KEEP TRAINING #196

Nunchucks, an Okinawan Martial Arts weapon.

"Preparation is key if you hope to operate well under pressure. Hopefully, during the course of your training, you have done enough thinking about what it is like to feel pressure. If you think about the potential for pressure in advance, you can use repetitions and simulations in practice to help you feel as if you have been in that spot before."

—Coach K - Mike Krzyzewski, Led Duke to 5 NCAA Basketball Championships, Led US National Team to three successive Basketball Olympic Gold Medals

Fellow deshi,

Last Week

This past week I focused my training on my weapon, the nunchakus, to sharpen my skills in preparation for the USRKUSA Annual Weapons Workout. Master Nagamine writes in his book, "The Essence of Okinawan Karate-Do,"

"Kobujutsu developed as an art of self-defense during periods in Okinawan history when the country was under subjugation and weapons were not permitted. With typical ingenuity, the Okinawans learned to fight without weapons, or with whatever came to hand during times of conflict...what did come to hand were articles found in day-today uses in feudal times: the bo, nunchaku, tuifa and kama. The kama ... is still widely used as a farming implement in Okinawa today."

There are two key takeaways from Master Nagamine's writing. First, by virtue of the fact that the articles used for self defense were items used on a daily basis for farming and other activities of necessity, the Okinawans handled these weapons for years, if not decades. This frequency of use enabled the Okinawans to develop a very high level of familiarity. This level of expertise was invaluable when adapting the tool for self defense purposes.

TRAINING POINT: As Hanshi has instructed many times over the years, we should pick up our weapon every day. Work the grip. Swing the weapon. Perform a kata. Over years our comfort, familiarity and effectiveness will advance. So do something every day, even if it's only for five minutes.

Second, as these were work or farming implements it is highly unlikely that individuals had great attachment to any particular article. They were tools. They didn't have practice tools, demonstration tools, or bunkai tools. They just had tools, one was as good as another for any particular job.

TRAINING POINT: Release attachment to any particular weapon. Train with weapons of different weights, materials and sizes. Train to the point where your level of proficiency is agnostic to weapon characteristics. For example, the cord connecting the nunchuck should be about two inches long. However the lengths vary considerably. The longer the cord length, the more difficult to control the weapon. Therefore, nunchakus practitioners should train with nunchucks with varying cord lengths until they are equally proficient at controlling the weapon regardless of the length of the cord. Similar examples exist for the bo, sai, kama, and tuifa.

As Miyamoto Musashi would say, "Study this."

 

My Focus This Week

This week I plan to focus my training on Kata Pinan Godan, specifically the final two moves. I will begin my week by reviewing the applicable sections of Master Nagamine's book after which I will study Hanshi executing the techniques in his demonstration of Pinan Godan in the Kata Guide Video.

Thoughts on Training

Kyoshi Mackay has sent around the Zoom class schedule for the week. Please read carefully as there may have been some changes due to the upcoming holiday. Might be a good opportunity to try a different Zoom class if your favorite class is off for the holiday.

As a reminder, the next meeting of the Ueshiro Shorin-Ryu Karate Book Club will take place on Thursday, December 21, 2023. The meeting will run from 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM. The Zoom invitation for the meeting was sent under separate cover. The book up for discussion is Admiral William H. McRaven's "Make Your Bed." Deshi of all levels are encouraged to attend.

 

Reading from "Building Warrior Spirit"

Hanshi discusses power through tension and relaxation on page 44 of his book, "Building Warrior Spirit."

"In all stances any tension in the body should be focused in the area of the legs from the knee down to the foot. The upper body should be relaxed and loose except for the brief moment of contact with our opponent - real or imagined - then there is one hundred percent tension throughout the body and focusing into the target. The techniques are applied with speed and power. The body tenses to 100% tension, especially the fist, then the tension is totally released, after a fraction of a second and after contact is made. The physical principle is maximum muscular contraction and release after each technique."

Stay safe. Stay healthy. Until next week.

Kyoshi