Makiwara

Makiwara and sandbag, which one do you choose? For me, both! Most of karate practitioners, in my opinion, don’t really have an issue incorporating sandbag in their training regime. It’s considered modern, fairly easy to use and doesn’t punish the user as makiwara does. Makiwara, on the other hand, considered an antique, more difficult to use and punishes the user if he/she doesn’t know how to use it properly. It’s a general opinion in the world of karate. I will not be discussing about how to use the makiwara, since, the best way to use it is to see it yourself and do it on the spot. The learning curve is longer than sandbag, but it’s really worth all the peeled skin I got during learning. It’s not an easy training tool to use definitely. Usually it sits around the corner of the dojo, with most of the people ignoring its existance as if it is only a part of the dojo with a mystical presence on par with the pictures of the masters and the shomen. Some curious people, specially the beginners will try to use it, but since it’s more difficult to understand, most of them will not give it a second try. Some other people that continue to use it will stop after they feel the reverb, peeled their skin or feel the pain on their knuckles, only a few survivors left. These are true in dojos that has makiwara and don’t really require the pratitioners to use it. Of course it’s a different situation in dojos that requires their practitioner to embrace it. Many may be against the usage of makiwara, but for me, it’s one of the tools that really helps me to develop in karate. It teaches focus and correct posture. It also teaches us to respect our opponent by demanding good techniques to be delivered to its padding. Bad techniques will not do, it will hurt you instead. It also requires dedication and determination when using it, half-assed dedication got no reward when punching it. It is also very versatile, plenty of techniques can be practiced with it. With all those benefits, does sandbags still needed? For me, the answer is yes. I’m using makiwara to better my techniques, while I’m using the sandbag to develop the power. They’re complementing each other and really do wonders in my training.

Dead Brain Intermezzo

Haven’t been writing an entry for a month now. Office commitment and also house moving made my motivation gone I guess. Luckily the motivation for training hasn’t gone for even a bit. In fact, it’s getting higher because I’m currently having a private project for my house. In a month I will have my 3×4m room converted to my personal dojo!! Hooraaayyy!!! I already have my cabinet+full mirror in front and mounted the wall makiwara. Currently in the process of printing some pictures to be hang on the wall. I am also looking to have someone write a “toudi-jutsu” character. The hojo undo materials for chishi and sanchin game is ready, just need to dust-off my laziness to start the work; and I will get training mattress end of this month plus some punching mitts and all should be good. Yeahhh!! Really excited to have my own room for training. I will have no excuse now for being lazy to go to the dojo because of late meetings ;-p Anyway, hopefully my motivation to write will be back, and start filling this blog again.

Timing Practice

Goodness, this article by Goodin Sensei is really a GEM! I have never thought of this before to be honest. Matching our partner’s or someone else’s timing is a very good practice and very difficult. It is very beneficial for our karate to learn how to time our techniques against the other side, either it is a parry, block, anticipative movement, evasive maneuver or even strikes. It will help a lot in reading opponent’s movement. It might be a simple practice, following someone else, but there’s a lot of meaning in it and furthermore, it is only advantageous for our karate. As human are also competitive in nature, this type of training is also very useful to us to be competitive without the negative side effect of competitiveness. Timing is very important in self defense, specially for life and death situation. This type of training is very typical in karate, simple but yet the concept is very deep.

Selingan Sejenak - Parfum Parfummm!!

This blog entry will be in Bahasa Indonesia since I would like to shamelessly advertise my friend’s website, The Caffeinated Angel Boutique.

Untuk yg lagi nyari parfum kualitas tinggi dengan harga kompetitif melalui kenyamanan belanja lewat internet atau beken-nya e-shopping atau kalo cuma mau e-window-shopping aj juga bisa tentunya, kunjungi aj website ini. Banyak parfum kualitas no.1 yg dijual disana dan untuk soal harga, bisa dipastikan bersahabat dengan kantong kita2 sekalian

Mariiiiiiiiiiiii……..

Attending Training

The first and foremost beginning of the class is not when the class itself started. But it is actually starting when we starts to shift our mind to training, at any time. We might have training tomorrow, but when we think about whether or not to come for the training, it is already started actually. The decision making to attend our training is a very important measure whether our training will be fruitful or not. I have a regular job myself, and sometimes I feel very tired, or running on deadlines, or maybe just plain bad weather. Those reasons are usually becoming our consideration to actually go for the training or not and of course, subsequently, determines whether or not our training for the day is actually a failure or a success.

Maybe we have prepared for the training the day before, the next morning, we bring all the training bag and office apparels to our office. In the afternoon, suddenly the rain pours down heavily and make us thinking if the rain doesn’t stop, we will not go for the training. Eventually one hour before training starts, it still drizzles outside, we want to go to the training, but in the other hand, our comfortable bed feels like a better choice in this cold weather. Or maybe the rain has stopped, but our body feels tired after working for the whole day. These examples show that training doesn’t begin when we bow to the shomen, but it can even begin one day before, when we fold our gi and pack our obi inside our bag. Going for our training is always difficult for everyone, but we have to strive to attend the training. This is also karate training, a mental and spiritual one. I am really impressed with Goodin Sensei’s article about a woman that is recovering from cancer but already very eager to resume her training. Hopefully I can always remember the story whenever my mind roams away from my training. please read the article here.

When Will Federer Complete the Jewels?

Fourth beating in French Open by Nadal, the worst ever indeed… 6-1, 6-3, 6-0!!! Maybe one of the worst defeat for Federer since he dominated the Tennis world in 2004. Will he ever win the trophy is the eternal question, will the last defeat makes him crumble is the latest question. He’s so dominant against other players and previous meetings against Nadal never been this shocking. Arguably the best tennis player ever, with only Rolland Garros to confirm him as the BEST, the latest lost will really be a proof of his greatness. Hopefully he can prevail and regain his dominance for at least another two or three years before the physique is going down.

Never written any tennis entry before, but this blog, although martial arts dominated, is still one of my thoughts dumping ground so please don’t be surprised if one or two of other things popping out once in a while. Furthermore, I was still very much shocked by the way Nadal trashed Federer.

The Feeling

The training session was quite different last night, compared to other regular sessions, the theory portion was more than usual. One of the point I pondered most is the ‘feeling’. According to my sensei, the ability to ‘feel’ can be acquired through constant training and thinking. It’s the epitomy of the karate adage ‘bun bu ryo do’ - literally means something like ‘the pen and the sword is in one accordance. This proverb tells us that not only physical training is needed for our karate, but also the ‘book’ or in other words, we need to cultivate our minds also. My sensei said that the word ‘keiko’ or training is formed using two characters: ‘think’ and ‘old/ancient’. It basically says that mind cultivation is also very important in our karate journey, without it, we might not be able to maximise our training and the growth level might be very slow or even stuck in our current level. The ‘feeling’ might be acquired through constant training, but without studying it, we won’t be able to utilise the ‘feeling’ to further enchanced our karate. This ‘feeling’ is internal in our body, although the movement might look the same when we do a technique with or without a feeling, but the result can be very different. Karate growth level is not a linear growth, it’s more like plains and sudden hike like ladder graph or steps. The plains might be very long, but our persistance and perseverance in training are the one who brought us to reach the next level. Most beginners quit karate because of this typical plain in karate. It can be very short, like a couple of months or even days, but it also can be very long, maybe one year or even ten years. That’s why we need to cultivate our mind together with our training in order to minimize the length of the plain we went through in each level. Once we got the ‘feeling’, it will never be lost.

A Book About Fear!!

Fear is a natural intuition of every living being. It is very important for their survival. Without fear the ability to survive will be gone, specially for animals in the wild. Since human is actually also an animal, fear is also a natural instinct that will be triggered in situations whereby our sensors detects potential danger. Gavin de Becker’s book “The Gift of Fear” is a great book for us to understand fear and utilize it to live a better life. He emphasizes that fear is not something to be feared, but we must embrace it as a GIFT and use it for our own good and survival. Fear is different from worry, we need to use and acknowledge fear, but we need to remove the worry so we can live a more worry-free life. Imagine if we always have constant worry, we will not be able to actually life a full live. An exceptionally great book for EVERYONE!!

Sanchin Seminar

Last Saturday was Tomiyama Sensei’s seminar. My expectation was high, due to his credentials and he is more or less a traditional karateka(although the term ‘traditional karate’ is of course debatable). I was certainly not dissapointed. He is a true traditionalist, at least in my own view. The seminar was about sanchin kata. He covered body mechanics, alignments, techniques and also breathing. There’s some minor differences compared to IOGKF’s sanchin, but the principle concepts is very much the same. He also gave us an unexpected bonus near the end. I was raising a question about Naihanchi kata role in his organization. He told us that it is also the core kata in Kofukan as Sanchin is. His Naihanchi doesn’t have emphasis on the koshi movement, but swift, explosive and rooting. When I asked for him to elaborate more, he actually gave us a bonus by demonstrating the kata. I can only say that it was a great demonstration. Anyone seeing the kata will shiver and think twice to challenge him to fight. It was a practical kata that can be used for fighting, not a posing kata that looks beautiful but can’t be used to fight. In the end, it was a thirst quencher that makes me even more thirsty of karate training.

Karate and Diet

Another article from Goodin Sensei that actually relates to me, do read it here. I started working for my new company about two months ago. I usually have problem to keep my eyes open when I have to read a lot or maybe do nothing. It’s the case in my new company. I have to read a lot of product references to get a good understanding of the products. As a new guy, I don’t want to be caught asleep in my first few days, so I started drinking coffee again after stopping for quite long. It makes me awake during the day, but the impact was actually very bad to my body and my karate training. I have a bad stomach that can’t really stand absorbing too much coffee. The first two weeks wasn’t that bad, but gradually I started feeling very tired even if I don’t really do anything, I can’t really have a good sleep also, and the worse is my stamina, two weeks ago I almost fainted during the training. I was very much awake, but my breathing was heavy and I was just going through the motion without much energy left. After the incident, I decided to stop drinking gradually. This week I haven’t drink any and I can really feel it in my training. I wasn’t aware that coffee affects my metabolism that much, I was only thinking that it might be because of my new job, but even resting wouldn’t make me recovered. Relating to Goodin Sensei’s article, I wholeheartedly agree with him. Even if we train so hard and regularly, bad diet will not bring us anything. I’m happy that I found the problem, but there’s one thing I found on that day I almost fainted. When I just go through the motion, without power, I was struggling at the beginning when we did sandan-gi. Because I can’t use power to parry the punches coming at me, I have to execute the uke-waza as perfect as I can. In the end, I realized that I tend to do small shortcuts that actually very essential in the technique, but it is actually  something very important not to skip that part and execute it properly. It wasn’t feel great that day, but I gain something important from that experience. I don’t really want to feel it(almost fainting) again, but I definitely will use it as a reminder and reference.