Kengokai Training Log » Random Thoughts

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23rd October 2006

Happy Birthday to Iain Abernethy

Best birthday wishes to Iain Abernethy.
» Blog Archive » Happy Birthday to Me!

12th July 2006

Ugly Kata - or should that be “Beautifully Brutal” kata?

Another interesting post from Charles Goodin Sensei’s Karate Thought Blog on Ugly Kata. Goodin Sensei points out the folly of working to make kata pretty or neat, but instead emphasises that it should be “ugly”.

When you see a truly ugly kata performed, you think to yourself, “I do not want to be in front of that fist.” It gives you a shrinking feeling.

I am not sure that I necessarily agree with the term ugly. I’ve always preferred the term “brutally effective” when watching a kata performance that meets the criteria of looking like it would seriously work.

For mine, there are too many automatons out there who perform kata as a beautiful gymnastic display, with precise complex movements. But they don’t look like the movements can be applied – the evidence of a study of bunkai (analysis of the movements) is not evident in the performance.

On the other hand, when I watch performances by some great masters – Kaicho Watanabe (Shorinjiryu Kenyukai Watanabe-Ha), Kyoshi Myron Lubitsch (Shorinjiryu Kenryukan and International Shorinjiryu Shinzen Kyokai) and Hanshi Tetsuhiro Hokama (Okinawan Gojuryu Kenshikai) – I see “brutally effective” expressions of their fighting spirit and technique.

Give me “brutal effectiveness” any day.

Karate Thoughts Blog: Ugly Kata.

4th July 2006

Quote of the day……

In his ever-excellent blog, Karate Thoughts, Charles Goodin Sensei discusses why karate cultivates the mind. I reckon this paragraph is brilliant.

In some ways, kata is like a Rubic’s Cube. The colors are simple, but the combinations are practically limitless. To find order out of the confusion takes some effort.

Karate Thoughts Blog: Cultivating the Mind.

29th June 2006

Major Bill Hayes Podcast Interview

I re-listened to the Applied Karate Show (Episode 006) interview with Major Bill Hayes (ret.) of Shobayashi Shorin Ryu yesterday. I was reminded of how much I enjoyed the discussion and also how much I learned from it!

Hayes Sensei is clearly a karateka who is deeply knowledgeable about the art and lifestyle. He is passionate about the functional aspects, and about the (too often forgotten) linkage between karate and health.

I encourage anyone who hasn’t listened to that episode of go and download it.

Major Hayes has also written a book on his experiences with karate and his teacher, Hanshi Eizo Shimabukuro, 10th Dan. He publishes a newsletter. For more information on either, please email Hayes Sensei.

21st June 2006

The Relationship between Karate and Anger

Sensei Charles Goodin has an insightful blog called Karate Thoughts. I enjoy look forward to his posts. Today’s post about the relationship between karate and anger is very interesting to me.

If you must use the self-defense applications of Karate as a last resort (if your hand goes out), then you should be calm and collected… focused on the task at hand, which is self-defense. If you are angry, for whatever reason, you should not use the self-defense applications of Karate.

I’d recommend popping over and reading the post in full.

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3rd April 2006

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23rd March 2006

Karate Thoughts Blog: Block From Where Your Hands Are

Charles Goodin sensei has a great new blog. Its very much worth a read and subscribing to as he posts regular thoughts. I like this one today….

Karate Thoughts Blog: Block From Where Your Hands Are.

My Sensei, Professor Katsuhiko Shinzato, often says that we must block from where our hands are. If you punch the attacker’s chest and he throws a punch, you must block from where your hand is — on his chest. There is no time to pull your hand back or “wind up” before you block.

17th March 2006

Cameron’s Brain: The Spider Monkey Trap

Great story related by my friend Cameron Reilly, CEO of The Podcast Network.

Cameron’s Brain: The Spider Monkey Trap.

The story I heard went something like this:

In order to catch spider monkeys, hunters in South America simply walk through the jungle and drop heavy containers on the ground. These containers have very a narrow top and a wider bottom. Inside the containers the hunters drop a special kind of nut which is particularly attractive to the monkeys. Sometime later, the spider monkeys come down from the tops of the trees, smell the nut, but the tops of the containers are so narrow they have a tight squeeze to get their hands inside. Once they grab the nut at the bottom, their fist is too large to remove if through the opening. And the containter is too heavy for them to carry.

So instead of letting go of the nut, the monkeys just sit there until the hunters come back, pick them up, and throw them in a bag.

The spider monkeys are not prepared to let go of a small nut in order to gain their freedom.

I don’t know if the story is true, but you get the analogy.

29th December 2005

24FightingChickens - Shotokan Karate 1 reply

24FightingChickens - Shotokan Karate.

Rob Redmond of 24FightingChickens presents a very well thought-through and communicated post on the meanings of commonly (mis-)used titles like Sensei and Sempai, and on the way that teacher/senior/student relationships work in Japan.

This may not reflect how these practices have been adopted and are utilised in the West, and every system is modified as it encounters new practices. In other words, the way dojos in western karate organisations (including the Kengokai Dojo of Australian Shorinjiryu Karatedo) do things might be different. This doesn’t necessarily make them wrong, just different.

But its useful to read Rob’s post to gain more insight into the way things may be done in Japan.

Its also important to remember that karate originated in Okinawa, not Japan-proper. The practices that the Japanese follow have been heavily modified to meet their own societal conditions….

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.

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