Getting Past The First Move

First of all, allow me to introduce you to the newest member of Dojo AISH. I used some pre-workout energy today building this eminently punchable being on the basic plan that I featured in the last posting with a few twists.


First of all, I already had a small punching bag hanging from our speed bag platform. I just dressed it up with an old jacket. As I was filling the arms with old newspapers, I decided that something in lieu of a bone structure might be helpful for arm bars and such. I took a thick cardboard roll, similar but heavier and longer than the kind you find in paper towels. I cut it in haf and then divided each half into an upper- and lower-arm by cutting most of the way through but not separating the parts.Then, I filled the arms and gloves with bunched-up newspapers and taped the gloves to the arms.
Presto! Instant Bad Guy.


I started out the more official part of my practice day on a wobble board. A wobble board, in my case, is two boards joined together unevenly along their lengths. You can also make one by wrapping tape thickly around each end of a 2 X 4. The idea is to make a standing surface with limited stability. If you stand on it and strike without centering and lowering your center of gravity, you fall off.


The wobble board/ Training Buddy combo was equally satisfying and humbling.

Then, as I was practicing kata, I occasionally wandered over to my New Friend to try combining striking and grabbing techniques from the kata. Hey, its not as much fun as twisting a student's arm and a takedown but, hey, you can't beat the patience and availability, not to mention the quiet :-).


Kata practice today was a mixture of Fukyugatas, Pinans and Wanshu. Still working on picking up the new material on Wanshu and then transposing the lessons learned to lower kata. For example, in Fukyukata Ni (Geikisai Dai), that sweeping, dramatic shuto-uchi sword strike on each end of the kick-elbow-downblock-punch combo? Well, with a little imagination, it can start out as an elbow strike and do all kinds of nasty things on the way to its ultimate destination. Try it and see.


Meanwhile, as I was watching more of George's videos, I started calculating how much time was spent on the First Moves of the katas. Sometimes when I work out with the Kishaba Juku crew, I get the feeling that we will never get past the first move. And, if the first move is so bad that it needs 3 hours of work, how good can the rest of the kata be?


Then it came to me. If you can't beat'um, join 'um. So i finished up today's session just practicing opening moves for each kata, full speed, full power, first on the left and then on the right. 


Try it yourself. I'll be doing more of that for my next session so I should have plenty to say about it next time.

Alone Together

The holidays are over. It is time to begin...again. This open training journal is here to serve as a  watering hole of ideas for all those of you who are actively engaged in traditional warrior training on your own. 

Sometimes by choice, sometimes in response to circumstances beyond our control, we find ourselves alone. It is my hope that through this Blog, we can create a sense of community so that, even in our aloneness, we can be together.

Being a traditional martial artist did not make me a warrior; being a WARRIOR made me turn to the martial arts. But I am also a social worker, writer, karate & self-defense teacher, mother, grandmother, runner, musician, spiritual seeker, meditation practitioner... There is nothing about me that is not lit with the fire of my warriorship.

And that is a source of joy and inspiration for me.

Today, Day One of my latest journey, I was exploring the hikite ("returning"or "pulling") hand in the first two Pinan Kata (aka Heian Kata in Japanese styles).

Like many others, I tend to get caught up in the drama of my striking hand and forget to pay attention to that withdrawing hand. Funny thing about that hand. Not only does putting energy into it actually ADD to the power of the striking hand (who'd a thunk?). It also creates all kinds of creative and powerful opportunities for grabbing, striking, controlling and otherwise introducing the opponent to his/her well-deserved fate.

This article by Charles Goodin gives a "nice" introduction to some crunchy hikite ideas.

Warning: Philosophical musing- How often do we undervalue things in our lives with enormous potential we are enraptured by the 'bells & whistles'? Let's not leave the power of subtlety and process unexplored...

Hikite and I will be spending more time together in the near future. A Mental Health run is next on the docket. And so is a good night's sleep.