First quarter and training results

Quick update on my personal training which I mentioned in a post back in January: Daily Training.

First, it should be noted that I have largely stopped daily training.  There are multiple reasons for this, mostly due to some lingering injuries and a burst of time spent at work.  But here is a little summary of the points I noted:

• Sanchin causing knee pain.  I need to look further into this - perhaps perform this with less tension in the legs.  I have very strong and big legs, and it is possible that I am pulling too hard with the larger muscles than what my weakened ligaments, fascia and smaller muscles can handle.  I did find this to be great training though - I could be exhausted after a single form.  Truly, I need to read and experiment more.
• Tensho is relaxing, but no great breakthrough.  I have not had much in the way of great internal work that I have been hoping for.  Perhaps I need a different mental aspect when doing this form, but honestly trying to create this myself without some indication is difficult.  I need to learn more about the Chinese systems and see what they utilize.
• Tiet Tsin Kune seems to help shoulders and lower back.  Oddly, a lot of the internal stuff also tends to really aggravate my neck and shoulder area.  Sometimes even this Hung Gar form does it too.  Perhaps I am over practicing it, or perhaps this is the chi trying to escape? ;)
• Pao Chui is also helpful for energizing, but I just don't have room for it.  It barely fits inside the dojo, forget my little condo home.

I pulled something in my leg during the end bit of a 9 hour training in the beginning of the year.  I am sure this influenced by sanchin practice, as well as discouraged me from continuing.  I know the pain isn't real damage, but I had a bad experience with this earlier.  About a year and a half ago I had such severe knee pain that I would wake up at night, several times, almost crying.  It was starting to even wake my wife, despite trying to hold it in.  Only after some good physio, strengthening, stretching and massage was I able to sleep normally.  That was a very draining period, and I didn't want to relapse.  I have found that stretching carefully as well as other movements from yoga and calisthenics have helped immensely, but I need to remember to keep up this practice!

Recently I have also started to include some irregular Naifanchin practice into my routine.  There is something very Sanchin-like about this variation of Naihanchin that speaks to me.  The breathing is similar, and I like the emphasis on non-traditional strikes.  Too much of karate focuses now on the usual seiken (forefist) technique, where the original forms had much more variety.  Indeed, looking at other Southern Chinese arts shows a great variety of hand forms and unique striking possibilities.  I want to start changing my own preference from fist to open-handed variants.  On that topic, there is a great article from Ryan Parker at his blog.

Small Surface Strikes & Structural Support

Of particular interest to any karateka should be the use of ipponken, nukite and washide uchi techniques.  Really interesting information by one who has done the research and practiced what he found.  I have never had anyone teach me the boshiken technique, and its not in any form I know or was taught, but I find it very useful for massage!  I suspect there is a strong link between correct massage (hitting points to release stress and muscle tension) and hitting soft points to weaken enemies - perhaps a correlation between karate and jujutsu here, where bone setters would also be jujutsu masters.  Wishful thinking on my part, but it gives me hope for my own studies.  Thumb strikes are great to get into little places like collar bone, armpit, knee pit (?) and arteries like carotid and femoral.


Well, this was a longer post than intended, but I hope something of interest has been exposed to others.  At least I have set my own mind straight - more gentle leg tension in Sanchin, more playing with Naihanchi, and look into mental exercises for use in Tensho.  I need to get back into a daily routine as well, even if it is more gentle.  As I mentioned recently, don't let perfect be the enemy of good.  Daily something is better than daily nothing!

Amalgamation of martial arts knowledge

Super short post today, referring to a great post by Zacky Chan at his blog.  This hits me in a few ways.  Well worth reading the post in full there, and I recommend his blog as a whole.

My martial art amalgamation

What strikes me is that he has combined disparate areas of study into a way of his own, and continues to do so.  This once again makes me wonder what I should be doing next.  Is teaching a step I want to take or do I tie on the old white belt and start again in something new...

A friend of mine is a high ranked Aikidoka, so I have been wondering if I should start under him from scratch, or look for something else.  I don't want to put any strain on our friendship, but he is looking to build up his own dojo after his return from Japan.  I need to learn more about his style before I can commit, I think.

Don't let Perfect be the Enemy of Good

Super brief post about another great blogger, who has been a bit missed and whose blog I hold great interest.  Joe Berne over at Karate Conditioning has gone through a lot, and I wanted to point out a great little nugget (among many) in his latest post:

When Life Interferes...

The one nugget that really stood out for me was this:

Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

This is a great quote that encapsulates something I have read by many other martial artists.  Don't think that because you can't do X, you shouldn't do X-1, or perhaps Y.  This is a common syndrome, one I am equally guilty of.  But in the end, one must push through and just do what one can.

Every aspect of training is valuable, and one step is still further than no step at all.

Learn from the Best

This is just a quick post to push another great post from Wayne Muramoto over at The Classic Budoka.  His insights into training, martial arts, and the experience in general are always welcome to me and help give me an extra boost.  I highly recommend him.

His latest post, all about self discovery and pushing yourself to learn, mirror some other interesting points made by Jesse Enkamp in his Karate Nerd (tm) emails from KaratebyJesse.  You need to explore not only what you do, but why and how.  Learn the history, study the past masters in your style and in related styles.  What did they look for?  What are you looking for?  Everything is a benefit to your training and in the end to the product: You.

The Other Three Corners

Karate by Jesse - Karate Nerd emails

I am continually impressed by the knowledge and persistance of others, over and above what I have been able to accomplish.  It gives me hope and motivation to reach my own potential, and I hope that those interested in The Way will also find these people to be equally insightful.

Summary of what I have learned from these recent posts/emails:

Push yourself once in a while.  Find some aspect of training you are weak on (just finding it can be tough, we all have blinders on) and work on it.  Learn something you didn't know previously.  Improve something you had as your worst skill.  Continue to improve.

I know this is corny, but I recall an anime/manga in which one of the protagonists said he found a way to beat a clone of himself - improve one iota.  Our goal as martial artists, over all other people, is to improve ourselves.  We must strive to be better than we were last year, last month, last week, yesterday, an hour ago, one minute ago.  If we can make that small improvement, than the effort was no misspent and we are making progress.  Whenever you feel you are on a plateau, recall what you could do before the training session...have you gotten one small benefit?  Then relax and be glad - 99.9% of people out there aren't even trying for that much.  Don't be too hard on yourself in regards to any lack of progress.

This is starting to become a favourite saying of mine, and a bit of a catchphrase, but The Way is in the Training.

Gambatte.

Great Posts and Random Thoughts

Just wanted to provide a quick link to a great post at another blog, as well as a couple of thoughts I have read (can't claim them for my own, I am not that clever).

In addition to learning a new Japanese term, there is an interesting and good point over at The Classic Budoka.  Find it here:

Damasare

In essence, the post details how and why teachers of traditional fighting arts would and did preserve their arts through deliberate deception.  This hit home, as it mentions an anecdote of a friend of his in karate whose experiences in Okinawa compared to Japan.  This makes me wonder to what degree my own training would benefit from visiting and perhaps becoming better acquainted with a teacher in Okinawa.  Who else to better provide me with the insight and serious training of the original soul of my chosen art?

This then got me thinking a bit again about something I have often pondered, and have referenced in my previous post if my memory serves.  This topic is what is the original purpose of karate?

Orthodox karate history (which like all orthodox history is popular but holds little enough fact to be frustrating to anyone who has researched) holds that karate was created out of a need for self protection against samurai.  This ignores the documented fact that karate development preceeds the Satsuma occupation.  So again, why not focus on stick weapons if blades were not allowed, akin to the development of Filipino martial arts?  I cannot imagine the use of the eku (oar) would be proscribed on a nation of islands and fisherpeoples.

I have read some articles that suggested karate was developed as a means for settling disputes or arguments between people or villages.  Somewhat like the ancestor of sumo was a more practical method than the sport it evolved into.  I should note that older karate is filled with a variety of grappling and throwing techniques, preserved largely in kata and through some lines.

Famous karateka like Sakugawa, Aragaki and Matsumura were bodyguards and involved with local police.  Perhaps the formative founders of these traditions had a particular focus along these lines, and did this influence what they studied and passed along to their students?

One might also note that a primary influence on karate was the continuous introduction of the Chinese martial arts.  Those arts were varied, but largely could be classified as fighting arts used by bodyguards and revolutionaries, as well as military and monastic orders.

So where does this leave karate?  I have my own suspicions based on what I have learned, but that is exactly the problem - what I have learned may not be "correct", or for that matter similar.  And in the end, does this matter?

If others would care to comment on what their own chosen martial art(s) mean to them, I would appreciate it.  As always, more food for thought in the quest to find the right question.