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Friday 14 September 2012

Friday 14 September 2012
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Ippon gumite


Tuesday 11 September 2012

Seven formal yakasoku gumite
Still a way to go before I am happy with this process.  This is one of the very few remaining 'set' exercises in our system.

Ippon gumite
Challenges spontaneity and thinking on one's feet as our ippon gumite is of a completely random nature.  The requirements are simple however, tori the attacker initiates a single attack which can be anything with a mind to succeeding in landing the technique.  Uke the defender is required to intercept the random attack and initiate his or her own counter attacks; I normally ask for a minimum of three counters.  Both the attack and the counter must look spirited and convincing.

What we did...


Sunday 9 September 2012

Walking and balancing.

Checked out Kata Shinzen, Tenzen, Tenshu and Channan.
One member taught the other members five consecutive moves of Channan, then rotated to next member who taught next five moves etc.  Promoted healthy discussion around just what was valid.

Compromise Sparring (Wakai gumite)


What we did on Friday 7 September 2012

Wakai gumite
Review of Kata Channan

COMPROMISE FREESTYLE SPARRING
By my late friend Vivian Dhaliwal 2nd June 2000

The word compromise as defined by Funk and Wagnalls' dictionary means. "An adjustment or settlement by which each side makes concessions" or "something lying between, or combining the qualities of two different things".
Compromise freestyle is about the creation of an environment in which two people can experiment, learn and progress in every issue of their "freestyle"; their techniques, timing, distance and strategy. It has nothing to do with speed or power it can be as fast or powerful as the two persons decide it to be or as slow and passive as they like. The main criterion is the mind set of the people involving themselves in this exercise.
How do I compromise freestyle with another martial-arts person?
The first rule is that in compromise you are both responding and providing stimulus to each other. By this definition, how you provide that stimulus is important to the receiver of that stimulus.
For example the person receiving your stimulus whether it is a "punch" or "kick" can and must respond to it accordingly. Can they use a "technique" to effectively guard against your "attack"?
Many other martial arts utilize "drills" or "patterns" with similar structures. However, Shinseido compromise freestyle is the only concept that allows the continuation of flow in movement to continue. The "patterns" are not ended after one or two responses, the stimulus is continuous and the response is continuous.
Another main factor in this exercise is that neither partner shall be the person providing the stimulus all the time neither should one person be responding all the time.
The person responding should not "over-respond" by blocking heavily down on a passive kick, neither should he or she "under respond". The principle to be attained here is that both people are creating a harmony, an environment between them where a learning experience can evolve to the mutual benefit of both parties.
To expand, while practice should be carried out with seriousness and sincerity, it should also be tempered to adjust to the level of one’s partner.  A new beginner may practice using very low power in order to simply try to learn the movements of a new technique.  It wouldn't be appropriate for a more experienced member to respond so effectively that the beginner felt unable or afraid to execute the technique (at least not over and over).  Both partners should adjust their attacks and defences to the point at which it is challenging for the partner at whatever his or her level of skill is.  They should work to succeed but they must be allowed to succeed. The only thing one learns from having one's technique stopped over and over is that one's partner is more advanced than you are.  This will not make one's technique better.  When one sees someone attacking a junior in this manner it is not great power of technique one is witnessing, it is the power of a great ego.
Since each partner will take turns as uke and tori, it is important that this spiritual competition not be a matter of ego, one person trying to prevail over the other. This is not a matter of winning and losing; each person sincerely delivers his best attack with the intention that it helps his partner to be better.  He hopes that when it is his turn to execute the technique that his partner will return the favour by giving his best attack.  This all takes place with the recognition that since Shinseido is an art in which much of the practice is done with a partner, it is only through the growth of the partners that one's own growth can take place.
Show examples of "over-stimulus", "over-response".
As you progress through the learning stages of compromise freestyle you reach plateau's of learning where the awkward movements become flowing and less "thought about". However, this is the time where you must try to achieve a "strategy" of your own stimulus to achieve a required response.  A tactic whereby you have thought out like a game of chess of movements that if you stimulate your partner in one way you create an opening for you to achieve a result. This if looked at can be classed as a compromise freestyle with a tendency for point scoring. The compromise is less instinctive action and reaction but more planned and thought out. This introduction of a higher level of compromise freestyle does not loose out to the concept of competing with one another. The minds that are creating the environment are both learning from one another and have deep respect for each others bodies that they are practicing upon. That is the crux of the matter. That they have deep respect for that person's body. No ego or pride must be involved if a point is scored or a defence is broken but merely that you have learnt a lesson.
Through compromise freestyle then the more people you compromise with the greater level of understanding you can achieve through their body language and by that knowledge increase your level of understanding of your own body.

The Spherical Cubic Model


What we did on Tuesday  4 September 2012

Review of Kata Channan.

Learning the complete Spherical Cube model.  The four sets forwards and in reverse.  Starting at front right and working around the sphere, bottom, left then top; reversed starting at front right and working around top, left, then bottom.
The green lines represent the cube, the yellow circle the sphere; the black lines reveal the six conjoined circles around the cube or sphere and the red line shows the trajectory taken during the first part of the exercise.  The very small gap in the red line on the left marks the starting point around the front face which is shown at upper left.

Monday 3 September 2012

What we did...


What we did on Sunday 2 September 2012

Balance, walking, posture, deportment and related issues for our member with Cerebral Palsy.  

Filmed the basic Cubic Model for the first time.

What we did...

What we did on Friday 31 August 2012


Looking at the applications for Kata Channan.  Moves 5/21/28/30 of Channan are reflex trigger responses of an emergency nature in order to take control against an attack that cannot be read as opposed to techniques that can be read.

In this respect my good friend Angel Lemus says of dojo practice and real fighting:

"This one of the most important things I can tell you about the relationship between the practice of karate and the real thing.No matter what you do in your practice, in the dojo, or at home when you practice solo, whether you like to use a lot of Koshi or a little, whether you understand the "short distance method" of executing techniques or not.  All theoretical discussions about how you position your hands in a block be it close to the attacking arm or leg (full range of motion or short range etc) are irrelevant, and ultimately a waste of time, here is the reality-

1- You will not have the ability to prepare or pre-cock anything
2 - You will not have the time you are used to in your dojo
3 - You will be caught off guard (most likely)
4 - Choices will be eliminated
5 - Your opponent will dictate the what, when, how, and why

And to make matters worse your reaction time will be close to "zero” or imagine that you see the fist that is on its way to cave in your face when it is several inches from your face.This is why you have to learn to eliminate wasted movement, shorten everything you do including stances and footwork, get close to the source (not run away from it), use movements that do not require you to wind up in the opposite then reverse the direction and then go into the attack.

Until you understand and can move like this, you are "Not getting it" and you and are still in the “dance" stage of karate, which means you cannot really fight like a karateka.  Notice I'm not saying that you cannot put up a good fight and defend yourself, but the latter is not what a karateka should be, a karateka is much more than this.

All this being said, is why the concept of the "walk-in" is so advantageous and allows you to take away many of the points listed above from your opponent, and gives them to you, thus putting him on the defensive, and in the worst position to be in.

Think about it, and start to practice with this in mind. Stop just moving your arms and legs and begin to get in the "zone" where time slows down, and you see, smell, and hear everything in perfect clarity and do things without though and in perfect timing in accordance to your opponent.

The scene from "The Last Samurai" where they end up in Hiki Wake (a draw) is a perfect example of this.

This is where we need to be, this is what we need to work on; everything else is just physical exercise.  To mature and stop the dance, your training and your focus needs to be on how you see, how you move, calming the mind, walking in, timing, and strategy.  Note - I did not use the term speed, speed is just a variable to be applied and adjusted, like angles, height, position etc...

Some food for thought...

Nincho"


The Cubic Model:

Consolidated the 288 techniques of the Cubic Model.  Found it was possible to reduce the number to 48 (24 plus reversed mode) working around the clock face (on the front anterior face) from 3 o’clock to 6 o’clock, 9 o’clock and 12 o’clock; then in reverse (8 sets).