ShoriKid

How did I miss this thread? Not too tactical, but I do my reload drills, clearing jams and pistol draws. I'm a dirty civilian and I know it. Bushmaster AR15 Springfield 1911 MilSpec Uberti 1866 Winchester Cimarron Arms Thunderer Pietta 1851 Navys (the twins) Can you tell I was a cowboy shooter? Wish list. S&W AR15/22. Dad picked one up and it would make a great trainer for me and something my wife and girls can shoot too. Springfield XDs .45. The 1911 is a bit hefty for a ccw purpose.

A takedown from a low block like the turning throws found in the fyukyukata series? They were pointed out to me by my first instructor, David Mason sensei back in the mid 90's. There are applications beyond the "literal" way the techniques work. Takayoshi Nagamine gave a very brief example with a low block acting as a deflection and strike to the thigh or kidney in the Matsubayashi Ryu kata videos. So there is some applications that don't come into play in the open. Also, recall that Nagamine Shoshin was a Judoka in addition to his karate training. His instructors were known for close range fighting, something that inevitably leads to the need for locking and throwing. So, the elements are there, just some instructors don't chose to emphasize them. And, you may not be getting that part of your training yet since you are still pretty young in your training.

Right at one mile from the house currently. Before about 15 miles. If you count my short stint with a judo club back in college 97 miles driven three days a week. But, that lasted about a month before the marathon days got to be too much.

Try http://www.thedojomanager.com/ and http://www.dojoexpert.com/lang/en/software-for-martial-arts-clubs for starters. Then, go for google searches. I would bet someone has got what your after.

Being aggressive doesn't necessarily mean angry as well. Controlled aggression is what you see in the ring all the time - constantly putting pressure on the opponent and hitting with bad intentions. I don't think anyone would ever advocate letting emotion override reason in a fight. Kuma beat me to this part. There is nothing that requires aggression and anger to be linked together. I've had students ask the same thing. How can you hit people and not be angry. I try to explain that I don't have to be angry to hit you, at all. Aggression is about pressure and offense. You don't throw away your defense, but if you sit back and wait for the attackers to come to you, you will slip at some point. And you find it hard to get offense rolling when you are busy trying to cover your tail.

Is that the in dojo time only or the total time you are training each week? Approaching the time of my shodan promotion I was in the dojo about 7hrs a week and training a couple of hours a day otherwise. I was lucky to have a nidan as a good friend and training partner and be in college/unmarried so I had plenty of time.

See, I've encountered organizations on the other end of the spectrum. I've been to tourneys where certain organizations were represented by the only instructor not to at least take part in kata competition. Who's students were so out of shape they couldn't keep up sparring for the 1 minute rounds and couldn't hold it together long enough to complete their kata. There is another organization that I've seen where the students were so lax in their forms/kata that it was hard to even watch. This goes along with 40 year old instructors with 7/8 stripes on their belt and a beer gut that they must have put more money into than my house payment and 20 year old 5th dans who couldn't hold a candle to good shodan. It's all about who your instructor is and what seminars you go to and what clinics you attend. I've seen other groups though who are good. Who aren't about politics and who you know. It's not a blanket statement of good or bad. I've seen enough bad that I'm careful about who I associate with.

What? No. To heck with those that think you have to have a Japanese or Okinawan head man or organization. You have Shindokan, the techniques and principles passed on by your Soke and Dai-Soke. You have strong and loyal students and a strong Hombu and organization all your own. Why do you need someone to approve what you already know is right? An American head man without ties to Asia is fine for the martial arts. There are other people who don't hold that belief. To them papers and hierarchy are more important content. Had a fellow once tell PittbullJudoka that there were no legit black belts in our town. He used to train with us. To him, it was about big names and paper, and I suppose proof on the floor wasn't as important.

Sensei8, there are more dojos that aren't so cool with a kyu asking a dan grade to spar than one might think. I came up under a couple of different instructors who taught us that you can ask once, respectfully. After that it enters the realm of "challenge" and that's a whole different matter. Heck, I've was taught to turn my back from the instructor/class to straighten my belt/gi. When I asked why after class once my sensei told me that facing up to another karateka, especially dan grades, and straightening/popping your belt was a non-verbal way of issuing a challenge. He said to think of it like walking up to a man in the old west and clearing your coat from your gun belt so your pistol showed. Now, to the original question. What do you do? Pick up the kyu grade, ask if they are okay. Make mention, so that everyone gets it that asking once is okay, asking more is disrespectful. Do I council the kyu or the dan grade? Not really. See above. This is a general lesson that everyone can get. Was kun broken? I don't think so. Not ours. We are pretty lose on a lot of the formalities, but there are some rules about respecting one another. Higher grades have put in the time, blood, sweat and tears to get what they have. Respect that. Higher grades, your job is to bring lower grades along. Don't kill them for being stupid. So, kyu grade was disrespectful of the dan grade. Dan grade didn't break the kyu grade. As CI Do I enforce the dojo kun every time? Yes. Am I consistent in enforcing rules? As much as real life allows for. Am I consistently fair in enforcing the rules? I hope so and strive to be. In enforcing the rules are you the bottom line or the bottom rung? The buck stops here. However, the buck shouldn't get passed to start with.

That's great stuff news Bushido_man. Sucks having to push your grading back, but sounds like it will be worth it for you. Little jelious.

Just a sign of good instruction here. This is class structure and comes down to preference of the instructor. More clipped because it pretty much falls under the handling of good business, being a pretty good martial artist etc. Now the below, point at a time. All opinion of course. Two things here. Selling club gear/sparring gear allows the instructor to make a few extra bucks. It allows him to advertise the club (logo sweatshirt yes?) and make gear available, usually at a discount, and keep things standard for safety. No one in my town would have the first clue of where to buy a gi or good gloves and will spend $10-20 more to get them if they travel 70 miles to get them or order on line. Not a sign of "McDojo". Second point. The village hall/leisure center still costs rent and, as I take it this is in the UK, insurance fees have to be paid. Leaving aside the fact the instructor should be paid for his time. Contracts and direct debits eliminate a problem and head ache of the accounting for the instructor. Because I don't do this I'm about to have a very un-fun discussion with a student's father about six weeks dues owed. Making sure everyone knows about up coming events, helps pull in more students and make sure no one can be upset because they miss an event and blame him for not knowing. You are paying $50-60, US equivalent, for monthly instruction. This is a fair price. You will pay much more for more access to a dojo. We paid $40 back in the mid-90s, and dojos average $60+ a month in a small city south of here. Not a sign of "McDojo". Pretty standard. We're all human. My first instructor had a beef with Isshin-Ryu and wasn't shy about it. A regional thing. He didn't talk about the other instructor in town, but that guy had some interesting things to say about him. Not a sign of "McDojo" that I've heard of. Translation: Shut up and train. Not a sign of "McDojo". They're kids. Things for children are simplified all the time. Happened when karate was introduced into the school systems in Okinawa and Japan. Not a sign of "McDojo". Learn what you are supposed to, when the instructor says you're ready. Not when you think you're ready. Not a sign of "McDojo". for insurance reasons and discipline as well likely, the parents are there. Having kid's classes helps pay for the training space for the handful of adults that are training. Not a sign of "McDojo" as an absolute, but a business decision. If there is contact, protective gear is a must. I will bet money the gear in your school is less than pro fighters wear when they go harder. Likely about the same as they generally wear for "light contact". Point sparring will fit with most of the competitions available that people like to take part in. Not a sign of "McDojo". Not something I would do, but instructor's call here. Might be McDojo, depends on structure. Maybe, but since it doesn't exist and you don't know what it would even be, is this a problem? Doesn't exist, can't be McDojo then. Lots of MMA gyms do the same. Minus the low volume part. Not a sign of "McDojo" that I've heard of. Not everything has to be strictly regimented. That can just as readily lead to stagnation. And it could be the instructor picking up on the mood of the class or having started out with a plan to teach one thing and as class progresses, realizes he needs to back up and teach other things. No McDojo here. Pairing more experienced people with less experienced people to help them learn is normal. In no way and indicator of McDojo. Read your other post on this kid. Annoying as it is, it's a kid. Who needs a smack up side the head and told to settle down a bit. But, seems as much personality as anything else. What this means is that he's put in more work than the older folks in the room. What are his physical skills, laying aside what you think his behavior should be? Not a sign of McDojo at this point. What? The guy responsible for the schedule of the lesson and seeing things are moving along was wearing a watch? Not a sign of McDojo. Chill. Training. You haven't been at this more than a few months and you seem very tied up in what the school aught to be instead of worry about just improving your skill. When you are being sold something you are not getting, paying twice the average for it and being told (through belts perhaps) that your awesome at what your not getting, worry. Sounds like your at a fine club/dojang, enjoy it.

Calls back to Iain Abernethy's analogy. Kata is like a cookery book (English=American: Cook Book). You can't eat the cookery book, but it has directions to make good meals.

Well, the day has arrived and we all survived. A last second location change caused some extra travel, but nothing too bad. Most of the day was spent outside on the grass and pavement working, drilling and receiving correction. Got sunburned and worked hard and then fed. PittbullJudoka earned his Nidan, which I've said he was deserving of for the past couple of years. Congratulations to him. I earned my Sandan and felt blessed to have the instructors I do.

Well done Tempest, congratulations.

Tradition is in the eye of the beholder. Not a hundred years back karate men were training bare chested in their undies (we might be generous and call it shorts). They lifted weights, traded techniques and were sent to other instructors (even other countries) to learn a different skill set than what the instructor had. MMA is a big thing right now, the new kid with the shiny toys. It's forced some people to take a hard look at what they teach and train in. That is a very, very good thing. It has also allowed for people who didn't fit the "traditional" mold to feel a little less like out casts. Enjoy that there is verity in arts to train and a view point that can fit you. Do, Zen etc. man, I don't want words and all that on what my martial arts should mean. I've got a long rant about Do, Zen, paths and martial arts. If you find value in eastern philosophy, cool. It doesn't have to be part of getting a martial education.

Time, date and place are all set now. Nine days out, then in morning we drive down to our shihan's home to meet with him, shidoshi and a few other senior men in our lineage. Nerves hit the other candidate today when the messages setting address for us. I believe a third may be testing as well that day. We will be pulling each other through. Kata have been polished, I'll be putting in 2+ miles every night from here on in. What can be prepared pretty much has. Jitters are settling a little and I've settled myself on giving my full effort, going until I drop or I'm put down. Setting in my mind to the task has been part of it. Thanks for the good wishes all. Time to buckle down and finish up.

If you boil things down to core principles, all arts get very similar. However, it's the approach that you take, how they are presented that matters to some. Sensei8, I'm sure that you have an intimate understanding of how Shindokan generates power, how it breaks an attacker down, strategically and tactically. Does ITF TKD generate power the same way, break attackers down in both strategy and tactics the same way? Yes, properly implemented the result is the same. However, the path taken to those results is different. The journey is different, we all reach the mountain top in the end. The journey does matter though. If I go to the Grand Canyon and drive from Tennessee, it's a different trip and experience than flying in from Montana or boating up the water course from the Gulf. We're all headed toward the same mountain top, we all have to get there in our own way and the method taken matters. BJJ came about because Helio saw a need to change something to fit him, and others saw value in that. Nagamine Shoshin saw the need to codify his training experience, his personal method to reach the mountain top, and teach it to others. Both of these men saw the need and others saw the value. Bruce Lee was reacting not so much, I think, to styles, but the barriers built up between them during his time. Chinese weren't supposed to teach outsiders, members of one style where supposed to train with others of another style. Hidebound people had lost that sharing that used to be there between styles where instructors sent students to other instructors just to make them better. Put another way, fighting (stand up or ground etc, etc.) is language. Principles are rules of grammar that you have to follow for things to make sense. Styles are formatting that over lays the language and grammar to help it make sense to a certain audience. The best writers can on occasion throw away the rules of grammar and format and create art. But, they didn't start out there, they had to learn grammar and formatting first so they can tell when it's time to throw away the rules. So, we all speak the language, but we need the grammar and the format to communicate the important ideas.

I've been thinking and I may see about the style kanji being stitched on one end of my belt. Still feels a little "showy" compared to what I'm used to.

That's where it really gets dangerous. Women are culturally taught to be passive aggressive, whereas men are conditioned to be aggressive outright. Add in mob mentality and it can get ugly really quick. Working on the assumption it's valid self defense, I don't have trouble with using force against a woman. I for sure would have my head on a swivel if I were in public on the look out for other men. I've seen and heard of quite a few instances where the woman is looking to provoke a fight between a guy and her significant other by taking a hit. I've told my guys, and most other folks willing to listen, that you have two outcomes when you get into it with a woman. You either win, and beat up a girl, or lose and you get beat up by a girl. A quick, dirty and far less eloquent way of saying what JusticeZero said.

It's only cheating if I'm not winning sensei.

Century label I think...no kanji. No dress belt/work out belt. Just the same one my instructor handed me back in 97. I keep thinking about one with dojo kanji on it, but still not sure if I want to do that just yet.

After several talks with my instructors over the course of the last few months, the sate has been set. Middle of next month, barring something major interfering, I'll be testing for sandan. It's been just short of 6 years since my last testing which five of us participated in(I ever mention we're a slow to promote crew?). Most of us survived that grading. This one will be for myself and one other person and I've been told to expect about 6 hours of work. I'm trying to prepare for that physically (not as easy as it was 6 years back) and mentally (not as easy with just 2 of us this time). Physical conditioning, cardio, kata work, grappling, sparring. I need to sleep less to train more, and rest more so I can train. Odd thing is, I'll have two decades of training in August if I don't count wrestling prior to karate, and I'm a bit nervous about the promotion. Still haven't sorted out if that's because I might actually care about earning that next stripe or I'm afraid to disappoint my instructor with the work we've been doing the last few years. I like to think it's the later and not the former. So I'm a grown man as jittery as the kid who's been told it's time to test. Thought I would share with the KF community as you're a crew I respect and enjoy being part of and learning from and it might help settle things down for me a bit. When things go down, I'll let you guys in on the results, be they good or bad.

Other than the above mentioned strikes to the back of the head the 12 to 6 elbow from mount/back mount might be added to the attacks. From guard/back mount I might fish hook/get an eye to gain a bit more head control. That just to get a sweep from bottom or to open the neck for a choke. Half guard, I might and I stress might, use a groin attack of some kind to create space to get a gap for guard or a sweep. If the person had a strong base that I was having trouble with, it might give me a little room to work. Haven't hit the groin enough from half guard to know if it would give me room or not. The positions are already what makes me have options. The "cheats" are just extra bits of leverage I can apply if I'm already doing the right things. Just like a groin kick isn't the be all, end all of self defense on the feet, a groin grab doesn't equate to an insta-win on the ground.

How often do I practice? Daily. I can run the Naihanchis in the men's room at work. And Bassai and Kanku dai in chunks. Ran those five right after my run yesterday. Being out of breath can really change how kata end up feeling during their performance.

I attended a Dillman seminar in Chicago about 9 years back. Sat right in the front and got used as a demo dummy for several techniques by mister Dillman. Things hurt a lot and there were some good, hands on stuff that made senses. Basically the Chinese medical points were used as reference because they were a bridge between the martial technique and the anatomical reason things worked. Nerves near the surface, branching, ending, riding on bone or at the head of muscles etc. I think Dillman was just getting into the whole idea of "no touch" and "energy manipulation". After that, I think things kinda spun out of control. Once you start talking about that sort of thing you have to go all in, or get out of the game I suppose. Now kyoshu stuff is nice. It's a layer. An aspect. A component. It's not a full fighting method. There are about half a dozen points that I work with because the targets do things regardless. Others that I know about and can get to in a pinch, but they aren't as reliable and don't have much impact if you target them on their own. They aren't bonus points, they are all you get essentially and I don't trust that sort of technique. I'm a belt and suspenders kind of guy in my karate. I like to body shift out of the way and deflect. Lock you in place and transition my weight into the attack both. Kyoshu is, in the words of one instructor, just a little octane boost. It won't run the motor (your martial art), but it can give you a little lift.