aurik

I'm glad to hear that you're moving forward through the struggles, Swede. I've been struggling a bit at the dojo (and at home) lately, but I am putting one foot in front of the other, and I figure in the end I'll be stronger for it.

Thanks for the encouragement, Swede! This week's "a-ha" moment involved some guidance that our CI was giving one of our brown belts. The most common block we do in Uechi Ryu is the wa-uke, or circular block. His advice to the student was basically that all of the power and speed in the wa-uke is in the shoulder and upper arm. The forearms are just along for the ride until the last moment when you tense the entire arm. I started trying this out, and I was amazed at how much quicker my blocks got from just this one tip. Another tip he gave the other day had to do with one of our hojo undo techniques -- which we usually translate as "rising block, leopard-fist punch". The Japanese term for this is Hajiki Uke, Hiraken Tsuki -- and that Hajiki translates literally as "snapping", so the block is more correctly done as a snapping motion forwards and upwards. I'm starting to get the hang of Seichin, and I've started working Dan kumite. I just really need to get more cardio work in during the week

Congratulations on ikkyu! Train hard, train well, and shodan will take care of itself!

On Monday's class, I started trying to learn Seichin, which is our kata required for brown belt ranks (3rd kyu - 1st kyu). This is a considerably more dynamic kata and substantially more difficult than the prior two rank katas we do (kanshiwa for 9th-7th kyu and kanshu for 6th-4th kyu). In our first two rank katas, almost the entire kata is performed in sanchin stance, except for one instance in each kata where we drop to a shiko dachi to perform an elbow strike. Seichin is considerably more difficult in that there are a couple of instances where we transition from sanchin->shiko Dachi->sanchin in fairly quick succession. There's also a new sequence where we bring the leg up to a crane block while both hands do a pair of circular blocks (in the same direction), and then you bring your toe down to a neko dachi. I'm just glad our sensei tends to start teaching adult students their new rank katas well before they are tested on them. This one is going to take me quite a while to get right, but that's part of the fun isn't it? Here's a video of my sensei performing it:

The kata seisan is not just part of our style, but it is one of the 3 core kata of our style (along with sanchin and sanseiryu). It is a requirement for shodan in Uechi-Ryu, so I figure I’ll start learning it in about 9 months to a year. You can see one of our instructors performing the Uechi version here :

When I think old school karate, I think of something like this:

My CI has a very realistic outlook on this aspect. He fully expects to lose a large number of students within the first 6 months to a year. Uechi-ryu isn't for everyone, and he doesn't tend to lose a lot of sleep if students drop out at the white or yellow belt ranks (10th kyu - 7th kyu). By the time students make it to green belt (6th kyu), he figures they'll probably stay around awhile unless life gets in the way. It does kind of bother him a bit when he loses students beyond their first year or so, because by that point he's started really putting effort into them. His approach works pretty well, because he has a number of long-time students. His adult classes are generally half full of black belts -- and some of these students have been with him for 10+ years (starting when they were 7-8 years old). He also recently had the pleasure of promoting one of his students to 3rd degree. Something he tells kids and parents when they start approaching the brown belt ranks is the meaning of "shodan" is "beginner". Meaning you've mastered the basics and now you're ready to learn the good stuff. It seems to work. It probably also helps that he has a lot of students who have stayed with him after earning their shodan ranks.

In Uechi-Ryu, we are taught to strike with the toe in both front kicks and roundhouse kicks. We are taught to strike at places like the gut (right at/above the belt), the floating ribs, the root of the calf muscle, and the front or inside of the thigh. Needless to say, this can be a very fast kick, hard to defend against, and if you haven't conditioned yourself, it'll hurt like the dickens.

This sounds a lot like the conditioning we do in uechi-ryu. It takes time to condition your body, especially the striking surfaces and places you are likely to get hit -- I've been training uechi-ryu for about 15 months now. When I first started, I would get pretty easily bruised and the bruises would last for quite some time. Now after I've been training for a year+, I'm able to accept much harder strikes on my forearms and shins without lasting consequences. A couple of nights a week (in addition to class nights), I'll do some conditioning while I watch TV or listen to a book -- just to the point of discomfort and maybe a little more. Start slow and don't push yourself too hard. When you start feeling pain/discomfort stop -- if you give yourself bruises, you'll need to wait for those to heal before you can continue. As your body acclimates to the conditioning, you'll find you can strike the bag harder and more often without incurring injury. And most importantly (as others have said), listen to your sensei. And good luck on your journey!

Thanks for the encouragement, sensei8! I understand (to a point) how things get harder at brown belt. Our brown belt kata, seichin, is considerably more difficult than either kanshiwa or kanshu. Our brown belt requirements also include our dan kumite which has jumping kicks and takedowns, and moreover it is supposed to have an inherent flow to it (unlike our two person drills at yellow/green belt, which is 2-4 strikes followed by a counter.). Likewise, we are required to spar at brown belt (something which I am not all that good at), and he gets to hit us in sanchin testing. Also the testing cycles go from 3 to 6 months. Which probably isn't a bad thing for me, because I really need to focus on my cardio and weight loss if I'm going to survive a shodan test I really appreciate you guys and your encouragement. It definitely helps a lot!

It's been a few weeks since I last posted on here, and I've had quite a few "a-ha" moments. This past Monday, we did a lot of work with kicks and I was paired with our CI for bag work. He started us working technique with mawashi-geri, specifically he wanted us to start them by bringing our knee up like a front kick, then quickly turning the hip over and pivoting the supporting foot. The intent of this is to make this look like a front kick so the defender doesn't have as much time to figure out where to block. While I can definitely see the advantage of this, it's going to take me a lot of work to make it feel natural. He then had us work double mawashi-geri, where we would kick, drop the foot back to the ground for a quick reset, then kick again. Unfortunately, my right knee twinged when I landed too hard on it, so I had to lay off the right kicks for awhile. Which wasn't an entirely bad thing, because my left kicks are in dire need of help. Finally, he had us doing "skip kicks", where you bring the kicking leg up, and do a hop on the supporting leg to get additional distance/penetration. Since I was holding his bag, I had a bit of an eye opening, since I felt a gut punch even through the bag. Well, it's good training for sanchin shime. Next, we worked on some of the more advanced techniques when blocking kicks. At the white/yellow belt level, we're taught that we should just do a circular block for those kicks. However, since most of the people in the class were dan ranks, he had us work the more advanced version of those blocks. Basically, as the front kick comes in, you step back, use your same-side hand to stop the kick (again, you're stepping back, so there's not much penetration power left), and use your opposite side hand to come up under the ankle and catch the foot. At the same time, you drop your body into a low stance, and then after you have the kick you, step forward into sanchin and complete your circular block, hopefully throwing your opponent off balance. I immediately saw the applications to this in several of our two-person drills, and started working on it in our practice that week. Also, this past weekend, Zach and I both tested for our next ranks. At Zach's last test, he was told to really work on his power. Well, he definitely has improved on that in leaps and bounds. At his test, his evaluator gave him kudos on that, and told him he had some serious "mean eyes". His feedback was to look his opponent in the eye and to "tighten up" his circular blocks. He passed, moving on to shichikyu (yellow, 2 stripes). Since I was the only adult green belt testing, I got to work with our CI on all of my drills. He gave my arms a serious pounding during our kote kitae drills (my left arm is a bit tender), and he stepped things up a few notches on the two person drills. I got a bit ahead of myself on one of them -- I succeeded in blocking his mawashi geri, but when I was circle-blocking it to spin him around, I did not wait until his foot cleared my face before stepping forward and got a smelly foot in the face for my troubles. Also, during our kicking exercise, he made a point of showing the weakness in my crane block technique -- we're supposed to angle our shin and forearm to guide the kicks downwards, but my forearm wasn't angled quite right, and his foot went right up my forearm to brush my chin... another smelly foot to the face. Those were two of my pieces of feedback at the end. The last thing we worked on this week was the presentation part of our bunkai. He said that we should start and end each partner demonstration by setting together in our kimae. Since it was pretty new in my mind, I wasn't always remembering to end each demonstration with the kimae, but during the test, our CI told me that during a black belt test, you can use those that pause to catch your breath. Since I have a tendency to be low on stamina, I will definitely keep that in mind. In the end, we both passed, and we both learned a few things for our future tests. I'll now get to start learning my next kata (seichin). Fortunately I have at least 6 months to work on it before I get tested on it. As always, my wife has pictures of us, so I'll post those once she sends those out

My reasons have changed over the years. When I was in high school, it was because of The Karate Kid and other MA movies. After I graduated college and went off to live on my own for the first time, I joined a dojo because of my previous enjoyment with martial arts, and I wanted to get out of my apartment more. Now that I'm a parent, I want my son to learn karate for the self-discipline and fitness aspects. I'm doing karate with him to try to be a role model for him, and to boost my own personal fitness.

With the holidays and a "creeping crud" cold, I haven't had the opportunity to train until this week. Of course, at the same time, my manager decided that with a big project coming up, I needed to make a trip to San Jose. Sooo, I got to train with the Okikukai guys out in San Jose. They are a very friendly bunch and do things slightly differently and stress different aspects of our katas than my sensei does. It was a lot of fun, and I got to work a different set of yakusoku kumite exercises. All in all it was a good week, and good to get back into the swing of things. This upcoming week will be interesting as well, since my wife will be on travel, so I'll need to bring Zach with me to my adult classes. Our agreement is that if he reads for 30 minutes at the beginning of class, I'll let him play video games for the remainder of class. It's worked out reasonably well so far.

Our school has white/yellow/green/brown/black, but we put up to two stripes on each of the yellow/green/brown to indicate the kyu grade. (e.g, yellow = 9th kyu, yellow with one stripe = 8th kyu). This matches pretty well with our requirements, since the requirements for each yellow belt rank are essentially the same (kanshiwa + yakusoku kumite), green belt ranks require kanshu + kyu kumite + kicking drill, and brown belt ranks require seichin + dan kumite + sparring. Of course, as your kyu rank goes up, the expectations for execution, technique, and power increase.

Last Thursday when I was training, I had a twinge in my knee when my partner blocked it and tugged at it slightly. My sensei noticed this, and told me to work around the injury -- which frankly I should have been doing in the first place. I made a comment to him something like "Getting old sucks, but it's better than the alternative". He got a good laugh at that. So at our school, we do kata at the very end of class. I find it a challenge, but it makes kata a lot easier when you're NOT exhausted by an hour of other exercises. Furthermore we always face the front of the dojo when we do kata. Except for last Thursday. He first had us do our kata normally. Then he turned us around to face the back of the dojo and repeated the kata. That wasn't too bad. Then he had us had us do our kata mirror-image. Now that was hard. Instead of just moving through the kata through muscle memory, you had to carefully think about every move as you worked your way through the kata. For the first 2 kata (which I currently know), that wasn't too bad, because those 2 katas only move in the cardinal directions. It was REALLY entertaining watching the yudansha perform their katas, because the dan katas move in 8 directions, not 4, so by the end of the kata, our black belts were all moving in 4 completely different directions. The knee is continuing to get better, I just need to take it easy and not aggrivate it.

You've taken a very mature attitude regarding this, Swede, and I hope this takes you very far in your MA journey. I'm sure your partners appreciate your help and support for their testing. As long as you are continuing to train, you're moving forward; the rank will take care of itself.

Another few weeks gone, but not a lot to update. Zach and I did pass both of our tests, so that is definitely a good thing. Now that I've moved up to green belt, I now get to learn the bunkai for Kanshu kata -- it's taking a little bit for me to get the hang of things, since the performance is considerably different than that of our first kata (Kanshiwa). Our CI has also asked me to start 'managing distance' between me and my opponent. For example, we have one of our kyu kumite drills that ends with me performing an elbow strike to the solar plexus followed by a backfist strike to the upper mandible. Well, usually after I finish the elbow strike, I'm too close to the opponent to get a good solid backfist in, so our CI wants me to basically use the grab I've already got on my opponent to push him back to the proper distance. He makes it look really easy when he demonstrates, but after trying it a few dozen times, it certainly is not easy to make it look that easy There is another sequence in our Kanshu bunkai where we defend against a downward strike (in this case a sword attack), block, step in with an elbow strike and follow up with a backfist and one-knuckle punch. The same distance principle applies. I've also been battling a few nagging injuries -- during my test for rokkyu, I managed to snag my ring finger on my CI's pants leg during one of our kyu kumite drills. It didn't seem too bad at first, but the next morning I couldn't bend the finger at all. Well, 3.5 weeks later and I'm almost at full ROM on that finger again. It's kinda pesky, because if you can't bend one finger, you can't make a tight fist at all. Also, I've been battling some knee issues, where when I slightly overextend the knee I get pain right below the kneecap. Both of those issues seem to be clearing up, but they're just another example of how training in your 40's (almost 50) is much much different from training in your teens and 20's

Hello and welcome to the forum, Capella! I started training in Uechi-Ryu a little over a year ago at the ripe young age of 46 -- I would be gasping for breath and my arms would be rubbery about halfway through a days' workout. I went to a seminar about one month in, and I ended up with bruises on my shins that took MONTHS to heal. However, I've been sticking with it, and I find that my speed, power and endurance are increasing substantially. Also after a year of body conditioning, I'm finding the bruises aren't nearly as common and they tend to heal a lot quicker. Good luck on your journey, and keep us posted on your progress!

Boshiken and sokusen (geri) are staples of our style I just need to take more time to seriously condition for the sokusen geri. I'd do fine hitting squishy parts with it, but I"d do more damage to myself right now if I struck something hard.

Our CI has classes broken down by rank and age. We have kids classes (4-6), youth beginner/intermediate/advanced (7-12 years), and adult (13+) classes. For all of the full-time karate students, he offers a once a week sparring class. He also runs a Matayoshi Kobudo (3 classes a week) and Aikido (2 classes a week) program. From what I've seen, his classes run in 3 month cycles (or so). During the course of the cycle, he'll have a class or two that focuses on ukemi and the "hidden" throws in our kata and two-person drills, a class or two focused on kicking, a class or two on joint locking, a few classes for sparring, and a few other "specialty" classes. The rest of the classes follow (more or less) the standard formula of junbi undo, hojo undo, sanchin, rank-specific work, and kata. Oh, and about once a month he has a "cleanup and conditioning" day where all the students help clean the dojo and then do conditioning work.

we both passed! Zach is now a new 8th kyu, and I"m a new 6th kyu. This test didn't quite go as smoothly for either of us as the previous ones, for different reasons (for each of us). As always, our testing cycles start with the formal bow, random hojo undo techniques, and then sanchin. Candidates for brown belt ranks (3rd, 2nd, and 1st kyu) are tested on hojo undo and sanchin separately, since they get tested on kime/conditioning and they have to perform hojo undo in Japanese. Zach and I both did fine on our hojo undo and sanchin. The next part of the test was on kote kitae and two-person drills. Unfortunately, Zach was partnered with a kid who wasn't all there today, and Zach isn't assertive enough to take charge and go on his own. Therefore, after the group of kids went, they had the individuals who had troubles work with members of the instructor panel. Once zach was working with a black belt, he was able to do fine on that. He was also partnered with the same kid for bunkai, so they both struggled with each other. Again, he performed bunkai with one of the instructors, and he was able to get through. He had issues with some of the performance aspects, but the defenses he did fine on. So when I got up for my test there were 2 11-12 year old kids and me testing for green belt ranks, which meant I got to work with our CI. Frankly this is both a good and bad thing. He will definitely make you look good, because he performs his drills with a high degree of intensity and sincerity. However, he also pushes you to work at the best level you can, which tends to tax my CV fitness (which is improving, but still not where it needs to be). For example, when he and I did kote kitae, he was hitting me hard enough that the members of the audience could hear it. I know for a fact that if he'd hit me this hard when I first started, I would have gone home with bruises and/or stress fractures. It was borderline painful, but I'm not feeling any tenderness now. Also, when we did our two-person drills, I slightly flubbed one of my blocks and my ring finger bent the wrong way, so that's going to be a few days to recover (hopefully). We both passed, and when I got my feedback from my evaluating instructor, he wanted me to work on a few little things, like the placement of my thumbs when in tiger (guard) stance, getting my kicks a little higher (in our kicking drill), and making my circular blocks a bit bigger -- he said they were pretty good at the beginning, but tended to get a little smaller as the test wore on. He also said that he normally wouldn't mention those to me yet, but there weren't any big things he wanted me to work on. So except for a ring finger that's swollen and doesn't want to bend quite right, I'm feeling pretty good about myself. Zach was very happy too, and he was told that he needs to make sure each movement is separate. Ie, step, pause, block, pause, strike. And here of course we are in our shiny new ranks:

Oh, and one other thing. I've decided to add swimming into my training regimen. This is for two reasons. First of all, I'm still getting "gassed" pretty quickly when running drills, especially kicking drills. The swimming will definitely help the CV fitness. Also, my shoulders are still not at the level of conditioning I think I need -- by the time we finish with our hojo undo and start on our first round of Sanchin, my shoulders just want to die. The swimming will definitely help with that too. So I went into the gym this morning and got some lap swimming in -- not nearly as far as I used to when I was younger, but it was a good start. On the way out, I stepped on the scale and noticed that I'm down about 20 lbs since I started my journey last year. I've still got a long ways to go to where I want to be, but I'm definitely moving in the right direction.

Another couple weeks gone, and some more "a-ha" moments. I've now been training at the dojo for a little over a year. Why is that important, you ask? Well, after students have been training for about a year, our Sensei figures they're conditioned enough to seriously test their focus and conditioning in Sanchin. Now last summer when I was in the youth+adult class at the community center, I was feeling pretty good about myself, because the (female) instructor there would hit me as hard as she could in the forearms, abs, and quads. Last night I had my eyes opened -- our sensei hits like a freight train, and his knuckles and forearms feel like baseball bats. I held up pretty well, but I'm more sore on the forearms and traps than usual. It looks like I need to step up that aspect of my training. I'm continuing to have these a-ha moments during training, and especially watching others train as well. For example, our Sensei was explaining something to a student about one of the moves in Seichin (our kata for brown belt), about how after certain strikes he needs to return to the guard position, especially when we're doing kata with him counting the movements. I immediately made the connection to a similar movement in Kanshu (the kata which I'll be tested on for green belt). He confirmed my questions. Also last weekend, Zach competed in his second tournament. He competed in both sparring and kata. Our sensei ran a special class the night prior to help kids prep and gave Zach a few pointers. Well, the next morning, Zach did the best kata I've ever seen him do. He lost to his opponent, but frankly I didn't care, and I told him that. He got in front of those judges, and applied all of the pointers our Sensei asked him to do. I was very proud of him! He also did much better in sparring than I've seen him do before. He got in 3 points against his opponent, but his opponent got in a couple of head kicks, which frankly Zach has never had to deal with before -- in our normal sparring classes, the head is only a valid target for brown belts and above. When Zach saw that he had lost, he cried a lot... but since he got a bye for his first round, he did end up with a third place in sparring: https://i.imgur.com/Qrd7wHK.jpg. Our sensei heard what had happened (his fiancee' was coaching Zach while the CI was coaching other students), and told Zach that he lost a LOT of times (and cried a lot from losing) when he was growing up. He gave zach a lot of encouragement. One thing my wife appreciated about this tournament was that they DIDN'T give participation medals. One thing *I* appreciated about the tournament was that things were much better controlled than the first tournament Zach went to (ie, the number of kids that were getting hit way too hard). It also seemed a much "friendlier" type of tournament. The biggest reason I didn't compete in this tournament is that from the way I read the schedule, it looked like my division would be late in the afternoon, and I didn't think it would be fair for Zach to have to sit around there all day long. It turns out that if I had competed, 1) I would've been in one of the first divisions up, and 2) they ended up combining the divisions such that men's 36-49 was a single division. I would've been competing against my sensei. There's some other good news as well. Zach and I are both scheduled to test this coming Saturday (him for 8th kyu, me for 6th), so please wish us luck!

Aiki jujutsu / shorinji kempo 1 shuri-ryu / judo / kobudo 1 ATA TKD 1 Uechi-ryu 1

So this week I'm out in San Jose for work again, and I'm working out with some of the Okikukai West people. It's always fun and interesting to train with a different set of people, because you get to see the techniques from different perspectives. On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to train with a handful of people led by an 8th degree. We worked hojo undo, Sanchin, Kanshiwa, kotekitae, and their version of yakusoku kumite. In my sanchin and kanshiwa, I got some good but subtle corrections on my stances and stepping. It seems that sometimes I have been pivoting on my heel instead of the ball of my foot. Also, the instructor was wanting me to drop my weight down in Sanchin to help with my stability. The new material I got to work on was their version of the yakuosku kumite. The other student who was trying to teach me was aparently fairly new to the drills himself (and the instructor was focused on working with one of the white belts), but I found a really good video version of it from Chip Quimby Sensei that I was able to follow later that night. So I'm still training, still moving forward, and having a real blast while doing it.