Troubling times - time to keep on carrying on

It's hard to describe how things are at the moment, I'm on a short break at the moment, as work has been fairly intense lately.  Still no news on when I'm expected to start back to work, but my shielding is over.  There are some issues in my personal life which are causing a worry and mentally things are a little on the tough side.

0908 - Slow kata

There are a good few things I could have done, or organised better to say the least. However with the massive uncertainty of the times we live in, nothing is certain and I have to try not to beat myself up too much about some of the things.  That especially applies to things over I have little or no control, but sometimes that is easier said than done.

1008 - Cool down kata

I am still training, an obvious must given my conditions, but have felt less inclined to make as many videos as I have in the past.  From the feedback I've had though, my Sensei think I am making good progress, which is also a positive for me.  I still don't feel comfortable with the idea of meeting up in groups to train, so have missed the open air classes that my dojo have started to do one a week.

1508 - Nunchaku practice

However, we (both me and my son) have not had to forgo the lessons, as my Sensei have been kind enough to share them via Zoom.  As ever therefore, karate still forms a major focal point of my life, something that is both good for me physically and mentally and gives a framework of something to do in which I can feel I am making progress.  

1708 - Quadrant drill and a little kata

I regret having to miss lessons because of my workload, but that is unavoidable.  However, it makes me appreciate the lessons that I do make even more.   The time I really do appreciate in the lesson in Mokosu or "silent time", as for me it helps to focus on a complete reset.  I find it helps me to shut out the outside world for a little while and concentrate on other things.  A "haven from the storm" if you like. 

From a personal point of view, I have started to work on changing direction with various forms of compass drills, as this is something that doesn't feature heavily in the Naihanchi kata, but something I will need in the future  ☺☺

2008 - Nunchaku and elbow compass workout

When there are mental health issues involved, this is even more important, and the lockdown and subsequent period have certainly thrown up a few of those.  Karate wise, over the last few weeks, apart from fundamental, kata and padwork, our main focus has been the Quadrant drill.  It is best done in it's paired form, but can be done solo almost as a more explicit version of a kata if you like.  That is definitely something that I enjoy doing ☺☺☺

2208 - Oops up too early

Today, we had the honour of taking part in a Zoom lesson with the head of our Ryukyukan federation, Sensei Nohara, and there are a few more interesting lessons and webinars to come, so still much to lokk forward to a ficus on, outside of the stream of the humdrum.  So time to keep on carrying on, as ever ☺☺☺☺

Lessons 

0808

Kata
Pad drill. (2 to 3 attackers) step off to side (to see if anyone behind and line them up if so). Teisho x 2, crash.  Hammerfist x2 knee ( rugby tackle ) sprawl, hasmmer fist x 2  (neck lock from behind) 2 to 3 hammerfists to back of kneck. open shoulders to break lock and push away

1008

Quadrant drill: jab, cross hook, hammer fist, looping left, hook, back hand slap, elbow, upper cut, uppercut, ridge hand, ridge hand, (gable grip) Swap stance, (dragging head to left) left knee, swap stance (dragging head to right), right knee, head butt, sweep down tto clear arms, shoulder barge.

Right mawashi geri, back to stance, swap stance, left mawashi geri, back to stance, swap stance, right mawashi geri, hold out, right mawashi geri, follow through back to stance, Ashe Uke, Mai geri, ball of foot to stomach, Mai geri, ball of foot to stomach, Mai geri, top of foot to groin, left back fist, cross, jab, cross, jab to head, cross, jab, cross to body (solar plexus, liver spleen), duck left moving legs circle head under punch, step back hands up

1608

Quadrant drill, padwork - Teisho, hammer first, elbow

Nunchaku 

 Figure of 8s both hands,  Striking both hands: Crosswise strike towards body, crosswise strike away from body, upward strike over shoulder, downward strike.   How ordinary items such as a belt, a hadbag, or a doglead, can be used to carry out similar strikes to nunchaku.  Kihon kata: 
1) Step back into Shiko dachi, front hand downward strike, emulating bike handle, both sides.
2) Step back into Shiko dachi, ront hand downward strike, emulating bike handle, touch to front wrist, back hand under, front hand up to bring Nunchaku behind front shoulder, both sides.
3) Step back into Shiko dachi, ront hand downward strike, emulating bike handle, touch to front wrist, back hand under, front hand up to bring Nunchaku behind front shoulder, front hand figure of eight five times, catch at waist on back hand, both sides.
Free sparring Nunchaku

2008

Fundamentals, kata, pad work, different forms of teisho, straight, upwards, hook then short slap with double hip movement.

2208

Fundamentals and kata (with Sensei Nohara)

Killing Time

Things are obviously staring to move on with regard to the current situation.   With my work, we are preparing for offices across Europe to re-open, but for me I'm in a state of Limbo.  It'd fairly certain my son won't be going back to School until September at the earliest.  For me, I don't really know what will be happening for the next few months or even until the end of the year.

Warm down kata 0806

What is required for work the next few months is already mapped out and 95% percent of the facets of my work can be done from home, until the main London office becomes re-occupied.  That isn'yt expected to be until maybe mid-August at the earliest.  However, as I am on the list of people who are expected to shield, they have only given an indication of what is expected until the end of the month.  That gives me a kind of limbo that means just now I am killing time until the point that I do know something more definite.  I many ways I am lucky, but I don't think anyone finds the limbo easy to deal with.

Kihons and kata

Karate is my touchstone for both physical and mental health, and overcoming the self-doubts caused the comments of others was an important thing.  Now I can carry on focusing on something I really enjoy doing, Due to the lack of room both inside and outside, for two people to train without close contact, I now take it in turns with my son, when we can, to make use of the outside, that seems to be working better too for both of us. 

After the rain

Towards the end of last week, I got a mail about something I had to check that I had been worrying about, and to be honest I was a bit nervous about looking to see how bad something was (not health or jobwise fortunately).  Missing out on Karate on the Saturday morning didn't help, but at least I made up for it with a training session based upon some ideas from my Sensei in the afternoon, and then on Sunday we had the Karate for Mental Health webinar to foucus on.  Some really excellent teachers there, and some good material to work on.

After the lesson (1106)

So today I took a look at what it was that was worrying me, as I have come to appreciate, sticking your head in the sand when decisions have to be made just doesn't work,  Things were as bad as I thought they might be, maybe a bit worse.  However, it was something I had anticipated and now I just have to get on with dealing with it, and it should be manageable.  There is actually a big release when you face up to something you have to deal with. So felt a lot less stressed going into today;s lesson which was a really good workout with a lot of sweat......

1306 Practice

So now to get on with things, work, karate, and those aspects of life that can be worked on, and for the rest it remains one day at a time.

Karate for Mental Health 14 06 20

Kata to coll down after today's lesson (1506)

Lessons and sessions

0806

Fundamentals
punches, ukes, kicks, including tobi mai geri,
kihon gata to Nanadan (7th), both sides
Naihanchi Shodan

1106

Kata
Pad work - punch. elbow, knee, hammerfist, palm strike, head butt


1306

Missed lesson - did short session based on instruction from my Sensei

3x1 minute shadow work rounds

1st round simple combos

2nd round clinch range strikes

3rd round ground techniques

1406

Seminar on Karate for Mental Health

Pad work - Brian Bates
Kata - Chris Hanson
Deep breathing - Don Came
Discussion - Les Bubka

1506

Zenkutsu dachi steps and steps with punches
Shiko dachi steps 
Naihanchi Dachi steps
Kata
The three Naihanchis, performance on Shodan and Nidan
Pad work - punch, palm, hammer fist, then puch, palm, palm, hammerfist combinatiom
Pad work, elbow strikes

Karate Online Style

Because I do this blog about my journey in karate and share via Facebook, I had a person enquire whether I could teach them online by sharing videos of what I had learnt. I explained that as I beginner, I wasn't in any way qualified, and that they would be better served by finding a Dojo in their area. The response I got was that there weren't any actually near to where they lived.

This set me to thinking what merit there is in online training. I have used videos shared with me online to help me improve my Kata, but only in conjunction with working on them in the Dojo.  I have also worked on ideas shared by my mentor online for Cardio-Vascular exercise .  So one one of the Facebook groups I am a member of, I posed that question.  I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that, since I was using an online forum, only one response out of 20 was totally negative.

A few thought it would be of limited use for more advanced students to learn some new techniques, or as an aide-memoire, and would need to be accompanied by Dojo time.  Another variant of this was it could be used to a degree for distance learning by sharing videos of what needed to be done, then the pupil sending videos back to be critiqued.

A more dynamic version of working online at distance was the use of videos and instructions, then accompanied by one-to-one Skype of other Video media sessions to reinforce the training material.

The most positive responses emphasised that the internet is a treasure trove of material and communication tools, whose use is limited only by the imagination of the user.  This of course comes with a very big caveat that there is a lot of dross as well as gems out there, which might be difficult for the beginner to distinguish between.

I think the majority opinion though is that face to face is best, but there is also good support for, that if nothing else is available it should be possible to do something online with the right help 😊