Japan Day Shorinji Kempo demo at the Kaetsu Centre, Cambridge 2

Japan Day Shorinji Kempo demo at the Kaetsu Centre, Cambridge

Expertly filmed in three parts...total running time for the Shorinji Kempo demo, about 20 mins. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

Shorinji Kempo demonstration at Japan Day, Kaetsu Centre, 5th March

Come and see the Shorinji Kempo demonstration at Japan Day, Kaetsu Centre, 5th March.

Our demo is on at 3:00 but the day starts at 12:00 and there are plenty of great activities and other martial arts demos to look forward to! Check out the official page: http://www.kaetsu.co.uk/speeve.htm

Programme is here: http://www.kaetsu.co.uk/events/japandayprog.pdf

Black belt training

This post is in response to Sue's question about my preparation for Shorinji Kempo shodan grading. Check out her full blog 'Countdown to Shodan', here.

I wanted to outline my approach to my impending dan grade exam. The way I'm looking at it I need to follow two broad aspects of training which then break down into more categories.

The main aspects for focusing my preparation are:
- body
- mind

Seems a bit noddy doesn't it but I then break this down further:

Body
* Physical fitness: am I fit enough in key areas of stamina, aerobic capacity and strength.
* Technique fitness: I define this as being fit enough to execute the techniques themselves well enough without flaking out.

I think these two are subtly different. I want to work on general fitness by running (especially fartlek to exploit explosive energy) and light weights / stretching for general toning. Technique fitness will be the ability to execute techniques over and over again and I will be practicing this in this manner.

Of course doing so also helps me remember my techniques which brings me on to the next section of 'Mind':

Mind
* memorize techniques (repetitive training)
* train on memory recall
* examine in great detail techniques I haven't done for a while: which stance is it? which pin is used?
* Breathe! More meditation and deep breathing to help my blood oxygenate and yoga for relaxation and flexibility.

Shorinji kempo is very different from Tang Soo Do in that rather than learn mostly kata the emphasis is on learning lots of paired techniques which means (for me) in depth learning and memorizing of details....

Cold floor, seminar and moustaches

Even real men feel the cold. Even real men with moustaches for Movember feel the cold, wintry, November floors of dojos. That's what me and fellow Movember bandido felt when we went down to the Bristol winter seminar for some extra tuition.

As ever with Shorinji Kempo the folk were friendly and we had a good time and picked up a few learning pointers along the way.

Shorinji kempo as self defence

Last night I was battered by a woman and it reassured me.

Sensei set up a sequence of attacks or approaches which could easily be seen as self defence moves and my partner (a woman of much slighter build) and I started practising. We both took turns as the aggressor but it was quite obvious to me she was executing good technique and obvious to others that she was throwing me around the dojo. This made me feel pretty good. I knew I wasn't faking it (not being easy on her-in fact sometimes I was quite awkward) and my partner, SD, had to make the technique work within this self defence framework. It gave me a good feeling of reassurance that what sometimes seem as quite formal techniques can be effective as self defence moves; all this as she bounced me off the walls.

I'm not saying that this is 'Woman's Self Defence' (a term I find incredibly condescending) nor that I'm pleased a *woman* can make these techniques work, simply that I felt a smaller, slighter person can be effective on a heavier aggressor who acts with feeling and with intent.

What is not considered in this format, of course, is street environment or street clothing. Any dojo 'self defence moves' are really no more than an approximation of the physicality of what might happen in the street/bus/tube. We walk into a dojo with sports specific clothing, bare feet, clean flat floors and bright lighting. None of these elements are guaranteed on the street.

This does not mean practising the self defence technique is worthless. If it's never used then it can never be conceived of or tapped into at a subconscious level when needed.

Spartan's from Cambridge Shorinji Kempo Dojo come back *with* shields

Today a bunch of Mad Badgers ran in the name of the Cambridge Shorinji Kempo Do

jo (CSKD) at the Spartan race (http://www.spartanrace.com/), Bassingbourn. This was a gruelling (otherwise it wouldn’t have been ‘Spartan’, right?) 5 kilometre race at the military barrack assault course with some interesting additions.

On top of a LONG dark tunnel to crawl through, streams to splodge through, burning bales to jump over and mud to crawl through we had a very cold swim (about 30 metres) in the lake and a succession of hills to run up…and down!

But we survivied! Crispin, Sarah, Chris and honorary CSKD member Ian all rejoiced at the end at gaining our medal (and an additional bloody nose for Crispin who seemed to forget all ukemi skills). The pugil stick wielders felled Crispin, onto his nose (I simply screamed, "Not the face! Not the face!".) He took it in good sport though and after tea and sausage sarnies we felt warm enough to ..go home!

Nice one everyone. Especially Crispin who ran it all in his dogi…

Nage Practice

Ok, so this may seem tame to experienced throwees but it was a first for me!

(I'm the one being 'thrown'.)

Grading day, Shorinji kempo

I had to stop and check out the boats as they clunk-whished past me on the river Cam. It was a nice settling noise which eased my nerves a little…

After having met up with the other grading candidates we chatted on the train to London and tried to remain focused. We each had our ways of handling the nerves but mostly we didn’t try and swot up, but simply relaxed. Jonathan’s cast iron concnetration was broken by a “silk” finish on a car he saw. From that moment on he couldn’t hink of anything else. I think he’s in love.

The grading went without hitch but during the warm-up I thought Iwas going to expire! This was when the nerves really kicked in. Luckily my grading started fairly soon and I didn’t have too much time to wait and think about gaps in my knowledge. As it happens the other two kenshi in my group seemed to have more gaps than I! At first this seemed like a blessing and boosted my confidence (even though I wanted them to do well too) but soon it became apparent that grading with others not so prepared can be a challenge in itself!

The grading flashed by with only a few hitches for me but we helped each other through and I felt good when it came to an end. The train journey home was full of relief and I wished we’d had a couple of beers…

Learning with a clear mind

Last night's Shorinji Kempo lesson turned out to be a good, sweaty session with lots of refining technique and learning formats ready for the grading. Unfortunately as I entered the dojo I had a few things on my mind and I was in a dark and painful mental state. These, typically (for me, at any rate), can be difficult to shake and the first 20 minutes training (warm-up and kihon) were not easy. Interestingly the light randori I did with sensei TO to warm up was easy. I find randori really helps clear my mind. Sadly, just after I finished warming up with the randori I descended back into my dark mood and I could see the black dog was following me.

My main worry was that I was more concerned about my mental state than learning. This is a crucial lesson for me as it's the run-up to the grading and I want to fill in any gaps of knowledge I have so I needed to buckle down. During this period when I was preoccupied I wasn't learning effectively. At times when sensei explained something to us in detail, I glazed over and ended up thinking about my preoccupations. "Clear?", he asked. "Hai!" I replied, then thought, "Uh oh...what did he say?". I'm sure lots of people encounter this but it struck me how it impacted on my learning last night. By the end of the session I'd shaken it and was focused on techniques, especially my kumi embu, and was learning well because my mind was clear(er).

Interestingly sensei TO pushed me out of my mood without realising it simply by creating an atmosphere of determined and focused repetition of the kumi embu. The determination and focus on the techniques meant I had no space in my mind for other worries. Excellent!

For those interested, the kumi embu for 2nd to 1st kyu is as follows:

1. Uchi uke zuki - ren hen ko

2. Soto uke zuki - ren hen ko

3. Sode nuki

4. Sode dori

5. Kusshin zuki - ren hen ko

6. Soto oshi uke zuki - ren hen ko

7. Kata muna otoshi

8. Eri juji

9. Ude maki

10. Chidori gaeshi - ren hen ko

Techniques and principles

Shorinji Kempo ended up being a thoughtful, but tiring and (for my wrists) painful lesson. It was interesting as sensei TO took us through a series of fundamental techniques but executing them in a slightly different manner. Sometimes this can lead to confusion as the new ideas might clash somewhat with the official technique. This time it seemed different though and I felt we were exploring the core principles in each technique rather than walking through the movements step by step. For example gyaku gote (the mother technique) can be executed against most people by following a series of steps: take preparation stance, feel for the off balance, take up wrist, release, press down on back of hand and turn. That's pretty much how a beginner might learn it. Last lesson sensei TO emphasised more the result which was needed: attacker needs to be dispatched to the floor in this direction. Go...play.... It was much more instructive than this but we certainly had food for thought and were less concerned about the 'mechanics' and more about the feeling which is also an important aspect in learning martial arts techniques.

Gyaku gote-the mother technique.

Okuri gote-the tough nut to crack...

Both killers on the wrists.

Pain

I'm in pain. Wrist pain to be precise, but not all the time.

I'm having trouble working through some of the attacking Shorinji kempo wrist techniques. I realised quite quickly that Shorinji Kempo attacked the wrists a lot but recently I'm getting frequent pain in my wrists. I just don't know whether it's my inner wrist muscles getting used to the twisting and turning, me being a wuss or worse. Thankfully I've been introduced to the Powerball! The marketing blurb says...

"The unique sphere successfully blurs the line between exercise & fun and is suitable for both male and female, young or old. NSD Powerball generates between 1 - 40lbs of resistance depending on rotor speed and will tone the arms & wrists, build muscle or gently rehabilitate damaged limbs with its smooth non impact action."

I was recommended this by a real tennis player friend of mine and reckon that it's worth seeing whether building up core muscles in my wrist and forearms will help.

Watch this space.

Hitting stuff

Our Tang Soo Do lesson last week was pretty high tempo as Master C obviously wanted us to burn off some of those Christmas calories. Joy...!

So we started off with some bruising shuttle run combinations which had us all gasping for breath and followed that up with some stretching. After this we then started hitting stuff which is always satisfactory: focus pads and bagwork was the order of the day. In kempo pairwork is essential and this is very good for seeing how bodies interact and work and feeling where to strike but you can't, obviously, go at it full pelt or you'd soon run out of training partners. It's good to thwack a bag occasionally to get feedback as to how a full power kick feels.

There is other martial arts equipment that can be used too. Paddles give a good focus workout for turning and spinning kicks: strikes that aren't possibly as powerful but require a degree of skill and accuracy when turning. Straight kicks and punches are much better done on a shield or heavyweight held bag. In fact we have a pretty old shield which has softened somewhat so it has a good feel to it without crumpling your hands into a bag of bones!

On that note: I do seem to be having some trouble with my wrists these days and I think it's the increased training I've been doing at Shorinji kempo. Lots of juho techniques attack the wrists and hands (from grabs and holds by the opponent) and mine seem to be especially vulnerable. I'll have to see how things progress but am worried that it might cause long term damage.

Then again, I worry too much!

2nd Kyu Grading Shorinji Kempo

Grading was a little nerve wracking as sensei Jee graded a group of 11 kenshi- this meant extreme scrutiny by him with nowhere to hide. Of course this is the right attitude but when you're nervous that's all you want to do-hide!

I was pretty well genned up on everything so felt comfortable but did some pretty poor ukemi which shook my nerves further!

After the grading we slotted into the main seminar which concentrated on the 'mother technique' that is to say: gyaku gote.

Tiredness and training

I'm tired out today. It doesn't help that one of my children had a nightmare and I tended to her at about 2am. But I can't blame her, poor thing! The reason I'm physically tired is that I've had training sessions, non-stop for the past couple of days. Shorinji Kempo on Monday night, boxing for an hour and a half on Tuesday morning then Tang Soo Do on Tuesday evening.

I feel a bit run down but I like the tightness of the muscles and the feeling of having worked at something.

Shorinji Kempo gave me insight into the way I learn a martial art. The philosophy discussion was based on this and as a Zen art has some fairly regimented attitudes towards learning. What I found on Monday was humility works quite well at learning. Being there, present for training and willing to soak up knowledge goes a long way. It's sometimes very easy to become over-confident about one's own abilities if one is never challenged! You can potentially get an over inflated estimation of your own abilities. Of course confidence is a good thing and I believe martial arts training delivers this in bagfuls: not the confidence to beat someone up or defend yourself (which is achieved) but the confidence of knowing yourself, your limitations and your ability to train within a process or system.

Boxing was fun. I was completely tired out after it and all the younger scamps looked like they could have trained for another hour! Interestingly the teacher told us that the best way to box is to not get hit. Sounds like a no-brainer but there were a couple of big guys there trading slugs at each other and I think this was meant for their benefit. We looked at turning the body sideways to minimise the target area, laying back, parrying and countering rapidly. I was amazed at how these similar elements crop up in more traditional martial arts. I shouldn't be I suppose because fundamentally there can be only a limited number of strategies to striking another person in 'sparring'. Very good practice of laying or leaning back, out of range and then returning with counters. Very tiring!

Tang Soo Do started off quite up tempo as well with light sparring straight off to warm us up! I realised quickly that my body was tired and I wasn't recovering as quickly as I would like! When this happens I try to focus on core technique, slowing it down if I have to but maintaining good posture. It's easy to shoot out tired limbs to make the technique *look* ok but it's another do the technique well under stress. This was what I was trying to do but very often I ended up gasping...and sweating! Later I had the pleasure of working with a young woman for her hyung. This was made a pleasure as she was reacting very well to my coaching to the extent I saw a great difference between starting and finishing the session! We mostly looked at engaging the whole body from foot through hip rotation and ending up at the arms. It's a difficult thing for beginners to grasp but she did a great job! Younger practitioners tend to fling their arms and legs out without engaging their whole body and this, in some ways, is normal: they haven't seen or been shown the intricacy of the body mechanics involved. I find, however, that once the whole body is being used to generate power it becomes an entirely better experience! And you get more feedback from your body when you do this. Otherwise you just end up flapping your arms about...!

These guys seem to be trying REALLY hard to engage their entire bodies...

(oldie but goody!)

New Shorinji Kempo ad

I've worked up a new flyer for the Shorinji Kempo club:

http://cambridge.shorinji.org.uk/

Killing Machine

I have a deep, dark and for a martial artist, a terrible, terrible secret. It's ok though. I'm happy with myself. I can say it... I'm a martial artist and I don't like martial arts films.

Gasp.

I know.

I've even had some people say to me that the reason they started practicing martial arts was because of the Bruce Lee films they saw! Dutifully I've tried. I really have but the best I can say about them is that they're crap. None of the fancy choreography or fight sequences do anything for me.

Sadly the latest film I watched called 'Killing Machine' (1976) didn't really change my mind either. It's fairly rough and ready and quite badly put together and cliche is piled upon cliche so I hardly warmed to it. There is, however, quite an interesting story underpinning the whole film, that this is the (unofficial) biography of Shorinji Kempo. So for me to say the fight sequences are lame might put me on thin ice. There's plenty for kenshi to enjoy in the film but you'd think that the only technique in Shorinji Kempo was gyaku gote!

The actors are quite obviously trained kenshi and this raises the film somewhat but it can't mask the true nature of this film and that is as a corporate video. OK so it's the way they might do corporate videos in 1976! The film shows the development of Shorinji Kempo after the war and the hot-headed Doshin So's efforts to create a dojo for the betterment of the common people. These are fine fundamentals and they still remain at the heart of kempo. As such the film does have a certain inherent value but I'd say only for the die hard Kenshi or maybe martial arts film geek. Sonny Chiba is 'good' in the film.

Bit cheesy, good kempo moves from Chiba, interesting as a training/research 'aid' or insight.

Thinking evening

It was hot in the city tonight. Wow. I was dripping! Sensei therefore made the lesson a thinking and feeling one. We spent the time after kihon examining one particular technique okuri gote, but with much feeling and seeing what seemed to work or not. How did it work and how to feel through the technique. what did it do to the partner? How did they move? Where was the point of imbalance?

A thoughtful and in depth lesson.

Shorinji Kempo video

Fed up again!

Maybe it was because Monday was such a beautiful, balmy evening and as I cycled to Shorinji Kempo I had a marvellous desire to sit on Parker's Piece and gaze up at the sky. For hours. Or maybe I just wasn't in the mood. Either way I struggled to get myself to training. Why was I here?

Once I was there things warmed up slowly. Nicely, but slowly. It was only at the howa (or philosophy period) that I really saw why I was there. Sensei DD spoke about 'go ju ittai' - hard and soft make one whole. This really struck me as great: how wonderful to be studying this hard/soft style using blocks, punches, locks, grabs, throws, evasion, Zen philosophy, healing massage all with the aim of personal development.

More on go ju ittai:

http://www.shorinjikempo.or.jp/en/about/impress.html

(See number 5)