Spodo Komodo

All I ever do is to wash on a 30 degree quick cycle, about half the usual amount of washing powder and most importantly no fabric conditioner. I then line dry if possible, if it is damp outside I hang it in the shower indoors to drip dry. When nearly dry I iron it and place the jacket on a hanger, the trousers go on one of those clip-hangers usually used for skirts. A bit more air-drying and the thing is like plate armour, excellent snap and wrinkle free (to start with).

Its not really a risk, I put up an almost blank blog, all it had was a picture of a tree and the caption "I don't know what I am doing with this yet", back when I was learning about blogger. I forgot about it and started other blogs, fully intending to get around to writing something for it in the future. It gets around 15-30 hits per day!

I tried it once and couldn't keep it going. I do blog on other subjects but I don't really know enough interesting stuff to keep the momentum going on karate. My blog that gets the greatest volume of viewings is one on painting Subbuteo, people seem to like pictures and how-to guides far more than interesting prose. Mind you, a lot of my viewers are Italian so they may not necessarily read English.

The UK magazine scene is dying fast. I used to love Traditional Karate but it got rolled into Combat Magazine and reduced to about ten pages of karate. Now Combat is no more and all we are left with is Martial Arts Illustrated (mediocre at best) and a few Ju Jitsu titles that are more like celebrity tabloids than a proper MA mag. I found a picture of my local newsagents from 2000 in the local paper a few weeks ago, three quarters of the shelves were hobby, sports and serious magazines such as The Economist, New Scientist, Practical Astronomy etc. I looked in there last Friday and four fifths of the shelves are celebrity gossip rags, the remaining being car and football magazines, basically celebrity gossip for "the lads".

Someone else has mentioned A.J.Van Dijk recently, I have to admit that I hadn't heard of him but he seems to have come to prominence during my hiatus from Karate. I shall check his books out, thanks for the recommendation.

The two books by Shingo Ohgami are excellent, Introduction to Karate covers basic techniques, the Ohyogumite and Kihon Kumite while Karate Katas of Wado Ryu gives step by step kata from the Pinans as far as Chinto. They are a bit old now though so you may find them hard to get hold of. Together with Frank Johnson's book covering the kata and kihon kumite (which seems to be the one you already have) they are the only books on Wado I have read. I have yet to buy Otsuka's tome (although I hope to soon) and I don't know anyone who has read Danubio's book which may or may not be worth a look (although it is very pricey). Apart from that very little has been written about Wado Ryu. Avoid Mark Cody's book, I had a look through it and while it is ok in parts most of it seems to be Cody's own interpretation of karate, not necessarily Wado.

Double congratulations and then some for being so colour coordinated!

Definitive information on stretching is like the holy grail of MA training. I have spent the past few months researching stretching regimes in order to get my side and round kicks above waist level and I have come to the conclusion that lots of people have stretched effectively for what they want to do with themselves, each of them did it slightly differently and spent ages working out what types of stretching worked for them. I don't think there is a shortcut in this I think it is one of those "work it out for your own body type, goals and reasons". I am finding some gains in holding a side split stretch for quite some time (~5 minutes then a further 3 mins after a short rest) but a friend of mine is getting similar results from dynamic side lifts which did nothing for me. I don't know the physiology but it seems to be a very complex question.

It's great stuff, it improves performance, concentration, aids recovery and improves general health. It is a simple chemical compound formed by two hydrogen molecules bound to one of oxygen, H2O...

I eat a balanced diet so I don't feel the need to take any supplements other than Dihydrogen Monoxide in liquid form before, during and after training. A guy I used to work with gave himself a whole raft of health problems with protein powders, thermobolic this and catabolic that. Seeing him with kidney problems really put me off using any of them.

I hope not, I'm the only short, fat, hairy, hunchback karateka around here...

Yes, between Ikea cafeteria and Decathlon I spend most of my weekends at Giltbrook Retail Park.

I'll probably just nip to decathlon at the weekend and grab a cheap tracksuit. I would have done that before but I only got a couple of days notice about the new venue and had to make do with what I had. It was either that or a spongebob onesie. I went for the option that would cause the least public outrage.

Since it is the school holidays one of the clubs I train with has been looking round for a place to train on a short term basis. The place they found nearby has no changing facilities (and we have been asked not to change in there anyway) but is cheap and cheerful. Those who get a lift to the dojo or drive there themselves are ok, they can go there and come back in their karategi but I walk nearly half way then catch a bus for the final few miles. Searching round for something to protect my karategi from trail dust and bus-grime I found nothing, all my shellsuits went to charity shops back in the late 90s. However, I did bite the bullet and put on my black iaido uwagi and hakama over my karategi, just for travelling. It was surprisingly practical for walking and public transport, being black it also didn't show the dirt and my karategi was spotless by the time I got there. I did get asked if I was giving meditation lessons by a couple of old ladies on the bus though, maybe I shouldn't have had my short summer haircut at the same time.

The club generally goes for one style or another. The first club I trained with wore just a gi for everyday training and brown belts (1st kyu) and above wore hakama for advanced classes and formal occasions, with pants underneath. The second club I trained with had everyone in hakama from green belt (3rd kyu) for all training, pants optional. They started training in hakama origami from 5th kyu though so everyone was folding like a master by the time they had to wear them.

I wear these Tokaido shin & instep guards under my gi without a problem. I have also worn them over my gi where that is the preferred manner. They slide nicely under the fabric so you don't really get any tightening of the pants over the knee when kicking, if you wear them on the outside then you need to draw enough material over the top to allow the knee to bend properly which then creates a toe-trap for your opponent. Personally I think under is safer but I can see the reason why someone might want all safety equipment visible to the instructors.

I have a specific Aikido gi, soft canvas so it is strong but doesn't give the snap of a Karate gi. It has a short uwagi and zubon that only reach to mid shin in order to be worn under the hakama when needed. They are easily available in the UK so I guess they should be available most places.

Ey'up Titanium, good to see another Tup on't forum!

Yes, I have been to one of Iain's seminars before, back when Bunkai Jutsu was first published. If they are still the same type of thing then definitely go, I learned some new things, revised some stuff I already knew and had a great time with new friends. If you are a podcast fan then you know the kind of stuff you will be getting, kata bunkai and lots of it. If that is your thing then you are going to enjoy yourself.

Effective teaching in any subject requires a certain degree of emotional maturity, a balance of empathy and cynicism that only comes with taking life's knockbacks. The ability to see if someone is genuinely struggling or faking can mean the difference between being a bully, being an effective teacher or being a pushover. I have taught maths to teenagers for years and I don't believe that anyone at 16 is ready to be the chief instructor. They may be technically brilliant and have a clear descriptive style but that is only part of effective teaching. I would be concerned if I were training under a 16 year old CI without another adult instructor to air my grievances to but with a bit of luck the problem should go away in about 10 years. This rather smells of cynical controversy based marketing ploy to me, aimed at getting the school as much coverage as possible for free. I would bet there is someone in the background there with enough nous to see a marketing gift horse.

I'm not sure what you mean. Every karate lesson I have been a part of has had a good section devoted to applications/bunkai/concepts where a particular kata movement is applied to one or more situations and the key concepts of the movement demonstrated. What these guys are doing is exactly that, applying kata movements. I have only seen one class (from a certain contentious karate organization which shall remain nameless) where the whole session was just basic drills and then kata but it was a beginners session with a very junior instructor - I wasn't very impressed and didn't join them on the mat thankfully. As for teaching it, generally we find the puzzling moves in the kata that the students are learning and show them how they can be used to block, evade, throw or trap. The first one in the video is the movement from the beginning of Pinan Sandan and one that we teach quite early in the syllabus. it stops kata being just a dance with odd moves and helps students to appreciate kata rather than dreading learning another one.

There is only one other MA school within 10km of my home and that is a GKR club. If you include Tai Chi with the grannies (most have an average student age of 75 and are exclusively female, most men are long dead by 75 around here) then there are 9 and about another 8-10 yoga groups. There used to be Enshin Karate, Shotokan Karate, TKD, Japanese Ju Jitsu, Brazilian Ju Jitsu, Wing Chun and Kendo but they all shut down during the global financial meltdown of the past five years.

You might find it helpful to practice breath control during meditation. Breathing abdominally and counting to five or more on both the inbreath and the outbreath with a two-count at full inhalation and exhalation can help to get you used to both abdominal breathing and the focussing effect of controlled breathing. Once you have the hang of it while sitting you can try applying it to your kata.

There is a theory that extreme versions of natural stances build strong legs. There is also the idea that it is difficult to move from one stance to another in these extremes so the feeling is exaggerated and from that the student learns to minimise the effort needed, creating a more efficient movement. Without the amplification of feeling caused by deeper stances this learning process is supposedly more difficult to get right. Having done some Shotokan in early life all I can say is that my knees feel they have learned their lesson...

I would just go careful today and see if it swells up later on. I broke my middle metatarsal a couple of years ago and I was able to walk on it but it kept swelling up at night. It took an x-ray to find out that it was cracked through but essentially splinted by the bones either side. In my walking boots I was fine but walking barefoot made the crack flex and caused pain after a while. I could just have been the joints in the foot popping but if you get any recurrence of pain or swelling it is probably best to see a doc.