This one’s a bit belated, so apologies for the delay!

While I didn’t train last week (more on that later), I have been working hard in and around class the few weeks prior to that. Training during both of those weeks was really full-on… or if it wasn’t, I was working myself as hard as I could in class to get the most out of it. Since I’m keen to grade in December (or at least aim for it), I’ve been really conscious of getting my syllabus mastered to a reasonable degree of proficiency. Training has involved a lot of work on basics and fine-tuning form to continue pursuing perfect execution, form, power and focus. I’ve been trying hard to lower my stances and keep my strikes as solid as possible and maintaining proper form. We’ve been regularly working on kata, and I’m now at the point where I have the basic patterns and forms solidified in my head, and it’s now about execution, form, strength, all that good stuff. There were a few sticking points which Sensei has gone through with me that I hadn’t picked up on, but I’m confident I’m at the point where I can begin to dig deeper and execute the kata with a greater sense of skill and awareness.

We’ve also been going back to working on go-on and ippon kumite – as I’m gradually moving through my kyu grades, I’m now being expected to demonstrate a greater variety of techniques as part of my training. At first I was having trouble trying to pin down to what extent I can expand upon the usual/simple counter techniques I’ve been using, but in one of those lightbulb moments I’m prone to having, I’ve worked out that I can incorporate a lot of my basic combination drills and movements from kata into my responses. This has immediately opened up my available repertoire responses available to me through these drills, and I’m looking forward to continue working on them.

I’ve looked at time frames and will discuss the topic further with Sensei this week, but I have a feeling that should I intend to grade in December (and I do), I’ll need to be constantly revising my syllabus throughout the weeks in the lead up to grading. I started this last night by systematically going through my syllabus in the late evening to ensure I’m confident with all the techniques, and will be putting extra time aside to work on my kata, basic combinations and consider my options for ippon kumite. What’s new in this grading is the incorporation of bunkai into the exam, as well as the performance of an additional kata besides my grade-kata and kihon. The latter I’m not too fussed with as my gradings for my previous style saw everyone go through every kata in the lead-up to their grade kata, it’s just another step I have to be aware of.

So, it’ll likely be a busy couple of weeks, but I’m determined to make this grading and do well – I don’t want to simply scrape by, as I know I’m better than that.

Bloginated Tuesday, 24th November 2009 / Karate
Tag-isms: bunkai | Form | grading | kata | kumite | Stances | training

Well, we’re into September now and I still haven’t gotten into a decent/consistent routine of doing proper training between classes. It’s been a very wet six weeks which certainly hasn’t helped (though I’m not knocking the rain, it’s normally so dry down here it’s nice for a change!!), as I actually train in my nice big shed, but since it isn’t sealed around the base, when the weather gets really wet, I get some leaking around the area I work out in, which is far from a safe training environment (and as I’ve noted various times in this blog, I’m a little accident-prone :P). There’s also been other commitments that have come up after work, I’ve been distracted by a few things, I’ve been slack, stuff like that. None of it is any real, super-legitimate excuse though, and it’s proving hard to break the temptation of taking it easy after a busy day at the office and get into the shed for some training.

Fingers crossed the weather clears up a little so I can cross at least excuse off my list and get back into a decent routine. I know that as soon as I start it, I’ll be fine, it’s just breaking that habit. I’m particularly keen to get back into my stretching and weights routine in order to improve my kicks and build up my muslce mass again, and because I’m vain, I’m also looking forward to flattening my stomach again – the combination of cakes during the week and beer over the last couple of weekends while I was helping McAdam paint/renovate/move in have made my mid-section a little more plump than I’d otherwise care for 😉 I was watching videos of Kanazawa-sensei performing my kata via YouTube last night, and it’s demonstrated I have a long, long way to go in getting it right, so some extra training of kata couldn’t hurt, either.

We’ll see how I go – will post up some progress reports as I go!

Bloginated Wednesday, 23rd September 2009 / General training
Tag-isms: Excuses | routine | training | weight training

This is an image of my stomach just above the belly button after a short session of iron stomach training – Jyastin-kun has excellent targeting and accuracy considering how many strikes we did and it’s all focused into a single spot! This photo was taken Friday, so by now it’s started going all yellow around the purple/red area and isn’t as painful as it was last week.

I’m not sure what it says about me personally that I find this kind of thing amusing 😀 And yes, we all know how attractive my hairy man-belly is 😛

Bloginated Monday, 21st September 2009 / Injuries
Tag-isms: body conditioning | bruising | stomach impact | stupid injuries | training

Had a bit more body conditioning at training this week, including something that was really fun – iron stomach training!

In the previous style I used to do, we’d messed around a little with this premise before, so it’s been a while since I’ve last done it. I was quite surprised at how much punishment I was able to take though, much more than previously I reckon, but still, I want to be able to take more 😛

This isn’t too surprising in the grand scheme of things, as I’m currently suffering from Cake Belly. For those unawares (which would be most, since I’ve just coined the term :P), that when you’ve eaten multiple instances of yummy cake over a week and haven’t exercised your abs appropriately to offset all the awesome food 🙂 It also brought home that I really need to get back into the swing of doing weights, as it’ll help develop the muscles in my torso to withstand a bit more punishment.

BTW, for those unawares, broken down into its most basic form, iron stomach training teaches you how to tense and use the muscles in your abdomen to withstand a direct strike. The process involves two practitioners standing in front of each other exchanging reverse-punches directed at the stomach on each other, starting with a low intensity and progressing to gradually higher impact until the receiver of the strike reaches their absolute limit.

Or in simple terms, it’s two people punching each other in the stomach until one of them almost falls down 😉

At more advanced levels, I’ve seen iron body demonstrations where planks of wood, baseball bats, concrete, and so forth, are smashed against parts of the body (head, stomach, arms, legs), with little to no harm to the practitioner despite the object breaking/shattering as part of the process.

The awesome part of it was that I was actually doing the iron stomach training with Jyastin-kun, so we were pretty comfortable with upping the intensity of the training as we went, which was awesome fun. I once again fell into the habit of pulling my stomach as some of the punches were coming in instead of letting it hit without obstruction. By the end of it I was working hard to break the habit, but I still need more work.

The disappointing thing at the time was that it wasn’t looking like I was going to get any bruising, despite the fact I knew it had to have had some impact given that I was struggling to bow out at the end of class due to the tender muscles in my belly! Looks like some bruising is starting to come through, so at least I’ll feel a little justified for being a bit tender for the next few days!

So yes, I’m stupid, but body conditioning is fun 🙂

Bloginated Thursday, 17th September 2009 / Karate
Tag-isms: body conditioning | stomach impact | training

Didn’t end up making it to training this week – I was being a good son and caught up with the family for my mum’s birthday on the usual night I train, and on the alternate night we have training available I was home from work that day because my stump’s been flaring up again, so spending an evening doing karate would have been far from productive in rectifying the situation 😛 Very rude and inconvenient of my stump to flare up like that. Mind, the issues with my stump are well and truly subject material for other posts, so I’ll leave it here.

Anywho, on the training side of things – again, was another really good session, I’m finding that ever since the last grading I’ve been trying to add extra focus and energy into each lesson and it’s really paying off, or at least that’s how I’ve been feeling. There’s always that old adage that a lot of karateka note – you only get out what you put into your training, and if you don’t train every class like how you perform during your grading, you won’t grow as a martial artist. While the claims are lofty if I’m trying to say I’m living up to this in any way, I’m hoping that by training and committing myself with this elevated level of dedication, I’ll be able to progress at a greater rate… I found that when I was training throughout 2008 that I wasn’t putting in that dedicated, focused energy into my training that I’ve been working hard on achieving this year. Hopefully I’m starting to get there since I took note of how I worked during my previous grading and have started trying to apply this to each training session I attend.

… if nothing else, it is at least a good ideal to work towards 🙂

I’ve also got some thoughts to post on getting started on my next kata and on my mawashi geri technique, which I’ll tuck into tomorrow (hence the “a post in three parts” bit in the title) – it’s getting late so Wifey and I are off to bed!

Bloginated Thursday, 10th September 2009 / Karate
Tag-isms: stump | Technique | training