aurik

Welcome to the forum Josh. It's never too late to start -- I started my current round with Uechi-Ryu at the ripe young age of 46. Train hard, train well, and good luck!

Greetings, 2TANGO. Welcome to the forums!

We discuss the concept of "power" and "energy" as students start approaching shodan, but it isn't a mystical energy force that unites the galaxy. We discuss energy in the form of "flow", and how the energy of one sequence can be transferred to the next sequence and the like. The other stuff is just way too hokey for me.

I should also mention that all candidates for Dan grades are required to complete a 3 month test prep cycle, in which heh perform a mini-test each week. They are expected to incorporate feedback during this cycle in their techniques. This cycle isn essentially a pre-test before the candidate is allowed to participate in the actual test.

Our tests are pretty much the same, no matter what the grade you're testing for, but the intensity goes up as your rank goes up. Each test has the following components: - Sanchin (with focus testing for nikyu and above) - Rank Kata - Rank Kata bunkai (seisan for all dan ranks) - Hojo undo - Kote kitae (arm rubbing/pounding) - Rank appropriate yakusoku kumite - For nikyu and above, free sparring - For shodan and above, oral exam During testing, there are several areas that test the candidate's CV fitness. Our seisan bunkai generally runs 10-15 minutes, where you are running full-intensity for short bursts. Likewise free sparring is a test of CV fitness as well. It also keeps testing to a manageable time frame -- generally 1 hour for kyu tests and 2 hours for dan ranks.

I can’t say what a given martial art may or may not be right for someone. What I can and do is share what my style and dojo have done for me. Whenever someone asks what I think of martial arts I share my personal experiences with my sensei and his dojo. I share why I think he is an excellent instructor and talk about what value I get out of it. I find it is a very low pressure tactic. And it works.

I love it! This is right up there with my wife being “the worst mom in the universe” (according to our son). She is holding out for “the worst mom in the multiverse” promotion.

So my nafuda is up on the wall now.

Yeah, the new material was a lot of fun to learn and the applications are pretty neat. We have one sequence that is repeated (almost) identically 3 times, and the application is very different from what I would have expected. Saturday was really fun, but I don't think I'll be doing that again anytime soon. For one thing, I don't have the time to actively pursue 3 different martial arts, and the other thing is before I can do another 3 hour saturday again, I need to be in MUCH better shape. I think for now I'll focus on Aikido and Uechi-Ryu.

The most important rank I hold right now is the rank of 'Dad'. In many cases that is outranked by 'Mom'. Other than that, I hold the following ranks (in no particular order) Apprentice Bladesmith in the American Bladesmith Society PhD in Computer Science Shodan in Aikijujutsu (earned 20+ years ago, practiced very little since) Gokyu in Shuri-Ryu Yonkyu in Judo Shodan in Uechi-Ryu

So I'm sorta feeling like a white belt again. Okay, not quite. This week I started learning the kata Seiryu, required for nidan. Like every rank kata we have, it has a couple of new sequences in it that still scramble my brain after a week of practice. It also doesn't help that when our regional director calls cadence for group kata, he tends to go extremely quickly. However, I also have 1.5-2 years to practice this kata before being tested on it, so I'm sure in a few weeks I should start getting comfortable with it. I also started working what we call "10-point", which is the yakusoku kumite from a sister organization. It consists of 10 sequences which get more complex as you go on. I made it through the first 5 sequences and understand most of them... but again, it feels like drinking through a firehose again. And last Saturday I started learning Seichin bunkai (kata required for brrown belt). This was not a requirement for those of us who earned their nikyu/ikkyu/shodan during the pandemic, but it is being re-introduced again. So now I get to learn it again. Fortunately after knowing our other bunkai, I was able to guess what most of the attacks/defenses were, but there are/were a few unexpected ones. Lastly, on Saturday since the wife and mini-me were away for the weekend, I decided to do the trifecta aikido/karate/kobudo classes in sequence. Aikido was fun and re-triggered some old neural pathways. The Saturday karate class is always a fairly low-intensity class, so I was feeling pretty well before kobudo started. And then I nearly died in kobudo. All I was learning was the bo kihons, but doing that for most of an hour was exhausting. ANd then we did about 10 minutes of sai kihons. Let me tell you, you don't realize how heavy sai can get until you work them over and over for 10+ minutes. After the 3 hours of training, I just went home and crashed. Hard. Slept for about 2 hours and still was exhausted afterwards.

I don’t understand how this whole vaccine mandate thing became so political. We have vaccine requirements for schools already. We have had them for decades in fact. Many of the diseases we vaccinate against are mild for most of the people who get it, but they can be fatal for some, or have life-altering side effects (blindness, sterility). COVID is no less dangerous and contagious than diseases we already vaccinate against. I didn’t get vaxxed/boosted to just protect me. I also did it to protect those who cannot get the vaccine or who are immunocompromised. IMO it is the socially responsible thing to do.

Meijin gis are popular among advanced students at my dojo. Quality materials, various embroidery options available, and sizes available for certain styles up to 12.

This also relates to the concept of “chunks”. When you are learning something you can only handle so many chunks at a time. For a complete novice, a block is a chunk, a step is a chunk, a strike is a chunk. The more chunks you throw at a student, the harder it is for them to learn it. Now as students learn the material, the amount of information in a chunk increases. In Urchi-Ryu, we have common sequences that show up in kata and yakusoku kumite drills over and over. For example, we have a sequence with a left wa-uke, right tettsui-uchi right wa-uke, left boshiken-uchi, left wa-uke, right nukite. When these are first presented to the student at green belt, they are presented as pairs. Block/strike. Pause. Block/strike. Pause. Block/strike. At brown belt and shodan they are chunked in pairs. At Nisan they are e presented as one sequence. Likewise, as the student advances the sequences in the yakusoku kumite drills get more complicated. The first drill consists of single blocks and single strikes. The second drill starts with single block/counter combinations and moves to two attacks + counter. The third sequence has two, three, and four attack sequences followed by a counter. And our Dan kumite is performed as a flow drill of attacks and counters. So in returning to tht original thread, yes the beginner material really needs to be beginner oriented. No more than a handful of chunks such that are he beginner can digest.

One of the things we also learn is that there are MANY interpretations to a kata. When we start out with our first rank kata, we learn one interpretation for the moves in that kata. As we progress to more advanced ranks, different bunkai, and different kata and yakusoku kumite (which are in turn based on kata), we encounter different interpretations for the moves in a kata. For example we have (nearly) the same sequence of moves in multiple different rank kata -- step forward into a shiko-dachi, perform a left circular block, followed by a right elbow strike to the sternum/solar plexus region, followed by a backfist strike to the upper mandible. In the Kanshiwa bunkai, that move is interpreted as a defense against a knife attack and is performed exactly as in the kata. In our Kanshu bunkai, that is interpreted as a defense against a sword (or baseball bat) attack. Things get more interesting when we perform that sequence in yakusoku kumite -- there are implicit throws/takedowns in there. One possible takedown involves the elbow strike/backfist, then stepping forward to perform a o-soto-gari (outer leg sweep). The next throw option involves either a shoulder throw or hip throw, since the defender is in the perfect position for either of those. Our CI tends to present material 3 to 4 month cycles. Most of the time we focus on the specific material for our next rank, but he will season the required material with additional material to include things like throws, joint locks, self-defense techniques, and chokes. In each case, he'll show a sequence of the kata where this is derived from.

In our bunkai, we almost never step straight backwards. We have situations where we pivot off the line of attack, where we step back to the side at a 45 degree angle, or where we step directly into the attack. The only two situations that I (yet) know of are in seisan and kanchin, and we don't just step back in these situations either. In seisan, the defender is facing an attacker with a katana (technically a shinai). The defender steps into a shiko-dachi, presenting the front leg to the attacker as "bait". As the attacker swings for the front leg, the defender jumps up and back, going over the attack and landing on the right leg. The attacker then brings the katana up for an overhead strike. Simultaneously, the defender jumps back to his original position, blocking the downward swing at the upper arm and pushing the attacker to the side, and then performs an elbow to the ribs, a backfist to the face, and a one-knuckle strike to the ribs. In Kanchin, the attack comes as a front kick. The defender drops his front foot back and into a shiko-dachi, which has the effeect of moving the torso out of the "power zone". The defender then brings his front hand up under the attacker's achilles while using the rear hand to "catch" the front of the foot. (Note, this works because you've stepped back beyond the effective range of the kick). The defender then stands back up into Sanchin, using the power generated by the legs to throw the attacker backwards. But no, we don't generally step back.

In Uechi-Ryu, the vast majority of our uke in kata are either mawashi-uke or hajike-uke. When performed at the beginner level, the mawashi-uke is a one-handed circular motion that covers the torso and face. However as a student advances they learn that the technique is more properly a two-hand technique where the “off-hand” performs a push-block/guide block to redirect the attack to a safe direction, while the nominal “blocking hand” then performs the circular motion to grab the attack while the off-hand then chambers for a counter. The hajike-uke is much more straightforward. It can be a block, a strike, or both. A beginner will perform this similar to a jodan barai uke, but advanced students will perform it moving forward and upwards. In one version, the defenders upward “block” will simultaneously move forward to intercept the strike and also strike the opponent in the face.

The primary reason I train is for enjoyment and stress relief. I generally don’t do tournaments, and now that I’ve earned my shodan belts are years away instead of months. However I never really pursued the belts for their own sake — I see them as ways of unlocking new techniques and skills. Now that I’ve earned my 1st degree I get to start learning new katas and new drills. So I train for th enjoyment and I try to put in my best effort every day.

I wouldn't say kata is beneficial. Kata is one of the core components of "karate" as I see it. The kata of a system define the system to a great degree. For one thing, kata is an exercise that you can do without a partner on your own every day as long as you have a little bit of space to work in. Kata lets you drill motions into your brain, lets you develop power and technique on your own, and most of all it gives you ideas to work with. For example, when I was studying Shuri-Ryu, the first kata we learned was Wansu. In that kata we had a sequence where the student would step into a kiba-dachi (horse stence), execute a gedan barai uke (low hammer block), then shift into a zenkutsu dachi (front stance) to do a reverse seiken-tsuki. As a student gained more understanding, they would learn how to develop a LOT of power in that hip shift from the kiba dachi to zenkutsu-dachi. Likewise, in our first Uechi-Ryu rank kata, the first three sequences involve the following: - Start in a neutral stance - Pivot on the left foot, facing left into a left sanchin-dachi. Perform a left wa-uke followed by right seiken-zuki - Pivot on the right foot, turning 180 degrees into a right sanchin-dachi. Right wa-uke, left seiken-zuki - Shift direction to face the (original) front, ending in a left sanchin-dachi. Left wa-uke, right seiken-zuki. One of the key elements here is to get off the line of attack. It's not just applicable in this kata, but that concept extends into all of our yakusoku kumite drills. To quote Mr Myagi (from the Karate Kid), "Best way to block a punch, no be there".

At my shodan test yesterday, we had an interesting discussion -- in Japanese "shodan" means either "beginner degree" or "little degree". In other words, at shodan you have mastered the basics, but you still have a LOT to learn. The other thing they mentioned was that MANY students see "black belt" as the goal, and not a milestone along the way. For every nidan out there, there are many many more shodans. I guess one of the reason that people quit was that they see it as "I got my black belt, cool, I'm done!". I actually worked with a guy who said that very same thing about his son -- "He did TKD and got his black belt". All past tense. My CI's opinion is that once you earn your first degree, you go back and re-learn everything and apply what you've learned to it and start doing your kata, bunkai, and yakusoku kumite with a black belt level of understanding.

At our dojo, a (adult) dan grade is considered a "permanent" grade. In other words, if you stop training for awhile (more than 3 months), you can still come back as a black belt. However, there is also the expectation that it will take a couple of additional years of consistent training before you can be considered for the next dan grade. Kyu level students that leave and come back return as a white belt, but after a refresher period (depending on grade) are permitted to re-test for their previous kyu rank. This of course only applies to students of our dojo. I'm not sure how it would apply to other Uechi-Ryu students. We actually had a student (1st degree) who took 10+ years off and started training again with us. I remember the first time I trained with him -- it was his first or second day back. He was a bit overwhelmed by all the material he had to re-learn, but he is picking it up pretty quickly. He's definitely not as crisp or as sharp as he was back then (I imagine), but re-learning a skill goes much faster than originally learning the skill.

So I haven't posted in this thread for awhile, but Zach and I have both been continuing to train hard and consistently. Yesterday I successfully tested for my shodan rank -- a big milestone for me. It was the most intense and difficult test I've undertaken so far. I partnered with my CI for the partner work, and he kicked things up to eleven; I kicked my intensity up as well. I was able to hit every segment with power and intensity, but the bunkai section left me seriously gassed. In the end though, I did pass! Here are the obligitory pictures: [/img] Zach is still training hard and training well -- he should be testing for his nikyu in the next couple of months.

So the test is over and I passed. I’m one word, it was intense. There was a possibility that I was going to partner with a JBB who was testing for his adult shodan, but he was unable to test today due to other commitments (baseball). Instead I tested with my Ci… and he kicked things up to 11. I had planned on pacing myself during the bunkai, but he brought such intensity to the attacks and defenses that I had no choice but to kick things up a notch as well. By the end of the bunkai I was pretty seriously gassed. Fortunately the bunkai is the last of the technically difficult items on the test, and with the number of examiners, I had at least 5-10 minutes between sessions to recover. I was able to hit every segment strong and I am proud of what I did today. I know a few areas I flubbed slightly, but I never heard that dreadful, “can I please see that again” (which means you failed at something). After the test was over and I got home I crashed hard from the exhaustion and adrenaline let-down. Now on to the next step!

DP, fortunately that caveat does not hold here. My CI is a 6th degree Renshi and his father is an 8th degree kyoshi. The other members of the board are 7th, 5th, and 4th degrees.

Another option would be a photo collage of several of your students ranging from beginner to advanced of different ages showing them doing cool stuff and how much fun they're having. Of course you'll want to get their permission first.