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Kanku on Halloween, and Vote!

Tuesday Night with Sensei R: introducing Kanku

Last Tuesday, Sensei R discussed and demonstrated kanku kata over Zoom. He also shared the following video:

Kanku is one of the longest kata, but also beautiful and a go-to kata for shodans and high rank karateka seeking a good competition kata

As you will see if you watch the kata, and as Sensei R pointed out, this kata contains over 70 different moves. According to Sensei R, some karate practitioners believe that the Pinan katas were basically pieces of this kata. Early karate instructors, then, had separated it into pieces. While there is no proof that this origin story for the Pinans is true, said Sensei R, Kanku certainly contains many moves from the Pinans.

In fact, many of the more difficult from the Pinans, such as the kick-punch combination as well as the forehead block with strike in Pinan Sono Yon, or the Osai-uke followed by a stab in Pinan Ni, are found in Kanku. Luckily, many of the moves are repeated and mirrored on the other side of the body. However, the kata is still a bear to learn.

I was “monitoring,” or basically doing “tech” for the Zoom session, during that class, so I didn’t really follow along. When others weren’t following, I let Sensei R know or controlled the spotlighting.

The Night Before All Hallows Eve: partying and practicing

Luckily for me, Sensei T covered that kata again on Friday night. We had a very small adult class. It was Sensei T, Senpai DJ and me.

The Youth Counsel planned a Halloween bash/movie night over Zoom. Most of the kids, including a couple who showed up on the regular karate class Zoom, went to the party once they found out about it. This was expected and encouraged. Given trick-or-treating has been discouraged in our area due to the pandemic, these parties have taken on much greater importance. They are a poor substitute for kids getting together in costume and haunting their neighbors, granted. Nevertheless, these events serve as an important way for kids to celebrate and spend time together.

The kids had maybe fourteen separate households attend their Zoom. They played games, gossiped, showed off their costumes and their pets, and watched movies.

Sensei T asked DJ about her last promotion kata, so we reviewed those, then he basically taught me a good portion of Kanku. Given the complexity of that kata, it was great to have that training. Learning it, and I’m sure teaching it, over Zoom was a challenge. Sensei T was careful to demonstrate the turns from different views, so DJ and I were able to understand them. I have enough trouble keeping track of left versus right without having to interpret these through video. However, Sensei T watched carefully and really helped us. I learned so much from that class!

It’s funny: I had considered suggesting we cancel the class, since we knew that the youth party would greatly reduce our attendance. I’m so glad we didn’t. Personally, I really benefitted from that class.

Saturday in the Park: learning Kanku

We met in a local park in Burbank for our Saturday morning class. We’ve been meeting outdoors roughly once a month, and it’s great to practice in person. I admit, though, it’s easy for each of us to forget to social distance, particularly given how excited we feel to be together again. We do our best. When we forget ourselves, usually someone will remember, caution the group, and then we’ll spread out again. During the actual exercise portion, we make an effort to keep our groups more spread out than usual.

Sensei T had me lead warm-ups, and I got us to run in a wide circle as Sensei R had often done with us, do side-shuffles, high-knees, butt-kickers and just generally jog to get the blood flowing. Then, of course, we moved on to my nemesis, stretches, and ended with the shuto ukes, which I love.

I just looked up shuto mawachi uke, and this brought up a video of the Kyokushin warm-up for a Japanese dojo, and the teacher leading it is our style’s founder, Mas Oyama!

Sensei T then assigned students to lead sections of kihon, and we did a vigorous “speed kihon,” in which we just run through the techniques without needing to name them. We did twenties, so we were out of breath at the end.

He then covered Kanku, affording us the opportunity in person to practice what we’d been learning over Zoom. That was a different experience for sure. Sensei T demonstrated the kata for us, too, and his moves are elegant and powerful at once. He is such an insightful and sensitive teacher, too: he gives both praise and correction in a kind, straightforward manner.

A moment in Time: remembering Kanku at the dojo

While driving to attend the class in the park, my mind went to the first time I’d seen this kata performed. One of our instructors in the dojo had been a kata champion, and she’d both demonstrated and taught that kata. As a low-ranking student, I was in awe of her and her beautiful execution of it. Kanku also appeared to me, at that time, as one of those near-unattainable goals. It was so complex, powerful and elegant. How could someone like me learn to do that? I could but watch and dream.

However, this week, I was actually learning it!. Given my mastery of previous kata and approximately seven or eight years of practice, I feel I understand much of it. Now don’t get me wrong: learning it will still be challenging, and I’m sure I won’t be doing flying jumps. While watching Sensei T perform it in the park and on Zoom, I recognized so much of it from our previous studies.

I have a karate New Year’s resolution ready to go: learn Kanku. What do I plan to give myself for the holidays? Knowledge of Kanku!

Halloween Gifts

While the gift of Kanku knowledge, courtesy of Senseis T and R, was perhaps my favorite Halloween gift, our family also received a wonderful “boo bag,” for perhaps the second or third year in a row. We do not know who gave us this thoughtful gift: a friend, a neighbor? We’re not even sure if these gifts came from the same person or persons who “booed” us last year or the year before. This year, two pairs of Halloween-themed socks, along with baked goodies and candy corns, were included. We are guessing our friendly ghost knows two children reside in our household. The bag contained two or more of everything.

The first time we received a “boo” gift, it came with instructions, including a sign to hang on your door, indicating you’d been “booed.” This year, there was simply a card announcing “You’ve been booed!” We made our own “we’ve been booed” sign to put on our door.

S and I also purchased and delivered a “boo” gift to neighbors up the street with three children. I confess we reused the cute “boo” card from our gift, but the fresh baked goods from our local cupcake shop were no re-gift, unless our neighbors dislike cookies! S took them to the door, rang the bell and ran to my car. I hesitated just long enough to see the door start to open, then drove away. S giggled the whole time, sputtering “Hurry Mom! Drive away!” between giggles. I hope they enjoyed their boo gift as much as we enjoyed ours!

Vote! Then find peace with your decision and those of others

And it is November 1st, so go vote! For practitioners of karate of our style, remember Oyama’s three points on why we practice karate:

to be a better person (more fit, healthy but also more at peace)
to be a better family member
to be a better member of society

Karateka strive to be better members of our societies. In a democracy, this includes our civic responsibility to vote. Please vote!

Recognize both your power and your limitations

Also, given all the stressors coming with this particular election during this particular pandemic, I’d like to remind folks of two things.

First, recognize that your vote counts and this is a very important election. Do not underestimate the importance of your vote. Our American leaders, for both better and for worse, have significant influence over world politics. As an American, your decision can influence not only American lives for the next four years, but it can influence people across the globe.

Lake in Colorado; do your best, then do your best to let go

Second, recognize that American politics has its limits. Do not overestimate the importance of our decisions. No president or other elected official is going to single-handedly cure COVID-19 in a day, though they may help or hinder our human group efforts towards a cure. Presidents and other elected leaders are not gods or goddesses. Also, despite what we decide, the sun will rise and set. The earth will rotate and follow its course around the sun. The moon waxes and wanes, regardless of our decisions. Find peace in knowing, whether or not your chosen politician wins the day, and whether or not you are in step with the rest of your nation’s other voters, that these changes are temporary.

As an American karateka, if you have carefully considered your decisions and cast your ballot, you have done your part. The rest is up to everyone else. Let it go now.

Creativity in Action through Karate

October 25, 2020

Dragon flanked by the kids’ bonsai in the bay window, with cats

Tuesday Night with Sensei R

Tuesday evening, Sensei R taught class. He asked each of us to think of three words to describe what kind of karateka we are or aspire to be. At the end of class, he had each of us share those words. Everyone came up with such great descriptors: creative, disciplined, resilient, strong, wise, calm, peaceful, boundary-breaking, open, hopeful, learning, growing, accurate, determined. A young ninja among us aspired to be accurate, intelligent and lethal. I thought it interesting that Sensei N. chose verbs, and he was the only one to do so.

I chose resilient, strong and peaceful; these wild flowers, also strong, resilient
and peaceful, photographed in the high mountains of Colorado; I took the photo
a year ago when we rented an RV and drove to Colorado. We tooled around there
in the summer of 2019, visiting state and national parks, for about a month.

Sensei R also had each of us make up a short kata. Higher rank must use five moves while lower rank must use three. The short katas were often also reflective of the karateka demonstrating. Junior shodans, of course, incorporated more difficult jumps. I tend to like to mirror the left and right sides. I am a grown-up interested in balance, and, uh, not slipping in the grass in my back yard.

Over all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable class.

Friday Night with Senpai G

On Friday night, one of our junior shodans, Senpai G, aged fourteen, led a class in a similar vein. She started out by having a set of exercises associated with words inspired by Halloween. For example “skull” or “graveyard” were two. She asked class members to pick from her list. We did not know which exercises were associated with which words, but we performed the exercises. Many of the exercises came from either karate or her school’s physical ed classes. So we’d do jumping jacks, squats and jodan uke blocks, for example.

Afterwards, she went through the class and had each student name their favorite exercise or karate move, followed by their least favorite. Then, she had that student lead us in twenty of our most favorite exercise and roughly thirty of our least favorite. In my case, Senpai G timed the exercise. I discovered that I was not alone in disliking the stretch requiring us to stretch our legs out on either side in a sitting “splits,” then lean or place our heads on the ground. (This, by the way, is still aspirational for me. I am lucky if I have my head closer than two fists to the ground.)

For some students’ choices, she devised a short “renraku,” in which we would alternate the favorite move with the least favorite move. For example, Senpai DJ chose jodan uke as her favorite and uchi mawashi geri as her least favorite. Senpai G had us alternate those two moves as we moved forward or backwards, and alternate those moves on the left and right sides. Sometimes we’d do them as oi-zuki (so left block followed by circling left kick) or gyaku-zuki (right side block followed by left side kick.)

Karate Class Creativity

Both classes challenged us to think on our feet, and examine our own karate. Some students knew exactly what they disliked, but had to think about what they liked. Others knew what they liked right away. One boy, Sensei T’s younger son, picked something he was sure the rest of us would hate: burpees. If I remember correctly, he was also the “ninja,” interested in becoming accurate, stealthy and lethal (or something close to that.)

So, at the behest of our young ninja, we ended class with burpees. Senpai G also asked me how many to require! And promised to let me out of doing burpees. But that’s not realistic. First, I’m a black belt, so I have to do all the exercises. I can’t just wimp out. Secondly, our nidan, Sensei T, is on the Zoom along with his wife, the shodan who tested with me. So of course I have to give us a respectable number, and do them. Twenty fit the bill: that was the average number of repetitions we did that night for favorite exercises, and our young ninja had named this as a favorite exercise, in play spite against the rest of us.

I admit that, at the end of twenty, I was out of breath.

I also admit that these two classes, on top of being challenging, were a lot of fun.

Nunchucks, Teaching and the Wisdom of a 14 year old weapons instructor

Sunday October 18, 2020

On Friday night, we enjoyed a weapons class taught by Senpai SL. He is one formidable karateka. He can spin two sets of nunchucks at once, and has created his own weapons kata, for both nunchucks and bo staff. SL has taught the class each of his original kata as well.

When he teaches weapons, he has us practice the moves involved in the kata, first. He began with having us practice “figure eights” and “flowers,” which is basically a move in which you swing the nunchucks in a horizontal “eight.” Then he moves on to having us practice more difficult moves, such as spinning the nunchucks about your hand before performing a break against your shoulder or spinning them down. Finally, he went over one of the nunchuck katas. After this, he would mix it up with “challenges,” more exercises and finally, we’d go over the kata again.

Introductory Nunchuck Practice

I found a great video that breaks down some of the moves. This is not a karate video, but the forms are the same as the ones we’re learning.

Video from California Academy of Martial Arts

A “flower” basically goes in the opposite direction. He also has us practice with our dominant and non-dominant hands. If a karateka does not have nunchucks at home, Sensei N or Senpai SL will go over how to make a “nunchuck” from a karate belt. You basically fold it over on itself and rubber band both ends.

And here is a cool tutorial on what we were calling a “spin,” because the nunchuck spins about your fingers or hand. The instructor in this video calls this a “wrist roll” or a modified figure eight.

This awesome kid reminds me of Senpai SL

Senpai SL would also make up a little “Renraku” using the various moves we practiced. He really knows how to keep a class interesting and also how to keep us on our toes. So he’d have us do various moves, such as the figure eight or a spin, “down the lane,” then turn and do the same move again multiple times back “up the lane.” Again, he had us practice both sides.

Nunchuck Challenge!

Somewhere around the middle of the class, he decided to do a “challenge.” The first time we did the challenge, he’d have a volunteer start out and do a set of moves on the spot. The next person had to imitate the first person’s move, then “top” that person’s moves with ones of his or her own. Then it would continue. Usually SL would do some amazing moves at the beginning or end.

Since we’d done that exercise before during the last weapons class, he decided to do timed exercises. So, when the Zoom spotlight was on the first “contestant,” that person performed various nunchuck moves until he or she dropped the nunchucks. Senpai SL went first, and actually dropped it pretty early. For the rest of the class, we all teased back and forth about SL’s time. Senpai CF smoked us with the longest time. I probably had the worst time.

Senpai SL’s Golden Teaching

Whenever Senpai SL teaches, he has a fun little phrase he uses. He will say, “Okay, we’re going to practice ” this or that, “then when we’re done, we can do…” then he’ll pause for effect, “whatever we want!” He says it with such enthusiasm, too. Unlike most of teachers, and I include myself here, when we have extra time, it is a source of worry. “Oh, what do we do now? What do I do with an extra 5 minutes?” We strive to have the entire class planned out. Most of us feel it is better to plan more activities and run out of time for them, than to end up with extra time on our hands.

Then, when we’re done, we can do…………..whatever we want!
Senpai SL

Senpai SL recognizes extra time for what it really is: a gift. He’s happy to finish early, and have time for “whatever we want!” And he normally has plenty of fun ideas for that extra time. Usually, he opens it up to the class for suggestions: “So what do you guys want to do now?” If he receives suggestions or questions, he’ll answer or follow the students’ leads. If no one has any, he’ll come up with something cool to demonstrate, then we’ll try to follow.

Extra time is a gift. A moment of free time, together with friends, to just do “whatever we want,” is golden. This is the most valuable teaching I’ve taken away from Senpai SL: welcome those golden moments with enthusiasm.

I wish you the gift of many golden moments in your future.

Rethinking the Blog, days after a Shodan test, with Cats

Thursday, August 13th, 2020

Hello, just in case anyone is still reading the daily logs: I’m planning to do 2 things, and may need a few days to pull it off:

1. Add one or two new categories, other than Daily Logs. At this point, I’m thinking a little “getting started” fitness page, and some kind of “shodan” version of daily logs.

2. Put up more of the backlog entries.

Last Saturday was a major milestone for both my daughter and me. Next week school starts, so I’ve taken some time this week to just unplug, meditate and plan what’s next.

And, of course, rest a little!

F, S and I will sleep like cats this week.

And yes, given we have such very cute cats, I consider it further evidence of steely shodan nerve that I have not peppered this blog with their photos.

But realistically speaking, I must admit that many things: homes, work meetings over Zoom, newscasts, even work places and stores, can be improved by the presence of cats, dogs or children.

Tuesday July 28th, 2020

My life has been non-stop karate for roughly four days, but as an ichi kyu just days out from my test, that’s appropriate. At least, that’s what I tell myself.

I did exercises this morning. In order to keep track of sit-ups, since I messed up the count yesterday morning, I held 5 little stones in each hand and dropped one after each set of ten. At first, the actual dropping of stones probably gave me too much of a rest as I figured out the logistics, but it did help me keep the count.

During class, I did forty push-ups, sit-ups and squats, so I only had to do sixty afterwards. At ten o’clock at night, I did my last sets of sixty.

During my lunch break, I practiced my bo staff kata and my two ura katas, along with Saifa. F has an exam tomorrow, and her second summer school class has started, so she didn’t practice with me. Yesterday, however, she was a trooper.

Tonight, Senpai TJ taught with DJ as our monitor. My son S and I setup the older laptop outside on a table in the back yard. We also have a flood light set up to turn on, once it gets dark. We have a flood light because, long ago, my my husband bought it to use as a night time light for a short film he worked on years ago.

During class, Senpai covered Gekisai Dai. Initially, S and I seemed to be on different sides from each other the whole time, but we figured it out by the time Senpai called on us to demonstrate. Once we were spotlighted on Zoom, we got it together.

Here’s an awesome video posted by karate35, that I often use as reference for that kata:

We also had a guest instructor join us, but for observation. He is the father of one of F’s buddies from choir. Several months back, Sensei invited him to teach a self-defense class, and it was cool to learn techniques from a different style.

I called him last night. He wanted to check out our Zoom classes. He had no idea about teaching over Zoom, however, so I suggested he observe a class.

Initially he had trouble because he was not terribly familiar with Zoom. DJ let him into the class, but we weren’t sure at first who he was. His video and sound were off and he showed up under a strange name. He couldn’t chat us or figure out how to unmute to speak to us. DJ, cautious, sent him to the waiting room. I texted him on my cell. He confirmed that he was, in fact, our mystery guest, so we let him back in. By the end of the class, he figured out how to turn on his video and unmute his microphone. After class, he talked with a few of us, and confided that this was his first Zoom session ever!

After speaking with our guest instructor, Senpais SF and T graciously offered to go over promotion requirements with S and myself. We drilled shodan syllabus as well as first kyu. I accidentally kicked S during the spin kicks at the end. Later, S somehow got me on the head while practicing one of the kata. At some point, we stayed far enough away from each other to have enough space to work, and far enough back from the computer that we could still be seen on camera.

Afterwards, we practiced several kata. I’m embarrassed to admit I could not remember Pinan Sono San during lunch. I had to look it up, so I asked Senpais to review that one.

Senpai TF has recently injured her rotator cuff, so we talked abut that for a bit. Sensei had warned me not to go too low for push-ups, and to keep my elbows in, in order to hit the triceps. During one of our recent training sessions with him, he had each of us (F, S and me) demonstrate how low we go, to make sure we were not going low enough to irritate the shoulder joints.

I shared that information with TF. I suspect her push-ups are too deep. Initially, when you stop going low, it feels like cheating. However, if you keep your elbows tucked in and you stop just before your elbows line up with the bottom of your rib cage, you can work those triceps well without injuring your shoulders. That, at least, is the idea.

Soon, the kids and I will veg out and watch an episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation. It’s not as funny as Buffy, but still entertaining.

Thursday July 23rd, 2020

I meditated for ten minutes, under the loquat tree, focusing on a corner with lilies just starting to open, with a sprig of bougainvillea curling around them. The succulents recently planted nearby are doing well. Though I could hear the buzz of a weed-eater off in the distance and the whoosh of cars, the hooting mourning dove sounded closer, and stronger.

We had a visitor: a white and yellow cat, collared with a bell that gave no sound, wandered around from the side of the house. It walked right up to our sliding glass door, and stopped. It looked in at our cat, Bistro, who looked out. I took a picture. Lady Bug, his sister, was there, too, though she is not visible in the photo. The cat then saw me, and spent a good few seconds observing me. Suddenly it turned and scampered back the way it had come. Afterwards, the other cats, indoors, jumped to the windows above the sink, anxious to follow it. I don’t know why it ran away. Perhaps the sent of the other cats, wafting from the open windows, changed its mind?

Moments later, my son came outside. “Mom, Bistro is really scared of something. His tail is all puffed out!”

“We just had a visitor,” I said. I told him about the other cat and showed him the picture.

“That cat looks like a bigger version of Marvin,” he said. Marvin was another visitor we’d had years ago, when S was quite young, like Marvin, whose big ears made him look more like a kitten. S was still in elementary school when Marvin came calling.

To follow up on the opening of the Queen of the Night from yesterday’s entry: we checked on it several times: 9pm, 10pm, midnight, even 4am, and it didn’t open. After I texted Jessica in the morning, she responded with her thoughts: given how it was already drooping a bit, most likely it already opened Tuesday night, so we missed it. So better luck next time! However, I did find come cool time-lapse posts that others have made of this remarkable plant. Here’s a video credited to Brett Flippen as producer:

After a day or two, I should probably move this footnote to yesterday’s entry.

Saturday July 18th, 2020

This morning, Sensei led the 10am karate class over Zoom. He asked F to lead kihon. Actually yesterday, towards the end of our training with him, he told F that he’d like to see her tire everyone out through kihon. So she did. She pushed the class quite hard, with exercises in between movement sets, careful to give us little downtime.

Sensei remarked to another student, without specifying who, “So you want to be treated as an adult? You want to go through the adult shodan test? Your karate, right now, looks more like that of a twelve year old, rather than a fourteen year old. Show me what you can do!”

F thought he was talking to her. She was not aware that, earlier over the Zoom, one of the other students, a junior shodan who is about thirteen, asked to be able to try out for the adult shodan test. This, at least, was what Sensei had understood her to ask. A little later, we found out she’d meant something different. Our youngest adult shodan, at our dojo, was fourteen. So the request of a thirteen year old to take test would not have been a crazy request. Under the IFK, the rule is that a person must be sixteen years of age. When Sensei’s dojo joined the IFK, he and she had to make the case that she had the experience and maturity to be in her rank, and they did.

In any case, F thought Sensei had chastised her. Just yesterday, F told Sensei she wanted to be treated like an adult in relation to the martial arts club. She didn’t like the fact that, when the club came up in conversation, he addressed me and not her. F felt he did not include her. She wants him to include her, and phrased it this way: he treats her like a kid.

So he answered that she was seeking attention, and he wasn’t going to do it. He countered, she needs to find her own validation within, and not seek it from others. He gave her a good lecture on that topic.

Funny, as I listened to him, I thought of how I could apply that advice to my own work-life. Granted, it’s not quite the same when you are an adult in a professional context. Validation and attention are also tied up with money, promotions, and your ability to provide for your family. The stakes are much higher. Also, our society adds whole other layers of complexity in unconscious bias and institutional sexism and racism, if a professional is a woman, a mother or a person of color.

However, as an individual faced with these undercurrents, what do you do? You, also, must find validation within. You know what your education level is, what your own prior work experience is, and how hard you have worked to get to where you are. The obstacles you’ve overcome, the challenges you’ve faced down, the self-doubt and doubt of others that you’d had to stave off: you know these things about yourself. Therefore, like F, you must seek your own validation within. In the face of the storm, the pandemic, the discounting and doubting from others, strive to be unshaken. Know at your core what you are capable of, and what you are. Know you define it.

Given the conversation from yesterday, F decided to prove what she could do. So she kicked an already rigorous kihon up another notch. F exhausted us, and herself, in short order, so much so that Sensei stopped kihon to instruct us in breathing. He then gave F pointers as an instructor: the instructor, in order to be a good leader, cannot overextend her- or himself. “You shouldn’t give what you don’t have,” he put it succinctly. In this breathing exercise, you breathe in and hold your breath. While holding, you tense up your body, push your hands before you slowly, then release your breath.

We think the name for this kind of breathing is “ibari,” but we are not sure of the spelling. I tried to find reference to it in Oyama’s “This is Karate,” and it sounds similar to Nogare breathing, but isn’t quite the same. You use it to gather your strength and focus, if you will. F will check in with Sensei on the spelling. I’ll post a correction when we know for sure.

F modulated her instruction according to Sensei’s advice, and provided time for the grown-ups with our rusty joints to actually perform some of the kicks better, etc. She still pushed us hard. At the end of class, she had us hold stances: both Migi (right) and Hidari (left) Zenkutsu Dachi, and Kiba (horse-riding stance). We held the Zenkutsu Dachis for one minute and the Kiba Dachi for two minutes. This is while our legs are burning from her previously brutal kihon! Also, S, F and I had had that workout with Sensei the day before! So those four minutes felt very long.

At the conclusion of class, Sensei praised F. He praised her for her leadership as well as her physical fitness before the whole class.

After class, Sensei held a brief meeting of the Udancha to go over who would be testing for what. It was my first time to participate in the Udancha. I felt honored. Sensei also gave high praise to my S, and SL, the other highly accomplished junior shodan close to S’s age. That was so nice to hear.

When it was all over, S and I told F, “Hey, Sensei’s remark that someone was working out like a twelve year old? That wasn’t aimed at you.” Hearing this surprised and embarrassed her. Nevertheless, she was our tiger trainer as a result.

Finally, and unfortunately, the kids’ reward for that excellent workout was to help mop the floors. Followed by evening ice cream.

Osu!

Tuesday June 16th, 2020

I did exercises this morning. During push-ups, I am trying to stay up on my toes for more repetitions, and today was better. During karate class, Sensei had us do sets of thirty push-ups, sit-ups and squats in between various exercises. I had one more set of thirty to do after class in order to get in my evening ninety.

F lead kihon and did a good job, though she has not lead in a while, and spaced on the names of some moves that she normally knows. Nerves, most likely, but her form is crisp. She set a steady, quick pace. We were out of breath after her kihon.

Sensei returned to third kyu syllabus for another type of exercise: we did ten of each move on both the right and left sides. So, after doing this, it was easy to remember the syllabus. Also, it is a method of using the syllabus as a workout. He said the IFK will often have students do this for multiple syllabi.

A younger version of my step-mother appeared in my dreams for a few nights in a row. She read my diary, though this didn’t bother me. Since it was published, I was glad to have a reader. In another dream, she was in a room with a girl strongly resembling her daughter, my younger step-sister, who died about ten years ago. I should get in touch with my sister and let her know about the dreams.

Around lunch time, I went to the office to retrieve my things. The company is giving up one of the floors of our building, and they are moving other folks into our offices. I don’t know when this will happen. For now, most of us work from home and will in the near future, given we are not furloughed.

I enjoy working from home. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before. We can thank the pandemic for significantly reduced traffic and more family time . One friend from the dojo, a parent of two, told me that her husband, before the pandemic, was never home from dinner. He drove to and from work for over an hour. His commute, in addition to working overtime, meant he simply arrived home well after family dinner. Since the shutdown, he has not missed a family dinner.

Obviously the loss of life and the isolation that many feel as a result of the pandemic are terrible. Hopefully we as a society will figure out how to be better prepared for these events in the future. If we can avoid or minimize suffering and death, while hanging onto improvements in quality of life, this is best.

Saturday, June 6th, 2020

The kids and I participated in karate class last night. Sensei talked briefly about the importance of kihon and the need to continue it; it is the foundation of karate. We also practiced the Ido Geiko drill we learned on Tuesday, and that was fun. S caught on quickly and was super-fast. Sensei asked him and and another fast boy who had mastered the exercise if they were good at math, or liked math. They both did. One of Sensei’s instructors had pointed out to him that kids adept at math often pick up Ido Geiko quickly.

Sensei explained that, when he was a student under the IKO, the teachers would often throw in an Ido Geiko exercise right at the end of promotion. The teacher would give students a series of exercises to do, off the cuff, and they’d have maybe two times to practice it before they were graded. So more like a karate pop quiz. I’m pretty slow at that kind of thing. I do get it, but with lots of practice.

Sensei also covered the difference between hiji ate uchi and hiji ago uchi. A hiji ate elbow strike comes around the body and usually aims for the chin, while hiji ago uchi starts low and rises up. The ending hand positions for these two strikes are clearly different. For chudan (mid-level) hiji ate uchi, as an example, you “post” your elbow forward, with your fist tucked into your chest, whereas for chudan hiji ago uchi, your fist ends near your ear. This is useful information for both kihon and IFK’s third kyu syllabus. Even when I learned third kyu syllabus, I remember struggling to understand the differences between these. Somehow, last night, it clicked.

After Friday night’s class, I ran through all the kata I know. I will need to be able to do the “walk,” or all kata I’ve studied, for the Shodan test. Some of the Pinans were mushed together in my head, so I worked on those. I struggled with Saifa and Tensho. Those were my last promotion kata, too, so I really need to get them down again. I will ask the kids to show those to me. I don’t know if they know Saifa, but they do know Tensho.

This morning, I attended karate by myself. We covered many of the exercises from Friday and Tuesday nights.

Tuesday June 2nd, 2020

And another summary

Three of us, a Shodan/Sensei of another style who taught the Kyoku Kids on Saturday morning, a Shodan who’s approaching his second stripe, and me, met with Sensei over Zoom to talk about preserving the community as a club. We asked his guidance in this endeavor, as well as if we could hire him as a consultant.

We convened a second meeting with him and the donor group, and finalized some of the details of hiring him. He offered to guide us through the process of re-forming the dojo community as a club. The three of us envisioned a member-run, non-profit as a likely scenario. Sensei also agreed to continue to teach over Zoom for a period, while we transitioned.

That was a relief. We held a third meeting with the greater dojo community last Sunday, in order to plan the actual forming of the club, create a mission statement and by-laws, put together a roster of teachers, etc. Various members volunteered for tasks in order to formally bring this new incarnation of our community into existence. We now have committees focused on various aspects of the club. My daughter attended, along with our sixteen year old adult Shodan, B, who also teaches. They liked the idea of a youth council that will be analogous to the adult board.

We’re hopeful that by the end of the month, we will exist as a karate club.

As for me, my week of meditation and “rest” is over, though, admittedly, given both the dojo closure and the unrest in Los Angeles, last week was hardly restful.

I will say one thing about the protestors in Los Angeles and across this nation: I have tremendous respect for persons willing to risk both their lives and their health in order to stand for justice. My family is with them in spirit.

However, if we want to have four adults from my household able to vote for candidates who support their causes in November, we have to stay home. We will show our support through donations to good causes and kind words of encouragement to friends who march.

This is my “ku” week, so 90 sit-ups and squats. I’m doing 50 push-ups on my fists and toes on the ground, then 10 the same way on the matte, and adding 30 more on my knees, when I can. I got in my exercises twice yesterday and twice today. Yesterday I also ran for 20 minutes with an additional 10 minutes walking to warm-up and cool down. Today the kids and I attended karate with Sensei over Zoom.

I have been keeping my paper journal daily. New goal: return to posting those daily writes here.