Karate is not about beating up the other guy

I didn't say this, Geoff Thompson did…
Check out this interview / lecture. Fascinating insights into one man's journey in the martial arts and how it can help you to master your fears.

The most beautiful samu I've ever seen

I was careful to say *I*'ve ever seen as, if you look closely at the photo, you'll see that these diligent karateka are in fact my children and therefore this is special to me...

The act of cleaning the hall before training is a great way to make sure everything is clean and tidy and hopefully reducing the likelihood of splinters or at the very least making for a more pleasant experience. We don't have a dedicated martial arts hall so this is fairly necessary - I was scolded after one week's lesson when we hadn't been able to sweep the floor and had done some floor exercises and everybody's white do bohk's were filthy! But to be honest the kids love doing samu. And so do I!

I like the idea of devoting some time to cleansing (nurturing) the place where we'll train. It's almost a pre-training meditation. After all you're lost in the act of cleaning and making sure the floor is free from splinters or miscellaneous objects which may injure (in the past I've found-as I'm sure others have- thumb tacks on the floor, paper clips and small lego blocks which are REALLY painful underfoot!...). Of course this time can only be achieved if you turn up nice and early without being rushed-that's what I like. It may be considered a calm before the storm (especially when I'm teaching the little ones!) but I do have a job getting the brooms off the little ones who love to do it partly to play with the brooms and partly they like to help dad out.

I don't think they should do it out of obligation to me, but one day they'll see that it's nice to do it for their own benefit and for that of the others they train with. Doing this simple chore puts us against ideas of servitude if we're not careful. It's not only about serving others (although the word samu may allude to this) it's about working through a concept of diligent application for each and every one of ourselves.

This cleansing ritual is very useful. My opinion is that it's about helping others through a simple task as well as helping ourselves through applied and continued service to the hall and our co-students. This helps us retain a sense of ourselves-we're a member of a club: black belts masters, 6th gup all perform cleaning tasks. This helps us all see that we work together to help each other grow through martial arts.

Walking in the air

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)

Lean Manufacturing and Kaizen

In a previous life I studied Production management and one thing I was completely enthralled with was the idea of Quality and the management of lean production. Lean production as the name suggests endeavours to reduce waste in the manufacturing process. What a fantastic idea, I thought, to be able to solely concentrate on the delivery of value to the customer and at the same time reduce wasted effort and resources. Streamlining at its best!

Kaizen is a related topic and can be applied within the whole idea of lean production and focuses on continual improvement. The idea is that efficiency can be reached by making small improvements all the time. These improvements can be gradual but there is a common goal (within business) towards driving the process towards efficiency of work patterns and delivering quality to the customer. My good friend NAS works for Danaher (who say on their website "Kaizen is our way of life") and he told me he went to a Kaizen seminar with a Japanese sensei! (NAS, please comment!)

You guys are way ahead of me, but just in case, check this out...