aurik

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.

Welcome Maria! Glad to have you here.

Our sensei had an opportunity to drill this into some of his students last night. Periodically, instead of having a normal class, he has a "clean and workout day". For the beginner's class (white/yellow belts), he asked them to take a Clorox wipe and wipe down the sparring gear and pads. When one of the kids heard what he was being asked, he shouted "This is humiliating". Our sensei then used that as a teaching moment, and talked about how it is supposed to teach humility, and how karate begins and ends with respect. He then told them that in Japan, the students were expected to clean the dojo every single day, and that in a way this is their equipment, since they are using it everyday. He then had them do multiple rounds of push-ups, sit-ups, wall squats, and a few other conditioning/strengthening exercises. I was super proud of Zach, he didn't complain at all, and you could see him trying even when he wasn't strong enough to finish a set. He always started the set and kept trying.

So at the end of last month, Zach and I sat down and decided that we were going back to the main dojo. The wife and I worked it out so I can go at least twice a week, and it's pretty easy to get Zach from school to the dojo, since it is literally right across the street from his school. In the couple of months, a few things have changed at the dojo. For starters, there are about 5 new white belts in the adult (technically 13+) class, including a couple of teenagers and one adult who is about my size. I've been finding I've been having quite a few of these "a-ha" moments over the past few weeks, and after working on it for about half of class, I felt that my Kanshu kata has drastically improved, and I'm starting to get much more fluid with my kyu kumite drills. Over the past weekend, our instructor brought one of his instructors over, Itokazu Seisho Sensei (9th dan uechi-ryu, 10th dan Matayoshi kobudo), Last weekend, he ran a 2-day kobudo seminar and my sensei was testing for his yondan in kobudo, This past Tuesday he also did a Uechi-Ryu seminar. It was pretty intense -- we did quite a bit of sanchin (including focus testing). He took one student's belt, wrapped it around his ankle, and tried to pull the ankle out from underneath him. We also saw a new way to do Kanshiwa bunkai, and he taught us the kata Daini Seisan, which is very similar to Kanshu, but with a different beginning and ending. At the end, we also did some advanced kote kitae -- he had us working all 5 points on the legs instead of just the outer calf and quads. All in all, it was a great class and I'm glad I went. He may come back next year and if he does I definitely will go.

In my first school, anyone who earned the title "shihan" was entitled to wear a red/white belt, and upper level yudansha (9th/10th dan) wore a solid red belt, and our Soke wore a solid red belt with a gold stripe around the middle. I've also seen other schools where you wear a roman numeral (1-IIII) for first-fourth degree, and stars to indicate "master" ranks (5th degree upwards). My current style uses a solid black belt for first-fifth dan, a belt with one gold stripe on each end for renshi (6th dan), 2 stripes for kyoshi, and 3 stripes for hanshi. Of course, other organizations within our style do things differently. Soooo, I guess as others has said, "it depends".

I may be a bit inexperienced compared to others here, but to my perspective, the value of these two-person drills varies greatly by the skill and intensity of your partner. When I train with a partner who is at or above my own skill and intensity level, I find that I get quite a bit out of these types of drills. For example, most of the students in my current class are teens or younger, and only one or two of them will actually perform the techniques with any intensity or intent. However, when I have the chance to work with one of our assistant instructors, he makes me be better, because if I don't do the defenses correctly, he'll tag me. He has a pretty good idea of what my ability level is, and he makes me work to get better. One thing our CI tries to stress is that the attacker in our drills *should* throw the techniques such that if the defender messes up, they get touched. Now our organization has 4 sets of prearranged drills. We have two yakusoku kumite drills which are learn for yellow belt ranks (10th kyu through 7th kyu(): and . For green belt ranks, we have our kyu kumite: and our kicking exercise: . At sankyu and above, we do our dan kumite: .Granted, I'm still very much learning the basics, but from what I've seen so far, I think these 2-man drills are valuable when done with intent and focus, and as they get more advanced, they help us learn flow. As one working towards rokkyu (green belt), I'm working the kyu kumite and kicking drill, and that kicking drill has done wonders for helping me with my balance and also judging distances when someone is kicking you (if you step back too far, your blocks won't connect, etc). So, again, just my .02 worth from a relative newbie

I'm glad to hear you're having a good experience at the main dojo. I've also found that the effectiveness of your training can be highly dependent upon your training partners. I hope this semester brings many good things for your training!

Oh, we're very happy with the instructor and the school in general (keep in mind this is a satellite school from the main school). The two options I see are to stay with the rec center or go back to the main dojo. There *are* other options in the area (including other rec center options affiliated with our CI), but they are less optimal than the 2 I'm looking at.

Like the saying goes... The family that trains together, stays together!! More like, "The family that trains together, is more likely to kick each other in the head."Fortunately for me, Zach hasn't learned flying side kicks... yet

Back at the beginning of July, Zach earned his junior 3rd kyu, which in our instructor's school, covers most of the material for senior 9th kyu and a little of the material for other advanced ranks. After that, he moved up to to the 7-12 year old beginner's class, and our CI was having him help other white belts with our yakusoku kumite and kanshiwa kata. When he actually turned 7, both of us moved to a "7+" class at our local rec center taught by a couple of his black belts (his girlfriend [now fiancee'] is a 3rd dan, and the other instructor is a 4th dan). Well, last Wednesday, Heather Sensei told us that we would both be testing for our next belts, and Zach was really nervous... but he passed! The black belt in charge of our groups primarily told us to watch where our eyes were going, but we all looked pretty solid in our techniques (well, I'd interpret that as "rank appropriate"). At the end of the testing, our CI awarded Zach his senior kukyu, and awarded me my shichikyu. Now I get to focus on the whole next set of kumite drills for my rokkyu. Here's me and Zach looking proud with our new certificates: https://imgur.com/I6CGpC0

So it's been awhile since I have been in here. The new job is doing pretty well, -- I'm in that massive learning curve where you feel like you're struggiling every day to figure out what's going on. My first 3 weeks on the job had me in San Jose for onboarding and getting up to speed on the technologies and the product. Well, I also took this as an opportunity to meet some other Uechi-Ryu people in the bay area. They were in the Okikukai branch, so some of their techniques they did a little differently, but 95% of their stuff was the same. Also, I had the opportunity to train pretty much 1:1 with both a 5th degree and an 8th degree. They gave me some very subtle pointers on my katas that I feel really increased my understanding of things. For one thing, they really hammered the "eyes, feet, hands" thing into my brain, so I'm starting to do it more instinctively. One other change is that since my son turned 7 last month, he's now eligible to attend the adult/children classes at our rec center (run through the same school). I figured we'd try it for a month or two to see if I could get what I need out of it. We've been training together there for one month now, and there are some good things and bad things about it. On the plus side, I am guaranteed my two nights training per week -- otherwise Mrs. Aurik complains that she's always having to watch our son while I'm at Karate, and she doesn't feel like she gets her exercise in (it turns out there's an aquarobics class at the community center at the same time). The downsides are that there are exactly two adult students in the class -- me, and one of the other students' moms (incidentially, the kiddo is really good friends with my son). Of the kids that are there, only about 4 of them are anywhere near my height (I'm 6'2"), so it's really hard for me to do 2-person drills with them, and kote kitae with them provides no benefit to me. Now Wednesday nights are different, because one of the other instructors comes to help out with the class, and I get to work with him a fair bit, especially on the 2-man drills and kote kitae. He has very crisp technique, and I learn quite a bit just observing him on the other side of the drills. The other issue I'm having at the rec center is that the room we're in has this slick industrial carpeting, so anytime I need to get into a low stance (shiko-dachi) for one of our katas, I can't go nearly as low as I probably should for fear that my feet will slide right out from underneath me. There have been several occasions during our katas and bunkai that I've found my feet trying to slide out from underneath me. (oops). So I'm going to spend the next month or two deciding whether or not I can adjust to these issues. If not, then I'll be talking with the wife and mini-me to see what the best options moving forward for us are. And... last but not least, this coming weekend is a testing day, and our instructor told us that both my son and I will be testing. My son will be testing for his full yellow belt (9th kyu), and I'll be testing for my 2nd stripe on my yellow belt (7th kyu). This will be my son's first formal testing, but he's seen me go through 2 testing sessions so he should have an idea what to expect. I hope to have some good news to post about that this weekend

So there is a lot of good news in my world right now. First of all, I start a new job on Monday. I was able to negotiate a 20% raise plus signing bonus over my last job, plus they are still paying me to another 7 weeks. I took the time off to, among other things, train a little weapons. I’m now getting the hang oh Sushi no Kon. I’d like to get good enough with that to compete in our next tourney this November. Also, my son just passed his test for junior brown belt (sankyu-sho). This means he gets to move up to the next class early, and he can test for his full yellow belt (kukyu) at the first testing after his 7th birthday. Our sensei also says that kids who have earned their junior brown belts tend to advance through the program slightly faster than other kids their age. The best part was that my wife was able to be at the testing. She cheered louder than any of the parents there, and you could see my son beaming with its pride at his accomplishment.

So the last week has been full of highs and lows. To start with the biggest low, last Wednesday was the first day of my company's Fiscal Year. I also discovered that the planning and resource allocations that they make for the FY goes into effect on May 1. It turns out they reduced allocations to my project, and as a result, I got notified that my position had been eliminated. Hence... laid off. I'm fortunate, however, that I am highly qualified for my job (software engineer), and my company is giving me basically a 3 month severance package. I already have four interviews lined up, and I hope to have something by the beginning of June. However, for the first couple days there I was in a pretty big funk. Also last Saturday, my son entered his first tournament in both the sparring and kata divisions. He had been practicing his Kanshiwa kata every single day for the prior couple of weeks, and it really showed. Before he went there, I told him that the two MOST IMPORTANT things to do in a tournament were to (1) have fun, and (2) do your best. I'm proud to say that he did perform the best kata I've ever seen him do. He did not win a medal, but he did accept his losses with quite a bit of maturity. Also, in the sparring division, he would have a tendency to get what he thought was a point, then stop and look at the judges. At this point, of course, his opponent would tag him. Due to the way our school does belts, he was competing against students that were probably much more advanced than him (he's a junior 4th kyu, but when he turns 7 he moves to an adult/"full" 9th kyu). I also spoke with my sensei today, and apparently some of those schools have kids that specialize in sport/tournament karate. Our school focuses more on traditional karate, but our sensei will spend a few weeks before each tournament to help his students prepare -- like adjusting timing in katas and dealing with point sparring. One thing I was very disappointed about with the tournament was the amount of head contact there. One kid in my son's division got hit in the head hard enough to knock out his mouthguard, and another kid from our dojo got hit in the nose hard enough to make it bleed. Unfortunately the judges were VERY hesitant to let the referee outrightly disqualify a competitor. So one very profound but subtle thing I learned at Monday night's class -- there is no true concept of a "block" in karate. He talked about the moves which we call blocks, such as a gedan barai uke, or age uke, the term "uke" means "to receive". So you're receiving the technique, possibly redirecting it, but not necessarily "blocking" it per se. When he talked about that, I had an immediate insight from my (old) judo days when you had the tori (thrower) and uke (receiver). It also echoes some of the things that Master Thompson spoke about in his seminar last November. Also, with my brief period of LOTS of extra time, I went ahead and scheduled a few private lessons to learn a bo kata. I'd really like to compete at the next tournament my son goes to, and honestly I'm probably too slow to do well at point sparring. I mean when we spar in class, I tend to wait for my opponent to attack, grab their hand/foot, and then slide in close and wail on them. Sometimes I get tagged, sometimes I don't. However, in a real fight my opponent would be in big trouble. (I'm slow, but also a lot bigger and stronger than most of the guys in my class.) So today we started on sushi no kon -- when I was a lot younger, I had worked on something similar (sushi no kon sho, from a different kobudo lineage). It's going to take a lot of practice to get the muscle memory firing again, but it didn't feel TOO weird. The next tournament we're probably going to compete in will be November, so I've got plenty of time to practice. That's long-winded, but it was a VERY eventful week.