| Home | My Account | Directories |
Low carb eating - how did it go....
Published on 2012-02-08 09:38:00
Do you remember a few weeks ago I wrote a post called 'Escape the diet trap' based on a book written by Dr John Briffa. This was about a low carb, high fat, high protein diet which Dr Briffa said was a more natural or primal way of eating.In essence the diet works because by cutting out carbs you prevent insulin peaks in the bloodstream. Insulin not only pushes sugars into cells where they are metabolised for energy, it also pushes fatty acids into cells where they bind with gylcerol (sugar chai
Teaching children - some discipline issues...
Published on 2012-01-30 10:36:00
I have just started teaching karate to a class of 5-7 year old children at an after school club for a local primary school. The first class was last Friday and my instructor was present to ensure that everything got off to a smooth start. Having introduced me to the children he then sat at the side and watched, leaving me to run the class to my own plan.This was fine, I knew he was there if I needed him and he did offer me occasional advice dealing with discipline issues. This week he
Age and martial arts
Published on 2012-01-18 10:34:00
I was recently browsing around the Download Karate.com website and came across a video looking at students from different clubs testing for their shodan rank. The point of the video was to give you a flavour of what standard should be expected for a 1st kyu grade testing for shodan.Here is the video:I found the standard of the students good but also in line with what I would expect someone testing for shodan to be like. However, I was more interested in Jason Armstrong’s comments towards the e
Escape the diet trap - some new ideas on weight loss...
Published on 2012-01-11 07:29:00
I read an article in The Times supplement last weekend that throws some conventional ideas about diet and fitness on their head!The article was a promotion for a new book written by practising doctor and nutrition expert Dr John Briffa and included extracts from the book ‘Escape the diet trap’.Basically he’s saying that conventional views on calorie counting, low fat foods, high carb intakes and aerobic exercise are bad for you if you want to lose weight and don’t work. Here are his reas
Does reading about martial arts enhance your practice?
Published on 2012-01-06 06:06:00
How important do you think it is to read about martial arts as well as practise it? Does reading about it enhance your ability to actually do it? Personally, I think that it does. Here are my reasons why I think reading is important: #1. It provides an historical and cultural context for your art. To truly understand something you need to know where it has come from, who developed it, what kind of people were they, what motivated them to develop such an art, what events were happening at
My Martial Art Aims for 2012...
Published on 2011-12-29 10:59:00
I am a planner. I like to write down my plans; it works for me to do this. I’m much more likely to achieve my aims when I have written them down. Here’s what I’ve come up with for 2012… Aims:1.To improve personal fitness and overcome repetitive shoulder injury2.To continue to develop and improve martial arts skills3.To improve teaching and leadership skills and gain further teaching experience.How to achieve it….1a. Develop a new personal fitness plan. When I was preparing for my blac
Why do we.........perform Mokuso?
Published on 2011-12-21 12:13:00
Do you perform mokuso (moh-kso) during the opening and closing ceremonies of your martial arts class? Do you regard it as just a part of one of those quaint Japanese rituals that you’re expected to participate in when you practice a traditional martial art, or do you think it has real value in preparing you for training and enhancing your performance of martial arts?If you regard mokuso as merely a traditional ritual then you are probably just going through the motions of performing it and are
My son's shodan success....
Published on 2011-12-05 10:56:00
SamYesterday my karate organisation, the SSK, held another black belt grading session. This time it was my son Sam's turn to grade for his black belt so how could I not go along to support him? In fact there were five people from our club grading, four for shodan and 1 for sandan. My husband partnered Bruce who was grading for sandan so three of our family trekked over the Pennines to the grading centre near Manchester.As everyone in the UK will know, winter decided to make a sudden appearance y
Kenwa Mabuni books - now translated into English...
Published on 2011-12-01 11:42:00
Just when I thought it was impossible to get hold of any books written by Kenwa Mabuni, founder of shito ryu, that were translated into English I came across Lulu.com - a self-publishing website. Here I discovered two books written by Mabuni and translated into English by karate sensei - Mario McKenna.The first is Karate Kempo: The art of self-defense. Mabuni wrote this in 1934. Interestingly this book is about the art of 'goju-ryu kenpo'. It is one of Mabuni's early written works (he was a very
Another assessment sneaks up on me....
Published on 2011-11-18 05:28:00
Just when I thought the testing was all over for a couple of years, Sensei suddenly announces that I will be taking my Instructor’s assessment on Monday!Actually it was Monday just gone so I have already done it….but he did suddenly sneak it up on me with about a weeks’ notice. Though the date did arrive rather more quickly than I had anticipated I have actually been preparing for it for a couple of years.As many readers will know I have been assisting with teaching in our junior class reg