The Sacred and the Soiled Part II

....I would have liked to say profane, but as we had to wash Son Sempai's blood out of my doji yesterday, soiled would be a better word.I haven't been able to train as much as I would have liked regularly so last night (Thursday) was refreshing to say the least.

Actually it was a pattern-breaking day beginning with Kata and ending in ji-yu kumite- hence the sacred and profane.If you are KWF, you will know that we have three theories of generating power: koshi no kaiten, kusshin and the combination of the two. As Kata, Kumite and Kihon are just different expressions of the same fundamentals, sometimes YS does things backwards.As opposed to me, who often gets things backwards.

Heian-1-2-3

Recently I have been asked if I know anyone who knows the Kata Hushu (Kaze no te or Wind Hand) which is an Asai-Ryu Kata (i.e. developed by Tetsuhiko Asai Shihan).

I always say, "I don't know any Kata at all. The most important Kata for 6th dan in KWF is Heian Shodan- or at least it is checked minutely by YS and IS for that grade. Last night was a special treat: focusing on koshi-kiru and tameru in Heian Shodan while adding in blocks and punches, then a clinic on some points on H-2 and H-3.

Heian Shodan

We only did it five times but each time YS asked us to completely focus on a specfic technical point and, as it turned out, the last time, synthesise them.

#1: Relaxed and perfection: focus on extreme hanmi and then gyakuhanmi. Pull out student for good example, correct student with bad example. Correct bad example.

#2: Relaxed and then apply power using koshi no tameru and hold, hold hold the hanmi to the last instant to generate power on the gyakuzuki Pull out student for good example, correct student with bad example.

#3: Repeat with more speed and power: however focus on Kusshin and koshi no tameruPull out student for good example, correct student with bad example.

#4: Repeat and now focus on all these points plus age-uke to gyaku-zuki (x2)Pull out student for good example, correct student with bad example

#5: Put them all together!

H-2 & 3 Clinic:

The biggest points with Heian Nidan today were driving off the hips for the initial blocks and making the shuto long and attacking.

With H-3 it was driving forward with the three fumikomi. The point is that if you are like me, and like stomping, move beyond that- you should be driving forward into your attacker (remember the hip thrusts in Enpi!) and belting out the urkan; the two must be dynamically linked- it's not THUMP (stomp) (fraction of nothing) WHACK (urakan), its driiiiiiiiiiiiiveSTOMPaTHUMP.

Sorry, that's the best I can do for now!

Kumite

We did 4 or 5 sets of Gohon Kumite and it was me with Son Sempai, who is old school, so I got hit on the jaw three times and kicked in the, well, yes, twice and then jiyu kumite with him, which involved, how might we put it, a fair and frank exchange of opinions, and me feeling the less than gentle administrations of the guy who regarded himself as the toughest non-sensei fighter in the old Ebisu dojo until a certain young guy called Yahara give him a whipping...and another one, and another one ;-)

Yoroshiku,

Paul.

Vanity and the Psychology of Attainment - Cod Psychology Time

In the weeks before my shodan grading, YS had worn me down to a nub. Of course, I knew what was happening; I've been taught by the best before.

In Columbia J-School, certain "old school" professors are famous for their breaking of the toughest students, and we won't go into that, but it is a rite of passage in that school in Columbia anyway. I do remember a hot tear finally breaking out about 11 weeks in and four nights of no sleep, having my ?th rewrite scrunched up and thrown at me with the comment "this is shit, do it again..!"

And you know when you are being toyed with when you are built up and knocked down (both psychologically and physically) and just when you think you are through, being pushed to a state of being a humiliated blob.

First it was oi-zuki, then it was Bassai-Dai, then it was mae-geri, then it was shuto, then it was mawashi-geri, then it was every single bit of Bassai dai (writing up YS teaching me of points to improve on Bassai Dai, one night I counted 43 points, which is how many more than there are actual moves in the kata), then it was parts within each move...as I would learn one thing, another would drop out.


Gradually, week after week I would be out there in front of the black belts, feeling like a useless lump of putty, the spotlight on me, having each part spotlighted and told to do it again, and again.


About a month before my grading, the nightmares started....just before dawn a huge gray death mask YS face would appear in the ShotoKan dojo staring at me out of the black, and a huge booming voice would start the mantra....DAME! MO IKKAI....DAME!!! MO IKKAI.....DAME!!! MO IKKAI


.....DOSHTAN-NO OMAE!


DAME! MO IKKAI!!!


MO IKKAI....MO IKKAI...! DAME!!

I would dream that I would be dripping with sweat and hoping it was just a nightmare, and wake up bolt upright in the futon covered in a sheen of sweat realizing that the nightmare in the dojo was haunting me at home....

As the weeks drew nearer I started to secretly hope that I would get knocked off my bike and miss the grading, or get struck down with some serious but not too painful disease that would mean I'd miss the grading...


....I'd turn up in the dojo and just after kihon finished, those words I had been praying would never come came, as they always did...."Paul san, to the front...."....


....and 20 minutes later...."What are you doing?" or some other put down.


I think it was one day practicing a part of Bassai Dai for something like the 15th or 20th time in the 15th or 20th time I'd had to do the kata in front of everyone, something snapped. Or rather, it sagged. I just remember wilting to the floor, melting into my own puddle of sweat. And that was it...I won't forget the comment..."Ah Paul san, you know what...your karate, it make me laugh...." as he lightly stepped over me and got on with teaching the others.

A few minutes later I was sitting there in seiza at the end of the line thinking, "that's it...I've had enough...I'll never make it...."

Already in my own mind I was beginning the rationalization of giving up. I'd been knocked out twice, had my nose broken twice, and my ribs cracked and bandaged what, three times over the last year....the physical pain I could take, but the mental pain of all this? Time to go. Knock it on the head. Put it down to experience. I guess getting black belt was just going to be too hard.

But there was no escape; after the bow, YS told everyone not to move and asked me, "Paul san, how do you feel?"

I couldn't help it, of course...I said: "I feel totally humiliated and useless. I am sorry."

At this point YS looked at everyone carefully and said, "Paul does not understand. He feels like this because of his vanity and his pride. He cares about what other people think about his Karate, and this is a burden on his learning."

And then he looked at me and said, "Paul, you must understand that your thinking is wrong. You only feel embarrassed because you care too much about your image. This is wrong. You should not feel embarrassed at all. You have made great progress and you should be very proud that as a man you try your best and that you improve. These are the most important elements."

The next day he ordered me early to the dojo...it was my special responsibility to go hard on Oshima, the Japanese industrialist who donated the KWF Shotokan for us. I tell you that if you are an ordinary guy like me, there is something of a treat involved by asked to mark up one of Japan's most powerful men, and that's a different story in itself!

Anyway, after all that YS was his usual polite and charming self and bought me a huge lunch.

We were there in the Deux Magot in Bunkamura with Ohtsuka Sensei, and he said..."Paul san, tomorrow is your grading. You'd better relax." So he turned round to the waiter and said with a huge grin, "Three beers for him, just line them up!"

Next day, I was "officially" a black belt.


Yoroshiku,
Paul.

Miguel Harker's Kinwashi Karate-do

While we're talking links with folks down south (well, Andre is in Kyushu, which counts as south, unless you are in Ishigaki-Jima, for example) here's something hot from Miguel Harker in South Africa: the Kinwashi Karate-do.

Although he doesn't have the kanji up, I'll take a good bet that Kinwashi means Golden Eagle, based on the fact that kin is the kanji for gold (or money, as in Kana, as in Kanazawa Kancho) and Washi means eagle. Either that, or paper. But I'm putting my money on eagle.

This is strange, because the guy in the blog is a dead ringer for Michael Schumacher. Is there something that we should be told?

Or is it that Miguel Sensei's circuit training is conducted at break neck speed, an incredible rate of knots, or am I driving you round the bend with this?

In the spirit of things, I think I should come up with a suitable Japanese appellation. And after 30 seconds discussion with Yuko, "Well, Isaka Sensei always calls you an elephant and you are just about the clumsiest person I've ever met...." the name is: 鈍象：DonZo!

So there you have it: Hunter S. Thompson and the Gonzo Diaries and Paul Kallender-Umezu and the DonZo dairies.

Saying that the point is that Harker Sensei is a good friend of the KWF and totally committed to Karate in a way that part-timers like me can only dream of. His commitment to Karate, in fact, reminds me of Marius Sensei's love of animals. Well, eating them anyway.

That is to say, "I eat meat, meat, meat, meat and more meat. And when I fancy vegetables, I eat chicken."

That said, Harker Sensei has his own view and take on Karate and life in South Africa, which Yuko and I have fallen in love with.

Yoroshiku,

Paul.

MA 間

If any of you who are reading this blog don't look at the links on the right menu here, I strongly urge you to track Andre Bertel's Karate-do.

It irks me no end to see how sports karate asks people who have spent years and who know how many thousands of times practicing Kata and absorbing the concept of Ma through understand the Kankyu- the beautiful and natural spaces and compressions, tension and relaxing, swift and slow movements, and then ruin it all by transforming into fast-forwarding robots with serious software issues in sports Karate tournaments.

It's just so wrong, I don't know where to begin. Fortunately, Andre Bertel does! I would just like to point out Andre Bertel's treatise on Ma over his blog, which is a truly awe-inspiring summary of a huge point. In a sense it covers what I was trying to say about beauty in Budo Karate from a "different angle" but definitely from the same aesthetic sensibility.

Andre- Yoroshiku! ;-)

Purgatory in Motion: More DOWN!

As I mentioned in a previous mail, a few Saturday's ago we had an especially intense Saturday training; it was actually a bit of a breakthrough for me personally. It was Isaka Sensei (IS) at his best.

One of the first things that people unfamiliar with IS training who don't know the basics -or rather sometimes are not aware of what they have been taught, or haven't been taught at all- is asking "what the hell has this got to do with Karate?"

It also struck me last night watching the slow motion portion of Osaka Sensei's old JKA-era video of Shochin just how low standards must be getting if people can't figure out what's going on in Isaka Sensei's lessons. It's a sad, sad sad to see people shuffle around the dojo unable to do the basics- basics that should have been drummed into them from day one. And here I am talking and I have only been doing Karate 9 years- a newbie.

Anyway, going back to Osaka Sensei's video, those of you familiar with it will remember the long slow motion section in the old Ebisu dojo. Watching Osaka Sensei's Sochin, well, it's enough to make you fall in love with Karate again just watching it, isn't it? What YS has in sheer power and vibrancy and artistry, Osaka Sensei has in technical perfection, balance, focus. Of course, I am totally biased, I love this stuff and have no interest in the stupid, shallow and gaudy corruption of Kata that you need to accumulate gongs in sports Karate.

(The point is here that YS can still do a great Unsu. How many 61 year olds can do it at all? Sure he has to warm up, and you know, he growls a bit. He' s still the fastest, most dynamic person in the dojo- you feel a sort of whipping vortex force from him when he moves. Watching the man's Karate, it's so good, you are just left with a cheese eating grin: no wonder he makes people so jealous.)

Going back to the point: if you have the video or can access the slow motion part, put a piece of tape on the telly screen along the line of his hips. Of course, you don't have to. I guarantee you won't see a more than a fraction of a movement up or down no matter what the stance or the twist of the turn. OK, don't trust me? Watch the video. And then watch YS on Unsu. Have a party!

Back to Osaka Sensei's Sochin. Now imagine doing all those moves but lowering your hips 20 centimeters- no go for the whole foot down. Maximum compression. And keeping your center of balance perfect over your legs. And never raising your hips. This is Isaka Sensei's poetry in motion.

For Poetry in Motion read Purgatory in Motion

Basically, there is no mystery what is going on. IS movement training is designed to lock you into maximum compression and balance through every millimeter of your Karate training. If you have ever been told that Karate is different from boxing because you use your whole body, because the power in the taco on your knuckle comes off driving from ball of your foot through each joint all the way up and through your body then you'd better practice it. This is the core of IS training.

Sweat (occasional) Blood (and don't mention the) Tears

If you are not sweating within a minute or two of an IS lesson, you are cheating yourself. Go home.

I had a talk with this about Isaka Sensei the day after. Yuko and I couldn't make it that week because of business commitments and I was dying to get to the dojo so we asked if we could pop in to see Isaka Sensei. There he was, with the full panoply of equipment, including the tetsugeta, which were invitingly placed ready for Yuko. I ended up with the tube, which, as IS says, “a good teacher.”

The thing was, IS and YS had decided to lay down the law. It was a "MORE DOWN" day. And that was the lesson. What I realized this was that when YS or IS shout this, the people who react are the people who are (a) not aware that they are not doing things properly or (b) not doing things properly.

You don’t need Occam’s Razor here to figure out that you have not being doing things properly.

YS and IS decided to lay down the law; they would shout "DOWN MORE" and those who would be nameless, excluding me, would lunge down. This was then followed by the shout, “if you are going down more, then you aren’t doing it properly.”

It's another Homer Simpson d'oh time!

Time to confess; until that point I regarded it as a badge of honor to be able to squeeze an extra five centimeters lower when the baying starts. Then, you know, like the ape with the femur in 2001: A Space Odyssey (or in my case, waste of space idiocy), it occurred to me- do it properly.

After nearly four years in the black belt class, it all fell, not a bit like Martin Luther, in a heap! Walk out of the stage, Kallender, and into the Sun!

I took a good look at myself and realized that I had just become very good at appearing to do things properly. When it comes to moving from heisoku-dachi into kiba-dachi, I am one of the people who appears to be able to move without sticking my leg out, keeping my hips in the center at all times.

Talking to IS about it, it wasn't really a question of me being lazy (I guess I am subconsciously when it comes to Karate) but arrogance; constantly trying to unlearn what you have learned. So many of us just want to try to look good and move fast (both of them not really options for me) and we are paying lip service to the fundamental mechanics. By realizing this and pushing myself to the limit, I had just made a realization that will help me get to the next stage- said IS.

I'll drink (a cup of coca) to that!

Yoroshiku,

Paul.