Health is a treasure

Again, going AWOL and neglecting this blog, but this time, it’s more due to my busy days in the office rather than my laziness :-p Because of a new and very troublesome project, I couldn’t train regularly for these past three weeks. I have only been training in the dojo three times plus a couple of times at home. Not only lack of training, but irregular eating pattern and also the exhausting project almost brought me down. Yesterday I dragged myself to the dojo although the day before I only slept for 3 hours before I went for presentation in the morning and attending some meetings in the afternoon before I rushly left to have my dinner at 7:30pm, went back to my house to get my gears and straightaway went to the dojo. Lost concentration, poor performance, lack of stamina and almost faint during training.

Felt really lucky to be able to finished the whole session and promised myself that if I can’t attend my training, I will always spend at least 30 minutes to do my own training at home. I have lost so much for the past three weeks because of my negligence. And that’s not the only loss I had. Due to less training, irregular eating and lack of sleep, my body condition also dropped and I almost got myself into trouble before the project even finished. Now I know why the older generations always value their health and take care of their own health was always an important thing for them. With regular training, I didn’t really have any major health problem, so I didn’t really take care of my own health due to the inherent benefit of training to my own health. But the last three weeks taught me an important lesson:

1.Training regularly IS A MUST. No reason not to train myself at home!!!

2.Health is a treasure, without health, we can’t do all those fun activities we always love to do.

3.To fall sick is to waste all those training days. With just one day of sickness, we need to rebuild our stamina and condition again. This requires time and wasting our training days to rebuild instead of advancing. IT IS TOTALLY INACCEPTABLE!!!

Hopefully the burdensome project can finish soon and I can return to my good old training days!

Karate Rants – Part Two

When karate was brought over to mainland Japan from Okinawa, changes were bound to happened. It’s becoming more rigid, systematized, militarized, spiritual side was added and it is becoming less martial in order for it to be available for larger masses. Not all the changes are bad, although this is also subjective. Some people said the changes from karate-jutsu to karate-do is good because not only physical training, but spiritual training is also very important for the practitioner. But other people consider this to be bad, because it diminished its martial applications. Karate also becoming systematized and militarized. This is also a double-edge sword.

Systematized means proper syllabus for the masses, ranking system and karate uniform were introduced and organizations are formed to be able to organize the growing structure. The ugly sides of this are the politics and power struggle in the organization, resulting in splinter groups, bad bloods and animosities. Okinawan masters used to learn from various masters, but nowadays this practice is frowned by the majority. Loyalty to the organization is valued very highly. Loyalty is good, but blind loyalty is bad. Furthermore, our instructor(s) can’t be good at everything. Learning from other people and masters are a good way to develop our karate. Ranking system provides a way to measure growth of the practitioner, but money corrupts, how many dojo offer grades for money? Syllabus is good for a more systematic training, but individuality becoming almost extinct nowadays.

Before karate introduced to Japan, most practitioners only know mostly 5 kata. Nowadays, people aren’t satisfied with 10, 20 or 30. Not many people can understand too many kata, although there are exceptions, such as Mabuni Sensei of Shito-ryu. Old masters taught certain kata to certain people with characteristics that match the kata itself. First they learn basic kata such as sanchin and naihanchi. This can be as long as five years or as short as two or three years. Once their basic was consider good, gradually they’re being introduced to the more advanced kata. It can take at least a year before they learn another kata. There’s just too many things to learn in one kata, and they studied the martial values of the kata, not the nice poses and the sequences only. To even do a proper shuri ashi, the posture, the body mechanics and in-depth understanding of how body moves are needed. It’s not just a simple stepping that can be learned in one day. It takes years to perfect. That’s the difference nowadays. In some dojo, the students are required to know the sequence in one session. Then after the student remembers the sequence perfectly with a good looking basic techniques, flashy poses and nice sound effects, they’re considered to have mastered the kata and proceed to do another kata. No movement concepts were mastered. The way kata taught was different. They need to master the first few sequences first, with all the proper techniques, body mechanics, movements and the concepts and ideas behind the sequences, then they proceed to the next sequences one after another. One sequence can take months. This is also true if you’re practicing chinese martial arts, and fortunately for them, many of them are still doing this. Once someone properly “know” the kata, he should have enough arsenal to defend himself/herself. If he/she managed to master 3 or 4 kata, he will become a very able martial artist. Nowadays studying one kata for one year is considered too long. The fault is not only on the instructors, but also the students, they got bored and always hungry for new kata, although they haven’t even “know” it. It’s a sad state actually. I have even seen someone taught a kata in a more militarized way. If the one being taught unable to remember the sequence, he/she will be asked to repeat the kata again. This is not a kata that he/she has learnt for a few months, but it is a new kata for him/her. To remember one sequence in one day is good enough. To be able to do the sequence properly in one or two months is a feat. That’s why it’s perfectly normal to work on a kata for years.

Karate Rants – Part One

First post after so long Ok, let’s go down to the business right away. I’m going to more than one dojo to train karate and I would like to talk about one particular dojo that I always go at least once a week. First of all, the atmosphere is good there, people are friendly, a lot of friends are there, the facility is top notch with all the training equipments, basically all looks good except for a few flaws that I find very bothersome.

First of all, the practitioners age range are varied between 10-50 for the beginners. I’m not against sports kumite for people that enjoy doing it or for people going to tournaments.  But if the dojo teaches sports kumite regularly while 95% of the people practicing on a particular day aren’t going for tournament, and although they might enjoy the training and find it beneficial for their health, I find it very worrysome that instructors put a lot of emphasis on this regulary in the class. A lot of the practitioners are salarymen, students looking for activity and middle-aged parents. One of the reason why they choose karate must be the martial part of it, the self defense. Although self defense might not be the main reason why they do karate, but it’s must be one of the benefit they find useful. Every week they train once or twice, doing some drills on sports kumite during one part of the training. But unknowingly, they are training for a sports event that they won’t event participate in their whole life, not a self defense drill/techniques that they can use on the street outside the safe dojo!!!

The problem itself is not really the dojo’s fault, but the emphasis came from Japan itself, and the local instructors in all countries following it blindly without thinking. Japan is like a bible for them, they follow it without thinking and consider it to be a source of truth. Then this truth is being propagated to the practitioners everywhere. They believe what the instructors said that sports kumite is the ultimate self defense since they saw it’s beautiful form works in the dojo. Hopefully they don’t get to use it outside the dojo, or they will find themself lying on the ground and then start questioning why a black belt can be easily trumped by people with no training.

Sports kumite is designed to be a safe playground to a game of karate. For me, I don’t see any karate techniques in sports kumite. The footwork is not karate footwork, there’s no shuri ashi, yori ashi or tai sabaki from the katas we know. It might look the same, but the body mechanics are different. The gyaku tsuki and kisame tsuki with a low faux-zenkutsu dachi are hybrid techniques. No where in kata we do gyaku tsuki and kisame on zenkutsu dachi with the rear leg being lifted up. These technique is taken from boxing and the result is the hybrid technique. But again, none of the body mechanics in the kata are found here and none of the boxing body mechanics are also found here. Pulling punches are also one of the problem, some practitioners doesn’t even realized that unless they know why they pull the punches and only train rigorously on pulling the punches as fast as possible will make their fist harmless on the street. As for mawashi geri, it’s a good technique really, but again, which kata has mawashi geri? And for me, kicking above our belly button will put us in a very disadvantageous position. I do mawashi geri, but most of the time, it’s only knee/thigh level height.

Ok, maybe the techniques aren’t karate techniques, but some people might argue that it’s working on the street. Unless you’re an elite performer, I don’t think you will be able to survive on the street pulling punches, kicking high to the head, and bouncing around. I did sports kumite before, and I came to realized that its advantages can’t compensate its disadvantages if you’re looking to defend yourself unless you know that running is the best defense in the world. It’s very good if instructors can separate this kind of training from the regular classes, then more people can benefit from the training itself rather than just from the health point of view. Sports kumite has its merit and it’s good to develop the competitive spirit for young people, but I don’t find it useful for older people at all. I still have another rant about the way some dojo teach kata, but I will leave it for another writing(at least I will have another topic in mind ^^).

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.

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!!

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.

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

Real Life Grading

I was graded last Sunday. The grading itself wasn’t that difficult, I was actually very familiar with the syllabus, and I have been training regularly, in fact, I didn’t really care about grading nowadays, I only care about training and learning more from it. But this grading seems different, it is coincided with one of the most difficult phase in my life, and because of that the grading becomes several folds more difficult. But I managed to pass through it…

Now I have to prepare myself for the real life grading, real life test of my perseverance, my determination, and my will. The toilet bowl in me is already full of shit(pardon the language), in fact, it’s almost over the edge. Sometimes I envy animal which doesn’t need to live a life full of mannerism and keeps their composure. Their life is not full of pretense. The only thing important to them is how to survive, but for us human, it’s different. Hopefully I can pass this important test, and the toilet bowl will be emptied again, and be ready to receive all the shits again hopefully tomorrow’s training can knock some sense to me again… For anyone who read this, sorry for this gloomy entry! I just need to throw this one out a little bit.

Lo! Cometh the Flood!!

New governor, new year, same old flooding. Although I am now living in Singapore, working to get a living, but I was born in Jakarta, raised in Jakarta and experienced flooding in Jakarta. The condition has changed from bad to worse. Before 2001, the big flood only say hello every 5 years, but after that, it gradually worsen. The interval changed to three years, two years, one year and now almost every more-than-four-hours-heavy-rain!!! What has the new governor do? All those “Jakarta Untuk Semua”(Jakarta for all) has really been fulfilled in a negative way, and where is he now? I haven’t see or hear him in the news at all. At least his predecessor, still showed his face although he never admit his mistake in handling the flood issue, but instead pointing to heaven which he blame for all the misery of Jakartans. It’s not only flooding, but also the corrupted busway project has becoming a joke, bad services, late arrivals, always full when it arrives. What about traffic? Well, he come out with an idea to shift the working schedule of the civil servants earlier to 6am if I’m not wrong, and he recommend non-civil servants to reschedule their office hour to start from 9am. This kind of ideas, along with 3-in-1 rule is a stupid ideas that are not looking into the problem itself, but instead avoiding the problem. It’s not solving anything but making it worse. Well, the list is still long, but we can only open our arms widely to welcome the flood, although with a long frustrated sighing…

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…