The MIM keeps 60 days by default. That may be too much for you..
By default, the folder C:\Program Files\MIM\config should make you really happy, it’s got lots of plain text files with configuration for all kinds of settings.
cleanup.txt has “ARCHIVE LEFTOVER AGE (DAYS) := 60
Change that to whatever you feel is appropriate for you needs.
Yesterday evening a man who trained about as long as sensei came to train with us. Black obi, rather frayed to white. He’d trained a long time under his uncle, and then ~15 years under sensei’s sensei. He’d taken a break for a while, so he was a bit out of shape, but his mindset, his attitude, his devotion were 100% into everything he did - an important lesson which I forget all too often.
He left, very happy to have joined us. I hope we’ll see him again.
Whoo! I haven’t done a post that long in a while! Also makes me think I should get a wordpress plugin for some ‘code’ tags..
I put ‘activerecord’ in there to take advantage of the ‘24.hours.ago’ notation, which makes life much easier. The cost is a little less than 2 seconds to load the library, so I think it’s worth it. It runs as a daily job before backup to tape, to clear old backups from the directory tree.
require 'activerecord'
def delete_recursively(in_here)
Dir.chdir(in_here)
Dir.glob('*') do |filename|
if File.directory?(filename)
delete_recursively(filename)
else
if File.mtime(filename) > 24.hours.ago
File.delete(filename)
end
end
end
Dir.chdir('..')
end
delete_recursively("your/path/here")
This blog may yet come alive! I’ve figured out how to post to this from my Blackberry 
I use an app called bbmetablog (google for ‘bbmetablog opencod’), currently version 1.2.2 . I had a bit of an issue getting xmlrpc line set up propery, until I changed their default ‘xml-rpc?openagent’ to ‘xmlrpc.php’ .. And I’m live!
Yesterday we had a small class, so we were able to each work on what we needed. I, hopefully, now have the full chatan yara no sai form, so I just need to work it..
We did some kali stick work. The yellow and blue belt had never seen those drills before so we started with a simple high-low-high, but we did try for a little bit the sinawali drills, specifically heaven, because that one’s fun Kali sticks are very good to work follow-through, speed and flow, and god knows I need that.
Monday and yesterday, two blue belts were to test for purple. They went through their calisthenics and basics; I did not see their forms on Monday, but I did see them on Wednesday. They were bad enough sensei wanted to see them again, that much I understood, but not sure how bad until I saw them both.
Neither of them broke a sweat until fighting, not for the 100 jumping jacks, not for the 60 push-ups, not for the multiple kick combinations. They did get out of breath when doing all the forms in a row, at least…
Neither displayed the spirit we expected from a blue belt.. Let alone from someone testing. A test is supposed to be the hardest thing you’ve done to date and you’re supposed to work as hard as you can.. And that’s usually noticeable. Further, their forms weren’t even up to blue belt level. Chances are they did not practice outside the dojo.. Or even think about the art at all. While some people do martial arts leisurely, you should either expect to stop progressing or realize that work needs to go into it.
One of the blue belts seemed OK with the postponement and stayed to speak with sensei.. The other one pretty much stormed out.. Well, we’ll see what happens now.
You have to TRAIN !
Is it a worrying trend that I write mostly about pain in here?
Every once in a while, usually while doing a high block with my left arm, I’d feel a pain in my left shoulder. It felt like a part was rolling over another one.. Muscle over bone, or something like that. It’s not pleasant and is the kind of pain that stops your movement quite short and quite abruptly.
It happened yesterday while doing an uppercut (or, you know, punch to under the jaw/to the throat/etc). I realized my body alignment was wrong and my left elbow wasn’t kept in properly. As soon as I fix that, I think, I’ll feel a lot better about the whole thing
This of course begs the question.. What else am I not aligning properly, but maybe not quite wrong enough to get pain from it?
I don’t know how I did it, but at some point during my empty hand class, I hurt my back. Think of a line going horizontally across the middle of the back (under the shoulderblades), and you have it. I didn’t stay for weapons past my bo class and went home. I was OK during my sword class, which means either I wasn’t paying attention, or I wasn’t using those muscles..
It got worse in the evening, to the point where I was walking slowly, and I couldn’t help but play with it a little — forced to use momentum generated by other muscles in order not to feel pain. Sunday was better but still careful, and Monday I considered not going to work but I felt good enough not to let it stop me. Training on Monday night made it pretty much all go away.
It’s very interesting to be in pain, when it’s not constant and excruciating (because that just sucks), you can explore better your body’s workings.
We have a move in a form that requires holding a hand in front of the solar plexus. One of the kids was holding his hand a little low, so I mentioned it to him.. He start hitting his chest a few times with his hand, so I laugh. “Think you got it?” He does it a few more times and starts coughing. “Ah, now you got it.”
Sparring can be one of the many reasons one wants to join a martial arts school, sometimes even their only interest. Unless you join a school based on street defense, you may not do as much as you’d like. Besides, the insurances and legality issues being what they are, usually you are limited to sparring gear which lets you mostly throw punches and kicks.
The teacher of a traditional school probably won’t let you spar until after you get a belt or two, because you need to break in your body and the techniques you are learning — besides, you don’t have enough control to know when to stop your strikes, so if your opponent fails to block, you could hurt him quite a bit. It’s more dangerous to spar a beginner than an advanced student Sparring will teach you footwork and will get you used to seeing strikes come at you. It’ll also get you used to working out combinations of strikes, pacing yourself, and speed of action.
What is more important to value properly, in my opinion, is the study of applications from forms, or the study of self-defense moves (whichever it is called in your school). There, you learn to apply the defense against a helpful opponent, slow at first, then increasing the speed, then increasing power, then with a less helpful opponent. This is when you get a chance to really program yourself and get your neural connections solidly prepared, as well as use your body to manipulate the opponent’s body.
Of course, sparring is very important as well, and a school that doesn’t do any of it had better have other exercises to compensate for the values taught during sparring.
In the end, it’s importan to remember that sparring isn’t about beating up the other guy, much less about winning. Rather, it is about working with your partner to improve your technique as well as his, in a positive and safe environment where you can prepare for something you probably hope you’ll never have to use.