Kyoshi’s Training Tip of the Day

Recently I read on a martial arts blog that when excuting a kata, it is not necessary to end at the same point that you began. In Grandmaster Nagamines book, “Essence of Okinawan Karate-do”, he states that there are “intermediate movements”, and these movements act as links to the paired units of offense and defense and they also serve as places to re-adjust our breathing, and lastly, he stated that they are important as they can be the key to “positional coincidence”. I feel that positional coincidence is very important as it makes sure you are moving correctly and that your stances are correct. “positional coincidence”, basically means your end up where you started, and it can go deeper, hence, white belt to black belt and back to white again.  Theres a reason for everything we do, sometimes it’s not always obvious, and sometimes we dismiss things because we simply don’t understand, so before you dismiss something as silly as why should I end up at the same spot in kata, keep digging and studying and maybe you’ll begin to understand.

While body shifting is one of THE most important things to learn, doing it right can be the challenge. There are several types of body shifting, you can shift with your feet, you can shift your body without moving your feet. Good footwork, stable stance and perfect timing are the elements for good body shifting. Good body shifting should be done with offense in mind, never make body shifting a two step process, for instance, don’t body shift as your defense and then start your attack. Begin your attack and body shift while attacking. Some of you may be thinking “but I have to block first, then attack”. Matsubayashi-Ryu teaches us that everything is an attack, so attack with good techniques, and body shift at the same time. Think of body shifting as “here I am, oops, you missed me as I’m putting my fist through your chest”.

Keep in mind that this is only a quick overview as with most of the Tips…. It’s just information to get you thinking, any tips that you may want to learn more about, will be taught when Kyoshi visits your dojos and at seminars especially when the Tips are in video.

                                         The Trouble Tree

I hired a handyman to help me do some odd jobs around the house and property, and after he had just finished a rough first day on the job: a flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric drill quit working, and his truck refused to start. While I drove him home, he sat stoned face in silence. On arriving, he invited me in to meet his family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands. When opening the door he underwent an amazing transformation. His face was full of smiles, and he hugged his two small children and gave his wife a kiss. Afterward he walked me to the car. We passed the tree, and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier at the tree. ”oh, that’s my trouble tree”, he said, I know I can’t help having troubles on the job and all, bit one thing’s for sure, those troubles don’t belong in the house with my wife and the children. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home. Then, in the morning I pick them up again, funny thing is, and then he smiled, When I come out in the morning to pick them up, there aren’t as many as I remember hanging up the night before.

Find your tree and use it………there may be one outside the dojo also!!

What you do, how you act, what you say, how you wear your GI etc. etc., is a reflection of your dojo and sensei. When you do something that’s not the way of a good martial artist, people will ask, who’s your sensei? When you do great kata, act respectable, etc. people will ask, who’s your sensei? You represent your sensei in everything you do, people should want to come to your dojo to learn from your sensei because of the way you are as a person and martial artist. So next time you put your GI on AND take your GI off, you are always being observed and your sensei too, through you.

In every dojo there is the “Shinden” , the shinden is usually placed at the front of the dojo, it is not an alter nor a religious symbol. We bow to the shinden at the beginning and end of each class as a gester of respect for our forefathers in karate-do. Some people will place a picture of the master of their style instead of a shinden at the head of their dojo and bow to the master. At the beginning and end of each class, students should face the shinden and the head instructor with say ” shinden ni taisho rey” and all students will then bow to the shinden, then the students turn to the head instructor and the highest ranked student will say “sensei ni taisho rey”, and the students will bow to the sensei and say,”onegai shimas“, if it is a Renshi, Kyoshi, Soke etc. then the student will say, ” kyoshi ni taisho rey”, etc. In some dojos, usually at the end, the sensei may say, “otegai ni rey”, which means bow to each other. The bow represents many different things, it’s a way of saying hello/goodbye, it’s a way to show respect, when a student and teacher bow to each other, the student should bow slightly lower than the instructor.  When bowing, keep eyes straight in the direction your head moves, don’t look down, and don’t look at the person your bowing to. Sometimes a quick bow can be just lowering the head. Learn the customs of our art and practice them, it will help you have respect and humbleness.

Whenever I teach a self defense class, especially the womens self-defense classes, one of the things I explain to them is, to be aware of where they are and where they could go, in other words listen for traffic in the near distance or people talking or anything that is emitting sound that you can hear, so you may be able to run or escape to, from your attacker. In my Karate classes I will blindfold a student and do a series of drills using my voice and sounds to highten their listening sense while doing kata, or kumite or other various drills. There are also drills that can be done to highten their sense of touch as well as when they’re blindfolded. Sometimes when doing blindfolded kata, I will place the student in various areas of the room and train them to listen for the way sound and feel can change when they are close to a wall. I used to bodyguard a man who was blind, of course his senses were hightened, he always knew what roads we were on and how close we were to different places we were going, he could tell by the amount of traffic, the traffic lights, the feel of the road, the speed in which we traveled and many other aspects. A person who is kidnapped should pay attention to these senses for it may save your life. Be aware of your surroundings at all times, and always have a plan of escape. Self-defense is a mindset that must be present always, not to be confused with paranoia, think self-defense, until it is embetted into your sub-conscience, then you will be able to go about your daily routine and be well prepared without having to think about it.

Here’s a touchy subject and one that will always be a frustrating one unless you understand that karate is a martial art and no two people are the same. For as long as I can remember there have always been changes and differences in the way some people do certain moves in kata, there’s the Ansei Ushiro way, Takayoshi Nagamine way, Eihachi Ota way, Toshihiro Oshiro way, etc. etc., and on any given day, each of these teachers will change techniques just to change them again the next day. My opinion is this…. each of these instructors left Grandmaster Nagamine before they reached advanced rank and learned the advanced teachings. I am not saying these people are any less than experts in karate-do, they are experts, what I am saying is they never learned Shoshin Nagamines advanced karate. These instructors had to rely on self-teaching and studying to come up with a workable theory that made sense to each of them, because they left the hombu dojo too soon, and as they grow they change, as we all do also.  I believe Makishi Sensei is the only true follower of Grandmaster Nagamine. There are many factors in the reasons why there are so many variations to the Matsubayashi-Ryu kata, first off as Grandmaster Nagamine always stated, kata is like a fossil and should NEVER be changed. Don’t be confused with the movements in kata and with the execution of the movements in kata, there is a difference. Secondly, students were taught (as it should still be), based on their body structure, flexibility, strengths, understanding (not everyone learns or understands at the same time). So Grandmaster taught the execution of zenkutsu dachi to Makishi sensei different than the way he taught, Taira sensei and different to Takayoshi, AND Shoshin didn’t always do all the teaching, Nakamura taught, as well as a few other high ranking sensei. Then there’s the bunkai and bunkai oyo, people change both the execution as well as the movement itself to accomodate their interpretations. Grandmaster Nagamine had a certain philosophy about his style, those who don’t get it, do what makes sense to them, this is not right or wrong, good or bad, it just the way it has become over the years. So if you find that one sensei tells you to slide back a little, and tomorrow a different sensei tells you not to slide, and next week another sensei tells you, “you can do either or”, smile and just do what is asked of you for that day, and later consult with your personal sensei to determine what is best for you.

Throughout our bodies there are spots/places/ponits that are called “pressure points”, Grandmaster Shoshin Nagamine referred to them as “vital parts of our body”, they are vulnerable nerve-centered parts. In his book he identified a few of these “vital parts”, however there are many more located in other areas. The pressure points can heal when applied by accu-pressure or can be lethal when struck with a blow. Some of the pressure points are connected, and when we use certain techniques from the Matsubayashi-Ryu kata, we are making that connection and deliveing a lethal blow. There are also techniques where we strike the pressure point so the body will react a certain way before the using the actual strike to finish.

When we shoot a gun or bow and arrow at a target, we are aiming for the “bull’s eye” and not just the target. This is the same with our karate techniques, sometimes we just punch the chest or kick the stomach, we should aim for the solar plexus with one knuckle, or kick with our toes to a smaller spot. Our techniques should be reduced to the sharpest point, like first knuckle, toes, finger tips, bone at bottom of shuto, pointed part of our elbow, and we should be striking the pressure points with these techniques. You should at the very minimum, learn the “vital parts of the body” as identified in the Grandmaster Nagamines book. Get with a partner and find the soft tissue pressure points and apply finger-tip pressure. There is a pressure point in the forearm that can actually open a fist up…can you find it?

“Tenoijira ijihiki ijinoijira tehiki” which means, “if you become angry enough to strike out with your hands, use your mind to calm yourself down. If you lose your temper hold back your hands. You must always be patient and never hurt people. One can always sleep well even if one has been a victim of someone else’s anger. However, it is difficult to sleep on a guilty conscience. Therefore, one should never harm another”

For most people when they perform or practice kata, and they make a mistake, that mistake becomes the focus. This is usually how it goes… Fukyugata Ichi: zenkutsu-dachi-gedan-uke to the left, oops I stepped too far, I’m off balance. Next move: step up punch to the chest, oops I “winged” my punch. Next move: zenkutsu-dachi-gedan-uke to the right, oops I didn’t step around enough, I’m off balance, my block was weak. People identify the mistake after the move, this is no good. Think of how you want to move “before” you move: I’m going to turn and step towards my attacker and I’m going to snap my down block, using the weight of my fist, and dropping my center into the block….and then do it. I’m going to step up quick and fire my punch while driving the elbow back to increase the speed of the punch,…. and then do it. Why focus on something that you’ve already done and can’t change, when you can focus on doing the right thing from the beginning.   Isn’t this how it works in life? Think before you act and do the right thing, rather than doing something wrong and kicking yourself and feeling sorry for yourself after the fact!!