Change in hall cancellation dates

I have been very busy consolidating my thoughts on tornado hands these last ten days but will update our club activities reports shortly.

Please note:  The hall floor renovators were originally booked to do the hall 13th to 17th August but have now put it off until the following week 20th to 24th.

This means that the cancelled evening of 14th August is now back on and the following Tuesday 21 August is cancelled instead.

Please make a note of this.

Best wishes

Tornado hand games

What we did on Tuesday 17 April 2012

A look at the latest developments in understanding tatsumaki te (tornado hands).

Working models cum coordination exercises:  

Cubic game:  Describing conjoined circles on a cube; front face clockwise, top clockwise, left side forwards, back clockwise, bottom clockwise, right hand side forwards.  Then repeat in with counter clockwise and backwards circles.

Spherical game: Describing eight incremental lines of longitude on sphere with vertical axis, then with lateral axis and then with longitudinal axis.

Then extending this to both hands in unison, following, contrary movement.

Finally extending to working difference cubic faces with each hand and different spherical axis with each hand.

Remainder of the session was working the takedowns from Kata Channan.

Kata review

What we did on Sunday 15 April 2012

Group 1:  Continued the walking programme by learning about correct posture and balance.  Standing close to the wall checking spinal alignment, shoulders, hips and foot positioning.  Made deal that for every one pound in weight I loose every week an additional unaided step is to be taken in return.

Group 2:  Worked the four basic kata, Matsumura no Seisan and Shinsei no Seisan. 

Group 3:  Reviewed the basic kata then went through Tenzen checking off applications and underlying principles and concepts.

Nice meal

Friday 13 April 2012

Hall cancelled because of Parish Council AGM

Prior call for members to voice needs and opinions regarding training evening resulted in having a meal at the Riverhead pub/restaurant.  Good conversation, nice time, thanks guys :-)

Review of Kata Tenzen

What we did on Tuesday 10 April 2012

Review of kata, particularly Tenzen.  Seeking greater fluidity with soft hands.  Step 18: Reserve hand position.  Step 20: Leg embrace release – more realistic positioning height-wise. Steps 24 and 26: Arm twist – getting the visualization of the application exactly right, threading the needle, under and over with rising thrust.  Step 28: Stranglehold release - Hands equidistant forwards and positioned just above elbows.  Step 29:  High rising defence - extend protectively.  Step 30: Prevention of full nelson – hands straight down, not out and swinging down.  Steps 34 and 37: Rear stranglehold – getting the visualization of the application sequence correct.  Step 42: Shoulder barge – more realistic height.  Step 46 and 47: Wrist circles – aim for soft hands.  Step 54: Add tornado hands.

No training over Easter

Sunday 8 April 2012

Easter Sunday: No training

Friday 6 April 2012

Good Friday: No training

Looking at basic kata

What we did on Tuesday 3rd April 2012

Group 1:  Kata Shinzen, went over all the moves again so by the end of the evening was able to perform a rendition of the full kata.  We now need to work on improving stance, hand positions and technique and also introduce breathing element for this form.

Group 2:  Gave a reasonable performance of Shinzen and Tenshu kata. Tenzen and Channan kata were OK too but work is now required to help visualization and understanding of applications.  Working Channan kata applications including  take downs.  The group managed the first three moves which required some clarification with the way the take downs worked, for example feet positions and balanced postures, centering and how to control the take down efficiently and quickly.

Teachers and students perceptions

What we did on Sunday 1 April 2012

One of our long term members has cerebral palsy and is undergoing a difficult period.  He is moving towards mobilising himself again so that he can get back into the art proper and begin to take part in class activities.  This involves specific strengthening and mobility exercises. Today’s achievement was taking three steps unaided.  Made a deal with him that he walks unaided at least one step for every pound weight I loose for the remainder of the year!

 

All kata practised with an emphasis on Kata Shinzen.

Subsequent discussion about member’s perceptions regarding training, both students and teachers.  This is an important and difficult subject to broach for it involves looking impartially at the roles of both student and teacher without clinging to preconceived ideas.  I am obliged to voice my own standpoint in all this; that a Shinseido teacher’s role is to help every student realise his or her own potential and ambitions within the framework called Shinseido.  Members will have different aims and different ideas about what the art is for them personally.  It is the teacher’s role to look at the student with a wholistic perspective deciding the best way forward for that person.  This is not about teaching by rote or teaching to a fixed model.  Both of these methods of learning are important but have to be balanced against the individual needs both physiologically and perceptually.  In one sense two types of student arrive at our doors: the complete novice with a mind like a blank piece of paper and the student who has trained in another system or other systems and has a range of experience and perceptions that may not be in accord with the methods of Shinseido.  The first person is easy to teach in one respect because one doesn’t have to work against opposing perceptions, all information and influence is absorbed more or less willingly.  Because of this the Shinseido teacher carries a great responsibility to provide sound and accurate information.  The second type of person comes with a great deal of baggage and if one is lucky, that baggage will be in accord with Shinseido principles and concepts.  If we are unlucky much work will have to be done in undoing erroneous ideas and practises.  The student is likely to fight tooth and nail in his or her mind against different ideas.  Anyone’s formative training, no matter what it is or how accurate it is, will always be the most powerful and indelible.  Then there is the matter of the inner person, who that person is, who they think they are, where they want to go on balance with where a teacher might perceive they need to go.  It is not the job of a Shinseido teacher to change the personality and character of an individual just to suit the workings of the system.  Shinseido teachers are experienced and have a great deal of insight.  They are able to see where weaknesses lie and steer a student accordingly but they must never fall into the trap of thinking every student who comes into our system has to be forged into yet another clone, another robot off the production line.  One student will be good at some things while another student will be good at other things.  It is for the teacher to recognise strengths and weaknesses and to capitalise on them. Then there is the student’s perceived reasons for doing the training in the first place, why did he or she start, what do they hope to gain from the training?  What do they think the art actually is and how it will serve them?  What dreams and aspirations do they have for their training? These things have to be discovered and taken into account by the teacher.  Young minds are impressionable and inexperienced, it is the teachers role to steer a wise course, but older students, particularly those who may even be retired have already formed a good and powerful sense of where they are at, where they want to be for the last years of their lives.  Trying to teach an old dog new tricks can be like banging your head on a wall and begs the question, do we have a right to do that or do we need to do that?  It is hardly appropriate for a teacher, particularly a much younger teacher to be calling the learning shots in these instances.  We need to transcend the perceived need to mould students in a particular way, to make them all look the same.  This demands questioning why we want a particular result, is it really for the purpose of achieving a functional, practical, mechanically efficient result, or is it more to do with the way we ‘think’ a technique should look according to the orthodox manner of execution?  We Shinseido teachers are challenged to look at a different manner of execution and ask why it is necessary to change it.  If it is effective, if it works, if it is not detrimental to the body in any way, we may not actually need to change it.  Having said this, the informed Shinseido teacher will know that absolute functionality exists within quite strict and limited boundaries.  The answer for the teacher must be to teach from the perspective of functionality not form.  The form will look after itself if the technique is good and functional.  The manner of execution is another matter and while the beginning student needs guidance, I am of the opinion that things should be moved on relatively quickly to a point where a student is able to make decisions as to speed and quality of a movement depending upon the visualisation in the moment.  This is akin to teaching people to paint or play a musical instrument; we want to encourage individual interpretation, more so as a student becomes more competent and knowledgeable about what he or she is doing. On the other side of the fence, the student must have trust and faith in the teacher and listen to the good advice given, but always underpinned by sound common sense.  Even the newest most inexperienced student knows intuitively when something is bad for or destructive to the body for example.  Everything has to be done within the bounds of common sense.  Much more could be said about this but I ask only that Shinseido teachers do not develop closed dogmatic minds and that students embrace the sound advice provided.

Dojo terminology

What we did on Friday 30 March 2012

Group 1: Review of Kata Naihanchi. 

Group 2: The seven goushiki (yakusoku) gumiti.

Post training discussion about terminology: About precise meanings of ‘bunkai’ and ‘oyo’ leading to the thinking that we should revert back to the old Okinawan term ‘tichiki’ to describe what the movements of kata mean.  Also to recognise that the Okinawans did not have names for the multiplicity of movements and techniques contained within Karate, reminding me of a story of the relatively recent event of Nishihira Kosei sensei finding it surprising and funny to learn that there was actually a name for oi tsuki and gyaku tsuki (lunge punch and reversed punch). The point being twofold, first that we cannot and should not avoid Karate terminology altogether for some old Okinawan terms for concepts and principles cannot be bettered, and secondly that we don’t have to over burden the system with terminology, we are not Okinawan or Japanese, and it just isn’t necessary.  

Goushiki kumite

What we did on Tuesday 27 March 2012

Tornado hands warm up followed by the seven step formal (goushiki) kumiti for the remainder of the evening.  Explanation of the reasons for practising  ‘formally’ and a promise to produce a list of all the principles contained within these kumiti.