Dundee cornered for the champions such as Muhammad Ali...!
"That's the key. If you have fun at what you do you're gonna excel at it."
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
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Sunday, 27 March 2011
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!
Thursday, 3 March 2011
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
Monday, 28 February 2011
Amazing animation and swordfight
Check out the animation and dance choreography: very interesting show.
Shadow swordfight presentation brought to you by Funny Tube
Shadow swordfight presentation brought to you by Funny Tube
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Changing lives with Cricket.
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".
Marvellous.
Monday, 24 January 2011
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....
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....
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