aurik

Sadly, the Hurricanes are 0-13 in Conference Finals games going all the way back to their last Stanley Cup in 2006. They haven't won a single game in the conference finals since then.

As a former Dallas resident, I gotta say "GO STARS!"

So I saw Ian yesterday at his dan grading (he was grading for nidan). I asked him about that sokusen geri -- the third time, Gushi sensei hit him hard. Of course, Ian, being the good Uechi Ryu karateka he is, kept a stolid face. Gushi leaned in and whispered, "That hurt, didn't it?" He definitely nodded. It turns out he had a bruise on that thigh visible from across the room (his mom noticed too.) Fortunately being the young guy he is, he recovered in a few days.

This past weekend was, to put it lightly, intense. We had a guest instructor, Tsukasa Gushi, visit our dojo over the weekend and taught a seminar for both Uechi-Ryu and Matayoshi Kobudo. He is the head of the Ryukokaku Karate & Kobudo Association -- at his dojo you train both karate and kobudo as part of the same program (unlike ours where they are separate programs and ranking). His other job -- a professional race car driver. The last time he was in Colorado he raced in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. The weekend was, for a lack of a better term, intense. We trained for 2 hours in Kobudo on Friday, 2 hours in kobudo followed by 2 hours of karate on Saturday, and then another 2 hours of Karate on Sunday. There was a second 2 hour karate session on Sunday, but Zach and I had other plans -- we were taking Mrs Aurik out to celebrate Mother's Day. The Kobudo sessions covered material I'd never seen before. We started out with a new bo kata: Seijun no Bo, followed by an Eiku (Okinawan oar) kata: Tsuka Akachu no Eikudi, followed by the Jiffa (Okinawan hairpin) kata. We had trained a bit with the Eiku the previous week, and I have to say that I'm very grateful that I have gotten used to my purpleheart beast. The Eiku is very heavy (even just a traditional oak one), and the balance takes quite a bit of getting used to. Fortunately, one of our instructors brought a batch of his own, and at least some of them were made of poplar, which is oh so much lighter. I would say that over the course of the 4 hour seminar, I started getting the hang of the Eiku, but I still have a long ways to go before I can say I am comfortable with it. And the Jiffa kata reminds me a LOT of some Shuri-Ryu I had done and seen many many years ago -- it reminded me a lot of the Kanku Sho kata, with the crescent kick/spin/duck to the ground sequence. Unfortunately we only had a handful of real jiffa, so we made do with substitutes. The Uechi-Ryu segments of the seminar were very enlightening as well. While we didn't cover anything really new until the end of the second session, he brought new understanding and interpretations to everything we did know. For example, he started by evaluating our hojo undo techniques, providing feedback on issues he saw. For example, he really stressed the fact that every block we do needs to end with our hands in a tiger claw. Why? Because everytime we block/receive a technique, we should get in the habit of grabbing the attacker. Likewise, he had slightly different interpretations of how to perform certain of our techniques, such as seiken tsuki and hiraken tsuki. We then ended the hojo undo session with a discussion of Uechi-Ryu's sokusen geri, or toe kick. Gushi sensei started that section out by demonstrating the toe kick on one of our black belts (Ian) in the outer thigh. He wasn't gentle with it, either -- I hope the bruises aren't too bad. Next, we started working kata, primarily kanshiwa and seisan. One of the things I remember most is when he was discussing the lunging elbow strike. The tendency is to lunge forward, stop, and then do the elbow strike. He then demonstrated on me that the proper way is to lunge and strike in the same movement - it was quite effective. I had to step back several feet to get my balance. I'll need to figure out how to demonstrate that to my students next time without actually hurting them Towards the end of the second session, we worked on their version of dan kumite. It is much like our dan kumite, but they add a few extra moves to each sequence. I liked it, but sadly we had to get out of there in time to take my wife out for her Mother's Day celebration. The best part of the seminar though was what Zach got out of it. As he has grown so quickly, he has gotten "floppy" in his movements. He tries to put power into everything, but it's undisciplined power. Gushi sensei noticed this and pulled him aside several times over the course of the seminar. He said 'for now' (next year or so), focus on doing your techniques without any hip pivot or shoulder pivot. Learn disciplined movements. And he listened. And over the course of the seminar, as he kept getting that feedback from an outside source, his technique improved noticeably. I made a point to tell him how much better his techniques looked, and I made it a point to tell him to keep working on it. Sometimes, getting the right outside opinion makes all the difference.

Uechi-Ryu originates from Pangai-Noon kung fu; when Kanbun Uechi (the founder) trained in China, he learned 3 kata: sanchin, seisan, and sanseiryu. In terms of modern day Uechi-Ryu, these kata are now required at white belt, black belt (shodan), and yondan. I would not say that "sanchin" is a beginner's kata, though. It *is* the foundation of our style. You can learn the basics of Sanchin fairly quickly, but we train it everyday, and we are tested on it at every level, from kukyu to judan. One of our sayings is "all is in Sanchin", or "always return to Sanchin". We can always describe a stance or kamae by "start with Sanchin, and then do this". It isn't so much a beginner kata for us; it is the foundation of our style. After Kanbun Uechi passed and his son Kanei took the reins, he realized that the leap in required understanding from Sanchin to Seisan was too great for many students to handle. Therefore, he and some of his senior students created 3 new kata: Kanshiwa, Kanshu, and Seichin. These "bridging kata" each introduce a small set of concepts which are then assembled into Seisan. Each kata adds a few new techniques to a student's repertoire. Therefore, when a student starts to learn, say, Seichin, there are only 3 new techniques they haven't already seen. Likewise, Seisan only introduces 3 new techniques as well. Once a student earns his black belt rank, there is still quite a gulf in understanding from Seisan to Sanseiryu. Therefore, Kanei introduced two additional bridging kata; Seiryu and Kanchin. Again, each of these kata only introduces 2 or 3 new techniques. And once the student is proficient in Kanchin, there is really only one new technique introduced in the final kata of the system (sanseiryu). However, Sanseiryu is a very long kata, and involves moving in eight directions, instead of just four. So trying to learn new techniques AND learning the movement patterns would most likely be considered overwhelming (I don't yet know Sanseiryu). So to circle back to the original question, in Uechi-Ryu, the kata are sequenced such that each kata introduces a new set of techniques, and each kata builds on the knowledge of previous kata. For example, Sanchin introduces the basic stance, fundamental posture, fundamental striking techniques. Kanshiwa introduces the idea of stepping off the line of attack, receiving and countering a strike, and a few other things. One thing that is fundamental in Uechi-Ryu is also that anything you learn at one rank/kata level is supposed to be performed at *all* of your kata. For example, at shodan, students are expected to start using hip pivoting to generate power. This is expected to be included in *all* of their kata.

Well-done! I know it can't be easy.

No kidding. They were -><- this close to closing out the W, and the Jets scored with 2.2 seconds left in the game. They stayed with them through the first OT, but the second OT they fell back to the "dump and chase" that wasn't working for them. It's like they'd dump the puck and wouldn't get it back, so that was most unfortunate. But they overachieved in a big way, so I can't complain.

In Uechi-Ryu, we have a saying, "All is in Sanchin", and as far as stances go, this is no exception. Almost all of our kata and drills are performed in Sanchin stance, and this stance is pretty basic yet subtle. You can tell someone "feet shoulder width apart, move one foot forward slightly, turn it in about 30-45 degrees." However, that is the beginning of Sanchin. There are quite a few subtleties that you only learn after practicing Sanchin kata for some time and having instructors test your stability. We perform kata almost exclusively in Sanchin, we perform our drills in Sanchin, and to a certain degree, we are expected to fight/spar in Sanchin. The other stances we utilize are all derived from Sanchin, and are used in specific situations for a specific purpose. We have a neko dachi (cat stance), which starts in Sanchin where you basically shift the weight to the back foot and lift the front foot up to rest on the toe (not the ball of the foot). This is frequently used prior to or immediately following a crane (e.g. shin) block. We also have a version of Zenkutsu dachi, where you start from Sanchin and use your rear leg to drive yourself forward, usually to do an elbow strike into an opponent's sternum. Where your foot naturally lands -- that's a Zenkutsu dachi. Finally, we have a low stance, nominally a shiko-dachi, which starts from a sanchin stance, and you slide your front foot forward and to the (out) side enough to drop your center of gravity such you're below your opponent's center of gravity, and an elbow strike will land right at your opponent's sternum. Again, these 3 other stances are transitional stances, and used for specific brief sequences. For the vast majority of our kata and drills, we live in Sanchin

We have several different sets of 2-person drills. At the white and yellow belt levels, we train in yakusoku kumite dai ichi and dai ni. These are basic prearranged sparring drills that start with a basic back and forth sequence of punches and blocks. They start off with one punch/block, one punch/block and then move up to sequences of 2 or 3 different attacks/defenses. As students progress to green belt ranks, they learn our kyu kumite and kicking drills. These present more complex sequences of attacks and defenses, and these also start introducing the concept of manipulating the attacker. For example, in our kicking drill, we have a sequence where the attacker comes in with a side kick (yoko geri). The defender sweeps the kick out of the way, which encourages the attacker into a spinning hook kick. As students mature, they start making these connections, where if I do this as a defense, the attacker is likely to do that. At brown belt and black belt levels, we practice our dan kumite drill. This drill introduces the concepts of flow, and it is expected to be done in renzoku style, that is, in one seamless drill with minimal pauses between sequences. Nominally it is done in 12 sequences -- partner A is the attacker for sequences 1-5, partner B attacks on sequences 1-5, partner A attacks for sequence 6 (which involves a takedown/throw), and then partner B attacks for sequence 6. However, for advanced students (1st kyu and up), it is expected to be executed as one flowing drill. It is also at this level that students are expected to start demonstrating a balance between speed, power, and technique. Last, but certainly not least, we have our hojo undo (supplementary exercises) techniques. These are very similar to kihon drills in other styles; they consist of short sequences derived from our kata. For example, one of them is circle block/front kick. At the beginning of class we will do these right after our warmups. However, these can also be done with a partner, where the partner attacks with a mid-level lunge punch, and the defender replies with the assigned hojo undo technique.

Back in the 80's/90's, I remember reading a Black Belt magazine article that centered around this concept. A few options that were mentioned were a set of car keys and a car antenna. Of course, in this day and age it's not uncommon to have a key fob without any physical keys on it. And at least on my truck, I don't have a proper antenna on it -- I had to replace it with a stubby antenna so it would fit in my workplace parking garage.

So one other thing I'm going to have to do for the next little while -- take it really easy in kobudo classes. I've got something going on in my left shoulder/tricep area that doesn't feel quite right. It's one of those things where it's not seriously wrong -- yet. But you also know that if you don't take it easy and let it heal, it WILL be a bad thing. Two of the people in my dojo have had to deal with biceps and/or rotator cuff tears, and I definitely don't want to be the third. I have been battling a partial tear in my left rotator cuff for the past 10+ years, but this triceps issue is something new. That's the other thing us experienced MA'ists need to know how to do. Figure out how to train through minor injuries and not make things worse.

I'm not too worried about my Blues @KarateKen -- they made the mistake of finding themselves up 3-2 and took their foot off the gas. If they can play all 3 periods like they played the last 2, they should have a really good chance to win this series.

Congratulations, Wado Heretic!

Circling back on this thread -- it's not that I haven't been training, it's that I haven't been posting. Shame on me. One thing I have been finding is that the older I get, the longer it takes to regain my conditioning once it slips. So while we're now into April, I'm still not at the conditioning level I was at before my first incident back in last May/June. Of course, it doesn't help much that I took most of a month off back in November after my surgery. However, I'm still training regularly - at least twice a week for weapons and karate. I've been struggling with scheduling -- my wife seems to keep scheduling things over the days/times I usually go, which makes attendance a challenge. However, I'm training as best I can as often as I can. Of course, one thing that makes things even more challenging is that in the past year, I've added kobudo to the mix. Optimally, I'd love to be able to train kobudo/karate back to back. I usually am able to do that on Thursday and Saturday; Thursday is possible because as an instructor on Thursdays I get to pick and choose how intensely I train. Saturdays is only a 1 hour karate class and I can usually budget my energy during that class. Tuesdays is a challenge, because weapons completely wear me out. However, I'm going to start making more of an effort to train individually on off-days to improve my overall fitness. One thing I also need to do is have a frank conversation with my wife about our priorities and schedules. I mean I could in theory train on Monday or Wednesday nights, but Tuesday is the advanced adult (karate) class, which I really should be attending regularly. One good piece of news is that our CI is bringing in Tsukasa Gushi, son of Shinyu Gushi, who is the 2nd generation head of the Ryukokaku Karate & Kobudo Association. If you search for "Gushi Sensei" on youtube, you'll see videos of Shinyu Gushi performing all of the Uechi-Ryu kata, both full-speed and in slow-mo. He'll be running both karate and kobudo seminars over the weekend of May 9-11 (Mother's day). I've signed up both Zach and me up for the seminar -- I'll most likely be extremely gassed by the end of the weekend.

I watched the Blues play their final regular season game last night with the playoffs on the line -- they did not disappoint. After 3 tough losses, the Blues came out firing on all cylinders. Their newly promoted rookie, Jimmy Snuggerud got his first NHL goal AND an assist AND was named third star of the game. The kid is making his presence felt, and is already a staple in their top 2 lines. I'm feeling really good about the Blues chances of making a deep playoff run this year. So far they're undefeated on home ice since February (12 games). Of course, being the 8th seed, they'll need to win at least one game on away ice in every round. LetsGoBlues!