Kengokai Training Log

Proudly powered by the excelent WordPress.

ILB Computing hosts Kengokai.com

14th July 2006

Interesting Video on Okinawan karate

Found this short video on YouTube, a video sharing site.

It depicts what looks to be a promo video on Okinawan Karate. Its worth a look, although the quality is a little poor.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pMRnrXXvsw

30th June 2006

‘Jackie Chan looks to bequeath half of wealth’

Hong Kong action movie star Jackie Chan is looking to bequeath half his fortune to charity, following in the footsteps of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, local media reported on Thursday.

11th March 2006

Healthy ‘Trifecta’ Means Proper Nutrition, Exercise and Adequate Sleep - Nubella 1 reply

Scientific research has shown that health requires three key ingredients: proper nutrition, appropriate exercise and sufficient sleep, according to this article on Nubella.

Whilst we all know about the importance of diet and exercise, scientists are concerned that we may not be paying enough attention to getting adequate sleep.

“When sleep is poor or inadequate, people feel tired or fatigued, their social and intimate relationships suffer, work productivity is negatively affected, and they make our roads more dangerous by driving while less alert,” said Richard Gelula, the sleep foundation’s CEO.

29th January 2006

Makiwara Time 1 reply

Over the past few months, quite a few, I’ve been planning to install a makiwara at home. Its finally done..

A makiwara is a punching board that was commonly used by karateka in Okinawa and Japan to develop the correct motion of their technique - not to develop tough knuckles, as is sometimes thought.

As Shorinjiryu emphasises a full body motion with follow through behind our technique, we need a board with somewhat more spring than that used by other stylists.

I constructed the board pictured here using a long piece of 4×1 pine. The bottom portion is doubled up for extra resistance.

After some adventures with a post-hold digger, the makiwara is now in place, and I am letting it set before using it.

15th December 2005

For those of you who subscribe to my RSS Feed, I am activating a new enhancement to the feed from FeedBurner. The enhancement is called FeedFlare, and you can read about some of the new features at my technology, business and productivity blog – desparoz On The Go.

One of the side effects of this is that all my previous feeds will be refreshed. This means that the previous posts will reappear in your aggregator as unread posts. Sorry for the inconvenience, and I hope the enhancements will actually give a richer experience for you.

For readers reading this on the web, may I suggest you check out the idea of trying out an RSS Aggregator. It saves a lot of time, and makes sure that you don’t miss out on new posts.

26th November 2005

CNN.com - Pat Morita, ‘Karate Kid’s’ Mr. Miyagi, dies - Nov 25, 2005

Actor Pat Morita, whose portrayal of the wise and dry-witted Mr. Miyagi in “The Karate Kid” earned him an Oscar nomination, has died. He was 73.

Having started in karate in 1983, I (along with many of my generation) was heavily influenced by The Karate Kid. To this day, Mr Miyagi sums up the essence of what a traditional Okinawan karate teacher would be. Wise, unassuming, modest, kind and tough.

Thanks to Pat Morita for your wonderful portrayal of the Mr Miyagi character.

10th November 2005

The Podcast Network’s Nov 2005 survey

The Podcast Network is conducting a survey about podcasting. It’d be great if you could find a few minutes to take it.

I am currently part of 2 podcasts on TPN – the Surface Interval show about scuba diving, and The Personal Productivity show.

30th September 2005

Training is ON for Monday

Monday 3 October is a public holiday in NSW.

However, training will be on. We will start a little earlier, at 6pm, and finish around 8pm.

11th September 2005

Running to Raise Money for Leukemia Research

Sensei Jeff Turk, Yushi, 1st Dan, from the Toronto Dojo of the Shorinjiryu Kentokukan and International Budo Institute will be running in the Chicago Marathon on the 9th of October, 2005 to raise money for Leukemia research in memory of a friend. Sensei Turk has been active in Marathon running through the years and it is expected that he will be a great success. If you would like to help and donate to his fund you may contact him by eMail at jefft@cam.ca or please follow the link in his message below:

” We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. ” Sir Winston Churchill

This past winter a very close friend of mine, Rob Kohal, was diagnosed with Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia; a particular virulent form of this blood cancer. He passed away within a few weeks leaving his wife alone with their two sons.

I have run numerous races over the years. Some for fun, some for a time, and a number to raise money for charity. My next race is very personal in that I am running it to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (LLSC) through a program called Team in Training. I am running in the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon on October 9th and I have committed to raising $11,000.00 by October 9th in memory of my friend, Rob Kohal.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada’s mission is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and myeloma. Leukemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma are major forms of cancer involving blood-forming cells. These diseases involve an uncontrolled growth of abnormal white blood cells, predominantly in the blood, spleen, bone marrow and lymph nodes. Approximately 12,780 Canadians will be diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma this year and 6,470 of those diagnosed will die. While that rate may seem high it is a vast improvement on the rates of just five years ago. It is only through more research that new treatment options and ultimately a cure will be found.

Please join me in supporting the fight against this very nasty disease. Any donation is greatly appreciated. You can make a secure donation online through the link below to my fundraising page.

http://www.active.com/donations/fundraise_public.cfm?key=tnttorJTurk

Thank you in advance for your support.

Sensei Jeff Turk

26th August 2005

New Site Old Site

I’ve changed the format of this site to be a blog for the Kengokai Dojo in Sydney. In it I will post about training sessions and other activities.

For those looking for the info on the old site, I’ll keep it up for a while at www.kengokai.com/old. Over the coming weeks, I’ll move the key info from there over to here. Keep an eye out.

I hope this new format works well. I want a simple to manage, easy to use site for the dojo, without overcomplicating the content management, etc.

This site is a member of WebRing.
To browse visit Here.