When the moment comes, and you face an opponent, things get real simple. You do what you need to do. That is something all fighters know. But what you bring to bear on that moment is not so simple – things change suddenly and dramatically. All your experience, your training, the sharpness of your skill
Three Things Every Fighter Needs Read More »
When Okinawa was absorbed into Imperial Japan in 1879 the Okinawan men were conscripted as laborers, the women and children were abused. All were intimidated, forced to abandon their native language and way of life. The new leaders did not believe they were taking Okinawa from the Okinawans. They thought they were taking Okinawa from
Matsumora’s Hara Story Read More »
A “ready stance” has an important place in practice. But in bunkai it can yield good results when it is understood as a pass-through point in ongoing movement. Not as a static position. People sometimes try to interpret the first move of their kata as if they were standing still in their “yoi” position when
It is easy to hurt people.It is hard to protect them. Standing on the corner on a bright sunny day waiting for the bus – this guy never saw it coming. For fun someone snuck up and punched him as hard as he could in the side of his head, just under his ear lobe.
Kata and the Knockout Game Read More »
The well-trained person keeps to the center in action; the poorly trained person moves away from the center in action. The center, for the well-trained person, is such that he is always exact in his timeliness; the departure from the center for the poorly trained person is such that he will notice nothing.” – from
Many grappling arts are designed for subject control: the opponent’s ability to threaten you ceases when he is under your control. That means your objective in the encounter is to restrain his ability to move, and you do it by using a pin or lock. Wrestling, east Asian grappling arts, as well as defensive tactics’
Karate and Subject Control Read More »
Excerpt from “The Good Fight” On the vigorous defense of virtue: “…Peaceful people need protection. They get it. Once they feel safe the protectors are no longer welcome. They are a reminder of danger. They are a reminder that they rose to meet the threat when others did not. In times of peace they have
“The civil is the inner principal and the martial arts is the outer principle. Outer technique without inner principle is simply the brute courage of physical strength. However, when one is no longer in his prime, bullying an opponent will not work. Those who possess inner principle without outer technique, who think only of the
D.T. Suzuki, who introduced Zen to the west, blamed the devotion of Zen priests to militant Japanese imperialism in the years leading up to World War II, on the fact that the priests were uneducated. Zen priests, he said “…have no knowledge or learning and therefore are unable to think… independently…” (Cited by Brian Victoria,
Zen Confusion and Martial Arts Read More »
Okinawans live longer than any other people in the world. Why? A team of medical researchers collected data for twenty-five years on the island to find out. Karate comes from the island of Okinawa Karate is Okinawa’s most famous export. But the Okinawan secrets of longevity might be even more popular, if more people knew about them.
The Okinawan Secret Read More »
Flexibility is a critical component of power. Under pressure we can yield, be resilient and quickly recover. We can disappear from an attack vector and instantly fill the space with our counterattack. Too soft – we break at the contact point. Under pressure we collapse. We drift, lack form and purpose. We go nowhere, fast.
Too Flexible or not Too Flexible Read More »
For about a million years people used only one tool. A rock, chipped into a long oval, with sharp edges and a point. A hand ax. It was handy. If you lost it, broke it or gave it as a gift you could make a new one. You could find plenty of blanks in the
The Place of Honor Read More »
We made chishi at the dojo today. Chishi are training tools. The name translates as ‘strength stone.’ They are used in Okinawan karate to develop our arms and shoulders. They pour concrete into a mold and make the handle from a dowel. We use them the same way and we make them the same way.
Most of the people who come into the dojo for training are good people. Or so it seems. My impression is that the people who practice traditional karate and stick with it are decent. I know and have known a lot of them. They want to be happy and safe and strong. There are a lot
The Presumption of Innocents Read More »
This calligraphy says Gratitude. It is pronounced “Kansha” in Japanese. The beautiful calligraphy was done by Chie Nakata and given to our dojo by her and her husband Jeremy Blaustein, an accomplished karate practitioner, who trained with us for many years. He says this is an expression of his philosophy of life. The message is
