Karatedo
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Karate Man: A Short Documentary
Here’s a nice documentary about Ota Eihachi sensei produced by Habunami Studios. I remember many years ago reading about him in Black belt magazine where they featured his use of the Kama. I was impressed with what he had to say, his energy and his enthusiasm. Enjoy. Continue reading
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Walking a Path
Canadian culture, and by extension US culture, suffers from a staggering lack of patience. I would go so far as to say that it borders on narcissistic. A few months ago I was standing in line to pay for my groceries when a women behind me asked if she could cut ahead of me because… Continue reading
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Training Day
Today I had a thoroughly enjoyable training session. Maybe because of the heavy snow and the early hour I went to the gym, to my surprise, I had it all to myself for two hours (貸切状態)! What a treat! If you’re curious what I was doing, then read on. Warm-up: Dumbbell swings x 10, Goblet… Continue reading
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Crime & Karate on Okinawa
I recently published a Youtube video featuring an academic article published in Japanese on ¨Karate & Alcohol Consumption” published in the Journal of Statistics in 1921. It examined the inter-relationship between violent crime, alcohol consumption, Karate and education levels in the prefecture of Okinawa between 1910 and 1920. To provide more context as to the… Continue reading
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Who Does the Heavy Lifting for You?
Strength and conditioning have always been a part of Okinawa Karate-do, especially those styles classified as “Nahate” such as Goju-ryu, Uechi-ryu, and Tou’on-ryu. I’m sure you have seen many old photos of younger Karateka doing their “strongman” pose showing off their level of muscular development and low body fat. Many of these early Karateka had… Continue reading
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Who Do you Practice for?
If you’ve been training for a number of years, your practice should be about refining what you know and learning some new material, and not necessarily about doing a workout. Yet, some students in the West equate practice with fitness, getting a good sweat going, and practicing the dojo curriculum. Of course this is true… Continue reading
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Tough Love (厳しい)
Sometimes I am dismayed at some Karate schools that are run as little more than fitness clubs. What ever happened to the ‘old skool dojo’ of the 1970s or 1980s? When I was a new to Karatedo in 1984, the first dojo that I joined was a local Shotokan dojo. I was poked, prodded and… Continue reading
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Junbi Undo: It’s not what you think it is
There are times when Karateka add other activities to their practice due to injury (usually chronic) in the hopes of rehab themselves to continue training. In the worst situations, the injury is so severe, that they abandon their practice altogether. Sadly, this runs counter to the tradition of Okinawa Karatedo with its focus on life-long… Continue reading
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Nigiri-game
Unlike the majority of dojo that I have visited in North America, every dojo in Okinawa that I trained at had them. A set of clay pots sitting over in the corner of the dojo commonly referred to as “nigiri-game” (knee-gi-ree-gamay) or gripping jars in English. Their size and their weight varied from dojo to… Continue reading
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Kata is Useless
When I was in Honolulu several years ago I had the good fortune to meet with Mr. Charles Goodin over lunch (as an aside, I am sad that he has retired from public Karate life as his contributions were significant and appreciated). During the course of our conversation he said something to me which left… Continue reading
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