Passed my grading

We had the end of year grading at the Shikina Arakaki dojo last night and party afterwards. I'm very happy to report it went well for all (7 juniors and 3 adults grading this time) with everyone passing their test. I received 2 kyu after managing to demonstrate Fukyukata 1&2, Pinan kata 1,3&5 and Naihanchi shodan without any major errors (I missed a kiai in one kata!). So time to dust off the brown belt and get on with training.

Training log - 031209

I've been training every night this week and really focussing on the kata (Fukyukata 1&2, Pinan 1-5, Naihanchi shodan) required for the 3rd kyu test this Saturday. Sometimes things just click into place and you make a leap forward in ability and understanding and it feels like that this week especially with Naihanchi kata. I have a particular interest in this kata as I can see the bunkai in it instinctively based on my jujitsu training. Its built around dealing with close-quarter attacks, moving inside the opponents guard, breaking their stance by attacking the legs while striking and blocking simultaneously and finishing decisively with throws, locks and neck cranks. All of which will be very familiar to a jujitsu practitioner. I like to think of it as the street fighters kata, and in fact the karate figure who is often associated with it is Motobu Choki who had a reputation for putting himself in the way of a good scrap pretty frequently.
Hopefully Saturday will go well and I'll get a picture or two to post up afterwards.

Training log - 301109

I started training in Matsubayashiryu Shorin Karate soon after we arrived in Okinawa at the end of August. I first started karate training about 16 years ago but even so entering a new dojo is in many ways like starting afresh so I wear a white belt and am relearning all the kata from Fukyukata Ichi and Ni through the 5 Pinan katas, the Naihanchi katas and so on. There are 19 katas in the Matsubayashi karate system in all. Lessons always follow the same format (this is the norm in traditional Okinawan karate dojos) and usually last around 90 mins. A 10 minute warm up is followed by Basics practise (hand strikes, kicks, blocks, stances) for 20 mins, followed by Kata practise, and the lesson often ends with some conditioning exercises i.e. exchanging strikes and blocks to arms and legs to build up resistance. During Kata practise 'bunkai' - the application of the kata is explained and practised between 2 or 3 people in groups.
My teacher is Arakaki Toshimitsu Hanshi, an 8th dan instructor who was a direct student of Nagamine Shoshin who founded Matsubayashiryu until he passed away. He's good humoured and 'old school' which is always a good combination in my experience. He speaks a little English but usually a rapid mix of Japanese and Okinawan dialect which is challenging to follow sometimes. Fortunately he's patient enough to explain things a bit more slowly when I ask.

As I'm not a complete beginner to karate I will be graded at 3rd Kyu brown belt level this Saturday by Arakaki sensei. I will have to demonstrate good basic techniques plus Fukyukata 1 and 2, Pinan 1-5 and Naihanchi 1. I'll post videos of these kata online at some point soon. You can find lots of videos of these kata on youtube already of course but every ryuha (karate style) and teacher has their own flavour and intepretation of core kata and techniques so perhaps it will be useful to others to see what I am learning here.

Training log - 271109

First session at Tomishiro High School with a group of BJJ and traditional Jujitsu guys. 2 hours of grappling and ground work sparring, 8pm start. 3 min bouts with typically 3 mins rest in between. As ground work is not my forte I sometimes have to make an extra effort to go to BJJ sessions but they are always enjoyable and I learn a lot. This was a good session, no injuries and a good workout. Nice bunch of guys.

More photos...