Blog on….

If Anne Frank were still alive, she probably would have used a blog instead of writing a secret diary…I don’t want to think about how she might have got internet access while in hiding (illegal hack onto wireless??). Blogs are probably the modern equivalent of a diary, especially Facebook which lets face it, is really a more instant version of a blog with even more advertising thrown in.

Things change over time with technology and social trends; I couldn’t think of a more stark example than what I saw at the few big name concerts I’ve been to over recent years, well, ok the two big name concerts I’ve been to (ahem…I know, need to get out more and stuff).  Anyway, there were a sea of smart phones in the crowd, each with their tiny illuminated screens lit up.  It reminded me of the old rock videos of concerts in the 80’s where people used cigarette lighters to create an atmosphere that looks much like the mass of smart phones lit up in a crowd today.  Entirely different purposes but the same effect, but both exposing relative social addictions of the time.

I’m amazed at how global things are now as well.  I’m somewhat surprised at the 420 visitors I supposedly got on my blog site during the intensive training and scholarship that was held recently.  At first I thought I might have had an obsessive clicking disorder until I checked the stats more recently and dug deeper.   There were comments from 8 countries, the only irregularity was Brazil, not sure why someone from Brazil jumped on, maybe a karateka on holiday?  You can always spot karate people who are on holidays – they are the ones doing resistance training in the pool, or even worse, doing jumping kicks into a pool (imagine that?).  They are usually impossibly thin and yet dominate the hotel buffets.  When they push their bags along on a trolley, they do funny things like bring their elbows in close together and other funny stuff.  Seen one of these people before, or can you relate to this?

I’m somewhat overwhelmed yet excited by the interest that the blog site generated.  While I missed out on the scholarship this time around – I alluded to in an earlier blog that I’ve got so much out of it anyway.  The blog was another pleasant surprise, so once again, thanks everyone for following me and the interest you have shown.  I’m currently thinking through my next blog move, ideas are most welcome.  In the meantime, please support and follow Jodie on her journey to Japan!

Who’s who in the dojo…

There are many people who make the Sunshine Coast Chito Ryu dojo the success that it is and I thought I would take time to introduce some of the main people that are the ‘glue’ of the dojo and make it work.

The founders of the dojo are Sensei Martin Phillips and Sensei Sandra Phillips.  We often refer to them collectively as ‘Sensei Martin and Sandra’ because they are like peas in a pod; it’s quite unique to have such a highly ranked husband and wife team who are so dedicated to (Chito-Ryu) karate and its teaching.  They are both ranked 4th Dan and have nearly 50 years experience between them.

Sensei Martin and Sandra couldn’t have had more diverse backgrounds yet both share a common passion for Chito-Ryu karate.  Sensei Sandra’s background was in personal training whereas Sensei Martin had a background in education and had also served an earlier stint in the army.   Sensei Sandra will often tell you that karate was a major focus in her teenage years and Sensei Martin started quite young, at first attending because his brothers were training, but then over time they stopped training but he continued.  One of the most profound effects on Sensei Martin’s karate, was when he trained at Sohonbu for a year.   Sensei Martin and Sandra met through the dojo they were training at in the Newcastle region; I think they might have realised over time that they shared similar goals and the same passion for karate.   They started to fulfil the first step in their dreams by moving away from their home town and establishing their own dojo on the Sunshine Coast, at first in many locations, and then almost 10 years ago they opened the current dojo in Maroochydore.

They have some different approaches to training and that’s why we are spoilt as students because we get these great perspectives from both of them.  I’ve noticed that Sensei Martin for instance is conscious of the different learning styles that people have and likes to take people on a guided learning path and lots of introspection and mental ‘curve balls’ thrown at you.  Sensei Sandra is probably more direct in her teaching methods and likes to push the physical / fitness side of things in training, so when she says there will be a ‘sweat’ class on, she really means it and people look forward to the challenge.   They both excel at challenging people but at the same time supporting them and the biggest thing that they share in common is the desire to build people up to be their best.  I think they provide a good balance to the dojo.

As individuals they are both genuine, grounded and nice people to be around, they are focussed in the moment and are very positive about life in general.  I’ve also had the pleasure of watching them adapt to become parents and seeing them also evolve their teaching methods and continually grow as individuals.  They have two children; Sam and Steven, who are often at the dojo in their school uniforms waiting for either mum or dad to take them home, but not before they have had a great time socialising and playing with other kids at the dojo!

While Sensei Martin and Sandra run the karate dojo and the teaching side of things, they are ably assisted by a Committee that is made up of members that are elected annually.  This Committee is known formally as the ICKF (Sunshine Coast Branch) Inc and they do a lot of fund raising, organising of tournaments and other activities, the Committee is mainly made up of students and parents of the students.

The President of the Committee, Helen O’Grady, is also one of the key people around the dojo and is the highest ranked student in the dojo (Jun Shidoin, 1st Dan).  Helen is an assistant instructor and was the first female black belt from our dojo.  Like many she was initially drawn into karate after watching her kids train.  Her son James still trains and I think he is on his way to becoming a black belt.  I’ve admired Helen’s technique for a very long time, something she has honed from lots of training and teaching over the years.  I think I was a brown belt when Helen started as a white belt, but because she has trained much more regularly and consistently than I have and has been able to teach, I now seek her advice and feedback on karate technique and follow her example!  Helen regularly does well at tournaments, both in kata and kumite and has competed nationally and internationally.

Helen is a good example of how it is probably easier in some ways (especially in the long term) to start Chito Ryu Karate without any background in other martial arts and even as an adult.  For those of us who do have a background in other martial arts, we spend a great deal of time breaking old habits because Chito Ryu is so different to other martial arts.

Jim Moehead is a past President of the Committee and is also one of the assistant instructors at the dojo.  Jim is a black belt (1st Dan) and previously had kids training at the dojo, and once again, I’ve had the pleasure of watching him become a black belt over the years.  Jim has also demonstrated what concerted training can achieve, and just as importantly, the growth that happens when you get to teach.   I look forward to training with Jim especially in bunkai because of his strength he makes a good opponent.  If you can take down Jim in bunkai, you know the technique is starting to work.  Conversely he can make you retrace your technique because it might not work so well on him!

Both Jim and Helen, like so many people in the dojo, are down to earth, decent people who are good to train with and like our Sensei’s, are keen to share learnings and see people grow.

In my earlier blog on the tour of the dojo, I mentioned Debbie Strazzari and how she is usually the first person you see when you enter the dojo and is one of the karate mums who is employed to do much of the administration work for the dojo.  She obviously has an important role keeping things going and giving Sensei Martin and Sandra invaluable time to teach and do lesson planning while they are there.

There are also numerous other people that make the dojo run smoothly and are a big part of it.  Leona Ryan and Tracey Darin who continue into 2013 as Secretary and Treasurer respectively and do amazing things behind the scenes that make a big difference to the things that we can do as a dojo.

I would also like to profile someone who I always look forward to seeing and training with and that’s Deb Woodhouse.  Deb has held past roles on the Committee for a number of years and like so many, was introduced in the first place to karate through her children training.  Her daughter and son took up Chito Ryu and her son is still training on the Gold Coast and is a black belt (that’s Deb’s next step!).  I’ve personally known Deb for more than 10 years through work and not far off it through karate as well.  I can relate to Deb in a way because we both understand the pressures that we can sometimes face at work and how much a challenge it can be to get a balance that is more tilted in favour of karate!  We have both been on the very gradual path to learning, plus there was a lighter moment when Soke Sensei last visited and broke us up into groups – junior, senior and ‘masters’ (ie over 40).  Being over 40 I was able to sneak into Debbie’s group and train with the ‘masters’, so now I can also relate to her even more being in the same age bracket….  Deb usually trains in the early morning classes and now more recently has been able to train in the brown and blackbelt training on Monday nights and it’s great to have her there.

I hope I’ve been able to give you an overview of some of the ‘main players’ around the dojo, there are many more of course who make a massive difference to the dojo, for example the mums and dads who run BBQ’s and help officiate regularly at tournaments and drive fundraising efforts.  That collective contribution ultimately leads to continued success of the dojo and the reward is what you and/or your children get out of that.  Congratulations and thanks!

Reflection on intensive training

In the last class of intensive training, Sensei Martin took me aside to video me and ask me about my impressions of the intensive training, notably, what I learnt and what would I say to someone who was thinking about doing the intensive training.

Things are a little hazy now as to exactly what I said, but I’m sure it was along the lines that I really enjoyed the intensive training and one of the main things I got out of it was that to really get the most out of karate I will need to train more.  The more I trained, the more I got out of it and really started to feel the kihon being effective.  There is probably a law of diminishing returns in terms of how much training you do and the actual benefits you get out of it but I’ll leave that one to the sports scientists and psychologists.

In my own experience though,  I increased my training from 2-4 hours per week to about 15 hours a week and much more intensive than usual.  There was only the initial period where there was some stiffness in the muscles but otherwise it was fine.  I put this down to the fact that we work a lot on flexibility and stretching so that helps, plus our style (Chito-Ryu) was created by ‘O’ Sensei who had a medical background and I would argue that this helped remove many of the jarring actions that I have experienced in other martial arts that I have done before.  I would have to say that some of the most challenging parts were the hot evening classes – driving home after one class at about 8.30 at night I noticed the temperature was 28 degrees!  Even after 2 weeks though I felt I had extra strength and energy.

Other things I learnt during the training were a mixture of fundamental things and matters of detail.  Some of the fundamentals were about the importance of the path of the technique, the importance of upright posture and regular breathing, making sure your eyes are up and level and your hips remain at the same height.  I said it repeatedly in my blogs that when you are put under extra pressure, these ‘kihon’ (basics) become even more evident as to their importance and you rely on them even more to get through.  In terms of matters of detail, I have described some of these in my previous blogs.  There are lots of little things that will be the focus of my training for a while until they become improvements and / or other more pressing details come along through training.

Another great thing about the intensive was getting to know more people in the dojo.  Sometimes I feel like a stranger in the dojo despite having trained there for the longest (in excess of 10 years) but this was a really good way to get to know many more people in the dojo, and better yet, learn things from them.  Sometimes you learn by watching people and realising they are doing something really well and you should strive for it, or conversely, they aren’t doing something that well and you think to yourself why is it that they aren’t doing well and how can I show them a better way if I get the chance (which is when you really start to learn!).   It is also inspiring seeing people overcome obstacles, be they obvious ones about age, body structure, fitness and even what some people would consider a to be disability.  There are also people who juggle very substantial responsibilities in their general life as well as these factors.  I don’t really need motivational posters to get me going; I just look around the dojo – enough said.

Having others do the intensive training was also great, probably my only regret was not being able to be training more often with them; I was very generously given the opportunity to do the intensive training during a different timeframe to the others.  I noticed that the intensive training had rubbed off on the others even tough their intensive was over – they were training more classes and with more energy than I have seen before and were helping me push along when I was struggling.

Above all, the intensive has given me a new benchmark or reference point in terms of addressing future challenges.  Certain things that were seen as unreasonable, now seem more reasonable to achieve.  It’s a great mind-set to get into.  So, it’s no surprise that my answer to the question about what I have to say to people thinking about doing the intensive training was ‘just do it’ (with apologies to a prominent sports shoe manufacturer for borrowing their slogan)!

Day 10 – final day of intensive training

I won’t make this blog too long because over the weekend I want to write more about my overall experience and reflection on the intensive training.

On the final day it didn’t really sink in that it was the last day of the intensive training, perhaps I was getting used to a new ‘normal’.  The only thing I really looked forward to with the intensive training coming to a close was the ability to sleep in (ie rather than getting up at 5am!), I’m not really wired to be a morning person and I rely a lot on that early morning rest to recover from work and karate.  That aside, I was sad that it was coming to an end as it was essentially a 2 week indulgence for me – one where my life/family balance was tipped entirely to my favour and towards karate.  It was a great experience to be able to train harder than I have ever been able to in my adult life and I’d like to think that I made the most of it.

When I arrived at class I got to see this congo line of people ‘suiting up’ for kumite (sparring).  I don’t get to ‘suit up’ very often and I noticed how vastly improved these 2012 body bogu are, much better for movement than the older ones.  I always felt like I was the ‘Michelin Man’ when suited up in the old bogu; it’s little wonder it was so hard to score a point with the old bogu on.  Plus, the path of the punch can actually be much straighter.  Sensei Helen pointed out that you have to be careful though because the trade off is less padding and so you feel the impacts more.  I guess that means more emphasis on defence but also the ability to move quicker to get out of the way or block.

Once again, it was really great training with the ‘Karate Kids’ class, they are an amazing group, there is some really sharp technique going around and above all a great attitude.  If anyone ever wants to see what karate can do for young people, this class should be a case study.

The ‘sweat’ theme seemed to continue throughout the evening class and Sensei Sandra certainly came up with the goods yet again.  Training in the bogu certainly drew out the sweat.  I learnt a lot more about stepping quickly which is a theme that Sensei Sandra is working on in classes at the moment.  Light, fast, explosive movements and using your hips to get power.  This compliments the earlier focus on the path of the technique.  On a lighter note, I had an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction – my pants started to fall down while I was doing a kicking demonstration in class(!).  Thankfully Sensei was the only one who noticed, and I’m proud to say that during the intensive, this has been the only time I have had to leave class momentarily, apart from the interview from Sensei Martin asking me about my experiences with the intensive (more on that in later blogs…..).

Day 9

I’ll start at the end of my day and work my way to the beginning just for a change – because I can!

I’ve come to the realisation that it is ingrained for all of us not to push ourselves unless we really need to.  I’m not suggesting we are a lazy species, I would actually say we are incredibly efficient by design.  If you get back to our nomadic beginnings – why would we burn more energy than we needed to?  If you used excessive energy, you would need more food source after all.   If there is a much easier way of doing things, most of us use it.  After all, that’s why stairs, ladders, lifts and travelators were invented, same with electricity and the wheel for that matter.

I believe as humans we constantly seek ways to minimise energy use, but when we need to, are capable of just about anything we need to do.  Just look at gym junkies, there is no way that the human body in its natural state would look anything like that or need to be that strong, but, the  body is capable of adapting to this new reality and the person has chosen to ignore all the internal dialogue and push aside discomfort and to persevere.

You therefore need motivation to push yourself outside of the comfort zone that we all naturally look for in so many facets of our life.  Karate is great for that because it is a controlled, supportive way to constantly push yourself out of your comfort zone and grow in so many ways.  Hopefully this same principle can apply to other aspects of your life as well after you’ve experienced it through karate.

Tonight’s first hour session was another heavily promoted ‘sweat’ session and yet again lived up to its billing.  Lots of cardio and core strength workout was involved.  At one stage I was wondering what all this had to do with karate – but of course it has everything to do with karate – not only from a basic fitness perspective but also, balance, coordination, breathing and posture.  Like I’ve said in previous posts, fatigue can force good technique.  The other session was more about detail and technique.  I was reminded at both sessions, and I got to experience it first hand – the real importance of keeping your eyes up and looking forward.  So true in many respects – if you look down all the time, things will get you down and you won’t have the energy or focus to get through inevitable challenges that come your way.

The morning was a little less active than previous mornings, choosing to have a walk with my wife around the neighbourhood (this is a photo of my beautiful wife Roma).  As a result of the more laid back activity I probably had slightly less energy in the evening, so this energy equation can certainly be a bit strange at times!  Mind you I did have a busier day than usual at work, but it would have been interesting to see how the busy day would have gone with more strenuous morning activity.  Maybe I’ll get to find out tomorrow?!

You are probably wondering what the picture of the rainbow has to do with anything?  Nothing really, it just made for a change to what I saw on my way to the dojo, yesterday it was a clear moon in the morning, today it was several rainbows, including this one near the dojo.

Thanks for reading my post.

Day 8

Seeing the moon out and very clear on my half hour drive to the dojo this morning was slightly disorienting, but it added to the drama of dodging potholes, negotiating inactive traffic lights and avoiding light debris which all as a result of the passing through of an ex tropical cyclone for the past 3 days.  Even the local McDonald’s golden arches sign had fallen off!  I’d hate to see what a non-ex tropical cyclone is like and I hope I never get to see one.

The good thing about training is that all of these thoughts go away, so the obvious very real distractions of the past few days slowly drifted away.

There was some idle chit chat and random semi stretches and then we all got down to business, the business of seiza then training of course.  The morning session was a continuation of the workings of the learnings I had on Friday night working on the detail of kata.  Sensei Martin in his typical creative way, managed to get me into a session where I was relaying the learnings to another person (Deb), which really helped reinforce some of the learnings.  Sensei Martin’s methods had inspired me over the weekend to help my daughter improve her Japanese – by getting her to teach me!  I’m only slightly the more wiser, but her understanding has increased quite considerably!

Sensei Martin must get sick of me every morning session saying ‘gee that went quickly, I was just starting to enjoy that’.  That was especially the case today.

The evening sessions were dominated by the intense heat of the night.  Driving home after class after 8, it was still 28 degrees, so a few hours earlier it might well have been nudging 30 degrees.  You know it’s hot when you are dripping wet in seiza.  I was a bit distracted by insects and sweat,  but Sensei Sandra did a commendable job varying the pace and throwing in some fun stuff (ok, I define jumping kicks as ‘fun stuff’, maybe I’m still a teenager at heart).  It was a kids class after all where we were doing the jumping kicks (and yes, I practiced the jumping back kick for the sake of one of our bloggers here….).  The session reinforced the need to practice both sides, for instance I’m reasonably happy with my left jumping side kick and my right jumping back kick, but reverse the order and oh…. more practice required.  That’s a bit like being a soccer player who can cross to their left and shoot with their right really well, but has to cross over themselves if they are on the ‘wrong’ side.  Sensei had us do these unreal push ups, which I will dub “yelling ups”, because it helps to yell to get the power to get through them!  They were push ups where you raise one knee up to your elbow while you are closest to the ground.  They must call burpees what they are for a reason, so I think yelling ups are an apt term.

I can’t believe I’m getting towards the end of the intensive training.  Maybe that is so, but hopefully it brings a new beginning in many other ways.

Day 7 – things that make you go ‘a-ha’

The training took a bit of a twist today, this time at the dojo I was helping Sensei Martin and Sensei Sandra with the filming of a training video they are producing for kata.  They covered  3 kata each (Shi ho hai, Ni sei shi dai and Sei san), using each other as a demo.  So, one of them would walk through the finer points of the kata while the other demonstrated.  I was the lucky guy filming it all.

The most interesting aspect was watching their different teaching styles and also what they decided to highlight; each had some very important detail to bring to the kata.  There were quite a few ‘a-ha’ moments for me as well.  Things like the exact path of the shuto throughout ni sei shi, which is a bit hard to describe in words concisely in a blog, suffice to say it was about eliminating unnecessary movement and also maximising power.  The path of the technique is so important to its effectiveness.

These video sessions will be absolutely packed with information, by way of example – Sensei Sandra took us through the finer points of ni sei shi dai for 16 minutes (!), for a kata that probably takes most people about a minute to do.

There was a funny moment where Sensei Sandra’s first walk through of ni sei shi was really quick.  This was probably for two reasons, firstly, Sensei Martin had already covered the kata beforehand, so that’s always going to be a tough act to follow up with other things!  Secondly, Sensei Martin was providing such a good example there weren’t many visible prompts to go by of things to ‘look out for’.   So I guess we suggested to Sensei Sandra that she might like to elaborate a bit more next time around, a challenge that she definitely responded to.  She put Sensei Martin through 16 minutes of slow motion, bit-by-bit work, complete with good and bad examples all under the lights and camera….  Both Sensei Martin and I were battling to keep a straight face at times; we knew this was payback, but in a good way!

Then the fun began for me, they were about to start on Bassai when I suggested they could pull my kata apart as a prompt for things to cover in their video.  Well, after quite some time pulling my kata apart there was ample material to go by, thing is that it took up so much time we ran out of time to get to the filming side of things again.  There was a lot of material to cover, although some of it in my case is from old habits from other martial arts I did when I was much younger, or other things that had faded out of focus over the years, or in one case had changed / evolved over time since when I first learnt it.

Speaking of ‘a-ha’ moments, I told Sensei Martin all of this was great because it  helped me work out which bits of the kata I needed to relax in.  Sensei Martin’s response was, ‘you should always be relaxed’.  This took me back to something Soke Sensei said in his visit to our dojo last year – where he basically pointed out that the temptation in kata is to always do it really hard and ‘muscle it’, when infact, something like uraken (backfist) requires a whip like action, something that cannot be achieved in a rigid, bashing/smashing kind of way.  Sensei Sandra said that this whip like sensation is like when you have a tea towel fight – the speed and technique generates a snapping power, not the strength in your arms.  The uraken is something I am consciously working on to try and generate that feeling, also the timing of the feet and being really aware of  distance to the target.

When I was asked afterwards what I got out of the session, I said “a lot” which is a classic understatement.  Not too many people get a one on one session with two 4th Dan instructors at the same time and for so long!  It has given me heaps of things to think about and work on which I believe is the focus of the next lot of intensive training.

Day 6, pickup sticks!

Tonight in the evening class was the first time all of this intensive training started to make some sense.  Strangely, it’s also at a point where I’m getting my days confused ie which day it was that we covered certain things, thankfully this blog also helps me retrace my steps.  There have been some common themes, so that is why things are starting to mould into one.

Like I said in my previous blogs, we have been training slowly and very fast, focussing on sei chu san, use of hips and being fast rather than trying to be strong.  So, in the last 10 minutes of training today, 6 days into the intensive training, I really felt like my kata was sharp and powerful.  It was like as though what I’ve been striving for over the years, came together in those last 10 minutes of class.  The aim now will be to hold onto that feeling and take it further!  I got a similar feeling at the practice grading late last year in the bunkai segment; it felt like I “cracked” it, but I’d say it was mainly an adrenalin high rather than what I experienced tonight.

I left class pondering the term “basics” in English, we talk about it all the time in karate (ie the importance of good basics).  I don’t know Japanese very well, but I believe we have translated the word “kihon” into “basics”.  My preferred translation of “kihon”after experiencing what it can offer would be “fundamentals”, as I think the word basics can confer something simple, ordinary, maybe even easy.  The kihon may be very simple in nature, but it takes dedicated training to realise and achieve that state.  If you talk about basics, people then wonder when will they be doing “advanced” stuff, which of course doing these fundamentals very well is advanced karate.  Sure, some of the techniques also become more advanced as well, but they are nothing without good kihon.

On the fitness side of things I’m starting to feel I have more energy and perseverance and I just want to eat well.  There are no sugar or caffeine cravings at all.  I realised today that this is the longest and hardest physical activity I’ve ever done in my adult life and I’m 42!  I’ve been to heaps of 2-3 day intensive events, ie training camps, touch football carnivals, Boxing Day shopping but nothing this intense before!

I’ve been really impressed with all the other students I’ve been able to train with.  Going to classes I don’t normally go to has been great.  People have been pushing me which is great, the energy really helps me get through and I’m sure others have benefitted from that as much as I have.  I was especially impressed with the Karate Kids 8-15 Intermediate class; every single student is giving it their absolute best and are getting some great results, what a great platform for when they are older.

Having said that, it’s fun training with the adults as well, it’s been great having Jodie at classes because she has been through the intensive training (we had a 2 day overlap) and can relate to what I am going through.  Also, Nathan (pictured below with Deb) who really likes to be challenged and really pushes himself and others.

At this morning’s class I got to interview Deb Woodhouse and plan to do a bit of a profile on her in later blogs.  I also plan to profile other people as well, so watch out!  Everyone has come into karate for completely different reasons, Deb for instance got into it through watching her kids train and wanting the same benefits.

Looking forward tomorrow as I believe I might be able to spend some time with both Sensei Martin and Sandra.

I would like to thank Sensei Helen (O’Grady) for the first two photos she took for this update (yes, that’s me jumping over the bags btw).

Day 5 – Halfway point

So, half way has been reached and I’m still going fine.  I started the day snorkelling for an hour just to stretch out as my body isn’t used to so much exercise.  I snorkelled off the boat ramp at Kings Beach which gives convenient access to the best snorkelling areas.  A lot of people don’t know how great the snorkelling is around here.  Considering we aren’t in the tropics and it is just a shore dive location, it’s pretty amazing.

You get to see all sorts of things because we get a mix of tropical and temperate fish in the same location.  There’s also soft and hard coral – the coral plates are generally larger than the tropical species because they need to let in more light as they are down deeper and in colder water.  You can see nudibranch, star fish, flute fish, wobbegong and shovel nosed sharks.  I found an empty cowrie shell which I took home.

After reading Facebook posts about how Sensei Sandra wanted to make tonight’s class a “sweat session” I was a bit apprehensive, mainly because I thought last night was a sweat session – my uniform was literally soaked after training!  Needless to say, it was a sweaty session and now the top half of my body can keep the bottom half of my body company in soreness.  Actually, it’s not that bad really and I can feel my body start to realise that change is happening and it has to keep up with it.

We worked more on sei chu san, hip movements, posture, timing and speed to deliver power.  Which was just as well as it was turn for my arms to be noodles this time, meaning the basics have to really come through in your training.  We did speed kicking training and I felt a bit gumby, it feels like I’m going fast but it needs to get a lot quicker.  Apparently in Japan they are really big on speed training.  I’ve experienced this a few times at the former national training camps.

I’ve been taking Berocca, protein drinks, coconut juice, magnesium tablets, eating bananas and drinking lots of water to get through the sudden change in intensity and the hot dry weather we have been having.

Day 4 of intensive training – legs like noodles!

It always seems that morning training goes much quicker than evening training…. I was just starting to really get into the training this morning when we had to finish up.

Over the past few days we have been mixing it up doing some things real slow and others quite fast, but of course most of the time doing things at a standard pace.  It intrigues me how you can lean so much by doing kata really slowly, and also when you do it as fast as you possibly can.

Going slow, you can refine a lot of the finer points of a kata, the correct position of strikes, the transition of stances and get the connection to the bunkai.   Going fast you can learn to rely less on strength for your power and use speed, plus it really tests out your stamina, posture, breathing and timing and how well you know the kata.  We also did an exercise of just using our feet and hips in the kata (ie, no hand movements).  This lead to my realisation that sometimes our arms anchor our legs (that is, you might be using your arms for added stability in movement) – when it should be more the other way around.  Plus, you realise where hip movement might be missing in your kata.  I’ve done this exercise before but it is always rewarding.

I also got to revisit the feeling of how your kicks become a lot more powerful when you keep your hips the the same height rather than coming up to kick.

I treated myself to a bowl of noodles today at lunch, I thought that added to the authenticity – if I’m successful in the scholarship I’ll be in Japan and mainly eating noodles!

Physically today was a bit of a challenge, mainly at work though as I was walking around with legs that felt like wobbly noodles… every step hurt, going up or down stairs especially.  It was unnerving going for a walk at lunch and after work because I could hear my feet almost dragging along, something I’m not used to!  However, this was all soon forgotten at the dojo, and I was doing speed training tonight.  Doing 13 kata in under 5 minutes three times over was one of the highlights.  Lots of stretching in class which was really welcome.  Sensei talked about how senior students can start to experiment with stretching and which ones give the most benefit.

That’s not to say that I didn’t have some thoughts during the day about how sore and tired I was.  Fortunately, I was reminded of an inspirational book I read last year about the Qantas pilot who landed an Airbus A380 safely despite experiencing one of the worst mid air disasters in modern aviation history.  The captain turned conventional pilot training on its head; he was trained to find a problem and fix it, yet this method didn’t work when there were multiple problems, many he couldn’t do much about.  So, instead the pilot disregarded the manual and all the warning signals and worked on the premise of what they did have and what worked.  I guess in a much smaller way I was doing a bit of that today, I knew I had no injuries, my back and arms weren’t fatigued, my legs were sore but they still actually worked.  I also knew that the energy of the class would get me through and the pain would go away in the moment (which it did) and I could use my little visualisation trick that I have – visualising the tanden pulling you along rathen than thinking of muscle effort.  There’s nothing new about positive thinking but I think it is actually taking it one step further using the sort of approach this Qantas pilot did when things got tough.