Happy Mother’s Day, Dojo Moms!

If your dojo is anything like mine, your dojo mates are your family.  Don’t forget to wish you dojo mom a ‘Happy Mother’s Day!’

Happy Mother’s Day, Sempai Leigh and Sensei Kim Jacobs!

 

Worth a Post

The people: “So, Alisa, what did you do on your birthday?”

Alisa: “Kakie with Sensei Morio Higaonna.”

Yup.  That’s worth its own post.

Not another karate post: Chi and teen bullying

It has been three days since I first started heavily researching teen bullying and teen suicides as a consequence thereof.  I’ve felt so sick over it for the past few days that I had to write it down and put it out there for fear that keeping it in might swallow me whole.  It’s a karate blog, yes, but I see the way we threat others and the energy we put out and take in from others as a part of karate, and a part of life.  This is my disclosure that this is not a typical karate post so read on if you choose to.

I have been in many crowds where you could feel the energy in the air as if it was tangible.  Positivity, unity, humanity.  This is the kind of energy I think is always around me and it drives me to be better and do what I can to help others.  I have always felt that “we’re all in this together” and when I think of bullying, child abuse, or any kind of abuse really, I’ve always concentrated on the victim and ways I could educate myself to have enough power to help these people.  I decided pursuing law was the best way to get me to that place and as I get closer to actually starting law school I feel like I’m that much closer to helping them.  All of these are my positive thoughts, however a few days ago when I was researching teen bullying I think it was the first time I had chosen to really focus on the bullies themselves.

I have never been so disgusted in my life.

My belief that everyone has some good in them, and us “being in this together”, was shattered as I read comments that people made about a teenage girl who took her life because she could not stand to be bullied any longer.  This girl lost her life over this.  She will never be a parent, or a sister, she will never grow up and see that there’s another side to this life.  She’s gone, forever, that’s it.  For someone to say that they are happy about that… I just don’t know what you could ever do to fix someone like that.  I was left with the thought, “you could fight to help one person at a time, but this will just keep occurring and reoccurring, maybe even at the hands of the same perpetrator”.  This feeling of helplessness was so overwhelming the sky seemed darker for the last few days, and I couldn’t find my way out of bed yesterday, just thinking about how people could blatantly hurt others this way.

Social media is a tool for marketers, that’s what I was taught in school.  Now though, I am now seeing many videos of teenagers on their last hope just looking for someone to relate to them, someone to help them, and this is where they were driven to share their message.  “I have nobody…  I need someone =(” is one of the last things she wrote in her video.  And now she, and many like her, are gone.

Maybe I’m just too sensitive.  Maybe I can only hope to accomplish what I can and have to be satisfied with that.  But if I really believe that there is an electric energy just coursing over us, and that we can affect other people’s energy, then these people out there, who would put a Clorox bottle as their profile picture to make fun of someone who committed suicide by drinking bleach, can influence people just the same as you and I can.  I could not help but feel like I was fighting a useless battle, because a dozen negative voice against you are always louder than hundreds who are telling you to live.

Please just live.  I don’t know you but I know there are many others out there who are just as sensitive to what you’re going through as I am.

Live.  

We’re coming.

Karate Math

Best way to find relief from incessant, worrying thoughts:

closing your eyes < deep breathing < laying down < sleeping < kata practiced with mushin

Controlled Falling aka ‘Walking’

In November 2011 I went to a seminar taught by Sensei Mark Loucks in New York.  One thing he said during the seminar is something that I think of every day and that is that ‘what most people do is not walking, it’s merely controlled falling’.  I really had to stop and think about that… controlled falling.  He said that instead of moving forward with our balance centered and strong we shift our weight and just let ourselves ‘fall’ into the next step.  Some, if you watch closely, may have periods of time when both feet are off the floor rather than keeping at least some of their weight grounded.  I believe that walking is something you learn to do and never really stop to think about it again; you just wash, rinse, and repeat the habits you are naturally inclined to do.  For someone who instinctively holds their breath while working out and doesn’t always stand straight, walking in some stances and performing katas require extra mindfulness.  I knew at that moment that I probably walk incorrectly as well.  Great!

My walk into work has a slight but long incline and you have to walk through a wind tunnel to get in the building.  Every morning commuters hunch their shoulders forward, duck their heads into their chests and push through the wind.  This used to feel like the best bet to make it through to the other side.  However, at this time every single day without fail I hear Sensei Mark Loucks and I have to stop myself and remember that this is not the strongest posture.  Relaxing my shoulders back, standing straight, keeping my center of gravity low and pushing through thinking of pushing a steadfast horizontal bo forward with my tanden, I feel stronger and am using my muscles and mental force rather than just my weight.  This has helped my Sanchin and all my dachi, in karate and in everyday life, tenfold.

Ways to Practice your Kata

I just rode my bike 19.55km and I’m feeling pumped!  I found a nice spot by the lake to read my book and the sun was just blazing (26*).  Thought I’d do a quick post on some of the notes we took down last night in class with a few additions at the end.

Some ways to practice your kata that were mentioned last night:

1. Just do the kata
2. Mirror image of the kata (I’ve never thought of this one, I’m excited to try it where you perform the kata as it would appear in the mirror)
3. Do it emphasizing your feet
4. Emphasizing your hands
5. Just do the stances and make sure they are correct and strong
6. Do movements that run together and keep repeating just those ‘runs’
7. Practice combos and repeat them
8. Do the kata in reverse (another one I have never thought to try)
9. Do it in a straight line
10. 1-2,2-3,3-4- Do the fist and second technique together, the second and third technique together etc. to sharpen the transitions between all movements and the techniques themselves
11. Do the most difficult parts in the kata
12. Point/point- Stop during the kata and analyze your position to make sure everything is on point
13. Visualize the bunkai of the kata as you do it

Some additional ways to practice your kata that Sensei has shown us over the years that I like to use when I practice on my own:

1. Doing the kata with weapons – I don’t do this one at home but I altered is slightly and do it with weights.  Doing this I think of two things, one, getting my punches and blocks faster by doing it fast with weights and then taking them away and see how the speed has increased.  Two, thinking of how your ki extends to the end of the weights just as you with would with the weapons.
2. Do the kata emphasizing how your arms rub against each other and your body.
3. Practice on different terrain- practice on grass, sand, ice, a lake, hardwood floor, my driveway, washroom at work.
4. Face a direction that throws me – I am directionally challenged (yes, I made up a word).  I like to start my katas facing a certain direction that feels ‘flat’ to me (be it a wall or the ocean but it has to be one long visual with no breaks).  To start it facing a corner throws me off and those challenges are the best ones.
5. Kiai on every technique – one of my favorites when I need to put more kime into my kata.  There is always that a move that I find I neglect and when I kiai on each one it forces me not to have preferences.
6. Do push-ups and lift weights to exhaust your arms beforehand.
7. Lastly, as a test when I think I know a kata I try to do it from a random part within the kata.  Do I know which foot is in front?  Am I positive?

A few more ways suggested through comments:

1. Blindfolded/eyes closed (an addition to the list by Sensei Peter)
2. Do seiza first until you can’t feel your legs- Another valuable lesson from Sensei Peter and I am always grateful to learn from others’ experiences.
3. Do the kata slowly emphasizing each technique (comment from Caroline Scutt)

I am sure there are many more ways to practice your kata.  Feel free to share some ways that you practice.

You Deserve a Break

After writing my last post I went to help assist the children’s beginner classes.  There, even though I am helping, I always find I take a tidbit of information home with me as well.  What stuck with me after yesterday’s classes was the notion of ‘taking a break’.

Periodically through a class after the children have been pushed to run further and faster or to do more, Senpai may ask them to ‘breathe up’ and to ‘shake it off’.  Sensei stopped the class having seen that the kids today weren’t putting in 100% of their effort and told them that at this point, they should be feeling tired and that’s why they are given a short breather.  If they find that when they are given this breather that they don’t need it, that they aren’t sweating or their heart isn’t racing, then that should tell them to put in more effort.

On the drive home I had to stop and think about that.  If at any point in the day, if someone asked me if I could take a break, could I?  Was there something to take a break from?  I had just written a post about how I felt stressed and any time spent not studying was time I felt I had wasted, even if it was spent training.  But did I feel exhausted?  No. 

Sensei knows best

Each month at our dojo we have a challenge that we try to accomplish.  This month’s challenge is to ‘Train like a Brown Belt’ (basic idea: train for a couple of hours in karate each and every day) and it brings up two different topics I want to talk about: 1. what it feels like to me to train like a brown belt and 2. the guilt I felt for no longer training like a brown belt.

This challenge brought me back to when I was first told I was going to be graded for my brown belt; I didn’t feel ready.  I had seen female brown belts and they looked strong and deadly.  I questioned that I was as strong as these women but regardless I went to work.

This is the studio I have in my gym at my condo (picture to come), I call it ‘my dojo’.  I spent hours every day here and the more time I spent here the stronger I felt and the more precise my movements seemed to be.  No amount of nervousness could distract me from my katas because I had done them so many times.  I felt great at the grading, so much so that I continued to train this way afterwards.  I had questioned that I was ready to move on to brown but I was told that Sensei knows best and always has a larger plan.  After this grading I thought maybe this was part of it, to push me further and keep me focused and it worked.  Sensei does know best and I am a big fan of this challenge and highly recommend that you try to find time in your busy schedule to train this way if you haven’t already.

Dojo Kun: Continue to Train with Patience and Steadiness

In all things karate there is always a deeper meaning to what is done and written.  The same can be said for dojo kuns (dojo oaths).  Just as every kata you learn, dojo kuns mean one thing to you when you first learn them, and they slowly take on a new meaning as your progress in your studies.  Your interpretations change and your understanding is greater; when you get to the heart of it you as a person are different so what you take from teachings must also be different.

From green to blue belt I was able to help with the children’s classes two times a week.  At this time I interpreted our dojo kun line ‘continue to train with patience and steadiness’ to mean ‘don’t quit, don’t lose hope’.  I saw kids get frustrated if they were not learning to kick fast enough when they needed to focus on their punches first, if they were not moving up in rank or who wanted to learn the next kata before they were ready.  In each of these cases I saw someone who didn’t understand the ‘process and not product’ way of karate (see post Process not Product).  After those experiences this line seemed necessary and I thought that was all it meant.  Now I see it means so much more.  Those children who stuck through were highly proficient in all their katas and techniques because of it rather than having had learned them sooner and be average in all of them.

Mind Over Body ?

It is hard to watch videos of men pulling planes with their teeth and not believe that there is a certain amount of power that humans possess when they set their mind on a goal.

Recently, I was told that I may have to do 50 push-ups for a grading.  My eyes bulged out of my head!  I’ve been at it ever since and every time I get down there I fail to reach 40 let alone 50.  I told my best friend about my anxiousness and he said me that it is in my mind…  In my mind.  When he said this it brought up a battle between the mind and the body and being that this is a blog about my daily three battles I had to write it down.

Lately, I have moved away from focusing on ‘spirit’ in favor of focusing on the ‘body’ so  push-ups are completely applicable.  50 push-ups!  I give myself a good pep talk each time before I start.  I put on some good music and when I get down there I think to myself: “this is the time that you’re going to break through”.  I actually have to laugh at the whole thing after when I fail, once again.  As much as I believe that we as humans can do anything if we really, truly believe we can, every time I push myself back up for the 20^th time I feel like my arms are going to collapse on the way down for the next one.  So now I have to ask myself, is it that my body is too weak to do the  push-ups or that my mind is too weak to get me there?  How do you know when it’s your mind and when it’s your body?

I am definitely not qualified enough to know the answer to this but I’m putting it out there in case someone has an answer, and so later I can look back and answer myself.