 3, I am the only one I know of that is still actively training in the Martial Arts. I imagine if there are any school owners here that have kept records of students they had start training and records of the ones that made beyond 1st dan they could lend some insight.