SOUTH WEST INDEPENDENT KARATE ORGANISATION
(British Martial Arts and Boxing Association)
(British Martial Arts and Boxing Association)
Week commencing 12.05.25
Last week contained the first Black and Brown belt session of the year and was held over two hours on a Thursday night instead of the usual training session.
Once upon a time these sessions were held on a Saturday morning when we trained in different Dojos. Over the years we have trained in a few different venues in the Torquay area, usually Church Halls, sometimes Schools.
Church Halls are popular because they offer reasonable rates to hire appropriate spaces.
The only drawback with church halls, is that they usually have high, very high ceilings and are therefore cold in winter.
However the church hall we are currently using, does have central heating, even though it is a part of one of the oldest churches in Devon with records dating back to ancient times.
The session was clearly laid out by Sensei Dave and entitled simply “Gangaku”, nothing more, nothing less. Not only would this be an opportunity to learn the Kata, for those who didn't know it, but it would also be a chance for all, to learn from the Master’s bag of tricks, through the process of Bunkai.
The dictionary definition of Bunkai is “analysis” or “disassembly” and this refers to the process of extracting fighting techniques from the movements of a kata. Practically speaking, Bunkai requires students to work in pairs in order to successfully apply suggestions from the various techniques and this is what Sensei Dave requested of us.
Starting at the beginning of the kata he would look at two or three movements and apply them to attack, defence and attack again sequences. We would practice and Sensei Dave would, I think, see how we did with them and then subtlely adapt them to suit our flexibility or range of movement.
Each sequence became a drill that we would then practice and practice, increasing in speed and power, before moving on to the next one. Every two or three moves would amount to a drill and in such a manner we made our way through the kata until almost the very end.
The two hours flew by, it hardly seemed as though we had arrived before we were shuffling off in to the night.
A truly astonishing session, once again it became an opportunity for Sensei Dave to reach in to his kit bag and bring out his skills, knowledge and experience in the form of a deep examination of one of my favourite katas. It felt like, to me, we were watching the kata being pulled, stretched and examined by someone with a thorough understanding of a mystical form of human movement, so that we too could understand it.
Week commencing 14.04.25
Well, its been a little while since the last one I know, but there’s been plenty going on, not least the weather and it’s impact on the moveable feast that is that most glorious time of year, Easter!I say moveable fast because Easter changes each year and this year it is quite late. It depends upon the moon, is the simple answer, but the more complex explanation is that Easter Sunday should be observed on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox — which now means Easter falls on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25.
So it is a combination of the insistence of the Church plus the variation of the moon, which gives major headaches to anyone involved in term planning for schools, colleges and universities, because it will be different each year.
Anyhow, Easter is perhaps my favourite time of year for all the obvious reasons: it’s usually a bit warmer, dryer and lighter but most importantly there is the promise of renewal, that great metaphor for Hope.
When you see all those little shoots appearing, the buds on the trees and the more pronounced birdsong, it’s a truly wondrous thing.In Japan, spring is the beginning of the school year, I was surprised to discover this.
The mountain snows recede, the skies go clear, the bare trees produce leaves and there is the arrival of perhaps the most recognisable feature of all, the cherry blossom.
The Japanese travel and tourism industry is probably almost totally reliant on this most spectacular time of year and everybody who visits says this is the best time of year to go there.
In addition, the national rugby team, who are actually quite successful internationally, have an official nickname of The Brave Blossoms.In terms of that other great cultural sporting export, Karate, (okay, Ju Jitsu, Judo and Sumo are all pretty successful too), recent training sessions have focused on the wonderful Gangaku Kata, which is one of the most graceful Shotokan kata.
It is is usually translated as "Crane on a Rock," referring to the crane stance, when the practitioner has to stand on one leg, in four separate moments. Indeed, the key to the kata is balance and although it has a particular kind of ‘ebb and flow’, it also has explosive moments so typical of Shotokan. I sometimes think that daily practice of kata, (which I honestly do), is sometimes complimented when performed in pairs or even threes. In this particular instance I find it advantageous to perform Kata Unsu alongside Gangaku. Perhaps it is the pace and timing, or reliance on balance, I’m not sure. But anything that encourages the daily practice of kata can't be a bad thing!
Week commencing 01.02.2025
Welcome to 2025 everybody! As I sit here listening to the torrential rain outside my window, with my back propped in to a ‘correct posture’ with the aid of pillows and my knee strapped with orthopaedic support wrap: it would not be impossible to sense that I finally might have to start ‘looking after myself’ a little bit more, as well as the house that I live in.
As many of you will know, when you work full time and own your own house, (or at least are mortgaged to it) its often very difficult to set aside time for domestic maintenance issues. I sometimes feel a little bit like those families you sometimes see on TV who live in huge stately homes that are used in TV shows or documentaries about missing members of the Royal Family.
The intro to the show swoops down from above revealing the Powderham/Drogo Castle type building in all its glory and then it cuts to the owners, a family of nine, who live in a tiny segment of the servants quarters, shielded from the public eye, arguing about whether this term’s school fees have been paid, or if the fox hounds have been fed, or what the drainage is like in the lower fields, “honestly, people have no idea about real poverty!…….
” Needless to say, we don't live in a castle, but earning what might be described as a modest salary, with little in the way of savings, house maintenance is a constant source of headache/insomnia. Replacing UPVC windows, plumbing, electrical rewiring, roof and guttering issues, the ‘war on rats’ and countless other more minor issues (before you even get to gardening) are all very costly, because as the owner, you have no one else to turn to, you have to do it yourself.
But just a minute…….I’m beginning to sound a bit like the Earl of Devon now, just on a smaller scale! For years, Castle Drogo had a terrible roof leak because the original Lord and Lady Muck insisted on a flat roof for hosting outdoor rooftop parties in summer, but used incorrect materials in the original build 100yrs ago, which had a chemical reaction with the lashing Dartmoor rain.
This led to some of the upper rooms being uninhabitable for decades until the property was handed on to the National Trust, who recently finished an astonishing refurbishment (well worth a visit).
Ditto Powderham, who had to resort to crowdfunding or such like for one of their roofing issues, (don’t quote me on that last bit).
I guess the point is, everything is relative, the weather adversely affects your shelter, whether it is a small house in Teignmouth, or a castle on Dartmoor (the last castle to be built in England as it happens) or Powderham.
It is simply a matter of scale.Anyway, as I say, it is 2025, we are all back training in deepest darkest February and the weather is shocking. Grading is not far off, so lets get stuck in! Oss!
Week commencing 16.12.24
As another year comes to an end and the last grading of the year is also upon us, I am moved to recall what an eventful twelve months it has been. The world changes radically and yet we cling to the notion that everything remains the same.
War drags on at the Eastern edge of Europe, apparently, but in fact, we are in the midst of a Hybrid War in which we see cyber attacks, assassinations, undersea comms cables severed, oil and gas pipelines attacked, all on our doorstep.
Never has the world looked a more dangerous place. Just when one drama seems on the brink of exploding, another one erupts to take your attention away from it: yet here we all are, unable to do anything to stop it.
We have to leave that to the elected politicians.
It seems that there are few constant elements in this rocky, bumpy ride of a world, few things that you can rely upon to be at least consistent, and one of them is our training schedule.
Same time, same place, same sort of thing, but with individuals who are either more, or less able from week to week, due to injury or decay, but sometimes making gentle improvements in speed, or stamina, or technique, or all of the above!
When I look at the widespread emphasis on ‘wellbeing’ and ‘dementia awareness’ etc I am struck by how perfect karate is in accompanying you through your life journey. The transition from young to old and the change in emphasis from kumite to kata which takes place, is but one of the fascinating elements of this passion of ours.
Training the body and the mind is such an important part of life, I am convinced that it is imperative to attempt to do something of this on a daily basis.
Another element of our training that is worth considering is humility. Some might believe that expressing humility is a sign of weakness, however, through training it becomes evident that humility is a true sign of inner strength.
Being humble is considering others as important as yourself. It is being thoughtful of their needs and willing to be of service. Humility reminds us to be thankful instead of boastful and aware of our capabilities, strengths and limitations.I was struck by this notion during training recently, when, with a class of mainly black belt students, Sensei requested that we begin the kata element of the session with Kion, taking us through the procedure as if we hardly knew it at all and were operating at the same level as the 9th and 8th Kyu students at the other end of the line.
We were, of course, being asked to demonstrate the same knowledge, skill and application to Kion, as we would to Unsu: as a gentle reminder that sometimes we train at the pace of the least experienced and that no one is perfect, there is always room for improvement. It is possible to improve through the help of peers, senses and recognition of values.
The first step is understanding one’s limitations and using humility to recognise where one can improve.
Striving for excellence was at the heart of Thursday’s grading session. The instructors were pleased with the levels of effort, skill and determination. The continuation of the ‘1st Kyu plus’ worked well, recognising the determination of those close to the final push to 1st Dan grade. Indeed, Sensei Dave reminded us all of how things used to be with a humorous aside about manually sewing thin white strips of cotton on to a pre -existing brown belt, to denote achievement and learning. This jogged a memory for me of, during the 1970s, cold water dyeing my belt from yellow, to green, to purple. How times have changed.
So, as we see out the year, the grading was a useful measure of a club in good health. The core of youngsters looks promising, people are joining and staying and plans are in place for a positive 2025. Sensei Mike was honoured for all his hard work by being presented with the coveted Shotokan Tiger award and Sensei Dave saw off a couple of health scares to continue leading us with his towering knowledge, skills and experience, ably supported by Sensei’s Chris and Darren, devoting their time again to help the rest of us grow and develop.
Well done everyone, lets hope 2025 is a good year.
Week commencing 25.11.24
Well well well. My prediction of a squishy Summer was in many ways correct, although the two weeks at the end of July and beginning of August, when we traditionally go camping, were actually brilliant. I can only recall two or perhaps three days of rain, no sunshine, or both. We always go at this time, to the same place and have done every year for nearly twenty five years now, which is quite remarkable I guess, especially as our adult children accompany us. We visit a ‘no frills’ site in west Penwith which translates from Cornish as ‘headland at the end’. This describes the area very accurately.
If you know Cornwall (or Kernow) at all, or can picture it within a map of the UK, you will recall that it is part of the south west peninsula, a continuation of Devon and Somerset. However, what makes it distinguishable, are the two headlands or ‘crab’s claws’, the eastern one known as The Lizard and the western one, Penwith, or ‘headland at the end’, which is exactly what it is, poking out in to the Atlantic in grand isolation.
Indeed, when I trundle through the nearest village, about six miles from the campsite and head out to the cliffs and beaches, I feel as though I should have my passport stamped. It is something to do with the barren beauty of the landscape, what trees there are lay stunted and twisted in the direction of the prevailing south westerly wind. Or they huddle together like miniature rain forests in shallow valleys running down to the many gorgeous beaches.
Often the trees are interspersed with preposterously large patches of the truly alien Gunnera Manicata, or Giant Rhubarb. Although inedible, these plants add a truly surreal experience to any walk, with their leaf canopy that can individually exceed two or three metres and their stalks which can be thick as an arm and covered in woody spikes. As for the flowering, well, one might be excused for describing it as somewhat pornographic.Land’s End is part of Penwith and perhaps what it is most famous for.
Times are hard and local people have had to exploit the tourism potential of the site, but what this does result in is a truly international feel, when you overhear all the different languages. It is another example of the ‘otherness’ of the region, that makes me not only proud of the UK, that people want to come here, but also aware of the different, almost exotic quality of the place.
Week commencing 01.08.24
And so, another promising yet soggy spring rolls damply to an end, heralding a squishy summer, with parents lost about what to do with their kids once again. My Mum and Dad worked full time and the six week holiday, for us kids, was a national treasure.
Although we lived in a City (Birmingham), we lived literally on the edge and enjoyed the best of both worlds. My parents were the proud owners of a house, on an estate built in 1958, which was next door to a council estate that they gravitated ‘up’ from, having occupied something known as a ‘prefab’. (This estate, incidentally, was home to a church hall/community centre in which I underwent my first Karate lesson in the early 1970s, with Sensei Cyril Cummings) These prefabricated accommodation units were a project intended to address the shortage of housing in post war Britain. Intended to last about ten years, some of them are still around today, proudly maintained by their owners: a testament to the durability of design and construction which included pre cast concrete. Indeed, the present occupiers must look at the flat pack world of Ikea, and wonder what the fuss is all about, their whole house could have arrived on the back of a delivery truck, let alone the wardrobes.
Our parents might have popped their head in to our (shared) bedrooms to shout “off to work, bye!” or, “get that washing up done!” more likely, before making their way to work: and that would be all they saw of us until tea time, or not, in the case of our Dad, because he worked shifts.
The days really did seem endless and consisted of two distinct priorities: finding someone else that wasn't an adult, and going on an adventure with them. Birmingham is a green City both literally and metaphorically. It has more parks and open spaces than any other equivalent sized European City, and they were the playgrounds we grew up in. In addition, living on the outer edge of it, afforded us the luxury of genuinely rural spaces to explore on foot or public transport, no smartphone required. More social history another time.
Returning to Karate, and what I would like to look at now is the history of the kata ‘Jihon”, which we have been practising for the last few weeks. According to Sensei Kanazawa, Jihon has its beginnings in the Chinese martial art of Kung Fu. Apparently there was a ‘Jihon’ temple occupied by Buddhist monks who were accomplished martial artists, probably as a result of being attacked by street gangs. The introductory stance of the Kata, with right fist held in opposing hand is familiar to Chinese fighting style and it would have spread from there to Okinawa, the spiritual home of Karate. The literal translation of ‘Jihon’ is “Love and Goodness”, somewhat confusing in this context, but refers to the simplicity of the movements, there are no fancy jumps or flashy sequences to hide behind. The thinking is that performing this 47 move Kata correctly, with the simplicity reflecting a certain humility, gives a true reflection of one’a discipline and ability, and for this reason it is a great Kata through which to assess overall technique.
Week Commencing 01.04.24
This week Sensei Dave delivered another couple of excellent sessions, managing to pull off what amounted to a magic trick of us doing something without knowing it. To be specific, Sensei shone a light on a kata through the process of Bunkai : or the application of technique to produce an outcome through a practice drill.Using the very first movements of the kata to defend (of course!) and the low blocks and crescent kicks,
Sensei allowed us to see the true potential of the kata.During the course of the sessions it struck me once again how infinite the meaning and potential of the katas really are. If every experienced Sensei suggests an individual application of the various elements of the katas, it is effectively an exponential, endless supply of potential drills to practice in ‘one step’. Of course, it takes quite a lot of experience and time training before you simply think of a kata and then take a couple of moves and apply them to a partner attacking you.
But thats essentially what it is. Bunkai brings the kata to life. When you consider how competition karate can be reduced to a simple long range kick and punch exchange, it is refreshing to know what else's bunkai offers. Not only does it make sense of the weird little moves that occur in all katas: it opens up a world of throws, locks, traps, gripping, chokes, takedowns and close range striking using head, elbows and knees.
Historically, bunkai was used in PE programmes for Japanese children and so it became somewhat separated from it’s roots, perhaps becoming not unlike Tai Chi. A lot of the martial arts in Japan were being tempered somewhat: Ju Jitsu became Judo and Kenjutsu became Kendo. It was an attempt to move in the direction of sport rather than battlefield systems associated with Samurai.
So kata began being taught for its own sake instead of as a record of combative techniques and principles. But the old masters who designed the katas knew that close range combat is fast and loose, with no time for those long range ‘blocks’ that we learn, there is also no time to analyse and respond in a rehearsed manner. ‘Blocks’ in the context of katas, take on a new meaning and become offensive rather than defensive. Once you realise this, the world of kata opens up for you.
Soto and age uke for example, become more like links that turn defence in to attack by stopping the opponent, opening them up to find vulnerability and delivering a strike.
If kata is the ‘soul’ of karate, then bunkai is the soul music!
Week Commencing 11.03.24
What was a weekly blog, appears to have become a monthly blog, but hey ho thats just how it goes, sometimes. To be honest, this has been a slightly difficult few weeks for me as I have sustained an injury: and whilst I would not suggest for a moment that it might be classified as life changing, I do think that some minor adjustments to lifestyle might just be appropriate.
Walking to work, walking around all day at work, coming home and walking the dog and then going training plus walking for pleasure at weekends, have resulted in something called Bursitis, which roughly translates to ‘overdoing it of the knee’.It’s when you suddenly have to sit out the training sessions that you recognise just what an integral part of your life training is, like going to work, or walking the dog, mowing the lawn (if you're lucky enough to have a garden) or shaving/tinkering with hair style/colour etc etc whatever it is.
When you suddenly cant do it, albeit temporarily, you feel lost and slightly anxious. There is a sensation, especially with something physical like Karate, that you will be losing ground compared to the rest of the class.
Of course, no one else is thinking this. When we are all training away as usual, we are not thinking about someone who is not there and that we are training and they are not, because they are injured. But when you are injured you imagine that is what is happening, when in fact everyone else in the moment, doing their best, trying to keep up, just getting on with it.
Maybe this is what encourages people to start training again before they are really ready to, a sort of ‘FOMO’ (Fear Of Missing Out) that is based on a fallacy that you must get back to training as soon as you can, despite the fact that you risk compounding the original injury or even creating another injury through compensating for the original one.In the ‘olden days’ when I played rugby (The 1980s) and the game was still amateur, there were all sorts of questionable behaviours surrounding injuries.
Players would be so keen to play, in order to retain their place in the team, that some soft tissue injuries would effectively be ignored, by on occasion, self administering cortisone injections. This would nullify the pain of the injury for the duration of the match, but of course the cumulative damage and resultant pain would create further complications and do nothing to encourage healing.
As medical technology, knowledge and skills improved and the Union game turned professional, rehabilitation became almost a parallel sport in itself. Clubs invested in players for the long run and when a player picked up an injury, they would undergo ‘rehab’ under expert supervision, often returning in a fraction of the time it used to take, and always at the right point in time, never when ‘they felt like it’
This does however come at a price. Players now say that the time spent in rehab and subsequent training to become ‘battle ready’ is actually harder than ordinary playing and training. The message here is simple. Correct diagnosis and sufficient time are essential in repairing a body. Unfortunately, there is one area where we are not so sure about returning to competition and all the top class facilities there are, may not be enough, and that is concussion. But thats a whole other story.
Week Commencing 01.02.24
Sensei Dave is getting back into the swing of things and it's truly excellent to have him pouring his skills and knowledge into the classes once again. The last few sessions have been brilliantly ad hoc Bunkai or application, drawn from Katas and applied in to real life situations, emphasising at one time the flexibility of potential techniques in the katas, but also the purpose of everything, from the footwork upwards, and how it all fits together.
We have had a new student join us and we hope the experience is a positive one. A warm welcome from all of us.
Another student has returned after a few years away and it is wonderful to have them back. It is a measure of how the club is held in such high esteem that people choose us over the numerous other organisations. A phrase that came to mind when I chatted with our new student was that “all the egos are left at the door on the way in” and I truly believe that this is one of the central strengths of what we do. We turn up to train, we learn and share, we go away, then we come back and do it all again.
Despite the decades of collective experience among us, when we tighten our belt, bow and begin, we are all simply students on our shared journey. We watch and listen, we try to execute the moves and we sometimes make mistakes, just like in life.
No one is perfect, we just try our best.
Something Sensei Dave said this week also stuck in my mind. He was explaining the difference between rigid training stances and how we practice our drills and kata. The long, formal stances of Zenkutsu Dache and Gidan Bari as opposed to the more fluid, shorter stances and less formal movement in Kumite. The analogy or comparison he used was how Soldiers use marching and training ground drills to instil discipline: formal movements done together to build confidence and togetherness. But when it comes to fighting, the crucial split second reaction time that can save a life kicks into action because the underlying discipline is there to support the response. In other words, if you train hard, you fight easy.
Week commencing 14.01.24
This week saw the return, in G.O.T. terms, of “The Mountain” AKA Sensei Dave. It was as if he had never been away. He got straight in to it doing the kind of session that reminds you of the precision and technique required to become really serious about training.
We had a new learner with us and so Sensei Dave made the session level appropriate whilst allowing us to iron out all the bad habits that occur in continuous training: forgetting to change a stance here, or not making a block purposeful there, or doing both of those things in the same sequence.There is nothing like a medical emergency to sharpen your appetite for training. You want recover and get back in to the swing of things because it feels somehow ‘wrong’ not to be training, it represents change. For some of us, change is bad, but change is everywhere all the time. But as someone once said, “its not change, its how you manage change”, because if you ignore change, then some aspect of the world around you turns, and you don't see it, until its too late. Somehow Sensei Dave made it look as though nothing had happened, he had just been on holiday or something and everything simply cranked up and rolled out.For last Thursday’s session, Sensei Dave eased us all in to a rather excellent Bunkai drawn from one of my favourite Katas: Gangaku: Crane on a Rock. We used the double handed block, a signature move of the Kata for the beginning sequence and then simply progressed from there. Once again, Sensei Dave made it look easy when in fact, making up Bunkai is actually quite difficult because its not simply about thinking of attack and defence scenarios for each bite sized piece of the Kata. It also involves changes in footwork that most people would simply not consider.Anyway, Im sure I speak for everyone when I say welcome back Sensei and we’re just relieved you’re okay.
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