A bit more Aussie Magic and the value of variety.

The last few weeks have been even more demanding from a work perspective.  I haven't trained as often as I would like, but when I have there have been some interesting sessions.  Perhaps the strangest was at 01:00 hours on a Saturday morning over Zoom with Sensei Tuari Dawson and the Cairns Dojo, at the invite of Sensei PJ Broomy. 😀

2408 - Compass point work

The lesson was in kobudo, and I needed to do it outdoors due to the lack of space inside, when wielding a bo or nunchaku.  I did a bit of a warm up on my own, but then the lesson started.  It was to cover a lot more than I expect as it turned out to be an introduction to bo, tonfa, nunchaku and sai. 😀

2908  - Before the Lesson

We learn bo and nunchaku in my doji, but not tonfa and sai. Not at my level anyway, so learning something new is always a fun challenge.  Tonfa I just had to watch, as I don't have any, but was able to borrow my son's sai (onlysmaller ones) to have a go it that.  It started to rain part way through, so trying to learn in the rain whilst keeping my tablet dry was a challenge on it's own 😀

2908 - Bo, tonfa, nunchaku and sai

Fortunately I was able to move back inside for the sai part of the lesson, which is just as well, as handling sai proved to be tricky enough as it was, without adding to it by trying to handle slippery weapons in the rain!  All in all though, was a fun lesson, with an excellent Sensei. 😀😀 Plus I still managed it fit in my regular Saturday  training in both karate and bo.

2908 - Working the compass again

Even on days where I miss training due to work, I still try to fit something in later on, and one of the predominant themes at the moment are the 10 kihon gata.  I can finally remember all 10, though not in random order as yet 😀  However, that spinning hook kick in gata number 9 just isn't there yet.

3108 - An Evening workout

I think from my own dojo, the best lesson for me was one where they taught combinations of knee strikes, and elbow strikes.  My limited abilities make the use of knees very attractive, as well as being effective.  What was the clincher for me though was the realisation that the whole range of kicking techniques we use include knee strikes.  😀😀

0509

At close range, a mawashi geri is of no use, but if you do a roundhouse knee and they move away, it turns immediately into a mawashi geri.  Similary a straight knee can be turmed into a mai geri, and I guess something like a ushiro geri could be a knee to the side followed by a kick behind.  Similar extensions can also be applied to elbow strikes, a downward elbow can be extended into a hammer fist, a crashing elbow can be extended into a back fist, and so on.

0809

The brain also needs to be fed, and after the lesson in knees and elbows, I had the privilege of attending a zoom lecture by Patrick McCarthy, but more of that in another blog. The important thing is the variety and mental stimulus it brings.  In times of uncertainy, an anchor point for anybody can be something such as karate.  The routine of training being maintained is a conforting one, however if all it contains is endless repetition of the same things trhen the end result cam be couner productive.

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For me, the lockdown has given many challenges, but the constant of having more opportunities to train, and the regular nature of the framework, has been a constant about which I have been able to build a routine to cope with both my physical and mental health issues  However, having done this for over five months now, if there wan't any variety the value would have been greatly reduced.

1209

As well as doing the routine training, it has been necessary for me to go outside the box as well as rely on the lesson, but I think anyone who wants to progress in any direction has to do this anyway.  I have been lucky in that my Sensei, Ben and Alison Slack, always try to work something in over a period of time that we haven't done in the same way before, or expand on what we have done before.

Also, if people wanted to (and I did), they have offered the opportunity to work with different instructors as well, via Zoom.  I have had the incredible luck to be able to train with Brian Bates, PJ Broomy, Les Bubka, Don Came, Jamie Clubb, Chris Hanson and Sensei Nohara, and though PJ train with Senei Tuari Dawson.  I have taken part of a "lockdown" pub quiz with my dojo, hosted by Iain Abernethy and attended lectures by Andreas Quast and Patrick McCarthy, so what can I say?

To cope with massive uncertainty, a strong routine is a massive plus in being able to be able to cope.  But to to be of any value, the routine has to have a degree of variety built in, and preferably with the opportunity to develop things further for the students if they wish.  I am glad to say that my Sensei offer all of that, and on a personal level have been so supportive I can never thank them enough 

2408

Kata, all 10 kihon gata

2908

Sensei Tuari Dawson

Kobudo - Bo, Tonfa, Nunchaku and Sai - introduction and drills

Regular lesson

Teisho and escape practice
Step back Zenkutsu dachi with hooking receives (FH) - upper tudan uke, tudan uke, gidan uke, to receive same sided stirke and open up the back.  Working in the after.
Kata, pad work. - Face slap (to ear cup). head to chest clasp, shoulder barge, head but, elbow. Then wall trap drill. Slide to side, groin slaps, head control, turn into Zebkutsu dachi to drive head into wall, then hammerfirst or downard elbow strikes to finish.

Bo,

First 6 kihon gata, followed by short run through of what each person remembers  from Shushi no kon

3008

Jamie Clubb

Discipline - including cued padwork, with one and two attackers

0509

Kata
Quadrant drill
Pad work - gross motor skills, hammerfist, teisho, elbow, knee, turning takedown

Nunchaku

Kihon gata, including one legged stance

1009

Fundamentals

Kihon gata

Pad work

Teisho, hammer fist, elbow, knee, step through, turning throw (back leg move across, front leg pull back)

Groin strikes x 3, knee, turning throw (as above)

Kata - asked to perform

Groin strikes x 3

1209

Kata

knee strikes, straight knee, roundhouse knee, Inside knee

Four in combination

Elbow strikes, Cutting elbow, rising elbow, dropping elbow, spinning elbow, 

four in combination

Bo

Kihon gata., going forward and backwards

Lecture 

Patrick McCarthy Standing of the shoulders of giants

Australia calling

This last week or so has been extremely hectic from a work point of view, and unfortunately Monday lessons seem to have been mostly lost as a result.  However, there have been a few plusses.  Getting to practice some Motobu Choki drills was one, but the biggest was definitely getting to train with my friend PJ Broomy from Australia online twice in a week ☺☺☺☺

Relaxation kata - June 29

On Wednesday last we had a one on one session in the morning UK time and covered some interesting stuff (lesson details and video here also).  Not only was the practical material, but some interesting discussion too, for me at least ☺☺☺☺☺☺  The different mechanism for punching that his style uses is interesting, along with the simple and direct methods of takedown. These are a lot easier to remember for me than those of Funokoshi Gishin, however those techniques also include transitions afterwards that add to the direct techniques shown by PJ.  

Fundamentals plus kata - June 30

So in my thing of these techniques as two parts, the direct part that should work and then the transition you can do if it doesn't.  Sandwiched in between the two lessons with PJ (he was one of two guest Sensei at our Saturday lesson), was our regular Thursday lesson where we went back to basics with kihon gata, and punches and responses.  Fundamental techniques always need working on ☺☺☺

Australia calling - 1st July

The Saturday lesson was extra special, Sensei Ben featured getting up from the ground with cover, and the first of the Motobu Choki drills I had missed in a previous lesson.  This drill was so direct, it was easy to remember and see how it could be effective.  Love it. ☺ 

After the lesson - 2nd July

For PJ's part of the lesson, we went through the ukes I had practiced earlier in the week with him, plus the sequence of five ukes and the three take downs featuring palm strike,chudan uke and gidan barai respectively.  All simple techniques, but that is what should make the combination work more effective, as they are also easier to remember than more complex combinations. ☺☺☺☺

5 blocks in sequence - 3rd July

Brian Bates' section of the lesson focused on four ditrctional elbow strikes, with and without pads.  Brian's emthusiasm and encouragement is superb and communicates well, even online.  We also did 30 minutes of bo basics.  All in all, a brilliant lesson ☺.  Thank you all 🙏

Lesson - 4th July

I missed the Monday lesson again due to work, but tried to make up a little bit by practicing a four directional mawashi empi drill and having a go at the first three of Motobu Choki's Kumite drills over the next couple of days.  Hopefully, we will get back to some kind of normal soon.

Kata after the lesson - 4th July

Kata - 5th July

Press ups, Mawashi Empi, Naihanchi - 6th July

Motobu Choki drills, Naihanchi - 7th July

0107

PJ Broomy session

Punches + retracted punch (short retraction after delivery of punch). Discussed atifa, technique for transferring power into opponents body (result of retracted punch) Receiving techniques + different gidan ukes Combining sequence of the 5 ukes Comparison of gidan uke (as opposed to gidan barai) to Pinan Shiko dachi step through with elbows on hips Comparison of transitioning for example in Naihanchi on double block. PJ style hand going upwards goes on inside so that descending hand can pull. Practical application of yoi - discussed muchini, stickiness Three throws Pull with front hand to hip, step forward and strike to chin / throat with advancing hand Pull with front hat to hip, step forward with chudan uke as hammerfirst Strong front arm gidan barai (uke) as sweep to block strike and spin them to expose the back Comparison with Techniques illustrated in one of Funokoshi Gichin's books, and demonstrated by my Sensei, which require rotation after the technique

0207

Kata
Kihon kata
Jab and response
Back hand and response
Front hand hook and response
Response sequence
1) jab - sway to back hand side, back hand block, front hand simultanious strike to just behind the elbow
2) backhand punch, small step to side with front leg.  Head moves to front foot side, front hand pushes across, back hand straight punch to solar plexus
3) front hand hook, step forward, front hand blocks with jodan uke, backhand upper cut.

0407

Ben

Going down and getting up with cover
Motobu drill, open hand fighting stance, step forward R leg, hand trap (L Hand) and cover (R Arm), drop right elbow into ribs and push away

PJ

Ukes individual and combining sequence of the 5 ukes (Jodan uke, Chudan uke, Soto uke, Gidan barai, Gidan uke)
Three throws Pull with front hand to hip, step forward and strike to chin / throat with advancing hand Pull with front hat to hip, step forward with chudan uke as hammerfirst Strong front arm gidan barai (uke) as sweep to block strike and spin them to expose the back

Brian

Mawashi Empi style drill
Left leg forward, set forward right leg rising elbow (R) (12h), turn to 6h Mawashi Empi (L), 3h dropping elbow (R), 9h hammer down elbow (L). Then with pads - need to remember footwork.
Free striking to pads with elbows, several strikes them get away.
Defensive, cover, crash, technique then get away.

Bo lesson

Kihon gata

Eight Brocades (baduanjin)

Some time ago, a facebook friend suggested that I research the  Quijong form Eight Brocades, as it might be of help to me with my breathing and relaxation.  Given that I currently have some time on my hands, and I have been looking for a regular workout that sorts these needs, I thought I would do just that.

The form goes by a number of different names: Eight Brocades, Eight Section Brocade, Eight Pieces of Brocade, for example.  There appear to be many different ways of doing it, and in different sequences, but the eight elements are all obviously of similar origins.  It is historically a very old form, maybe 1000 year or more.

One  historical account has it  that Marshal Yue Fei molded it from a longer form in the mid 1100s from concern for his warriors.  The Song Dynasty (960-1279) was a tough tie in Chinese History with many wars. Yue Fei was a poor boy with a childhood filled with turmoil and poverty.  He entered the army at nine and rapidly rose within the ranks and by twenty-six he was a general.

There are so many different versions of the form, especially when looking at videos, it was hard to find one that was easy to understand, so I decided to pick one that was text based and used older illustrations, so that I would need to work it out from first principles. I went for:

Eight Section Brocade- baduanjin

There is an accompanying video that the author said included most of the elements, but even then that varied from the text in terms of sequence and some of the interpretation. What I want to do here is document what I am doing for each of the sequences, under their given names and then show the final version of the form at the end.

After reading the text description and working outr my own version, I then modified what I was doing to remove any major errors (I hope).  I am not going to give the actual descriptions and associated "good for" descriptions, as these are all included in the above link.  However I will say that I do believe given time, this will be of benefit to me not just for breathing and relaxation, but potentially in other ways too.  If you get this for,. hope you enjoyed reading and stay on to take a look at the videos.

Two Hands Hold up the Heavens

Drawing the bow to shoot the hawk

Separating Heaven And Earth

Wise Owl Gazes Backwards

Punching with an angry Gaze

Big Bear Turns from Side to Side

Touching Toes then Bending Backwards

Bouncing on the Toes

Eight Brocades (all eight elements)

Hope you found this interesting, if you got this far, thank you for looking ☺☺☺

A trinity of training

This has been more of a doing rather than a blogging week: for both my physical and mental health , I have thrown myself a little more into the practical side, trying to do my own workouts, incorporating refreshers of the previous lesson(s) where possible,  I think to start with I will leave Sunday as a day off and concentrate on actually doing two 20 to 25 minute sessions on the Tuesdays and Thursdays (as I did this week), gradually building them up to 30 minutes OR adding another session on the Sunday.  

This all depends on circumstances of course.  However, I think having some plan, any plan to focus on, is a major must have in trying to cope with the isolation and frustrations of been cooped up, that I am sure everyone is feeling right now.  I have been luck to find online mentors in Robey Jenkins, Noah Legel and Les Bubka, who have helped me develop my own cardio, breathing and relaxation routine to complement the wonderful work that Ben and Alison do with us and our families, so to all five a massive thank you 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙇🙇🙇🙇🙇✊✊✊✊✊

The dojo diary this week is as given below. All were enjoyable lessons, and although I struggle in places (out at midday today was one of them lol), in general I'm getting through them with only the odd hiccup:

0604

Warm up
Mokosu and formal opening
punches, kicks and receiving techniques
Solo pad work, building up jab, cross, elbow knee combinations
Drilling the combination worked out on the pads
Shadow sparring
Kata - Naihanchi Shodan only.

0904

Warm up
Mokosu and formal opening
Quadrant drill
Jab, cross. hook
Hammerfist, looping left, hook
Backhand slap, elbow, step back left knee, step back, right knee
Headbutt, break grasp, shoulder barge.
Right mawashi-geri, land behind, swap stance,, left mawashi geri, land behind, swap stance, right mawashi geri, hold on kick, land behind, right mawashi geri, spin through, land in fighting stance, ashe uke
Mai geri, ball of foot to solar plexus, mai geri, ball of foot to solar plexus, mai geri, top of foot to groin
Left back fist, cross, jab, cross, jab
Right lower punch to organs, left lower punch to organs, right lower punch, bob and weave, step back open hand
Kata - Naihanchi Shodan only

1104

Warm up 
Mokosu and formal opening
Kicks, slow to knee, hold, extend, hold.  5 slow, then 5 fast:
Mai geri, right then left.
Ushiro geri, right then left
Yoku geri, right then left
Mawashi geri, right then left
Reminded to use chair to practice for balance, as per one of last week's lessons
Pad work, both sides working up to three strike combination.
Cross, Elbow, Cross then elbow, Knee, Cross, Elbow, knee
Finally 10 times through combination each side

Dojo determination - round two..

Things still aren't right, I can walk distances just fine, but explosive exercise is still taking it out of me. Saturday in the dojo was more determination than substance but got to keep going....

I love the way our Sensei vary the content of the lessons, always keeps you on your toes ☺☺  Was a fairly regular warm up today, but hey we need those one in a while.  After the warm up, most of the lesson was drill and pad work, plus conditioning and what lesson would be complete without kata?:  We had in there (but not necessarily in that order):

Naihanchi drill, - crash and control, knee strikes , elbow to head, plush away
Conditioning. kicks (low, mid and high Mawashi-geri) and blocks forearm, inside and ouside Chudan-uke, Gedan uke.  First time I tried high Mawashi geri (always got to push)
Tegumi drill take punch, trap, slap to ribs, slap to face, hammerfist to arm, hammer fist to face
Pad work, including pad drills and inside leg kicks
Desensitising, slapping around the face
Kata - including be taught by a black belt in training
Naihanchi Nidan drill, bear hug from behind, sink, break by lifting arms, control arm, turn, elbow to ribs, turn again, strike.

I had to miss partway through, due to a chest flair up, but pushed myself as far as I could ☺☺  Plus I got to spend a bit more time than usual doing paired work with my Sensei and actually tried for a high Mawashi geri for the first time ☺☺

As an addendum, had to take today off work with a bad flair up and possibly found out why I am still struggling 🙀🙀🙀  Seems my chest is clear, but the infection just moved house and lodged itself in my upper respiratory system. so now on to round two....

Monday Night dojo life

On a few days leave at the moment, so went to the Dojo for the Monday night session.  Quite a varied lesson, which I find a good thing 😊.  We started off with core drills, including sprints, crawling, forward rolls, and the shrimp followed by some stretches.

This was followed by transition practise, step through in Zenkutzu Dachi and various uke / tsuki combinations with proper mawatte techniques.  This was followed by Kata practice: For me Naihanchi Shodan with a run through of Nidan and Sandan.

After Kata, we went to try Tai Sabaki (body management) - with our Sensei trying to hit with a padded kendo style stick.   The trick was to evade, first of all to a lunge by stepping away, followed by a head swipe followed by ducking.  After that, we had to evade a leg swipe by jumping, followed by a head / leg swipe combination by ducking then jumping.  Finally, we had to evade a lunge by swaying, followed by evading a lunge, head swipe, leg swipe, lunge combination by stepping, ducking, jumping and swaying.

We then worked in pairs to evade forehand and backhand punches by parrying and stepping away to the outside, followed by delivering a return punch from the side.  We followed this by trying to evade random forehand or backhand punches.   The last part of the lesson was padwork for mawashi geris / punches / 4 punches, followed by front foot mai geri and a spinning kick / uke to random head and leg strikes.


Finally, we did Naihanchi Shodan cool down to end the lesson; plenty of variety and new things to remember.  Awesome 😊🙏

Family and the art of keeping calm

These last few weeks have been a test in many ways, but apart from my time in the dojo, none of them physical.  With a death in the family and complex emotions involved, plus other issues that seem to occur at just the wrong moment, often through one person's lack of consideration for others:  There has been a lot to digest.

It is my honest belief, that without the self discipline and emphasis placed on self control by my studying Karate, I would have found things very difficult to cope with.  The stress levels at times have been very high, but the ability to detatch and take deep breaths has helped to combat this.

There have been a number of complicating issues  involved in all that is going on, and without a doubt if these were taken as a whole, I would have found these insurmountable.  My own education helps me to separate things out, but the techniques learned from karate have helped by focus each time on the highest priority task and see it through to completion.

I haven't practiced my kata as much as I should either, but each time I do, I try to make it count.  I now feel quite compfortable running through the first two Naihanchis combined as a slow exercise kata, so hopefully this will feed back into the dojo.  The funeral in question is in the next few days, and after that hopefully, we can start to focus on some of the other pressing issues.