In class today we were working on displacing our training partner. I was doing ok but pointed out to the instructor I really struggle with larger stronger partners. I am older than everyone in class, including the instructor and not really an athlete. Rather than my instructor telling me to do something differently he said be unbothered. Don't think about how big or strong the other person is, just move like we are supposed to and it will work. If I add more I get in my own way. Definitely something for me to work on. I am sharing this in hopes it will help you all in your training. 🙂

On zoom tonight it tells me the host is in “focus mode”. Figure the zoom isn’t up and running for tonight’s lesson.

I’m finding it very difficult to find CKRT blades designed by James Williams sensei in Canada as they have been discontinued. I already have several and the design is exceptional. I’m looking for the Hissatu 4.5 folder. Has anyone seen these at a reputable dealer? I found what looked like a legitimate online dealer and then realized that they had “everything” at steep (too good to be true” discounts) and ran the site through fraud detection- it seems to have been a fraud from the ground up. I acquired one item through Alibaba and it actually arrived- but it turned out to be a replica. The handle was a giveaway and blade imprints of Kanji characters were missing.. I’m concerned the metal may be Crap-ite and will fail.

"Failure is not the opposite of success; it is the stepping stone towards it." This one really spoke to me. It can be so easy to get hung up on failure be it in training, work or personal life. But each failure, each attempt at whatever it is we are trying to do, takes us another step closer to our goal. This reminds me to keep putting in the effort, even when I may not be getting the results I want right now. What are your thoughts?

Good morning, I was mildly horrified to see myself included at the beginning of the official video of a number of Saturday classes. I have used Zoom almost exclusively setting up my wife for work and can get it functioning. In order to no longer make myself part of the production I assume that I need to keep the video portion of my input feed shut down until the class begins? Also, do any of you know who that bent old guy sneaking around my “garage-do” was? I must have a much (much) older and dramatically widened sibling who snuck in there when I was not looking. In my mind, I feel ageless and my internal feed of self-images has me more securely anchored in my 40’s, still active and 20 pounds lighter. Even if almost no system of my body still works properly, I am committed to learning Nami Ryu but I do not have to inflict images of myself on the rest of you! Thank you for not lodging complaints lol…