aurik

Our dojo teaches 3 different styles, Uechi-Ryu Karate, Aikido, and Matayoshi Kobudo. Our school is affiliated with different organizations for each, and as such has different syllabi and rankings.

For me it's about hip drive and penetration. A snap kick is powered by the knee and quad. The knee comes up, the foot snaps out, and then it retracts, rechambers, and sets back down on the ground. A thrusting kick involves the knee coming up and chambering, then your foot moves parallel to the ground and out to the target as your hips drive forward to help your foot penetrate the target. Did I mention that the preferred target for our sokusen geri is the bladder?

It sounds like you found a really good school there, with instructors who still really enjoy training and teaching after such a long time. I hope your mini-me learns to love karate as much as those instructors do. Enjoy the ride!

I'm a couple years further along that same journey as you are. Good luck and enjoy the ride!

So yesterday at class, I did my first breaks with a wrist block/strike, and also a boshiken. The wrist block was super easy -- make sure you're striking with the bone on top of the wrist, get a good hip snap in there to put your weight behind it, and keep the entire body in a good strong Sanchin stance. When I struck, my wrist went through it like a hot knife through butter. The next break was a boshiken (think palm-heel strike, with the thumb tucked firmly against the palm, the thumb is the weapon), and that went through super easy as well, but I've got some joint soreness from it now. I can only imagine what it would feel like to be on the receiving end of either of those!

Last night was a fun class. After running through our junbi undo, hojo undo, and sanchin, I got to work with one of my favorite partners for koshi kites — he tends to strike at just the right intensity to get the results I want, and we were able to do some of the more advanced techniques. We then did some two-person drills, and our CI’s father gave us plenty of good feedback. Last came board breaking. He is running a breaking seminar this weekend, so we have been doing this in class a bit. Now we didn’t do any of the “easy” breaks — the first break we did was with a wrist block/strike, with the bone at the top of the wrist as the weapon. Our CI gave us a few pointers, mainly to use a strong stance and use a strong hip twist to get things started and use the strength of your Sanchin stance to strike. So a number of the younger/smaller black belts had trouble with the 1” board (equivalent), but most of them got through it after a few tries. When it came my turn, our CI’s younger brother was holding it and I just completely blasted through. He looks at me and says, “that is why I have such a hard time blocking you”. Mind you, he is 6’4”, probably 230-250lbs, and a 5th degree. I then looked at him and whispered, “300 pounds”. He just nodded at that. Later in the class, I did a break of the 1” board with a boshiken strike (palm-heel out, thumb tight and reinforced against the palm, the thumb is the weapon), and completely blasted through that too. This morning my thumb is feeling pretty sore but it’s getting better as I move it around. I think I could probably have done 2 or 3 boards with that wrist strike. I’m glad I did that boshiken, but I think I will not be doing it again anytime soon. It’s good to feel what the strike feels like in the event I ever have to use it. The back is continuing to improve, and my chiropractor is very impressed with my recovery. I’m down to 2 visits per week and after this week it’ll probably be once a week.

Frankly I shed enough water weight during a 1.5 hour workout WITHOUT the sauna suit. Generally by the end of the workout, I think my gi gains about 5 lbs, or so it feels.

We do the same in Uechi-Ryu. As students get more advanced, they are expected to grab their opponent and manipulate the distance by pulling/pushing the opponent to get them in optimal range for each technique. I particularly enjoy some of our kick-based hojo undo techniques -- opponent punches, you step off at a 45-degree angle, do a push block immediately followed by a circular block & grab of the forearm if you can get it. You then pull the opponent towards you while giving him a toe kick to the floating ribs. Brutal, yet satisfying and effective.

So things are starting to get back to normal for me at the dojo. The back is well enough to do most things as long as I don't do anything truly stupid (no falls for now, for example). Tuesday was a very small class. I got to do a fair bit of 1:1 training in sanchin and seisan with our CI's father. He had a lot of subtle insights on things, and I just hope I can remember more than a handful of them. One of the things he gave me pointers on was how certain places in Seisan should be accented and "held" for longer than others -- especially in front of the testing board. So we worked on those segments. He also did quite a bit of trying to destabilize me in Sanchin, by pulling/pushing on the ankles and lower legs, and he made it a point to explain what he was looking for. On Thursday, we focused on two-person drills -- yakusoku kumite 1 & 2, and kyu kumite (required for yellow belt ranks and green belt ranks, respectively). Our CI mentioned that while these drills are required at specific ranks, we continue training them because as we gain new knowledge and techniques, we're supposed to adapt those techniques to the two-person drills and re-interpret the drills appropriate to our rank. For example, after a certain point, we're supposed to do two-handed blocks, etc. We then ended Thursday's class with kata, and I was of course already winded by all of the 2-person drills (which tend to wear me out in a good way). So my kata wasn't as smooth or as powerful as I wanted it to be, but I also find that running kata when your'e exhausted makes things look/feel really great when you're fresh. After class, the back was a bit sore (but not dangerously so), but I was feeling pretty good all things considered.

In Uechi-Ryu, we use small-target striking extensively. The only two kicks "officially" in our style are the shomen (aka sokusen) geri and sokuto geri. At higher levels (dan and above), the shomen geri is expected to use the first three toes as the striking element. Likewise, our kata include many small target strikes, including the nukite (both palm-down and palm-up), shoken (one-knuckle punch), hiraken (leopard-fist punch, which uses the second knuckle of all four fingers as a striking point), boshiken (the thumb is the weapon here), and koken (bend the hands at a 90-degree angle and strike with the four fingers). In every class, we train in Sanchin, and we are expected to keep the forearms and hands tense throughout the entire kata. Our instructors will periodically check the strength of our nukite by pressing/striking his palms against our fingertips to ensure that our hands are sufficiently strong. There are several ways of training for strength in your fingertips -- fingertip push-ups are one good way, another is using heavy clay jars to increase your grip strength/fingertip strength. Then there are also the jars filled with sand (later gravel) to strike your fingertips into. Start slow and know your limits. If you injure yourself while conditioning, you'll set yourself back. The idea is you want to be able to know how much punishment you can take and still be able to heal before your next session. If you give yourself a bone bruise while conditioning, that will take weeks or months to heal. I've seen my CI break 3 one-inch boards with a toe kick. Of course, he's been training and conditioning for 30+ years.

IMHO, kata is one of the defining characteristics of karate; I couldn't see a style call itself "karate" without kata. At our dojo, almost every class has 4 components; warmups, technique exercises, sanchin, and kata. That generally takes up 30-45 minutes of our 1.5 hour class, and these are the 4 core components of our style. The other 45 mins-1 hour tends to rotate on a schedule our CI determines (but typically doesn't share). It could include yakusoku kumite, bunkai, strength/conditioning, throwing/takedown techniques, self-defense techniques (typically derived from kata), joint locks/chokes, or free sparring. He typically rotates these along a 3 month cycle, which aligns with the testing cycles for junior kyu ranks. This keeps the classes fresh, because you don't always know what to expect for a day, but it also gives you plenty of opportunities to see the same techniques again. Our school also has dedicated classes for Aikido and Kobudo, so another option would be to have dedicated Judo classes, where students who want to focus on Judo can learn.

So for the past week and a half I've been on vacation in various parts of Colorado. At first the back was really sore and tight, but the more I got up and moved around during the day, the better it would feel. Today I was able to get up without too much trouble and it only took about an hour to get things feeling mostly normal. Zach and I (and Tracy) had a lot of fun on this vacation. One of the things Zach and I both really enjoy is the TV show "Forged in Fire". Well, I discovered that there is a shop in Colorado Springs where a) a number of instructors have competed on the show and b) they will teach kids as young as 9 years old. So on Zach's birthday, we took one of his friends to Kilroy's Workshop and took a 3 hour "Intro to Blacksmithing" class. During the 3 hours, we forged a "viking hairpin knife" out of a billet of mild steel. Zach and his friend had a LOT of help from the instructors, and I was mainly on my own with verbal guidance. It was a LOT of fun, and we will be going back again. My blade is the one on top, Zach's is the middle one.

Our CI periodically brings in high-level instructors for seminars -- since I've been attending, he has brought James Thompson (judan, his instructor, president of our organizatiton), Darin Yee (kudan, president of the IUKF), and Seishi Itokazu (kudan Matayoshi Kobudo, judan Uechi-Ryu) in to run seminars and advanced dan examinations. I am not sure what the guest instructors charge, but our costs for the seminars have been very reasonable (less than $100). I hope as COVID starts to get under control, we can see more guest instructors in the future.

We've all had days like that, and the fact that you persevered through an "off" day says quite a bit about your character. I personally find that when something feels "off", I'll complete the technique (kata, drill, bunkai, etc), then run through it in my mind and try it again with more focus. Sometimes things go quite a bit better, sometimes they don't. However, the process of going through that struggle will lead to the "a-ha" moments in the future, where everything feels great and you feel like you've done your best technique yet.

The back is improving slowly but surely -- I was able to get out of bed this morning without uttering a single profanity. Things are still very tight and sore, but as I get up and move around they loosen up a fair bit. I've got another chiropractor appointment this afternoon, so we'll see how things are afterwards. Getting old sometimes sucks, but it's far better than the alternative!

Our CI teaches grappling in the form of takedowns, joint locks, and chokes. We don't generally practice ground grappling, because the philosophy is that if you go to the ground against opponent #1, then opponent #2 will likely start just kicking the crap out of you. The idea is you throw opponent #1 to the ground, give him a good smack in a vital area to keep him down for a bit, and then move to the next opponent. For the students that want more in the way of a throwing/grappling art, our school also offers aikido.

You must have some REALLY big students -- I'm 6'2" and weigh 300+ lbs, and I have no problem with a size 9 (~380cm) belt (double wrapped). I know that Eosin Panther does offer color belts up to size 14 (419cm). However, they are MUCH more expensive than your standard color belt...

This week has had its share of ups and downs. On a high note, our CI has introduced a new formal requirement to our curriculum for shodan. Previously, you would have a 3 month test prep cycle before shodan, and then your shodan test would include all of the shodan-specific material as well as the core material as well (kanshiwa kata, kanshiwa bunkai, kanshu kata, seichin kata, and yakusoku kumite dai ichi and dai ni). Now he is breaking those apart into a separate test that you take while you're in the 3 month test prep cycle which you can attempt after 3 months as an ikkyu. Basically he wants to see a dan-level degree of competence in all of these core requirements, and now he wants to see you do that BEFORE testing for shodan. So this past Tuesday, he started working us on Kanshiwa bunkai. We had me, another nikyu, and a yonkyu there (the other 2 were 12 and under). He asked me to run the other 2 students through the bunkai. Afterwards, he ran through the bunkai with me. I hadn't done this full-intensity much since the pandemic, so I was pleasantly surprised at how crisp things felt. Afterwards, he asked if I had any questions, and the only question I had was, "Where do you think I need to improve". His only comment was on how I did the wa-uke strikes in the middle of the kata, and it was more of a personal preference than a "wrong" or a "right" way. Now for the downs for the week. Last night, while I was getting ready for class, I leaned over to grab something, and felt something slip out of place in my lower back. I immediately knew what had happened, but things were still feeling pretty good as long as I didn't aggrivate anything. I was able to get through class just fine as long as I didn't try to bend over, and I was feeling pretty good at the end of class. Now once I got home and sat down for a bit, my back started to stiffen up. When I went to bed, I started getting cramping in both of my hamstrings as well as my adductors and abductors. Getting out of bed this morning was just plain brutal. I was able to get a morning chiropractor appointment, and he did a quick exam and confirmed what I suspected -- basically one of my lumbar vertebrae was completely out of whack and that is the nerve that ennervates the hamstrings, calves, and inner thighs. Yay me. So he was able to get some adjusting in and things are feeling a bit better, but I'm going to be out of commission for at least a week. So, that's where I am today. We are supposed to have a 2 hour black belt (and black belt candidate) training session tomorrow, but sadly I'm going to have to miss it due to the back issues. However, I'll definitely do my best to recover quickly so I can be ready for the next one.

Seisan is one of the three core Uechi-Ryu kata (along with Sanchin and Sanseiryu). You can certainly find instructional videos on the basic steps, but they assume that you've already been training in Uechi-Ryu for some time. As someone who has trained in other styles (Shuri-Ryu) as well as Uechi-Ryu, I can attest that things are very different in Uechi-Ryu, from stances to kimae to blocks and strikes. Memorizing the moves for Seisan isn't all that bad, but making it *look* like a Uechi stylist performing Seisan will take much, much longer. Also, if you want to understand the Bunkai you will almost certainly need an instructor -- I've seen a few bunkai videos, but you'll be hard-pressed to learn much from those videos, since they're generally full-speed and assume you already know what you're doing. I know my CI will do distance learning and private lessons. I've worked with him on some Bo kata in private lessons in the past, but I'd also been training with him in karate for 2 years before I asked about that. Generally he'll teach whatever you want in a private lesson, so he MAY be able to teach you just seisan. I can provide his contact information if you want to contact me via PM. Also, I do know of one highly reputable Uechi-Ryu instructor who has recently introduced what he calls a Seisan MasterClass that focuses on Seisan. I haven't purchased it yet, but since I'll be testing on Seisan next spring I'm considering it. If you're interested in that, PM me and I'll provide the info for that. The short version is, if you want to learn the Uechi-Ryu seisan, you can *technically* watch a video on it, but without lots of training in the Uechi way of doing things, any Uechi stylist will know you picked it up from an internet video.

My CI has very strong opinions on this, and I agree with him. One translation of "shodan" (at least in his book) is "beginner degree". In our style, you really don't start to learn the "good stuff" until you get to first degree. He tends to get really frustrated with parents and kids who see shodan as the end of their MA journey. Personally I plan to continue training for as long as I can and enjoy the ride. Whatever ranks I do or do not earn on the way will be nice but not the reason for the training.

I'm stoked! The only problem is that I tend to binge-watch the whole season at once, and then it's another 6 moths before more episodes drop.

I would say this is highly dependent on the style, organization, and instructor. I’ve trained four different styles of karate-type martial arts. For three of those instructors/styles, I would agree with you. They were more focused on the perfection of the form for the sake of doing the form. My current school is a Uechi-Ryu school, and we tend to focus on what is effective. For example, when our CI teaches kata, he will emphasize what each sequence means using an opponent as an example. When we strike he wants our hands just so, because it translates to striking a specific target on the opponent. We spend about a quarter of our time in each test conditioning our bodies so that we are used to getting hit in common places (forearms, traps, lays, abs, legs) partially so we don’t freak out if we ever actually get into a fight. Finally, when we do our two-person drills we focus on effectiveness, not in looking pretty. As the defender we are expected to disrupt our attacker, pulling/pushing him to control the range and possibly preventing him from completing his techniques. This is significantly different from other schools I’ve seen where the attacker is supposed to stand there like a statue so the defender can do a “perfect” technique.

I'm the exact opposite. I'd rather do solo kata as opposed to group kata. At our dojo, group kata is generally done with one student/instructor counting for the group. With younger/smaller students, they tend to count at their natural speed which is "warp speed" as far as I'm concerned, and I'm just trying to get the movements done in time for the next count. When I perform solo, I get to put what I feel is the proper focus/expression in each movement, and the appropriate power in each strike/block. We have a girl (13-14 I think) in our adult class who is also very nervous at performing in front of the whole class. Right before her last grading, our CI asked everyone to perform their kata solo in front of the class. She was visibly nervous -- after the class I took the opportunity to tell her, "Don't be so nervous in front of all of us, we all want to see you do well".

Happy 20th Birthday, KF! Today was a very good day for me. Over the past 2 weeks, we've been doing a lot more in the 2-person drills and the intensities have increased. The advanced classes on Tuesday have been very edifying, since we generally have most of the instructors and assistant instructors there. Tonight I tested for (and passed) my test for nikyu. This is a bit of a transition test, moving from the pandemic requirements to the original requirements. In August we're going to be fully transitioned to the pre-COVID requirements, but brown belt ranks will be in a state of flux over the next year. Tonight's test was both shorter and more difficult than my previous testing cycles. Part of the reason it was shorter was there were only a handful of people testing today (7 total, I think); today's testing was primarily for advanced kyu ranks and for students that couldn't make the testing the previous weeks. I got there a bit early and went to the upstairs dojo where I warmed up with Tom (who started a few months before I did). We ran through dan kumite and kyu kumite a couple of times -- at a moderate intensity, but it was really good to get the blood moving. I then ran through my katas -- seisan and seichin. With the ~30lbs I've lost over the past month, I felt REALLY good attempting the jump for Seisan (which I previously avoided). I felt REALLY good on the hojo undo, but Sanchin really kicked my butt. Normally in the advanced classes we do sanchin 1:1 with the instructor and they'll do osme light checking and maybe a strike or two. Today I got tested at 5 different points -- at the initial opening, right after each turn, after the first wa-uke, and at the closing sequence. My wife took a video of Kyoshi (our CI's father) testing me after the first turn here: https://i.imgur.com/LvT9DYl.mp4. After some of the pulls, I found myself getting unstable, and it was REALLY hard to get my balance back while he kept striking/pushing in various directions. Definitely something I need to work on between now and testing for ikkyu (~6 months assuming I continue to progress at the expected rate). Next came our dan kumite drill -- this is something we've been working on quite a bit in class, and I'm starting to feel pretty good about it. We first performed it solo -- which I hadn't done in a couple of months. We then demonstrated it with our CI. I have a love/hate relationship to training with my CI. He makes you look REALLY good during a test. He does this by ratcheting up his intensity to a notch or two above where you're comfortable so you have to really be on your toes. After Dan Kumite, we did our rank kata, first Seichin (for brown belt) and then Seisan (or parts of it, required for shodan). Normally we wouldn't start learning seisan until ikkyu, but the pandemic has really thrown things for a loop. We then ended the testing with our sparring combinations. For the most part I did pretty well with these, but towards the end I started getting winded so I was dropping my guard. Several of the students made a number of glaring mental errors during testing -- fortunately I wasn't one of them (this time). Oh, I made mistakes aplenty but they weren't glaring enough to call me out on them. After the test, he made a point of telling the students WHY he calls people out when they make mistakes like that. He does that not because they make mistakes, but because of the mental breakdown that happens after the mistake. He talks about how if you are dealing with a bully or a situation in life and have a mental breakdown, it will end up badly for you. He says that by throwing a bit of extra stress at his students here it helps them learn to deal with it in a reasonably safe place. In the end, all of us passed. The feedback I got from my evaluator (kyoshi) was mainly dropping my hands during the sparring drills. I told him that I was surprised he didn't mention me getting flustered and getting unbalanced during Sanchin -- he said that's normal at your rank, now you know what to expect at ikkyu and shodan testing. Here are the pics with the shiny new stripe and diploma:

Welcome back! I understand what it is like to train through injuries. I have bulging discs in my lower back and arthritis in both knees. I’ve figured out what aggravates them and avoid those types of movements. It is all about trying to move forward in your training as best you can.