Tow path run

Along the tow path of the river Cam.

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Shirou Ietaka Kaneko

Shirou Ietaka Kaneko is head of the Takeda school of horseback archery the sport which, in Japanese, is called yabusame and which this article calls the sport of the samurai. 

Kaneko, riding since he was 10 and shooting since he was 17, grew up with horses aruond him in his parents stables. Reading about him and this interesting 'sport'. I find it hard to call it a sport, but as Kaneko himself states "In our school, it is our earnest desire to connect [with the target]." It certainly seems to require great skill to keep the steed steady and stable in order to provide a platform from which to shoot accurately then one needs to ensure archery skills are mastered before getting anywhere near the target. 

"When people think of the samurai, they don't realize that in the old days, archery was more important in battle than swords," said Hisashi Yoshimi, a competitor at a recent beach event.

Check out the video and you'll see the skill required- they don't half belt along!

Also a good photo gallery on the Takedaryu page.

Pyrrhic victory

A Pyrrhic victory is a hollow one. One which is gained at such a great cost that the original victory's value is debased. King Pyrrhus of Epirus (an area of Greece) won a major battle against the Romans during the Pyrrhic War of 280-275 BC but his losses were so great it prompted the king to bemoan that another such victory, "and we are undone".

Another way to say this might be that we should choose our battles in life. I've been thinking of this recently as I've always had to battle with my rising anger. I don't think I'm an angry person but every now and then, and I suppose it's inevitable, ire swells within me and I feel miffed off by something. Occasionally I can rationalise that I'm in a bad mood for some other reason and that the immediate source of my anger is not the reason why I'm angry, so I can swallow it. It's no big deal- the kids wind me up but I'm tired and grumpy anyway and as long as I understand this I can rationalise and move away. But occasionally some guy cuts me up in traffic and I feel real hurt! Flushed with rage I think about what I'd do to him but this helps nobody- I just end up simmering for ages. I need to get rid of that feeling rather than hold on to it. It happens. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose the battle with the black dog (Churchill called his depression 'black dog').

I sometimes excuse myself based on the curse of being a man (!)....you've guessed it: testosterone! Testosterone levels in men change throughout the day and I like to blame the 'ready-to-rut' levels:

"T levels fluctuate wildly. If you were to measure your Testosterone levels throughout the day, you'd likely be amazed. One minute you have the hormonal profile of a hyper-muscular bull ready to "fertilize" an entire herd of cattle… and the next minute your blood profile is that of a fully menstruating Martha Stewart intent on color coordinating your powder room."

But I'm a man, not a bull. I need to know myself and know that I'm not going to fly off the handle at short notice EVEN when I'm pumped full of testosterone :-)

This article was highlighted by Dan Praeder in his blog Martial Arts and Modern Life and is a great example of choosing the 'third way'. Nice story about how a Tai Chi master overcomes his base urges and dissipates a potentially aggressive situation.

Pay It Backwards: An Act Of Coffee Kindness by Arthur Rosenfeld.

"Paleoanthropologists tell us that our ancestors left the trees for the ground millions of years ago. Competing hypotheses attribute this shift from a predominantly arboreal to terrestrial locomotion on postural-feeding, socialbehavioral, or thermoregulatory pressures. In any case there is a strong consensus among scientists that our heritage is deeply rooted in both climbing and bipedalism, i.e., both swinging from the trees and functioning on two feet."

"In the broadest and most useful sense, the functional distinction between arboreal and terrestrial skills is that arboreal skills are rich in pulling movements whereas the bipedal movements mostly comprise hip extension and pushing movements. As a consequence of this

distinction and the dearth of climbing skills drawn upon in fitness programs, the pulling capacity of modern athletes is woefully deficient. Compare briefly the number of pushing to pulling movements available in the course of our normal training. Push-ups, dips, handstand push-ups, bench press, shoulder press, and jerks versus, what, pull-ups and maybe rope climb?"

" Even the bodybuilding repertoire, which includes seated cable rows, bent-over rows, one-armed rows, and curls, includes more pulling movements than more functional and developmental weight training like weightlifting and powerlifting, but the motivation and value behind these moves is somewhat more anatomical or cosmetic than functional."

Thanks Crispin for pointing this out. Although a piece of advertorial for some climbing equipment I thought it was interesting to examine where we came from and how this affects our range of movement, limitations and strengths.

http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/18_04_Macroclimbing.pdf

Was Elvis really any good at karate?

Really good artilce here: Was Elvis Presley a Paper Tiger? Did the King Get a Real Black Belt?

Thanks to John W Zimmer for pointing it out.

The above inspired by Dojorat and Dan Prager's comments...

Neil Adams, Putin and Judo

Broadcast on radio4 on 9th January 2009 at 11am.

Well sadly, this show is one of the very few that can't be listened to again on the BBC website. Tcha!

I only heard half of it too! What I heard of it I enjoyed: Mr Adams made a well structured plan of what he wanted to do: travel to Moscow to see how Judo is taught there in order to help him set up a dedicated facility on Wales to cater for judo which Mr Adams deems essential for the sport.

As a sideline he wanted to meet one of Russia's famous judo exponents and also one reason for the resurgence of the sport in that country, non other than Vladimir Putin. The first part of the programme (the bit that I caught) had an interview with Mr Adams and a biographer of Putin who outlined how he thought judo had an impact on Putin's character (he derived this through interviews with the Russian leader). He spoke of the fact that Putin is small and in judo needs to use canny thinking and intelligent use of levers to win matches, not brute force. The biographer then went on to draw parallels with the Georgia incursion which I thought weird as this seemed rather heavy-handed to me! I guess it depends on whether you think the Georgian conflict was staged by the US as Putin himself claims.

I digress. The radio show sounded great, apart from some cheesily voiced Kano quotes, and I'm sad to have missed the end. I met Neil Adams some time ago at a Judo workshop where I was demo-ing Tang Soo Do for some school children. I was pleased to be able to join in with some of the sessions and was tutored a little by him. I remember seeing his feet and being struck by how much I thought that they seemed articulated like hands! they could move in lots of different ways that my feet couldn't begin to try. Natural I suppose from a Judo Olympian. He seemed friendly and approachable but a little detached after he'd finished teaching. He did join in with our breaking demo (the kids always love some flying side kick breaks) and that was good of him. 

Good luck Neil Adams with the dedicated facility and good luck Wales!

Pob Iwc!

Cold, hard dojo floors

Cwor it's cold! Cold by Cambridge standards anyway which I realise isn't particularly 'arctic'-despite what the press in this country might have us believe-but to me it's damn cold. This makes for stiff pre-session groanings when pulling on dogi/dobohk... Dammit the material's not quite dry! Brrrr. So moaning aside, what does this mean for the martial artist? Long, steady and even warm ups! Gradually increasing aerobic to get us going. I admit that I felt like a wooden mannequin at first. I think I'm getting old. I still had enough desire to get to training though and this helped warm me up. A little of my belly-fire gently simmered from within and before I knew it I was practicing kihon almost forgetting the 'nibbling' cold. The soft clicking of my teeth soon abated and thankfully sensei kept us moving. 

Oh yeah, the gas heaters helped too...