No dojo Video diary #2

The last week for me in videos.

Tension Tensho

Where I left off last week....

Day 1/ 90 no going outside the house or garden

Been a stressy day, but sorted my meds and food out (thank you to my Sensei, Ben and Alison for that). Tried to do the two Naihanchis I know properly but lots of mistakes, but got to keep going. Try again tomorrow and hopefully do better then :)

Day 2/90 a cold crisp night

Slow kata, outdoors at night. Cold and crisp.

Day 3 / 90 keep on  keeping on

Day three of lockdown - keep on keeping on

Morning Kata

Up nice and early, some choirs, breakfast, a few kata then work time.

Kihon Kata at Dusk

Felt the need to work out on s break, good cardio exercise, but not brilliant on the form

Video Notes from 28/03 Lesson -

https://www.karate4theheart.com/2020/03/saturday-streaming.html

Dark Clouds Overhead

Time to breathe deeply

Saturday streaming

The second Saturday of online training, and sort of beginning to get the hang of things.  All the devices charged this time, links checked and iPad resurrected (I had flattened it so badly it took 3 days on and off to register), so no tech surprises ☺☺☺☺

The nice thing about Saturday training is that I get to go outside with my Son.  On the weekday sessions indoors, there isn't room for us to train together, we have to work in different parts of the house on different devices.  As ever we started with warm ups, Mokuso and formal greetings, which was followed by Kata.

We went through all three of the Naihanchis, with performance on the ones we know.  I did one run through of Naihanchi Nidan, but as instructed most of my work at the moment is trying to improve my Naihanchi Shodan, so there were three or four runs through of that as performance.  When I record copies of the kata I still see mistakes, but the one below recorded after the online session is one of the better ones, probably because I did it slowly.

Atfer that, we briefly improvised combinations, before being given some novel sequences to work on.  Various elements of our Kihon kata, the quadrant drill, plus some other fundamentals were put together in different combinations to build up improvised drills.  There were three sequences we worked on, 1 long and two shorter ones .  The longer one was build up in three stages:

• Jab, cross, hook, right stance
  Jab, cross, hook, left stance

• Jab, cross, hook, knee, right stance
  Jab, cross, hook, knee, left stance
• Jab, cross, hook, knee, mai geri, right stance
  Jab, cross, hook, knee, mai geri, left stance

The second, shorter drill was:

Jab, cross, step up yoku geri, right stance
Jab, cross, step up yoku geri, left stance

The third, short drill was:

Jab, cross, ushiro geri, right stance
Jab, cross,  ushiro geri, left stance

The drills were followed by a few minutes of shadow sparring, followed by a formal close.  I keep thinking it must be difficult to keep coming up with variations, but then I look online and see what is out there.   There a lot of good karateka sharing their ideas as never before, and I think the hardest thing is actually to keep the variations focussed on the specific themes we need to be learning.  Am sure we will be getting plenty of variation nontheless over the next few months  ☺☺☺☺

Video dojo and feedback

Online training can't replace proper dojo sessions totally, because of the interactive part of karate that is needed to try out and improve actual combative techniques.  However, I have always been prepared to learn online where necessary and now is absolutely the right time to do this.

I can now attend three classes a week rather than one, as I am working from home, so there is a big plus for a start.   The live classes are then supplemented by doing kata and videoing it, and sharing with our Sensei.  They then provide feedback on how to improve your techniques.

Here is a short summary of the two midweek lessons for this week, plus links to a couple of videos of kata and kihon pracitce, as samples of what I do.  

The first midweek lesson was on Monday, 23/03.

After an extended warm up, Mokuso and formal greetings, we started off working on some aspects of fundamental techinques:

Uke - jodan uke, chudan uke, gidan uke
Uke on the pads, with potential uses as strikes
Kihon gata 1 - 4

Then closed out with 10 minutes of kata. 

It was a good work out, interesting working out the space for two working indoors.  Using zoom completely drained the iPad.  Took three days to recover it.

Rough kihon gata practice

The second midweek lesson was on Thursday 26/03

After an extended warm up, Mokuso and formal greetings, we started off working on the Quadrant drill, padwork first: Jab on pad, Cross on pad,Hook on pad, followed by practicing the whole in combination:

Jab, cross, hook

After that we looked at the defending moves:

Right hand parry, move head to right on jab
Left hand deflect, flow through into open hand strike to cross
Step in triangular parry and strike to hook

Followed by working on the parry, deflect / strike, triangle combination.

This was folowed bt looking at the second set of attacking moves, firstly on a solo pad and then in combination:

Hammerfist, looping left and hook

This was followed by kata warm down

MFirst phone ran out of charge after 40 minutes, lost five minutes in swapping phone over to back up,  Beginning to realise i=using zoom comes at a price.

 Another session today ro off to bed.  Please stay safe :!

Morning kata

No Dojo video diary

The first two weekends and first full week of CV-19 no dojo.  The first weekend was staying away as my son had a cold so I missed grading.  Did a few videos (very rough) of the basic elements would have had to do:

Naihanchi to mai geri

Yoko and ushiro geri

Kihon gata and wind down

The first day of working from home was a bit tense so had to do some kata work:

Kooped up kata 1

Kooped up kata 2

Hadn't had a gi on in to weeks so prior to the first streamed lesson I took part in, had to get back into one:

Back in a gi

After the first streamed lesson, I decided to do myself a revision video:

Back in the Saddle

And a wind down before the Sunday evening was done:

Tension Tensho

Back in the Saddle

This was the first time I had ever done an online lesson live.  I've worked from video, but never live with feedback.  My son had done one lesson previously so had done a dry run.  We were going to do the lesson outside using my tablet, but although I had downloaded everything it wouldn't connect.  The dangers of not being able to do a dry run first 😣😣.

Fortunately, we were able to use my son's phone but missed the warm up.

We started off with Kata, I did Naihanchi Shodan and Nidan, my son went up to Pinan Shodan,  This was both on call and performance for each Kata

This was followed by Kihon gata 1 through to 5

1. Jab, back hand punch with twist, mai geri
2. Mai geri, jab, backhand punch with twist
3. Jab, back hand punch with twist, step up, front leg mawashi geri      
4. Step up,front leg mawashi geri, jab, backhand punch with twist  
5. Right mawashi geri, land in front, left mawashi geri,  jab, backhand punch with twist      

After that came solo pad work with spot mitts, individual techniques of head butt, punch across, elbow strikes, knee strikes alternate sides, followed by a combination on right side of head butt, punch across, elbow strike and knee strike.

This was the done as a simple exercise work out: 1 element, burpee, 2 elements, burpee, 3 elements, burpee, 4 elements burpee.

After that we did the first few elements of the Quadrant drill (4 limbs, 4 directions) in combinations:
Jab, backhand punch, left hook
Hammerfist, overhand left, right hook
backslap, elbow, left uppercut, right uppercut (to ribs)

Finally it was kata to warm down, with Naihanchi Shodan.

A fun lesson, in a format am sure to become used to ☺☺☺.  Below is a revision video of the lesson I did today

Back in the Saddle revision

The Voyage of the Damned

At 58, having heart and lung complaints, I'm somewhat at risk from this shitty CoronaVirus.  I'm damned by work because of, despite doing social distancing, splitting the teams in two and only essential people having to go in, as a chief fire marshal I have to go in two weeks out of four.  

Then I have some criticism for not taking the virus seriously enough and having to go into work.  I'm accused of not caring enough, because I go into work and put myself at risk, both there and using public transport. 😞😞😞

Finally, I'm damned by a common cold.  My son has a common cold, and looks like I've got the start of one, so niether of us can train and tomorrow is grading.  Oh balls 😞😞😞  Oj well it stopped raining for a while outside, so I though I might run through the kata, fundamentals and kihon gata needed for grading, followed by a wind down.

Part 1`

Part 2

Part 3

Shuri and Tomari, Matusumura and Matsumora, Naihanchi

<From Watashi-No-KarateJutsu>

From many sources I have read, many of the late 1800s and 1900s Karate masters had learnt Naihanchi (I only reference that referred to as Shodan as the additional kata are thought to be a separation out or newer additions), but very few attributed their sources. In at least one case, where a source is attributed.  Yoshimura Chōgi, cousin of Motobu Choki, wrote that his first teacher, an old man who served as an accountant and administrator of the Yoshimura Udun, taught him Naifanchi and Passai.  No name was given (1).  However, in  another source, the teacher is identified as Ishmine (7).

Naihanchi is generally categorised as a Shuri-Te Kata, but many Kata are shared between the styles attributed as either Shuri-Te or Tomari-Te.  However, with the number of masters that trained with teachers from both locations, at best the distinction between the two is somewhat blurred.  An article from the Motobu-ryū website goes further and says in two places "there is no clear distinction", then later "there is no essential difference between Shuri-Te and Tomari-Te" (2).  So essentially Shuri-Te and Tomari-Te are one and the same.

Matsumura Sokon is acknowledged as a root source of Shuri-Te material and Matsumora Kosaku is given similar standing for Tomari-Te.  However, if the styles are much the same, as indicated above, both can be considered the fathers of Shuri-Te and are highlighted as having been of similar standing.  Many Shuri-Te Karate family trees place Matsumura Sokon near the top of their tree and often cite him as the source of Naihanchi, however there is scant evidence of this.  Many who learned the Kata do not give sources at all, but simply name the Masters they studied under, quite a few said they studied under both Matsumura Sokon and Matsumora Kosaku.  Motobu Choki especially is very specific in this, he trained with both. (3)

Matsumura Sokon didn't teach Naihanchi as a Kata from most of the evidence available.  Most, who do cite Kata learnt from him cite different Kata.  For example, Yoshimura Chogi cites Gojūshiho and Kūsankū (1).  From my conversations with Scot Mertz, Matsumura Sokon was primarily a swordsman who became known for his karate only after his death (4).  According to his conversations with the family, he didn't teach Naihanch, mainly Sanchin, Seisan and Useishi (Gojūshiho).  

On the other hand, there is evidence that Matsumora Kosaku actually did learn Naihanchi from Ason.  Definitely via Ufu Giko, who learnt the Kata on Ason's first visit in the 1830s and possibly directly from son on his second visit in the 1866 to 1868.  (4).  Both Matsumura and Matsumora have the same sounding name if the Okinawan dialect, “Machimura”.   This potential misunderstanding coupled with information I have to hand, I can only conclude:

Matsumora Kosaku having learned Naihanchi from Ason, whilst Matsumura Sokon was more renown for sword work:   Matasumora Kosaku therefore would be the more likely source of the Naihanchi kata in the Shuri-te styles, rather than Matsumura Sokon.    

That is not to say that there are no other sources for Naihanchi in the Shorin Ryu family, just that on the evidence I have seen and heard so far, this is the most plausible source to me.  Both Motobu Choki and Kyan Chotoku studied with Matsumora, and I found an article by Tom Bell (5) that says Itosu Anko studied with him.  I am not sure of the veracity of this last source though.  I have since come across a quote from Motobu Choki himself saying he introduced Itosu Anko to Matasumora Kosaku, in (8): Episode When Choki Won a 10 Yen Bet by Solving a Homework Problem (Figuring Out Ukete) "Then I brought Itosu to Matsumora's place. And Matsumora said to Itosu:

"This young man is very gifted. He has a great future. So let's train him together."". This suggests that they may have even worked together to train Motobu Choki.

(1) http://ryukyu-bugei.com/?p=8566&fbclid=IwAR2PxCgKB0zK5caoQzyKOJzuJM4uzgPfIe-UNQ_4O1x2RbUVFeBpGI00AaY

(2) http://ryukyu-bugei.com/?p=4123

(3) My Art and Skill of Karate (Motobu Choki, Andreas Quast et al, 2020)

(4) https://www.karate4theheart.com/2020/01/nerd-life-origins-of-naihanchi.html

(5) http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=104

(6)  https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=E1U_BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA417&lpg=PA417&dq=did+anko+itosu+study+with+matsumura+kosaku&source=bl&ots=LsHATfQdpK&sig=ACfU3U1vpXVAlZW6t1a35vtG6CLQn_fTRA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjVlrzv943oAhUNHMAKHeSED4UQ6AEwB3oECAsQAQ#v=onepage&q=did%20anko%20itosu%20study%20with%20matsumura%20kosaku&f=false

(7) The Essence of Naha-te (Joe Swift)

(8) https://www.motobu-ryu.org/motobu-kenpo/lost-interviews/?fbclid=IwAR1ynwMixXMeeH7EwbZ8YzEdOKOqvVlKuFOVZuJd5EfChljwAaOOZD6K9kE

Dojo determination : An old dog trying to learn new tricks

Going into the Dojo on Saturday, I felt better than I have in a while.

Starting with the warm up, I managed the whole of that.  It included doing a backward breakfall and shrimping, followed doing a forward breakfall and cover.  I could never do forward rolls at school, and am not much better now, but this old dog still wants to try to learn new tricks.

To me it looks awful, but judge for yourself: My Sensei says I've made some progress with my forward breakfalls. 

Then came Mokosu and the formal opening.  Next week is grading, so we went into punches, receiving, kicks and other fundamentals.  For the first time in ages I managed to get through almost all of this, though I was struggling for breath a little on the last of the kicks.

Then it was on to Kata; As the next grading is the first at which I will need to perform (Naihanchi Shodan), this was more intensive than usual and included specific group tuition followed by performance.  I was a little disappointed with the performance as it was too rigid, with not enough flow 😐, but I know that is because of nerves and trying too hard.  Hopefully it will be good on the day.

Next came light sparring:  Kicks and punches, kicks, punches, kicks, punches and open hand strikes.  These were all done with different partners, and here I need to make an apology and take stock of my punching. I have instinctively started to hook upwards inside the guard when punching and it resulted in a couple of head shots to my training partner who was shorter than me.  So apologies Shell 😐😐, I need to adjust my techniques accordingly.  On the other hand, I seem to be getting the hang of open hand strikes, so not too bad.

The final part of the lesson Kihon kata on the pads, I need the first four for the next Grading, so I was doing one to five.  My kicks were certainly much better than last week. ☺☺
We also had a quick photo session for the end, for a group photo and kicks.   Plenty of hard work and some fun, a few lessons learnt and for once I felt overall I did myself justice.  Good session, and thank you too to Sensei Graham, as well as our regular Sensei, Ben and Alison 👊👍👍☺☺

Kata, Drills and Triangles, with a little bit of Tai Chi style

Saturday in the dojo was an interesting session, I learned maybe four things about both myself and my karate and they weigh out 50 - 50.  On the positives, I think my health is improving again, and my control in pairs is improving ☺☺.  On the negatives, I need to be pushing myself again and my kicking after exertion becomes very ragged 😞😞.  However, the big idea plus that made the lesson for me was the idea of triangles, I suppose it had been there all along, but the penny dropped when we varied a regular drill later in the session ☺☺☺.

We started with a regular warm up, but since I had been warming up for 10 minutes or so whilst watching my son, maybe I didn't need to attack it quite as much and it told shortly after when we did a form of circuit training:
Jump stepping in and out of rope ladder steps, receiving pad strikes using jodan uke, running round the outsides of a cone circuit, receiving pad strikes with tudan uke, forward rolling break falls, followed by mai geris to the pads  to close the circuit.

 I ran out of stream at end of first circuit, and my kicks were ragged as a result. I sat out most of the rest, but was encouraged to rejoin, so did last half of circuit with better kicks though still not brilliant,  so this is where I picked up the two negatives mentioned earlier: my ragged kicking after exertion and not re-joining without encouragement 😞😞.

Then it was time for Mokosu and formal start to the lesson, which opened with paired work with different partners.  This included:

Light sparring in various forms, including kicks and punches, kicks only and punches only.
Paired continuous contact drills, including taking the inside, gripping and breaking grip, gripping and breaking then striking
Paired Kicking drill, receiving right mawashi geri, left mawashi geri, right mawashi geri catchi, right mawashi geri step back, return mawashi geri

This is where I found that I was definitely improving my control in paired work ☺☺.  Was definitely so much better in the sparring and the kicking drill, well at least I thought so.

Then we were on to Kata - including Naihanchi Shodan tai chi style to open, I did performances of  Naihanchi Shodan and Naihanchi Nidan (which I was corrected for performing too slowly, oops too much Tensho and not enough of this kata 😞).  I went through forms of Naihanchi Sandan and Pinan Shodan, after which the higher grades did performances of their kata required for grading.

Then it was back to an old favourite to close out the session:  The Quadrant drill (single person practice shown here)

What we did in this session was the Quadrant drill with variations, using an expressly triangle form to receive and counter, explicitly to the part of the drill with hammer fist followed by two hooks.  It was there all along I suppose, but   the transition from receiving to striking with the forearm or elbow seems so simple when explained this way ☺☺. Another variation was that after head butt, the agressor finishes with a shoulder barge which the other partner had to avoid.

All in all, another excellent session of the dojo, with the big plus being that I realise my my stamina seems to be improving ☺☺☺☺