All about martial arts training and how it affects the way I lead my life: martial arts as personal development. You'll find tips on all aspects of martial arts training such as techniques, fitness, philosophy and history.
Shorinji Kempo | Tang Soo Do | Iaido
Martial arts are often seen as sports for hard people who like to fight. Or sporty people who want to express themselves physically. But there is another side to martial arts and that is the intriguing philosophy underpinning the external manifestation. This philosophy often contains elements which help in forging character and development of the self. I'm sure that Funakoshi used this in licking young ne'er do wells into shape physically and mentally. Doshin So certainly used martial arts as a tool for forming people into socially responsible individuals.
But this is unique to martial arts owing to its philosophy and grounding in Buddhism which has important self-development doctrines, right?
Not quite. A cricket team in LA, USA, is using cricket as a vehicle to clean up gangster neighbourhoods. Established 15 years ago it is captained by a homeless activist, Ted Hayes, who feels that cricket has lessons for life which can show gangsters that there are other ways to live their lives.
Mr Hayes says, "We were... successful at teaching the homeless guys civility through the game".
"According to neuroscientists, having a lack of willpower isn't a character flaw, it could all be down to the physical make-up of the brain. The American science writer Jonah Lehrer explains an experiment by a psychologist at Stanford University."
Being self aware constantly can help build up the frontal cortex which is the area of the brain which handles willpower. Scientists found evidence that subjects who were trying to be aware of their posture throughout the day also built up their willpower. Also exercises in self-awareness or pay more conscious attention will help improve it too!
I'm far from a fan of football but enjoyed Beckham's take on the prospect of the upcoming World Cup in South Africa and playing some of the best teams in the world. I'm guessing he was asked something like, "So, which team do you fear in the tournament?".
The second half of this BBC radio 4 programme looks at mindfulness in everyday life, taking the presenter through some simple steps to achieve a more relaxed and concentrated lifestyle.
Dean Potter seems, to me, an unusual guy. He is an avid rock climber and in addition he loves to highine. Highlining involves crossing a nylon cord tethered at both ends: a bit like tight rope walking but the nylon is about an inch wide and seems to be usually flat.
Nothing unusual so far. This sort of 'rope walking' might be a great way to improve balance and sharpen focus when attached a few feet off the ground. The unusual thing is that Dean Potter likes to do this whilst the line is tethered between rock faces. Oh yeah...nearly forgot...he likes to do it without any safety harness....!
Whilst this sort of thing seems crazy to me I was drawn into the documentary I saw the other night called 'The Sky Walker' on channel 4 and saw some obvious parallels with the martial arts. I'm intrigued as to the way he deals with the fear. An earlier pioneer highliner who used safety lines spoke of the amazing fear you get, even knowing that when the same line is tethered low to the ground can be almost jogged across! This pioneer took many times before he could get across to the other side. He says that it's difficult to combat animal instincts of fear of falling and self preservation: all his fibres in his body screaming at him to stay on the ledge and not venture out. the pay off of course is the feeling of being alive upon arrival on the other side...
But Dean Potter takes this to another dimension. Sure, he admits nerves and we see him trying out the walk on the highline with a safety harness but he's learnt to control his fear. I think he mentioned that this is what drives him: the feeling of being alive! I don't think he's blase about the risks he's taking; he mentions a good friend who died (doing extreme mountaineering) but he needs to feel this aliveness and has to go through a process of fear to get there. In order to do this he controls his fear through breathing and focus, "I'm focusing on my breath and trying to stay real calm", he says. As well as giving him a massive rush it also heightens his awareness to the extent, he says, that in extreme moments he can see the air move.
Now I think he is unusual, not because he wants to conquer fear but he goes to such extreme lengths to do so. We all want to conquer fear. We all have demons to face (this phrase always mystified me when I used to watch trashy martial arts films but I've solved that now- I don't watch them any more!) but most of us are happy enough to deal with tricky presentations at work or a karate championship. That sudden burst of adrenalin, pounding heart and cold sweat in the hands but despite all this you know you have to perform. Occasionally I can drop out of this cycle by recognising that this sales pitch or kata I need to perform isn't a life threatening situation. It just has to be done. But to be honest I find that this takes the edge off my performance and actually the adrenalin squirt helps keep me sharp. Focusing on the task and breathing regulation as Dean Potter does helps enormously but in his case, it really is life or death.
I watched the documentary with detached interest and admiration for the guy 'til it got to the scene where the camera records his passage across the line at considerable height and it was then that I realised explicitly what sort of situation this guy was putting himself in. See for yourself here: (note, although some of the film shows footage directly under his feet I believe this was due to a downward facing camera rather than him looking directly down)
I read recently in a book on the subject of teaching the following passage:
"it is very tempting to propose something like 'Do you understand?' or 'Is this clear?' The problem with these questions is that despite feeling unsure about what they have just been taught, most students when confronted with a question like this are unwilling to admit they don’t understand. They will most likely answer 'yes'. As teachers it is our job to check if students have understood rather than simply ask them."
OK, so that's the first self defence technique- understood? Good, off you go and practice in pairs, I'll be back in 10 minutes.
Seem familiar?
It seems glaringly obvious but as teachers we should concept check often: get the students to show that they have understood before pairing off to practice and even then come back and concept check often.
As a student I find it hard sometimes when a teacher comes back to check then introduces a further level of complexity before I've even grasped the initial concept.
The solution: KISS them.
Not literally or there may be ramifications. But Keep It Simple Stupid. The Stupid was probably put on the end by the marketing guru who thought this up to give it some pazazz.... ho hum.
(Wikipedia states: that KISS is possibly based on ideas "such as Occam's razor, and Albert Einstein's maxim that "everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler"".)
Keeping it Simple need not mean not showing examples or context but I find the simpler the better.
It's always great to beat the Aussies. Why? Well we're old rivals, it's clear to see, but also it's cos they're such bloody good athletes. As I type this on a sunny summer afternoon England are on the verge of winning the Ashes from them. It's not over and there is a *slim* possibility that they could see today out and bat all day tomorrow. But it's so slim that I wouldn't want to make a ham sandwich of that slice of slim-ness.
The amazing thing is though that the Aussies never give in. They have an amazing resilience in the face of adversity which has stood them in good stead in the past. At the opening of play today they were 80 for no wicket and the openers looked mighty comfortable. Even when they were sent from the field of play Ponting looked really in command. If it wasn't for an amazing run out Ponting, one of the best batsmen in the world and certainly a great captain, he may well have steadied the ship. The commentators never cease to say that the Aussies have the "stomach for a fight", "never say die" and this has been clear today with an incredibly solid fight back. They'll be kicking themselves over their first innings collapse of 160, something which has been attributed to English teams in the past.
If you're going to pick a fight with an Australian then make sure you know you're in for the long run.
I seem to be having a stressed couple of weeks. Modern life sometimes goes at a billion miles an hour. But we have to find a way to get on, carry on and push through the mist.
Part of this process involved a long barefoot run along the beach. 5 miles of firm sand and a salty bite to the air. It was sunny but I kept my running jacket on as the wind was chilly.
Marcus Aurelius was emporer of Rome from 161 AD until his death in 180. Towards the end of his life he studied Stoic philosophy which emphasised the control of human emotions and wrote many of his reflections down in the 'Meditations' during his stay in the Danube region.
"Do away with all fancies. Cease to be passion's puppet. Limit time to the present. Learn to recognise every experience for what it is, whether ut be your own or another's. Divide and classify the objects of sense into cause and matter. Meditate upon your last hour. Leave your neighbour's wrong doing to rest with him who initiated it."
"Put from you the belief that "I have been wronged", and with it will go the feeling. Reject your sense of injury, and the injury itself disappears."
Leafing through 'Go Flying!' (don't ask) I came upon an interesting article by aerobatic pilot Corinne Dennis who speaks about her nerves in the face of speed, danger and possible death.
She outlines in the article that she would be sick with nerves a week before an event. It wasn't the performance which bothered her but being unsure of her abilities to land the aeroplane! She has mastered her self doubt over the years through mental preparation and visualisation. Dennis flipped those nervous, negative thoughts into positive mental scenarios of "calm, unhurried ... preparations".
"Keep in mind a picture of yourself finishing the job".
From someone who works under intense pressure in an environment where mistakes could cost her her life these are indeed wise words.
Ok, so technically, Yoko Noge isn't a warrior woman in the sense of a fighting woman but man, what a life! I listened to her amazing life story on this radio documentary: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00b4mhx
This Japanese woman moved to Chicago to follow her passion: blues music. Upon arrival she was asked to sing in a club and has been ever since. Initially she and her husband fought poverty but kept their spirit with their music and their relationships which they forged in the poor neighbourhood where they lived. "It's been always poor but you see always toughness in human beings".
She says of that time, "it gives me the feeling back of a time when I really wasn't sure of myself and wasn't sure of anything but this interest to the music". Her slight Japanese accent stuttering only over int-ter-est only endears you more to her.
Following a rather frisky sparring session tonight one young lady was a bit shaken from an encounter with her partner, a young fella who has pretty good technique for his age but not so good control. At the end of the session I asked how she was as I saw she was upset. After she'd explained what happened I sympathised with her but she replied, "Well no point blaming other people for your own mistakes. I should've been more aware".
I was quite humbled. As I said to her, if only I'd had that sort of attitude when I was younger!
I am celebrating a good session and hard sparring with a Hoegaarden Blanche. Ah!
I'm reading it now and LOVING it! It's beautifully laid out and makes a lot of sense, written by a guy with plenty of experience.
Just check out the typography:
(Cwooooar!)
The photos are wonderful, powerful pieces on black backgrounds which enhance the body movement. I have some design issues with it such as certain photos are laid in the centre of the full spread and as such are lost when the book has been bound. This is probably because the gutter width is too tight (10mm I think) so I have to bend it out uncomfortably to read the text. Having said that, it's generally well designed and a nice book to look at (which is not the case for a lot of books on the martial arts).
Never mind though because Mulholland writes well about the kata applications, history and deeper techniques of Goju ryu. For all Okinawan practitioners it's a must but traditional karateka will certainly get off on this too (I am!).
Interestingly Mulholland puts forward the idea that karate 'lost' some of it's grappling elements at a time when it was carving out a niche in Japan where Ju jitsu and aikido had already taken this ground. In fact Mulholland bemoans the fact that many karateka no longer practice bunkai and he gives this much attention in the book-no wonder then that the foreword is by Iain Abernethy (a leading exponent of karate application).
The Royal Academy of Arts presents an exhibition on one of the greatest Japanese print artists, Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797-1861). Featuring over 150 works, the exhibition presents Kuniyoshi as a master of imaginative design. It reveals the graphic power and beauty of his prints across an unprecedented range of subjects highlighting his ingenious use of the triptych format.
I was fed up tonight and didn't want to go training. It had been a lovely day and as it was a bank holiday it all had the feeling of a Sunday evening. I don't train on a Sunday evening. and I was tired. But I hauled my ass onto my bicycle and by the time I'd got to the river I was feeling much better.
Still fed up though. Very curious feeling of indifference but I managed to get there, change, help out with samu and then into the lesson. I didn't have that usual corporeal heaviness when I'm having trouble concentrating. My body was ok despite my mental mist and I eased through the warm-ups and was lucid during kihon but there was a strange dream-like sensation. The French have a saying which sums up how I felt: "à côté de ses pompes" (to be beside one's shoes). This strange out of body experience: as if I were standing next to myself. Not quite right.
All this despite good tuition, smiles and help from colleagues and at the end a feeling of having learnt something (potentially profound).
I still couldn't shake that feeling of being à côté de mes pompes, but I'm glad I went.
Whatever you think of Michael Portillo's Tory politics you couldn't label him a violent man. He seems relatively charming, softly spoken and fairly self-assured but in the show 'Horizon' he's looking deep into himself (and probably all of us) to examine human violence and looking particularly at the questions: do we learn to be violent or is it instinctive? Or what drives people to beat the crap out of each other? (That's my line, not Mr. Portillo's).
An interesting programme in this series examines the South American idea of a tinku: a celebration of violence whereby locals congregate and literally pick fights with each other, even encouraging small children to emulate this sort of stand-off. Portillo is there to see if anyone can act violently or even enjoy it. Somebody, say who's had a posh upbringing, never been in a fight in his life and abhors violence. Yup, you've guessed it: Portillo faced his very own tinku.
A video of a tinku (not Portillo's)
Another thing the show looks at is the pleasure we get when we fight. Dopamine occurs when we experience pleasure through sex, exercise, drugs and indeed violence. Some people are addicted to violence it seems like others are to booze.
Interestingly some studies show that being taught to share before the age of three years old (upto when children can't really control their tempers) helps shape their pre-frontal cortex where violence control mechanisms are built for use in later life.
Doctors have seen that patients who have undergone trauma to the pre-frontal cortex can become more violent. the damage to the brain injures the control mechanisms which are in place and this is why post-trauma patients can become violent.
There are other ways that our control mechanisms can be broken down too: through alcohol and drug use, sleep deprivation, extreme external pressure as well as something we can't change: ageing...
