aurik

And so it begins... (Another test prep cycle). Last night was the first night of the spring test prep cycle. We had 9 students there, and there are 23 students who will be testing for various grades of black belt this coming May. (2 sandan, 6 nidan, 4 shodan, and 11 shodan-sho). This is probably the biggest testing class I've seen since I've been an instructor. The class was scheduled to start at 7:10 in the upstairs dojo (much smaller than downstairs, and with bamboo flooring instead of tatami mats), but the previously scheduled aikido class went over. As I've come to expect, the first few minutes of the class was all about setting expectations; the goal of this class is to fine-tune everything you need to know for the test. Yes, he is explicitly teaching the test in this class. The only material on the test is covered in the class, and the idea is you get feedback on what you need to work on in the test prep class, and then you work on those items in your other regular classes during the week. The general rule is if you have something big that's wrong and you can't fix it during the test prep, you need to wait until the next testing cycle to test, and there are a finite number of classes you're allowed to miss (3), or you will not be allowed to test. He always explains the rules up front, but in each cycle there are always one or two students who miss classes and find themselves "on the bubble" where if they miss another class, they won't be able to test. We skipped warmups and went straight into hojo undo. Unfortunately with the aikido class running late, I didn't have a chance to warmup at all, but the hojo undo kind of did that anyways (even though I was kind of stiff for the first few elements). Next up was Sanchin kata -- the students testing for shodan-sho apparently didn't get the memo that this part of the test was done top off (ladies are allowed to wear a t-shirt or sports bra), and they weren't aware that there is a "right" and "wrong" way to take off/fold/put away your top and belt. Well, technically there are a couple of "right" ways, and many many other wrong ways. The important part is that you don't drop the belt on the ground, and neatly fold the gi top, and put the belt neatly on top of the gi top. On the test, this is done in full view of the test board; you won't get bonus points for doing it well, but you can get points deducted for doing it poorly. The Sanchin kata wasn't much of a surprise to anyone -- they have all been subject to shime ("focus") testing for their last couple of tests. We did one kata as a full group, and then he broke us up into smaller groups to do shime testing. A few students got feedback on their Sanchin (mostly the shodan/shodan-sho candidates), and then we moved on to kotekitae, where we were all partnering up. I partnered up with Parker (he is also testing for sandan) for the evening, and we worked kotekitae for awhile (arm rubbing/arm pounding). As we were working through the different drills, we were giving each other feedback throughout the evening (we are also both candidates for shidoin licenses). Next came Seisan kata bunkai -- I haven't worked this much lately, so I definitely need some tuning up on it. Parker gave me some good feedback on things that didn't look quite right, and I did the same for him. Additionally, as we were in between repetitions, we noticed some of the more junior students struggling with a few things, so we walked them through some of the nuances. I also gave him corrections as well, mainly adjusting his targeting by a few inches on certain parts. Last up was our rank kata (Kanchin). Since this is the new item on this test for each of us, this is the item we are both working the hardest to fine-tune. The sequence I've been struggling the hardest with is the one I got the most feedback on -- it's a sequence that starts from a cat stance right after a wa-uke strike. The sequence starts with a left half-step forward followed by a right full step into a zenkutsu-dachi. At the same time, the right hand posts to interrupt a downward two-handed strike (think sword or baseball bat), the left hand then circles underneath to catch/redirect the opponent, while the right hand pulls hikite and then as the right foot lands in the zenkutsu-dachi, you use your forward momentum to strike with a mae-hiji-tsuki (forward elbow strike). After that elbow strike, we shift into a shiko-dachi, perform a scooping block to catch an incoming kick, and then push forward/throw the attacker. All in one sequence. If you look at this video the sequence is shown in slow motion around the 1:30 mark. Well, our CI gave me some detailed feedback on the sequencing on that, and I spent a good part of the remainder of class working on that. And I'll be continuing to work on it. The thing is, we have a similar sequence in our Seisan kata (required for shodan), but there are subtle differences, and those differences are what are driving my muscle memory crazy. But this is also the *exact* thing I needed to hear so I can work on it. And that one piece of feedback made this class very valuable to me. Tonight I'll be doing Kobudo and teaching again. Hopefully I'll be able to work in enough time at the end of class to run Kanchin with the other nidans. Until next week.

I apologize if I'm a bit late to the party here. A few years ago, our CI did this exact same thing to break down all of the kyu grades into smaller chunks for the youth (13 and under) students. For example, for yellow belt (9th kju), there are a few major components: conditioning (kotekitae), prearranged sparring (yakusoku kumite), Sanchin kata, and Kanshiwa kata. As a general rule, full-time students are able to test for 9th kyu after 3 months of instruction and X number of class hours. Well, for the youth students, he would break each of those core requirements down into thirds, and at each month mark, if the student could demonstrate that third of the curriculum, they'll get a stripe. He does this for each kyu grade up until sankyu (brown belt). Once a student reaches sankyu, the mini-tests end, and they are only testsed for full kyu grades. But this definitely helped the newer students with more frequent visual positive reinforcement of their progress. Another thing he changed was the belt system in general, or at least how it is visually represented: Kyu Grade - Adult belt - Youth belt 10th kyu - White - White 9th kyu - Yellow - Yellow 8th kyu - Yellow w/green stripe - Advanced yellow (yellow with black stripe around entire belt) 7th kyu - Yellow w/green tip - Orange 6th kyu - Green - Green 5th kyu - Green w/brown stripe - Blue 4th kyu - Green w/brown tip - Purple 3rd kyu - brown 2nd kyu - brown w/ black stripe 1st kyu - brown w/black tip

We actually practiced this very concept last night in our advanced class. Our CI discussed the rear-naked choke (hadaka-jime) and showed us one simple entry into it. This particular entry was based on our skue-uke (scooping block). At a high level, the attacker comes in with a (right) punch. The defender begins stepping same-side as the attacker, using his left hand to redirect the strike. As the defender continues to step around the attacker, he reaches over with the right hand and pulls on the attacking arm, both bringing the attacker forward/off-balance and helping him move farther around the attacker. He then reaches up with his left hand to the attacker's shoulder to start pivoting the attacker, while the right arm reaches up to clothesline the attacker, bringing him further off-balance. The defender then continues around behind the attacker, snaking the right arm around the neck, locking in the hadaka-jime, and then continuing to move to the attacker's left shoulder, pulling him off-balance and basically 5-10 seconds and that's all she wrote. As-is, it's a cool concept but it would be *REALLY* hard to get in on an attacker without a distracting strike or two in there. But it definitely got the point across.

Nice to see this topic being resurrected, so to speak. Seisan is one of the core kata in Uechi-Ryu. The kata itself is required testing material for shodan, and its bunkai is required for shodan through godan. As I am starting the test prep cycle for my sandan (testing sometim in May), I find myself performing this bunkai more and more in class, both as a student and as an instructor. And as I teach and practice the bunkai, I continue to learn subtle differences in application between different instructors. In Uechi-Ryu, our forms look somewhat different than most Japanese and Okinawan karate styles. The vast majority of our kata are performed in Sanchin stance. Every so often we'll transition to a modified Zenkutsu-dachi (for example, for a forward elbow strike), a Neko-dachi (usually when starting/ending a crane block), or a shiko-dachi (when performing certain other elbow techniques. Seisan falls right in the middle of our kata progression. We start with Sanchin (learned at white belt), have 3 "bridging kata", learn seisan (required for shodan), have another 2 "bridging kata", and our final kata is Sanseiryu (required for yondan/godan). There are apocryphal tales that Kanbun Uechi was also learning Suparinpei, but he never received a Menkyo (teaching license), so he never taught it. There are some Uechi-Ryu instructors that will teach a Suparinpei kata, but it is not an official part of any Uechi-Ryu curriculum as far as I know. For reference, here is a video of our version of Seisan and its bunkai: Seisan Bunkai

It's been an interesting few weeks. Some good news, some really rough news (that really started before my last update). The good news: a week ago Thursday I tested for (and passed) my test for gokyu in Matayoshi Kobudo. It's considered one of the harder tests, since you are required to perform all of the hojo undo for bo, sai, and tonkua in sequence, in addition to whatever other additional things our instructor wants to see. Usually he wants to see a kata or two, although the kobudo kata aren't *required* until dan gradings. However, he likes to see where you are, so that when you *do* test on the kata, you look really good at them. The test pretty well gassed me, but I made it through, and I thought I looked really good for everything I did. For my next test, I need to start working bo no hojo undo bunkai... so I get to start whacking my partner (and defending from) a bamboo bo. I've had the chance to do it a few times, and it's a lot of fun. I talked with my CI a couple weeks ago about how I really wanted to start getting feedback for Kanchin (my kata required for sandan), since I am testing in May and want to polish it as best I can before I test. So he has been making a point to do so. On last Tuesday's class, our CI had me working seisan bunkai (a core test requirement, something which I don't get to practice very often), and then he and his younger brother made a point to get the nidans out to practice Kanchin. I got some really good feedback from that - in certain places I was stepping too far, and other places I needed to shift my weight further forward. Definitely good stuff. Thursday night, I attended weapons class, and we went through all the basics with a few kata in there. I'm starting to really get the hang of the second bo kata (choun no kun). It's hard memorizing these kata sometimes, because you don't get to run through them very often. But I'm pretty sure I've memorized most of that one. In my teaching session, I had the pleasure to work with Jack, who is a yellow belt who is about Zach's age. He's a real joy to work with. He's all knees and elbows and uncoordinated as a 13 year old can be, but he listens, tries to do what you ask, and he always thanks me profusely for working with him. Now for the really hard stuff. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine was killed in a motorcycle accident. She had been going through some tough times - dealing with an abusive relationship, lost her job, was about to get evicted from her apartment. She weathered this huge storm of <insert epithet here>, and everytime life knocked her down, she got right back up. She had just found a new job at the beginning of January, and she had just signed the lease for a house that she loved. As she was riding home that same night from work, someone pulled out in front of her, and she slammed into that vehicle. I don't know if she died instantly, but she was gone before they could load her into an ambulance. And... she was the glue that held her whole family together, and I'm now watching the family get torn apart. Her 2 youngest (3 and 10) are going to NC to live with their grandmother, since their dad doesn't feel he can take care of them in his current state. Her sister and 21 year old daughter are trying to strongarm her 17 (almost 18) year old into moving in with either of them (he turns 18 at the end of Feb). And the 2 youngest's dad may be going back into a really dark place that it took him 2 years to get out of the last time. And sadly there's not a whole lot I can do from where I stand. But it breaks my heart to see it happen, because I know how important it was to her to have all 3 of her youngest living together under the same roof.

It has been a ... little while since I last posted in here. Life has been pretty darned hectic, trying to keep up with family life, work life, martial arts life, and posting in here. Fortunately, the martial arts life hasn't suffered, but keeping up with this thread sadly has. I have continued to train in Uechi-Ryu and kobudo as often as my other commitments allow, and I have also continued to teach almost every week. Zach is preparing to enter high school, so it seems that there's always some new event associated with that to go to. Last night it was an introduction to the different classes and "pathways" he can take at his high school. Fortunately, the high school is less than a mile from our house, so unless the weather is absolutely awful, we shouldn't ever have to drive him to/from school. Here in Colorado, we have a "choice of school" system, where you have the school you are zoned for, but you can actually select any school within the school district. We have several excellent schools that are options (including the one he picked), so unfortunately some of his friends may be going to a different school. Fortunately, many of them are going to the same school At the beginning of this year, I made several resolutions. The first one is to be more consistent in my training - not just in martial arts, but also getting into better shape overall. As I get older, I find that if I take any significant time off (more than a week), it takes a REALLY long time to get back to where I was. This kicks in especially hard if I spend any time at sea level. Back in October I took a trip to see the St Louis Blues (ice hockey team) play their home opener. We got a hotel within walking distance of the arena, and I had the opportunity to show Tracy and Zach some of the places I really enjoyed growing up. The pre-game festivities were a lot of fun, and I got a couple autographs from some of the Blues' alumni. Unfortunately the Blues just flat out got blown away in the game, but everything else was fun. Well, while I was there, I went to visit a Uechi-Ryu Kenyukai (different organization) dojo and both Zach and I had the opportunity to train with them for a day. I got some very good and pointed feedback on my rank kata. Some of the feedback was specific to the Kenyukai organization, but I found all of it quite valuable and insightful. I've had a couple promotions in Kobudo, and most of all I'm finding my technique improving substantially. The key improvement I think I've found is that I'm more able to activate my hips when wielding the tonkua, and that is helping me with the other weapons - bo and sai mainly. I'm also finding that there are lessons from kobudo that translate directly to Uechi-Ryu - after all, karate and kobudo were developed alongside each other, so the lessons in one often apply to the other. I've also continued to progress in my bladesmithing/weaponsmithing. Over the holidays I took a class for a kitchen knife (they're a LOT harder than they look) which turned out amazing, and last week I made an arming sword. The kitchen knife class was very well-run and I am delighted with the result. The arming sword class taught me a LOT about consistency, both with the forging and the grinding. I still have some work to finish out on the arming sword, but once I get that finished, I'll be posting the pictures here. Lastly, I just got the news that I'll be testing for sandan this May, and (assuming I pass), I should also receive my Shidoin license. Just in the past few months I've started to feel pretty confident in my Kanchin kata (required for 3rd degree) enough to ask for help in fine-tuning it. So I'll need to make a point in getting to the advanced adult class more often. This will also mean skipping some of Zach's Scout activities, but that's why we have a 2 parent team here. I promise the next update won't be NEARLY as far off as this one was...

I consider ukemi to be one of the absolutely most important lessons I ever learned in martial arts. It literally saved my life once. About 15 years ago, I was visiting family near Aspen, CO. I was carrying a large box in both hands on an icy patch of ground. My feet slipped out from underneath me, and I went from vertical to horizontal in an instant. If I had not known instinctively to land flat on my back with my chin tucked firmly to my chest, I would likely not be here today.

Our CI thinks of the curriculum as a menu. You present the whole menu to your students, and then they can pick and choose what items off the menu really speak to them. However, as an instructor, it is his (and my) responsibility to present the entire menu to his students. The official, tested curriculum has changed very little in the 8 years that I have been training. There are a few small items that have been added that were in response to COVID (set sparring combinations to give students a primer when we couldn't actually touch our opponents). Also some small items have changed in terms of execution. However, the on-paper requirements are the same. I will say that things have evolved a bit here and there. Every so often, our CI will visit Okinawa or a seminar, and find out that the grandmasters of the various organizations have changed something. For example, at one point one of our drills was performed with the flat fist (seiken-tsuki). Then suddenly it changed to a leopard-fist (hiraken-tsuki). No explanation as to why, but it was just different. These changes are sometimes specific to one organization within Uechi-Ryu, and sometimes they are across all organizations. In any case, our karate slowly evolves over time.

This got me thinking quite a bit -- we don't frequently pull hikite in Uechi-Ryu. For example, our kata generally start with the hands in a guard position, we chamber the strike, execute the strike, and then return to the guard position. We do pull hikite in some of our two-person drills, when we execute a sequence of strikes. However, it's sufficiently uncommon that we don't explain the "why"; we just do it. However, in thinking about the reasons you posted, several of them come to mind -- specifically the grabbing and pulling your opponent, and also activating the hips. IMO these both go hand in hand for us. We are taught that when we receive a strike, we should grab it, pull it (to disrupt the opponent), and this also activates the hips to prime the counterstrike.

This is more of a HEMA (Historical European Martial Art) topic, but definitely weapons-related. Last week I went down to Kilroy's Workshop in Colorado Springs and made.. you guessed it, a poleaxe! The class was originally designed with the venetian poleaxe in mind, but I had a couple of "happy accidents", and ended up with something slightly different (but very cool). We started out with a chunk of 4140 steel (a chromium tool steel, used frequently in car engines). We punched and drifted a hole in it (for the handle), and then squeezed out the back end which was supposed to be a hammer head: https://i.imgur.com/Ih0CMci.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/SN4kZSA.jpeg Next, we were supposed to start flattening out the larger head, which was intended to be the axehead. I ended up flattening out the hammer end, so I went with it and turned it into a spike/hook. After that, I used a power hammer to forge out the axe head into rough shape: https://i.imgur.com/HvOvX1g.jpeg Next stop: the grinder. In this case, an angle grinder with a flap disc. I ground off the forge scale (magnetite, a specific type of iron oxide that occurs at high temperatures) and ground in the profile shape: https://i.imgur.com/b8XZBqu.jpeg Next came the heat treatment. Heat it up to a reddish-orange heat, let it cool down. That relaxes some of the stresses induced from forging. Then heat to an orange-red and quench in oil. That looked like this: https://i.imgur.com/2Ozi2qB.jpeg After that, I took a 12" piece of 1 inch square bar, used an angle grinder to split it in half down 5" down, then forged the tip out into a spear point, and forged the split ends into a pair of langets that fit over the axe/spike head: https://i.imgur.com/rhJgHGT.jpeg I then took a 6' long piece of hickory, rounded it, shaped the end to fit the eye of the axe/spike head, and drilled a hole through the spear tip + axe head + pole. Attached with one 1/4" iron rivet and 4 3/16" bronze rivets. Add in some mild steel langets to finish things out: https://i.imgur.com/3lfHhL4.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/xUZyxMX.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/tAKawuD.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/Us2dFfj.jpeg

My wife has started writing recently. Not her memoirs or anything, but a story she wants to tell. She doesn't know if she'll share it with anyone (even me), but she is writing. If you are toying with the idea of writing your memoirs or the history of the SKAA, or whatnot - go ahead and do it. Just because you don't feel like you're a good writer now doesn't mean you can't learn the skill. And if you decide it is something you want to publish you can always take one of those ghost writers up on their offer, and you will already have something for them to start from. Bob, there's no time to start like the present. That goes for any journey, whether it be writing, self-realization, martial arts, or whatnot.

So has anyone seen it yet? Worth it, or wait until it hits streaming services?

Bob, your mind and your insights are the greatest gifts you can give to your students. In your decades of experience, you can look at someone and see exactly what that student needs to change to get better. That is what I love about training with senior instructors -- not that they necessarily can demonstrate the physical skills that I'm trying to learn. Their value to me is that they can look at the techniques I'm trying to do, and give me those nuggets of insight that makes my karate better. You have senior students that can demonstrate the moves with the right speed, power, and technique. However, what you bring to the table is the ability to look at a student's technique and say "Do this differently", and those little changes and tweaks can improve their technique by leaps and bounds. I was just talking about this a few weeks ago -- we had a guest instructor come to our dojo back in May, and in about 15 minutes over the course of 2 days, he helped my son's technique improve more than I've seen in the past year. Not through demonstration, but through observation and verbal feedback. Something like that you can do from a chair, and can be invaluable to the student in question.

Game 3 was just a bucket of mayhem. 140 penalty minutes between the two teams -- shattering the previous NHL record for PIMs in a Stanley Cup Finals game. By the third period, the refs had just had enough and started handing out game misconducts to anyone who stepped over the line. The Panthers ended up with 6 power plays. If Edmonton wants to have a chance of pulling this off, they've got to get their emotions in check and stay out of the penalty box.

Oshie was one of my favorite Blues' players when he played for them. He played with such heart and intensity -- he was a joy to watch. I was sad to see he'd been traded to the Caps, but I was very happy to see that he won a Cup with them.