Archive for the 'Karate' Category

Keep practising – especially as you get older!

Published on 2 January, 2010 in Creativity and genius, High performance and Karate. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

A few months back I did a martial arts session with my original instructor. It had been a long time and I was far from my best, so I paired up with a relatively junior student for some padwork.

He was young and strong and had been training hard for a few months.

Little did he know that I had trained since before he was walking. It began when I was 15, and I loved spending hours in the hall, relentlessly asking questions of my instructor long after the class had finished. So when I hit him, he was pretty surprised :)

When I step back into one of those same classes today, I remember most of the techniques but my skill level has suffered – perhaps more than I would like to admit. But I’m still not your average beginner.

In my first session back, it’s best if I just watch, or pair up with a beginning student. In my second session back, I can pair up with someone who has been training for a few months. And after a few weeks, I’ll expect to match it with the guys who have been training for a year or more.

But why? Why can we get so much better so quickly?

Continue reading ‘Keep practising – especially as you get older!’

What is “Genius” Anyway?

Published on 16 December, 2008 in Creativity and genius and Karate. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

One of the challenges with writing about the meaning and nature of genius is finding an adequate definition. Let me identify a characteristic of a genius:

  1. Geniuses solve problems that novices cannot.
  2. Geniuses solve problems that novices can solve but much more rapidly and accurately.

We also observe that the thinking process used by genius to solve problems is briefer, reflecting that more subprocesses have been automated.

I have taught martial arts since 1998. Last week, I was doing some punching with one of my students, Kenny. I wanted Kenny to throw a left jab then a right cross. A novice would need to be told “left punch, right punch” – or something even more simple. Someone who had trained with me for a while could be told “double head punch”. However, Kenny had done quite a bit of boxing training; for him “one-two” was enough. Indeed, even after a few minutes, if I used the term “left-right” or “double head-punch”, he would internally translate that as “one-two”. Kenny is skilled, but he is not an expert or a ‘genius’.

My original fascination in genius came from the contrast between Jack and Barry. Barry studied hard. Jack didn’t. But they got similarly outstanding results.

When we were 16, they completed an examination in advanced mathematics. Here, they were asked to show a proof. However, the proof was impossible. Each identified that the question was flawed and so in a sense ’solved’ the problem. To gain marks for the problem, Barry provided six pages of working. Jack only provided three pages.

At the time, we thought that Jack was smarter – after all, he had worked it out in half the time that it took Barry. However, while Barry was granted full credit for his six pages of working, Jack was only granted half-marks.

One more thing to remember (that has relevance to the self-help goal setting world):

  1. Experts work forward, noticing and reporting consequences of the ‘givens’ until a solution appears, at least on problems that are easy for them.
  2. Novices work backwards from the problem goal.

Make your life easier: Frame your questions. Through finding the right framing, you increase your chances of finding the models and strategies that can give you the answer you seek.

From TheGeniusProject.com

Don’t argue with angry people

Published on 17 July, 2008 in High performance and Karate. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

Have you ever been in a fight?

Have you ever been really scared or really angry or really intensely aroused in some way?

Things get messy, don’t they. Our vision narrows and our logic gets lost.

Once your heart rate hits about 175 beats per minute, you can’t think and your body starts shutting down. It’s not your fault: People stop being able to think with our forebrain gets taken over by our midbrain – the part that’s the same as your dog’s (all mammals have that part of our brain).

Under extreme pressure, you might not even be able to dial the emergency services phone number!

You need to rehearse your key skills to the point that you are ‘hard wired’.

I am contemplating returning to teaching martial arts. And, as I looked at my potential group of students on Tuesday night, seeing their struggles and noticing their strengths, I was reminded of the fundamental parallels between martial arts.

We need to be present in whatever we are doing – totally focused on the task at hand – rather than thinking about the past or imagining the future. Planning is necessary and good, though the time to plan and the time to act are distinct; when it is time to plan, plan, and when it is time to execute, execute. Too many great plans fail due to sloppy execution and I have found that something that we can do – now – is to focus on whatever your task happens to be in this moment.

How do you perform under pressure?

Let conflict pass you by

Published on 23 March, 2007 in Karate. 0 Comments

An old friend is getting really good at finding trouble. He is not overly physically large, but his behaviour is as aggressive as it is provocative. It’s like he walks around the generally quiet and peaceful Brisbane looking for violence. This type of guy can be a menace for everyone around him, and you really want to stay out of his way; but the way that he projected his violent nature was interesting to me.

He was acting as though he could take on the world – that he was indestructible and violent and felt no pain. In short, he acted crazy! And by acting crazy, he communicated to the world that they didn’t want to rumble with him. Along the way, he was an obnoxious creep, but if you can choose to behave just a little bit crazy at the right times, you might manage to psych-out potential problems.

As I thought about it a bit more, I came across this article talking about how to handle bullies. One of the highlights is to be aware of what you communicate to a potential aggressor. To avoid a conflict, when the potential aggressor comes into your presence, you will want to be calm and focus on what you’re doing; don’t keep looking back at him (or her) and certainly don’t just steal glances before quickly looking down from time to time – that just makes you into a victim.

When you drop your ego down, you can effectively go into a ’stealth mode’ that will make you less attractive to potential aggressors.

Still, when push comes to shove, you might want to make sure that you remember how to drop him with a punch to his chin, forearm to the throat or elbow across the jaw… don’t make a mess, but get the job done.

Resolving conflict

Published on 17 October, 2006 in Karate. 0 Comments

The end result of our martial arts training is to increase the amount of freedom that we have. We seek to eliminate the threats that may prevent us from having the world as we want it to be. We do not train to hurt other people: hurting others is sometimes necessary to maintain our own security…

Training this week

Published on 16 June, 2006 in Karate. 0 Comments

We have been training with weapons, especially eskrima sticks, in the past few weeks

Applied self defence techniques, especially on Tuesday. Focusing upon fundamental defences, especially against basics like frontal attacks.

Thursday, Paul led through punch routine, kick routine and five one-on-ones before focusing on ido kihon waza. We then focused on purposeful movement: Projecting energy in the direction of motion while keeping the head level so as to drop the weight into the technique. A few laps of the dojo in zenkutsudachi and shikadachi helped cement the movement.

Ran through naihanchin as it was taught in 1993, then sanchin, tensho and seinchin.

Yaksuko: based upon the defence against double head punch from the start of tensho, slipping into the snake position.

Training this morning

Published on 17 May, 2006 in Karate. 0 Comments

Thanks for a great session this morning. This was one of the longest sparring sessions that we have done for a long time. Multiple attackers: Hit the first one, move to the outside of the circle and fight them one-on-one. Unless you are Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee, don’t fight more than one person at a time!

We train to test what we have learned and where we still need to grow. Being ‘thrown’ or making mistakes is part of learning: If you aren’t stuffing up, you’re not pushing yourself hard enough. So be kind to yourself, remembering that your mistakes are the key to your improvement.

Thursday is likely to focus more on yaksuko. Remember the criteria: Fast initial response, Robust and effective techniques, Degree of difficulty. Double grab from behind: Step out and away, turn with the hands high into trapping their arms. Sleeper: Flip-top head.

Training this morning

Published on 28 March, 2006 in Karate. 0 Comments

Thanks guys for a great session this morning. A quick review:

  • Footwork provides the foundation. Remember that the full motion shuffles, changeovers etc are not the ultimate outcome in mobility, as usual, they are tools for training… moving is the purpose. JKD would teach more just half shuffles, front, back and side to side.
  • Using focus mitts, working on our straight punches and roundhouse kicks; singles and in combination. Another technique that we haven’t worked on as much is the low jamming side kick.
  • Defending against punches by using heavy gloves… next thing will be to train some more with focus mitts to get use to slipping punches.
  • Defence against weapons, especially knife and gun.
  • Think of your punch as a weighted iron chain rather than the iron bar that our karate punching can often train us in executing.

Be like water – form yourself to your environment and use whatever you have to best effect.

Scott’s observations on Seinchin kata punches

Published on 1 March, 2006 in Karate. 0 Comments

RUE (chin), RUP (chin), RDE (throat), RBF (fist upward), LLP (hidden punch), RGstrike (pivot back left foot)

Then pivot 180degrees shikodachi.

In the kata it becomes: catch the elbow. Vertical punch, retract, 45degree punch, hidden punch, groin strike in shikodachi.

Then pivot 180degree backwards shikodachi. Remember inline then pivot at the end.

Sempai Juan’s ideas from a quick session…

Published on 15 February, 2006 in Karate. 0 Comments

Scott’s observations: “Columbian techniques from a young man who came to training.”

  • All kicks begin with a high vertical knee lift then pivot for side or roundhouse remember foot inline pointing backwards as well as whole body in one line.
  • Remember the hip thrust on all kicks and knees.
  • Best stretches are inline splits, and leaning forwards so head tries to touch your ankles.
  • Stretch after warming up for best results.
  • Remember pressure points, inside arm above elbow, inside wrist, outside of forearm, solaplexes.
  • Use a rope to pull the foot up to stretch or a partners shoulder.
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