Interuptions

The last few weeks training has been interrupted by holidays, cancellation and work and the next couple of weeks looks like it is going to be more of the same.

It's a shame because I think I'm enjoying my Karate at the moment. We had a good session last Friday, as it was only a small class we got to get the pads out and practice kicks and punches and we even had a bit of Kumite, which we haven't done for ages.

I'll speak to you in a couple of weeks, when training settles down again.

Slow Progress

Well, I think it's high time for an update.

I'm still training three days a week and making slow progress, although most of the time I do feel I'm going backwards as faults I hadn't notice previously become painfully obvious. I'm currently making very hard work of my new Kata, Pinan Yodan. It's a rather odd Kata, and think they get weirder as you get on.

Last week we had a good balance of classes, stamina training on Monday (that was hard), Kata on Thursday, and Kicking and Punching on Friday.

I'll be attending some courses in the next few months, so I'll keep you update with how those go.

Karateka catch up

Well I suppose I should update this blog, I'm now a Green Belt in Wado Kai. I passed my Grading, despite making a hash of partner techniques, a couple of weeks back. The kids weren't ready for the grading so they are both still Orange belts.

My fitness, balance and kicks still need a great deal of work.I've been training three times a week and I've even been a of course into Sword techniques.

I've not had much luck at learning the new Kata, but I've got a full six months until the next grading.

Moving to Blogger

I've moved this blog over to blogger, as I was having problems with the Wordpress platform which prevented my from using the blog as I would have liked to.

Now the blog is moved over I'll be updating it with my progress again.

A Response to “Why keep it a secret?”

(The following is a comment made in Response my post “Why keep it a secret?”. Write by some one calling themselves 'Nobody Knows' on November 24, 2007 at 7:30 am)

There are practical reasons for witholding one’s skills and maintaining them secretly.

In my own life, I have trained since I was in grade school. My skill set is best assessed by others. I will say that for many years I was a simple man living at home with a wife and living day to day. During those years I trained alot, openly at the local gym and the nearby university… I was seen carrying my gear, wearing my gi, wearing martial arts related T-shirts, etc….I only had two experiences in 20years when I needed to physical express my training and the results were devastating for the recipient of that attention. In both cases these guys were much larger and more phsyically intimidating. One of them actually said to me “Come down to my dojo and get your ass kicked”. I replied that I had a hard time imagining anyone who was a true martial artist behaving in the way that he was. He overestimated himself and underestimated me. When it was over he was humiliated and badly injured but only after he tried to push me into traffic (he had rammed my car in a road rage, I had never seen him before).

Then I ended up living alone in a different state. I took up another spiritual practice involving freediving and deep swimming and began developing it as a practice and an adjunct to martial arts training (you can fake your way through Karate but not through holding your breath and swimming below 125ft…). This put me in a very public place and I made it a point to never display my skills, never to talk about my training or offer opinions that would betray my experience, never wear gi pants, never do anything to stand out and just practice the freediving skill.

It seemed to me when I moved that it might serve me well to make my training a secret. I continued reading, studying, and working out but never where I could be seen doing it. I continued improving my health and my skills as I always have.

Since that time I have been assaulted on three occasions by mentally ill Hawaiian natives. All of them at least a third again my own wieght and size. Every incident was unprovoked and truly involved bullying mindsets of men who were used to physically intimidating anyone that they felt the urge to abuse. These men were rascists, uneducated, self-rightous and unreachable by all techniques to disarm violent situations that I have learned. They felt no reason to fear me or listen to me.In two of the situations I used a knife after being attacked. I followed all rules of engagement. I was unable to retreat, I put out my hands and warned them. I drew my weapon and continued to warn them back and when they pressed their attack they ended up in the hospital and then in jail.

Each time I had witnesses who saw the attacks. Each time I was exonerated. Each time there was no discussion of my martial skills.This is successful self-defense.

The lesson is that if you want Karate to be an effective weapon, one blow and one victory… remember… Gichin Funakoshi said “There is no first strike in Karate-do”. The element of surprise combined with an opponent who underestimates you is the best position for a karate fighter to be in if the situation is going to come to blows.

Also remember that you can’t surprise anyone if you tell everyone about yourself ahead of time by either talking or demonstrating your skills.

Why keep it a secret?

(Originally posted on November 23, 2007)

There is an interesting article on martialdevelopment.com on why Karateka may need to conceal their secret Karate identity.

http://www.martialdevelopment.com/blog/conceal-your-secret-karate-identity/

Grading

Originally posted on November 19, 2007

So it was a grading last Friday, and I graded for my Orange Belt (along with my son and niece), as usual I was extremely nervous, it also didn’t help when my Gi pants started to fall down. I’ve recent got a new Gi and it’s one of those heavier ones, and I still haven’t got the hang of it. It seems to by much bigger than my old Gi despite the label claiming it is the same size and it feels twice as heavy, but as I’ve just mentioned the main problem is with the pants which are very difficult to keep tight and seem to work there way lose a lot especially in line when we are doing kicks.

started to do it. I also asked for my Anyway back to the grading, as I said I was nervous despite the fact I’d not been thinking or worrying about doing this grading before I Started. I did however ask for instructions in English as when I grade I usually completely forget any Japanese I’ve ever heard.

I rushed through Pinan Shodan Kata on autopilot and I was so surprised when I get to the end, I didn’t know if I’d missed any moves out and while thinking about that I screwed up the final move.

Thankfully I didn’t need to grade on my partner techniques as I’d been observed doing this during training earlier that week. If I had to do them during grading I definitely would screw them up.

Anyway we found out later that day, that we all passed out gradings.