Kata Fluidity

When you gain something, some other things might lost. At my current weight, I feel that I can put more power in my technique, but apparently, the fluidity in my kata declined. Last year my sensei advised me to slow down in my kata, regulate my breathing and not to use power at all times. Just a few days ago, another sensei reminded me the second time that I need to slow down and relax more. I didn’t realize that my kata has becoming rigid again. It might be due to the weight increase, so I tend to indulge in the additional power it has given me. It might also because I forgot about what my sensei said and I actually need to go to the basics again and do slow movements with close control of my breathing.

It is true that without constant practice and feedback, your kata will be dull. The kata must become like water. The stream in the river looks calm but the movement is constant, but as it becomes waterfall, the overwhelming power is obvious. The body, mind and spirit must be one when doing kata, controlled breathe and movements, calm mind and determined spirit. Instead of only indulging in the power(body), indulge the kata in all three aspects. The balance of hard(go) and soft(ju) must be there, if one of it becoming too dominant, we must thrive to make the other to be as dominant so as to create a balance between go and ju again.

Gojushiho Clip

Interesting differences of Gojushiho kata between Shian Toma’s Seidokan version and Shito-Ryu version:

Seidokan Gojushiho by Shian Toma Sensei:

Shito-Ryu Gojushiho by Genzo Iwata Sensei:

The emphasis are certainly different when you compared both kata, and I believe the bunkai is also different. I would certainly love to learn the Okinawan version(Seidokan or other Shorin styles) in the future, and of course learning the bunkai so I can see the complete picture.

Forgive, not Forget

First of all, I would like to offer my condolence for our former president Soeharto. His economic program was great, although a couple of years into the end of his reign he made crucial mistakes worsening the economic problems that was caused by the asian economic crisis. Well, although until now we can still see the result of the development during his era, but that mistake cost him his presidency. Since his soul has finally laid to rest, do you think we should forgive his mistakes? Well, honestly I do think he deserves an apology, but I don’t think we should forget his mistakes. Indonesians tend to forgot easily, that’s why you can easily find peoples who are all praise towards him nowadays.

But I don’t think those whose relatives gone missing can forget, neither can those who had their parents implicated as communists or even mass murdered in Bali. Not to mention the poeple of Aceh, Papua and Timor Leste who felt the cruelty of his militaristic regime. And people like me, a  double minority, where a lot of privileges are not given, and always being dicriminated in almost everything.

It’s not only an economic development that he brought during his reign, but also loss of free speech, militaristic government instead of democracy, discrimination against minority, oppression towards people some of them subtle, some of them not so subtle at all, and of course the culture of corruption that has rooted in almost every aspect of people’s live. So once again, let’s forgive him but I don’t agree to close the cases, and I also hope that government will be able to  proceed with the trial – in absentia, and get back all the money that should belong to the government. I know it is not easy, and looking at the progress it seemed to be impossible due to the reluctant people up there who only know how to save themself. Hopefully I’m wrong about this…

This Video Makes My Day

Check out the video by Jerry O’Connell(My Secret Identity, Slider, Kangaroo Jack, Jerry McGuire, etc) parodying Tom Cruise. It’s bloody hilarious!!! The best part is the laughter and the KFC thing, check it out and you’ll see it yourself. Two thumbs up!!

Or you can check this full video on funnyordie.com

Awareness is Part of the Training!!

Nowadays, people walking around listening iPod or texting someone with their cellphones are common sights. Most of them are oblivious to part of their surrounding while enjoying music or reading/writing sms. During my blogsurfing to John W.Zimmer’s website I found this paragraph to be intriguing:

[quote] My suggestion is to always be aware of your surroundings. If a situation digresses for any reason, leave rapidly. Don’t wait around to figure out why the people are running away… get out of the situation and then figure it out. In this day of iPods and cell phone texting – many people walk around oblivious to their surroundings. I think this is bad normally but even worse when something is happening. This is like a teenager driving down the road with their radio blaring. They are being entertained but cannot hear a horn blast warning them of an impending crash! I have spoken to karate instructors that have told their students to be aware of their surroundings – watching their students leaving the school, walking through the dark parking lot, all the while merrily texting away on their cell phone - barley aware of their surroundings! [end of quote]

Back in Jakarta, I have always exercised caution and awareness of my surrounding. I have always avoided dimly lit streets, watched my back carefully, know which way are safer than the other way, memorize holes on the road and avoided it beforehand, and never once I used cell phone on the street since it will attract snatch thieves or robbers. I don’t say that Jakarta is a dangerous city so you have to exercise caution and be aware of your surrounding at all times. It might be because of the martial art training that emphasized those safety guidelines, but it is also, compared to Singapore, it is less safer, although if you know your way around, nothing will happen at all.

Singapore is very different compared to Jakarta, it is a clean and orderly city with low crime rate. After almost 4 years living in Singapore, I feel that my awareness level has decreased considerably, and for me, it is a problem. That’s why I have started to exercise caution even though I know it is very safe here, but things do happen!! There’s one thing I’ve just realized after reading the above mentioned article, I do listen to my mp3 player when I’m on the street, and I also texting while i stroll around the street. The fact that listening to the music takes away hearing ability and texting takes away your seeing ability already present danger(big or small) to me and to other people around me. Things can happen during an ordinary day, when I just walk from the bus stop to the office and texting someone and because of that I bumped into someone and make him/her annoyed or somehow even injuring him/her. This kind of scenario can be easily avoided just by just stopping for a while before texting. It is a simple thing that I tend to neglect. Consideration to other people, caution and awareness is a necessary training for all martial art practitioners, and I need to improve further in this area. Thank you very much John for the fine article!

The Glorious Babi Hong!!

It’s been so long since I wanted to try making hakka specialty dish, babi hong aka hong bak. My mother’s babi hong is good, but the best is my aunt-grandmother’s(errhh… what’s the correct correct term for the sister of my grandmother?). The juicy gravy, tender meat and the chewy fat is really unforgettable! Hmmm… I’d better request for it in my next return trip to Jakarta. I’ve been planning to make it since two week ago, and today finally I cooked my first BABI HONG!!! yeahhhh!!! It took around 4 hours to cook it, but the end result is not bad at all! Credit goes to a recipe from a blog that is very descriptive and easy to follow: http://cikciks.multiply.com/recipes/item/40/Babi_Hong_Hong_Bak and also a tip from my friend’s mother during my friend’s birthday. Here’s the end result:

Not so bad looking ain’t it? ;-p I will definitely try to cook it again someday since it worth the effort. Speaking of food, I have finally gain the result of more food and more training, my weight has increased by two kilograms, one kilo short of 75 kg(although after I eat something, usually I reached the 75 kg mark). I’m planning to reach at least 77 kg, although if it is possible, I want to try 80 kg. But I need to do a lot of running also, to avoid my body storing the fat of those meaty dishes that I consume and prevent my body movement from being slowed down by the weight increase. I feel that after two kilo weight addition, there’s more power in my techniques and I also feel less tired every time I train, hopefully another 3 kilo will be OK for my body also.

Self Defense and Law

Today I had an interesting conversation with two of my friends in SKA dojo about self defense from the perspective of law. One of them is a law enforcer, aka policeman. He shared with us a lot of interesting points. The most interesting point is that law itself is subject to interpretation and opinion. For example, you know that someone tries to initiate an attack by pushing you, and somehow you decided to punch him since you thought he started the first physical contact and injured him, he might be able to twist the story by claiming that he’s trying to push you in order to avoid physical confrontation. Then the end of the story will be decided by the one whose opinion is accepted by the authority.

The law is the one that rules the nation, and because of the law the nation have the guidelines for its citizen to leave a better life, but since it is created by human, it is not perfect and although there’s good intention in it, but usually there’s some loopholes that might be used by some people to avoid being implicated by it although they were breaking it. The point is, as a martial art practitioner, we have another reason to avoid fighting. By not fighting, we will avoid injuries to us and to our opponent(s) and without fighting, we should have nothing to do with the law.

Avoiding confrontation is the key, and awareness as a practitioner of martial art is very important. Whenever possible, running is the better choice, but of course, when our life or someone we love are in danger, we should defend it. Note the word: defend, not fight! Life is something to be valued by a martial art practitioner, we practice for our life, to get a better understanding of our body, mind and spirit.

Anything Goes Martial Arts

I have just finished reading Ranma 1/2, one of my first exposure to japanese comic that is known as ‘manga’. Thanks to the internet I’m finally able to catch up to the last volumes and read it until the end of the manga at volume 38.

I won’t talk about the manga itself, but about Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū – School of Indiscriminate Grappling or also known as Anything Goes Martial Arts, the martial art style created by the great Happosai with Ranma as the heir of the style. The principal idea about this style is to take the best for the practitioner and leave the techniques that is deemed as ineffective. For me, it brings back the martial arts to the individuals itself. Nowadays, a lot of masters train their disciples as a mass, treating all of them as a similar entity, expecting their disciples to move the same way and use similar movements and techniques. Maybe they need to once in a while go out and read the manga, it’s funny and entertaining, but amazingly, the martial arts that’s being practiced there is very individual, although some of the characters come from the same school of Musabetsu Kakutō Ryū, but the way they fight is different from one another.

As the name implies, it is a style that allow everything to be used as a technique, even using taunts, running away to distract enemies, and bowing for your life well, although the author might meant it as a joke, but in my view, it’s the true martial art that we must aspire. Training is tailored to our capabilities and preferences, with rigorous training and using our head and heart when the need to defend ourself comes. Anyway, it’s very funny how the manga can give me inspiration for my training, but aside of all those thing, it’s still one of my favorite manga. Dai ryo ja!!!

Shimpan Shiroma Shito-Ryu

I’ve just read Mark Bishop’s Okinawan Karate and particularly interested in Shimpan Shiroma Shito-Ryu. All along I thought that Shito-Ryu brought to mainland Japan by Mabuni Sensei and has no trace left in Okinawa. But apparently, the book shows that there are at least two Shito-Ryu kaiha there, Kenwa Mabuni Shito-Ryu and Shimpan Shiroma Shito-Ryu. Kenwa Mabuni Shito-Ryu was brought back to Okinawa from mainland Japan, and Shimpan Shiroma Shito-Ryu was developed by Mabuni Sensei’s close friend, Shimpan Shiroma who was also a student of Anko Itosu and Kanryo Higaonna. Since I also do Shito-Ryu aside from Goju-Ryu, I’m intrigued by this fact. Was Shito-Ryu actually developed by both of them? What is the differences of Shimpan Shiroma’s Shito-Ryu and Mabuni Sensei’s? How Japanese has they become? And a lot of other questions. This fact really make me even more eager to visit Okinawa, not only to train with IOGKF, but also pay a visit to Shito-Ryu dojos there.

I have tried googling to look for some sources in the internet, but until now I haven’t found anything. If anyone know about those two styles, please let me know Oh ya, while I was browsing around, I found some interesting short biography of Ken Sakio, Manzo Iwata and some other first generation of Shito-Ryu masters here. It’s interesting that Ken Sakio had trained with Choki Motobu-Sensei, Chibana Choshin-Sensei and Shimpan Shiroma-Sensei. Nowadays practitioners tend to stick to one sensei and restrict themself the opportunity to develop their karate from other masters out there.

Moving to WordPress, finally!!!

It’s been quite long since I considered of moving my blog to wordpress. I feel that by bringing the blog out of friendster, I will have more chance to share my opinion about a lot of things to more people, hence they might be able to share some ideas or feedback. Friendster blog was enough when I just started blogging, but as the time passed by, I feel the limitation of it.

There will be more entries about karate, since my new year resolution is to improve my karate in order to prepare myself in about two years time to go to the Mecca of karate – Okinawa I have set a target for my improvement: 1-10-100-1000. It’s 1 hour of skipping and running, 10 repetition of kata, 100 repetition of hojo undo and 1000 makiwara work. I’m still a lot of miles off the target, but I have started working on it, and by the end of the year I must be able to do all those in at least one day.

The rest of the entries will be more or less anything that I can think off, a bit of politics, football, daily life and some useless stuffs that I can think off So, that’s it for now!