Cool stuff I learned this week

[DarthPenguin]

That sounds awesome!

Lots of great training to be had and then a seminar to top it off!

[aurik]

Last week was... intense. Good, but intense.

We had a total of four guest instructors running the seminar. Three were from the Kenseikai dojo in Okinawa: Shuuji Itokazu (7th dan), Kazuhiro Tomori (6th dan), and Shoko Akamine (5th dan). We were also joined by the head of our organization, Master James Thompson (10th dan). The Okinawan teachers arrived the prior Saturday and spent a couple days touring the Denver area. In the evenings, they ran classes in our small upstairs dojo with the seminar attendees. I attended regular classes Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then the seminar on Friday and Saturday. Sunday there was also an Aikido seminar, but after the multiple training sessions over the week (1.5 hours on Mon/Wed/Thurs, 3 hours on Fri, and 5 hours on Sat), I needed time to recover.

Monday and Wednesday night were honestly my favorite part of the week -- the Okinawans ran a small class just for seminar attendees in our smaller upstairs dojo. I think there were 6 of us on Monday and 8 on Wednesday. The instructors were pretty much asked to run the classes the same way they would run them in their own dojo. So we started with hojo undo, moved to Sanchin kata and then moved on to other stuff. On Monday the focus was mainly on kihons and kata. On Wednesday, we did kihons, kata, and kyu kumite drills.

To quote Mr. Miyagi, Kenseikai is "different but same". They practice Uechi-Ryu, so they have the same hojo undo, the same kata, and the same kyu kumite. However, they are different in subtle ways. For one thing, on their kata, they target different areas. For example, when performing the nukite strikes in Sanchin, we are taught to target the shoulder joint, while they are taight to target the area right below the pectoralis major. Likewise, when performing the watari-uke strikes, the front hand will strike the side right at the hip (in both organizations). In our organization, we'll strike the collarbone, while Kenseikai will also target the base of the pec.

Likewise, the differences in their kyu kumite drills are subtle, but enough to drive you crazy. In our dojo, we are expected to use seiken-tsuki (flat-fist punch) for all of the finishing moves except for the last sequence, which is a shoken-tsuki (one-knuckle punch). In their organization, they are expected to use the shoken-tsuki for all of the finishing moves, except for the last one, which is a hiraken-tsuki (leopard-fist punch).

One other interesting note -- since they were just in from Okinawa, Monday's class was interspersed with more water breaks than is usual for us. Not that I minded. As I mention to anyone who comes to train with us from out of state, the altitude is a thing. And it's way drier here in Colorado than you think.

I really enjoyed the way they ran the seminar. We were broken up into 3 different groups and rotated throughout the dojo. One group was upstairs with Master Thompson who worked kata and bunkai. The next station was in the rear dojo where Itokazu sensei worked kata, bunkai, and how tournament kata differs. Group 3 was in the front dojo where Tomori sensei and Shoko sensei worked us with kyu kumite, dan kumite, and kote kitae (arm rubbing/arm pounding).

As always, Master Thompson's seminars were extremely insightful. In one session, he discussed the "soft' aspects of Uechi-Ryu. How, for example, instead of blocking a front kick with a hammer block, you can use one hand to sense the kick, and use the other to guide it harmlessly to the side. The same principle applies to a punch, too -- gently guide it out of the way, and place one hand on his arm to sense what he's about to do. Other things he taught were how to draw power from your hara to power your strikes, how to be loose when performing the double overhand strikes in several of our katas, how to take some small shortcuts in our katas for the sake of power and efficiency.

Likewise, we learned the Kenseikai version of the bunkai for Seisan, we learned how they did their kotekitae (some minor differences and one huge difference), and we learned their version of dan (yakusoku) kumite. Their version of dan kumite is abrupt, visceral, and frankly a hell of a lot of fun. For example, in the first sequence, the attacker steps in with a right lunge punch. The defender simultaneously steps in slightly, performs a left osae-uke (downward pressing block), and a right vertical nukite to the base of the throat. They get even more interesting than that.

In the process of learning the dan kumite, we also briefly worked ukemi-waza (breakfalls). I had done Judo and Aikijujutsu many years ago, and the breakfalls were still really good (I got positive comments from all the instructors on them). A number of the other students struggled with them for a bit (some more than a bit). After that, we went back to the dan kumite. Later on in the day, we worked on how to run a kata in a tournament (all 3 of them are senior judges in the All-Okinawa tournament circuit), and ... more kata.

It was an amazing experience. I learned a whole lot, and I'm sure in the few days since the seminar, I forgot a lot of it. I got to practice my Japanese quite a bit (since none of the Okinawan instructors spoke much English). We also had a "sayonara" dinner on Saturday night, where I learned that Itokazu sensei is a dog trainer for the Japanese emperor, Shoko sensei is in the Japanese Air Force, and has been stationed to the same air base where my parents got married back in the late 1960s, and Tomori sensei is a current police officer.

It wasn't an easy seminar, mind you. Towards the end, my butt was thoroughly dragging.. But if I can try to remember half of what I learned there, I will be a much better karateka for it.

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[bushido_man96]

That sounds like an awesome experience! Thank you for sharing it with us.

Do you ever take notes after a session? I've started doing it recently and find it quite valuable when I go back to class to work on things. It sounds like you could've filled a notebook in this week!

[KarateKen]

New Kata.

[aurik]

That sounds like an awesome experience! Thank you for sharing it with us.

Do you ever take notes after a session? I've started doing it recently and find it quite valuable when I go back to class to work on things. It sounds like you could've filled a notebook in this week!

Not yet, but I definitely should!! I mean, we had several breaks throughout the sessions, so I could have taken copious notes during those breaks. I'll definitely need to do that in the future.

[bushido_man96]

That sounds like an awesome experience! Thank you for sharing it with us.

Do you ever take notes after a session? I've started doing it recently and find it quite valuable when I go back to class to work on things. It sounds like you could've filled a notebook in this week!

Not yet, but I definitely should!! I mean, we had several breaks throughout the sessions, so I could have taken copious notes during those breaks. I'll definitely need to do that in the future.

Do it, you won't regret it. Many times, I find myself just righting down some mundane details about training that day, but every now and then a thought strikes me out of the blue, and I'll jot it down or right a whole page article.

I've also found value in it when I'm reading about Martial Arts. If something in a books strikes me, I'll quote it and jot down notes on it. Then I can really get deep into the weeds.

[aurik]

So the last few weeks have been... very interesting, and completely in the best of ways.

The wife, Zach, and I started the summer out with a trip to Florida and a Caribbean Cruise. While in Florida, we spent one day hanging out around Cocoa Beach (checking out Ron Jon's Surf Shop, for starters), swimming at the hotel pool, and overall just enjoying NOT being at home. We spent Day 2 at the Kennedy Space Center -- we were able to see most of the really interesting things. For one thing, until you see the Saturn V/Apollo rocket up close and personal, you have absolutely no idea how massive it is. You see these massive first, second and third stages, and their only job is to get the tiny service module / lunar module / command module out of Earth's gravity.

We also got to see the space shuttle Atlantis, which was suspended at an angle from the ceiling. Again, until you see it up close and personal, you have no idea of the scale. Outside the Atlantis display, they had one of the main fuel tanks and solid rocket boosters on display. During the tour they mentioned that the SRB's expend all of their fuel in less than 2 minutes, and the main tank's fuel only lasts 8 minutes. Talk about some pretty crappy gas mileage.

The cruise was great -- we went on the Disney Wish, which is their newest and biggest ship. The ship was about 50% bigger in terms of tonnage than the other ships we had been on, but it has the same passenger capacity -- so more room for stuff. We had a great time, we spent two days at Nassau, two days at Disney's private island, and one day just cruising at sea. It was a great time, but towards the end of the cruise, I started feeling really tired all of a sudden. I had come down with a nasty sinus cold, and kept feeling like I was going to hack up a lung.

So when we got back, I took myself to the local urgent care to get something stronger than OTC stuff for the cold. Well, they took one look at my pulse and blood pressure -- my pulse was 160-170, and my blood pressure was through the roof. They told me I needed to go straight to the ER for an EKG. Oh, and don't drive yourself. You don't need an ambulance, but if you pass out on the way... well, that would be BAD. Tried to call the wife, but she works in a secure area and couldn't receive calls. Tried to call friend #1, no answer. Called friend #2 and he was working from home that day, so he was able to come pick me up. We ran by the house to get Zach, and then off to the nearest ER.

So I get to the ER -- they didn't know I was coming, even though the LPN at the urgent care said they'd call ahead. They take my pulse & BP and say "You need an EKG". They put me on an EKG and bring me right back to an exam room, where they stab me multiple times to get IV's going. (IV's on me are always interesting, because I have thick skin and my veins roll around). I talk to the Emergency Medicine doc, and she tells me that I'm suffering from either atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter.

While she is explaining these things, my wife shows up (I was able to get a hold of her on the way to the ER), and she gets the explaination as well, They try to give me some fast-acting medication to slow things down... but 3 rounds of that don't work. Next I get to talk to an internal medicine doctor who asks me about my travel. I told him that I'd been snorkeling and he asked lots of details about that (I didn't go more than about 10 feet down, and I didn't fly within 48 hours of snorkeling, so the bends was a non-issue). He says they're going to admit me for at least 24 hours.

Next I got a chest X-ray (came out clear) and a chest CT to look for blood clots (came back clear). Then on the way up to the hospital room. They hook me up to All The Monitors and start an IV drip of a different medication. Over the course of the evening, they'd stop by every couple of hours to draw blood (and of course, they had to do it from a fresh poke), check my pulse and blood pressure, and all of the other poking and prodding you get to enjoy in a hospital room. Of course, whenever I coughed (which was pretty frequent), my pulse would go back through the roof.

At some point over the course of the evening, the medication really kicked in, my heart slowed down to a normal rate, and things returned to a normal rhythm. They were able to slowly bring my medication drip back down. At some point during the day, my leads came loose from the EKG monitor, and they had to replace them.... of course they didn't shave the areas in question before putting them on, so I felt just like Steve Carrell from "The 40 Year Old Virgin" (I was tempted to shout "Kelly Clarkson!" as they ripped off the sticky pads).

After even more tests (another EKG, a cardiac echo with contrast), a couple discussions with a different internal medicine doctor, and a new batch of medications, they sent me home with instructions to see both a cardiologist and my primary care physician. On the way home, I called up the cardiologist's office who monitored my chart in the hospital (they were also in-network and had very good reviews) to set up a followup with them, and set up a followup with my PCP...

Fast forward a week -- the new meds have me pretty dizzy at first, until I figure out that if I have one cup of coffee and eat immediately afterwards, it doesn't affect me nearly as bad. I had one appointment at the cardiologist's office to get fitted for a cardiac monitor for 30 days. A second appt at the cardiologist's office 2 hours later, and the cardiologist's PA basically tells me that "Yes, what you had was technically an MI [myocardial infarction], but based on the results of your EKG and the cardiac echo, you should see no long-term effects." Except that they now have me on meds to keep it from happening again. And they want a 3 month followup with one of the physicians AND a nuclear stress test.

My primary care physician gives me a workup as well -- blood pressure is high normal, resting pulse is in the mid-60's, so things are looking reasonably well. I'm overdue for an annual physical, so that's scheduled, and I'm also due for a few other tests... so we get that scheduled.

During this time, I've been trying to get back into the martial arts -- I've been wanting to do weapons, so I tried a couple classes. I'd done weapons in my 20's, and some of the muscle memory is there, but the class works a lot of muscles I'm not used to, so major new soreness issues. I was able to get through a karate class until Hanshi started running "speed kata", and I had to sit down, but that's mainly from not training for 3+ weeks.

My new goals for the year are to lose weight. It's been one of the things I've said "I need to do this", but now it's really important. I've adjusted my diet and portion sizes since my hospital stay, and I'm now down about 15 lbs since I checked in for my overnight stay. I'm going to add in more exercise throughout the week, with the overall goal of being around much longer so I can see my kid graduate high school, college, get married, and all of those things.

Sooo... that's where we are today.

[DarthPenguin]

that must have been scary! Glad to hear it looks like they got to the bottom of it though and it is something that can be dealt with!

[sensei8]

Not the most ideal way to end all of the fun you and your family had together. Most important thing is that your health is being managed by your doctors and that you're addressing your weight and all. Your MA will still be there once your doctor gives you the ok to return to FULL training...I suppose your doctor suggested that you take it easy, especially where your MA training is concerned.

Get better and follow your doctors directions to the letter. You're in my prayers!!

[Patrick]

Wow! That is a lot, Ken. Glad you are alright - and that you are now back on track with tests, appointments, etc. Hope it all looks good from here.