Continuing Steps in Karate

I have made a makeshift makiwara, loosely based on designs garnered from the internet, but also from Mike Clarke's book "Hojo Undo".  Compared to some of the makiwara out there, it's quite springy, and compared to others, it's a bit woosy.  I like to think of it as "my-first-makiwara", and the intention is, once I've broken myself in to using it, I'll replace it with a stronger one. It is made from a spare mountain ash plank I had lying around.  I sawed it into two lengths, one shorter than the other, and dug a hole to put it in.  At the base of the hole, I put a large rock just in front of the planks and as I filled it in, I placed another rock about 2/3 of the way up behind the planks.  I packed all the dirt down, angling the board a little forward of vertical (about 10 degrees). The idea behind the two planks was to give me a poor-man's way of angling the wood.  In a traditional makiwara, it is made of a single piece of tapered wood - ab...

Last month, I attended my first Silat seminar, run by Maul Mornie of silat suffian bela diri.  It was possibly the most enjoyable seminar (martial arts or otherwise) I have ever attended. So, what is it?  Silat Suffian Bela Diri is a Bruneian martial art (about the only one I've heard of, at that).  It is the family art of Maul Mornie, who took the seminar.  From my impression, it is an integrated weapon/weaponless martial art.  By integrated, I mean that the core principles of the art are the same regardless of whether there is a weapon or not, and that the same body structures are used in empty and armed conflict.  Maul seems to spend a lot of the year travelling from country to country running seminars in the art. Things I enjoyed: 6 hours of doing nothing but physical partner-based training the core principles and techniques are congruent with the core principles and techniques of my karate, so I was able to pick them up well, and not...

I managed to return back to training for the first time this year a couple of weeks ago.  My goodness how I had missed it! Good points from the session: I retained my overall fitness, and finished the session tired, but not too drained The work I had put into sanseru over my break actually paid off, and I was able to keep up with the others, and work the applications to a similar level. It was my first ever black belt class and I was pleased that I was able to work at that level for the entire session It was very beneficial being able to spend more than 1/2 an hour on a karate session Things which stood out for improvement (for me) Our school, while emphasising a practical, HAPV and bubishi-influenced approach, also does some sparring-specific/general techniques including the gamut of high and varied kicks.  I'm not a huge fan of these, so I spent almost no time practising them on my break.  It took me almost a week ...

This is my own current understanding of what is going on in saifa, based on my experience of it solo and the bunkai I have learned from it.  I haven't had a chance to talk about any of this with my instructor yet, so in a later post, I may change my views (or maybe not - I can be quite stubborn at times). Saifa can be broken down into 6 (7 with the mawashi uke at the end) technique sequences.  The first is the initial angled shift forwards, rotating the elbow out and stepping back into shikodachi with a backfist strike. Sequence #2 is the up-down open hands with a kick Sequence #3 is the double leopard-fist strike and circular fist-to-open hand motion Sequence #4 is the turn, hammerfist and short rip. Sequence #5 is the deflection and punch Sequence #6 is the kosa-dachi, pivot and bringing the right arm in front of the body. Technically, the mawashi-uke at the end would be sequence #7, but I haven't learned a saifa-specific bunkai for it, and it could fit in with the f...

My current focus of training is the kata saifa.   I know, I know, sequentially it is the first "real" kata in most goju schools and could be viewed as a poor cousin to its more glamorous and senior katas such as kururunfa or sepai, but I really, really like it.   (I haven't learned sepai yet either, so that rules that out) Coming from a shotokan background (and an eclectic one at that:   the only kata were 6 taikyoku and the 5 Heian - the remaining majority were not practised at any level within the organisation), saifa was a revelation to me.   Our method of training it (learning the meaning of the technique represented in the kata), the manner of body movement and the way in which it immediately "fit" with me were all pleasantly surprising.   For a short, relatively straightforward kata, there is a high degree of finesse and technical complexity contained within it.   It contains (apparently) relics of the old, hidden manner of passing on kata in its mi...

This is actually the first piece of DIY training equipment I made.  It's just over a year old now.  I have long been attracted to the mook jong (wooden dummy of Wing Chun kungfu, and have often thought it would be useful somehow to a karateka.  But until I started doing goju, with its emphasis on close-range technique, I hadn't been able to quite work out how.  While the primary inspiration for me was the Wing Chun mook jong, I actually based the main part on the Choy Lay Fut mook jong which has a counterweight arm.  Under this, I put Wing Chun-like lower limbs, creating a hybrid I felt would be useful to practice the range of karate technique I wanted to. Then, in doing some research, I came across Mario McKenna's blog (listed on the left) in which he makes mention of the kakete.  Right! I thought, it's a valid thing to do for karate! (and it has a name into the bargain)  So I set off to make one. It's very, very hard to get an untreated round pos...

Because I am doing karate, it follows that I am also doing kata.   It is one of the few things that all karate styles, schools and organisations have in common (daido juku notwithstanding).   It doesn't seem to matter as to what use you have for them, but if you're not doing kata, you're not doing karate. Beyond the definitional usefulness, why do kata?   For most karateka, there will be several reasons, but usually one will predominate.   I have considered these as stereotypical schools, but in reality, there will be elements of several in any karate organisation/dojo. So, why do kata? For some schools it is, in the immortal words of Tevier, "Tradition!".   It was passed on to them by their sensei, or their sensei's sensei, or from the founder of the style himself.   They do it because they do it.   There doesn't need to be rhyme or reason to how or why kata is included beyond this. For others, it is art.   For these and the next category, ka...

I first got the idea for this from an article by Michael Clarke in Blitz Magazine , and have since refined it after purchasing and reading his book " Hojo Undo - Power Training for Traditional Karate " (a book I would highly recommend, by the way). It's a wrist and forearm conditioner.  You hold it between the hands, and roll the weight up, then down.  After 2 or 3 times doing this, while trying to keep it steady, you can really feel it working.  I use it with hands in the sanchin ready pose, both palms up and palms down, which gives the shoulders and lats a bit of a workout too. Construction was from a scrap of 30mm Mountain Ash dowel I had lying around, some 4mm polypropelene rope and 5kg in dumbbell weights.  A hole drilled through the dowel, and voila, a makiage. The makiage is one of my favourite tools, probably because I like to get close and offbalance/interrupt my opponent by grabbing and pulling, pushing or turning.

Being of a frugal and handy nature, I have made many of my training aids myself.  One of the first that I constructed was a heavy punching/kicking bag. New ones of any size cost around $150-$250.  This is money I don't have, and couldn't really justify at this point in time anyway.  So I scrounged around and found enough material to make a functional bag. I used an old brazilian hammock (without the wooden spreader), a 25kg bag of sand, a couple of rubbish bags, lots of old curtains and a couple of rolls of duct tape. To construct it, I taped up the bag of sand into the rubbish bags securely, then wrapped it in about 10cm thickness of old heavy curtains.  This gave me the core of my bag.  I folded the hammock in half, and placed a large wad of curtain in the bottom of the fold.  Then, I hung the hammock by its ends from the garage ceiling and tightly wrapped it up with duct tape, stuffing more curtains around and over the top of it.  Final...

In stereotypical Japanese karate, the three pillars of karate education are said to be kihon, kata and kumite.   Okinawan karate has a different emphasis, with greater regard being given to things such as hojo undo and analysis of kata technique/principles.  Still, common to all is the practice of isolated techniques such as punches, blocks and kicks: kihon . In English, I often see kihon translated as "basics" or basic techniques.  (a disclaimer: I have no ability with the Japanese language.  Just as my Italian is limited to a few musical terms, so my Japanese is limited to the smattering of martial arts terminology that most karateka pick up along the way.  This post is going to be entirely not based in my deep understandings of the Japanese language.)   And indeed that is how I practiced the majority of my karate for several years when I learned shotokan.  A typical training session would spend the major portion of the time stepping forwa...

Currently I am solo training.   My last karate lesson was my grading in December.   While classes begin again next week, I won't be attending for at least another 2-3 months, as my youngest daughter was born only 4 weeks ago.   Until she is sleeping, and my wife and I have worked out a stable routine, I'm on my own. Training alone has certain advantages and disadvantages, and it is the disadvantages that more immediately spring to mind.   I, like most people, am a creature of routine, and having set times to train and a purposed location to do so in make it easier for me to do so.   When I'm training at the dojo, my sensei has prepared the program for the evening and is in charge of timing, intensity and content.   I need do nothing except concentrate on my training.   I'm around others, so there are the external pressures of the   peer group and not wishing to let down/appear weaker in front of friends and colleagues. There is also the positive...

Why do we need another blog on karate on the internet?  There are many people with decades more of experience than me, who have trained with famous people or who have had more frequent encounters with "the real world" of violence.  So why bother? There are a few reasons, I suppose.  Firstly, I think my thoughts and experiences have merit, at least enough to put out there to the rest of the world.  Secondly, I have stopped formal training for around 6 months, with the birth of our second daughter.  I need an outlet for my addiction! I am also the consummate lurker on martial arts blogs and fora; I regularly scan and follow about a dozen at any one time.  I guess this blog is a way of me giving back.  It can be a daunting process joining in on a discussion topic on a forum; this blog is a more accommodating way for me to contribute. Finally, I am at a stage where I am trying to work out and organise my own understanding of my karate; what it is, wh...

Hello everyone (assuming anyone's reading), My name's Michael and I'm a shodan (first level black belt) in goju karate.  That's why I've called this blog "First Steps" as I've just taken mine.  As part of my grading, I was asked what gaining shodan meant, and I replied that it was that I was to take responsibility for my own karate learning.  This blog is the intellectual part of that self-responsibility.  It is where I will attempt to articulate my changing understandings of pretty much everything, and anything martial that I am thinking about or experiencing. It hardly needs saying, but: All opinions/thoughts in this blog are mine and mine alone.  They should not reflect adversely on the many instructors I have had over the years, but are my own experiments in understanding this thing called karate. Enjoy!  I'll try and update at least twice a week (but more infrequently, if I have nothing worthwhile to say.  This blog is an exercise in ...