Single wing choke combat application

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2a2WG5gJNk
Standing application of single wing choke as a control and take down. A strong self defence technique as its simple, pretty intuitive once you position or find yourself outside the line of attack and moving behind the attacker, and a reliable choke to apply as it does not rely on the use of the dogi/jacket collar.

Training and Goshinjitsu practice principles

I haven't blogged for a little while here but since Eugene arrived we have been stepping up the training plus doing some other fun stuff along the way too. Euge is doing a great job of chronicling his experiences and for me its a pleasure having him here as a training partner but also as a friend discovering Okinawa for the first time and I am almost reliving that wondrous journey from the start through his day-to-day experiences.
Training is going well from a number of perspectives. We are training daily except Saturdays doing either karate or jujitsu/goshinjitsu sessions in the evenings plus conditioning sessions at least 3 days per week. My fitness level is good (i.e. able to perform 50 reps push ups/sit ups/leg raises/burpees continuously with relative ease, running 8-10 hill climbs without serious fatiguing). As always I'm aiming for the next step, the next level so short term goals are to up the reps and do the hill sprints quicker as well as make progress on pull ups max reps.

Goshinjitsu (self defence)
After some thought and discussion with Euge and the other guys we train with I have been able to put some more structure and definition around the goshinjitsu training we are doing here. My aim in starting the group was to give us regular training sessions where we can test out, learn and refine techniques that reliably work in real, non-uke-compliant situations. Therefore we can study any technique and supporting practise drill, etc from jujitsu, karate, wrestling, etc without restriction due to established syllabus of any particular ryuha (school/style). However there must be some underlying principles that guide our activity. Otherwise we risk turning into a Youtube-fueled, mixed martial arts mess. So I suggest the following which I'm sure will evolve and be refined as time and experience accumulate.

Principle 1 - Self defence techniques should be an obvious response to a common, likely attack. Or stated the other way round, we should not devote unnecessary time to training defences to unusual or highly specialised attacks. There are defences to flying kicks and sword attacks but the probability is that you are much more likely to face someone trying to push, grab, punch or headbutt you from close range if you are unlucky enough to get into some kind of confrontation. There has been some great work done in recent years by prominent martial artists as well as law enforcement agencies on the most common attacks which provide a fairly consistent guide to HAOV.
Principle 2 - Self defence techniques should be intuitive and simple. The more intuitive a technique the more likely you are to be able to respond with it in a high pressure situation. And techniques should be simple enough that they can be executed quickly and modified based on the real time responses of the opponent which will always be to some greater or lesser extent unpredictable. Multi-step techniques that require any more than 3 seconds to complete and depend on very specific responses from the opponent are much less useful than a short, sharp, effective defence that neutralises the initial opponent and allows the defender to move onto the next attacker or ideally take an escape option.
Principle 3 - Techniques taught should be backed up by experience and practice. In other words defences considered should have a demonstrable origin in a traditional martial art or modern law enforcement/security experience and should be taught with reference to that origin by someone with experience in that field.
Principle 4 - A successful defence must result in the defender being in a position of superiority and ready for a subsequent attack whatever that be, or to take the opportunity to escape. The strongest position to be in during and at the end of a defence is stood upright in a balanced natural stance. There are very necessary and very strong ground fighting techniques that should be learnt as they are essential to defending yourself when you have been thrown, tripped, pushed or grappled to the ground but a defender should always prioritise getting back to their feet as quickly as possible and thereby minimise the risk of a secondary attack whilst down there (i.e. a kick to the head from a second attacker). In summary, don't get tied up in a chess match on the ground, get to your feet fast, ready to fight or flee.

I'm hoping we will build on these principles to establish a syllabus and programme of training over time that remains open and receptive to improvement and innovation whilst retaining the strong core ethos ("train hard, fight easy") and principles. I'm going to do a lot more videoing and posting up our lesson plans, and I will ask other people who teach in the sessions to do the same. I hope that we can attract guest teachers from the traditional Okinawan arts as we visit and train at various dojo around Okinawa. More to come soon, hopefully so watch this space.

My training regime and goals

I thought I'd post a brief description of my current training regime and goals. If nothing else I hope that this might stimulate some feedback and maybe suggestions on things to change, add and improve so please feel free to comment on this post.

Goals
When I arrived in Okinawa last year my immediate goals were straightforward. 1. Establish a regular, frequent (daily ideally) training pattern that included martial arts and challenging conditioning training. 2. Eat a healthier, more balanced diet, and 3. Lose some weight, hopefully as a natural result of doing 1 and 2. I also had a softer goal of feeling less stressed and happier on a day-to-day basis. Perhaps the most important goal of all.

My longer term goals include gaining proficiency in traditional Okinawan karate and kobudo, exploring the various schools on Okinawa, maintaining and improving my knowledge of jujitsu technique and adding other martial arts training and technique as the opportunities come up and they seem appropriate. You might notice these longer term 'goals' don't actually have a completion point, they are open ended, perhaps more like a path that just keeps twisting and turning as you journey along it but never runs out.

I have some other goals too - these are more like minor achievements and challenges to myself (100 push ups, 20 pull ups (I suck at pull ups!), cycle around the whole of Okinawa island, complete a local triathlon) but these are bars that will keep moving and being replaced with others as I achieve them.

'Not goals' - there are some obvious milestones that I do not place in my 'goals' because I think doing that will overemphasise them and because they should just happen naturally as a result of my other goals and these are the achievement of any particular grade, such as black belt/shodan, and higher 'dan' grades, in the martial arts I practice. Don't get me wrong, I will feel very proud of myself if and when I am awarded a higher grade in any art but I've experienced myself and seen too many other people hit a psychological wall either before or after a big grading, typically at shodan level, that really hits their motivation and commitment to training. Training should be a life long consistent practice, not built upon a series of artificial crescendos, so in my mind I try to keep gradings and rankings in their proper, relatively unimportant, place.

Training
My current weekly training pattern is this:
Monday - Jujitsu/self defence practice 7.00 - 9.00pm
Tuesday - Matsubayashi-ryu karate practice 8.30 - 9.30pm
Wednesday - Conditioning and fitness 6.30-7.30am, then Jujitsu/self defence practice 7.00 - 9.00pm
Thursday - Matsubayashi-ryu karate practice 8.30 - 9.30pm
Friday - Conditioning and fitness 6.30-7.30am, then open slot to visit other dojos
Saturday - no regular training, rest day
Sunday - Conditioning and fitness 10am -12am, open slot to visit other dojos

I am both happy and unhappy with this training pattern.

Its good in that I'm doing some training almost everyday and getting in a combination of traditional karate, jujitsu and conditioning. I'm definitely feeling fitter and stronger, generally healthier now and I have lost around 10 kgs in bodyweight since last year. That alone puts a bit more of a bounce into my step!
But I feel like I should be doing more. I want to get in a decent conditioning session everyday and add in some kata practice as well. And I want to make sure I visit on average one new dojo every week (I've been to 3 or 4 so far). There are some challenges here in terms of balancing family and working time but I'm going to push for it nonetheless. I'm almost there and my mind I often reprove myself for not taking every  opportunity to get in some training when I have it - after all you only need around a 30 minute workout to do basic fitness and some kata.

Having my friend and training partner Eugene out here staying with me from next month is definitely going to help so I'm really looking forward to that. I am sure we will motivate, encourage, cajole, goad and beast each other along in equal measure!! (In between the Okinawa sake appreciation sessions of course;)

25th Okinawa Karate & Kobudo annual taikai event

I had the pleasure of participating in the 25th annual Okinawa Karate and Kobudo taikai at the Budokan in Naha, Okinawa on Saturday. Many karateka from the Matsubayashiryu dojos in Okinawa attended alongside around a couple of thousand other karateka and spectators from across all the traditional Okinawan karate and kobudo styles.


It was a great event to take part in and watch, the first of this kind I have been to in Okinawa. Our club demonstrated Pinan Shodan and Wankan kata as a group and this was followed by a demonstration of  Chatanyara Kusanku kata and bunkai by 3 of the most senior instructors in the organisation, Taira sensei, Arakaki sensei (my instructor) and Higa sensei. The video is here on my Youtube channel.
And the fuller photo album is on my Facebook site.

This kind of event is a great opportunity to not only see demonstrations of karate and kobudo across many different Okinawan styles but also meet sensei and students from other dojos in the Matsubayashiryuha. All in all a good day and a nice bonus that the sun came out after a week of rain and grey skies.

Matsubayashiryu sensei and students

Karate training and things you learn along the way

As I mentioned in an earlier post I train 3 or 4 nights a week under Arakaki sensei who teaches Matsubayashiryu karate which is a school of Shorin ryu, one of the traditional Okinawan styles. Arakaki sensei was a direct student of the founder of the style and is a senior instructor among karate sensei in Okinawa. So he has years of history and learning stored up and will often offer up an interesting fact or piece of karate history in between training exercises. Some of it is karate politics which isn't something I would dwell on in this blog but suffice to say its as common in the karate community in Okinawa as it is elsewhere. People don't always get on and often choose not to cooperate but focus on their own way. That's pretty much the same everywhere.
More interesting are the little insights into karate development and history which pop up from time to time. Today , as we were practising kata and bunkai (the application of the kata), he said that 'old' karate does contain throwing and joint locking techniques in addition to strikes and kicks (that's no major revelation - the 'rediscovery' of this old karate knowledge is a major theme for many karateka around the world) but the reason strikes and kicks became much more heavily emphasised was in part to distinguish karate from judo, ju jitsu and aikido when karate was competing for recognition and prominence in Japan and other countries. I understood from what he said that there was a conscious decision by the leading Okinawan sensei to focus on presenting and teaching the striking, and particularly use of punching techniques, as they were not a speciality of Japanese martial arts.
The result of this, and I'm sure other factors too, is that today in the bunkai I am learning here in Okinawa, most of the techniques are applied as blocks to straight punches and front kicks or counter striking using the same techniques. Now I know there are many alternative bunkai for these same techniques that are being taught elsewhere in other dojos that employ a much wider panopoly of striking, trapping, locking, throwing and kicking techniques, and frankly with my experience in jujitsu and actual combat I think they are often highly practical. I had wondered how the accepted bunkai in a traditional Okinawan style had become so narrow in its vocabulary of techniques. Today was a little insight into how these things happen I guess.
I have another theory on a contributing factor in the lack of throwing and ground techniques in modern karate.  Every karate dojo I've been into so far in Okinawa has a polished, slightly sprung wooden floor. There are good reasons for this. One, its easy to sweep and wipe clean, two its very durable, three its very easy to move around smoothly without the friction you get from traditional straw or modern EVA tatami mats. The problem is that its too hard to safely break fall on or grapple on, unless you are exceptionally good at break falling lightly and protecting yourself. And frankly I've never see break falling practised in a karate lesson. So if the karate training environment is not built to support it, its not surprising throwing and ground work are not done. I wonder when these wooden dojo floors came into vogue? Was it because Okinawans became richer as the island recovered after the Second World War and could afford them rather than training in gardens and dusty yards as you often see in pre-war photographs of old masters and students? Was it influenced by Japanese training halls such as kendo dojo, another legacy of the 'Japanisified' karate-do the generation that included Funakoshi Gichin brought back to Okinawa from Japan?

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...