Wow! I can't believe how time flies! I have not blogged in 2 weeks...
Yesterday's adult karate class was very small...strange. The Sunday classes are normally big ones. We are changing the time to make this class only 1 hour from 11-12. I promise to make it 1 hour of good hard training!!
We have had a few people join our dojo this year already - but as always we do not stop there! Keep spreading the word. As of now Adult Karate still leads the pack in numbers. Kids karate is close behind and my personal goal this year is to pass the adults # by adding more and more little guys!
Jiu-jitsu has had a sudden surge! Kids jiu-jitsu is 2 weeks in so we'll see how that progresses. Yoga is still getting its bearing too. I highly recommend yoga before karate - I've been taking every class and feel that it is really helping my back and flexibility. One way to keep fit and energetic is to stay loose.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
January 1 - 14, 2012
I already wrote Happy New Year in the last entry, oops.
And this blog update has been only every 2 weeks instead of every week without intention. Sorry, I'll try my best to post once a week.
So we started out a new year, and we already have a few new students. Very nice! I hope you'll all like what we do here and continue progressing. I'm confident that you will keep getting better as long as A) you keep training, and B) you have the right attitude/mindset. Unfortunately I've seen quite a few people who are kind of plateaued with their progress. It could happen to anybody. To break out of this, only "training hard" is not enough; you have to pay attention, be open-minded, think what you're missing, and work for it diligently.
We just completed the Winter Special Training! Jon B, Emmanuel, Jon M, Chris and myself received the certificate of completion. Emmanuel requested that we should continue having classes at 6AM; let me know if anyone else is interested... To me, this is a special "once a year at the new year" kind of deal, and I don't necessarily enjoy getting up at 5 in the morning every day. We're hoping that we can host it at our dojo next year, or at least to have our own version of it for 1-3 days possibly.
As far as our regular training is concerned, we will move on from Koroshi-waza to trying another offensive strategy. Most of you got the new Kata sequence down (but if not, look at the Book of the Month on our kitchen bookshelf or check my recommended youtube videos. We will continue refining your Kata in the coming months.
And this blog update has been only every 2 weeks instead of every week without intention. Sorry, I'll try my best to post once a week.
So we started out a new year, and we already have a few new students. Very nice! I hope you'll all like what we do here and continue progressing. I'm confident that you will keep getting better as long as A) you keep training, and B) you have the right attitude/mindset. Unfortunately I've seen quite a few people who are kind of plateaued with their progress. It could happen to anybody. To break out of this, only "training hard" is not enough; you have to pay attention, be open-minded, think what you're missing, and work for it diligently.
We just completed the Winter Special Training! Jon B, Emmanuel, Jon M, Chris and myself received the certificate of completion. Emmanuel requested that we should continue having classes at 6AM; let me know if anyone else is interested... To me, this is a special "once a year at the new year" kind of deal, and I don't necessarily enjoy getting up at 5 in the morning every day. We're hoping that we can host it at our dojo next year, or at least to have our own version of it for 1-3 days possibly.
As far as our regular training is concerned, we will move on from Koroshi-waza to trying another offensive strategy. Most of you got the new Kata sequence down (but if not, look at the Book of the Month on our kitchen bookshelf or check my recommended youtube videos. We will continue refining your Kata in the coming months.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
December 18, 2011 to... HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I thought I already wrote 12/18-24 entry, but I guess not. Sorry, time flies. And we're in 2012 already!
We've been working on new Kata, plus practicing Koroshi-waza quite a bit. It's a great offensive strategy to compliment "Sen" (defensive/responding) timing we regularly work on. We're expanding it as we continue, including close-distance Koroshi or a failed Koroshi switching to combination attack. We'll do this for another week or so, then move on to another offensive strategy, I think.
Thank you very much for those who helped us clean the dojo at the end of last year. Tiffany, who failed to show up, agreed to do it all by herself at the end of this year. It's on the blog, so it's official...! The dojo sure feels clean and we started out the year very fresh. Thanks again, everyone.
Some exciting things are gonna happen this year. The national championship will be held right here in LA in June. Hopefully I'll do well and be able to compete at the World again (this time in Poland in November... COLD!!!). We will probably host a couple of Kyu tournaments again. Many of you will keep advancing in the rank (exams in April, August and December). Advanced class will start this Saturday. I'm gonna get married... Just kidding, just checking if you're paying attention. But maybe someone else will. And someone will have a baby. Very exciting year indeed.
I put out a new "Book of the Month" on the bookshelf. It's a Kata learning book which is a great learning tool to look at when you just started a new Kata.
Don't forget, Winter Training is going to be this month, 9th to 14th. Some of us participated and completed the whole week last year. Who is in this year??
We've been working on new Kata, plus practicing Koroshi-waza quite a bit. It's a great offensive strategy to compliment "Sen" (defensive/responding) timing we regularly work on. We're expanding it as we continue, including close-distance Koroshi or a failed Koroshi switching to combination attack. We'll do this for another week or so, then move on to another offensive strategy, I think.
Thank you very much for those who helped us clean the dojo at the end of last year. Tiffany, who failed to show up, agreed to do it all by herself at the end of this year. It's on the blog, so it's official...! The dojo sure feels clean and we started out the year very fresh. Thanks again, everyone.
Some exciting things are gonna happen this year. The national championship will be held right here in LA in June. Hopefully I'll do well and be able to compete at the World again (this time in Poland in November... COLD!!!). We will probably host a couple of Kyu tournaments again. Many of you will keep advancing in the rank (exams in April, August and December). Advanced class will start this Saturday. I'm gonna get married... Just kidding, just checking if you're paying attention. But maybe someone else will. And someone will have a baby. Very exciting year indeed.
I put out a new "Book of the Month" on the bookshelf. It's a Kata learning book which is a great learning tool to look at when you just started a new Kata.
Don't forget, Winter Training is going to be this month, 9th to 14th. Some of us participated and completed the whole week last year. Who is in this year??
Friday, December 30, 2011
Wednesday - Dec 28
Tonight's beginners class consisted of 4 yellow belts and 1 brown belt...not bad for a holiday week where many people have left town.
I decided to do repetitions.
By doing a lot of the same thing we start to train our bodies - "muscle memory" forms. This can be a good thing or a VERY bad thing. The problem with repetition is the repeating of "bad form." If you keep doing the same thing poorly over and over you actually are doing harm to your body.
Good practice is the only way to do repetitions.
A lot of time from a third person's view it is very easy to see what is missing in a persons' form.
I tried to help the repetitions by stopping quickly to show the students what I saw. This seemed to help.
As the body gets tired the form breaks down. This means it is time to stop the repetitions. There is no point in doing the same thing over and over if you can't do it correctly.
We then practiced sen no sen. Timing is one of the most important practices we do. Sen also really translates into our everyday lives in many situations. This should be practiced every day.
Kata - people with new belts are still learning their katas. Ask questions about your katas. Ask someone who has done it before. Once you know the pattern then start diving into the intricate parts of the kata with Taichiro sensei. You'll be amazed how different even an inch to the right or left can enhance your kata.
I decided to do repetitions.
By doing a lot of the same thing we start to train our bodies - "muscle memory" forms. This can be a good thing or a VERY bad thing. The problem with repetition is the repeating of "bad form." If you keep doing the same thing poorly over and over you actually are doing harm to your body.
Good practice is the only way to do repetitions.
A lot of time from a third person's view it is very easy to see what is missing in a persons' form.
I tried to help the repetitions by stopping quickly to show the students what I saw. This seemed to help.
As the body gets tired the form breaks down. This means it is time to stop the repetitions. There is no point in doing the same thing over and over if you can't do it correctly.
We then practiced sen no sen. Timing is one of the most important practices we do. Sen also really translates into our everyday lives in many situations. This should be practiced every day.
Kata - people with new belts are still learning their katas. Ask questions about your katas. Ask someone who has done it before. Once you know the pattern then start diving into the intricate parts of the kata with Taichiro sensei. You'll be amazed how different even an inch to the right or left can enhance your kata.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
December 11 - 17, 2011 (including Kyu Exam)
Jon already wrote about the Kyu exam. Congratulations everyone! It was a great demonstration of your hard work; it really showed that many of you put a lot of effort to it. We are all happy for you.
Now there are 4 new brown belts! Brown belt, in case you didn't know, is the last color belt before getting a black belt! That's exciting, that some of you are already getting there.
I assigned the following Kata to the new brownies (no, that's not a common karate term; I just made it up):
Bassai Dai: Chris and Jon M
Kanku Dai: Nate and Vonzell
They will be working on these Kata for a long time. They are the signature Katas of our style. As you can easily see the Heian Katas were derived from them. Heian Katas are relatively new and were developed for training/education purposes, but Bassai and Kanku are very historic and no one knows the exact origin. By the way Bassai sometimes are called Passai in other styles, and Kanku are called Kusanku or Kushanku. Since they are very old and passed down through generations of masters, several different styles practice those Kata that are variations of them. They are not extremely hard to learn, but are very rich and deep; worth studying for a while.
Here are the recommended Youtube videos for those who are learning the Kata:
Bassai Dai:
http://youtu.be/6IGC--9E7H8 (Osaka)
http://youtu.be/-WSyQJMZGLw (Kagawa)
http://youtu.be/TNU6-_N2KII (Kurihara)
http://youtu.be/TZsx1coI3ac (Canadian, eh?)
Kanku Dai:
http://youtu.be/BB6j-Q5bUI8 (Osaka)
http://youtu.be/Mud8Y2mdu78 (Ueki)
http://youtu.be/rkbnu8szcRs (Kurihara)
http://youtu.be/pJGZ0lyVH1k (Yamamoto)
Now there are 4 new brown belts! Brown belt, in case you didn't know, is the last color belt before getting a black belt! That's exciting, that some of you are already getting there.
I assigned the following Kata to the new brownies (no, that's not a common karate term; I just made it up):
Bassai Dai: Chris and Jon M
Kanku Dai: Nate and Vonzell
They will be working on these Kata for a long time. They are the signature Katas of our style. As you can easily see the Heian Katas were derived from them. Heian Katas are relatively new and were developed for training/education purposes, but Bassai and Kanku are very historic and no one knows the exact origin. By the way Bassai sometimes are called Passai in other styles, and Kanku are called Kusanku or Kushanku. Since they are very old and passed down through generations of masters, several different styles practice those Kata that are variations of them. They are not extremely hard to learn, but are very rich and deep; worth studying for a while.
Here are the recommended Youtube videos for those who are learning the Kata:
Bassai Dai:
http://youtu.be/6IGC--9E7H8 (Osaka)
http://youtu.be/-WSyQJMZGLw (Kagawa)
http://youtu.be/TNU6-_N2KII (Kurihara)
http://youtu.be/TZsx1coI3ac (Canadian, eh?)
Kanku Dai:
http://youtu.be/BB6j-Q5bUI8 (Osaka)
http://youtu.be/Mud8Y2mdu78 (Ueki)
http://youtu.be/rkbnu8szcRs (Kurihara)
http://youtu.be/pJGZ0lyVH1k (Yamamoto)
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Oh my...I forgot all about this!
Well - It seems as though I forgot about our blog!! But - from the amount of comments I think a lot (if not all) of you have forgotten!! Our group is one of the loudest, most gregarious groups I know!
We have had some additions to our followers though! And Tiffany is following us twice!
Recently we had our kyu exam! It went very well. Ron Vance was pleased and gave praise to our teaching efforts and accomplishments. This always feels good from a teaching perspective. The kyu exam is actually stressful for not only the testers but the teachers as well. The students mirror the teachers and back and forth. I would think the worst thing either Taichiro or I would like to hear is "What are you guys doing here? The students are really doing some weird moves." This was not the case!!
The dojo continues to develop. We constantly learn how to make the dojo run more efficiently. New people keep coming and going - but our retention rate is good enough to keep functioning...which is really our main goal. NEW classes have been added! John Olson's wife Martha has joined us as our Chief Yoga Instructor!! Currently we have a Sunday 9:30am class for $5!! Yoga is something I have always wanted to do. I'm really learning how inflexible I am! More classes will be added!
A kids jiu-jitsu class will start in January!
A massage therapist needs to put in 20 hours to get her license! We have agreed to host her and we will charge $1/minute for you to get a nice massage!! There's nothing like a 20 minute rubdown after a class!
That's all for now.
We have had some additions to our followers though! And Tiffany is following us twice!
Recently we had our kyu exam! It went very well. Ron Vance was pleased and gave praise to our teaching efforts and accomplishments. This always feels good from a teaching perspective. The kyu exam is actually stressful for not only the testers but the teachers as well. The students mirror the teachers and back and forth. I would think the worst thing either Taichiro or I would like to hear is "What are you guys doing here? The students are really doing some weird moves." This was not the case!!
The dojo continues to develop. We constantly learn how to make the dojo run more efficiently. New people keep coming and going - but our retention rate is good enough to keep functioning...which is really our main goal. NEW classes have been added! John Olson's wife Martha has joined us as our Chief Yoga Instructor!! Currently we have a Sunday 9:30am class for $5!! Yoga is something I have always wanted to do. I'm really learning how inflexible I am! More classes will be added!
A kids jiu-jitsu class will start in January!
A massage therapist needs to put in 20 hours to get her license! We have agreed to host her and we will charge $1/minute for you to get a nice massage!! There's nothing like a 20 minute rubdown after a class!
That's all for now.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Book of the Month - December
I forgot to tell you that I put out another book on the bookshelf:
Dynamic Karate
by M. Nakayama
Master Nakayama was a co-founder (so was Sensei Nishiyama) of JKA and its first Chief Instructor. He passed away before I began training but he used to come down to San Diego Summer Camp which used to be held annually. He was senior to Sensei Nishiyama but I heard that they had mutual respect to each other.
This book is kind of similar to Sensei Nishiyama's book, in the way it covers most of fundamental topics. There is a famous series of books "Best Karate" by the same author, and from what I understand the "Best Karate" series was based on this book.
Next month I will make a Kata book available, so that those who pass the test and start learning the new Kata can benefit from it.
Dynamic Karate
by M. Nakayama
Master Nakayama was a co-founder (so was Sensei Nishiyama) of JKA and its first Chief Instructor. He passed away before I began training but he used to come down to San Diego Summer Camp which used to be held annually. He was senior to Sensei Nishiyama but I heard that they had mutual respect to each other.
This book is kind of similar to Sensei Nishiyama's book, in the way it covers most of fundamental topics. There is a famous series of books "Best Karate" by the same author, and from what I understand the "Best Karate" series was based on this book.
Next month I will make a Kata book available, so that those who pass the test and start learning the new Kata can benefit from it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)