It’s a bit belated, but oh well – better late than never!

Last week’s training went well – put in as much effort as I could on the night and really felt good afterwards. I love it when you have a training session, your gi ends up getting soaked through all the persperation, you feel knackered, but you come out of class on this crazy natural high. Gotta love it

Anywho, the theme of last week’s session was two-person drills – one blocks, one attacks, swap arms, then swap sides. I was a bit unco at first (I get the feeling this is a personal feature rather than something I’ll eventually get over ), but eventually I got into the rhythm of things and it went well. The cool thing is that the session ended up being a good way to start working on conditioning the arms, in particular the forearms. I remember in the school I used to train at before my current one that Jyastin-kun and I used to go full-on with blocking and striking drills, and it used to be a regular thing going to work the next day sporting bruises all over my arms. I must have gotten out of practice though, as I was struggling towards the end of it to put in the max effort on each block knowing what was coming It’s taken my nearly a week, but I’ve finally come out in a weak bruise on my right forearm, so there wasn’t even much to show for the pain Ah well, gotta toughen up and start working on this – my forearms used to be able to take much more punishment than this, so hopefully Sensei will start doing this regularly.

Aside from the frills, we also did kata – I’ve asked Sensei to start being very particular with my form so I can work on the small details to really round it out – I let my age-uke slip a little higher than usual (a bit of a goju habit I think), so I’ll be paying attention to that, and my stances as there’s bound to be a grading coming up, and I’m keen to push myself hard to try and make it, and do a really good job at it. I’d feel disappointed if I went to a grading but only kinda slipped through with an average record, I want to push to really achieve a strong grading. Otherwise I don’t really think there’s much point at all.

Bloginated Monday, 1st June 2009 / Karate
Tag-isms: Conditioning | kata | training

In awesome news, I managed to get my prosthetic foot enclosure fixed yesterday! Is very awesome, I’m extremely chuffed! While the fusion they did to hold the busted one together has actually proved to be extremely good in light of things (especially seeing it yesterday off the foot – I’ve got it as a just-in-case [better to have a busted enclosure than none at all]), that inherent weakness in the toes has now been eliminated.

This was all very good in the grand scheme of things, as last night I ended up doing an impromptu karate training session. Normally between classes I’ll do weights and some light bag work, but last night after doing my usual warm-up and strengthening exercises, I was really getting into the bag work and had a good look at my surroundings where I train at home, shuffled some things around, and started doing my basic drills as I had enough room to go up and down 5 paces as per the usual class stuff. After doing that, I shuffled a couple of other things around, and ended up making just enough space to accommodate a slightly cramped kata. I know that I need work on focus, breathing and technique (I’ve got the pattern down reasonably well at this point), so I deliberately took it slow and methodical in approach. Turned out to be a really good session – after one or two run-throughs I started hitting that quasi-meditative state you can find when doing kata, constantly practicing slowly but with an emphasis on correct, deliberate and focused technique (and breathing – the neighbours probably weirded out if they were able to hear me ). I’m not sure how often I repeated my kata, but on the last two I sped up the sequence in order to move into a more dynamic form. At the end of it I came inside exhausted, sweaty but definitely stoked

The cool thing is that hopefully my little re-arrangement of some of my equipment will mean I can do this more often, which will be a huge help.

In other news, the weekend saw some back-to-back movie awesomeness – Saturday night saw Wifey and I sitting down to the schlocky awesomeness that is Best of the Best, and on Sunday I indulged in the utterly sublime Kuro Obi (Black Belt). Will dedicate some posts to both of these films during the week, as they offer extremely polarised takes on martial arts in films

Bloginated Tuesday, 28th April 2009 / Karate
Tag-isms: kata | mangled fake leg | Movies | training

Well, I finally went back into training last night, and it was awesome I’m a bit sore today because I tried to push myself as far as I could, but it was definitely worth it. There’s a grading on this weekend, but I’m definitely in need of further practice so I won’t be attending. At the moment the biggest thing I want to work on is my kata – I have pretty much the basic form sorted out for Heian Nidan (though, let’s be honest – it isn’t really all that complicated to begin with compared to other, higher-grade kata), now its moving to refine my technique. The biggest problem I had last night was my breathing. I’m generally/reasonably good with controlling and utilising my breathing during training, especially kata, but I just didn’t find my center with it last night, there wasn’t the natural flow I aim to achieve. Sensei made the comment that I looked like I was going to explode some times because I wasn’t regulating my technique correctly, and looking back on it immediately afterwards and again tonight, he was definitely on the ball.

In the past, I’ve tackled this by slowing my kata right down, focused on the detail, rhythm, breathing and visualisation of each technique’s application, and would repeat until hitting that crazy, transcended state you sometimes get through really good, focused kata. I don’t get it every time, but when it hits it really makes you appreciate the continual uses of kata, not only as a test for form and the key to technique usage/application, but as a means to use physical movements as a form of meditation.

The other bemusing thing that happened last night was that I ended up splitting open my foot enclosure again, and I think I’ve started splitting it open in a second spot as well! Ah well, serves me right for not being super pro-active in calling up and making an appointment to see if the replacement’s in. Will have to do as such tomorrow and get it fit asap. I stumbled a couple of times as the foot crumpled up beneath me, but I didn’t seriously injure myself or any of the other students, so at least that was good!

Oh, and I dragged Jyastin-kun along to training last night and by the sounds of it he really enjoyed himself. If he’s keen to continue training with our school, will be good to have him come along as he used to be an excellent training partner at our previous club, so we’ll see how it goes!

For those checking out the blog on a semi-regular basis, apologies for being a bit slack with posting this week, it’s been busier than I anticipated. I’ll make sure to get another one added tomorrow so I can at least the lower-portion of my average, which is two posts a week!

Bloginated Thursday, 23rd April 2009 / Karate, Prosthesis or amputee stuff
Tag-isms: Karate | kata | mangled fake leg | Technique

Next time you think something with the relative simplicity of Heian Shodan doesn’t have much to explore insofar as practical application is concerned, maybe you should think again. Patrick’s blog is always a really good source of information, but this is perfect timing, as bunkai has become a regular topic of exploration in class over the last month in particular. I’m finding the continuous exploration of this when performing and studying kata extremely fascinating. This post will also act as a bookmark for when I want to participate to bunkai discussions in class; should also be a really good resource for other students in class who might be interested too!

Bloginated Wednesday, 1st April 2009 / Karate
Tag-isms: bunkai | kata

Had training again last night – went really well. We covered the usual gear – basic warm-ups (including the new hip strengthening exercise we learned the other week at the seminar), basic drills (which I’m getting the hang of now), kata and kata applications. I thought I was going well with my kata, but last night I had a mental blank getting the sequencing correct on the second-to-last part of Heian Nidan where you finish up your four shutos and move to your central line of blocks/strikes/kicks. I’m going to study some of Kanazawa’s kata videos and make time over the next couple of weeks to hone my technique.

There’s a grading next month, and I’m not sure if I’m ready to grade yet – I’ve decided that I’ll continue to practice hard and see how I go, and talk to Sensei about it and get his thoughts on the matter. I found that particularly during 2008 I wasn’t applying myself anywhere near enough in class to achieve more frequent gradings (not that karate is only about gradings, but for someone like me who tends to be very goal-oriented, they’re a great stimulus to progress with gusto), and I decided at the start of this year that I’d put more focus into my training. Whatever happens, I’ll post updates on the blog.

The other thing we did last night was kata applications, via 2-person continuous kata drills. This was really cool, and will no doubt help me when it comes time to apply bunkai to my grading. I’m still having trouble looking outside the most obvious application for bunkai though, but I think what we’ve been doing the last couple of weeks is gradually removing the pre-conceived notions of how each technique could be applied.

In fact, this whole discussion encouraged me to check if bunkai is on the list for grading – I just checked the website, and it looks like I don’t do it until the grading after this one. Sanbon (or Sambon, depending on which romanisation you take for Japanese phoenetics) tsuki is on the list though, along with geri (kicking) combination techniques, neither of which I’ve done a lot of in class so far this year. With all this taken into consideration, I’ll definitely have a chat with Sensei and gauge his thoughts on where I’m at. I also think I’m going to have to start training my basic drills and kata between classes for at least the next few weeks if I’m going to attempt a grading next month.

Bloginated Thursday, 26th March 2009 / Karate
Tag-isms: kata | training