aurik

I'm probably going to go as Hagrid this year, since I already have most of the stuff required

So it's been an extremely eventful last couple of weeks since I've checked in here. The prep cycle has been going extremely well. Aaron and I have been communicating pretty well and giving each other good critique on what we've been noticing in each other's technique. For example, we were performing bunkai, and there were a couple places where I noticed that Aaron wasn't chambering, so I pointed that out to him. I am feeling we are doing pretty well, but we definitely have opportunities for improvement. Last week was a really interesting and intense week. Master James Thompson (10th dan Uechi-Ryu) came down from Michigan to run a seminar for us, and we had a number of people visiting from out of town. We had two people in from Florida, one from California, and in addition to Master Thompson, we had two others from Michigan (Mustafa and my CI's youngest brother). The seminar officially ran from Friday through Sunday, but Master Thompson also ran classes Wednesday and Thursday evening. Thursday night, we were scheduled for our test prep class. Aaron was in Canada visiting family, so I partnered up with Eli, who is a junior black belt, and will be testing for his full shodan and nidan-sho (junior 2nd degree). We ran through Sanchin, Dan (Yakusoku) Kumite, and Seisan Bunkai, each of us giving minor corrections to the other. After we finished our Seisan Bunkai, we noticed Hanshi Robb (9th degree, visiting from Califormia) watching us, and I walked up to him and introduced myself and Eli, and asked him if he noticed anything that we should work on. One of the thing that he noticed right away is that we both took time to give each other constructive feedback. He was hesitant to give us concrete feedback, because he is from a different organization (Okikukai), and they do things a little differently. He did give us two pointers though -- he told us that we were being very cognizant of our hand positions, but we should also take more care with what we're doing with out feet. He also mentioned one move in the final sequence of Seisan, where we step forward into a low stance (shiko-dachi), and move into a specific kamae. He talked about how we just '"eased into" that kamae, but there are specific applications for this kamae, and we should put some power and focus into this. I then asked if he knew a couple of the people who I trained with in California. And he mentioned that he's known Dave since he was a brown belt. Dave is now an 8th degree -- so we're talking a REALLY long time. Small world! Friday started out with Mrs Aurik leaving for the weekend on a "girls trip", and my 5pm class was rescheduled for 4:15 (to accomodate Master Thompson's seminar). The class went by quicker than I anticipated -- mainly because I'm used to a full hour for class. I felt that the class went pretty well, and then back home to get Zach fed -- I ordered two pizzas from Dominos, intending for these to be for dinner today and lunch tomorrow. (This point is important!). `Then back to the dojo at 7pm for an "instructors seminar". I won't cover what we learned in each seminar, but I'll talk about what we learned overall. That evening I probably had 3 slices of one of the pizzas, and planned on having the rest for lunch on Saturday. The rest of the weekend's training went like this: Saturday morning training from 10a-11:15a. Then rushed back home to pick up Zach to get him to the kids' seminar from 11:30a-12:45p. When I got home for lunch on Saturday, I went into the fridge looking for the leftover pizza... and Zach ate *all* of it. And he's only 11!? I'm not sure if I am ready for a full-blown teenagers' appetite! We then had afternoon sessions, 3p-4:15 for me, and 4:30-5:45 for Zach. There was then a bbq over at my CI's house (more on that later). Sunday, Zach had a 10am-noon session, and then there was a 2p-4p adult session, followed by a sayonara dinner that evening. Overall the seminar was excellent. From a personal level, I met karateka from a number of different schools and organizations. We had students from our organization (Kokusai Kyokai), Okikukai, and Kenyukai. While these are all Uechi-Ryu organizations, and we perform the same kata and hojo undo, some of the techniques and subtleties have diverged. The seminar generally went like this -- we would work on a technique or a kata for a bit, and then Master Thompson would demonstrate something "new" about the technique. For example, one session he started out talking about Kanshiwa Bunkai (Kanshiwa being the first kata we learn for yellow belt ranks). The first sequence for Kanshiwa involves an attack coming in from the left. The defender pivots on the left foot off the line of attack, performs a left watari-uke, followed by a right seiken-tsuki to the attacker's floating ribs. He then demonstrated how the exact same defense can be used against a wrist grab from the front. The person he picked to demonstrate was boggled by the whole concept at first, but ... the exact same circular-block/punch sequence works just fine on both a same-side and cross-side wrist grab. There were so many little things that were covered during the course of the weekend - not necessarily game-changing, but little things that make you think about other things, and those things make connections in other things, and it helps you have a sequence of "a-ha" moments. Another a-ha moment -- your opponent grabs your arm in both of his. When your arm is outstretched, you don't have a lot of power, but when you drop the arm a bit, pull it in closer to you, and then rotate in a circle, you are a lot stronger than your opponent. Oh, and this is straight out of our opening for Sanchin kata. Likewise, we also saw how in the closing sequence of our kata, the "right fist covered by left open hand" can be interpreted as grabbing your opponent in one hand, and pulling him into your fist. Oof... Again, the weekend was full of these a-ha moments, and I hope I can remember many of them. By the end of the weekend, my entire body was pretty sore, but things are starting to feel closer to normal now. Until next week!

My recommendation would be to charge a single all-inclusive fee. If you charge separate fees for facilities rental and equipment, students are liable to think you are "nickel and diming them" with fees. I'm no business person, but I'd figure out a) what the prevailing rate of the area is, and b) what your expenses are in terms of facilities rental, equipment purchases, insurance, etc and your time. Then charge a rate that commensurate with the local prevailing rate that will allow you to cover your costs assuming you have X number of students. Our CI runs classes through several of the local rec centers, and what he does is offers the class through the rec center's course catalog. The rec center handles all of the billing, takes a certain cut out of the fees to cover things like insurance and facilities rental, and sends the rest to my CI.

Congratulations, Danielle!

I'll be honest, I had never heard of him until I saw your question. When I read up on him, I realized that he was an instructor of several notable masters, including Gichin Funakoshi, Chojun Miyagi, and even Kanbun Uechi, which was a surprise to me. In Uechi-Ryu, he is not even mentioned -- we are only told that his instructor was Shushiwa. So I would definitely like to learn more about him. Given that he lived and taught so long ago, before motion pictures were invented, we may never truly know what his kata actually looked like.

Congratulations, Danielle!

Prep Cycle Week 3. AKA "The Hits Keep Rollin". This has been a compressed week, since the Mrs arranged for the 3 of us to go on a short mountain vacation. One of her coworkers has a vacation cabin that she arranged for us to go stay in, so we'll be heading out Friday through Sunday. So Tuesday night we had our advanced training class, and on a couple of occasions I was training with Ethan Sensei (our CI's younger brother). I've said before that he's tall, strong and *fast*. About halfway through class, we started training our dan-grade yakusoku kumite drills, and he pointed out in the most sublime of ways, that I've been getting lax on some of my defenses. That's right, he tagged me a couple times -- hard. On one of those sequences, I step in for a seiken tsuki, he is supposed to block, and step in with a punch to the midsection, a punch to the chest. I'm supposed to block both of those and respond with a front kick to his midsection. Well, I block the low punch no problem, but I'm a bit slow/weak on the chest-level punch and he tags me in the upper chest -- fairly hard. Not hard enough to do serious damage, but enough that afterwards you want to wince and rub the affected area a bit. His eyes light up with an "a-HA" look... of course, without missing a beat, I let loose that front kick into his gut and wiped that smug look off his face. Again, not hard enough to do serious damage, but enough to get his attention. My CI then says, "Good front kick, Ken!". It was a good lesson learned there. Wednesday evening, and Zach and I were back at class. We did quite a bit of two-person dan kumite drills with different partners. I worked with a few of the younger ikkyus, who have been getting the message "you have to train strong and hard all the time". Well, the problem with that is when they end up kicking my arms or shins at full power, they're usually the ones who end up with the bruises. And I'm not actively trying to hurt them either. Fast forward to Thursday night and the black belt prep cycle class. Heather Sensei started us in hojo undo and went straight to Sanchin, with shime testing on everyone. This was a real test of strength and endurance. After about 5 minutes, my shoulders were absolutely screaming at me to stop, especially the left where I've had a torn rotator cuff for years. It doesn't bother me except at times like this. But I make it through two iterations, with her checking my focus by striking various parts of me -- the fingertips, forearms, thighs, and abs the first time around, and then the traps, lats and pecs the second time around. After Sanchin, we caught our breaths, grabbed some water, and then went into kotekitae (conditioning) and then kata. She had us nidan candidates perform seiryu individually in front of her, and she gave us each corrections. I thought mine were pretty minor, so I'm feeling pretty good about things. I'm sure there will be others once I fix what she pointed out to me in this class though. Last in the class was sparring. Since I'm over 50, sparring is optional. I chose to spar in my shodan test, but this time I'm going to forego. Most of the injuries in testing occur in sparring, and I just don't heal nearly as fast as I used to. Speaking of injuries, I've been fighting with inflamed tendons in my right forearm, so I've been trying to take it easy on the right side so I can get through testing. I've also got a lacrosse ball to do some trigger point therapy on it, so that will hopefully help. This morning, my entire body was sore from the extended Sanchin training last night. This mini-vacation will definitely be good for that! Until next week!

One of the interesting side effects of the COVID pandemic is the fact that many martial arts instructors started offering lessons either completely online or in a hybrid format. For 6 months of the pandemic, my son and I trained in our basement with an iPad connected to Zoom while our instructor led his virtual class. It was a much different style of learning than I was used to, and it took a lot more discipline to keep up. Now we have a plethora of previously-traditional MA instructors who offer an online-only or hybrid experience. From my personal experience, it's much more difficult to learn something online, especially something with as much of a physical component. As others have said, definitely look for an instructor who will give individual feedback on your technique. Also if at all possible, pick an instructor that has an in-person presence. If you can at all visit that instructor every few months or even once or twice a year for an in-person tune-up, that will go far in helping you to learn. My CI does have a couple of students that he trains remotely in both karate and kobudo. He sees them all in-person a few times a year, and they seem to be very satisfied with their experience. One of the karate students found him after spending a number of years as an ikkyu, and established that relationship so he could finally test for his shodan rank.

Prep cycle week 2: Tuesday was an interesting class for several reasons. We practiced our hojo undo with partners, but this time when we practiced with partners, we started with our hands at our sides, as if we were having to defend against an unexpected attack. It was pretty fun, and we all got tagged a few times, but it was definitely a learning experience. Later on during class, we practiced our seisan kata bunkai, and this time our CI partnered me up with Jack, who is considerably older than I am (in his 60's), but close to my height and weight. That turned out to make things pretty interesting. Two of the defenses involve sword attacks. The first defense involves a single two-handed sword attack to the forehead. As the attacker raises the sword, the defender closes the distance, posts with the right hand to stop the attacker's left elbow, then performs a circle block with the left hand to redirect the opponent to the (defender's left side), simultaneously grabbing the opponent's upper arm to control him. The defender then strikes the opponent in the ribs with an elbow strike, followed by a hiraken-tsuki (leopard-paw knuckle strike) to the opponent's face. The second sword defense involves the defender in a low stance, "offering" the attacker his right (front) leg. The attacker steps in swinging the sword at the right thigh. The defender leaps back onto the right leg, pulling the left leg up out of the way. The attacker then resets and steps in to strike at the defender's forehead. The defender then leaps back to his original position, performing the same block as before, and this time performing an elbow strike to the ribs, a back-fist strike to the face, followed by a one-knuckle strike to the ribs. These defenses can be seen in this at 2:57 and 5:34.Well, Jack is pretty big and strong. He has for the most part been able to get away with not doing the "post" portion of that block, and only doing the circular block. However, I'm also big and strong, and I've practiced those sword attacks a lot for my own shodan testing. So when I come in with the attack, his block fails and he ends up with my forearm "bonking" him in the forehead. Not quite as bad as a sword, but still unpleasant. Oof. There is also another interesting defense, at about 2:30 in that video, where you are defending against a grab. Our version has you strike the opponent in the obliques, grab and lift him by the belt, turn him towards a second opponent and push him into the second opponent. Well, as I said, I'm big and strong enough to force my opponent to do this. However, Jack isn't used to people being able to do this, so he jumps up in the air. I figured I'd have to push him HARD to get him to move. The end result... he flies about 10 feet across the dojo into the weapons rack, knocking down several bo and (wooden) kama. That was... a scary encounter. We all paused to make sure he was okay (he was, just a litlte shaken up). Thursday night was our test prep class -- we mainly just did most of the drills that are on the test - hojo undo, kotekitae, yakusoku kumite, seisan bunkai, and our rank kata. This time, I was paired up with our other nidan candidate for this cycle - he will most likely be my partner for the test. Aaron is about 17 years old, roughly 6'4", and thin as a rail. But he's wiry (if you've seen you'll know what I mean. Okay maybe not with all the other bad habits). He's one of those partners I really enjoy training with, because he's fast. If I don't have my defenses just right, he'll tag me. As we're going through our partner training and doing our kotekitae (arm conditioning), he commented, "You know, after this prep cycle, my arms should be HUGE." and "Also I hope that by the end of this, I want to be able to make your arm MOVE when I hit it". We both got a good laugh out of that. As we were doing the drill, Heather Sensei came by and yelled at me for dropping my arm during the drill. Bad habit, I know. So that's something I need to focus on.We then went through our yakisoku kumite and kata bunkai. The kumite went really well, especially for the first day of prep cycle, and so did the bunkai. At more than one occasion in the drills, I had to comment on Aaron's lack of meat on his bones -- specifically I hit one of his bony elbows with my forearm (and still have a bruise there today). Also on one of the sword defenses I missed my block and ended up getting an elbow to the forehead. At least it wasn't a sword, but still... the forehead is tender there today. All in all it was a good training session. We both pointed out places where our partner needs to improve, but they were little things. Also, during the drills we took time to help out other candidates (both of whom are ikkyus testing for shodan) are struggling. Definitely a good session.

At our dojo you're given a plain cotton black belt when you reach shodan. Most of our adult students have purchased an embroidered belt to match their own tastes. We generally get our style in kanji on one end (Uechi Ryu or Uechi Ryu Karatedo) and our name in katakana on the other end. I personally purchased a kaataro belt mainly because they can do longer belts, and also because they have the widest range of coloured stitching. I opted for "soft" 1.75" belt and their metallic blue stitching: I've now had it for a little over a year and it's held up very well.

... And so it begins (again) Many things have happened since I last posted in here. I started on a new blade, this time a tanto, with about a 9 inch blade. The nice thing about a tanto is that the construction is near identical to that of a katana or wakizashi, but on a much smaller scale. Therefore, much easier to get the details right. For example, one of the hardest part of making a sword is keeping the bevels consistent along the entire blade. The way most people handle this challenge is to forge the bevels to a very thick edge, then rough them in with a grinder and finish them with hand sanding. Let me tell you, hand sanding a 30" blade takes a REALLY long time. However, when working a 9" blade most of it can be done by a belt grinder with only the final few grits being done by hand. So that leaves the fittings -- the habaki collar mating the blade to the guard), tsuka (guard), and tsuba along with associated fittings. The only real difference between making these for a tanto, wakizashi, or katana is the length of the tsuka. So by working a few tanto, I get to practice making all of the fittings with a much smaller blade. Last weekend I took a piece of bar stock, forged it down to my intended size (started with 1 1/2" stock, forged it down to 1 1/4"), and then forged THAT into a sunobe (a "preform" of sorts for a japanese sword, which slightly tapers both height and width-wise to the tip, and then forging a sharp tip at the end). Once I formed the sunobe, I forged in the bevels until I had the rough shape of a tanto. The edge wobbles a bit, but it is still thick enough to grind it into the final shape I want. Hence the phrase, "Forge thick, grind thin". Back to the karate training. This is where the "... and so it begins" phrase comes in. This week is the first week of our dan examination prep class. It is intended to be an awakening of sorts, especially for people testing for shodan or shodan-sho. In this class we ONLY practice the material covered on the test. Of the 15 people who are supposed to be testing, 10 of them showed up, including Zach and me. One of the surprises that everyone received at the class -- when we perform Sanchin in this class, you need to remove the top of your gi. No t-shirts allowed underneath. Ladies are supposed to wear a sports bra for modesty. When they test your sanchin on your test, they want to be able to see that you are tensing the appropriate muscle groups (specifically traps, lats, abs, and forearms). Of the male students, only Zach and I knew not to wear a t-shirt underneath (including 2 students who are attending their dan testing for the 2nd and 3rd time). And the female students didn't wear anything underneath their tops. Well, first lesson learned. This was pretty much a feeling-out class. Where we all ran through parts of the test and figured out where we were, and where our instructor looked to see where we needed to go. Since we had an odd number of students, she went with the youngest (girl) student during the bunkai phase of class. Also in the process, she gave her a LOT of feedback and corrections. At the end of class she pointed out that there will be a LOT of corrections done in this class, and that we need to be able to take what could be some harsh criticism. Because when we get to the test, there will be NO feedback given except after the exam. The only feedback we get from the testing board will be "Can I please see that again". Which means that we did something substantially wrong, and that our grade automatically goes down a fraction of a point for that segment. I was able to work with one of the guys my size who will be testing for shodan this time around. Everything went pretty well, and I was able to give him a lot of good feedback especially in the yakusoku kumite and bunkai segments. The bunkai section is by far the hardest and most difficult segment of the test, especially for shodan candidates, so I'm glad I have 12+ weeks to brush up and polish mine. The good news is that Zach is really looking forward to this class, and he seems to be taking things very seriously. After class I felt a very proud papa. After class, Heather sensei told us that the reason that they do this class is so we are all properly prepared to represent ourselves well in front of the testing board. Since they have implemented this prep class, they have not had any students fail a dan grading (but there have been some who washed out before the test happened for various reasons). She told us that the classes will get more difficult, mentally, from here on out, because they are going to be nitpicking details with us as we move forward. Until next time!

I've had two instructors I really respected. They both were long-time students and long-time instructors of the martial arts. Both of them ALWAYS gave feedback to their students, always giving them something to improve. I don't care how good or strong or "almost perfect" your technique is, there is always SOMETHING you can do to improve it, and a good instructor should be looking to bring that out in his/her students. Lineage or style isn't as important to me as the "lifetime learner" and "always looking to improve" attitude. An instructor with those attitudes will definitely pass those on to their students.

I can't speak as to that dojo specifically, but I do know that Goju-Ryu is definitely rooted in Sanchin (which you mentioned is something you are interested in). I skimmed over their website, and they seem to be saying the right things. If it were me, I'd go there and just watch a few classes. See how the instructor teaches. Look at the advanced (green/brown belt) students -- do their forms and techniques look strong, crisp, and well-controlled? Watch how the instructor(s) - are they giving feedback and corrections to their students? Even advanced students (black belts) need correction and feedback - does the instructor provide it? Also, talk with the instructor and get a good feel for how he/she runs things. One thing that is important to me -- is the instructor still a student? My CI and his father are 6th and 8th degrees (respectively), and they still periodically train with more senior instructors. If the instructor is still looking to improve and perfect their own craft, then they will constantly look for improvement in their students. I've now been studying Uechi-Ryu for 5 years, and that's how I met my current Sensei. I wasn't looking to study Uechi-Ryu specifically, but when I met him and watched my son in his classes, he earned my respect. So I decided to train with him myself.

Hello everyone, I've been dabbling in the blacksmithing/bladesmithing arena for a little over 2 years now. As I live just north of Denver and my shop of choice is in Colorado Springs, it's generally a one or two weekend per month deal, where I take a full day, drive down to the Springs, and spend the day in front of the forge working on a project. In the meantime, I've also started setting up a workshop in my basement. My wife is adamant about not having a forge in the house, but I've added in a couple bandsaws, a multiprocess welder, a 2x72" grinder, a drill press, and a bunch of hand tools. I saw that Kilroy's Workshop was offering a katana making class last month, and I jumped at the chance. The class actually filled up in less than a week, even though it was announced 2 months out. Day 1 of the class involved forging a bar of (W-2) steel into the rough shape of the katana. Getting the tip right was hard -- you have to hammer at a MUCH shallower angle than you think. We started with an oversized bar (1.5") and had to hammer it down to dimension (1.25"). The instructor gave me a few pointers on hammer technique, and that made things go MUCH faster. I was able to get the blade hammered to shape, with a well-formed tang and a very smooth curve without any major issues. I used the power hammer to flatten out the bar, but most of the work was done by hand. Day 2 consisted of straightening the blade, then profile grinding the blade, grinding off the forge scale, and then establishing the bevels with a draw file.After a couple hours with a draw file, I went ahead and moved over to the belt grinder, but honestly that is REALLY hard to keep consistent bevels on a 30" blade without creating facets. I was able to get pretty close, and then I went ahead and used the draw file to even things out. After that, we thermal cycled the blade, added clay to the spine (to keep the spine soft and to create a hamon line), and then quenched the blades to harden them. And that's where things went sideways. Apparently when I applied clay to the blade, I did not put enough clay on the spine. So the spine hardened, the edge hardened, but the sides of the blade did not. As a result of the differential hardening, the blade straightened itself out. To make things even worse, when the blade went through the temper, the tip of the blade bent forward slightly -- enough to be noticeable. Sooooo... day 3 was spent annealing, re-forging the curve into the blade, and re-hardening the blade. Next step was creating the tsuba. They 3d printed a tsuba, which I created a sand mold out of. The trick is apparently to pack the sand enough to keep things firm, but soft enough that the tsuba will still make an impression in. Once the mold was created, we fired up the kiln, melted some bronze, and poured the bronze into the mold: The next step was setting up the blade for a tang and a habaki. I took the blade to the grinder again and made sure the tang was properly profiled and tapered so the widest point of the tang was right where the blade and tang meet. Then I ground a pair of shallow shoulders into the tang to create a seat for the habaki to sit. My first attempt at a habaki was a disaster -- I can't solder worth a hill of beans. The second attempt we just soldered in place, and used some sandpaper to profile it to fit up correctly. The next step was to fit up the tsuba. This required a LOT of work with a drill press (to create the initial holes, a dremel, and hand filing. It consisted of a sequence of grind/file, test fit to see how far the tsuba slides up the tang, and then look to see where I need to grind some more. I wanted to make sure I had a good, snug fit (that took a few hours). Finally, it was time to make the handle. I had to create a third set of shoulders on the tang to reduce the height of the tang, and then created a coffin-style handle using 3 pieces of 1/4" poplar. After the handle dried and I got it ground to a comfortable shape, I added a traditional rayskin wrap on either side, and then wrapped using the traditional (synthetic) silk. The wrapping turned out to be easier than I thought, once the instructor showed me the trick a few times. The entire handle is held on by a single bamboo pin -- which started life as a chopstick. Here are the (semi-)finished pics: What's left? A LOT of hand sanding to get out the hammer marks and to even out the bevels. Then even more sanding to bring the edge to an appropriate thickness. Then yet even more sanding and polishing. And then sharpening. At a rate of a couple hours per day, I expect this to take me another few weeks to finish. But man will it be worth it when I'm done!

A few years ago, I had a job that had me traveling to the Bay Area semi-regularly. I found a group with Uechi-Ryu Okikukai, and met with them to train with while I was out there. Their organization does the same kata, warmups, and hojo undo that we do, but some nuances are slightly different, and their yakusoku kumite drills are different. Within their differences, I found some good nuggets of information that I have since incorporated into my own karate. Every so often, our CI will bring in senior Uechi-Ryu practitioners both from within our organization and from other organizations. Earlier this year, he brought out Seishi Itokazu (10th dan Uechi Ryu Konan Kai, 10th dan Matayoshi Kobudo) to run seminars in Uechi-Ryu and Matayoshi Kobudo. Right before the pandemic, he brought in Darrin Yee (9th dan Uechi-Ryu, head of IUKF) to run a seminar as well. He also regularly travels to various seminars run by different Uechi-Ryu organizations. Sometimes he teaches at these seminars, sometimes he just attends the various breakout sessions. When he comes back to our dojo, he will share some of the nuggets he picked up. As you progress in your journey, I find it to be valuable to learn from different instructors -- they have different perspectives, different ways of teaching, and different ways of doing things that you can incorporate into your karate. Because in the end, your karate is YOUR karate. It can be shaped by your instructors, and guided by others, but in the end it's what you make of it.

We don't practice it by itself, but we are taught the concept in conjunction with other drills. For example, one of our kotekitae drills involves stepping back as the opponent performs a chest-level seiken-tsuki. We step back with a chudan barai uke with the same-side hand, we then reach under the arm to do a circular block, and then the same side hand performs a shuto-uchi on the partner's forearm. When we do this drill, we are expected to remain in contact with our opponent as we transfer the partner's arm between hands. Likewise, as we become advanced students, when we do two-person drills, we're expected to maintain contact with our partner and use that contact to respond to their actions. For example, the first attack in the drill is a seiken-tsuki, which the defender blocks with a wa-uke. The defender will then respond with a sokuto-geri (side kick). As the defender begins to disengage in order to deliver the sokuto-geri, the attacker is supposed to sense that, and slide-step back to perform a gedan-barai-uke to defend against that kick. The drill continues along these lines, with each partner responding as they sense their partner moving to the next segment.

Perhaps I over-generalized my statement. That 30-45 minute segment is more of a "material of the day" segment. Often it involves practicing the bunkai and/or yakusoku kumite appropriate for the student's rank. It may involve (infrequently) sparring drills and techniques. Every so often the CI will sprinkle in self-defense techniques derived from kata, or joint locks, or throws, or working on something completely different.

I'm starting to REALLY appreciate the Tuesday night advanced adult class. In our typical class format, we generally do 30 minutes of warmups/hojo undo/sanchin, then we do 30-45 minutes of "rank material", and then 15 minutes of kata. Well, as a black belt, our tests are much further apart, so our "rank material" segment is basically "Here's an interesting set of techniques I want to show you". Sometimes it's something we've seen before, so it's a refresher. Sometimes it's a new application on an old technique. Sometimes it's something he picked up at a seminar somewhere. But basically it's something out of his breadth of experience that we get to work with, try to understand, and then apply to our own karate. SInce we don't test on a regular cadence, we don't have to focus on specific rank material -- in fact, the only difference in dan-grade exams (up to 5th degree at least) is the kata you need to demonstrate. (Of course the expected standards you are graded on will definitely change). I remember once when I was talking about our CI and how he was disappointed at the number of students who quit once they got their shodan, thinking that was "the end of the line". He had told me "but that's when you get to start learning the really good stuff". A year into my dan-grade journey and I am starting to really understand that.

Does this include any of the Uechi-Ryu masters, like Kanbun Uechi, Kanei Uechi, or their students?

Another Wednesday, another update. The last week has been pretty good with an unfortunate setback. Classes on Thursday and Friday were uneventful. Zach and Mrs A went camping over the weekend (with one of her friends and her son), so I had the weekend to myself. Since this was the first week of the month, I decided to sit in and watch the test, trying to look at it from an instructor's eye. Two of the adults I like training with, Devon and Kris were both testing for brown belt (sankyu), so I definitely wanted to watch them. They both have prior experience (Kris in Shotokan, Devon is a 5th degree in TKD), so I had little doubt they were going to pass with flying colors. The test went extremely quickly, only one or two students were asked to repeat anything ("Can you repeat that" is never a good thing to hear in a test. It means you didn't do something right), so the test was over in about 40 minutes. I was watching Kris & Devon pretty closely on their techniques, and I only saw one or two things that I thought they should work on going forward. I noticed quite a few things from some of the lower-ranked students, and was trying to figure out "what is appropriate for them at their rank". Everyone passed (woop!), and I listened in on some of the feedback the evaluating instructors gave. Some of what I had in mind matched up with the feedback the instructors gave, so I felt pretty good about that. After the test, I told Devon what I noticed about his kata (short version - there is one specific kamae where he let his elbows drift out to the side. I told him about the mantra "All is in Sanchin" with some examples), and he thought about it for a second and agreed with me (Kyoshi couldn't have seen it, since he was facing away). After the test, I briefly spoke with my CI, and he says that as long as I don't break myself again, he expects me to be able to test for nidan this November/December. That would also coincide with my level 1 (dojo) instructor certification. That would allow me to sit on test boards. Since I would be a nidan at the time, I would also be able to sit on test boards for dan gradings. Mind you, I don't plan on teaching full-time or part-time. I like the arrangement I have right now, where I teach one or two classes a week. I don't plan on teaching at the rec centers (he runs classes out of the rec centers in Erie and neighboring towns), but I wouldn't mind subbing in from time to time. I see this as both giving back and being a good example to Zach. Unfortunately Saturday was not the best of days. I decided to start out with the Aikido class and follow up with the all ages/all levels karate class afterwards. Aikido was going really well -- I was getting the feel of the techniques pretty well (considering I am still technically a white belt in aikido). However we got to one point where we were doing nikyo (wrist/elbow lock) and my partner cranked on my arm HARD and I felt something go OW in my elbow/forearm. It doesn't hurt ALL of the time, but when I move in certain directions I can feel discomfort. It seems that when someone sees me the size and strength I am, they feel the need to crank my joints even harder to get me to submit (it's actually generally the opposite). Fast forward to Tuesday. Our CI decided to switch things up a bit again -- he had us perform hojo undo bunkai again this week, and this time instead of defending against a single punch, he had us defend against a one-two combination. This required a bit of thought on how to set things up properly, but got me thinking "economy of motion" in terms of my uke-waza. A few months ago, we had a seminar with Seisho Itokazu, and he demonstrated an uke where you start with your hands up in "dragon" kamae (think Uechi-Ryu sanchin kata), and all you do when a strike comes in, you take your same-side arm and move it over to cover your body, taking the strike on the blade of the hand and/or the ulna. This is a very gentle uke, takes very little energy, and keeps you in contact with the attacker. If a second attack comes in, you'll feel it immediately AND your arm is already there to receive the other attack (usually with a circular watashi-uke). In any case, I started using this on these double strikes and found it to be really effective. The next thing we worked on in our Tuesday class was a set of 3-count combinations. The first one we just worked on with our opponent holding an arm out -- a downward press with the same-side hand, a downward press with the opposite-side hand, and then a across-the-body push with the same-side hand. These are meant to be done in quick succession. We then worked on this technique against a strike, and he showed how if the opponent pulled the arm back, the third press can become a grab of the upper arm. The next iteration showed how from this position, you're in a great place to slide in for a rear naked choke. He then talked about other places this sequence shows up in our kata and bunkai, specifically in our dan-grade yakusoku kumite drills. In this case, the opponent comes in with a right flying kick, and the defense is to sidestep, perform a sukui-uke (downward sweeping block), followed by stepping in to grab the opponent's upper arm. Which of course leaves us in a prime position for... you guessed it, a rear naked choke. During this, my partner was having difficulty getting the choke in on me because I'm considerably taller and bigger than he is. He mentioned this to our CI's brother and I looked at him and told him, "watch this". I then performed the technique on him, but before I put him in the choke, I yanked him backwards off-balance. His eyes lit up because he immediately saw the application to that as well. It was one of those classes where you get some really good nuggets of information and now you're looking at places to apply that throughout your karate. Until next week!

Many people I have talked to, usually those outside the martial arts, see earning your black belt as the end of your MA journey. I remember when I was talking to my sister awhile back -- she had her son in karate and was talking about how far he had to go until black belt, as if that was the end of the journey. At the two previous schools I was at, there were only a couple of black belts, who were all so far beyond where we were in our journey. At my current school, there are a LOT of black belts and junior black belts who still actively train. In a given week, I'll train with: 5-6 shodan-sho 5-6 shodan (some of whom are also nidan-sho) 3-4 nidan 1 sandan 1 yondan 2 godans This doesn't include my CI (6 dan), his stepmom (7 dan) and his father (8 dan). They both regularly seek out more senior instructors for guidance, feedback, and new techniques and/or reinterpretations of old techniques. At least at our school, it is possible to earn godan without any politicking, but I think earning godan does require you to teach. (I know of at least one sandan and one yondan who do not teach at all). Basically, our CI just keeps an eye on you, and once you've hit the TIG and age requirements, and he's satisfied with your understanding, he invites you to test.

I have studied other styles in the past, including Shuri-Ryu, where at each rank you are expected to learn 1 or 2 new kata. And in class you generally ONLY practice that rank kata. When you get to dan levels, you have a LOT of kata to practice and remain current on. One of the things I've learned to appreciate about Uechi-Ryu is that there are only 8 kata in the entire system. We practice Sanchin at the beginning of almost every class. That leaves 7 kata. When we do kata in class, we can practice all of the kata in the system in about 10-15 minutes, depending on how many advanced students are in the class. If we don't have any students above shodan, that's only 5 kata. One of the fundamentals that our CI drills into us as we advance through the ranks is that as you gain experience, you will learn a new kata which teaches some new fundamental technique. For example, at shodan you start learning the kata Seiryu. The ending technique for Seiryu involves a wa-uke (double circular block/double boshiken strike sequence) in which you start the first circular block, and once that first block gets to a certain point, THEN you step forward to complete the technique. I had watched a number of videos on this, and most of them show the technique done subtly differently; for example, Kansho Uechi and the technique in question is at about the 0:57 mark. My CI indicated that that's okay... if you are learning the kata, but as you are getting ready to test for nidan, you should be doing the kata the way he indicated.So as your understanding improves, you are then expected to take these techniques and push them back into your earlier kata. So we do this same wa-uke sequence in Sanchin, Kanshiwa (required for 9th kyu) and Kanshu (required for 6th kyu). So as your understanding improves, the way you perform even your beginner level kata should change to reflect that new knowledge.

It's been a pretty good week overall. Last week our CI and his wife traveled to Edmonton to train with Shinjo sensei at a seminar for part of the week, and while he was gone his dad was in charge. Which means for the most part I got to run the Tuesday class on my own, with him supervising. As we went through hojo undo, I noticed that there are still a LOT of students that are doing their kicks (especially side kicks) at knee or thigh level, so I admonished them that all of their kicks should be at or above the belt. (Interesting note: when our CI got back today, he was telling students that ACTUAL side target is the knee BUT we don't practice it that way for 2 reasons: 1) If you can kick at the floating ribs, kicking the knee is easy. 2) The consequences of accidentally hitting the floating ribs are much less severe than hitting the knee). And when we got to Sanchin, I noticed that a lot of the students were being "floppy" through the first 3 iterations. So I pointed this out and had them run through Sanchin again. During the water break, Kyoshi told me that he would've done the same thing. Next we started on two-person drills, working the yellow belt drills and working out way up through green belt. I was working in with students as they rotated, so I was able to give feedback to individuals, and when I saw issues that repeated, I'd ask one of the other students to come up and demonstrate with me, show what the technique SHOULD be, and explain it to them what it was supposed to be and why. Not all of the students would get it, but I'm seeing a few of them pick up on it. So that's pretty good. Last night's teaching class was also fun. Since it is the first week of the month they will be doing testing this Friday. As such, we "pre-test" the students to see who is ready for testing on Friday. So our hojo undo was done randomly in Japanese. After that, we did Sanchin for 2 repetitions. For the third repetition, our CI pulled the ikkyus aside to work on their hojo undo while he asked me to test the other students' Sanchin. I mainly focused on pushing them to check their arm strength, that they were flexing their fingers properly, and checking their foundation by pushing them at 45 degree angles. When I saw something wasn't quite right, I'd correct it until their foundation was more stable. It was a rough time for them since instead of a 1 minute kata it was like a 5 minute kata. Last night's advanced adult class was really fun. There are some partners I REALLY like working with, mainly because I learn a lot from working with them. Last night I got to work with David sensei, who recently tested for his godan. I always learn a lot of little things when I train with him. The "meat" of last night's class was the Kenseikai kumite drills -- we don't get to do these very often, but since our CI just got back from a seminar they were fresh in his brain so we got to practice them. These are very direct and visceral. For example in the first one, the opponent comes in with a chest level lunge punch. The defense is to stand your ground, perform a osae-uke (circular downward pressing block) with the left hand, while striking the larynx with a vertical nukite. Being on the receiving end of that is pretty disconcerting even if they don't touch you with that nukite. Another fun one we did involves defending against a right front kick. The defense is, again, to stand your ground, drop your right arm down and receive the kick on your right forearm, redirecting it to the right (across your body). You then turn the hand over, reaching down to hook the opponent's heel and pull him past you. Once he loses his balance, you step in with the right, and strike him with an overhand ridge-hand strike on the left clavicle. The official version involves taking him down with a clothesline takedown and a one-knuckle strike to the ribs to finish him. However, our CI said that if he were ever going to use that in a real self-defense situation, his preferred ending would be to pull the opponent into a rear naked choke. So David and I practice that for awhile. My front kicks are pretty strong, so he was having a hard time at first with the technique, but once he got the concept of receiving the kick on the forearm, redirecting it, and then pulling... well, he started using all of that energy against me. It's definitely a technique I want to work on more. You can see the techniques I talked about in this at 0:16 and 0:48.After class, our CI told us that Master Thompson (10 dan uechi-ryu) would be coming to Colorado for a seminar the first (full) weekend in October -- 3 sessions for adults, one session for instructors, and one (optional) aikido session, along with advanced dan grade testing (5th dan and up). He hasn't been to Colorado since before the pandemic (2018, I think?), and I was a white belt when he was here. Given that he's 80+ years old, this may also be the last time I have a chance to train with him here, so I'm really looking forward to that weekend. There are also going to be 3 sessions for kids, but I'm not sure if Zach is going to be up for it. I'm going to try to talk with him to see if he wants to go, but in the end it's up to him. [/url]

Welcome to the forum, BtK!

I bring a 64oz Yeti filled with ice water that I've squirted a bit of fruit flavoring into. I'll usually drink most of it during a class, too especially during the summer.