guest instructor Archives - Ichi Kyu Diary

Saturday, our guest Sensei AJ returned with more challenging exercises, this time focusing on the legs. She started out by having us do warm-ups focused on helping us loosen up: circling the hips, knees, head, swinging our arms, etc.

Following the warm-up, we started with swinging-turns, where we allow our arms to dangle and move as we turn. The focus is on keeping the upper body loose and coordinated with what the lower body is doing. Next, we did “step-ups,” where we practiced stepping up on our toes as we raised one knee, with the focus on attaining more height.

Leg Exercises: Balance and Strength

Astoria-Megler Bridge June 2018: balance and strength are necessary for both bridges and karateka!

Finally, she brought us to the challenging exercise. Each of us fetched a chair or positioned ourselves against a wall, if we could. She demonstrated on a chair. My son and I also brought kitchen chairs into the living room. Lately, we’ve been opting to setup for Zoom karate indoors, in our living room. Using the back of a chair for support in front of you, you bend forward and kick. The goal is to make your shoulder, hip, leg and foot go out in a straight line. Also, you hold out the oi-zuki arm straight, too, with your hand in a fist. So your fist and arm are parallel to your leg. To practice proper chambering, you first bring your leg up with your knee bent, then extend the leg.

Sounds simple enough, but then Sensei AJ made the exercise more challenging: you keep your leg up, to practice balance, and retract the leg back to the chamber position. You do all this while balancing on one foot with your fist still out. In this position, you kick and return to the chamber position ten times without dropping that leg. Then we switched sides and did that set of exercises on the other leg.

Once we finished the exercises, I could really feel it in my hips and lower back muscles. My son felt it, too.

Spin Kick Goal, Belt-Stretches for Wind-down

Finally, our instructor went over a spinning kick that all of these exercises were building towards. Many of us practicing over Zoom did not have sufficient space for this, though my son and I attempted it in our living room. Sensei T and his family, who have a rather large dance studio for practicing, could perform the spinning kick. It was cool to see him demonstrate what we are building towards.

At the end of class, she had us stretch with belts. We looped our belts around our extended legs and feet to add some extra pressure to deepen the stretch. You put your belt round the center of your foot, extend your leg, then use the weight of your arms to pull the foot towards you. In this position, we stretch the legs, one at a time, from an upright position, then lay on our sides, leg out in front, still holding the belts, and twist our bodies to the opposite side to stretch out our lower backs and hips.

Hanging Between Disasters: a Buddhist Tale

Chinese New Year Parade 2017 in Los Angeles

I’ll end where Sensei AJ began: she opened class with a thoughtful re-telling of an old Buddhist story. A fierce tiger chases a monk through the forest, and the monk, trying to save his life, climbs into a deep well.

Too late, he sees a poisonous snake at the bottom of the well. Luckily, he grabs a hold of a protruding root, extending from the well wall, on the way down. The tiger prowls at the top of the well, ready to eat him. The poisonous snake, swimming in the water below, is ready to bite him.

Trapped, the monk hangs on for dear life between these two types of death. Then he realizes that mice are chewing through the root, so very soon, he could fall to his death in the waters below. Things look grim to the monk, but he is patient.

Sweetness and Change

Above the well, a tree towers, sheltering a bee hive directly above the well. Honey, dripping from the beehive, lands on the monk’s face. He licks the sweet honey, grateful to be alive and experience the wonderful taste of that honey. Buddhism, after all, has taught him to appreciate life’s sweetness.

An eel: not exactly a poisonous snake at the bottom of a well, but also dangerous

Also, Buddhism teaches that everything changes. Though his situation feels hopeless, he waits. The impatient tiger jumps into the well, falls past the monk and lands on the poisonous snake below. The monk manages to shimmy back up the well and climbs out. Sensei AJ then reminded us that, though this pandemic has lasted a long time, our situations will change.

Sensei AJ’s point? We can enjoy the sweetness of a karate class together over Zoom while we wait for that change.

Sensei AJ led Saturday’s morning karate class. She is our guest instructor with expertise in Hapkido. She has also trained in two other martial artist styles, in addition to her knowledge of our style. It’s always a treat when she joins us!

Saturday, she started us out with stretches based on using the short stick. She demonstrated using the stick to deepen arm, back and shoulder stretches. You hold the stick behind you with both hands. Then, you use it to pull the left arm with the right, and vise versa. We also held the stick out in front, with both hands, and used twisting motions with one hand, which the other resisted, in order to strengthen the forearms and wrists.

After we’d warmed up a bit with stretches and simple exercises, she taught us basic short-sword strikes using Korean short sticks, if we had them, or whatever household implement we had chosen for Zoom class. (Students in previous classes had used PVC pipes, spatulas, etc. A few of us had sticks; Sensei AJ carves these sticks, and offered to make these for students who may want their own.)

Hand Placement and How Many Hands

First, she talked to us about hand placement: longer swords or sticks may require you to use both hands to feel like you are in control of the weapon. Shorter and lighter-weight ones may only require one hand. If you do need both hands, you place your non-dominant hand at the bottom of the weapon, and place your dominant hand further up so you may guide it better.

Most of us used two hands for our implements. She had us begin by holding the weapon behind our backs, as if we had a sheathed sword with its holder strapped to our backs. We pulled the weapon from behind, raised it overhead with two hands, then brought it down in front, along our own center-lines. Here’s the idea: the sword is in a “sheath” fastened to your back. As F remembers it, warriors on horseback would have worn swords in this fashion.

Simple Strikes and Blocks

In the video below, Gerard Lopez, an Aikido instructor, explains how a bokken is held. Sensei AJ gave us similar instructions, though hers were intended for various weapons:

Gerald Lopez explains basic principles for bokken, for Aikido practitioners

Sensei AJ had us perform similar strikes downwards with our sticks. Like Mr. Lopez, she also told us to treat the stick as an extension of our bodies. I love his explanation, however, of

Drawing on lessons she’d had with Sensei LR, our fencing teacher when the dojo was open, she pointed out that you can also turn sideways when wielding a sword, hence providing your opponent with less area for targeting.

Sensei AJ had us practice a series of three strikes: first a downward slice, a front jab, and a side-swipe. We did these moving forward and backwards. She also covered blocks for each of these strikes, and we practiced those as well.

Finally, she taught a little turn-flourish, that each of my children could do, but not me. Students did a kind of flower with the stick over their heads as they turned 360 degrees. It was certainly fun to watch, but not so easy to do!

Extras

Here are a couple more fun videos that I found while researching bokken and katana, in an attempt to remember what we learned on Saturday.

Three highly skilled with wooden swords, possibly katana or bokken, posted by Kouga Sekido

These folks are so skilled, they’re a joy to watch!

And finally, for Samurai Moms:

From the Smithsonian Channel: The daughter of grand master Tanaka demonstrates her sword-handling skills

and Samurai Dads:

Asian Boss interviews a modern Samurai about samurai history, influential movies, seppuku, and armor

Both of these modern weapons masters have beautiful moves.

Tag: guest instructor

Better Kicks: Strength and Balance