Isolation Training.

Constant improvement is the name of the game, the job is never done, the training is never ending.
It is always a good idea to isolate certain aspects of the whole so that one can focus in on them to gain a deeper understanding and improve upon the overall structure.
One day or week it may be kicks, or even just one type of kick, a few minutes here, a few minutes there, with a full days worth of training nothing by that area of focus thrown in somewhere in the middle.

As the old saying goes, give an inch, take a mile; this is true in training as well, if you inch your way up, then you end up finding that you've actually travelled a mile, if not more.
I like to take this principle and apply it to Kata, as I've said before, isolating a certain string of movements, not really focusing on how 'Jodan Uke' might link to 'Jodan Tsuki' in the case of Gekesai, but really just focusing on how the movement as a whole works as a single unit.
I look for breaks in the movement, areas that seem to detract from, rather than add to the efficiency of the whole motion.
Sometimes it is useful to break it down to the level of individual techniques as that may be where the improvement needs to be made, but these are nothing more than momentary labels, useful conceptual tools to help focus, like a conceptual microscope.
We cannot dispense with conceptual blending, because that is how the mind works, so it is best to understand this aspect as well, so training can even be isolated to understanding and improving upon the workings of the mind and mental states.

There is also the useful tool of speed, the ability to slow things down in training allows for a closer, more detailed look at things, offering the closest thing possible to a bird's eyed view of what you are doing.
The saying used to be, 'Go Slow to Learn Fast,' a saying I have just stolen from Kris Wilder, I don't know from whom he stole it originally, but it makes a lot of sense when you apply it, yet another conceptual tool manifest through physical movement.
Couple this with visualization and you add depth; you can visualize different sorts of scenarios, different types and sizes of people, each of which add something different, a different angle that will present different challenges.
Even outside the realm of physical training, one can take the visualization method on its' own and actually 'train' while they are not training, as elite athletes often praise the benefits of visualization outside of physical training as a factor in their performance levels.

Practicing on hills, on rocky terrain, on slippery terrain, in the street, wearing boots, a heavy coat, ect.
Each of things things brings something unique as well and should not be ruled out as training impliments, or a different level and type of Hojo Undo that is supplimentary to traditional Hojo Undo training.
Not only does it condition the body to work in different ways according to different environmental challenges, but because of its' nature, it is naturally portable and has direct relevence to the goals the Karateka may be seeking to achieve.

Specifically on isolation of certain aspects, a punch is a good example when it comes to the depth isolation training can bring.
You will learn what works and what does not in the simple mechanics of a punch, then make changes according to what works, while cutting out what does not.
It is easy to see how this might be applied to other things, even outside Karate, it gives the mind an edge that other people might not have, thus, can be a factor in success at work, at home, and at play.

The Healthy Path, Karate and Other Interests.

So, I have started to write a story that I began to flesh out about five years ago, nothing really to do with Martial Arts, I just thought it would be an interesting endeavor and the timing feels right.
Doubt it will ever get published, but I have always found writing and drawing to be fulfilling activities outside of Karate, but are they truly outside of Karate training?

Back at the Olympic Martial Arts Center, the old Bremerton Dojo at which I first started my training, my Sensei would hold art classes an hour before the first Karate class was set to begin.
He went over various 'techniques' for drawing, his method utilized a carpenter's pencil and the idea was to draw something interesting with what you were presented, without letting the tip of the pencil leave the paper, and you were timed - it was speed drawing.
He also went over a method for isolating certain pictures in a grid and drawing only within that square, one square at a time; then there were methods of tracing, which I was not too fond of, but it did help you get a feel for what you were drawing before going at it free-hand.
I always felt the free-hand pictures to be more interesting than the traced pictures; while the traced pictures did have a certain character to them, there is nothing like free-hand.

Recently I was exploring different ways to approach writing; some methods were like the tracing methods, in which you took a piece of someone else's story, wrote down that portion of it, then took off on your own, ultimately deleting the part that was not your own.
This exercise produces some interesting results, it gives you something to work with, but allows you to go off in whatever direction happens to lead the way resulting in something very unique.
A combination of the free-form and tracing method utilized for drawing above, similar to the way a Karateka might utilize Kata and Kihon training.

There was also the idea of taking one of those word magnet things, making a sentence, and running with it, seeing where it went.
Then it recommended checking the headlines, taking a headline and toying with the idea, seeing where it goes, or advice sections in the newspaper - for the more science fiction oriented, it even recommended taking headlines from tabloids in order to see what sort of wierd ideas might pop up.

As a poet I often play around with words and formations, this is a fun little exercise, but more often than not, the poem just happens, it just forms as I write it and when I am done, I have what I have.
Another piece of advice, from Kris Wilder actually, was that the most interesting writings often exclude self reference as 'I approached so and so' as much as possible.
An interesting little tidbit that has truly made my writing more interesting; the first practice I had with that was writing a portion for one of his books that was to be called 'Why We Train,' or something along those lines, ultimately the book never came to be.

None of these are any different than Karate, in fact, I noticed early on, as a child (maybe I was mistaken) that the majority of people in the old Dojo were artists in some other respect aside from Karate.
Even now I notice such things when I meet and get to know other Budoka in my journey down the path, many could be, and often are, great artists and writers, philosophers of a sort.
One such person is someone I have never met in person, but often trained with my Teacher, Michael Dascenzo, his name is Gary Gabelhouse, a longtime Karate student, a published author, a mountaineer, and, at the time he came to the Dojo, a Teacher of Bonzai.
Apparently he had written a book to which he had also sold the movie rights, at least that was the news a long time ago, I have not seen a movie produced from his book as of yet.

The book that the movie 'Bless the Child' was based on was written by a student of both Zen and Goju Ryu Karate.
The book differs quite a bit from the movie in that it alludes to more of an underlying Zen outlook and includes the Karate element of the author's life as a strong point for the main character.
The movie contains neither of these things, but is still a good movie never the less, if you like the psychoreligious-horror-thriller-type movies.

Another great benefit of Karate training, the ability to try new things and to discover ourselves in whtever we happen to try, whether or not we actually do anything with it.
It is not a question of success or failure, it is about just doing it and seeing what happens.
It most certainly is not a healthy path to have no other interests outside of Karate, but that doesn't mean that Karate does not play a big part.

Don't Think, Just Do.

At this point I find that the little things make all the difference, doing a little here, and a little there; two minutes on a break, five minutes in between doing other things, and perhaps a couple long sessions during the week.
It can be a moment just to stand in Horse Stance with intense focus, maybe taking a couple steps in horse stance, maintaining that intense focus, or it can be in running through some reps with the Chi'ishi, again, maintaining intense focus.

My student, Guy Smith, used to take a long heavy metal pole he'd found in his back yard and practice rotating it in different directions with focus solely on strengthening the wrists, as a result, a few minutes a day, every day, and it was near impossible to get a wrist lock on him.
The man trained EVERY DAY, he'd run through Kata every day, he went to extremes to get the movements and principles down and in a matter of a few months he'd picked up the underlying principles and appeared as if he had been doing them for years.
Nevermind the physical training, that was the easy part, as it often is, the mental training he'd done is what made all the difference; he took something I'd said to heart, 'This is the only technique you need to know,' is what I said as I slapped my belly indicating Haragei.
That is the only technique he really trained, and even when he wasn't training, he trained it, it made all the difference - it is the technique of no technique, getting passed the general concept and straight to the principle, where the concept is meaningless, true meaning is beyond conception.
Another key factor is in non-grasping, it is good to have a goal, but the goal should not impede the training; the quest to understand is not as important as actually doing the task.
Certainly you will find differing ways in which to improve yourself as you are training, and that is the point. They will come to light naturally, it does not need to be forced, and you also do not need to stew over it.

When I read a textbook I treat it as though I am reading a good Novel, I do not try to grasp anything, I simply read, I let the words go by, in one ear and out the other as my step-dad used to say, but doing this I find that I have a greater grasp of the subject matter than when I actually try to grasp it.
It is not simply a 'grasp' of the subject, it is an understanding, in my own words, like it enters my consciousness and mingles with my pscyhe (soul, whatever you want to call it) and becomes part and parcel, although I suspect it was always there, therefor nothing is really gained (Dogen was right).
Perhaps, even now, I am using too many words. A better way to put it is just read, or just train.

Sometimes I will grab a long piece of dowling, go out to a dirt pile in the part of the back yard that is my son's dirt bike track and just practice stationary sword cuts with the intent to stop just short of making contact.
I find that training in one area often bleeds into others and control is a great aspect to develop, because if you can control even down to the centimeter, or less, then the possibilities are endless.
Focused direction of intent, focus, again, is the key word, the root word, that is the main point.
It is not about thought, it is about focus, it is not about understanding, really, it is about focus.

Pros and Cons.

The best way to test the impact power of a strike, whether with the hands or the feet, is to impact something.
In tournament training they used to have us perform specific things to perfection, not necessary to effective application; they would train us to make something look crisp, clean, and have a little snap of the heavy-weight gi on the end just for emphasis, to impress the judges, nothing more.

I was very good at this, I trained for hours upon hours to get things down, to get them right, without really questioning what I was doing.
Even when I no longer had the urge to compete, I kept at it with a mind to achieve oneness with every technique, as was the way of my Teacher.
I did find that when I sparred certain things came out, but they were not readily understood.
The directness of the training does not necessarily need to be so direct, as the idea of timing is built in to understanding the timing of Kata, the idea of rhythm is there, the applications are there as well, albeit to a lesser degree.

I also took to the fighting, or Kumite aspect, which is nothing like fighting, but does have its' upside.
I became very good at breaking the timing, owning the rhythm, utilizing my whole body, the footwork and hand positions worked in tandem as key factors in my stragey, but the greatest key factor was the Kime I had developed, the Zanshin, the Fudo-Shin, the indomitable spirit, the spirit to move in like a predator, to rip the defense to pieces and claim the point.
That does not mean I had any power to my technique, the training was not geared toward those ends, it was a glorified game of tag that I did not start questioning until later on.
Now, the younger crowd can run circles around me with their pesky little taps, but one good hit would drop them and disqualify me. The last tournament I competed in was for fun, I had barely gotten any points, but landed a nice uppercut to the ribs; I actually felt the bone through my thick padded gloves, knocked the guy back, weezing, but he'd tagged me before falling backward and 'won' the match.

That is not a good test of one's metal, it does not take into account the amount of Sanchin training a person has had, nor the amount of power output the person is capable of generating, or lack there-of.
My good friend Levi, from the Family Karate Center (a student of Gene Villa Sensei) once summed it up like this, 'If I draw blood and get disqualified, then I know I have won the fight, I might not have won the match according to the rules of the game, but I won the fight (because of training to those ends).'
He also joked about how the Russians did not know what pads were during the IOGKF World Championships and how the entire Russian Team was disqualified, along with a Sensei from Okinawa who was set off by a well placed kick from a Russian opponent.

Does not sound like good sportsmanship, but ultimately it rings true in most cases; good technique in tournaments does not translate to effective technique in application.
That is the difference between Traditional and Classical, at least if you want to use such terms, the terms don't matter, the art speaks for itself. There are benefits to both approaches.

Portability, not Disability.

What is the importance of stepping in a system? When I think of a stance, I try not to think of them as stances, but snapshots of transitional positions, the 'stances' as a set concept simply do not exist for more than a split second.
The reason we train stances is for familiarization, ingraining specific mechanics to the point of becoming second nature.
Is that entirely true? If it is true then why do so many people revert to the bouncing/dancing style of tournament sparring? It has portability, whereas the ideal of a stance is understood as supplimentary, yet the supplimental principles are rarely utilized as many of us Westerners, indeed, not just Westerners, tend to revert to Boxing.

Personally I don't see a problem with Boxing, the principles are sound, well tested, and should really be examined.
My Grandfather was a Golden Glove Boxer and noted just how many similarities there were between some of the stances I practiced and the basic boxing stance. He said it was almost like someone took aspects of the Boxing stance and cut them apart into little pieces.
Not entirely true, I think he may have been being nice, trying to make conversation or something along those lines, but, as families go, Boxing is also a tradition in mine and I was trained in the basics, so I can kindof see what he was saying.

There is more to the 'stances' however, but we must think of them more like 'footwork' rather than stances; does that mean that we get rid of stances altogether? No.
We must re-arrange our perspective in order to take in the whole picture, that there are no stances, that Zenkutsu Dachi and Sanchin Dachi are both aspects of the same thing, the same centralized stance, which will take shape depending on the over-all strategy.

Shifting between rooted and non-rooted should not be an issue, moving while maintaining alignment should also not be an issue; stances should be portable and useable, they're not just for supplimental training.
Why would you train one way and apply yourself according to a completely different set of motion dynamics?
It really makes absolutely no sense, it is like learning one thing that you will never use under the guise of fitness and conditioning, then moving in ways that are completely contrary to your training.
That is like teaching a Soldier to cook, complete with a pink apron, with very little time devoted to actual soldering, then expecting them to dawn the fatigues and go out to soldier.
Not a good analogy, I know, but hopefully the point is clear. Punching air is not the same as punching an object, just as stepping, planting, standing, and stepping again is not the same as fluid movement.

Shake Some Leaves.

It is interesting, and somewhat refreshing, when someone says to me that they are a bit too 'traditional' for my tastes, yet they end up here, reading this blog.
It is not that I am against Tradition, to me, there are many different forms of tradition, which is obvious by the differing forms we see within the world of Martial Arts.

Okinawan Karate is different from Japanese Karate, even when one tries to assimilate the traditions of the other, there remains a stark difference in content.
Even from school to school the content may differ, while in Japanese tradition everything is centralized, or at least it tries to be centralized, with very little difference from one to the other.
That is the ideal anyway, not necessarily the practice, and because it is not necessarily the practice it is not necessarily the reality.

Shinzen Sensei had posted a good post on the attitude of Tay-Gay, something uniquely Okinawan, the idea that things are not so rigid or orderly, 'let the chips fall where they may.'
It reminded me of what Gandalf the Wizard said in the beginning of the Fellowship of the Ring, 'A Wizard is never late, he arrives exactly when he means to.'
Less structured, yet even amid chaos there arises structure, so while structure exists, it is not nearly as important.

Japanese structure everything, absolutely everything; this reminds me of a story I once heard from my Zen/Karate Teacher about a man who was a master Gardener in Japan.
He was putting his sons to the test to see who would succeed him in the family business, each of them set out to create the perfect garden, he inspected each, and when he came to his eldest son's garden it was perfectly arranged, perfectly ordered, right down to the lowliest stone on the path.
'Almost perfect,' he said as he sat thinking while looking at a tree, he then snapped his fingers, went up to the tree, shook it, causing all the flowers to fall on the ground, 'That's it!'
So, while there is order, there must never be so strict an adherence to order, otherwise everything is just a steril recreation of the former, there is no touch, no creativity, no spontaneity, no life.

That, to me, is the essence of Tradition. There is a certain spirit to it, a feel to it that goes beyond words.
Shotokan considers the three 'K's' to be traditional teaching, and in regards to Shotokan, they are, just as Sport Karate is a tradition among Sport Karateka, especially if it is a family affair, or if they are passing on that specific aspect of the art.
The ascetics are an aim of many Traditional Karate schools, but in my view, ascetics are not so important (this coming from a guy who used to compete on a regular basis in Kata and Kumite).
This is where, I believe, the paradigm shift occurs. Pragmatic or Applied Karate versus what we had/have before.
It is not the same, the methods are not altogether the same; the approach is very Kata Centric, but ultimately it is not as clean cut as the other and the end result is a bit rough around the edges, but the spirit of 'Tradition' remains.
All it is is shaking the leaves up a bit.

Zach Kohrdt June 30, 1995 - December 14, 2009

My wife has had the opportunity to meet many interesting people in the small community of Suncrest, having taken a job up at Suncrest Gas and Grocery.
Wherever she goes, she tries to do what she can for people, regardless of how well she knows them.

I did not have the opportunity to meet Zach, unfortunately he passed away on December the 14th of this year.
Often we take for granted the lives that we are given, we don't really realize just how short it is, or can be.
My own Daughter almost died at birth, I lost a Niece, Martha, to heart problems, she was only two years old, and a Nephew, Sabastian, to an underdeveloped heart, he only lived for eight days, just long enough to say good bye to the parents he would never really know.
I feel there is good reason for everything that happens, though sometimes things might seem senseless, perhaps it is not for us to comprehend as our comprehension of such things tends to distort the true purpose, we're limited in that way and such limitations help to keep us humble.

My Nephew has a twin sister that is alive and well nearly eleven years later; looking back, it was obvious, he was her big brother, he gave his heart up so that she could live a full and healthy life, with no complications.
Both her parents are Deaf, and her mother's side of the family has a history of heart issues, she inherited neither.
My Nephew seemed to take all these things on himself. Many might say I am reading into it a bit too much and that this is, perhaps, a play of human nature in the need to make sense of things.
Ultimately they may be right and often things are not what they seem, but, at the same time, things are exactly what they seem to be.

My heart goes out to Zach's family, as no parent should ever have to out live their child, many cannot comprehend the pain that they must feel right now, and I hope that many more never have to.
His services will be held tonight at 7 PM at the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council, 6116 N. Market St. Spokane.