Karate helping to deal with a heart condition:
Karate fighting, Cardiovascular workout, confidence, rebuilding stamina, fun, self defence, over 50s but not only, over 50, is it too late, exercise, nerd, okinawa karate, shorin ryu, full contact karate, heart, aging
A stressful week from a personal point of view, but an interesting one from a karate viewpoint. Started off being a bit down, as I keep repeating the same mistakes in my Naihanchi Shodan, plus some other things non-karate related. So I did what I usually do, look for something to throw myself into to stop myself brooding on things, that was to look into a Quijong form Eight Brocades. It's a good self contained form of exercise, that can be practiced as individual elements or as a whole, with as few or many repetitions as you want, or have time for. Of course from a karate stand point, we had the regular three online lessons, which are summarized at the end. The Monday lesson was something different, then the Thursday and Saturday lessons were polishing up kihon gata and the Quadrant drill. Typically, when not feeling too hot about my kata, in the middle of the week our Sensei told us about an online competition being organised by another club to which we were invited. I toyed with the idea of not competing, but then the "don't give up" part of me kicked in and I have given it a go. Still had a twist in the tale though, I recorded it in a black gi, then had a thought... Our dojo wears white for representative combinations, so asked our Sensei and sure enough, needed to re-record. Home dojo has a lot to answer for lol. There are still mistakes in my Naihanchi Shodan, but have realised they are mostly in one direction. My left hand side actions are not too bad but on the other side, not so hot. After talking to my Sensei am going to start specifically doing the hand movements on their own, in order to check my observations and work on improving my techniques. The end of the week Karate wise was quite fun though, we entered in to Iain Abernethy's Karate pub quiz, with our team having face time on Zoom (same as we use for training). So nice to interact socially again, a few drinks were had, and I even got a couple of questions right ☺☺☺ An absolutely brilliant way to end the week, and a big thank you to my team mates: Alison, Ben (both our Sensei), Elisha, Chloe, Sam, Marian, Koen and Anita, tor making it such a fun occasion!!!! 🙏🙏🙏. Our lessons: 20-04 Warm up, Mokosu, formal opening Stepping in combat stance, forwards, backwards, left and right. Forward step, jab, back step Forward step, jab, reverse punch, back step Forward step, reverse punch, front leg sweep (Ashi Barai), back step Forward step, reverse punch, Ashi Barai, reverse kneeling punch to grounded opponent, step back Kata, up to Naihanchi Sandan, perfomance (Naihanchi Shodan) Shadow sparring to called combinations Warm down kata
Tuesday workout including Monday's lesson content and Eight Brocades
23-04
Warm up, Mokosu, formal opening Kihon gata: Shodan - Jab, reverse punch, Mae Geri
Nidan - Mae Geri, jab, reverse punch
Sandan - Jab, reverse punch, Mawashi Geri off front leg
Yondan - Mawashi Geri off front leg, 2 punch combination
Godan - Right Mawashi Geri (land in front), left Mawashi geri (land in front), reverse punch, jab.
Rokudan - Ashi uke, jab, cross, Mawashi Geri
Nanadan - Mae Geri (land in front) right jab, back kick
Hachidan - Mae Geri (land in front), back kick, reverse punch
Kyudan - Shuffle, backhand forehand punch, shuffle, backhand forehand punch, right then left mawashi geri, ushiro mawashi geri
Judan -Shuffle, backhand forehand punch, shuffle, backhand forehand punch, right then left mawashi geri, hisa geri
The competion Video that wasn't
25-04 Warm up, Mokosu, formal opening Kata Then working on the first half om the 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.
First full runs through with modified hand gestures
Naihanchi and solo bunkai
Well sort of bunkai. Two attempts at corrected Naihanchi Shodan with video aide memoire from yesterday's lesson.
Tensho revised breathing
First attempt in full of Tensho with revised breathing, all breathing in done on pulling in movements, exhale on all the push away movements. Had some of this mixed up and need to keep practising. This run through was I felt, way too tense.
Exercise after work
Not the 20 minutes I was aiming for, but got through balancing, the quadrant drill, Naihanchi Shodan, and attempt at the solo bunkai for Naihanchi, Naihanchi Nidan, the first 5 kihon gata and Tensho,
Naihanchi Shodan
Performance x 2
Taiso Tensho
Still working on breathing to hand movements co-ordination
1704 Workout
After a kind of torrid week, after finishing my work needed a de-stress, so Naihanchi, lesson recap and Tensho. Pad work and Kihon kata variants, spinning back kicks are so not me lol
1804 Kata after lesson
Performance of Naihanchi Shodan, Naihanchi Nidan and Tensho
Fundamentals workout
Naihanchi Shodan, receiving techniques, punches, kicks, various other techniques, 5 kihon gata
This morning's kata before work, Naihanchi with intent and Tesho with tension. Got to start putting the meaning in to see whether I'm progressing.
Kata Homework
Naihanchi slow then faster, trying to incorporate points given by my Sensei, and Tensho, with tension added to punches as per Noah Legel
Round about midnight.....
The other kata escape occasionally for an airing... I swear I'm beginning to resemble an extra from the thriller video .... can't dance though lol
The three Naihanchi (Shodan that is)
These are the three different ways I usually do Naihanchi Shodan - slow, with intent, and the one I do least often, hontai. Being a leftie, the last isn't as hard as I thought it would be, but still lose my position occasionally.
Give me my morning kata
Tensho and slow Naihanchi on the menu today
Thursday's Lesson 020420
Online lesson featuring kata, combinations, free solo sparring. kihon gata and warmdown kata
Morning workout
Combination workout based on yesterday's lesson, plus Naihanchi Shodan and Tensho
Naihanchi Nidan fish oil warm
I have progressed sufficiently with Naihanchi Shodan to now send videos of Nidan for correction. This is the first one submitted, but the lighting was awful. I started playing with it and this is what I got, with fish eye lens, oil painting and warm effects applied.
Naihanchi Shodan and Nidan
Today's lesson was mostly about kata. These are the two I can do a performance of in my style. I know the bones of Sandan but they are pretty bare just now.
Tensho
Today's lesson was mostly about kata. After the lesson ended, I also performed Tensho, which I do as a breathing exercise as much as anything. I do however want to improve it.
My other kata
TaiChi no Naihanchi, Tomari no Naihanshi (Shorin Ryu); Naihanchi Sandan. The "Tomari no Naihanchi" kata is actually hontai Naihanchi Shodan from my style, but the dominating feature of the Tomari version is starting to the left, right foot first...
Taiso Tensho and the Naihanchis
05-04-20, this morning's kata,Taiso style version of Tensho, concentrating on relaxation and breathing, followed by performance of Naihanchi Shodan and Nidan.
The three times a week pattern is starting to fit in now, both with work and home life. This week to two midweek lessons were quite contrasting, in more ways than one. The Monday lesson concentrated on the use of a chair to help practice kicking, whilst the Thursday lesson concentrated on being able to put together different sequences of strikes. Kata is an almost ever present in lessons, but now shadow sparring (or free or solo sparring) is starting to become a regular element too. For me though, the importgant thing is being able train three times a week and spend time outdoors. It gives my weeks a structure to pin things on, along with work, it helps my general fitness levels since I cannot go outside and walk, and helps me cope mentally. Oh and it also helps by karate (especially kata) to noticably progress. The 30-03-20 Monday lesson took the form of: 20 minute warm up Formal opening Naihanchi Shodan, called then performance, then perform highest kata you bsn Use of a chair. To support on one side whilst moving between kicks, then swap to other side Use of a chair, to hold position over and kick over. For example mawashi geri, lift knee into kicking position of vhair, hold then kick. Perform Ushiro geri over chair and hold Lay on floor, jump up on instruction and carry out random combinations of jab, cross, hook, uppercut Arm conditioning Shadow sparring Called kata to end Kicks were never my strong point, so maybe working with the use of a chair might help ☺
The 02-04-20 Thurday lesson was made up as follows (more or less): 10 minute warm up Formal opening Naihanchi Shodan, called then performance Combinations, intermixed with Shadow sparring Jab, cross, hook - sparring Jab, cross, hook, mai geri, hisa geri -sparring etc Kihon gata 1 to 10 Shadow sparring - burpee to call - continue Naihanchi Shodan warm down I videoed my part in the whole lesson other than the warm up to see how it looked, and the results are shown below. I also took some of the elements to make myself a simple morning exercise routine, as shown in the earlier video.
Karate had already become a fairly large focus in my life before the Covid-19 lockdown, but now with that in place it has become even more so. ☺☺☺
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
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
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 neither of us can train and tomorrow is grading. Oh balls 😞😞😞 Oh 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.
Due to the exigencies of work, for the first time in almost two years I missed training last week. Work and home life has for various reasons led to me being on Citalopram and soon so undergo depression counselling 😩😩 So possibly the worst of times to miss a training session, given the break it represents from outside events. The Citalopram has played havoc with my sleep, appetite and stomach, so I gave it up just before this weekend's training, However, the two weeks I was on it took their toll 😩😩. My stamina was as low as it has been for a long while😩😩. There is a grading planned for next month, so a lot of the lesson was based on the fundamentals. I managed most of the warm ups, including sprinting but my heart rate went through the roof. I tried to work through it, but once we got to the kicks I had to miss out on a fair few, including the increasing sequence of Mawashi geri kicks that forms a part of our drills now (1 then 2, 3 up to 10 on pads). I rejoined for the most of the rest of the session, but did 3/5 of each of the remaining techniques (kihon kata pad work), so that I got to practice them all. We also did Kata, and as ever that is a favourite part of the sessions for me. I now regularly practice Naihanchi Shodan and Nidan as known kata, which is something at least I can take away as a positve, plus my unwillingness to give up. ☺☺☺
Finally, the chest infection has begun to clear, but the 6 weeks or so getting over it has sapped my stamina somewhat. Saturday's session was about basics again as it usually is at this time of year, but our Sensei are good at keeping it varied ☺☺. We had our usual Warm up followed by the formal bit then straight into Kata. We did the first Naihanchis together then split into two for the more advanced to concentrate on the later kata in our syllabus, whilst others (including me) went over Naihanchi Shodan etc. Then it was time for performance with 4 of us at random picked to go through our paces. I got the dubious honour to go first. To be honest, I didn't do myself justice and I knew it. Plenty of intent but way too fast 😕Techniques at wrong angles, poor shape, hunched back, Naihanchi Shodan as it shouldn't be done 😕 I asked if I could try again and was allowed to, so this time I slowed it down ala the Cardio version of the kata, just trying to snap the techniques and leg flicks. Apparently it was a great improvement ☺ So there is hope for me yet ☺☺. After that we worked on Kihon kata - shodan, nidan, and sandan for my group,, followed by pad work on the same techniques. Finally in terms of karate, we expanded kihon kata Sandan with leg trapping. We covered what you can do when your leg is trapped, and then what you can do when you have trapped a leg, low kick / sweep etc. After that it was a short outing for the bos as we went through the first seven bo kihon Kata. The best news though came last, our Sensei want to offer 1.5 hour kobudo lessons once a month if enough people are interested, Yes Please ☺☺☺.
