Coming Late for Training

Approaching 6pm but the meeting wasn’t over yet, waited for another 30 minutes and the end of it still couldn’t be seen. Messaged my sensei that I would be late for yesterday’s session. Ten minutes past seven, act like I wasn’t in a rush to leave the office since I just joined the new company for one month Packed my things in an almost graceful manner, chit chat for a bit with my colleague, headed to the exit… empty cab ahead, got in, rest… Late for almost 40 minutes, rushfully climbed the stairs, reached the third floor and realized that it’s the wrong unit!!! Panting and numb legs due to lack of aerobic exercises but still ran down the stairs in a zip just to save some minutes, finally reached the dojo, saw my sensei training kata alone… whoopsss… Changed my clothes, apologized for being late and my sensei asked me to do quick warm up, prepare to work on Saifa. The last one hour I had was doing Saifa only. Working each movements, steps, techniques, body positioning, basically all the details, major and minor. In the end, although I was late, but it was a great session. Although my Saifa got corrected a lot, but I’m happy that I still have a lot of room to grow and improve my kata. Definitely a great kata, I specially like the body shifting principals in it, and  it also incorporate the method to get into opponent’s space. Definitely a fruitful session! Thanks for my current sensei also for being very patient although I came very late yesterday. A great session is a great stress relieve for us working people isn’t it?

Anyone Care to Save Them?

For animal lovers in Jakarta, I have a plea for you to consider adopting one or two of these miserable pets waiting to die in a “pound” in front of “Pondok Pengayom Satwa” animal shelter. They’re caged, not fed, and just left alone waiting for their impending doom. For further information, please refer to Unspun’s blog here.

Sharp Objects

I have just found some great articles in West Seattle Karate Academy website. I particularly fond of the article: “Playing with Sharp Objects”. The articles by Lawrence Kane Sensei are very informative and useful to develop our self defense capability. Kane Sensei is a very experienced martial artist and also very seasoned in the security field. Please have a look at the excellent articles here.

Cross Training

Some people believe in cross training, while others shun it. It really depends on our perspective. For me, cross training is beneficial for my core style, which is generally karate and specifically Goju-Ryu. Some people might say that concentrating in one style that is ideal for him/her is the way. It shows loyalty and focus. But of course other people say that people definitely must cross train to enrich their techniques and arsenal. I tend to the later one, but I still maintain my core, Goju-Ryu, and use other concepts as a reference point, as a third-person perspective of some techniques that also exist in Goju-Ryu. This might be a biased opinion, but for me Goju-Ryu is already a complete martial art. There’s striking, grappling, locks, submission, throws, and also ways to attack vital points. Whenever I learn something from other system, I might think the mechanic and the concept of the technique is different from Goju-Ryu, but constant training usually reveals, that the concept is actually the other side of the coin of the technique. That’s why I always try to keep myself open. The focus for me is training and developing my karate. If I can learn and enhance my karate by learning from others, why should I close the door and shun it just because it’s different, it’s older, it’s more modern, or looks impractical? In the olden days, people used to learn from different masters, so it is not really an ethical breach. One master might be good in striking, while others are good in grappling. As long as the foundation is good, cross training, for me, is very beneficial.

Update on Upcoming Tomiyama Sensei Seminar

Another news just came from my sensei for Tomiyama Sensei’s upcoming seminar. Apparently he will conduct the seminar specifically on Naha-te basics and katas. I tend to favor more to the Naha-te side due to my first exposure to Goju-Ryu style in Jakarta, that’s why this news made me even more excited. I would like to know the differences of the principles that should be there due to the different lineage path compared to my current Goju-Ryu organization. For me, it is always good to know different principles, methods, and the mechanics of the techniques to enrich my karate. Usually different approach of some techniques might enchant our understanding of those techniques, it’s similar to understand something from a different perspective. Hopefully it will be a fruitful seminar.

Sponge

Did you ever feel that you are too bloated that you just want to throw everything away? Did you ever drink something but in the end it makes you feel even more thirsty? I have experienced both feeling before. When I first known karate, I felt so thirsty that I wanted to absorb a lot of things as soon as possible, but the way I absorb it was like a sponge, very easy to absorb water, but it also has difficulties to retain the water. You just need to squeezed it gently, the water will comes out easily. It is the same feeling when you’re bloated, if you press your tummy, you will have the urge to throw out those things that you’ve eaten before.

It’s the same thing with karate, we shouldn’t be a sponge and we shouldn’t eat too full also. We should be like a tree, slowly and dilligently absorb the water and food below the ground with strong roots that can support a very big and strong trunk and branches. Strong root is the foundation, basic, kihon of our karate. Strong roots able to support a stronger, higher and thicker trunk; which enables the tree to grow branches, leaves and finally fruit. With strong basic we should also have built a good karate body, mind and spirit that is able to understand the techniques easily, to understand the concept of movements comprehensively, to be able to execute techniques in a proper way and to be able to advanced our karate itself.

A tree never grow in one night, it grows slowly, in months or even years. We don’t need to learn everything in one day, or it will be like a sponge, unable to keep the things we have learned before. Learning too many things in a fast paced will also make us bloated, we need to repeat new techniques that we just learned and try to absorb it slowly so it will last in our mind, body and spirit and become second nature to ourself. Learning too many things without mastering a single one is a waste of time!! Of course the ability to learn is different within each karateka, but the single most important thing is still the perseverance, dilligence and patience in training. We should strive to be better, once we feel satistied with ourselves, it’s a sign that our karate is regressing.

Upcoming Seminar with Tomiyama Sensei

When the news that there will be a seminar in May to be conducted by Tomiyama Sensei, I googled for his name right away. To my amazement, he is practicing Tani-ha Shito-Ryu. Tani-ha Shito-Ryu history is very interesting. It was started from a karate club in Doshisha University in Japan, one of the oldest karate club.

The original style was Goju-Ryu, and the first instructor was none other than Chojun Miyagi Sensei himself!! As I also practicing Goju-Ryu, of course I felt very excited. But I got even more excited to read that after that Kenwa Mabuni Sensei was instructing at the club after Miyagi Sensei returned to Okinawa, and furthermore, he was teaching Goju-Ryu, not Shito-Ryu!! That means Goju-Ryu influence should be strong in Tani-ha Shito-Ryu, and once more, it proves to me that the Chojun Miyagi Sensei and Kenwa Mabuni Sensei was a very close friend. The two founders of the styles that I’m currently practicing were on a very good term.

But sadly, nowadays, people doesn’t really share their knowledge as extensive as before. Nowadays a lot of people only care about power and playing politics. It’s very sad actually. People should strive to gain knowledge and improve their karate through training, either by him/herself, by the guidance of his/her senseis or senpais, by sharing of knowledge with other practicioners, and by learning from others also. Anyway, I’m happy that my current dojo is actually open to learn from other people/styles. I can’t wait to attend the seminar in May and learn from Tomiyama Sensei.

Enjoy this articles about Tomiyama Sensei and Kofukan:

Kazokukai website – Interview

Shuriway  website – Hara to Koshi

OSI Karate website – Kofukan History

Target

Goodin Sensei always writes great entries in his blog. His latest one, Aim High and So Kuchi!, are also great. It makes me thinking, what is actually my target in doing karate. Without target the improvement might be slow or even none at all. With target, the improvement should be greater than aimlessly going through routine training. I do agree with him about setting up your goal as high as possible, but of course that should be the long term target. There must always be short term and medium term target. It applies in any situation actually, not only karate or martial art, but also in our daily life. Human always progressing, without progression, life will be very boring Our karate should not be boring also, strive to the highest should be the goal. I should be better than Higaonna Sensei!!! I admit it’s very difficult and I might never reach the goal, but at least the goal is there, and we should train with the aim to reach the goal.

Concept of Circles

Circles can be found in almost every techniques in Goju-Ryu. For me it is one of the most important aspect of Goju. It might be considered as the Ju(soft) side of the style. It is either easily visible or very subtle, but if we analyze the techniques, it has at least one circle in it. The concept has a very deep meaning, and it always amazed me whenever I try to think about it. This is why I love doing karate, even perfecting one technique requires your mind, body, soul, dedication and determination. It’s visually simple, but if you seriously try to master it, it will even raise more questions. Definitely worth a lifetime study!

Bloody Caffeine!!!

Two weeks experiencing the new job, two weeks of trying to open my eyelid in the middle of reading piles of books, presentation slides, product guidelines, and technical analysis. Been trying very hard to keep my motivation at a level that will make sure of my progression in order to impress my new boss. In an urgent need of a very very long vacation, just laying around and do nothing. Cracking my mind everyday of ways to get the hell out of this.

The good thing is, I can still keep up with those things with the help of the substance that I haven’t even touch for more than a year I guess, coffee!! It’s a regular drink for anyone else, but it’s a problematic drink for me. My stomach can’t take the substance, but I need those caffeine fix to prevent myself to fall asleep during my probation period so far it has served me well during my first week, but the second week proved me wrong. Even with those fixes the drowsiness crept unknowingly. That’s why I need to go to the toilet every hour trying to keep myself alert. I guess my body really in need of  a good rest. Luckily it’s already Friday, tomorrow I should be able to sleep a little longer.

After one year without coffee, my digestion system doesn’t seem to like it anymore I guess, it got bloated, full of wind, makes me burping incessantly, and the worst thing is that its effect doesn’t wear off at night. Two days ago I almost got a stomach cramp because of that. Luckily there’s always those antacids to help wear off the effect. My goodness, two weeks into a new job and I already have a truck full of garbage!!!

Luckily I can still go to my Goju-Ryu session. It’s always an oasis in the middle of the desert for me. But I can’t afford to go to my Shito-Ryu session. But this two weeks effort shouldn’t be in vain though. I think I’m getting more and more familiar with one of the product, and hopefully, in another month or two I can finally get everything running in an auto pilot mode, so I can attend more training. My concentration this year is Goju-Ryu though. Since I always feel that the principles is very much in-line with my way of thinking, and I have built my karate around it as a foundation and blueprint for my martial art training. I’m also planning to check on White Crane to further my knowledge of the Sanchin form, that was derived from White Crane Sam Chien or San Zhan. Well, it might still be a long journey before I decide to start doing White Crane also. But more or less it will be the direction I want to go.

Btw, if anyone noticed that this entry is a little bit awkward, don’t bother please, it’s the result of caffeine effect combined with writing at 3am. I’d better zip off before I start writing non-sense :-p