Oh, almost forgot I was going to post something semi-serious as a guy firmly in the sword world. But now that I reread Ellis' post... Nevermind. It would be redundant.

So, "what he said."

Especially the pancakes taped to the butt part. Seriously. You can do whatever you'd like in certain contexts. But if you're studying an art with a long standing tradition you might want to think twice about picking and choosing what parts you think are right. All too often those who decide to "fix" things without understanding how the entire thing works usually destroy the very essence of what they're "fixing".

Lots of shodan experts out there. And the oft-heard flag that someone is about to completely screw something up "This feels much more natural to me". Ah, yes, we should drop how it was done for 400 years in favor of what feels right to someone who doesn't know how to do it... Kind of like the old chestnut that a self-taught martial artist has a fool for a sensei.

Now where are those pancakes and tape...

I figure once you get the scrolls, well, hey, bust it loose and do what you want.

Till then...