Mindfulness: taking time out for you

A great TED talk here from a guy called Andy Puddicombe about how we can bring meditation into out lives. It just takes 10 minutes a day! For me I often feel I don't have time for meditation. This video tells of Andy Puddicombe's story and gives a few tips about how to appreciate life, the present moment and how to make time for those ten minutes a day.

Mindfulness and being in the present moment is essential for the martial arts practitioner. Martial arts training can be really good at bringing us into the moment. Thinking of nothing else. There is nothing else, just the technique. Just the breath. Just the movement. No thought or at least a clear and alert mind. No thought I suppose is brain death! In this video Puddicombe highlights that mindfulness is about stepping back, with a "relaxed, focus mind". Nothingness can be a void…next step: sleep!

This constant training in the martial arts helps to relax and focus.

Weapons as training aids

This short video clip shows TO and MH using weapons to see how classical techniques feel when 'extended'. I found this particularly useful in training as it made us work harder at the technique but also gave back some insight into the inner workings of body mechanics and tai sabaki. Foot work became essential as feedback from touch on our arms was taken away. Despite this we could 'feel' with our bodies in 'cutting' into the technique.

Clearing the car of snow

I experienced an interesting snippet of body movement plus snow the other day when I was clearing the car before setting out. As I pushed the snow off with my arm my body twisted and slipped backwards. This is a fairly normal reaction to pushing but the snow made me realise I was weighted backwards on my heels and imbalanced.

As I pushed hard forward with the arms my heels went forward too, effectively toppling myself backwards.

Check out a Professor's solution to slipping on ice:Try

"For example, if you were on ice and starting to fall forward, you

would instinctively try to push backward on the ice.  If you do not  slip, by Newton's Third Law (action = -reaction), the ice will push  forward on your feet, helping you to regain your balance.  If your  feet slip, you could lose your balance and fall forward.  If you are stationary, you can stay upright as long as your center  of gravity is directly above the area on the ice defined by your  feet and the space between them.  By pressing on your toes or heels  and/or your left or right foot, you can keep yourself balanced.  If  you take small steps, it is easier to keep this balance and the  corrective forces will be smaller, making it less likely that you will slip.  Keeping your balance is not an easy problem as small children  quickly learn. For example if you are walking on a railroad track  and start to fall to the right, you can regain your balance by  bending the top part of your body to the right or the bottom part (a  foot and attached leg) to the left.  Try it!  Dick Plano, Professor of Physics emeritus, Rutgers University" (http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy05/phy05103.htm)

Try the exercise he prescribes: stand feet shoulder width apart, 'slip' your right foot forward (on imaginary railway lines)-if you endeavour to keep your weight where it was you feel unstable so lean into it to regain your balance. Best done in socks on a wooden floor.

And hey presto: front stance! Our sturdy everyday practice stance. As endorsed by professors!

The Use of Weapons

After a few repeats of kesa giri I made it my learning point to look at losing the tension in my hands and arms. I needed to make the cut flow naturally and fluidly. I was minded that the fencing tutors told us to hold the foil handle like it were a small bird: too tight and we'd crush it, too lightly and it'd fly away. For the next ten or so repetitions of kesa giri I just concentrated on that and loosing my shoulders which led to some improvement but still not the lightness of touch I wanted or expected. The sword and I were two different processes and I was starting to experience a certain level of discomfort and unease. Relaxation of the grip and arms eluded me so I eased off, stood there and waited. It was cold but I took the time to breathe and waited for the draw to begin which it did. I drew and cut and re-sheathed in one (fairly) smooth line.

And then I waited.

Another draw with less tension- without focusing on the problem areas I was allowing the sword to follow its path more 'naturally' and inhibiting it less in it's flow. De-focusing or working on the core element of relaxation helped me connect better with the nature of the sword and of the cuts.

Following from this I took up the bo to continue training with this relaxed attitude which had worked just fine with the sword. I have a beautiful, traditional red oak bo staff which, while not being heavy as such, is substantial enough to lead to tight forearms after a while of training. I was looking for this lightness that I had found in the iai practice. It followed on nicely while executing simple low blocks, turns and strikes. Not grasping at the technique helped me flow and integrate better with the movement rather than fighting against it with my mind.

Fencing Foil Positions

Is her back hand supposed to be that far over?

Teaching at Tang Soo Do

Tuesday night's Tang Soo Do was less sweaty and more cerebral. It's good to explore lesser taught aspects of the art and tonight meant much in-depth teaching of forms and one steps. I love to teach forms and their applications: it's somewhere you can find real depth in karate so needless to say I had a fun time and loved grilling students to make sure stances were in order. I enjoyed seeing a beginner react to my tuition and 'get it'. She was executing movements in the last phase of the step and from the elbow. A step through and punch should be one fluid movement starting from the front stance, flowing through with the step, arms engaging and body weight and momentum adding power to the torquing punch. Once I'd explained that this step and punch was one movement she stopped prodding the air and got it together! Fantastic. I hope she gets more from her forms now. Hyung is a connected and organic entity not really a series of movements. Describing it as a series of movements almost implies that the movements are disparate. It really shouldn't be considered as 35 moves nor should it be thought of as one 'process'. Usually forms can be conceptualised as 4 or 5 grand processes within one entity. (See also Rhythm in Hyungs)

On that note I am pleased to say that I learned a new form. Something I haven't done in years so it was a pleasant experience. It seems a completely different process from when I was a white belt. Back then I struggled with basic concepts such as low block or front stance or (as above) dealing with chunks of form rather than piecemeal. Now I know how to execute a low block so I don't need to expend energy on that but I do need to dig deeper into the application and rhythm (or punctuation) which is challenging but in a different way!

This is not the style of Rohai I learned but this is beautiful to see:

Applications within Pyung Ahn Ee Dan

I needed to move.

I'd missed Shorinji Kempo on Monday and despite an energetic session on Tuesday at Tang Soo Do I felt like I'd missed out tonight so I headed for the garden once my chores were done...

After having warmed up with a bit of skipping and burpees I decided to start close to the beginning and examined Pyung Ahn Ee Dan in detail particularly working through the applications therein.

The mirrored blocking and striking sequence has a lot of variety in application here but I'm of the feeling that this is most probably a block, arm lock and throw combination rather than a block and 'uppercut'-way too facile. Interestingly within Tang Soo Do there seems to have been preserved a head wrench one way then the other as we step across and up into a prepared stance for the block and kick.

I also enjoyed working through the soo do or spear hand at one extremity of the form. This is preceded by a parry (not just a flop down from the mah ki - it must be a parry) then strike.

From the strike through to the next block there is a turn involving the spear hand to be opened out and twisted behind the block to facilitate a release.

There's a lot within this form and I still need to work on it...

More on breath

Top tip today is...breath naturally during technique and you'll have enough clout for the kihap. I was tired and breathing hard and when the teacher put a string of techniques together which seemed straightforward I experimented by breathing out gradually through the technique in order to build up to the kihap. Not such good idea as, by that time, I'd ran out of puff!

I think there may be some value in a long breathe out culminating with kihap but it would have to be on shorter technique 'strings': A rapid block or two building up to a powerful strike and kihap, maybe. But certainly not what I was attempting which was more like 3 blocks, a kick and a strike...

Ho hum.

Breathing naturally would have kept my energy up and helped me through the techniques. To kihap, you need air in the lungs!

How to teach martial arts

That's a bit of a sweeping statement to live up to isn't it?

Maybe I should say that I took a 'Teaching' course over the weekend. Interestingly we covered some great techniques including chunking (breaking down long concepts into digestible chunks) a little bit but some of the other concepts that were covered I thought could be relevant for teaching martial arts.

Concept checking

Constantly check with the students they have understood by asking them questions, making them demonstrate to see they've got it! If not, more coaching and partner work might help lick them into shape. How to tell? Check!

Drilling

Yup there's no getting away from it kids. We have to drill....and frequently. You know the old adage about doing something seven times in order for it to really sink in? Well I'd say seven times for it to sink in, seven hundred to really get on top of it...

Praise

Make sure the students (children?) get to know when they've done something well. Positive affirmation will help in the learning process.

Error Correction

Sounds a no-brainer, right? But it's easy to let those tiny things slip but error correction is essential if the student is to make good progress in a timely fashion. I detest correcting a green belt's front stance, but I have to sometimes because somebody has either not picked up on this or feels as if it's 'good enough'. Good enough is just not good enough in martial arts.

Start off simple then move to complex

As I mention above it's pointless learning Bassai if you're front stance is ropey. This aligns with chunking: assess the student's level and tailor the right amount of 'chunks' to this and also choose a relevant level of expertise. Teach at a level the student(s) can understand and relate to.

Soar like an eagle

Tang Soo Do was hot and sweaty tonight and Master Campbell was hell bent on energy. So we ended up doing spinning back jumping outside to inside kick. Killer. as he was demonstrating he whipped round very quickly and at that point was able to perform the kick. I was happily executing the kick till I saw this demo but it was a bit sluggish. Once I'd seen a different possibility I could imagine myself doing it. I know: this sounds a bit new-wavey. Visualise yourself doing it and you can do it! Seeing the technical aspects of the move really enables you. 

It makes me think of being lined up a long time ago and doing ee dan ahp chagi in a huge class. The guy in front of me was a lean, young dan grade who jumped up and seemed to hover in the air as he made the kick. He looked like a bird gliding through the air! I was feeling like a badger rather than an eagle. But his kick inspired me and I examined him doing it once or twice and then emulated him. Ok it may not have been as good as his but my attempts came better, faster and smoother. I was happier. More like a badger with wings.

Moving in back stance (hugul ja sae)

Moving forward in hugul ja sae can be a pain. A real pain (in the legs)! Of course when executing kicking techniques progressing forwards is a cinche but quite often (in our dojang) Master Campbell will have us marching up and down in back stance punching and blocking without kicking (or sometimes even foojin) ... Moving forward in hugul ja sae requires a bit of attention to keep form, so this is what works for me...

From back stance, pivot on the balls of the feet (you needn't raise the heels off the floor, simply pivot). As you pivot the feet your shoulders square off and you transfer the weight to the front foot; then you can step forward. In Korean style I place the new front foot down onto the ball of the foot facing inwards slightly in order to get a twist on the hips for technique.

Japanese back stance is much longer and more evenly balanced: more like 60%/40% rather than a Korean 70%/30% so I'm not sure if there is a better way of processing this movement. 

Heavy bag workout

Had a good bag session in the sun today.

After warming up with some loose kicks and punches I set to examining a few drills.

Jab, reverse, roundkick

I stepped into the jab with right hand, ducked low (to avoid punch) shifted to the left and rammed home the reverse punch, setting me up for a close range round kick to the middle.

Elbow strike, jump sidekick

Standing close to the bag, side-on (my right thigh was touching the bag) I pounded it with three or four straight elbow strikes high (the right elbow) then stepped out and jump side kicked with the right foot. This really rocked the bag nicely. Surprisingly I didn't really step out with the left foot that much- it was more of turning the foot out, thrusting the right knee up to my chest and then jumping into the kick. Good work.

Kicked the crap out of the winter jasmine on the wall but the chives and laurel seem to have come away unscathed!

How to make a back stance or Hugul ja sae

Back stance or fighting stance (hugul ja sae) is used extensively in Tang Soo for kicking techniques. This is formed by turning out your back leg so it is perpendicular to the front leg, aligned heel to heel. Effectively your feet form an L shape with your back leg bearing most of the weight and your front foot touching the ground only with the toes and the ball of the feet. Naturally the body tends to therefore be side on to the opponent which shows less target area for point-sparring. It also lends itself to kicking (off the back leg and) with the front leg for stopping shots but also facilitates higher head kicks off the front leg as the rear foot is already half turned out. Spinning kicks come easier too from this stance as pivoting on the front leg is easy. The reverse kick or straight kick is, of course, a different matter: the front kick has to bear the weight shift adding in a step into the sequence (weight shift, bear weight on front leg, kick off rear leg). But I find this fairly seamless really and not a deal breaker. My main point to work on is when we're practicing mostly straight kicks with the rear leg. When I return to hugul ja sae I find my back foot has drifted inwards and makes less of an L shape with the front and more of a wonky V. This back leg naturally wants to be in a walking stance with both legs more facing forward but the trouble (for executing techniques in Tang Soo Do) is that when this happens my leg bends at a funny angle and doesn't bear the weight straight up, vertically. It suddenly adopts a kink in it, more like a dog leg than a human one! 

Tonight I aimed to keep returning to the L shape.

Of course there's nothing to say we shouldn't change from one stance to another according to circumstances. Walking stance (or front stance) is much mmore natural for those reverse kicks-  I'm not advocating a complete back stance policy here! I just want to keep working at it so that my legs bear the weight in a more natural manner. 

Note: Korean back stance is much shorter than Japanese back stance! Photos to follow.

Train, train go away

I missed Shorinji Kempo training on Monday due to a slight illness and as I was thinking through a few techniques today I found they weren't as fluent as I'd have liked. It's amazing what effect a week or so away from training can have. 

Bored

When I trained in Tang Soo Do I really didn't want to be there. As I warmed up my calves felt like lead: really heavy and stiff. I jogged round the dojang cursing myself for not skipping it and putting my weary calves up on the sofa and sipping some whisky. But I was there. So I got on with it. It's important not to let that feeling linger otherwise you might as well leave the training hall. I have to admit it kept creeping in but part of training for me is to try and stay on task, stay focused: put in as much as you can to get good returns on your investment of time and energy.

Fatigue

On top of it all Alex decided to do some circuit training as a warm up! It's good sometimes to push your body and condition it up. You may well one day be glad of the extra work you put in when you really need to dig into the reserves you've built up over time. It's also good to push yourselves to the limit and then see how your techniques work. Can you cope? How does the technique cope? It was a good tonic too. I wouldn't recommend it every week though!

Wobbly hands and the dan jun

Strictly speaking hands that flapped back instead of pulling straight back. After thrusting out a front punch (reverse) it's easy for the arm to fold back in on itself as it returns. And this is the problem: I was letting the arm return and not actively engaging with the return mechanism. Consequently...good choong dan kong kyuck, poor return with the arm *bending* (gasp) at the elbow. Too much shoulder movement, not enough pulling it back with the dan jun (tanden). Out with the dan jun, back with the dan jun *in the same line on which it went out!* 

Hard breathing.

It was a rough, hard session tonight and I'm partly to blame. I took the warm-ups and my obsession with burpees seems to have set the tone for the whole evening! Master Campbell took us through a rigorous examination of jumping techniques. This meant lots of repetitions with ahp chagi, ee dan ahp chagi, deah ahp chagi, dwi dollyo chagi. That's one set! I found it hard work and I was breathing hard so I concentrated on correct breath, deep breath and breathing throughout the technique. It's very tempting to suck in breath for jump kicks but this is unwise. Especially if you have a gruelling 25 minutes of consecutive jumping ahead. I tried to breathe as evenly as possible throughout and when I was really paggered (tired!) I controlled my breath making sure I got plenty of air in. I find there's no point in hiding one's tiredness by toughing it out and breathing in a shallow manner to look macho. This robs you of the oxygen for the next set of reps and makes you head for the floor, face first.

Made a cracking dollyo chagi, ee dan dwi chagi combination on 'Bob'. 

Sunny run and jumping kicks

I went for the lake run on Friday and as I was jogging round I tried spicing it up with some knee raises to prepare for a jumping front kick (ee dan ahp chagi). Little did I know that these exercises have a name! I was mooching around on YouTube and found this, it's pretty much what I was doing (although not as sharp) and called the Quick Step Drill :

And today I was playing with ee dan ahp chagi in the garden and was looking at distance covered. The distance I covered in a non-forced jump front kick was 2metres 25 (2 metres 50 with a walking prelude-this is more aggressive but not running). That's the distance covered over the ground (which I was going for), not in height. I was also trying to see whether getting the knee higher would make the kick higher, but my experiments seem inconclusive: I was kicking ~1metre 80 for both the normal knee raise prelude and the high knee prelude. Oh well. I think more importantly is the speed of this first action (the step up with the non-kicking leg).

Plus there has to be a fluid motion right through from the first step through the leg change and into the kick. It's ok to break it down for beginners but fairly soon they should practice the entire movement to avoid a: knee raise-pause-lurch upwards-kick off back leg. The momentum really helps. Sensei DD made a good point in that the first 'feint' should be convincing. It's pointless to make a cursory flash with the first foot raise. Maybe this is the important reason for raising that knee high in the first place. Who wants to kick higher than 1metre 80 anyway!?

Another interesting running drill to try from Jabari Pride, which may help out with kicking:

Clever Hans and observer expectancy effect

No this isn't a pun on hands it's actually the name of a horse. Called Hans. Who was...wait for it....clever! Yes a clever horse who could count and do simple arithmetic by tapping out numbers with his hoof. The case amazed all of Germany (and probably the world) in the early 20th Century. He amazed so many people that an eminent psychologist called Oskar Pfungst was called in to investigate Hans in 1907.

Pfungst's studies established that Hans was, sadly, unable to count or make simple sums. His gift was an uncanny ability to read the expectation on the face and in the body language of his owner who would ask him questions. When the answer was five (for example), the owner would (inadvertently) give off signals for the horse to stop tapping his hooves when five had been reached. He couldn't repeat this when the owner wasn't in sight. Hans seems to have had an ability to read these visual clues in order to please his owner (and possibly get a food reward).

I thought of this the other night in training because when we train in partners we tend to do this too. No, not tap our hooves to count but we do give off 'expectation' in our expressions. What is meant to be 'spontaneous' attack is sometimes telegraphed by these expressions or even simply an eyebrow raise! In Tang Soo Do a kihap is often performed by both attacker and defender to ensure everyone is ready and from that point onward the attack can be initiated at any moment. In practice the kihap is perfunctory and initiates the technique. This shouldn't be the case. We need to stay focused and ready to receive the attack at any time and without telegraphing by the attacker. No raised eyebrows, head lifting or hoof tapping.

So Hans couldn't count but he could read his owner's subtle body and facial language. We should train with this in mind.

Saturday seminar (mawashi geri)

Given that trains to London via Kings Cross were all cancelled and I had to take a train to Liverpool Street Station which seemed to stop at intervals of 3 minutes I should have been in a grump on the way to the seminar on Saturday. Somehow I felt good though. The sun was shining through and I had plenty of time to meander across London on the tube so I was in no rush. Equally I'd prepared all of my equipment the night before: gi, knee pads (a must when you don't have the luxury of using mats- a tip I picked up from practicing iai), mitts, tanto, flip flops, towel. Ah! Everything in order.

I further felt lifted when, upon approaching the gym, I saw a tall, muscular guy on a traffic island, nestled away from the cars by the trees around him, dressed in bright orange trousers and Chinese style gaiters warming up to do some kung fu. He was windmilling his arms gently round in what looked like preparation with the sun warming him. It was going to be a good day.

This seminar focused on mawashi geri: attacks and defences. The three main elements we looked at were: 'bouncing' out of the attack and back in to counter, receiving and blocking the mawashi geri attack early and countering with a straight kick and finally stepping striaght in with punches against a jun mawashi geri (no block). These were built up nicely so weren't hammering away at it straight away. I found bouncing out and in again to counter quite dynamic but you have to make sure both feet are pointing towards your opponent for maximum efficiency of movement. It has to be quick!

We eventually mixed up the attack defence so it was random: we could choose which counter from the three we'd practiced. This always makes me a bit anxious. Oh the choice! Will I get it wrong? Well as long as I remain focused and if I mess up put it behind me that's ok. It's a collaborative environment so I need to relax more. I need to relax more (full stop!).

Finally we worked on some juho take-down techniques with particular application of pinning the opponent to the floor when s/he is resisting. Good to feel the best places to apply in order to pin effectively.

On the way home the day was still bright and the wind quite refreshing. Three hours of training does wonders for you and as I made my way to the tube station the same guy was still practicing his kung fu (this time he seemed to be using a hand held mop). Train when you can.

Forms and their kicks

I read recently an interesting point put forward by Vince Morris in a book 'Karate Kata Applications' (Vince Morris and Aidan Trimble, Ebury Press) how the traditional kata don't incorporate many kicks which are widely practiced in modern karate such as roundhouse kick, reverse roundhouse, axe kick or back kick.

I thought, for fun, I'd run through the Korean forms to document which kicks are included. As I've discussed previously these are based on Japanese and in turn Okinawan forms.

Kicks used in Tang Soo do Hyungs

Pyung Ahn Cho Dan: No kick.

Pyung Ahn Ee Dan: Yup chagi, ahp chagi. (Side kick, front kick)

Pyung Ahn Sam Dan: Pahkeso ahnero chagi (Outside to inside kick.)

Pyung Ahn Sa Dan: Yup chagi, ahp chagi. (Side kick, front kick, knee strike.)

Pyung Ahn O Dan: Pahkeso ahnero chagi. (Outside to inside kick.)

Bassai: Yup chagi. (Side kick.)

Naihanchi Cho Dan: No kick.

Naihanchi Ee Dan: No kick.

Naihanchi Sam Dan: No kick.

Sip Soo: Pahkeso ahnero chagi (depending on the style of Tang Soo Do)

Morris further states that developing new forms with other variant kicks may be beneficial. 

Body clock, nutrition and exercise

I watched Horizon documentary the other night:The Secret Life of Your Bodyclock and learned plenty about the way our bodies react throughout the day and night to our activities and conversely when those activities are best suited to our bodyclock. I was particularly interested by the ideas about exercise and eating. When is the best time to exercise and what should our eating patterns be like?

The documentary alluded to Siffre's famous experiments of living in a cave for 6 months without natural light to see how is body clock reacted. Based on this and other experts analysis the programme comes up with some interesting results:

- Between 7 and 11 in the  morning our body has an increased blood pressure, vessels can't widen and blood is stickier (more resistance to flow) showing that the heart is under great pressure. Statistically you are three times more likely to have a heart attack.

(Something I already knew! Mornings are for larks, not for people....)

- If you increase your activity at the right time of day it can be beneficial! Exercise in the afternoon reduces blood pressure by 10 -11 % while exercise in the morning does not reduce bp at all.

Even gently walking in the afternoon can be beneficial.

- Body temp and alertness rises in afternoon and exercise is best late afternoon /early evening.

When training or the Olympics, the cyclist Chris Boardman says he found no pain in evening training like he experienced in the mornings. Records in cycling tend to be broken in afternoon and evening. In cycling hard training seems to be often conducted in the evenings when the body temperature has risen. This helps as the body seems to be in a pre-race or warm up mode.

(The only caveat was that balance and hand steadiness may be better in the morning.)

- Our eating patterns now show that the average UK main meal of the day is at 8pm. Linda Morgan from Univ Surrey says that over the last 100 years our eating patterns have changed: 100 years ago we had big breakfasts, large lunches and less in evening. Recently this has been reversed so that little of our day's calories are consumed in the morning and more later in the night. This means glucose remains in the blood more in the evening: high blood glucose levels in the evening is not great. According to her experiments into eating we should aspire to: "Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dine like a pauper."

So we haven't learned something we didn't already know, right? I mean we train in the evening as that's when most lessons are held: after people have come home from school and work and not too late as to interfere with our sleeping (I find if I exercise late int he evening I have to wait some time to come down before I can go to bed). 

Plus I eat too much anyway. Interestingly if I stack my calories up at the start of the day I'm in a better position for my insulin to regulate my blood glucose levels throughout the day (it seems). I did read a long time ago about an American football coach who recommended to players who wanted to lose weight to eat nothing after 8pm. This is something I aspire to do- it also helps with my IBS!