bushido_man96

Congratulations, everyone!

Congrats, skullsplitter!

11/29/2020 Light stretching session in the evening. 11/30/2020 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 155x3, 175x1, 205x5, 205x5, 205x5. Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 75x2, 100x5, 100x5, 100x5. Lat Pull-downs: 120x12, 120x12, 120x12, 120x12. MA Training Reps Training for lead backfist, reverse punch, back leg front kick combination: Lead backfist: 20 each side. Reverse punch: 20 each side. BL front kick: 20 each side. Lead backfist, reverse punch combo: 20 each side. Reverse punch, BL front kick combo: 20 each side. Lead backfist, reverse punch, BL front kick combo: 20 each side. Reps Training for three-step sparring: #1: 10 times. #2: 10 times. #3: 10 times. Finished with stretching. Half-hour total for the solo training session.

Good luck to all!

That's great that you've got more students now! If Cobra Kai is actually revitalizing the Karate community somewhat, then that's a good thing.

Martial Arts is recognizable to the lay person as the punching, kicking, and grappling skills that are often time displayed on the mat, sometimes in a local tournament venue, or in a larger, professional venue. Often times, the exposure comes through entertainment in the form of movies. However, to those of us who are entrenched in the practice of the Martial Arts, know there is so much more to the study of the styles than this. The intrinsic rewards of working hard for the sake of some self-improvement that would be unobservable to the lay person that doesn't participate. Those of us who have been around a while, who are well down the road of our MA journey, have come to truly appreciate those moments, as they truly happen less and less the longer we train. It's the law of diminishing returns in action. What the seasoned Martial Arts practitioner understands is that along this journey, there will be ups and downs. Indeed, there will be success, and there will inevitably be failure. Most seasoned Martial Artists understand that failure will happen from time to time, and we've learned to take these moments in stride, pick ourselves up off the mat, and continue to train and move forward. Most importantly, we learn from them. Why do we fail at times? It is because we choose to take risks as Martial Arts practitioners. We enter a competition, or attempt a grading. These events come with inherent risk, no matter how often or how much we have prepared for them. The classroom floor even provides opportunities to take risks every day we train, and failure can happen. However, in the classroom setting, the consequences are much less; it only happens in front of your fellow students, and may lead to no more than a lengthy explanation being made by an instructor or senior student about what happened, why, and how to move forward and get better. But on the tournament scene, or in a grading, the failure is different. It could cost you a match, and be the difference between fighting in the finals and going home early. At a grading, it could be the difference between advancing a rank or not. And to top it off, these failures tend to happen in more of a public eye, with more than just your typical classmates around. Needless to say, and experience like this early on in a student's career, if not approached in the proper manner and with the right mindset, can be quite detrimental to the inexperienced Martial Artist. So, the question is, how do we, as instructors, teach our students to deal with failure? I think there are a myriad of ways we can approach this matter, without necessarily setting them up for failure in order to experience and learn from it (which could be quite detrimental). It's a tougher road to hoe for instructors, as teaching a student to deal with and overcome failure is much more of a mental exercise than it is a physical one. Sure, physical practice can help to shore up weaknesses in technique, kata performance, etc., but it may not necessarily rebuild lost confidence or negative thinking. Along with physical training, it is important to try to foster a positive mental attitude, even in the face of failure. Foster an attitude of risk taking. Quoting Loren Christensen, "failure is the act of not taking a risk at all." Just talking with students about their experiences up their current point of training is a good way to get feedback on how they feel about their training so far. Ask them what they feel comfortable with, and what they don't. Asking about what goes through their mind before a testing can be helpful. Reinforcing their confidence is very important. Even more so, is teaching the students to examine themselves and reinforce their own confidence. After all, it's their journey, and they should take control of it. Another simple exercise is to ask students about their successes and failures. Ask about something successful, and ask them to describe what they can remember about it. Then ask them about a time when they thought they failed, and ask them what they learned from it. Then focus on that learning process, and how they can use it as motivation moving forward. Failure can be very focusing. Use this as an opportunity to get a student to focus themselves. This ended up being a bit of ramble, but I hope it inspires some conversation!

Welcome to KF, Scott, and welcome back to The Journey!

Perhaps, in these trying times, it would be a good time for those who haven't read it yet read Loren Christensen's book, The Way Alone. A really good read, especially for one who finds themselves training alone a lot. He also has some other good books, two of them titled Solo Training and Solo Training 2.

The differences of the 1st and second sets is the 1st section deals with 1 person and the opponent is facing in the middle of the circle while the sencond section your on the inside of the cirlcle and your oppoent is moving arond you.. Ah, ok. Thank you.

Yeah, that NFC East is not good this year. It's almost criminal to think that a team with 9 or 10 wins is going to miss the playoffs due to the fact that the NFC East division winner will get in. But, that's a problem for the NFL to deal with. The Chiefs are rolling right along, with that one agonizing loss to the rival Raiders (and close to another one the other night). The defense is worrying me right now, and so does the lack of the running game a little bit. I honestly think that Edwards-Helaire would have better production running the ball if Mahomes was under center more, but I don't think that's going to change much. All in all, though, I can't be disappointed with how the season is going so far, and I look forward to what's to come!

We're over halfway through the season. What's everyone's thoughts so far? How is your team doing?

11/24/2020 Strength Training Deadlifts: 135x5, 155x3, 185x1, 210x5, 225x3. Lat Pull-downs: 115x12, 115x12, 115x12, 115x12.

I cut salt out of my diet, and cook everything I eat myself, at home, now. I've lost 30 lbs.

11/22/2020 Did a light stretching session while watching the game. 11/23/2020 Strength Training Squats: 45x5, 135x5, 155x3, 175x1, 200x5, 200x5, 200x5. Press: 45x5x2, 65x5, 75x2, 95x5, 95x5, 95x5. Lat Pull-downs: 110x12, 110x12, 110x12, 110x12.

Hey, chocolate is good for you! Lowers blood pressure....

This is interesting, and not a format I'm familiar with. In all my competitions, I've only done the form for my rank, or the one below if I have not yet learned my new form. During testings, however, our school is going to start designating an extra form for students to do other than their rank level.

In Synchronized Kata, yes. That's because they're all doing the same Kata at the same time for one total score. That's the only time I've ever seen more than one of the floor at one time. I've never seen, in any capacity, where in the Individual Divisions where two competitors are on the floor at the same time executing the same Kata. I mean, I've not ever seen that in all of the years where I was active as a competitor or judge or Arbitrator. Well, it's a big world, and I've not been to every Karate tournament held. Synchronized kata, I understand; that's a totally different beast.

Oh cool! When I get some time, I'll do that!

Well, that's disappointing. Sorry to hear that, but glad you've got signed up with Muay Thai!

That's awesome that you're pulling so many into Zoom classes! I was pretty surprised the first time it happened as in the summer we'd be at around 10-15 per session. But I think now it's dark and wet outside so the kids are stuck inside rather than enjoying the sunshine Ah yes, that would make sense. Either way, I hope your numbers stay up there, and you continue to see success.

Is it customary in Karate tournaments to run two at a time for traditional katas? I've never seen two custom katas or musical katas run at the same time.

You are welcome! It's great that you're sharing your experiences with us. I am training currently...we'll see how much longer for.

I just viewed it. I might have to watch them back to back to see the differences, but I see much of the same or similar footwork and hand movements.

Expediency could be a thing, for sure. Even though, each form only takes a few minutes for a competitor to do. I don't think doing one at a time would take that much longer, but I could be very wrong.

I'm going to guess they are about 10lbs. They're not all that heavy if you hold them close to the weighted end. However, if you hold them towards the free end of the handle, then the leverage multiplies that effective weight by several times. I'm guessing that since we can't do our traditional kote kitae conditioning, he's going to use these other tools to help us with our conditioning. Sounds cool. How long is that handle? Could a 10lb sledge work as a home substitute?