Our Bad Budo

Tanren In The Park

2011-06-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

It was lovely morning today. I just found out that I landed a beautiful apartment a few blocks away from Sunset Park in Brooklyn, NY. So, I decided it would be nice to go do some Tanren/Qigong in the park. After a healthy dose of iced coffee I went with my very tolerant girlfriend to practice my routine on a lovely spot of lawn there, facing the Manhattan skyline.

Sunset Park is a very weird and wonderful place. In the morning, it is full of Chinese folks, mostly ethnic Fuzhou and Cantonese, performing every sort of health routine. Tai Chi, Bagua, and Hsing I are to be found, as are family and regional martial arts and their variations. There are also all manner of coordinated dancing groups with music blaring over loudspeakers, as folks in fancy dress or sweatsuits shake what they have in unison. More interesting to me are the folks walking backwards with swimming arms, or standing shirtless, wiggling and stretching and rubbing their skin. All types of body longevity practices are to be witnessed at beautiful Sunset Park.

The funnest thing for me was that as my girlfriend and I practiced our routine, we had just as many looky-loos as anyone. It was cool to be part of the morning body conditioning scene, with the fresh breeze blowing in from the bay and Manhattan in view, just another couple of weirdos in a vast crowd of weirdos doing their thing.

A Farewell Love Letter to My Dojo, the TNBBC

2011-03-11T02:12:00.000-08:00

I can hardly believe it. I’m moving about 3000 miles away from my dojo in Seattle, WA, to Brooklyn, NY. A bit of a rough weekly commute, so I’ve got to say some kind of “goodbye” or at least “smell ya later”. I’m gonna miss the hell outta you guys.

I remember searching for a good place to train when I first arrived in Seattle back in 2000. It was a rough search, with many McDojos and places I felt overqualified to be a student (one “teacher” in a place I visited, after talking to him and feeling his technique, said unabashedly and without irony that I should be teaching him. That was mighty frustrating, and frankly… sad.), as well as a few good dojos that just didn’t fit what I was looking for.

In 2002, I was passed the number of Neil Yamamoto Sensei by a buddy I worked with and trained with for a bit. Having just been given a huge front of bullshit by Russell McCartney about “Aikijujutsu”, I was a bit wary of anyone teaching such stuff. I called Neil and came with the tough questions about lineage, etc. To his credit, he was very straightforward about Icho Ryu and his qualifications, and told me to come train and see if it worked for me. I liked Neil’s no-nonsense approach, so I went to a class.

The class was held at the Seattle Jujutsu Club (at its first location, in Rainier Valley), which is one of the aforementioned GOOD dojos that didn’t fit what I was looking for (though I continued to train on and off occasionally with Aaron Fields Sensei and his guys of the SJC/Seatown Sambo as they are incredibly talented and tough “Hi, Laura!”). The club was in a HUGE old warehouse, and our space was essentially a loading-dock garage type space, with garage doors that were open all summer long, letting in the smell of blackberries. In the winter however, it was a horrid place, a frozen-hell of purple toes and propane-heat addled brains.

In my first class there were a couple other dudes and me, and of course, Neil, who had decided to go back to teaching after some time away from it. All I really remember from the first class is that I could not throw Neil. I couldn’t joint-lock him. I couldn’t torque his limbs. Neil, however, could do all that stuff to me, despite my height/reach/weight advantage. He granted that I had some skills, but I could achieve so much more. I was hooked.

Unlearning and relearning was torturous for so many years. It was an exercise in frustration shared by me and my dojo-mates in the TNBBC. We learned to be critical of ourselves and each other in a very affirming, but not ego-boosting way. If the baseline is “That sucks!” then “That sucks less.” is a pretty good step up the ladder of self-improvement.

We’ve moved about a bit over the years, following the SJC/Seatown Sambo to its location in that musty-but-cool basement in the U. District (great in winter, awful in summer—opposite of the Rainier Valley place), and then into our current location at the Seattle School of Aikido in University Heights, where we share space with Aikido and Shinto Ryu, a Meiji era sword style that a few TNBBCers hold advanced ranks in. Finally, we have a great combination of air, light, heat, cool, good mats, and appropriate ceiling height. Congrats to the TNBBC on their hard work to preserve the Seattle School of Aikido and for landing in such a great space. Big ups to the guys in our group who have worked so hard to give us a great place to train!

I want to thank my friends in the TNBBC for being there for me over the years. These guys have been my inspirations, my confidants, my drinkin’ buddies, my Ukes and Nages, my sounding boards, my students and my teachers (often in the same few minutes), my favorite jokesters and philosophers, and an all around batch of good, sweet, funny, talented, thoughtful, hard-working, courageous people that I am proud to call my friends. And I’m damn lucky to have trained with all of you guys.

Neil is of course included in the above sentiments about all of the TNBBC, but as he has made all this possible, I have to extend another note of gratitude and appreciation. Thank you, Neil, for taking a chance on me as a student, especially after my post-McCrapney interrogation (boy, that was an awkward phone-call/interview thingy!). I owe you a huge pile of thanks for helping me better understand body mechanics, structure, and power release, in fact you are the reason I started to pay attention to that stuff in a serious way. Since starting with you, I have found a new love for martial arts and am so interested in continuously working on my foundation/basics—these ARE the advanced techniques. I also have appreciated how you’ve let me and other students seek skills elsewhere (and often encouraged it for some), but have always been able to relate to us when we came back to the TNBBC, and show how these skills relate to the frame and skill-set we’ve been developing over the years. Mostly, as with the other guys, I want to thank you for your constant and amazing friendship that has meant so much to me over these years. Thank you for everything, Neil Yamamoto Sensei (Yes, I know you don’t like to be called Sensei, but gimme a break this time).

Thank you, TNBBC, for enriching my life so much. Seattle Icho Ryu has given me the best friends of my 30s and I hope on into the rest of my life. I will continue to represent the TNBBC spirit in all of my Martial Arts endeavors in NY. I’ll miss you guys, but you”ll always have a couch in NY with your name(s) on it. I love you guys!

The Tape Loop

2010-11-22T11:51:00.000-08:00

I’ve become a big fan of Ming Chew’s The Permanent Pain Cure book after being introduced to it by Rob John. Ming Chew offers some fantastic restorative postures to resolve various imbalances and tensions in the body. I refer to them as postures rather than stretches, because they’re much more similar to various actively engaged Qi Gung or yoga positions rather than gravity driven ‘stretches’ per se. Something that I really appreciate in his book is what he calls the “Tape Loop”. After describing how to get into each position, he then offers a checklist which he recommends constantly running through while you hold the position. “Is my chin tucked?” “Is my jaw relaxed?” “Are my arms straight?” “Is my back flat?”… This loop allows you to self correct while holding the fairly challenging postures and helps you get the maximum benefit from the exercise. This also creates a very active exercise both mentally and physically. Instead of focusing on a stretching position and then letting the mind relax as the body is affected by gravity, the brain is constantly engaged in balancing the many contrary forces and tensions throughout the body.

I recently realized while thinking about teaching paradigms in martial arts that the best teachers I have had are the ones who have been able to offer a consistent tape loop or check-list that allows me to self-correct my mechanics and movements. While there is a lot to be said for simply getting in and ‘getting –er-dun’ in the martial arts, the kinds of martial arts that I have been most attracted to seem to actually require this kind of introspection to move beyond the very basic stages.

My Shinto Ryu (sword) teacher, Robbie Pellett, gave all of his students the gift of a consistent tape loop of events as he described the preparation for and execution of the soto (outside) no kata (forms). As I prepare to perform a kata I still hear his voice, “Inhale gather, exhale settle, focus, knees squeeze, raising the right hand, open the sword, begin drawing with the sword vertical, rise up, turn the blade over…” When I began teaching Shinto Ryu myself, all I needed to do was to say the tape loop that was already playing in my head. It’s my hope that these short sutra will live on beyond me and beyond those students I now train with, a thread between the generations. Their existence helps assure that certain lessons are transmitted to every new person who trains.

My aikijujutsu teacher, Neil Yamamoto, gave his students a subset of the principles taught to him by Don Angier based on Yanagi Ryu. Unlike the ‘principles’ many of us are used to from Aikido and the Dynamic Sphere, Saotome Sensei or any of the other authors or books about Aikido, these principles are very specific and create a framework for understanding how an aiki interaction can and should work. We use about 25 of the principles, although we find that focusing on about 10 is a good place to start. Neil spent a lot of time with us going through teaching techniques and having each of us verbalize what we were doing and how the principles applied to those actions. If there’s was a place in a technique that wasn’t working, we began troubleshooting by going through what principles were in play at that point of the technique. Often if we were stuck it was because we were applying the wrong principle to that point, or we (more often than not) were not really applying any of the principles. Trouble transitioning in osoto-gari? Are you pushing with the legs or pulling? Technique not going anywhere right from the get go? Did you get center to center contact first? Not only did this give us the tools to begin to troubleshoot our own movements, but it gave us a way to examine other practitioners and teachers. I remember being at a seminar with Motomichi Anno sensei a few years after beginning training with Neil. While Anno sensei would describe what he was doing as, “Enter! There, now not there! And walk…” I saw 10-12 principles carefully being applied in a very particular sequence. Instead of being left with nothing more than a feeling and the phrase, “there, not there!” I had a lexicon to specifically describe what was happening between uke and nage. Further when taking ukemi, we all became aware of what the various principles felt like when they were applied to us. When someone tried to do a technique without any of these principles, or in violation of these principles, many of us found our body had an immediate awareness that kept the poorly performed technique from affecting us anymore. We didn’t need to resist anything because our bodies could tell that there was nothing actually there. We had been given a tape-loop, a checklist of things to be aware of in our training.

This ability to analyze and understand how an interaction worked was one of the things that made what Akuzawa Minouru and Rob John (of the Aunkai) so striking when I first met them. Here were people whose bodies did not respond to the principles I had been training the way just about anyone else I had met did. Certain lines of kuzushi that would topple most folks I had trained with did effectively nothing to them, and yet they were very dynamic in their movements, not cold and static. Luckily Rob and Ark were both very generous and again I found a checklist of sorts within their paradigm. This time, it was introspective, teaching about sensations and connections within the body. I think it’s also why despite having only a few days over several years of direct interaction with them I was able to get so much from the Aunkai model. Since Ark was not only teaching postures, but what to feel and how to examine the body in a very self-critical manner, the exercises themselves offered instruction if you were willing to really engage the brain and actively examine your own structure. The flip side of this is that it’s possible to ‘do’ the Aunkai exercises for years and get nearly nothing from them if the student isn’t willing or able to actively enter into the mental aspect of the training.

Is this the only way to train? Certainly not, but for me, having an internal checklist or tape-loop is an invaluable tool and the ability to intellectualize these kinds of principles can only serve to make me a better student and teacher.

That's a joke... I say, that's a joke, son

2010-08-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

It's Friday, so I'm probably like most of you and in need of a bit of humor to help transition into a welcomed weekend.

This is an excerpt from a post authored by the esteemed Professor Peter Goldsbury on Aikiweb where he quotes another work. I quote Professor Goldbury because he edited the material to remove names from the original piece to protect the innocent.

The context of the original quote is Kisshomaru Ueshiba's alleged knowledge/ignorance of what may be called ‘aiki' skills.

Enjoy.

"So let us imagine an announcement, either publicly or privately, among the ruling body of the Aikikai:

Quote:
I, Ueshiba Moriteru, have just realized that our million strong international organization has gone down a terribly wrong path. My grandfather taught a particular, very sophisticated training method that was derived almost in whole cloth from Daito-ryu. He then amalgamated it with a charismatic neo-Shinto sect that is now the provenance of elderly devotees, and subject to attempts by a number of yakuza organizations to take control of their millions of yen in money and property. My grandfather used to practice, obsessively, specific drills which enabled him to achieve this internal power. My father rejected this, post-war, and focused on turning the cryptic phrases on peace among the three realms into a feel-good formula of cooperative, pseudo-martial circular movement to enhance relationships among people in the world. This has vitiated it as a martial art, but allowed the art to spread to almost every country, to have a level of political and social influence in our own country, and made beaucoup yen as well. To my shame, however, was stunned to find that not only I, but almost all of the shihan are ignorant of my grandfather's skills. We must recover them - but not through the weird religion grandpa followed. I've tried reading his writings on the subject, and if the old man wasn't crazy, he was eating lots of mushrooms behind that shrine in Iwama!

So I have, in secret, reached out to the various Daito-ryu organizations, the very groups we have slandered as old-fashioned and violent, the legacy of a psychopath that my grandpa was well shut of. Daito-ryu, the martial art transcended by our (not) magnificent aikido. To my surprise, Daito-ryu turned out to be either incredibly rigid, constipated kata training, or ridiculous dive bunny techniques that make Takeda Yoshinobu look normal, and a few really amazing guys who said that they would only teach me if I revealed what I learned to no one - ever. And they sort of indicated they would lie to me and not teach me anyway, while pretending to.

So there is only one way to save aikido - we must get outside help. We have three choices that I have found: All would state that they are far form the best at these skills, but they are the only ones who are not focused on a specific school. So we have, here, a large wheel and we will spin it and draw lots, and one third of the shihan will be dispatched for five years to study in Tokyo with a pugnacious little man named A - yes, please forget that we've previous accused him of being a gangster and told everyone to stay away from him; one third will go to Colorado. I'm sure all the shihan will get along fine with B, a 60+ year old ex-Marine ex-engineer. He will have a number of personality traits that they will like - obsessively meticulous and abrasively direct. (That third is ordered to give your bokken and jo to the nearest deprived child and buy pool noodles, the new weapon of the Aikikai). The other third will go to the eastern USA to study with a man named C of whom - well, just go and find out - I can't explain him easily. When you all return, we will have a battle royal in the Budokan, in pitch dark, like my grandfather used to do, with live swords (because aiki is universally applicable) and the team that survives will be responsible for promoting that version of aiki forever after. Actually, the Colorado group can use their pool noodles if they choose.

Me? Ahem. Well, my son and I will be making trips to a small village in China, just in case our elder brothers might somehow have something that we Japanese have not yet had an opportunity to improve. Just to check."

That's a joke, son. It is, isn't it?

Congratulations, It's a ...beginners class!

2010-04-12T15:15:00.000-07:00

In July 2010, I'm officially having something alien to me take place - a real beginners class!

I know, some of you were expecting me to say something like "heartfelt concern for people" but this beginners class is easier to do and really mean. This started more as a joke as do most of my decent worthwhile ideas, but with a bolt of lightning and a sprinkle of pixie dust, it sprang into life.

I'm enthused about the possibilities, but at the same time, I am a lazy sot by personal nature. I'm not wanting to do this, even though I see the need and know it needs to be done. My sense of 'giri'(look it up in an English Japanese dictionary if you don't know what it means) warred with my slothful nature and won.

I'm grateful to have had the Seattle School of Aikido board members agree with my proposal and to shift their schedule to accommodate this class.

It's not that I can't teach beginners, it's that I'm usually not of the temperament to do it. Kind of like with children, I am better suited to the Uncle role. But my class size has grown to the size that I can't manage it properly unless I separate the beginners from seniors to focus better on the needs of both.

This serves three purposes. One is to develop teaching abilities of the seniors as they learn more about how to present things in the manner I want used for Icho Ryu. I plan to do this by having them observe how I present things in class and help teach the beginners class. We plan on splitting the class into smaller size groups with a senior leading each group. Which is why I post this on the Our Bad Budo Blog rather than on my Wretched Hive of Scum blog, it impacts the TNBBC seniors, not just me as the chief instructor.

Two, it brings in fresh blood with new (and somewhat used) students who need drill in basic skills like ukemi and conditioning, need to learn more etiquette, or simply want to get a different perspective on learning in a structured environment. Three is it makes my life easier to have more time on mat and to be able to focus better on the needs of beginners and those of more senior students in different classes.

At some point of course, some of the beginners will evolve into senior students and will become hopefully, students in the senior classes. Joining the senior class will be up to each student and how hard they work to get not only the physical aspects, but the social and mental aspects of class and learning the skills and techniques taught, and when I think they are ready. Some will do so, others will not. And eventually, if they stick with this stuff, then they will assume their roles as assistant instructors in the beginner's class.

Thus, we continue the cycle of learning and teaching for students of budo as taught in Icho Ryu, as they spread their budo seeds, prior to their deaths upon the banks of the Bernie Lau River and Rice paddy-Sugar cane field drainage canal, before gasping their last breath and rotting away into mouldering bones and residual nourishment for the martial arts scavengers who skulk about the river banks, looking for knowledge and not quite empty bottles of beer and whisky. (I live in Seattle, there had to be some reference to salmon.)

My class for beginners is going to be mainly for those who have already pestered me enough to get me to let them join my class, those who have asked for more time on mat, and for members of Seattle School of Aikido, where Icho Ryu makes it's home, who want a different approach to budo than offered by aikido.

I'm not opposed to more people joining my class outside of those mentioned above, so we shall see what happens. The main limit to numbers in class is what I think we can manage to teach effectively, and that creates a low number limit. With seniors on the mat helping, I can't see room for any more than the toes and fingers on on a small child after an unfortunate encounter with dad's lawn mower, which is about 12-14 maximum.

Why a small class? Because I'm not foolish enough to think I'm any good, or an effective teacher, but I'm also good enough to know I'm better than learning from a book, unless you completed the Hooked on Phonics course. Then, a book might be better.

The Anti-SPLAT Method!

2010-04-09T02:55:00.000-07:00

Want to learn how to make someone (uke, “bad guy”, etc.) go SPLAT!?

Well then listen up, kid…

Stop trying so damn hard to knock ‘em down! Yer givin’ it all away with yer herky-jerky entry... givin’ ‘em a chance to evade/push back/redirect/etc.

The ONLY way to actually learn techniques and body skill is to be slow. Take every stance, every movement step by step. Each self-identification of activation and relaxation in solo exercises (correctly) is the key to building the “frame” and the engine to drive it. In two person kata and in two person testing exercises, including randori, one can test the limits of these aspects of strength. Be patient and get ready to be humbled (isn’t that the best way to find teachers? Sure helped me!).

Now I’m gonna switch it up on ya:

Internal “frame” and “groundpath” etc. are foundational, but a good technician, w/ excellence in techniques, focus, and strength will do just fine—if the “internal MA expert” has no ability in regard to technique, timing, or real fighting/ at the very least randori experience. However, if you combine the two, “frame/IMA strengths” and technical/experiential/attitudinal skills, what you have is exceptional.

Ain’t that so?

So why are standards so low???

I guarantee, if you knock your dojo mates over ALL THE TIME and they knock you over ALL THE TIME, at least one of you is full of crap.

A few rules for not fooling yourself:

Don’t believe that “teaching techniques” are applicable to fighting any more than video game perfected techniques are. Instead, use them to better understand a condition in you or your partner’s body during said drill.

If there is a technique you consider a “fighting technique”—Why? Have you played with it enough to feel strong in a high stress environment? Randori? Really?

Learn to hit someone hard for real, and learn to take some hits. No one I have ever met, amazing badass SENSEI or not, hasn’t been clocked. Suck it up. No one is an invincible ninja.

Be patient and be energetic at the same time about your training. Expect slow results, but love it enough to get some dang results. Visualization, solo practice, 2 person practice, and testing are the keys.

At least that’s my best guess…

Seattle School of Aikido Seminar - March 19-20, 2010

2010-01-21T10:11:00.000-08:00

Sponsored by the Seattle School of Aikido, Icho Ryu Aikibudo and Shinto Ryu Iai Battojutsu.

Featuring:

Andy Dale
Chief Instructor Xin Qi Shen Dojo

Allan Kaplan
Seattle School of Aikido

Robby Pellett
Seattle School of Aikido
Yoseikan Budo

Mike Sato
Nihon Goshin Aikido
Icho Ryu Seattle

Neil Yamamoto
Chief Instructor Icho Ryu Aikibudo

Just another seminar? Definitely not, and if you can make the time, this would be a gem to add to your 2010 seminar schedule. These instructors aren't on the seminar circuit, but all are long time students and teachers of their various arts. Their teachers list includes names like Tohei, Mochizuki, Dobson, Lau and Tchoung. You have a mix of aikido styles, including Yoseikan, Nihon Goshin, Ki Society and Aikikai . For more variety, you have iai battojutsu, taiji and aikibudo. Do some research on these instructors because they tend to fly below the radar. To get them together at the same time will be a special time for all.

The cost is only $75 for Friday and Saturday, and you'll be supporting a good cause. As Seattle's oldest aikido dojo, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, she needs a little work. We're replacing the worn out canvas mat with tatami mats - they're a little safer to train on and are much easier to keep clean for health reasons. Toss in a little paint and some serious sweat equity and this place will look pretty sharp in a few months.

Of course, if you just want to donate, it would be much appreciated. But we'd rather have you come train with us and have a good time.

More info as it becomes available at www.SeattleSchoolofAikido.org.

2009-12-31T10:50:00.000-08:00

On behalf of all the TNBBC (to all the invisible readers who don't leave comments but who show up in the analytics) Happy New Year!

I am leaving work shortly, to go and help my mom prepare for Oshogatsu - Japanese New Year celebration. This is when Japanese families gather to eat too much, drink a bit, and look forward to a new year clean start. For Japanese American's, this is a hangover from the traditions brought by our grandparents/great grandparents, etc... On the menu are salmon, sashimi, red beans and rice, and all the traditional squiggly bits of seafood and assorted vegetables that reflect the new year and seasonal availability. Soon I will have burned hand from making mochi. Fresh mochi is a good thing! More on Mochi

2009 was a flat out suck year for most of us for work. But for this budo crud, one of the bright spots for me was to see everyone in class get better at some aspect of their practice. Even better was to see the improvements in teaching ability from those teaching. Small things perhaps, but rewarding. Even more rewarding then the bottles of aged brown liquor I've been given by the guys in the dojo.

For all you guys in the TNBBC, thanks for hanging around. To everyone else reading this, get back to practice.

Is Hapkido???

2009-12-20T02:12:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, Dec 22 2009, 6:15 pm, I will be the guest instructor at the Seattle School of Aikido http://www.seattleschoolofaikido.org/ for a regular Aikido class.

Hmmm… teaching an “Aikido” class. How do I share my experience, knowledge, and attitude toward martial effectiveness without sounding “violent” or haughty? I wish somehow in these situations I could have some sort of billboard, floating over my head, that reads: I wish for the least violent outcome for any bad situation, I don’t want to hit/cut/kick people, in fact, I’ve been working for years now on how to improve my grappling/ aiki/ jujutsu/ body skills so that I may be more benevolent and merciful, if I am able --given the circumstance. I came up from my teenage years and twenties in various striking or grappling or mixture striking/grappling and began to develop my best skills in my 30’s thanks to studying under Neil Yamamoto primarily, among other excellent teachers in other styles. My goals are the goals of Aikido, but I have taken a different road to arrive at the same conclusion.

My “Aikido” lineage comes through my teacher, Neil Yamamoto and his teacher, Bernie Lau. Do a quick online search, and you will find that this line is actually (and weirdly, to my mind) one of the pioneering lines of Aikido in the States, and certainly in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve been lucky enough to have free reign to teach a study group under the auspices of the Icho Ryu umbrella, but with my emphasis on types of physical strategies, based on my experience and preferences in types of grappling and striking. Now, this coming Tuesday, Dec. 22 is the first time I’ve been honored with the trust to teach as a guest at an Aikido class. Thank you Neil, Chris, and the SSA community for this opportunity.

My syllabus will be as such:

Bow in

Core training

Tanren/Chi Gung

Stretching the hips

Proper weight shifting

The shape of Kote Gaeshi: what I’ve found the best form to be to affect uke’s core and structure.

2 straight line, or irimi versions of Kote Gaeshi—- discussion of tenkan and irimi stratgies.

Discuss the connection of the structure of Kote Gaeshi to that Shiho Nage. Illustrate with figure 4 “ki” lock. Practice figure 4 lock.

2 types of pin. Discuss strategies for each.

Q&A

Bow out

Please join me if you can: cost is included in SSA tuition for members, for guests there is a $15 mat fee.

Happy Holidays and Merry X-Mess!

John

Thoughts on a Friday...

2009-12-18T15:31:00.000-08:00

Crap, whose bright idea was it to give Fritz a sharp pointy sword? Sucka hits hard enough as it is!

Up/down is in/out. Sigh, got it boss.

Heavy hitters?

2009-12-08T09:51:00.000-08:00

The substitute list for Chris (igotlotsatime) Moses has just been announced. Crossing over to teach the aikido basics class for the month of December is:

December 8th - Neil Yamamoto
December 15th- Helmut Floss
December 22nd- John (is Hapkido!!!) Connolly
December 29th- Jeremy Hulley

Sign ME up for class! My basics can always use a review. I know 3 can do and teach, even the Hapkido guy, and new guy Helmut ran a highly recognized kids program at Two Cranes. If he can teach kids, he can probably teach this old dawg a few new tricks.

The Frog in the Shallow Well

2009-10-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

I read this story to my daughter the other night. I've read it before, but somehow this time it jumped out at me. Those of us studying martial arts have all been the frog. Some folks jump back in their well, cursing the turtle. Others find their way to the sea, only to hear about the ocean...

The Frog in the Shallow Well

a Chinese Fable

Once a frog that lived in a well bragged to a turtle that lived in the Sea.
"I am so happy!" cried the frog, "When I go out, I jump about on the railing around the edge of the well.
When I come home, I rest in the holes inside the wall of the well.
If I jump into the water, it comes all the way up to my armpits and I can float on my belly.
If I walk in the mud, it covers up my flippered feet.
I look around at the wriggly worms, crabs, and tadpoles, and none of them can compare with me.
I am lord of this well and I stand tall here. My happiness is great.
My dear sir, why don't you come more often and look around my place?"

Before the turtle from the Sea could get its left foot in the well, its right knee got stuck. It hesitated and retreated. The turtle told the frog about the Sea.

"Even a distance of a thousand miles cannot give you an idea of the sea's width; even a height of a thousand meters cannot give you an idea of its depth.
In the time of the great floods, the waters in the sea did not increase. During the terrible droughts, the waters in the sea did not decrease.
The sea does not change along with the passage of time and its level does not rise or fall according to the amount of rain that falls. The greatest happiness is to live in the Sea."

After listening to these words, the frog of the shallow well was shocked into realization of his own insignificance and became very ill at ease.

Ice Is for Dead People Part 2 - better not to need it.

2009-10-15T09:30:00.000-07:00

I'm not one for superstition - I believe more in "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." But when significant things in my life happen in 3's, that tweaks my radar.

We do martial arts. We suffer through the mental, emotional and physical pain of failure to get better. In order to improve, sometimes we have to be brutally honest with ourselves to understand the limits of those abilities.

Ignore the subtle stuff at your peril

I know a guy who had a heart attack last year. Mid 50's, thin, exercised regularly, non-smoker, normal blood pressure, and except for high cholesterol, most definitely not your poster child for heart disease.

He was taking an aikido class and was working on a technique at slow speed. He said he wondered why he was short of breath given the level of exertion and eventually stepped off the mat. After his breathing went back to normal, he got up to get a drink and said he felt a little nauseous and a touch dizzy. While sitting there drinking water, he said he felt a slight tightness in his chest, like the feeling you get when you have a chest cold. I asked him if he had any numbness or pain in his left arm and he said all he felt was a little tweak near the brachial artery. He thought it might be the onset of a case of the flu.

Anyways, he told me the shortness of breath was something he'd never felt before and with the other symptoms, it motivated him to call his cousin, who happened to be a cardiologist. After a short discussion, he said the doctor agreed it was best to be on the safe side and get checked out at the Emergency Room.

A friend drove him to the ER where he was promptly examined and after a battery of tests, the doctors discussed the discharge of their apparently healthy patient. It was then that my friend passed out, providing the doctors with an obvious diagnosis and earning him a quick trip to the Cath Lab. He had 2 stents put in 2 separate arteries.

He was smart and lucky. He acknowledged the symptoms, assessed the situation, headed to the ER and was fortunate he only had an intermittent blockage so there was no damage to his heart. He's back to regular training, but not in aikido. Not all is the same though, because he said that physical recovery from his life-threatening experience was easy - he was never in any physical discomfort. But, dealing with the other stuff is a bit more difficult.

So the 3's?

Seattle paramedic, late 50's good physical health - after hearing the friend's story, took a test to screen for coronary artery disease. Totally asymptomatic, but a high score led to other tests and a procedure to insert 8 stents. Still on active duty. Learning points - if you have risk factors, trust your gut. Intuition has served him well over the years. Preparation meets opportunity? Sometimes you're just lucky.

Nephew of TNBBC member - 24, died of a heart attack. Too young. Too sad. Learning points - there were risk factors, but you don't expect them to be critical when you're that young. Minimize your risk factors, at any age. Life is precious, grief can be devastating. Pray his family can get through this with the support of other family members, friends and their faith. You just don't know sometimes.

Aikido teacher - late 60's, good physical health. Knew of former student's heart attack adventure. Developed symptoms on the mat and thought it might be a heart attack. Drove home and had his wife drive him to the ER. 4 stents inserted. Learning points - scores points for recognizing symptoms. Minus points for not calling 911. Time is not your friend.

What would you have done?

How would you have handled the above situations? I have a couple of thoughts to guide you if after virtual simulation you were in need of ice.

You don't die from embarrassment. If you don't feel good, call 911 or have someone take you to the ER. As martial artists, we know our bodies well, so do not ignore things you've never felt before, particularly the subtle ones. Get it checked out! Some things you cannot tough your way through and contrary to the common belief of the young and young at heart, you are not invincible.

Situational awareness is not just about the bad guys. Be aware of those around you. Maybe you're ok, but if someone exhibits mental confusion, difficulty breathing, chest pain, unusual physical issues like slurred speech, facial abnormalities or weakness in extremities...they might be having a stroke or a heart attack. You make the call they can't...now.

Oh, and the first friend who had a heart attack? He told me later that he was actually training with a doctor at the time things started going south. Even when made aware of the situation by overhearing my friend's conversation with his doctor, there was no real offer of assistance. Learning points - take care of your training partners to the best of your ability. Reread the previous sentence and the previous post. Sometimes you wait for others to step up when you may be the most qualified simply because you care enough to do something. That's budo in my book.

So, tell me a bit about yourself… Wait, you don’t need to, I’ve looked it up myself.

2009-10-14T14:42:00.000-07:00

One of the things Bernie Lau told me was “Anyone is capable of anything at anytime.” This was told to him by a sergeant in the Seattle Police Academy when he was a recruit. Given the behaviors we see in leaders in all walks of life, it’s a very true statement. I’ve kept that in mind over the years, it helps keep me from being surprised very often.

One of the things tied to the above idea that I consider important is who gets in the dojo. A lot of things about problem students are very clear in retrospect, but no one had taken the time to connect the dots and see more of the picture.

All too often this is due to the attitude of people in charge of a dojo. There is no thought as to who gets in and who doesn’t, and leads to problems in the dojo. I guess if you look at this from the point of view of “Another student! Yea!! It’s getting easier to make the rent!” it is understandable. Add in the misguided belief that martial arts is about helping people, and you get a messy situation happening all to often.

But my perspective was and is to create a place where the group reinforces the learning process and social aspects of who fits with the group. This doesn’t mean there are not arguments and bickering, it means those involved in an argument get over it quickly and get back to practice.

Towards this end, to filter out those who potentially could be problem students, I do a background check by making use of the wonderful tool called the internet. I check the social networking websites, newspaper article archives, and make use of searches with government public information records.

What’s the point of this? Well, the steps of this background check process tells me:

Social networking – What someone’s interests are outside martial arts. This is a strong tool to see if the potential student will match up with your dojo and class. I’m leaving out a whole lot of detail here. Think about how you are presented online in your own social networking pages. Wonder why you didn’t get me to respond to your inquiry about joining the dojo? Maybe your Myspace page with links to Bondage and Sadomasochism groups had something to do with that. Don’t laugh, I'm not kidding.

Newspaper Article Archives – If someone made the news for good deeds and community work, I want to know that. If they did something really stupid or criminal, I want to know that too.

Government public information records – Criminal and court records are public. This gives me a good idea of habitual behaviors and any actual convictions. While a conviction won’t necessarily cause me to turn someone away, it depends on the individual and the incident.

This last search method is also not free in many cases. So if you are a teacher, be prepared to spend some money when you vet your potential students. Usually, by the time I get to spending more than $20 on a search, it’s pretty apparent the student probably won’t be worth taking in anyway

Is it worth it? I believe so. I’ve seen one or two immature students destroy a whole dojo in more than one instance. Usually, the instructor either ignored the problems, or coddled the problem student thinking they were helping. By doing so, they drove away the majority of other students or caused the dojo to fragment into factions. By comparison, spending $10-$20 for this background check is cheap when contrasted to what one bad student can do to drive out other students or to avoid potential harm inflicted on another student.

Lastly, I use my gut feeling from talking to the person and their reactions to me. This is probably as important as all the rest of the information I gather combined.

Why take the time to do this? Do you teach kids in your dojo? Have you got co-ed classes? Isn’t it your responsibility to provide a safe learning environment for your students? Isn’t the instructor responsible for controlling what happens in the dojo, both in terms of social and teaching concerns? To me, it’s simple. You take the responsibility or you risk possible harm to students. Want to get sued for neglect?

I can think of one dojo in CA where they kept a student around who was known to have issues with women since they felt it would help him get better. Of course, the two women who caught him peeking at them in the dressing room may have felt differently about the matter. I’m sure the third student he groped had stronger feelings on the topic. Want to know the reaction of the dojo leaders? “Oh, he’s been spoken to about the incidents, and he’s promised to not do it anymore.”

In the above instance, I would not have allowed the student in the dojo at all. The dojo is not a place of therapy. Training can be a vehicle to personal growth if done correctly, but therapy is best conducted someplace outside the dojo and not by the instructor. Ellis Amdur has written about this topic, do some reading on his writings about the dojo and why it's not for therapy and why we should be working on ikkyo.

All this is done to help me get a better idea of whether a student may be a problem or not. I may have turned away potentially good students. I’ve let in a couple who just turned out to be a bad fit in personality for the class. So I’ve been wrong, I will be wrong again I’m sure. I simply do the best I can to make sure I’m not wrong often.

What I can tell you is by vetting who gets in the dojo as best as I can, we have no petty personality issues despite a very broad social dynamic. Students know the reason they are in class is to practice, and drink cold beers and Irish or Scotch whisky after class. I don’t know of very many other groups that can say the same without some sort of filtering system as to who is allowed in the dojo and having that reinforced by the entire group.

Oh, and you do realize this filtering of potential students will limit the size of your dojo don’t you? And it will cut down the rank and testing fees you collect and the mandatory seminar attendance income as well. Balance who you let into your dojo against your dojo needs and good luck.

Ice Is for Dead People

2009-09-02T10:12:00.000-07:00

This is a topic from Tom Bisio's book mentioned by The FAB in his previous post.

"Ice is very useful for preserving things in a static state. It slows or halts the decay of food and dead bodies but does not help damaged tissue repair itself. Ice does reduce the initial swelling and inflammation of a fresh injury, and it does reduce pain, but at a cost. Contracting local blood vessels and tissues by freezing them inhibits the restoration of normal circulation. The static blood and fluids congeal, contract, and harden with icing, making them harder or impossible to disperse later. It is not uncommon to see a sprained ankle that was iced still slightly swollen more than a year after the original injury."

Chinese Sports Medicine - it takes a bit to get your head around it. It provides alternate strategies to reduce swelling and inflammation while quickly restoring normal circulation - without the downsides of icing. There's a lot more to it besides the liniments, but I'm all for injuries that heal quicker and chronic issues which have gone away.

Of course, if I really wanted to minimize damage to my body I wouldn't show up on Tuesday nights. TNBBCers don't treat old guys with quite the same respect as equivalently aged scotch.

Aches, pains, and Bruises

2009-08-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

Given most of the guys in the dojo are old - I mean at the age where if they were Scotch whisky, they would be very expensive and appreciated- it's not surprising most everyone has some nagging chronic aches, bruise a bit more easily, and need a bit of help for recovery at times.

Massage, ice, heat, ibuprofen, all help. But for us untraditional traditionalists, we have been making our own Dit Da Jow and Tendon lotion. Using formulas from Tom Bisio's book- A Tooth from the Tiger's Mouth - these are surprisingly effective for slow to heal injuries(tendon) and new injuries(Dit Da Jow).

While a lot of people claim these don't work at all, we have had very good results, especially with the Tendon lotion for those chronic aches and pains that take longer and longer to stretch out and don't heal. I personally have had a problem shoulder pain go away, and not return, with use of the tendon ointment. Another friend has had his inflamed thumb, a problem for years, return to normal after 2 weeks of use. And most everyone in the dojo has a similar story.

Our new batch of Dit Da Jow has yet to age enough for use. We are currently working through the last of my 15 year old batch of Dit Da Jow made from a formulation I was given that came from Ark Wong, the 5 animals Gongfu sifu who was based in LA. That batch has helped me through numerous bumps and bruises healing faster than would be expected without. I made a 5 gallon batch, takes a long time to use that much, even giving it away to people.

If you have not tried any of these for your chronic aches and pains, give them a try. Plenty of sources of information online if you want more info or want to buy ready made versions by e-commerce. Or head to your local Asian herbalist and buy a ready made version or get the herbs there. And if you are local or a friend of the TNBBC, too busy to make it yourself, and want to buy some of ours, we can put you in touch with the keeper of the ointments.

Pain is just weakness leaving the body, this stuff makes it go away a bit quicker.

Getting the Most Out of It

2009-08-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

I have been training with my dojo, the TNBBC, and under my teacher, Neil Yamamoto since 2002. But that doesn’t mean I’ve always been able to train with them consistently. I took a half a year off to travel, and about 3 & ½ years ago, I moved 80 miles away from the training hall, knocking my training time down to once a week at best. How the heck do I keep up with my fellow deshi, and improve?

Well, I’ll tell ya: The secret is solo training and focus and retention when one has the opportunity to train with others.

When I’m in the dojo: I do my best to “get” what’s being taught. I also attempt to understand how it works into previous techniques or lessons. Doing this allows me to create a system of understanding techniques based on principles and proper body mechanics, rather than trying to remember tons of disparate rote movements (such as “twist arm here, apply pressure here”, etc.).

I’m also lucky to have a very generous group of martial artists to study with. They don’t let me fake or muscle my way through techniques, and they offer observances and advice from their view on how certain techniques, etc. should be performed. Often this leads to a clue to something I was missing. They act as editors to my process and I do the same for them. We push each other to success with criticism, observations, and applied resistance-- we don’t baby each other into delusion with over-cooperation and ego stroking false ukemi.

The dojo can be overwhelming, in terms of revelations and new understandings of mechanics, etc. So, I try to retain what I believe was the focus of that day’s training. Sometimes I’m able to “get” several new or previously misunderstood things at once, but I don’t beat myself up if I don’t. There’s always the next time.

I would also say that in terms of acquiring this knowledge, I don’t worry too much about immediate perfection or total understanding, but rather I focus on relating how it fits with the spectrum of previous teachings, with body structure, similarities to movements or alignments of the body or ways to generate power.

I have a few categories of understanding martial stuff (techniques, power generation, principles, body mechanics, etc.):

1. I understand it fully. It is part of my body’s response. I can perform it AND teach it to others.

2. I understand it somewhat. I can do it most of the time and I can talk about it, but I’m still unsure of what’s missing or why I can’t always perform.

3. I understand the concept, at least enough to begin to develop it in my body and to talk about.

4. I am at a loss to fully grasp the concept, and am working on wrapping my brain around it.

5. It is an unheard of concept or one that is so far from #1 or #2 that I am withholding judgment until I feel it or see it.

With each new thing I learn, I try to relate it to a #1 or #2 concept, to try to distill the principle and the engine behind it. This has been a very successful way of working for me. It has allowed me to take many different types of martial arts I have learned over the years and have the muscle memory of them stay in my body, because I’m always working them in to a whole concept, using the same “engine” to drive them (doesn’t mean they all have the same effect or purpose, but it’s the best way I’ve found to fully synthesize these things within myself). With weekly practice at the TNBBC, I attempt to do the same thing, breaking down each new item into its parts and trying to see how they fit into a #1 or #2 model—how are these things driven, by what common power/structure/angle/motion? It is this kind of reverse engineering that enables my ability to build and improve my skill set.

At home or when traveling: I take the distilled concept or skill and practice it. Sounds simple enough, right? It is, but it doesn’t end there.

Visualization is the key. I remember the distinct point of clarity from the lesson in the dojo, and I relive the motion/moment over and over in my mind. I do it at work. I do it in the shower. I do it while cooking dinner.

Most importantly, I do it while performing tanren/chi gung/solo conditioning exercises and while shadowboxing techniques. When I was a kid, I would move and practice hard for the sheer joy of movement and enjoy the strenuous and flowing exercises, but it took me longer to improve, because I didn’t have the right combination of visualization, conceptual and mechanical understanding AND body performance. Now, I will take each technique or motion and break it down to tiny bits, working on each one as its own important thing, stressing to myself what was significant about each part, what tied it to a #1 or # 2 concept. I do the same thing with structural exercises, even ones in which the posture is just held static. I use my mind the whole time I’m using my body, analyzing, “What should this feel like? Where should there be tension/relaxation?” etc.

I shadowbox techniques a lot, meaning I perform a technique or part of it, without an uke. This is a vital part of learning for me, and has helped me to correct lots of aspects of my abilities/structure. What is important to do in shadowboxing a technique is to fully engage the mind with the body. Don’t just go through the motions. A shadowboxed technique should be as engaging and demanding as any tanren/chi gung/solo conditioning exercise. I have made great leaps in understanding previously misunderstood stuff from my technical lexicon by obsessively trying to relate every bit of shadowboxed techniques to previous revelations, and to correct myself until I could perform well vs. realistic resistance. I also shadowbox techniques in my mind, when not able to practice physically. Believe it or not, I know this has helped me greatly in my ability to break concepts down and understand more fully what I’m doing, as well as help improve the performance of my technique.

And then I take this stuff back to the dojo with me to try out my understanding/ability. I get feedback and tweak what needs fixing. The cycle continues, and I continually upgrade #5s, #4s, and #3s to #2s and #1s.

To sum up, my key to being able to learn more completely and usefully from teachers who are far away, from seminars, from skill share sessions, and to rework “old” techniques from my repertoire is this:

Focus

Break it down

Recognize patterns

Recognize concepts that are shared

Visualize

Practice with intent

Get feedback

Repeat.