Martial Arts for When You're Over 40

A timely article well worth reading (I'll be 44 this year) - link below.

I often discuss the "why" as in "why do I keep doing this stuff after so long?" After all, I'm not out looking for fights, I just want to train and I don't want any hassle. From anyone, anything, anywhere. That includes thugs, muggers and corporate entities!!

Life begins at 40, they say. I reckon by 40 we learn to be more efficient. And that can only be good for our martial arts.

Here's the article: http://latinoronin.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/a-more-leisurely-walk-down-path.html

Push Hands sitting down!

Martial Arts on the Internet

Can you use the internet for learning martial arts? Yes, of course you can.

People who are already training can use the internet to help them remember that new kata they are learning. Instructors can look for interesting new variations or training methods to enhance their own understanding and to share knowledge to bring about positive change in the martial arts.

Kata bunkai is a big topic on youtube as well as general training. Many people have gone out of their way to provide quality free information.

The old idea of keeping things in the family, instructors telling their students not to train elsewhere "or else..." should be long gone. It's not traditional to do that!  Even back in the day teachers would send their students to other masters to hone their skills.

I don't think you can  learn martial arts from scratch without already belonging to some kind of group. Having real experience and tuition is a big help, but anyone with the right mindset and a sensible level of intelligence could do well.

Don't try to learn a "style" from going online because you will hardly scratch the surface. However the internet can give you information on applications, training drills, improving performance, coaching methods, and live situations - whether on the mats, in the ring, in the cage or on the street.

Sensible use of the internet by martial artists who have their wits about them is fine and should be encouraged. For people just messing about I suggest you either form a group with others or joint a club that suits your goals.

Blocking in one move

Here's a video on the subject of blocking (or as we prefer, receiving - uke!)

oops....

There was a glitch in the Matrix. But it's fixed now and we're back online.

Self Defence and English Law

I found some information in the link below which you might want to read. It is thought-provoking stuff and you might want to question certain practices in your own training (such as the perennial "finish him off" blow often taught as part of a take-down technique).

The link relates to English Law - you should be aware of the laws as they apply  in your own locality. The principles might be similar, but the execution might well be different.

Disclaimer: I am not offering legal advice here. I am not qualified to do so. I am simply sharing a publicly available link for general knowledge purposes. If you have any specific legal issues please seek the proper professional advice.

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/s_to_u/self_defence/

And another useful link:

http://www.bsdgb.co.uk/index.php?Information:Law_Relating_to_Self_Defence

Why have flow drills such as hubud or push hands or chi sao

This is a short video which nicely explains just some of the reasoning behind doing some kind of flow drills. At our club we use both push hands and hubud (the two work together rather well).

Some very good points are made here...

Ultimate Bartitsu! Stick Kata

Now *this* is training...

Imagination in Training (Visualisation for Karate)

You may already know about the importance of visualisation during kata practice. Imagine and feel your movements receiving and redirecting various attacks. Respond with strikes, locks, throws and so on.

It is easier with a good knowledge of oyho (applications). If you don't know any applications for a move, just imagine yourself using the movement to defend and attack with. Let your imagination run free. Slow down the kata if necessary.

Visualisation in kata isn't just about combat. Sometimes you may want to nail the performance or get a tricky sequence right. Other times your focus is on posture or breathing. How can you use visualisation and imagination in those circumstances?

(No answer here, it's up to you to try it and see!)

We must use imagination in other aspects of training too - whether working  with a partner or in basics or hitting focus pads. Good visualisation is about making the training 'real' on the inside (your mind won't distinguish between the imagery and the actual experience).

Be careful that you don't start getting into the realms of fantasy. You're not on the set of the latest Kung Fu blockbuster. This is about using mental imagery to enhance the feel of your training.

When I say "imagery" I don't just mean pictures. Use all your senses particularly the ones that work best for you.

You should have a goal in mind prior to any training exercise, including visualisation. Your instructor should explain this before you begin any work. Analyse the results after the activity has completed. Has your understanding of the skill improved? Has your performance improved? Are you able to grasp a particular technique better or execute it under increasingly stressful circumstances?

Keep training!

Pad work when you're back's against the wall

In tonight's training session we did some exercises with the focus mitts. The pad holder throws a variety of techniques, the hitter has to avoid the techniques and counter with a range of blows on the focus pad. The hitter trains with his back to the wall reducing mobility and engendering a sense of pressure. There's no retreat except forwards or sideways (and  we'll fix sideways next time when we have multiple pad holders!)

There's a number of key points here. Aside from the restriction of direction and feeling of being hemmed in, reduced space to train requires a much greater reliance on body movement. This is real close-range stuff. Even the small amount of footwork available can make a difference, along with timing, angles, evasion, hitting from unconventional positions, balance and recovery.

Give it a try and see how you get on. It can get distinctly uncomfortable if you are used to the airy space of the centre of the dojo.

Try it with the lights dimmed too. That will increase the psychological pressure and make you really work.

Kuntao Silat

Well, to the  best of my knowledge Kuntao is the result of a fusion of Chinese martial arts with techniques from Indonesia.

A bit like how karate is Chinese + Okinawan arts combined!

Here's  a cool video of Kuntao Silat applications. Ad another quiz... how many  are recognisable from your own kata and training?

The Revolving Door (Wado Ryu Kihon Kumite and Gumite Kata)

No, not a rant about McDojos, more to do with receiving  attacks and returning them to their owners.

When someone pushes on a door and you try to stop them, the  stronger person will win. The trick is, when the other person shoves the door  you get your timing right and swiftly open it for them and they fall through. The old open-door  gag has provided material for slapstick comedy for years.

Make the door a revolving one and the person pushes and they end up back at square one (outside).

When receiving an attack do so softly, blend with the direction of force and turn your training partner so you have a position of advantage. You can yield to their attack so your counter attack has more power (power isn't about the strongest punch, it's about hitting the right places at the right  times with sufficient force to do the job). Anyway, the one liner - soft doesn't mean weak.

A soft or yielding defence does not imply a weak posture. Indeed to make this work you need to have a strong, stable base to work from, not some useless excuse of a guard just stuck out there. Intention, timing and good posture all need to work together.

Wado Ryu;s kihon kumite number 1 is a good example, although as always you have to feel it rather than watch a video. Kihon Kumite are taught from brown belt onwards and are used to explore fundamental skills. They have their origins in classical jujutsu and should not be confused with ippon kumite and similar exercises.

Push hands and other flow drills are also good methods for training the revolving door.

Here are more examples of wado ryu jujutsu training...

Some more panantukan and stick

This  is a good video demonstrating a range of skills - footwork, trapping, boxing and single stick. Considering some of the  old school English martial arts videos I've posted recently - and putting it into the context of kata application - I continue to believe this is how karate should be trained too.

Some ideas on Naihanchi (Tekki Shodan) Bunkai

Here's a video showing some applications to naihanchi shodan making use of the 'meodote' (husband and wife hands) as explained by Choki Motobu (in which both sides work in harmony to achieve an outcome). Similar to the use of the "live hand" in kali/escrima.

It is my view that kata applications should be trained in a dynamic context once they have been learned - not just as some kind of  ippon kumite type of drill. Hence the use of push hands, flow drills and "self defence sparring"

But first you have to discover the applications...

And the flow drill...

Sai Bunkai

Here we have the One Minute Bunkai guys demonstrating sai applications. The bit about pinning the attacker into the ground is a nice touch.

Have a look at the receiving and counter moves - can you modify this for an unarmed response against a  straight punch or push?

Canne de Combat

French stick fighting, excellent display of skill. But  look at the footwork.... and stances. Familiar?

Here's the link. For some reason the blog thing won't embed this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFqh4IKSA64

Karate Weapons

Karate originally referred to "China Hand", later "Empty Hands". Empty hands had a philosophical meaning, but it could refer to the fact that karate is an unarmed art, and no weapons are used. However, weaponry is not outside the remit of karate.

Being able to defend against armed assailants is a worthwhile skill, but to train in that way you need to have partners who can handle a weapon (and not attack with silly unrealistic knife thrusts and  so on).

But traditionally karate people did train in weapons. The traditional weapon art is kubudo and includes sai (a three-pronged metal thing), tonfa (side handled baton), nunchaku (flail), yawara (small stick), eku (boat oar) and bo (quarterstaff). Classical Japanese weaponry is generally not considered to be kobudo. The practice of katana (sword) is sometimes found in modern karate, but isn't canon to the  art (with the possible exception of wado ryu which is mostly jujutsu any way, and the founder happened to be skilled in swordfighting too).

What use is weapon study today? You are unlikely to be attacked with some obscure Okinawan weapon (well... maybe!) or a katana (but it does happen! In the UK it is quite rare which is why it makes the headlines)

Benefits of weapon training are increased upper body strength and flexibility, training for awareness and distancing, co-ordination, and of course general interest and recreation. You often find weapons practised in McDojos and "extreme martial arts" schools, but don't let that put you off.

Here's some video....

Spirituality in Martial Arts - Karate Ommmmm!

If we read the history of karate it is obvious there is no relationship between the art and some kind of spiritual path. Karate is a civilian art designed to promote self defence and good health. All that 'zen' stuff is Japanese and didn't become associated with karate until recent times.

Zen is the Japanese pronunciation of Chan, the school of Buddhism found at the Shaolin temple. Karate didn't inherit any spirituality from there either.

The rituals of modern karate have their origins in the Japanese school system, which in turn is modelled on the Prussian system (Prussia is now part of modern day Germany). Military drill and "education" are not really the stuff of zen monks sweeping leaves.

Here comes the "however"....

Karate (and martial art in general) can be a spiritual activity if you choose to make it one. I don't know what 'spirituality' means to you. It could be religious, philosophical, personal development or anything else. Your spirituality is your business and how you integrate that into your training and every day life is up to you.

The same applies to any activity including football, golf,  ballet dancing, art, engineering, cooking, cleaning or sweeping leaves. (They keep telling us zen is found in sweeping leaves and carrying water).

So... if you want to integrate your spirituality into your training then you may do so. It's entirely up to you. Karate itself doesn't have any religious path or spiritual doctrine in and of itself. Isn't it interesting though, that arts from other cultures are tied closely to their spiritual systems? In the Philippines fighters are not adverse to the idea of wearing amulets for protection and courage.

Marttial arts are also mentioned alongside "personal development" and "discipline". (We'll leave discipline for now, because I don't like the term with its pseudo military connotations and dubious instructors who shout too much).

Personal development is, presumably, about making yourself "better" in some way. Training can do that physically and mentally though the simple expedient of hard work. So can any other activity. People don't sign up for football for some personal development or spiritual reason, so why martial arts? It's that perception again isn't it? Everyone wants to be a "warrior". A "spiritual warrior".

I see nothing wrong with personal development as long as it is for you. Something that you want to do, not some mental manipulation by some guru or cult leader. You should, after all, take responsibility for your own education, your own life and your own aspirations. Isn't that what personal development is all about? You can choose any activity as a vehicle for this, but you chose karate instead and that is fine. If karate is a platform for your own development then use it.

Remember I said karate was for self defence and good health? Does that not include mental and spiritual aspects too?

The only problem with this is that it is easy to get caught by the snake oil sellers. It's easy to spot them though, so anyone with half an ounce of sense will pick up on that.

If you enter into martial arts with a personal development viewpoint you will touch upon a whole range of subjects from history to culture to sports science, even to criminology and psychology. You will question what motivates you and you will challenge yourself in different ways. This activity is bound to have an impact on the rest of your life, so in a way it really is an art for personal development.

As an example, you might begin training so you can feel better after a stressful day at work. Training will give you the "high" (from the natural endorphins), but then you might discover breathing techniques or meditations that you can do during the day to prevent the build-up of stress.

If you go with the  flow and allow your  art to permeate other aspects of life then it can become a tool for growth, mentally or spirituality. If the Japanese military can use karate for their own purposes why can't you?

Ohtsuka Kushanku (Wado Ryu)

And here's Ohtsuka Sensei demonstrating Kushanku.

Wado ryu kata are about training for "Budo movement". They are not for show or for competition. On the surface they can look unexciting to watch - but kata are for doing not for watching.

Kanazawa Kanku Dai Kata

Kanazawa Sensei demonstrating Kanku Dai (Shotokan's version of Kushanku)

Zanshin Kai Karate - Scotland

I've just found this great website, full of useful articles especially if you are interested in Shotokan.

Have a look. http://karateglasgow.com/

Jack Dempsey: Championship Fighting (PDF book)

World heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey wrote a book on boxing. Published in the 1950s, it is freely available as a PDF file, complete with illustrations. Fascinating reference work and full of useful advice. Download it from the following link.

http://karateglasgow.com/2011/12/11/championship-fighting-explosive-punching-and-aggressive-defense-by-jack-dempsey/

Vintage Karate Video Games

Just for some holiday fun, here's a look at some vintage karate computer games :-) When you've completed the game you can spend  the night watching Sho Kosugi movies!

OK I'll stop now.

IK+ on the Amiga was my favourite!

80s Karate Movies

Ahh yes, the 80s... big hair, make up and shoulder pads. The women were just as bad too! It was a time when video recorders became popular, opening up the world to all manner of Hong Kong movies, ninjas, bad exploitation movies, ninjas and more ninjas.

Some clips...

Remember Gymkata? (warning to those of a nervous disposition, this one is somewhat... creepy)

We can't have 80s movies without Sho Kosugi

or for that matter Lee "Not Ron" Van Cleef....

WTF???!!!!!

I could go on forever, but I won't!

Kushanku / Kanku Dai Kata Bunkai (Applications)

Kata on the beach. In the sun. Well, it's an aspiration! Here are some kushanku (kankudai) applications.

Georges St-Pierre training with Japanese youngsters

MMA fighter Georges St-Pierre visiting a school in Japan to participate in some training. Some nice shots of the kids doing karate, plus it is good to see UFC guys saying positive things about karate.

Muay Thai Boran

Here's another fascinating video clip. Martial arts people should not be restricted to their own style, it is good to have a look around at what other people are doing. Muay Thai Boran is "old school" Thai boxing in a similar way to how we might describe classical karate as being pre-1930s or pre-1900 karate.

Bartitsu

Bartitsu is a British martial art made famous recently by the Sherlock Homes movies. There are classes available, as well as books and other resources. Fascinating stuff.

Here's a link: http://www.bartitsu.org/index.php/the-martial-arts-of-bartitsu/

We hit 100,000 page views

Today we went into six figures with over 100,000 page views! Thank you for reading and for your comments over the years.

Blades

Always worth watching FMA for knife work. Here's an example. The same techniques could be used unarmed too - they would make useful flowing drills or additions to any pushing hands, with the knife slashes and cuts being replaced with hammer fist, backfist and punches.

Edit: as if by magic.... try this!

Training Session Write-Up

It's been a while since I've done a training report, so here goes.

After the warm up we paired up to practice some close-range elbow techniques, receiving attacks to the inside and countering with round, upper and dropping elbows (and combinations). We made use of the  receiving side by pulling and off-balancing the attacker to increase the effectiveness of the strikes.

We moved on to using the same idea against multiple punches, incorporating more elbow strikes and knee kicks. A further development from the involved moving from the inside to the outside, controlling the attacker's limbs and using "passing hands". We ended up (accidentally) doing something that resembled wado ryu's kihon kumite number four. (Kihon kumite are two-person drills founded in the Japanese arts).

Next we moved on to the pads doing an exercise where the hitter stands square-on and  hits the pads with intensive reps. The body movement is a bit like doing 'the  twist' (don't know the twist? Ask yer grandad!) Variations of the exercise include using different strikes, then hitting the pad on the move, with the pad holder going forwards or backwards (or indeed turning and pivoting).

Finishing the class we reviewed Naihanchi kata and ended with some "passing hands" push hands, this time using sanchin and naihanchi stances, and  also doing  the push hands with closed fists - this changes the feel of the exercise quite a bit from the usual open-handed approach. The idea of passing hands is to build up the rhythm, then break it by adding extra attacks or by receiving a push and putting in your own counters (such as the movements we did earlier).

We did a very similar session in the junior class too, taking into account appropriate techniques for the age range and skill levels of the kids.

Bunkai is a process, not a thing

If you've been on youtube you have no doubt seen comments from people requesting the "bunkais to kata XYZ".

Yuk!

"The bunkais".... although we often use the term katas to mean the plural of kata, it just sounds bad using it with the word "bunkai".

There are no "the" bunkai to any kata. The idea of having "the bunkai" smacks of officialdom and the ills of extensive grading syllabus books. Thou shalt train according to the book and nothing else! I was once shouted at in taekwondo class for executing a cross-hand choke hold as an application for a higher level 'X-Block' (juji uke jodan in Japanese. I never learned the Korean name). I was told not to do that, but only "do what we do in class".

There was nothing special about that, it was just an application of a basic move! But it was frowned upon.

So, there are no official bunkai. How can there be when there are limitless possibilities? Actually there are no bunkai.

Bunkai is a process. It is something you do, not a thing you learn, grasp or own. Bunkai is the process of analysing something, and in our case it is a technique, movement, posture, or sequence of kata or waza. The purpose of bunkai is to understand the nature of the movement so that we can use it to neutralise an attack or develop it as a means of, for example, improving balance or power generation.

I understand the use of Bunkai as a common term in English speaking countries to describe "kata application" and it is unlikely to go away. Which brings me to the next question, "what is application?"

Now - application is something you do with a purpose to achieve a goal (just like bunkai!) except it is a direct, specific act. Application is making something work - in other words, the  use of intention and energy to effect change in circumstance. Application is all about doing something to manifest something else. (bunkai is the act of analysing to gain an understanding - a link in the chain towards live use).

Application could mean developing a skill to improve it, or doing an exercise to increase flexibility, or a way of achieving an outcome in a combative sense. We don't have to restrict ourselves to the physical either. How about applying ourselves through concentration and mindfulness? (Does meditation have an application? Absolutely!)

So when we are discussing application (Ohyo) we need to clarify that we are talking about combat application.  We can be even more specific. How about self defence or personal safety? (as opposed to the military's idea of combat which can mean a whole host of things we won't even consider in karate).

Now bunkai becomes a specific activity for analysing a movement in terms of effectiveness in a self protection situation. From this process we derive combative applications, often referred to as practical applications.

But if we decide to focus bunkai on another outcome, we will get different applications.

An amusing parallel... at work we have a heavy lifting course where we are taught to lift objects safely. The instructors point out that with a bad posture it is possible to cause injury by lifting up something very light - such as a leaf (and that did happen to someone). It's not about strength or weight, but about posture and the application of force through that posture (applied mechanics).

We were taught how to lift things - there are general principles about keeping the back straight, bending the knees and lifting using the correct muscle groups with a firm posture and good footing. Hmmm, does that sound familiar?

In karate terms, the heavy lifting course taught a kata from which we understand the principles of how to lift heavy objects. We learn the correct posture, mechanical loading and movement to obtain a specific outcome (lifting an object safely without causing injury or damage to the  object). The bunkai of the heavy lifting course was a film about how spinal injuries are caused, and the outcome of that bunkai is an application of body management  (tai sabaki) to get a result.

The example above is for a specific event (heavy lifting), which is also a general principle.

In karate bunkai we must consider the specific scenarios or contexts for what we do, in this case that scenario is the successful execution of methods of self protection. The applications must fit the analysis! If we are deriving self defence applications from a form, we must do so wearing our self defence hats (so we need to know what self defence means before we even go there).

As you can see there is more to bunkai than working out 101 clever things to do with a jodan uke!

Okinawa Ti (or Okinawa Te)

If you've been around karate for a while you will know karate is a mixture of various things including the original Okinawan martial art of ti or te meaning "hand".

Here is a video of this traditional art...

Gedan Barai - Lower Block - Bunkai (Ohyo)

Here's a video featuring a number of applications for gedan barai