Blog Feed: finding mushin

Why I Train

Published on 2012-05-23 11:06:00

Everyone should answer this simple question: "Why do I train?" The answer might be as simple as "To get into shape.", or "To gain self-confidence.", or maybe "To spend time with my kids doing something we all enjoy.".  I like that one.  That's the reason I started training again just over two years ago. These answers explain why you started, but fail to address why you still attend class. > read more

A brief history of Chinto

Published on 2011-11-29 06:12:00

If I had a favourite kata, Chinto would not be it.  I really like it, but the spinning jump gets me, especially since one of my Senseis decided to tell me that I could throw a Mawari-ushiro-tobi-geri in there as part of the bunkai.  Now, when I get to that part of the kata, I'm thinking "Mawari-ushiro-tobi-geri", but what actually happens is most definitely not a possible > read more

Seisan-dachi

Published on 2011-08-12 17:00:00

Picture this: You're a kyu belt in a Chito-ryu dojo, and one day you decide to take an extended trip (go to college) to another city (half-way across the country). You really want to continue your martial arts training, but are unable to locate a Chito-ryu school in the area, so you evaluate the many schools available to you from the intensive research you did (the Yellow Pages) and pick a new > read more

Breathe

Published on 2011-06-25 13:05:00

When I first started taking karate classes in my teens, the exercise that I found to be the most beneficial was the breathing and meditation at the end of class (mokuso). Now, I find that the breathing exercises are missing from classes.  I can understand why certain things are left out, especially when there are fifty kids under the age of 10 in the class, and getting some of them to "reflect" > read more

Kuzushi: Where did my stance go?

Published on 2011-05-10 13:27:00

This article was originally posted by me at okiblog.com. I highly recommend heading over there if you are interested in reading some great material about Okinawan Karate. The term "Kuzushi" tends to confuse a few students at our club. I hear a few people talk about how you have to "break your opponents kuzushi before you can complete the technique.". Let's get the definition of kuzushi out of the > read more

Higashi Sensei Clinic

Published on 2011-04-20 12:02:00

There are only two or three times a year that members of Chito-Ryu clubs in the Maritime Provinces get an opportunity to see Higashi Sensei and train with him, so I plan on taking advantage of every Higashi Sensei Clinic I can over the next thirteen months. I'm told that it really helps if he sees your face often, as people have a tendency to let their nerves take over during their Shodan > read more

Cross Training

Published on 2011-04-17 08:16:00

Now there are a lot of Martial Arts blog posts about cross training (like here and here at My Journey to Blackbelt, and here at Martial Arts And Modern Life). I'm not a fan of training multiple styles of Karate in order to round out training, but I do think that training in different fighting styles would work, like Karate and Judo, or the more obvious, Karate and Kobujitsu. There are also a lot > read more

Fancy book learnin'

Published on 2011-02-06 17:00:00

If you learned everything you know about Karate from books and the Internet, then this post is for you. If you are a student of Karate, taking instruction from a Sensei in a karate school, then this post is not necessarily meant for you, but please continue reading. At this weeks class in Hampton, the senior students were going over Tehodoki-no-waza, and when we got to number five, there was > read more

12 months down ...

Published on 2011-02-02 19:20:00

So my 1st Kyu test was a success (Yay me!).  I now have a nice list of items, courtesy of my Sensei,  of things that I will need to improve upon before the end of classes this June. On top of that, I'll be learning all of the new Kata, kihon and bunkai required for Shodan. That doesn't really amount to a huge amount (Chinto, Kihon-Kata-San, which I already know, Nage-no-kata, and a few jumping > read more

Twenty-four

Published on 2011-01-20 09:23:00

Niseishi translates to "twenty-four" in English. If you take a look at all of the steps in Chito-ryu Niseishi-dai, some of them can be a little hard to imagine that they are a single step, while other steps are simply just that; a step. I remembered reading an article a while back that said "Every move in Okinawan karate has purpose, no matter how small or trivial it appears". I'm paraphrasing, > read more

The many faces of Bassai

Published on 2010-12-29 06:06:00

I'm a huge fan of Kata. I remember how I felt when I first learned Ne-Sei-Shi-Sho/Dai (recently renamed to Ne-Sei-Shi in the new Canadian Chito-ryu Technical Manual). It was the first kata I learned in Chito-ryu that did not involve a lot of repetition, like Kihon-dosa-ichi/ni or Shi-Ho-Hai, and it required much more attention to detail than previous kata. One of the requirements for my 1st Kyu > read more