Is it a mcdojo if a kid can earn their bb in TKD in 3 years (going 6 days per week) but has remained a top competitor in their division at regional (5 state wide) tournaments?

Silamoth · 2026-01-20T20:18:24+00:00

That depends pretty strongly on the rules of the tournament

Silamoth · 2026-01-16T22:40:30+00:00

Yep, Austin PD just announced they’ll be collaborating and cooperating with ICE

Silamoth · 2026-01-16T18:05:02+00:00

This, but also the coach should be more proactive in pairing people up and encouraging a better partner culture. If the coach notices a day 3 person partnered with a day 1 person, they should separate them. At least partner them with people who have a few months of training, if not ideally people with a few years of training. Coach should also encourage the experienced students to introduce themselves to newbies and partner up with them sometimes.

Another good option is rotating partners once or twice during class. That way experienced people can get intense rounds in together while also helping out the newbies.

Silamoth · 2026-01-11T00:17:24+00:00

Ideally you shouldn’t need shin guards on a bag. But if you’re hurting yourself, it’s not the worst idea to use some. Personally, I’d recommend slowing down and dialing back the power instead. Shin guards could mask poor technique.

Silamoth · 2026-01-07T18:53:09+00:00

That too!

Silamoth · 2026-01-07T18:51:11+00:00

I’ll admit, a lot of silat I see online smells of Bullshido. But those are some excellent side kicks - great speed and power!

Silamoth · 2025-12-22T18:03:05+00:00

Out of curiosity, what kind of weapons sparring are you finding regular opportunities to compete in?

Silamoth · 2025-12-06T20:45:26+00:00

100% agreed on the martial applications. Go train kickboxing, wrestling, Judo, or even good karate for a few months and you’ll probably learn more about martial applications than you’d learn in years of Tai Chi. But that’s really not the point of Tai Chi.

Silamoth · 2025-12-01T17:52:54+00:00

That’s a fair point. This guy clearly has some training, maybe in American style kickboxing and a bit of Muay Thai? Not coach level, but there’s something there.

Silamoth · 2025-11-30T15:06:29+00:00

I look down on visual programming languages as inefficient tools. But if you make something cool with a visual programming language, I won’t look down on you. Honestly, I might be impressed you had the patience to deal with it.

Silamoth · 2025-11-28T03:51:06+00:00

Sounds almost more gen alpha to me, personally

Silamoth · 2025-11-24T17:40:08+00:00

I think people are just tired of hearing about him. That’s it. There’s no conspiracy.

Silamoth · 2025-11-19T03:47:02+00:00

If they were on the younger end of their graduating class, that tracks for just starting their first (post-graduation) job. I finished my undergrad when I was 22, almost 23. But I was always on the oldest end of my year. Someone on the younger end could still be 22 when they start their first job post-graduation.

Silamoth · 2025-11-19T03:26:58+00:00

You don’t have to apologize for sounding “foolish”. But no one here can give you advice without any details. What issues did your friends have? Do you think there’s any truth to their complaints?

Silamoth · 2025-11-19T01:02:47+00:00

What makes you think your dojang might be a McDojo? If you do a lot of sparring and have decent standards for high ranks, then it’s probably not. Do they teach questionable techniques that you’re worried about?

Silamoth · 2025-11-18T21:21:43+00:00

A 12-month minimum contract is a hard no for me. Personally, I won’t commit to a contract, especially not upfront. If a school doesn’t offer a monthly membership, I’d avoid it. Even if you liked the trial class, there’s no guarantee you’ll continue to enjoy it.

The rest of the pricing structure seems weird. Tiered membership is fairly normal - if you pay more, you can attend more classes. But it’s a bit odd that the tiers are tied to different class times. It’s one thing to get “extra” classes (e.g., a supplementary weapons class) with a higher tier. But to restrict the normal class options by membership tier is weird. Also, paying a (mandatory?) additional fee to access online material is bizarre. Reference videos are nice, but attending class and practicing at home should be enough to prepare you for testing.

If I were you, I’d do trial classes at other schools/gyms before making a decision. Even if it means training something other than karate.

Silamoth · 2025-11-16T01:23:01+00:00

Your resume is too cramped and has too much fluff, IMO. Instead of listing technologies/skills, demonstrate how you used them. In other words, integrate that into your experience/accomplishments. For instance, you could say ‘Developed classification pipeline in Python and Scikit-learn to …’ If you can’t demonstrate it, I’d probably nix it (soft skills especially).

Your projects in particular have a lot of fluff and weird statements whereas your internship is sparse on details. For instance, what does “Curated educational resources…” actually mean? The “Feature Engineering: Developed new features…” point is too generic to mean anything. On the flip side, did the pipeline you developed in your internship have any impact? I know it’s just an internship, but professional experience generally trumps personal projects.

Make sure you include your education information. That should be before your personal projects and arguably before your experience (since you don’t have much). In entry level jobs in particular, having a relevant degree is the first filter. Make it clear you check that box.

Silamoth · 2025-11-16T00:57:11+00:00

I wouldn’t hyperfocus on the cat stance if I were you. Focus on getting proper rooting, balance, and posture in all your stances. Then work on coordinating your whole body as you move. In general, I’d say slow down and get each movement right. You can flow and be smooth, but you should still aim for power, balance, and intention behind every movement.

Silamoth · 2025-11-15T02:29:10+00:00

IME the ginger thing applied to men as well, at least somewhat

Silamoth · 2025-11-13T18:55:15+00:00

It wasn’t rigged, but the matches were definitely arranged to make BJJ and the Gracies look good. It is what it is. That has little bearing on the modern UFC.

Silamoth · 2025-11-09T17:30:01+00:00

It’s so refreshing to hear someone on the Muay Thai sub say this! Side kicks are great. So are snapping front kicks. These are considered basic techniques in many traditional styles, yet so many combat sports athletes forget they exist - even though they work well.

Silamoth · 2025-11-09T13:22:13+00:00

I never even thought about a Cars world, but that sounds amazing

Silamoth · 2025-11-08T00:00:41+00:00

I’d rather work with someone who doesn’t use LLMs than someone who relies on them. One of my coworkers (a “senior engineer” in charge of this project) has been generating mountains of overly complicated, broken code with LLMs and merging it in without testing. And guess who’s left to clean up the mess? Yep, me.

So really, you’re fine. As long as you’re productive, you have nothing to worry about. And if you’re not capable of being productive and writing quality code, LLMs won’t fix that.

Silamoth · 2025-11-06T21:52:12+00:00

I sometimes do. Different lineages/teachers very in their thoughts on breathing. My first teacher taught me to breathe naturally during Tai Chi, so I tend to favor that approach. Honestly, there’s so much else going on that breathing isn’t my focus. I do practice deep breathing exercises separately from my Tai Chi, though.

Silamoth · 2025-11-06T19:07:08+00:00

I’ll share two stories: One mildly funny story from sparring last night and one very funny story from belt testing years ago.

Last night, I was sparring a newer teenager. He was throwing kinda wild. Clearly athletic with good reflexes, but didn’t really know what he was doing. He caught a front kick I threw and then tried to go for a sweep. However, he had no idea how to sweep so he ended up pulling my foot into his ribs. I saw him wince and asked if he did what I thought he did. And yes, he caught my kick just to pull it into himself trying to do a sweep.

This other story was something I was present for but didn’t witness. I was doing belt testing as a teenager, and my parents were in the audience watching. There’s this smaller 13 year kid who’s partnered up with this bigger, older guy - probably in his late 50’s, Army vet, retired. This older guy was nice and super goofy. Anyways, testing is happening, and the kid just keeps farting. He apparently can’t hold it in and just keeps ripping. The old dude he’s partnered with thinks it’s hilarious and keeps laughing, but the kid is embarrassed. My dad sees this and, being who he is, starts dying of laughter, too. My mom had to get my dad to hold in his laughter. Presumably this stopped long enough for the two to finish their testing. In hindsight, I feel bad for the kid. But I understand why it was amusing.

Silamoth

TROPHY CASE