A Dark Side Adventure

“all that training is ruining your Karate”

LOL!!! I so love this Rick, thankyou. Luckily I compensate by communicating with extraordinary people!

This is what i think:

1. Treat people as you would be treated.

Respect for the journey, humour and learn what you can.

2. If you can, give more than you take.

Leave ‘em laughing when you go

3. Accept yourself.

Flawed, loner, eccentric, square peg, whatever… but not a clone!

4. Just train.

Some people just don’t get it.

Life is too short…

OOOOh the cliches!

NEXT DAY EDIT – oho this is what comes of a couple of beers and then a couple more (but if I’m talking about karate that counts as training-right?!)…. suddenly I’m a cheap philosopher. But reading again today I don’t disagree with it so I’ll let it stand as written.

Think what I was trying to get at was that I’m most disturbed that the big guy had no respect for us and our training, no humility, different goals. That O Sensei thing.

Wednesday Night Senior Class.

Senior Sensei was there (NZ Chief Instructor), a surprise assessment. I failed, I think. My wrist was not quite turned properly on a head block, hips not forward enough in long stance, many many issues with kata. I don’t mind being told my karate is not good enough to grade yet. But we were subjected to a lengthy, measured demolition of our training, effort, attitudes, abilities.  Some truly terrible things were said.

This I mind.

I was so close to handing back my belt (its only shodan ho, apparently doesn’t count). If I’m not worthy of the belt I have then I shouldn’t be wearing it, I would be happy training in a white belt. And I shouldn’t be teaching.

Not happy.

But old age has taught me to be wary of knee jerk reactions. That bastard will not get the better of me.

Sunday – didn’t do a lot, little Sanchin, Intuflow, physio exercises.

Monday – long sesion of physio with Malcolm and his the seat belt strap then off to Ashihara. Hard warmup with pushups etc then quick basics. Then a combo  which segued into sabaki work with the combo gaining complexity, finishing with scissor takedowns. Found these a little better (still appalling but a little less so). Then onto kata and partner work using the kata combos. Good class, I still suck but I dont care.

Tuesday- Teaching night.

Oh boy. 60 in the first class. The gkr format is ideal for large groups.  I shouted a lot, everyone loved it. Just basic strikes and blocks then kata with the older ones while the kids had a stance game and finished with tag sparring. Actually highly successful on one level but terrible on many others. I have no chance of remembering names, forming relationships, giving real individual instruction, or communicating principles….

Second class was much better. Included three white belts from one family who decided the first class was too overcrowded, they had an awesome time. We did a hard warmup with strength stuff, partner strikes and blocks, kata and sparring. Wasn’t my plan but you have to adjust things a little for beginners. Quote was from Sun Tsu.

I will miss the teaching.

Friday night and all day Saturday I went to a seminar presented by Sensei Anthony Ryan who is one of GKRs top tournament competitors. Wasn’t originally planning to go because I’m not interested in tournaments, but I saw him compete (and win) in Birmingham in 2003 and he is a beautiful mover so I thought perhaps there could be something useful.

And there was, much that was very useful, thought-provoking, instructive.

He began by saying he was just going to be looking at principles – yay -  and so he did. Started with principles behind long fighting stance and back-leaning stance. Moved this into actual kumite – using stances properly, looking at guard, protecting the centre, defence, hips and forty-five. Then sanchin stance, very go-ju though. I took this section to be all about the nature and importance of structure.

Kata – a lot of this was geared to tournaments but I found very useful a section on breathing for fuel. He also stressed flow in kata, nice to hear. Big section on relaxation, also importance of packed shoulders, one of my particular flaws.

Lots more, I learnt stuff I should have been taught years ago. Some of the best quality instruction I have ever had with gkr.

I talked to him briefly afterwards, he had told us he was a karate geek, on forums etc, trains 3-4 hours every day – didn’t know about Uechi-ryu though, so that was something I could give to him. 

Sunday – lifting and a little Intuflow

A good weekend then.

Tuesday Teaching Night – first class had 49 students thanks to the current highly successful recruiting drive. My usual mixed group of 5-50 yr-olds plus about 30 newbies, many kids. What a circus. I am super-sensei. So just basics, etiqutte and some tag-sparring.

Senior class – quite high intensity focus pad work to start, strength stuff, then kata. I have revised the count/timing of Taigyoku shodan and nidan from twenty to just five; this is the way it will be done in my dojo from now on. IMO improves the flow and is in better keeping with the intent of these katas, such as I understand it. Hopefully won’t lead to too much confusion when the students have classes with other senseis. Kumite to finish.

Wednesday night – gave senior sensei my opinion regarding the size of my first class. Training was ok – combos in long stance to start. Then some of the junior grades who are training to be senseis had to present ther own 5-step combos and teach the whole group. Mostly mundane, BUT those guys are quite new and don’t always think in the train tracks yet -  sometimes there was a different, awkward combination of moves which was great because it was different and awkward. Kata – apparently my Hangetsu is looking as is required (didn’t do the Shoto-kai version haha). And some sparring, always fun.

Saturday – lagoon walk just an hour

Monday – Physio this afternoon then back to Ashihara, at last. Its been weeks since I could train properly, feel much better. Hard hard class… I’d forgotten! The warmup included chinups  – I couldn’t really reach the bars, very funny indeed! Moved onto  an incremental partner drill – three strikes to the focus pads, cover and elbow strike then 10 push-ups for the striker, situps for the meat puppet, working all the way down to 1, then change sides. Then the same drill adding in switch double knee strikes and ten kicks, working down to 1 and change sides. Then some work on their basic kata which is ten combinations of moves – mainly variations of knees, kicks and sabaki. Then breaking down the last three of those combinations and working in teams, repeating over and over.

I did better with the sabaki and the sheering stuff this time. Key is to stay close, elbows down, spiral and sink at the same time.

I think Sensei was pleased with me although he slapped me in the face to teach me to keep my guard up…it will probably have the desired effect lol!

Body feels good – I’ve missed this stuff!

Lagoon walk, hour and a half, chilly but still awesome. Still have a bad cold but that got rid of some cobwebs. Then lifting  – still just the 15kg, 20×5 reps. Think it might be too light.

Tuesday – 30 in the first class – 12 new beginners. There’s been another recruitment drive in the area, wish they’d given me a little warning. So just simple stuff – basics mainly, as per the Gkr sell-in. The new guys got a chance to hit the sensei – good conditioning for me. Most newbies just aren’t used to the idea of hitting another person, especially an adult. It seems, well – wrong. I still remember that feeling. So I let them practise on me, and its a little test- the ones that like it will stay…

Usual 8 in the second class.  Evolving attacking combos using kicks and strikes to enter then elbow flow into back fist and hammerfist. Strength stuff and light kumite to finish. Quotation was “The obstacle is the path”, a current favorite.

Wednesday – Gkr senior training – lots of new wannabe instructors, we mainly did basics and simple combos. Boring. Then hook kicks and high round kicks – sensei’s speciality, he demonstrated rather too long…just an opportunity to show off. I have big issues with this but everyone else laps it up. WTF! Took the kicks carefully, don’t want to undo the good progress the physio is making with his seat belt…Few rounds of kumite to finish.

Thursday – still have a bad cold, physio and other commitments tonight so just light Intuflow to music. Nice, relaxing. And its strange/funny/amazing kung-fu movie night on tv, excellent!

Saturday – local tournament, five students from my kids class were entered. All did well, one got gold for kata and kumite which is a pretty hard to beat outcome. Spent time just observing, thinking about the opinions expressed in the forum recently about tournament kata. Saw a lot of seemingly average, everyday people being pushed far out of their comfort zones to compete, good for them and good for their karate. Saw some very fine kata (of a type). But… sigh… I got frustrated with the rigidity and clone-like repetition. No flow, no flow. I just don’t see things the way I used to. The kumite is actually worse. I’d like to see an event where no points could be awarded for reverse stomach-punches.

Afternoon – lagoon walk, very stormy, just wonderful.

Sunday – Grading day. Had five kids at the first grading and three adults in the second, all passed. One of my adult students has a mild intellectual disablity (no this is not a prerequisite:) ). He has been training for years, very dedicated, twice a week unless he runs out of money –  and it was a huge milestone for him to get his 5th kyu.

Monday – Physio, more seat belt strap fun. He doesn’t want me training hard yet but I’m getting antsy. Ben and I set up the weight bench properly at last so I did some light lifting. Don’t quite know what I’m doing here yet so starting easy to get the muscles used to the whole idea, just 15kg, 30 reps. Then kata.

Monday- not feeling so good, flagged training…thats strange…

Tuesday – high temperature, didn’t go to work, didn’t go to physio, slept all day. Had to get son Ben and Sempai Janet to take my classes. Think this is only the second time in seven years of teaching I’ve been too sick to take class. Took drugs. Slept all night.

Wednesday – the drugs worked, felt heaps better. Decided to train, Gkr Senior class. Probably a mistake. Sigh

Thursday – went to physio. Did an athletic exercise with him involving a car seat belt strap…do I know how to have fun or what !?!

Friday – Feel better but the radical hip adjustment treatment is causing pain. Sick of this -enough already. Intuflow, music and a glass of wine. Hey I really must be feeling better…