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Only one student came to training this time so we were able to spend more time on the details.
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I have bought one of these Buttafly Yoga Seats to work on my posture out side of the karate dojo.
Whilst karate stances and techniques exist at the point of when they are executed, your posture is 24*7*365 - every second of the day. Many of us work on computers at a desk and use our mobile phones far too often, which can only lead to issue long term.
Even though through my karate training I am more body aware of tension and stretch in the body, I don't spend enough time working on it at home and at work.
I will see how this goes and report back in the future.
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In karate training we all start of in a simplistic way, learning sequences of techniques, start points and end points. Over time, the finer details and precision matter, as maybe our speed and physicality diminishes.
A pet hate I have is the second and third movements of Pinan Sandan when executing the motions of Jodan Gaiwan Uke (Soto Uke) and Gedan Barai simultaneously with both arms. It irks me when people make the strange two-arm flapping movement, that hardly covers any protective area in front of the body.
Read more: Pinan Sandan - only high quality windscreen wiper action need apply
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Bowing is very much part of Japanese cultural etiquette, and there is a lot that could be written about etiquette but I will leave it to you to search on the Ogasawara school of etiquette.
The very quick topic I wanted to cover in this blog is bowing during your pairwork practice, with a partner or a stream of partners.
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I thought I would use a provocative title as click-bait to grab your attention.
It has been said that this one technique shows the grading panel enough insight into your technique as to pretty much make a judgement, or at least it is very telling on how Wado is your Wado currently.
This technique is practised a fraction of times in a lesson compared to every Kihon, and could well even be done once depending on how the class goes but it is my favourite technique. I do feel it is a secret technique in Wado.
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This isn't my story but I will retell one I heard from a fellow instructor. They visited a club outside of our organisation just to do more physical training to fill their week out. There was an instructor filling in at that club, and he had that strange habit of doing loud nasal blowing on every technique.
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I find teaching karate very enjoyable and rewarding. Frustrating sometimes, but that’s because I want everyone to do the best they can and progress.
Teaching a larger class also has its difficulties as there will be a range of abilities, but also trying to spread techniques and syllabus work is time consuming.
Because what we are doing is not “karatecise” or “kick punch fit”, it’s not alternative to some spin class, there are nuances to it and different things to different body types which can be difficult to explain in broad strokes to everyone.
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Over the years I’ve had people tell me that the difference between their style and Wado Ryu is that our stances are shorter and we block jodan for shuto uke. Really, that’s decades of development and progress by the original founder to be distilled down to two main visual points. Is that the best that people can offer?
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When we first learn karate or a new kata or pairwork combination, we start off learning the moves, the sequence and shapes. We all do it and that's a necessary stage, but once we have it a little more absorbed then we need to move away from just making shapes into something that is more dynamic and flowing.
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A big thank you to all those that attended.
We managed to raised just over £200 for Sensei Shiomitsu. People had travelled from Covertry, Devon and even Norway to be here and I am grateful to you all for making the effort.
