aurik

So the test is officially scheduled for this coming Sunday. Our adult dan candidates will be testing in the morning from 10a-noon, and the youth candidates (under 15) will be testing from 2pm-4pm. In our organization, there is no hard minimum age for earning a junior black belt, but for all practicality, 10-11 is pretty much as young as you can go due to cumulative time in grade requirements and such. 15 is the hard minimum for an "adult" degree. Our requirements for a junior shodan and "full" shodan are the same, but the performance expectations are necessarily higher for a full shodan. So this week has been mainly test prep, and will continue to be. Tuesday night I had my teaching class, which was more interesting than usual. There were a number of kids who dropped in to do a make-up test from last Friday. As a result, I had a lot of newer kids in the class. This means I had to slow down my tempo so they could keep up... and I had to announce all of the hojo undo and junbi undo techniques in both English and Japanese. You know... after you've been announcing the techniques in only Japanese, you have to think for a second to think of the English translation. It gave me a good quiet chuckle about that. After we did the warmups and technique exercises, he kept the make-up testers and the ikkyus in the larger section of the dojo, and sent me with the rest of the students to the back section to work kata and a bit of tournament prep. So I would have a few small groups up to work on their kata -- I'd generally let each group pick their favorite kata, and whichever was most popular, I'd count off that kata for them. (We have a set cadence for doing group kata, which allows the instructor to keep them somewhat in step, and also provide mid-kata corrections). After each group, I'd give them some constructive feedback. After each group went, I brought students up in pairs. I'd have them walk into the area as if they were doing a tournament (or testing), and have them perform the kata of their choice. After I made it all the way through, our CI sent me the ikkyus to perform their seisan kata as a practice for their test. Again, I gave each student some constructive feedback, mainly little things. One common suggestion I gave to each of them was to slow down "just a little", so they could better enunciate their techniques. As the class wrapped up, our Sensei indicated that the people who just tested in-class would learn their results at their next usual class (mostly Wednesday evening). After he bowed everyone out, he then announced that Zach, Arrav, and Hayden all earned their advanced brown belts -- basically this indicates that they've re-tested for all of their kyu-level material, and are now qualified for testing. Zach had been worried about that, with the test right around the corner, but once our Sensei announced it, you could see him grinning from ear to ear. On to Tuesday evening, we had a really light class (only 9 students). After our warmups, we started on some new kick defense drills, building off of techniques we work in some of our other drills. They all started with a left/right front kick sequence, and each defense started with step back/gedan barai uke, followed by a step back/mawashi-uke block that ends with you in a right shiko-dachi, and your right arm is parallel to the floor in front of you, with the opponent's achilles heel hooked at the junction of your wrist and forearm. From here, he showed us 3 different completion options. 1) finish the circular block, essentially throwing the leg back to your opponent's chest/shoulder. 2) lift your arm up to sanchin, letting his leg fall off to the side, then step in and do one-knuckle strikes to the kidney and neck (simultaneously). 3) (my favorite), turn your hand palm-up (forming a hook with your fingers in the process), and pull the opponent's leg past you to your right. As he passes you, clothesline him and/or apply a rear-naked choke. Honestly, these types of drills are some of my favorite material to work on -- it builds on material we already know, but gives us new options to use. And our Sensei seems to have an infinite variety of material to present. He has said this several times, "Shodan is the beginning -- it's when you start learning the really good stuff". And this is what he means by that. After that segment, a group of us worked on our dan kumite, then Aaron and I worked our bunkai to prep for our test. Class then ended with kata. Performing kata at the end of a class makes it really hard to do it well and with energy... but then when you're refreshed suddenly the kata seems to flow easy and with lots of power. It's one of those things that I tend to say - training through the struggles makes your karate so much better. So we still have a couple more days of training before the test; tonight is our dedicated test prep class, tomorrow I'm teaching the youth advanced class (and will probably do test prep there), and Saturday will be our quarterly black belt training class. I'm feeling really good about my test prep so far, and I think Zach is looking good too. I'll check back in here after the test on Sunday. Until then!

Congratulations!

Honestly, I think we are extremely fortunate to have the relationship with Master Thompson that we do. Our CI's dad has been training under Master Thompson for decades -- Master Thompson has signed off on all of his diplomas, either as "Head of Organization" or "Supervising Instructor" from 1st degree through 9th degree. My CI's youngest brother is currently an instructor at the hombu dojo. I think short of training directly at the hombu dojo, there isn't a much better relationship you can get. Of course, my instructors make a point to maintain this good relationship by making regular trips to Michigan (where Master Thompson is from) and Okinawa (to train with the heads of other Uechi-Ryu and Matayoshi Kobudo organizations). So far this year, he's been to Okinawa twice, Michigan once, and he's attended seminars given by other organizations in Edmonton and Hawaii. So yes, if actively maintaining good relationships with the head of the organization and other organizations counts as "politicking", then he is certainly pretty deep in it. However, I feel that we as his students definitely reap the rewards of those good relationships, since those relationships allow him to bring guest instructors to our dojo a couple of times a year. Also, each time he does one of his trips, he always comes back with new material to share with us.

I agree here.It sounds like you've got a good training partner there, which is fantastic. One of my favorite adages: when one teaches, two learn. Keep up the good work. To the bold type above... I just love that, Brian!! Perhaps, you can add that to your Signature. My corollary on that is "the best way of improving your knowledge of something is to teach it to someone else". This very much applies when teaching karate, especially kata, because I have to be able to both think, talk, and demonstrate a kata all at the same time. It's REALLY hard.

Good question, Noah, but I'm wondering if this might be better suited in the Instructors/School Owners forum, since most students at the kyu and lower Dan grades won't really have this kind of perspective. As I'm an apprentice instructor, I can express my perspective on this though. Our dojo is a member of two organizations, Uechi-Ryu Kokusai Kyokai (headed by James Thompson), and Matayoshi Kobudo Shinbukai (headed by Seisho Itokazu, but that may have changed -- more on that later). As a member of our Uechi-Ryu organization, I do pay an annual fee that covers membership in the organization. It's like $50 per year for kyu ranks, slightly higher for dan grades, so that isn't a onerous amount. Our organization does dictate the material for examinations, and to another degree it dictates how the material is supposed to be performed. In our style, different lineages have different "signatures", so if you're in one organization with one lineage, you may be asked to perform techniques slightly differently than another lineage. One thing I feel I gain by training in an established organization is legitimacy. I can go to any other Uechi-Ryu school or seminar, and my rank and experience will immediately be accepted on face value. If I were to leave my current school and go to another school in the same organization, I'd be accepted no questions asked. If I were to go to a different organization within Uechi-Ryu, I may need to re-test for my current rank, learning how others do things and their little subtle differences, but that's about it. Our CI teaches a core set of material (that is tested on), but then he sprinkles in a lot of additional material for "flavor". For example, there are a number of throws and takedowns in ouir katas, bunkai, and yakusoku kumite, so sometimes he'll focus on those. We also sometimes work on self-defense techniques from our kata. Or we'll work on the yakusoku kumite from other organizations. Or . Also as part of an established organization, our CI has the sway to bring outside guest instructors to Colorado to run seminars and the like. As I mentioned before. We are also part of the Matayoshi Kobudo Shinbukai, or at least we were as of 2 weeks ago. This is where the politicking comes into play. Earlier this year we had a seminar with Itokazu sensei (head of the Matayoshi Kobudo Shinbukai), and one of the takeaways from that seminar was that our CI (who is a 5th degree in that organization) is still not able to promote students beyond shodan. So last week while he was in Okinawa, he was speaking to the heads of other Kobudo organizations (who he already has good relations with), Now from my perspective, earning ranks up to (and including) 5th degree is pretty much all about time-in-grade, being active, and is your understanding of the material commensurate with the rank you're aspiring to. From what I've seen though, as you work towards 6th degree and above, politics become more and more ingrained in advancement. Now there are other organizations that are much more codified, for example ATA. For ATA, all rank requirements are codified, and testing requirements for black belt ranks are very stringent. Individual instructors cannot promote students beyond second degree, and there are specific dates when students can test for advanced black belt degrees. (In point of fact, students must pass multiple "midterm examinations" before testing for their actual belt).

I'm not a big horror fan either, but we did introduce Zach to the original "Bettlejuice" movie last weekend.

Apparently he got cut in the neck by a skate blade. I assume it sliced his carotid artery. This has happened at the NHL level, and it was only by the quick intervention of the medical staff that the player survived. That's the reason that goalies are now required to wear neck protection. I'm pretty sure they're going to require players to wear neck/throat protection going forward.

It's a LONG season -- 82 games. A 7-0 start is just that, a good start. Anything can happen over the course of a hockey season. There will be trials and turbulations, and the teams that can weather those without imploding are the ones that end up winning the Cup. I remember in the 2018-2019 season, the Blues were complete stinkers at the outset. On January 1st, they had the absolutely worst record in the NHL. They fired their coach, brought in a new goaltender (who started the year in the AHL), and went on a complete tear. They ended up getting better and better throughout the year, qualified for the playoffs and ended up winning their first ever Stanley Cup. When the 2019-2020 season began, they were again one of the best teams in the league, playing near the top of their division throughout the year -- until the entire NHL paused for COVID. When they came back to play in the "bubble cities", they did not win a single playoff game. So... yeah, anything can happen in the NHL.

Back to back Stanley Cups are hard. VERY hard. Part of the reason is that when you win the Cup, you by necessity have a shorter offseason than everyone else, and therefore less time to rest and recover from those nagging injuries that you played through in the playoffs. Not to mention that there is the luck of the Hockey Gods at play -- which playoff team can stay the healthiest and not lose man-games due to injury is a big factor.

Another couple weeks down, and more progress towards the test date. Aaron and I have been working really well on our yakusoku kumite drills and our bunkai. Since we also both attend the Tuesday evening advanced adult class, we have been using that time to also work on those drills, since the downstairs dojo has mats and enough overhead space to practice the sword attacks in the bunkai with actual shinai. Unfortunately Aaron and I are both of a height where not only do we need to use a shuto-uchi to "simulate" a sword swing in the upstairs dojo, but with the metal railings overhead, we have to be really careful where we stand up there that we don't smack a railing with our hands. And when it comes down to the test date, there is no real substitute for using an actual shinai to practicing timing and distancing. Because if your timing or distancing is off, you will most likely get whacked in the head with a shinai. It hurts, it's no fun, and you'll get marked down on it. All 3 bad things. This week our CI is in Okinawa with his wife and two of our advanced kobudo students to celebrate Karate Day, and also to deal with some political issues in his Kobudo organization. That means on Tuesday night I pretty much had free reign to run class (with our CI's father, formerly-Kyoshi-now-Hanshi overseeing things). I started class out with the usual warmups, and then had the students pair up to perform hojo undo on their partners. As we would rotate students, I'd give students individual feedback, and when I noticed something that a lot of students needed improvement on, I'd demonstrate what I was seeing for the rest of the class to see, and then show what could be done better. For example, one of our techniques has the defender block an incoming attack and strike at an opponent's temple. Well, what happens if your opponent's temple is out of your reach -- you find a different suitable target (in this case, I had them use the floating ribs). I also talked about when you have a much larger/stronger opponent, you get out of the way as opposed to blocking it. I then had the students split up to work on bunkai for their rank kata, making sure to give the ikkyus a chance to work on Seisan, since it is the hardest part of their Shodan test, and since they can't use shinai in the upstairs dojo. I had to tell several (lower-rank) kids to use shinai instead of bokken, "Why?" they asked me -- "If you mess up and get hit with a shinai, it'll sting and hurt a bit. Messing up with a bokken can end up with broken bones". "Good reason!". On the other hand, I had to tell a pair of ikkyus to use shinai instead of "George" -- the foam-padded short bokken. "Why?" they asked. "Because if you mess up with a shinai, it'll hurt a bit and remind you not to mess up, and you will be using a full-length shinai on your test. Best to practice and get your distances down with the weapon you WILL be using." Tuesday evening's class ran pretty wellalso. Ethan Sensei (my CI's younger brother) pretty much ran the class, and had us work on a few techniques our sensei isn't too fond of (not sure why). One of the things he had us work on was to slow down on our yakusoku kumite and focus on enunciating each of the techniques. It took quite a bit of thought to do this -- it was like decomposing a kata into its individual moves. Which is exactly how we are supposed to work each kata. He took one of the sequences and broke it down, and then showed us how if we completed the first technique, then we are already primed for the second technique. And if we complete the second technique properly, we are primed for the third technique. So if we do crisp, complete techniques at each step, the flow comes naturally. I did get one good quote from Ethan though. "If my brother ever disagrees with something I tell you, listen to him. I will pass you on a test for my brother's karate. My brother might fail you for using my karate."

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.