Archive: Post-Australia Day wrap-up

Source: Gisoku no Jutsu/MySpace
Original post date: 31 January, 2007

New blog time 🙂 Granted I’m training tonight, but I meant to post sooner but have been really busy. BTW, for those interested, I’ve put some new pics up from April last year during my recovery period. The whole stuffed Nemo toy has a silly backstory to it (one of those corporate programs whereby management does stuff to increase staff morale – in our case, you got Nemo, you’re being congratulated/acknowledged for your hard work; sounds silly, but it was fun :P), so ignore him in the pics. Except for the one I bow to him. That’s funny. He’s also on the BBQ in the back yard. This is also funny 🙂 Not that I’d condone frying Nemo, but it’s kinda ironic that the only way I could get him to my height was by putting him on a BBQ 😛

Anywho, last Friday marked Australia Day, otherwise considered ‘National Barbeque (BBQ) Day’, and yes, we had a BBQ. Wifey’s family and mine popped over and we all ate food and drank and a few went down to the beach, even though the cool change had already come through. In short, great day, and I loved the long weekend we got out of it.

So, what does this have to do with karate/training/stuff? Well, Tank and my father-in-law (haven’t thought of a pseudonym for him yet – got any thoughts Hamez?) were over, and the three of use were randomly attacking my boxing bag. It was a bit of a shock to see either of them throw punches or kicks into the bag – each one sent the bugger flying, much more than I can manage unless I threw in two punches or kicks. I mean, I know (a) that I only come up to their chin/collar bone and hence they are much taller than me, (b) they’re also much broader than I am, and (c) they have two legs, but it was still almost crushing to see how easily they sent it flying. It got me thinking – will I ever be able to summon that much power and focus it into my techniques? Not that I bemoan that power they have (quite the opposite – I think its uber and all that), or wish they didn’t have it – I’m just commenting here.

I talked about it with Wifey over the weekend, and she helped put it in perspective, and we talked about how I could look at training to improve my technique if I’m keen on pushing myself like that. Obviously I don’t want to focus on physical strength at the expense of speed – I just want to be able to focus with greater impact/effectiveness on my techniques, particularly upper body since I’m more adept with my hands/arms than my feet. I have a few things in mind and will talk them over with her Dad, who has experience with weight training and should be able to suggest further ways I can strengthen myself. I feel more focused because of this, and want to keep pushing myself to the best of what I can do.

But even beyond that, I wonder – will I ever achieve that kind of power? What will I eventually achieve if I continue to train in karate for however long I continue to do so? What will I be like in, say, five years, or ten years? It’s hard to say, and I hope my body lets me keep doing it.

I also managed to check out something on the telly last week (huzzah for Foxtel, aka Australian Cable TV). We don’t get any martial arts stuff on free-to-air telly, and even Foxtel is pretty bare, but they had the ISK World Championship Karate thingie on, and there was some pretty cool stuff. While I understand how some martial artists may dissuade from this kind of stuff, and its important to understand competition isn’t the whole reason behind martial arts, that it’s just as much an internal thing, polishing your soul through hard work, dedication and commitment, it did prove interesting. While many would argue the utility or what-not of performing your own kata to music (which could be argued as more dance than karate, &tc), to my relief the music was dulled in the footage and the aerobic fitness these guys demonstrated was amazing and inspiring. While all the yelling and screaming seemed a liitle hyperbolic, I found it really great to see real people demonstrating their form, especially this little 7-year-old dude doing kama (they look like mini, hand-held scythes) forms, and he was incredible! In comparison to the other kids I see at our classes, it was just so awesome. I reckon I’m going to have to look out for some more footage of karate and what-not, maybe on DVD, but I reckon it’d be hard to work out what’s good and what reeks of dodgy 😛 If anyone has any suggestions, post a comment and I’ll look into it.

Anywho, the point I was getting at is that this proved inspiring, and has helped me be more determined in my application of karate. Tonight I’ll hopefully be able to find out what other classes are on during the week, so I can increase the amount of classes I do each week (without mangling my stump again, or course!) and can bring Jyastin-kun back, and Hamez can continue training too. I’ll try and post before the end of the week to write about tonight’s training, so stay tuned… or something 😛

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