Happy Dragon

Given there are many type of meditation, why wouldn't the mushin type of meditation be exactly what you've described, honoluludesktop?

I'll babble a bit too then! Good on you for getting back to your karate. It is funny how the path takes us to where we need to go. Strength first, that's easy: more push ups! As karateka we tend to rely on body weight exercise for strength. This gives us the needed speed without building the bulk associated with weight training. Make sure you do every variation of push ups you can find. Change the angle after working yourself to exhaustion and do it again. And again. You want to know how fit you are? Ah the beep test! We love to hate it at our club. Simply explained it is a run back and forth between lines 20 metres apart set at the pace of a recorded interval 'beep'. You keep running back and forth, the beeps get quicker and eventually you can't keep up, and your last successfully level is your score. It is also called the multi-stage fitness test, but no matter what the name, it tests a lot more than your running! It also provides a great standard for evaluation. Here in Australia the following beep test scores (along with push up and situp requirements) are needed for these various positions: Navy (standard recruits) - 6.1 Navy (Clearance Diver) - 10.1 Army (standard recruits) - 7.5 Army (Special Forces) - 10.1 Air Force (standard recruits) - 6.5 Air Force (Ground Defence Officer and Airfield Defence Guard) - 7.5 After you've run a beep test, so you have some idea of what this means, check out these record numbers from the Aussie Rules Football League - 15's!

Lyoto Machida's jumping mae geri "Knockout of the Night" at UFC 129 which put Randy Couture in retirement was the karate kick nobody missed. Bruce the real Dragon (sorry but Machida was born in 1978 the year of the Horse) Lee said, "There is only one type of body, 2 arms, 2 legs... there can only be one style of fighting", which I take to mean every striking style is going to have the same basic techniques.

There is another aspect of kata which only reveals itself through purposeful repetition. I believe this is the training path to experience the state of mushin no shin (無心の心 mind without mind). Something as abstract as a transcendent mental state can't be taught with description. Like a flower, the garden must be prepared and the seed planted, but the result only occurs with time and patience. To paraphrase the Zen saying, "Before Enlightenment perform kata practice bunkai, after Enlightenment, perform kata practice bunkai."

G'day from Brisbane, Australia Happy Dragon Martial Arts Shorin-ryu Shorinkan is our traditional Okinawan style We teach karate classes for kids and adults. Ous!