Tempest

Then, with all do respect, why does it matter whether it looks like you will have an opening around the elbow or not? I can assure you, as someone who DOES do contact sparring with weapons, that the opening you describe, that one inch around the elbow, will only matter against someone else dueling you with weapons. In a Kata, self-defense aspect, go with what feels comfortable in the hand and you are comfortable carrying. I say get the 17s.

Question for you? How much full contact sparring will you be doing with tonfa? Because really, that's where the answer to your question is to be found. When you spar with the weapon, what actually works for you?

Footwork is an extremely important part of fighting. Here though is a better example of why having the best footwork+best timing is the key to winning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u3GKFqSUtw Silva is just so thoroughly dominant in that fight because he has the better footwork. He gets to dictate range. He gets to dictate timing. In the end, his opponent gets to swing, miss, and get countered a lot.

Thank you Sensei8, I appreciate the meeting and I have a very positive impression of you. I am glad that you took the time to meet with me and look forward to our next meeting. I think it is interesting what an outside perspective can give you on any problem. I am very glad to see that someone from these forums is so close. Hopefully soon, we can meet on the floor and train together at some point. I am looking forward to that. Once again, Thank you Sensei8

In practice, sure. In competition, it depends on the cut and color of the uniform and what patches are on it. Please see this link for competition approved gi guidelines. http://www.teamusa.org/USA-Judo/Athletes/International-Federation/Guidance-for-IJF-approved-judogi

Yes, happy birthday. It really is a great community.

First, I would STOP doing Makiwara training with your hands regularly. You WILL wind up with long term joint damage if you are doing it hard enough to leave that kind of bruising and damage to your hands. FAR better for your technique to work a heavy bag and focus mitts with proper, at least tape, if not gloves on your hands. A LOT of the reason people don't do that training any more is not because of how it makes you look, it is because it is DAMAGING to you and does NOT provide any real benefit that cannot be gained from other methods that are less damaging. People do a LOT of training regularly that leave them looking far worse than a few bruises and scuffs on the hands, and I did JOBS for a while that did worse, but I am not going to deliberately damage my self for no rational reason. All of that said, if you want to do it every once in a while, that is fine, it can be cool to change up a training routine every so often, just don't get caught up in it. Contrary to what seems to be a popular opinion, you do NOT need to 'Condition your hands' to hit hard or to absorb that shock of hitting something hard, and NO amount of conditioning will prevent damage to your hands if you hit someone full force on a bone with your fist. To hit hard, you need body mechanics and alignment, putting your whole body in to the strike, to avoid damage you either hit them with a resilient part of your body, or you land the strike NOT on a bone. All of this requires LOT's of reps, WAY more reps than you can do on a makiwara. That is why focus mitts and bags work so well, you can do an INSANE number of reps, getting the mechanics and body movement flawless if working under a good coach. Now, as to this idea of keeping it secret... Look you do what you want, but people only really keep secrets for one of 2 reasons, shame or consequences. So which is it for you? People NEVER understand a warriors training, but that does not mean it is "private". It means that you are choosing to do TODAY what other's won't, so TOMORROW you can do what they can't. You should be proud of that. You need not explain to everyone, or advertise it, if you don't wish to, but if someone asks, for god's sakes tell them, so that maybe you will have found one other who will also make that sacrifice.

I am a big fan of not drinking before or during training. It is a firm rule that once the alcohol comes out, the weapons get put away. That being said, I will not claim to have never fought hung over...

Do 300 fit-ins of a Judo throw every day. It can be any throw, but pick one. Do 300 fit-ins a day until your total number done is around 10000 or so. Combine that with some sparring and you will quickly have a reliable take-down you can use.

Of course I have. It's fun.

I am a little north of 71st. Closer to 41st actually.

Closer to Woodland Hills Mall.

Sure. Sounds like fun. Let me know when you are back in town.

Awesome. It will be great to have you in the Tulsa area again. . I am sorry it is under such...trying circumstances, but Houston and the SKKA's loss is our gain.

Neither one. Better today than yesterday is the goal. Perfection and excellence and all other such goals are abstracts that ignore the idea that the only person you actually HAVE to compare yourself to is yourself. Competition with others helps sharpen our skills, and performance under pressure can be a key factor in our lives, but truly to live a long and healthy life as a martial artist, you must love the training and striving for itself, and that means the only real goal you can hope to maintain is better today than yesterday.

It's fun to be a student again. That being said, it seems like you are mostly doing things that are variations of a theme. You are studying various martial arts that are essentially unarmed punch/kick styles with limited or no grappling or use of weapons. For your next belt, try BJJ or FMA or something equally completely outside your current wheelhouse. Who knows? You might finds something that you want to spend the rest of your life with.

In Judo, white belt is not a rank, therefore you don't have to earn it. A white belt is simply what you wear to keep your Gi closed till you earn a colored belt, and during some tournaments.

Ok, I am not sure how this is for Karate, but I can tell you how I we handle it in Judo, and that is a 3 prong approach. 1. Let your partner and the instructor know CLEARLY what is going on so that there can be no confusion. To do this you MUST be sure that you are doing the technique correctly and not just relying on size and strength with other partners that you are not able to use with this partner. 2. You must recognize that sometimes people WILL be stiff and there is no way to know if your strikes, distractions, whatever will have any effect unless you are practicing a particular strike as part of THAT technique. 3. Finally, if you are SURE that you are doing it right and understand what is needed for the technique to work, and your UKE is denying you THAT PARTICULAR move because they know it is coming, then remember that it is impossible to deny one move without giving another. i.e. throw him in a different direction.

Happy Birthday

Yeah, wrist locks are VERY based on leverage. You really don't have to be all that strong to apply them, but to apply them against a resisting opponent you do have to be quick and technically proficient. Keep in mind that the leverages you can exert against yourself are FAR different than the leverage another person can exert against you. Wrist locks are banned in most, not all, but most combat sports because under adrenal stress the pain nerves in the wrists and hands tend not to work, thus people will be caught in a lock that they don't think is that dangerous until that tell-tale POP that signifies a fracture. And before anyone brings it up, I am QUITE aware that wrist locks were not popular in the early UFC competitions when there were no gloves and they were not banned, but there are several reasons for this. 1. The wrist is actually quite flexible, for a wrist-lock to work it must torque the joint beyond it's range of motion. While you are doing this, unless you have done something to prevent it, the other person is attempting to cave your face in with a fist. 2. The basic defense against wrist locks is to make a fist. This does not protect against all of them, and in working with weapons, where to make a fist you would have to drop the weapon, you see the real beauty of wrist-locks. 3. The main use for wrist-locks in an unarmed contest is as a sort of grip-break that can turn in to something else if you catch it just right. The early UFC's were absolutely dominated by ground fighters. They had NO interest in grip breaking as they wanted nothing more than to go to the ground with their opponent.

Ok, this is a tricky question for any school owner. First of all, the saying the customer is always right is not even true in ANY skills based service industry. If the customer knew what they were talking about, then they wouldn't need us. That being said, it is very important to recognize a more fundamental truth of business here: Your ego, nor the ego of your organization, cannot be the defining characteristic of your interactions with customers. It is ok, even expected, for you to set expectations for students to test, but they cannot and should not be based on "well that's what I had to do", or "I don't like this kid's character/morals/religion/whatever". An important part of customer service in the martial arts industry, assuming you wish to keep your integrity AND your students, is established standards on both sides of the student/teacher relationship. The students do and should expect the teacher to behave in a certain fashion and provide a certain level of instruction along with a certain quality of facility, in return the teacher can and in fact SHOULD have expectations of the student in regards to performance, attendance, and work ethic. The key to making this work is established standards on BOTH sides of the relationship from the beginning and that the instructor keeps to their side of the bargain. I have seen otherwise good schools ruined because the instructor did not keep to their side of this bargain and I have left schools where one or the other of us could not keep to it.

A great deal of it boils down to this question. What does it mean to be a black belt? In Judo, there are only 3 ranks that are really important AFTER white belt. 1. Shodan, this is for your self. This is a rank of PERSONAL achievement. 2. Sandan, this is for your students. You can now promote your own students to Shodan without the need to convene a promotion board. You can also sit on promotion boards. 3. Rokudan, This is for the organization, which by this time you are a big part of. At this rank you can promote your own students to Sandan and thus can help decide who is on the promotion board. All of the other ranks are essentially a measuring stick to gauge your progress on this journey to these steps. Rokudan is the highest rank you can test for in Judo, so ranks above that are honorary grants, not really representations of ability at that point. Now, I cannot tell you what it means to be a Rokudan, because I am not there yet, but I CAN tell you what it means to be a Shodan in Judo. A Shodan should be able to demonstrate the curriculum through Shodan with a high degree of competence. They should have earned through competition or service sufficient points to qualify for that rank. They must complete the exam, perform the Nage no Kata, and be a certified local referee. They should also be competent to teach the curriculum through Nikyu. All of this is in addition to having previously completed the requirements for each rank leading to Shodan. The idea of skipping a rank would be laughed out the door at my Sensei's school. Furthermore, there is a hard and fast age requirement for each of the ranks. Shodan is 17, unless you have earned a medal at the nationals, then you may, with instructor approval, test at 16. Nidan is at least a year to 2 years beyond that. And the numbers just get larger from there. An 11 year old can call themselves anything they want, when I was 11 I wanted to be a dragon, that didn't make me one. Parents frequently play in to these fantasies, and obviously will pay other people to do so as well. The skill and time commitment required to achieve something like Yondan is way beyond anything an 11 year old could hope to achieve. And really, the only way I can see that not being obvious is if the martial art she is doing never involves her coming in to contact with another person, and whenever it does I am sure there are people right there to make excuses for anything that goes wrong to patch her self-esteem.

Actually the Katana is only utilized by me. I do not teach my students Iaido or Kenjutsu. Funny thing but the Katana can be and is utilized for thrusting, albeit a supported thrust. I have taken both of these arts but am not qualified to pass this on to my students so I do not teach this. I teach them Kobudo which does have appropriate weapons for thrusting. Sai, Rokushaku, Techu, Rochin, Yari, Tonfua, Eku, and even the Kama can be use for thrusting. If you have examples of what you mean please do share them as I would appreciate another perspective. God knows I am not the end all to everything in weapons training. I'll take any advice I can get to improve and that will benefit my students training methods. Please share whatever advice you have. Thanks in advance. Sure. I appreciate your experience in these things. Point control drills are designed to fine tune control of the thrust so that you can strike a very small target with the point. In European martial arts this has 3 main purposes.1. To be able to find the gaps in armor so that plate or mail will not turn the point. 2. To be able to strike smaller targets such as the hand or even a single finger. 3. To be able to move the point around defenses in such movements as the simple disengage. Probably the most common point control drill that I teach is a partner drill. 1 partner will wield a blunt practice blade with a safe tip, or the equivalent. The other partner will be unarmed. Have the partners stand at such a distance that the armed partner can strike the outstretched hand of the unarmed partner with a thrust without footwork. Have them repeat this several times till they can consistently strike the outstretched palm. Then increase the distance to where footwork is required. Then start moving the target. Have the unarmed partner put the hand in a different place each time. Then, when they are getting pretty good at this, have the unarmed partner splay their hand and have the armed partner aim for particular fingers. Close the fingers once they are hit to make the target even smaller.

Appreciate your feedback. My experiences mirror your own quite closely. It is not a substitute for partner drills or sparring, but it is a really good way to teach how and where to hit with a weapon without needing a partner or an unlimited supply of cutting medium. Now, for myself and my students, since we use mostly strait blades that are more suited to thrusting, once someone is competent in this drill the next step is point control drills. I am not sure how useful that would be to someone wielding a Katana as it is not a very thrust oriented sword, but I am glad you found value in this drill and appreciate your feedback.

I am gonna just shamelessly, although incompletely steal Brian's line here, because it most assuredly applies to this question. I do have some doubts about most of us being well adjusted. I think that martial arts tend to help us BECOME well adjusted eventually if it is done correctly, but keep in mind that we do engage in gratuitous violence for fun. There is something a little out of step with most people in that as a basic principle. So do most people engaged in sport. Organized sports can be seen as a controlled outlet for the violence inherent in human nature. Perhaps, but due to our acknowledgement of what we do, it takes a certain type of person to engage in it. Running and swimming, while they may demand violence of action at times, do not involve intentional direct harm to others, nor do they require you to confront the possibility of harming others on a regular basis. Perhaps hockey does, but that's just stick fighting on ice anyway .