SaiFightsMS

In the summer when I work out at my local Y in the early morning as I come home it is just often getting daylight. As I cross the bridge it is a place where it is common to see a great blue heron from. One day as I stopped to watch the heron it took off in flight. It flew right under the bridge where I was. Such a wingspan. It was absolutely spectacular. That to me was poetry.

Angus does get into some things doesn't he? No insult intended. I think he must be a very interesting guy to know.

There are interesting stories about kriss knifes. And for a bit of trivia they always have an odd number of curves in them. Now you all can think I am odd if you want. I have a bo I found in a bin of hiking staffs at a local out doors store. It functions perfectly as a bo. It is a 5 1/2 foot octagonal hickory staff with a diamater that fits my hands perfectly. When I practice and use good technique and good snap there is a discernible vibration in the bo. It feels alive in my hands. As part of the natural grain in the wood is a spot that looks like a long narrow dragons eye. I call it my dragon staff. And when I use it sometimes I do think it is developing a spirit inside it.

The bo was the first weapon I worked with, gee that was about 5 1/2 years ago. When I started I had to use a smaller toothpick bo because of damaged shoulders from rotator cuff tears. It was really strange at first. But the more I worked with it the more I liked it. We do a kind of a pre kata called shiho with short movements to all 4 sides to get started. Then we do 2 katas that are more club specific. Well some shi-to groups do the one. Then we do two versions of sushi a dai and a sho. After that Cho un No Kon. It is kind of fun. Sagakawa No Kon is different. I like it a lot. I think it is my favorite bo kata.

Sounds pretty cool Tobias. I would jump at the chance.

Being slow speed is very important to me. Every so often I get out the candle and work on punching out the flame. Sorry no count on punches per second here. I feel good when I can punch out the flame (with a face mask on to prevent simply blowing it out) consistently.

Ad in the meantime there are some body weight exercises you can do that are really great for strenght. You probably allready know about squat kicks. Try high rep hindu squats. Sink down into a low duck squat with your back straight. Lean forward on the balls of your feet to maintain balance. Then stand up. Do hight reps and you will notice something.

Amazingly good point Joe. Kind of like the young idiots who watch wwf and then go out back and get hurt breaking chairs on each other.

I went to 3rd kyu in shi-to ryu before I swithched to shotokan. I have read some about the kata sanchin and I think it would be interesting to learn. I would love to hear more about the kata from those who practice it. Sai

I may be a bit odd, but, knowing that I have broken one board with a variety of techniques I do not feel the need to go after multuple boards. I think if I did go on to more breaking it would be to work on speed breaks.

There is a big difference between those who experince the pain of learning and stop and those who learn from it. The truly frustrated who learn nothing dissappear from the dojo. Practice, practice, practice. My weak spot is going in to one side of my head. Sometimes I think I will never really learn to protect it well. I have this one odd technique to block kicks to the middle while still protecting my head. I kind of raise a leg and block the kick with my leg. Or better yet, If I am lucky I can catch the kick with my kick and kind of jam it before it actually happens. Very hard to do.

It is thought provoking. There are many levels to many techniques. And there is much more involved that just sheer physicality. This is the kind of thinking that does cause fights. And I kind of think the mental level that one has gone into in their martial endeavors shows by the responses. It is one thing to "parrot" moves - another to understand the levels behind the move.

Thank you Kickbutt! Bungee Jumping Two guys decide to set up a bungee jumping service in Mexico. They set up in a plaza, and a large crowd assembles around them, so they decide to give a demonstration. The first guy jumps. He bounces at the end of the cord, but when he comes back up, the second guy notices that he has a few cuts and scratches. Unfortunately, the second guy isn't able to catch him, and he falls again, bounces and comes back. This time, he is bruised and bleeding. Again, the second guy misses him. The first guy falls again and bounces back up. This time, he comes back pretty messed up—he's got a couple of broken bones and is almost unconscious. The second guy finally catches him and says, "What happened? Was the cord too long?" The first guy replies, "No, the cord was fine....but what the hell is a pinata?"

I think I originally started to work on increasing leg flexibility to offset my lack of shoulder flexiblity. And I admit it was kind of a head trip when I first attained full splits. Also it was a quick way to get the respect of the younger students as I was warming up.

Thanks Jiggy for another interesting and thought provoking article.

Most of the old masters wrote poetry, did calligraphy, painted. Do you think we would become more well rounded if we too cultivated a fine art?

Bad news Zak, patience come through trial. And don't pray for patience unless you are prepared to really get hit by trial after trial.

Anyone really love to work with the bo? Have favorite ho jundo's ? Favorite bo katas?

No one hmmmmmmm. What about has anyone heard stories of old samurai swords that have a spirit within them?

It is interesting that some of the masters originally started training because of physical frailty or poor health. Nagimine was one such example. So was Kyan.

Here is kind of an odd idea to help work balance. It came from a physical therapist a while back. Stand in a corner and close your eyes. Just stand there. The corner is supposed to be better than the middle of the room because you can catch yourself on the wall before you hit the floor. I wonder if doing this on one foot would be the next level? Or maybe doing a simple 180 kind of spin with the eyes closed?

You know I think the exchange here and the results that are produced are really awesome. And I wonder how many other people also benefitted from this exchange?

Interesting!!!!!!!

Hello Sounds like you have a lot to offer the rest of us. This is a pretty cool site with a lot of diversity. Welcome

LOL Jiggy. I was reading something about the tekki katas earlier and it was talking about when Itosu was Funakoshi's teacher. He worked on one kata for 3 years. Can you imagine?