Dishing It Out with Sensei Uri Wolff

Sensei Uri Wolff "dishing it out"

I can't believe that it's already been a week since I had the pleasure of attending the dojo opening of my "Dojo Brother" Sensei Uri Wolff. Uri has been teaching for several years. I have attended two of his previous openings. 


However, this one, the most understated of them all, was also, for me, the most meaningful.  I expect it is because this one represented the greatest change in Uri's karate life. This is the one marking his setting aside other pursuits and dedicating himself to teaching martial arts full-time. This dojo is the doorway to his dream.


Uri's workouts are always... workouts. While I and my students use our training time for training and save our physical "workouts" for other times, Uri runs two-hour classes. 
This allows him to integrate the two, much as our (un)common instructor, Sensei Michael Rosati did and does. 


Hundreds of pushups, jumping jacks and kihon (basics like punching and kicking) later, the lesson really begins. This one was devoted to Yakusoku Kumite (Prearranged sparring). I really enjoy working out with Uri's students, especially his senior students, who are happy to have someone to work with who "dishes it out" and enjoys "taking it" as much as they do. 


Uri's prearranged fighting sequences are probably 5-6 steps longer than any I have ever seen. For example, first the Opponent tries to punch you. So you block, punch to the center, hit him on the head as you go past, throw in an elbow for good measure, wrap your arm around the attacking limb, bring the head down, knee, change direction, take down, throw in a kick while you're at it.... I should ask for a Users Manual at the beginning of class and just following along to see which juicy targets might be on the menu for the evening.


I am about 2/3s Uri's height. My arms and legs are barely half his in length. This discrepency in body type gives me an excellent vantage point for testing out the practicality of Uri's multivariate karate applications. Some of his techniques are a bit of a stretch for me, but most are exceedingly practical. The only thing that is impractical for me is remembering them.


Whenever I mention my self-diagnosed "age-based disability" to Uri, he smiles and says: "You just need to come more often". And that is exactly what I intend to do.

SMILE: This Too Is Karate

This past week, I have had the pleasure of working out on both Thursday and on Monday with several of my students. The holidays tend to lure people home. And our dojo is a kind of home. Most of my students have been with me for at least 8 years. Some of them as many as 15. The atmosphere is familiar: warm, chatty, plenty of inside jokes and smiles. 


There have been times in the past in which I missed the "edge" of a more formal training environment-- the performance pressure and rapid-fire challenge. But working out alone is, surprisingly, something of a pressure cooker. Working out with others is a welcome hiatus from the scrutiny, responsibility and discipline of going up to the training floor with me, myself and I.


I learned long ago the power of smiling. At Sensei Rosati's dojo, we would do endless Jumping Jacks and interminable sit-ups. I quickly discovered that the best remedy for the uncertainty and discomfort was to smile. The longer it went on, the more I smiled and the more I smiled, the easier it got.


Since that time, I have read scientific studies that support my experience. While everyone knows that happiness brings smiles, it seems that the reverse is also true: smiling, just the physical act of activiting those hundreds of tiny facial muscles used in the act of smiling, appears to stimulate happiness.


In my running practice, now transformed into something of a Chi Running practice, I find the same effect. I enjoy. I smile. I smile and the world seems to light up around me. And I enjoy even more. Relaxing is easier. Breathing is easier. My last run was so enjoyable, in fact, that I skipped over my 30 second walking intervals and just ran. For the joy of it.


So, was it the smile that brought out the joyous energy or the joy that produced the smile? I know what my teacher George Donahue would say. 


Whenever I ask him if *this* or *that* is the correct position for a stray hand or foot, he inevitably answers: "Well... It depends." "Then, which way should I practice it?" I unfailingly ask. "Both," he inevitably replies.


Both.

This, Too, Is Karate...

The very first day I started learning karate, my teacher, Sensei Michael J. Rosati, told me something I have never forgotten. He said that learning karate would change the way I do everything... the way I walked, the way I drove my car, everything.


I had no idea how right he was.


Today's workout was running, not strictly a Martial Arts workout. However, I took the suggestion of one of you readers out there and bought the book Chi Running by Danny Dreyer. Essentially the book is based on principles and practices the author developed from applying what he learned practicing Tai Chi to his running. It advertises itself as "Effortless and Injury-Free Running". From what i can tell, that is right on the money.


I was not surprised but certainly pleased to find out how consistent his approach is with what I know about good body mechanics from my practice of karate, both from my many years with Sensei Rosati and from my more recent work as part of Kishaba Juku.


The lessons here are so many and varied, I expect I will be writing about them for a long time. But let's begin with the idea of form and alignment.


Maintaining an upright posture is central to Chi Running. It is a cornerstone of both seated and moving meditation. And, in karate, it is the foundation from which all movement flows. As I was running, I was concentrating on maintaining good form, engaging core muscles and larger muscle groups, relaxing smaller muscles I didn't need to perform the task at hand. The fact that running is a simple set of natural movements gave me plenty of opportunity to scan my form: shoulders relaxed, head up but chin tilted slightly forward, elbows back, core engaged, etc. 


The two things that were the most challenging for me were making sure I landed midfoot and keeping my calf muscles relaxed. Since i like to run in 1 minute Run/30 seconds Walk intervals, I used my 30 second Walk breaks to shake out my muscles and keep them as relaxed as possible.


Of course, I couldn't resist the temptation to experiment a bit. Once in a while, I would contract my back muscles somewhat more and slightly release my abdominal muscles to create what KJ practitioners might call a forward-directed arch. Arches in the body store and direct power. Did it work for Chi Running? You betcha. Which just goes to prove the truth of two of my favorite things to say in class: "Good body mechanics is good body mechanics " and "What works... works". Apparently, I have a gift for stating the obvious.


All in all, it was a wonderful run. Just as the book promised, I didn't feel as if I worked as hard physically as I usually do and my breathing was natural all the way, even though a few times I chose to keep running through my 30 second Walking breaks, just to see how it would feel. Piece o' cake.


And, of course, it was an excellent exercise in moving meditation, as is just about anything we do when we focus without judgement on our what is happening in our bodies.


The real challenge will be learning how to bring that non-judgmental attitude, often called "Beginner's Mind" from my running and my meditation back to my karate practice.


Fortunately, Sensei Rosati was also right about something else he said that very first day. He said: "Don't worry. You have a lifetime to learn this."


It might very well take me a lifetime, but no worries. I plan on squeezing out every sweet drop of it.