aurik

It is certainly your prerogative to decide if and who you will teach. While I primarily teach adults, there are a number of kids of various ages who attend the adult classes I teach. There are some who are an absolute joy to teach -- we have one kid who is about 13-14. He is struggling to learn the material, but he is always willing to listen, is very humble and respectful, and after every class I teach, he will come up to me and personally thank me for working with him. On the other hand we have other kids who have a hard time focusing, and when you're trying to teach a lesson, they are doing silly stuff. I mean, yes they are kids, but that's the reason that I prefer to teach adults over kids. Teaching any age of student can be challenging for a multitude of reasons. Younger can kids have a hard time understanding some of the concepts you're wanting to teach. Teenage kids often have attitudes, and lose control of their bodies due to all the growth spurts and changes that are happening, and adults are often set in their ways. However, I will also say that I learn every bit as much by teaching as I do from receiving instruction from others. They often say "the best way to really understand something is to teach it to someone else"

Goudas should have definitely gotten more than 5 games because of that, but I suspect the CBA requires that he be a repeat offender to a certain degree.

One thing we are stressing in our test prep classes is the concept of "sincere attacks". The attacker does a disservice to the defender if he/she does not perform an attack that will strike (but not injure!) the defender unless the defender performs the proper defense and counter. This is the reason we use shinai instead of bokken when training our bunkai -- if you smack someone in the head or the hands with a shinai, it'll hurt a bit. If you do the same with a bokken, you'll likely injure him, possibly seriously. I speak from experience; I've been smacked in the fingertips and the forehead with a shinai once or twice. It's no fun and a harsh reminder of why as the defender you need to intercept the sword attacks before they get any momentum. (Yeah, nobody's going to attack you with a sword, but a baseball bat or pool cue is a more realistic possibility).

Anyone who is an instructor or assistant instructor can sit on a test board for candidates up to one rank below their rank. So as a candidate for sandan, the voting members of my test board must be at least yondan or above. We like to have at least 5 voting members of a test board, but for higher ranks that isn't always a possibility. For example, Heather may be testing for Godan in our testing cycle, depending on if Master Thompson (judan, head of our organization) approves it. Tests for ranks of godan or above are generally abbreviated tests which only involve demonstrations of the core kata (Sanchin, Seisan, Sanseiryu), along with an oral examination UNLESS the candidate is also testing for their shihan license. In that case, the candidate is given essentially the same test as for yondan. We test for *all* ranks; as a Hanshi Judan, Master Thompson can promote candidates by himself for any rank up to Kudan. I'm not sure what the process is to promote a candidate to Judan, but I believe it involves the Zen Okinawa Karatedo Renmei, which (I think) is an organization of 10th degree black belts who evaluate, test and promote other 10th degree black belts. Since I will not live long enough to test for a 10th degree, I'm not worried about that particular detail Another interesting detail I learned is that they are looking at "pre-testing" the instructor candidates for nidan and sandan. We typically do our dan gradings on a Sunday afternoon. In previous gradings we had a morning grading and afternoon grading. What they are looking at doing now is testing the instructor candidates on Friday evening or possibly Saturday, and then using our newly promoted instructors to form two complete test boards, so we can run two tests concurrently. We have four instructors testing this cycle (two for nidan, two for sandan), so that would give us enough instructors to have two full test boards running concurrently. Our school is growing slowly and steadily -- as evidenced by the difficulty in finding a parking spot on certain evenings But our CI is also doing an excellent job at retaining students through and beyond (first degree) black belt. In any given adult class, we generally have at least 4 or 5 black belt trainees.

Uechi-Ryu has 3 core kata: Sanchin, Seisan, and Sanseiryu. Our other kata were developed later as "bridging kata" to help students transition between the core 3. I guess technically if Uechi-Ryu "owns" any kata, it would be our 5 "bridging" kata, since they were developed specifically for Uechi-Ryu.

Okay, I guess I overreached with that statement. But the first half, "Uechi-Ryu is Sanchin" is definitely true.

Uechi-Ryu is Sanchin and Sanchin is Uechi-Ryu (maybe not QUITE on the second half of that statement). If you look at our organization logo, it consists of a stylized globe overlaid on the flag of Okinawa. And written over this are the kanji for "SANCHIN". It is the first kata we teach, and 9 out of 10 classes begin with warmups, technique exercises, and then Sanchin kata. We have a saying "all is in Sanchin", or "always return to Sanchin." All of our stances and kamae are derived from Sanchin. For example, our zenkutsu-dachi can be described as "Start from a Sanchin stance. Move your forward foot about a foot or so forward. There you go" Our version of Sanchin is significantly different from the Goju-Ryu version and its variants. Our Sanchin-Dachi starts with a solid base. We start with feet about shoulder width apart, one foot slightly ahead of the other (the toes of the back foot are roughly in line with the heel of the front foot). The front foot twists in about 30-45 degrees. The karateka then bends their knees and settles down into the stance. In this stance, the legs are like coiled springs, you can absorb forces coming at you, or you can quickly snap a kick at an opponent with either leg. The arms are held out in front of the student. The elbows are roughly one fist distance away from the ribs, the hands are open, and the fingertips are roughly level with the shoulders. When we strike, the striking arm draws back along the side of the body, and the fingertips will trace the top side of the opposing arm. When the arm is fully chambered and the shoulder muscles stretched (somewhat like a rubber band), we strike with a nukite to what would be the (same-side) shoulder joint on our opponent. The strike is done quickly, but when the strike ends we tense the arm with kime. This goes back to the original name of our style, Pangai-noon, or "Half-hard Half-soft". Our strikes are soft and quick until they make contact, and then we tense. We also practice shallow, circular breathing during Sanchin, and the breathing is usually NOT synchronized with our strikes. We inhale into the hara (think about the space right near the navel), and exhale with a "sst" noise. This keeps the abdominals tensed in the event we get struck there. In fact, during Sanchin we typically keep most of the body tight for protection -- especially the lats, traps, forearms, legs, and muscles around the neck. It is common practice among higher-rank students to test this protection (and stability) by pushing, pulling, or striking the student in various places -- the abs, pecs, traps, forearms, and upper and lower legs are all possible targets. Trying to explain our Sanchin in a single post is like trying to disseminate 8+ years of learning into one post -- because that's what this is. As Sanchin is the foundation of our style, I am always learning new lessons about Sanchin (and then applying them to the rest of my karate). Here is a clip from a seminar with Kanji Uechi (great-grandson of the founder) discussing Uechi-Ryu kata, especially Kanchin (required for sandan) and Seisan (required for shodan). The most common phrase he uses in this clip is "Return to Sanchin", especially when discussing how to make a sequence better. If the audio is muted or muddled, you'll want to go to your YouTube settings under "audio track", and select "Japanese Original". Apparently with his accent and frequent use of Japanese terminology, YouTube's AI decided he was speaking Japanese.

Week 5 test prep class is in the books. For this class, Heather invited David to help teach, and she asked him to focus on Parker and me for our drills, kata and the like. David is a godan and has his shihan's license, so he is one of the few that are liable to be on our test board. (You can only sit on a test board if you're 1 degree higher than the rank the candidate is testing for). Of our instructor pool, only 7 of them are able to sit on a 3rd degree test board, and 5 of them are related to our CI in some way (his dad, stepmom, wife, or younger brother). I like David. He has a very different way of looking at things -- he earned his black belt (not sure what degree) in aikido before he started training in Uechi-Ryu. As such, he tends to have a more soft and "flowy" way about him. When he gives feedback on something it's usually very different what Heather or our CI or most of our other instructors would give. He just looks at things in a different way. And since he's also going to be on our test board, it's important to know the things he is looking for in our techniques. The class ran in the usual format, and I found Heather picking on Parker and me more than in previous classes. Little things that I didn't know were supposed to be a thing. For example, in our kotekitae drills, she pointed out we didn't have our hands chambered for the first drill (where we were supposed to), but DID chamber when we WEREN'T supposed to. And honestly I didn't know that was actually wrong -- I'd probably been doing that way for several years without a correction. One thing I did mention to Parker was on the test, go ahead and hit me as hard as he can. We're only expected to do 10 repetitions per side (instead of the usual 25 or 50), and it'll make both of us look good. There are only a few people in the dojo I wouldn't be willing to say that to, and all of them are related to our CI (his dad or one of his brothers). Next up: dan kumite. Again, David was asked to focus on us. In this drill, our main feedback was that as the drill went on, our targets tended to drift from where they were supposed to be. We started out targeting right where we needed to, but we weren't quite striking at our partner near the end. So something else to work on. Next came our bunkai. David mentioned to Parker that in certain places he needed to make his motions "bigger". For example, there's a sequence where the attacker comes in with a right/left punch combination. The first punch is countered with a block and hammer-fist to the temple. The second is countered with a block and boshi-ken to the jaw. David said that we should make those motions bigger -- this is a performance, and bigger motions give the impressions of power without expending a lot of extra energy. He also mentioned that there are a few places where we need to enunciate our moves more. All in all, Parker and I both felt that was probably the best performance we've done on that drill. Lastly, we practiced our rank kata. There have been 3 sequences I've gone through in my head and worked through over the past week, and I'm starting to feel much better aboit these. They're the sequences that make the kata so hard, comparably speaking. Well, I felt that I did much better this week. Main feedback -- slow down and ensure I enunciate my movements. I was struggling to get through the kata that I was going faster and faster. So now the feedback is slow down. I can handle that. Oh, and also there was one sequence at the end where David said "make these moves bigger". Not grandiose, but make them definitely more pronounced. Next week the dojo is closed for spring break, so I'll need to do extra training on my own so I don't lose my momentum. But I'm feeling really good about things. I'm not even halfway through the prep cycle, and I'm feeling like I'm getting really dialed in and ready to look REALLY good on this test.

My wife and I have always stuck with fixed-rate mortgages. They may be slightly higher than adjustable-rate mortgages, but you don't have to worry about them suddenly adjusting on you and your payments going up. We actually got REALLY fortunate back in 2022 or so, we were able to refinance our house; we went from a 30 year note at 4.5% to a 20 year note at 2.25%. Our payments didn't change much, and we were able to take 5 or 6 years off the length of the note. We want to pay the house off in 5-10 years, but with the interest rates so low, we get a better return on investment putting the money somewhere else. However, my wife wants to convert to part-time in a few years, so at that point we may just pay the house off completely if we have the cash to do so. Every so often I'll get a mortgage company asking me to refinance my house or take out a home equity loan. I laugh at them and tell them my rate and that I'm working on paying the home off to free up that cash flow. They then talk to me like I've grown two extra heads or something.

So far I've bought 2 homes -- one was new construction, and one was previously lived in. I'll tell you, the process is VERY stressful. In fact, my previous agent once told me that buying or selling a home is one of the 4 or 5 most stressful things in your lifetime. (Right up there with getting married, getting divorced, dealing with the death of a close friend/relative, etc). I know I'm a bit late to the party, but here are a few things to keep in mind: - Make sure you aren't buying more than you can afford. A bank will come up with a number you can QUALIFY for, and then the agent will probably try to sell you in that region. Do your own math and be realistic in what you can actually afford, and stick to that. - Make sure you budget in for improvements/repairs. Things can and will go wrong. Less so on a new home, moreso on a 20+ year old one. Our first home we bought together we lived in for 3 years. During that timeframe we needed a new roof (hailstorms in Texas), a new upstairs A/C unit, and we needed to completely renovate a bathroom. Make sure you have a contingency fund for these things. - When your inspection report comes back, another way to use it is as a negotiation tool. If you can get some additional seller concessions (reduced price, rate buydown, etc) as a result of that inspection, it might change the equation. If you can get them to essentially pay for part of the repairs that are needed, it MIGHT make sense to move forward with the purchase. Or it might be a reason to walk away from the deal. Don't be afraid to walk away. If you walk away from the contract, you lose your earnest money, but that's a small price to pay for the potential headaches that those kinds of repairs can cost.

Test Prep Cycle Week 4: The last 3 weeks have been run by Heather Sensei (our CI's wife). She has a VERY intense personality and is a stickler for getting things right -- when she points something out, I definitely take notice. For example, last week she decided that our testing in Sanchin stance should be with pushes/pulls instead of strikes. Personally I prefer when they just hit you. Sure, it might hurt a little bit, but when they push, they will see how far they can push you before you break stance. Well, last week she decided to be pretty mean about things -- normally they push at the hips, but she was pushing on the shoulders. It's your typical physics problem, "give me a long enough lever and I can move the world". Well, when she pushes on your shoulders, she uses all that leverage to make you move. Fortunately I had seen this before, and when I knew I couldn't keep stable in that position, I just took a small step to the side and back into a stable stance. And that was the exact correct thing to do (in fact, she later pointed me out as the example of what to do in that situation). One nice thing about working this class with Parker is, since we're both instructors we point out where each of us can improve. For example, Heather called me out in our Dan kumite drill for dropping my hand in one place where I did a roundhouse kick. I haven't been critiqued on this drill in awhile, so I probably have gotten sloppy, so the tune-up was necessary. There were a few other tune-ups she offered to each of us, and in later weeks, we have been pointing out these things in each other's technique. I'm also starting to feel really good about the Seisan bunkai. Again, it's been awhile since I've practiced this drill regularly and even less frequent that I get critique on it. As Parker and I continue to fine-tune things during this prep cycle, we are continuously giving feedback to each other. One thing I'm trying to focus on is something that Gushi sensei mentioned in his seminar last spring -- slow down and let the audience see exactly what you're doing. So as we're practicing for our prep cycle, I'm trying to focus on targetting and follow-through. For example, we have one sequence where the attacker steps in with a right punch, followed by a left punch. The defense for the right punch is a circle block countering with a hammer-fist strike to the temple. In my demo, I make a point to stop before Parker's head, then slowly follow through, pushing his head to the side. Then the second attack is countered with a right circle block followed with a left boshiken-tsuki to the chin. And again, I stop right before the chin, then follow-through, pushing the chin and entire head slowly back. As usual, the area I'm working most on is my Kanchin kata. One thing our sensei mentioned to us last week is that there are several times you feel like a white belt again. When you start learning Kanshiwa (required for yellow belt), Seichin (required for brown belt), and Kanchin (required for 3rd degree). When we learn Kanshiwa, that's the first kata after Sanchin we learn. It introduces a lot of new moves, the concept of moving off the line, and all of the fundamentals in our kata. (And... you do learn that AS a white belt). When a student starts to learn Seichin, they are introduced to a lot of new sequences - moving at 45 degree angles, the concept of intercepting strikes WITH a strike (instead of block then strike), and it's the first kata where we start to see the "soft" side of Uechi-Ryu. And finally Kanchin introduces much longer sequences. It introduces the concept of starting from a low stance and pivoting 180 degrees while still in a low stance. It introduces shifting from a front stance to a low stance without raising your center of gravity. It has extended sequences that you want to get the timing and inflection *just right* on. You want to do the sequences quick and with power, but you want to make sure you display kime at just the right moments. And that's why it takes 2.5-3 years to go from nidan to sandan Honestly, the last kata, Sanseiryu only introduces one new sequence, but the sequences are longer, and go in 8 directions, instead of 4. However in terms of new movements/sequences there really is only one, and it's the final move in the kata. So once I get completely comfortable with Kanchin, learning Sanseiryu won't be nearly the mind-scrambler that Kanchin has been.

Actually there is a PWHL (Professional Women's Hockey League) with eight teams (4 in the USA and 4 in Canada). Many of the players on both the US and Canadian rosters came from the PWHL. Speaking of their gold medal, the Mayor of Denver just invited them all to Denver for a proper celebration, since they declined their SOTU invitation.

In Uechi-Ryu our first rank kata, Kanshiwa is required for kukyu (9th kyu). Once a student has tested for and demonstrated a fundamental proficiency with that kata, their next 2 ranks require them to demonstrate the defending (for 8th kyu), and attacking (for 7th kyu) sides of the bunkai. The same applies to our next 2 rank kata, Kanshu and Seichin. At the ikkyu level, before students can actually test for shodan, they are required to re-demonstrate their Kanshiwa bunkai (which they first were tested on at 8th and 7th kyu), but demonstrate a black belt level of proficiency. At the shodan level, the student (among other things) must demonstrate the kata Seisan, and its associated bunkai. Furthermore, for every rank grading from 1st dan to 5th dan, the student is still tested on the seisan bunkai. We do this specifically for Seisan and Kanshiwa because among all the Uechi-Ryu organizations, they all have the same (or nearly the same) bunkai for those two kata. Other kata's bunkai is typically established by the organization or individual dojo. Every so often, we will also do self-defense appications derived from our kata. Some of these applications are directly out of the bunkai, some are variants of the bunkai, and others are based on principles in aikido. In each case though, we always start with the sequence from the kata before showing the application. IMO, learning a kata without its applications is only learning half of the story.

The testing process for kyu grades and dan grades are significantly different. Our school generally has at least one colored belt test each month (sometimes two). Each month, the instructors for each set of students will know which students are eligible to test in that month; there are fundamental time-in-grade and attendance requirements. The instructor will have a pretty good idea as to which of those students will be ready to test. Then the week of the test, the instructor will evaluate each potential candidate to see if he/she is indeed ready. There is (in most cases) a hard rule that a student must attend classes at least twice the week of the test so the instructor can thoroughly evaluate their preparedness. When the test day comes around, we will divide students up by age and/or rank, depending on the number of candidates. Generally the adult students and brown belt candidates will be tested in the upstairs dojo, and the younger students will be tested downstairs. Each group will run independently, and testing will consist of the following elements: - Sanchin kata - Hojo undo (randomly, in English for ranks below sankyu, in Japanese for brown belt ranks) - Rank kata - Rank kata bunkai (Not all ranks require bunkai, and if there are more than 30 students testing, this will be tested in-class - Kotekitae (body conditioning) - Sparring (required for sankyu and up) Generally we are more forgiving of mistakes for more junior students. As a student gets more advanced, our expectations increase and we are less forgiving of mistakes. At specific ranks (ikkyu, yonkyu, shichikyu), we tell students they're not allowed to make any mistakes (well, at least no egregious ones). Each student is assigned to an individual evaluator, but to a certain degree, all instructors will evaluate all of the students. At the conclusion of the test, the instructors will discuss the students performance, and the instructors will get with their students to give them feedback on their performance. After the feedback session, the CI will announce the results, presenting each student with his/her diploma and belt. Additionally, in certain circumstances if a student cannot make the scheduled test, our CI will run an in-class make-up test. Generally he will have the student demonstrate all of the test material individually to him, and he'll evaluate their performance. In the case of an in-class test, he will inform the student of their pass/fail status at the next at the conclusion of the next class. Dan gradings follow the same general format, but are considerably more formal. For one thing, our dojo only runs dan gradings twice a year - generally in May and November/December. Candidates are informed well in advance of the gradings, and they are required to attend an extra "test prep" class each week. This class focuses on the elements of the test, and students will get specific feedback during this class that they are expected to incorporate before the test (or they may not be allowed to test). They are also given a packet of information they are expected to know prior to the test, since there is an oral component to the test. Our CI prefers to run tests with no more than 10-12 candidates at a time -- more than that and tests start running extremely long. The dan gradings are done in front of a formal test board. The components are the same for the kyu gradings, but candidates perform either alone or in pairs in front of the board. Each component of the test has a minimum passing score and a total score associated with it. Each instructor scores each component of a candidate's performance, and the scores are averaged and collated. The instructors will then get together to discuss the overall performance of the candidates, and results will get collated. Once the results are known, the CI will announce the results, and award belts to the candidates who do not already have a black belt (our style does not denote rank on black belts, just shogo titles). After the results are announced, the instructors will provide feedback to the candidates as a whole, from most junior instructor to the most senior. The packets are then forwarded on to our hombu dojo (in Michigan), and the certificates come several weeks later.

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.