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Wednesday
6/24/2009 12:12:58 PM
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Michael Wells
I have heard it. I heave read it. I have almost certainly seen it, and probably even felt it... but until now, I have not understood it. Put simply, find your centre. The doctrine of balance has just begin to enter into my philosophy.
The book Angry White Pyjamas was recommended to me by our phenomenal Sensei Grahame--and it's a very worthwhile read.
One of the most interesting passages I found was the record of a demonstration that was given by Kancho (the dojo's founder) shortly before his death by cancer. He was described as not being physically strong at all, and yet his aikido grew "more powerful each year", well into his 80's.
The demonstration went like this: two men lifted Kancho off of the floor, one holding each arm, so that Kancho was hovering in mid-air. After a moment, Kancho suddenly waved his arms, and both of the men holding him were thrown in complete somersaults through the air.
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Monday
6/15/2009 9:34:44 AM
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Michael Wells
Sensei Graham recommended an excellent book by the name of Angry White Pyjamas. It is a well-written, inspired account of a Brit living in Japan, who decides to take an advanced martial arts course.
Incidentally, reading the book and some of the tribulations they went through, I feel like a bit of a wuss. I'm looking forward to my rib healing so I can return to regular sparring.
Meanwhile, I'll enjoy the book ;)
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Sunday
3/22/2009 6:20:33 PM
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Michael Wells
Cooking... simply... rocks. It's fun, it's creative, and you get to EAT it. If you do it well, it might even taste good.
I keep basic ingredients frozen, like pork mince, and then when I need it, I have to hack off a chunk of frozen meat with a big Chinese-style cooking cleaver.
It's rather grunty work; you have to bear your weight down hard to slice through a good 3 to 4 cm of frozen goodness. Anyone who has done this knows that the most effective way is to put the cutting board about hip-height, hold the blade near to you, and very steady, and then bear your full weight down.
If you try this above hip level, you lose force... as your arms can't exert the full force of your weight as steadily when they're bent. If you try this below hip level, you lose balance... as your centre of gravity is then above the target.
It occurred to me last night... in the midst of some stir fry... that this principle of maximum-strength-at-centre is also very relevant to karate. In particular, nearly all kicks require you to lift your knee as high as possible before extending the kick. Until now, I'd always thought of this technique as specific to targeting.. the higher your knee, the higher you can kick. However it also seems that starting, e.g., a mae geri (front kick) with your foot just above hip level gives you maximum power.
While my body has been aware of this for some time, I've never pondered the physics behind the technique before. Delivering a hard kick directly outwards from your centre of gravity means that your full weight is behind the kick, and is centered on the kick, which has a huge benefit of balance. Because the reacting "push-back" force is distributed centrally, and evenly across your body, your balance is stabilized.
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Tuesday
9/30/2008 2:16:36 PM
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Michael Wells
In karate, dance, acting... nearly all physical endeavors, there seems to be a unique class of individuals who can learn the skills so much faster and more completely.
I've heard education theories that state that students learn in different ways; either (a) by hearing (b) by seeing, or (c) by doing. I reckon that holds some weight in explaining this phenomenon.
However I also think that there may be a separate skill at work here. I have one friend in particular who picks up physical skills with the greatest of ease. He is one of the best and definately the fastest-learning taiko player I know... he also the most quickly-advanced student in his Aikido dojo, and coincidentally, a budding actor as well.
I reckon that he has the uniquely honed ability to see himself. Normally when I am learning something, I'm thinking intensely about how each muscle feels, and where each hand, foot, leg is, the position of my back, and so on. But because I'm thinking of so many things, it's not smooth, and it's not a quick learning process.
I reckon that my friend Toru learns by seeing himself from the outside. He understands how he looks when he is doing something. In this way, he can compare himself to the instructors he is learning from, and he can make adjustments that way, and learn more quickly.
Must learn how to do that...
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Tuesday
9/30/2008 12:39:02 PM
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Michael Wells
In our dojo we occasionally (perhaps not frequently enough?) practice a particular kata in direction opposite to its formal definition. That is, if you normally start off by turning to the left, then performing it "migi" (to the right) means that the first move is to the right. All following moves are consequently a mirror image of the kata's formal pattern.
Logically, this should be easy to adapt to, but it is surprisingly difficult. Some moves translate well, while others feel completely out of sorts to perform.
Recently my girlfriend commented on a similar phenomenon. Her car stereo is this horribly complex German thing with tons of buttons and modes. Normally she programs it from the drivers' seat, that is, using her left hand. The other day I was doing the driving and she was trying to re-program the clock to adjust for daylight savings, from the passengers' seat using her right hand. It was a complete no-go. Despite being able to devote her full attention to the task, she had to throw in the towel after a full half-hour of button click and mode changing, all to no avail.
A day later, in the driver's seat, she had no problems re-programming it in 30 seconds flat. She reckons it's an issue of muscle-memory.
Now to me, muscle memory is the concept of training a muscle with enough repetitions that it can be executed very efficiently and quickly, almost without conscious thought.
My girlfriend, who is a professional pianist and teacher, understands this completely--but she was referring to something much deeper.
We all know that the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, and vice versa, but we don't normally consider the implications of this bi-polar physical construction.
It seems that when we learn something with a particular side of the body, the other side of the body really doesn't learn it at all... both have to be taught, independently. Nearly all of us experience that effect in things like writing, where really only one hand can do the job.
For a fun exercise, if you're used to typing the formal way (both hands), try typing something a sentence using just your right hand. Then try the same sentence, just your left hand. It's rather amazing that even though you know where all the keys are, you actually have to think, and look in order to find them when you're hitting a key using the wrong hand...
The sucky thing is that guys have less interconnection between their left and right hemispheres than girls do, which means that this bi-polar effect is sort of worstened in us. I reckon that if it werent' for the strength advantage, girls would probably beat our butts in sports.
Quite frustratingly, I've experienced this very effect in my Japanese taiko drumming... Jane can switch sides of the drums, and play mirror-image almost effortlessly, while I struggle to figure out which hand I'm supposed to be using at any given moment, and usually wack my fingers, or even my noggin a few times in the process.
... perhaps ambidexterity really refers to a situation in which a person has the physical-motor parts of each hemisphere better-connected than other people. So that they literally can do anything off of either hand, without the re-training barrier.
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Tuesday
9/30/2008 9:35:35 AM
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Michael Wells
There are some great used bookstores in my neighborhood and they have endless selections to choose from. It's usually pretty easy to find a few great gems on each visit.
Some time ago I picked up a book called Hypno Sport by Les Cunningham. I'm not into hypnosis; actually I find the idea of someone messing with my mind quite freaky and well against my better judgement. However, as all control of the body happens in the mind, I thought I may find some interesting perspectives on the mind as it relates to sports performance.
Honestly most of the book was terribly boring. But I did find some interesting parts. One chapter examined the relationship between the level of arousal (or excitement) of a participant and his/her performance. Too little excitement, and the participant is distracted, uninterested, unmotivated, and performs poorly. But too much excitement, and you also get poor performance--in the form of fumbles, trips, and general cognitive failures. More than once we've seen the newbie high-school basketball player who suddenly gets the ball and then daftly buries it in the wrong hoop.
Panic is a a form of extreme over-arousal, and it's one of the easiest places to see clear examples of cognitive failure...
The book had a great example; apparently, firefighters regularly encounter a situation where someone is trapped in a burning house, and trying to escape. In the words of the author,
people will try to break down a locked door and won't think to use the key sitting in the lock. The ... individuals do see the key but ... cannot comprehend its use.
In karate sparring, at maximum exhaustion and stress, a similar effect happens all the time. It's sort of a cognitive paralysation, where you suddently forget all of your techniques and, e.g. can only remember the simplest of punches. The author describes this perfectly;
In a sporting contest over-arousal sees the athlete forget all those carefully nurtured skills and rely instead on brute power and aggression to force a victory.
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Monday
9/22/2008 6:00:25 PM
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Michael Wells
Man, seems like the only time I get to blog about my karate training is when I grade... need to fix that ;>
Most of my notes end up going into a poorly organized notebook.
I graded to brown belt last night; it was tough! I have an enormous amount of respect for my mates who have gone through the grading sparring exercise; you are just flat out so tired you can barely lift your arms. Granted, I expect that's the whole point; to see how you handle situations where you're entirely exhausted and your opponents seem endless...
The model for brown belt grading is 10 fights, each lasting 90 seconds, so basically 15 minutes of battle where you start out exhausted. It was tough, but advanced brown belt is 20 fights (30 minutes). And black belt is 40 fights (a solid hour...).
All I have to say is, I need to get in rockin' shape for those gradings...
The terrible thing is that you feel like your sparring sucked because, well, it DID. When you're that tired you can barely fend off the blows much less return a decent attack. I reckon the only reasonable measure then is "did I do my best", and I'm happy to report that I pumped out basically everything I had into those fights, so I suppose I should feel decently pleased with that...
On the up side, all of my kata felt great... =D
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Saturday
4/12/2008 11:17:40 AM
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Michael Wells
I've missed the last 2 gradings due to various injuries, but finally had an opportunity to grade to 3rd kyu!
The grading was a lot of fun; I was the only one grading past blue belt, so I spent some time on the floor solo. Kata went smoothly, I've been practicing, so except for one glitch (Pinan sono san momentarily evaded memory...), it went nicely.
And I got to do 10 fights, which is just amazing. We don't normally train at that state of exhausation, so, just not prepared for the challenges that come with it. Aside from the complete lack of oxygen, your brain shuts down as well. This is really the point of training, so that your body knows what to do without thinking.
One thing; your arms are intentionally exhausted before grading, so then when you try to attack with arms, they just about fall off and that hurts your guard ability. Meaning, your arms get so tired, you can't keep them up at the level needed to protect your head. I need to learn to use legs more, and to consider where my strengths are when I'm that exhausted, and use that, rather than fighting to use my weakest attack just because it's the most familiar.
Now that I think about it, we did forget to do yakusoku sono san...
The next day...
Not bad! No major injuries, a few jammed fingers. The most store muscles by far were delts and traps. Now I know why boxers have huge delts and traps... you use them to keep your arms up when you protect your head!
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Wednesday
4/2/2008 11:26:56 AM
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Michael Wells
Reuben, dojo mate of mine, stumbled across my Seido notebook online, and had a lot of content to add. Good on you, Reuben!
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Monday
4/2/2007 10:00:00 PM
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Michael Wells
Green belt, yeah...
A surprisingly tough grading! I poured everything into it, really enjoyed just doing each thing to the max. But then we did a bit of sparring at the end; only 5 fights but so exhausting. I kept evading, trying to get my breath back for an attack, but they kept chasing! Very different from normal sparring class, and something I'm really going to have to think about tonight...
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Tuesday
11/14/2006 10:03:48 PM
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Michael Wells
Grading tonight; quite awesome. I've just come back from a post-grading drinking celebration, so I may not be eloquent enought... but it was a hard effort from everyone involved, and I'm quite pleased with the work and focus and spirit everyone put in.
Kyoshi Danny's gradings are really something; they just bring you to the limit but no further, and he always knows how to play the situation into the most effective test. Today, one of our green belts Dean graded to brown, so we had a compliment of karateka's ready for sparring. Too many in fact. So Kyoshi Danny immediately saw an opportunity to get the yellow belts involved in some light sparring.
Quite fantastic actually; it felt quite a bit different from regular "dancing without the music" and I really enjoyed the opportunity to do some light sparring during a grading session. Really great.
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Wednesday
11/8/2006 11:21:37 AM
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Michael Wells
I've been thinking lately that I think too much. Thinking is slow. As a project manager, my job is to plan things out... every last detail, in full, before I do anything. But in most facets of life this doesn't work. Either you can never know enough to proceed, or the amount of stuff you need to know is so massive that it's a lost cause, or, the process of investigation is too long and therefore the opportunity evaporates.
In sparring, I tend to hang back, decide what combination I'm going to try. Then I dive in, try it, and back away to examine the result and plan the next one. I call it "strategy only". This approach has not served me well, and I've decided that it fails me in several ways;
- Much too slow, much too expensive. Too much time planning, which means that if I'm on the defensive, I have little opportunity to take control of the situation.
- All of the really good opportunities are missed. When I'm "in", firing my techniques, I stick to the plan and so if a target suddenly presents itself, it is not taken advantage of. This is, I think the most significant problem with the Strategy Only approach.
- Too formal. Because I'm planning it out in advance, I think in terms of techniques,which means that when I execute, I'm limited to those techniques. I think in terms of really two punches (oyazuki and gyakuski), when in reality, there are hundreds of variations available that can break through the opponent's guard. This also makes you highly predictable, and gives your opponent a huge advantage in blocking.
Of course strategy is good. Great! But unlike most people, I never really learned tactics. Now, I'm going back to learn basic tactical flexibility, and then layer some strategy beneath that. For the first time in sparring, I'm quite excited about the opportunity to make some major improvements very quickly.
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Tuesday
8/8/2006 2:39:16 PM
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Michael Wells
Sensei Graham, who is our totally rockin' sparring coach, is off to Europe for awhile for a change of scenery.
Today, I got what I consider to be a fantastic going away present, which was a good, hard, sparring session. I swear it was at least 20 minutes long, which probably means no more than 10, and I learned a lot about fatigue. That man can just keep going, and seems to have these huge energy reserves that just explode from the cosmos.
which, honestly, is very encouraging, because he's not far from my age, or my weight (120kg), which means I have hope of improvement in the endurance area.
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Thursday
7/20/2006 8:20:38 PM
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Michael Wells
I'm not permitted to do the formal contact sparring until green belt, but I do get to do basic sparring drills, which you can learn a lot with. We also do "fight dancing without the music", which means basically no-contact sparring. You work on distance, you work on technique, you work on timing; you can even work on speed... but you only get to make real contact when doing bagwork.
In any case no-contact sparring is very educational, and a good place as any to start learning.
One of the things that recently struck me is that I've been focused on adding things to my sparring. More techniques. More combinations. Faster and less-predictable movements. An increased variety of blocks, and even some introduction of grabs and catches. That's all good, and it's worked well for me, and I'm certainly far better than I was when I started. (Not that that means anything... but, improvement is good!)
What struck me today is that I also need to pay attention to subtracting things from my sparring. For example, because my distance and timing are immature, I tend to lean in to close the gap. Bad, bad, bad, bad, and my head will pay the price once they're allowed to hit me. Likewise, when I kick, I rotate which exposes my back and opens me up for a foot sweep. I also tend to bring me feet a bit closer together than I should, and of course (like all beginners, I suspect), I telegraph a lot -- which means that I need to identify and subtract all those little things that betray my next move.
The interesting thing is that subtracting these things are likely to make a big difference to my overall sparring, even more so than adding new things will be.
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Monday
5/22/2006 9:02:52 PM
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Michael Wells
A good grading tonight, and I've made it to yellow belt (6th kyu) now.
There were a lot of great performances--everyone worked very hard, buckled down, and really got in the mood. It was great. And, all of our white belts graded to blue, with several of them double-grading in the process. Totally awesome.
The most noteworthy thing in my own performance was that I tried to do taikyoku sono san, migi, ura, backwards. Migi means "to the right", which is the mirror image of how we normally perform kata. Ura means "spinning", and refers to a 360 spin at each punch. Backwards means doing the kata in reverse, starting with the last move and progressing to the first.
It actually worked out decently well, except I'm feeling rather miserable about the techniques. I focused completely on the sequence of movements, which meant that the stance transisitions and the techniques suffered badly. They felt horribly weak. Punches weren't punches, spins weren't spins, and so on. The performance felt more like a jello-dance than a karate kata.
But on the plus side, everyone seemed very pleased with the effort, so although I'm unhappy with the technique, all in all it seems that the decision to try it was the right one.
The story behind how this happened is sort of interesting...
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Monday
5/22/2006 2:03:29 PM
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Michael Wells
My favorite taiko group performed this weekend at the Auckland Town Hall. It was a great performance at a great venue, and I was able to play amateur videographer from the 2nd floor balcony. Totally Awesome.
Also, there are some other great taiko videos on YouTube and on Google Video.
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Saturday
5/20/2006 4:19:18 PM
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Michael Wells
I've noticed something interesting about our dojo. Many of the students with the best form are graphic artists. We seem to have a plethora of them. Does that mean that graphic artists are drawn to the form that karate provides? Or are they actually more successful in learning and perfecting their technique because of a certain spatial mental orientation, or perhaps finely-tuned motor control?
Me? I'm a systems architect. I think of big picture efficiencies, and problem solving. It will be interesting to see whether that plays into my technique someday.
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Saturday
5/20/2006 2:57:08 PM
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Michael Wells
Auckland has some great festivals. Today was Fukuoka Day, a festival celebrating the Japanese arts. Haere Mai Taiko rocked the house. Meanwhile, there were some great martial arts demonstrations going on outside. I was able to attend the Shorinji Kenpo demonstration, presented by the local dojo, and capture some video...
This was also my first experiment with YouTube, my new Sony CyberShot DSC-H2, high-speed 1GB Memory Stick Duo, and uploading large files from a wireless cafe. All in all, a fun-filled day.
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Monday
5/8/2006 10:11:54 AM
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Michael Wells
In many dojo's, blunt wooden knives are part of the regular training equipment. In styles such as Aikido, they're used in training for defense against a knife-wielding attacker. But the reality is, while it has some value, a blunt wooden knife doesn't inspire the same degree of fear. It's not going to hurt you.
The Shocknife is an interesting compromise to this problem. It provides a bit of added incentive to the defender for quick, accurate, effective, technique, and the more realistic emotional state as well -- but without any actual damage.
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Thursday
3/30/2006 11:51:44 AM
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Michael Wells
One of the keys (perhaps the master key) to developing proper technique in martial arts is understanding the application of every movement. It's not always feasible to have a partner, and in fact (especially for beginners like me) many techniques aren't safe to practice properly on a live person until you have developed a sufficient level of control.
So, you visualize an opponent instead. When you take this seriously, this works surprisingly well, and I've recently noticed that my imaginary opponent is taking on a specific shape. This is probably some amalgamation of yourself, your most challenging opponents, your teachers and senior students.
My opponent is 6' 5", bald, and has no neck. Well... he has a neck, but it's wider than his head, which makes it look more like just an extension of the trapezoidals. He also, as far as I can tell, lives in a weight training gym, and works part time as a bad-guy Manga actor. Gigantic arm muscles, broad shoulders... quite top heavy... not blazingly fast, but if I don't move I'm pretty sure I'll end up with a hole through my midsection like that scene in Kung Pao.
Oddly, my opponent even seems to have named himself. Gurg. Wierd name, eh? Even wierder that it came from somewhere deep in my subconscious. Sometimes I wonder about myself...
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Wednesday
12/21/2005 9:23:57 PM
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Michael Wells
I suspect that when most people think of Karate, they imagine blood, broken limbs, bone-crunching kicks, and all of the outward violence that is portrayed in modern action cinema. And there is no question that the training regimen in Karate (and most other martial arts) is targeted at developing these types of damage-dealing abilities.
This presents an interesting conflict, because although the roots of Karate are definately as a martial art, the founders of modern Karate such as Gichin Funakoshi were notably non-violent. Gichin, in particular, saw the act of a physical fight as a failure on his part.
How can this be?
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Tuesday
12/13/2005 8:21:50 AM
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Michael Wells
Blue belt, black tip (7th kyu) has been successfully achieved. And it was a good, solid grading as well. The kata flowed well, the kihons flowed well... everything felt pretty well on-the-spot. I would have to call this my most successful grading yet, from a personal perspective of "hitting all the marks"
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Wednesday
11/30/2005 11:31:10 AM
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Michael Wells
For anyone who is unfamiliar, Taiko is a Japanese musical form which involves a very moving tribal-style dance to the sound of heavy, resonating drums. It's an intense experience and thoroughly soulful in its rendition.
I've always been fascinated by Taiko and recently decided to explore its connection with the martial arts, as Taiko visually involves very precise movements, coordination, and timing that are easily compared.
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Wednesday
11/23/2005 3:49:30 PM
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Michael Wells
I've been thinking a lot about metaphysics lately. Researching Sumerian creation myths, exploring sacred geometry, stuff like that. Why? Well, like any modern dude or dudette, I'd like to know where I came from, why I'm here, were I'm going. But mainly, I do it because it's fun. The mystery-enshrouded history of our origins and purpose are just an amazingly interesting way to stretch the mind.
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Saturday
9/24/2005 3:25:59 PM
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Michael Wells
Our Karate club graded today, and I tested for my white belt black-tip (9th kyu). Rather unexpectedly, I managed to double-grade to blue belt (8th kyu). Of course I'm very pleased; now I can officially begin learning a whole new level of katas, self-defenses, kihon kumite's, and so on. Earning a blue belt was one of my primary goals this year, and I've been working very hard to ensure my skills would be ready for the December grading -- so this is all excellent.
At the same time, because the double-grading was completely unexpected (I didn't actually know they were possible), I feel a bit like Neo. I've dived headlong down the rabbit hole and the world here is just a bit surreal.
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Sunday
8/14/2005 12:50:03 AM
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Michael Wells
Experiments in haiku. Yes, yes, I know. Stop snickering!
WillHammer strikes
The BodyAnvil. SpiritFlame flares,
The SoulSword is forged.
Sharpen the mind,
Strengthen the body
To nurture the soul.
What fails to kill you
Will make you stronger still
Fear no adversary / Live unconquerably / Fly into the Wind
Tread the trackless path
The Way of the Empty Hand
And live life fully
One who is afraid
Of Challenge, pain, and death
Is more afraid of Life
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Saturday
8/13/2005 12:58:02 PM
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Michael Wells
I see a lot of learning processes as being similar to the process of learning a language. In learning language, you first learn the range of sounds, which become distinct phonemes. You learn to arrange these phonemes into syllables, syllables into words, words into phrases, phrases into sentences, and onwards into well-communicated thoughts.
Karate is the same. You begin by learning simple motions (sounds and phonemes), which eventually become well-defined blocks, strikes, kicks, and stances (syllables). These are arranged into combinations that work well together (words), and ultimately become Kata (sentences). Sparring, then, parallels extemperaneous speech, which combines a quick wit with a well-trained tongue.
While observing some black belt kata at camp last weekend, I was struck with the intricacy of some of the movements, even though they are performed as quickly as possible. In some kata, your arm flies out forwards two or three times in rapid succession, but each time, your hand position and the angle of striking changes in significant ways -- as does the hand position when the hand retracts to the ready position for the next strike.
Immediately, I saw a challenge -- keeping your mind clear, unencumbered and focused properly so that you can achieve that kind of precision with blinding speed.
In parallel with language skills, it occurs to me that the same mental skills used in those kata may be employed when doing tonguetwisters -- and that practicing tonguetwisters just might help one to develop that mental agility.
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Saturday
8/13/2005 12:17:24 PM
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Michael Wells
I've become acutely aware that my size [120kg / 260lbs] has defensive advantages, but provides little if any offensive capability. I could probably hit decently hard, IF my target would only stand still.
The point is, this realization has focused my attention on "quickness"... quicker blocks, quicker strikes, quicker kicks, and connecting them all -- quicker stance changes which is actually much more exhausting than I'd like.
Wednesday night's class involved some bag drills; jab fast and hard for 0:30, switch hands, then 1:00, then 1:30... you learn quickly where your cardio and muscular fitness levels are. But as part of the exercise I found myself tracking my number of punches per second. In the 1:30 exercise, I was able to deliver 281 punches or 1.56 punches per second. Argh. Slooow. I'd feel at least competent with 2 punches per second, but my gut feel is that 3/sec would be good, and 4/sec would be blazing -- but still possible.
We're probably talking about a complete rebalancing of fast-twitch v. slow-twitch muscle, but I bet it can be done. Now to work up a training programme...
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Thursday
5/19/2005 11:01:27 AM
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Michael Wells
The movie Dragon (1993) is an excellent Rob Cohen flick about the life of Bruce Lee, starring Jason Scott Lee (of no relation) in the role of Bruce. It's a very worthwhile film, but I just discovered an earlier semi-biographical movie called Story of the Dragon (1976) which stars the man himself.
It's of course a 70's flick, with all of the 70's style, hairdos, attire and attitude... which grate on me a bit, but it was great to see a variation on the biographical theme starring Bruce himself [does that make it autobiographical when the subject stars in the movie?].
I have no sense of whether one version of the movie was a more accurate portrayal than the other, but the macro plot was similar (with some notable distinctions).
It was also great to see Bruce describe Jeet Kune Do in his one words, transcribed below. Of worthwhile note is that Bruce pronounced it CHEH-CHU-DAO, which I never would have guessed.
Transcription of Bruce's explanation of Jeet Kune Do to his class in the movie Story of the Dragon.
Ultimate kung fu
It combines all of the elements of the human character
It's aggressive, and submissive
It has no base, it has no limits
Pure responsiveness and nothing else
In fact it's kung fu taken beyond set techniques
I call it cheh chu dao
You understand?
It's the subordination of technique to instinctive response
and if you can grasp that you're there
That's che chu dao
In other words you're relaxed; you never prepare yourself
Don't take a stance, just react
No set techniques, no doctrine
Minimum action, maximum force
If your opponent is a live person
You can't anticipate all possible moves
It's a difficult concept
It'll take awhile
But it's worth making the effort, I promise
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Monday
5/9/2005 4:47:32 PM
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Michael Wells
One of the things that struck me in class yesterday was the similarity between Karate skills and language. Like a child, beginniers start off with the most rudimentary elements of the language, and practice and practice them until those elements become almost automatic. As the student progresses, those basic parts are assembled into sequences, and later, those sequences are further augmented.
In a straight language comparison...
- Blocks, Strikes, Kicks, and Stances are equivalent to Phonemes or Syllables.
- Basic combinations like jab-reverse punches, or block-kick, and even longer sequences like block-kick-block-punch, are equivalent to Words.
- Long sequences like Kata are the Sentences of the language.
And by extension, sparring is a bit like an argument. Ad-hoc, heavy on the improvisation, with frequent interruptions and initiative-stealing... but still consisting of the same basic elements used everywhere else.
It's also noteworthy that the head of our dojo, Kyoshi Danny Watson, has stunningly precise and lightning quick karate, spun together in seemingly endless combinations. His current daytime career? Radio talk show host.
It happens that I used to DJ briefly (and rather untalkatively) in high school, so the skills he's employing in his profession may be more evident to me. But if you listen, and realize that everything is happening in real-time, interactively, with unpredictable, live callers -- the timing and control he maintains over every aspect of the situation are inspired.
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Thursday
4/7/2005 9:59:23 PM
(CST)
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Michael Wells
Osu! I just finished my first-ever Seido Karate grading, and I am now an official white-belt! Certainly not the pinnacle of human achievement, and it pales in comparison to the achievements of the seniors in the class [meaning, basically, the whole class]. But, it was very memorable, and fun, and my knuckles are pleasantly sore from some good, solid push-ups.
I thought I'd drop this note in my blog as a personal time-capsule, so I can look back someday and say "Oh Yeah, I remember that day...".
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Monday
2/21/2005 10:45:45 PM
(CST)
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Michael Wells
At long last, I've decided to check out the martial arts. Like many people, I've always found the arts interesting and compelling; for the mental discipline and spiritual vigor as much as the physical skills.
Tonight was my first class; and a very memorable one. As I had no idea what to expect, I simply showed up, hoping I wasn't wearing my gi backwards or something equally obtuse.
The class was great! Probably the most compelling thing was that the vigor of the regimen wasn't hidden at all, even from the neophytes like myself. In the first day, 1,000 punches were thrown in chanted succession. Awesome.
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Copyright © 2003-2013, Michael Wells. All Rights Reserved.
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