Open-mindedness involves being receptive to a wide variety of ideas, arguments, and information. This doesn’t mean that being open-minded is easy. Being open to new ideas and experiences can sometimes lead to confusion. . What you once practiced as a “block” or “punch” doesn’t seem to work the way you thought, and realizing is wasn’t…
Category: Martial Arts
“Power is created in a combination of correct respiratory breathing and correct posture.”
In many kata, and indeed the techniques of karate, there should be a great deal of emphasis placed on abdominal breathing. That is, in which you are supposed take very deep, audible, abdominal breaths, synchronized with foot and hand motions. . If we take Sanchin kata as an example, many students I have witnessed practicing…
What does it mean to be a senpai?
What does it mean to be a Senpai (sempai)? Senpai (先輩) translates as “Senior” and can be applied in any situation where someone is senior to you. But the meaning for those in a traditionally run martial art school is far deeper than simply ‘Senior’. The senpai of a dojo has usually trained for a…
“The most powerful weapon on earth is the human soul on fire.”
Be passionate about your martial arts training and your martial arts training will improve. . People join martial arts schools for many different reasons, perhaps wanting to learn how to fight, how to protect themselves, get fit, gain confidence or a combination of all those things. Often times those reasons change when there is a…
It’s not the number of techniques you know, but how well you know them.
Some instructors teach their students “just enough” and often these instructors believe that they themselves have been taught all there is. . Learning is often taken to mean memorization, and advancing from one grade to the next as education, and passing that grade to mean they are competent. . If instructors just follow the curriculum,…
Common misconceptions in self-defense.
Fighting ability is just one aspect of self-defense. It exists alongside other skills such as situational awareness, verbal de-escalation, escaping, weapons, protecting others, the law, etc. which many people unfortunately overlook. . Also learning to recognize and avoid, or verbally de-escalate potentially hostile situations, these are hugely important skills if your interest in practicing the…
A hands up guard may not be useful in self-defense.
In boxing we were taught the importance of a good, tight guard. When you put up a guard you’ve just consented to a fight. . Self-defense is different. In self-defense if you lift your hands and wait in your perfectly aligned tight guard, you’ve lost the initiative, the ability to surprise, and control the enemy’s…
Your Karate isn’t working!
“Karate doesn’t work”…… I hear this all the time. This is a meaningless statement without a qualifier. . Works for what? You have to define the goal and from there seek the solution. . For you, is it a martial art (culture, health, personal challenge, etc). Is it fighting, competition, tournaments (consensual). Or is it…
Karate is NOT only a striking art.
When karate began to move across the world in the early to mid 1950’s the training emphasis was almost exclusively on striking. Kata was not properly understood. . Even today you can still find karate dojo that teach kata without ‘bunkai’ (analysis/breakdown). Those first generation Western practitioners then went on to perpetuate the bias of…
If you’re thinking too much you’re not practicing enough.
If you’re thinking too much you’re not practicing enough. . A common problem is students don’t know what to practice or how to practice. To be effective in their learning they need to have small doable goals for them to accomplish, and then are tested on them….. the very next lesson. Unfortunately, when they return…
Does size give people an advantage in a fight?
I had a question from a potential student this week who was concerned over his (low) weight and how effective certain styles were for him. . Does size give people an advantage in a fight? . Size does matter in the martial arts, but not necessarily in the way you might think. . Generally speaking,…
“Karate wa shōgai no kenkyūdesu.” (Karate is a lifelong study)
空手は生涯の研究です- Karate wa shōgai no kenkyūdesu (Karate is a lifelong study) – Mabuni Kenwa (1889-1952) . . Relatively speaking, there is still relatively few who choose to dedicate their lives to studying martial arts. In terms of sports, many choose more mainstream pastimes such as football, basketball, baseball, or soccer, as apposed to the martial…