Tag: teaching karate

Belts, Imagination and Kumite

Wednesday September 2nd, 2020

Last week we celebrated four birthdays (my nephew, my sister-in-law, my husband D and me), and we saw Sensei in the park last Saturday morning. He spoke words of encouragement to all of us, and handed out belts and certificates.

We arrived home to a pancake breakfast prepared by my nephew from Northern California. It was also D’s birthday, so we got take out from our favorite restaurant, shared it with D’s brother’s family and the grandparents. Afterwards, we watched Zodiac. D had worked with Aaron, the son of Robert Graysmith, who authored the original book. It was disturbing, mainly because it is a true story, but a good movie.

On Sunday, we peformed those chores neglected while entertaining out-of-town guests and celebrating birthdays. On Monday, we were off running.

I want to share my entry from Saturday.

Ceremony of Belt Awards

Today is D’s birthday. He slept in. The kids and I rose at 7 am. We were at the Figure 8 park by 8:30 am. T, TF, B, Sensei AJ and our Sensei were all there, as well as many of the kids. Sensei brought a large box, filled with certificates and belts. With help from T and B, he arranged them in a row on the green. His certificates this time were issued by the California Budoshinkai Association, the new style he is in the process of creating. We are still an IFK affiliate.

It was an emotional experience, seeing so many friends and my own children receiving their belts. Certainly I felt emotional upon receiving my own belt. Obviously this ceremony was not the one I imagined a year ago. Kyokushin, however, is about seeking absolute truth, or absolute reality–this is our preferred translation in our dojo community. Buddhism teaches us to let go of illusion, including and especially self-delusion. Wisdom will bring us to recognize beauty in that reality, when we can strip away enough self-delusion to see it.

Imagination versus Reality

Before the pandemic, I imagined a ten-person kumite match: most of the folks whipping my tail would be good friends from the dojo. I imagined it within the dojo building that Sensei no longer rents, along with board or brick breaking to demonstrate our skills, along with a party afterwards. But the reality is we gathered in the morning, outdoors, in a neighborhood park, under blooming crepe myrtle trees, standing on grass, surrounded by our greater Burbank community. Sensei announced that two persons from our dojo have been diagnosed with Covid-19. I hope they are coping okay and not seriously ill.

Many of us gathered there in the park, distanced but well, dressed in street clothes instead of gis. Despite the pandemic and the many woes inflicted upon our group that might have pulled us apart, we were there together, at least, those of us who could be there. Some others do join us over Zoom that were not at liberty to come to a park. One pair of children were allowed to come only briefly to receive their belts, and had to leave right away. Three members of their family are immunocompromised, so these children, understandably, kept their contact brief.

We are fortunate to be together, mostly over Zoom but sometimes in the park, like this gathering. We are fortunate to not have lost anyone in our little dojo community to this disease at this time. Granted, preserving our community through this crisis took a lot of work.

Kumite

This was our real fight: our kumite match was against a plague that would pull us apart with fear, illness and financial troubles, all against a backdrop of political unrest and dissension. Though we’ve received our belts and certificates, this particular kumite match is far from over. We have to support each other in the face of this plague, build harmony from discord, and hold our little community, along with Burbank, California, the United States and the free world and finally, the whole world, together. We are a world community of humans, with more binding us together than separating us. Also, all living things in this world are interdependent upon keeping our environment, and each other, in good health. We’ve made it this far.

Sensei saw fit to honor many of us with belts and certificates for our hard work. He also gave high honors to T and AJ by asking our dojo community to address them now as “Sensei,” or Teacher. They well deserve this honor.

Performing Breaks

Yesterday, in our own back yard, F, S and I broke up chunks of concrete and rocks with shuto hands. So we did our breaks before receiving our belts. That evening, S and I showed his young cousin the rocks and chunks of concrete that we’d broken. He was actually more impressed by the concrete breaks, since the rocks looked more “breakable” to him. S and I found a thinner piece of concrete and demonstrated how to break it on the patio. S’s young cousin listened carefully, and, using the technique we demonstrated for him, he broke it!

Sensei had told us that receiving a black belt is about teaching, sharing what you know. I was so excited to see my ten year old nephew present the fragments of his shattered hunk of concrete to his own father with pride. His was a clean, straight break.

The Loss of Chadwick Boseman

Our family was saddened to read about the death of Chadwick Boseman. Sometimes we fight hard and do not win. Not winning the battle, or even the war, does not make you less of a warrior. On screen, Chadwick fought super-villains. In real life, he had more formidable foes: racism, on top of the usual demons faced by artists and other creatives, and finally, cancer. He deserves his own black belt for tenacity and his drive to share his gifts with the world.

If you have not watched his speech to the Screen Actors’ Guild, it is well worth your time.

This is another kumite match we, as a society, need to take on and defeat: racism, including systemic racism and unconscious bias.  Exacerbating these situations is the problem of poverty, another formidable foe, but one we can defeat, if we have the will.

Sunday July 5th, 2020

This will be a rough summary of the past few days. On Friday, I did do exercises in the morning. The kids and I went with Sensei to a nearby park in Burbank for Shodan preparation training.

He discussed his current ideas about the test with us. Our test week will be resemble a regular testing week: we will teach kihon and self-defense, do the kata “walk,” i.e., perform all the kata we’ve learned, as well as exercises, just as we would under “normal” circumstances. We can teach kihon, self-defense and do exercises over Zoom, but he is hoping to have us do the kata walk in a park, with space appropriate for social distancing. In lieu of a ten man kumite, we’ll be expected to perform a grueling cardio workout and have at least one hard fight. Sensei would like for us and our fighters to be tested for the virus about two weeks before the test. Of course, given how cases of COVID-19 have soared throughout the country and in Southern California in particular, all of this is subject to change.

We will proceed as best as we can, and do what we can.

For the cardio test, he mentioned doing some kind of running hike and mentioned either Griffith Park and Malibu Canyon State Park as possibilities. F lobbied for Malibu Canyon, where we have had summer karate camp-outs in the past. It’s truly scenic and inspirational there, so I’d love to test there, too.

The park, where we worked out, is one we call the “Figure 8” park because of its winding dirt path that resembles an 8. It also contains exercise stations, including a kind of “horizontal ladder” built with a row triangular-shaped bars. Sensei had us try it to see what we could do. S could get across three. Sensei four. F managed two and I struggled with one, I’m embarrassed to say.

Afterwards, he had them run intervals. Sensei had me do stretches, push-ups and sit-ups while the kids ran. While jogging to the park, I had experienced sharp pains in the backs of my thighs, probably due to a gardening injury earlier in the day. Later he drilled kata with us. I knew the Pinans, Gekisai Dai and Sho, but need to practice Tzuki no kata.

Earlier in the day, I pulled a muscle trying to extract spider lily bulbs from my front yard as a gift for Sensei. Last week, he commented on how unusual these plants were, and that his wife might like them. These are hardly and prolific plants; a friend had given them to me a few years ago and they’ve taken over both the median between the sidewalk and the road, and a good portion of my front yard.

I dug up several plants, cutting their bulbs away from the main “batch” with a shovel. While digging, I snapped the blade from one metal trowel, and cracked the handle of my big spade. Of the two plants I potted for Sensei, one had a bulb with roots and shoots, but the other was only a large bulb with shoots and flowers. Only the one with roots, I fear, will live.

I planted my other “mistakes,” plants extracted with bulbs and no roots, in my back yard. Apparently I need to dig much deeper into the earth to get these up with roots. Either this, or I should dig up an entire “batch”, then separate them, rather than attempt to separate individual bulbs from a batch.

That evening, I taught class. T, our senior black belt, was my “monitor.” Our monitor, during a Zoom class, watches everyone and gives individual feedback. I ran kihon for our warm-up, punches and shuto or knife-hand strikes. S lead the kicks. After a short break, we queued up a video of Bobby Lowe performing Tensho. Afterwards, I taught Tensho. A Kyokushin group in Russia, with the website, Center-Satori.ru, posted this awesome video Bobby Lowe:

This is a great kata to practice at home and over Zoom. The space required to do it is minimal. Also, we learn most of the moves it entails during basic kihon. While doing this kata, the karateka practices focused body tightening and rhythmic, deep breathing, similar to Sanchin.

S, who had researched this kata for his junior shodan class last summer, was able to demonstrate several straight-forward self-defense moves based on the kata, including blocking multiple punches (the opening moves), breaking out of wrist holds (yoko koken uke) and responding with deadly strikes (mostly shoteis in painful spots). I played the part of the attacker and S dispatched me with moves from the kata.

Firework displays in Burbank were cancelled this year, due to the pandemic. Some neighbors, however, set off fireworks, which, in turn, set off the car alarms of other neighbors. We shut up the house to keep the cats calm. Our family, including grandparents, celebrated the Fourth by viewing the movie of the musical, “Hamilton,” on Disney Plus. My children and mother-in-law are fans. It was truly moving.