Thursday Thoughts, 4/14/11

I follow Rener and Ryron Gracie on Twitter (@GracieBrothers), and they tweeted some really interesting statements this morning:

Imagine if the student was not fearful of disappointing the instructor.

Imagine if the student had the freedom to study the art to the extent that they would allow all inferior positions to happen.

The path to black belt can be cut in half.

Thursday Thoughts, 7/22/10

"Flexibility without strength is instability"

I heard some yoga teacher on television say this and it stuck. I'm naturally very flexible, but pretty out of shape. I need to correct that. I've been interested in doing some yoga anyway.

Thursday Thoughts, 7/15/10

"Your name, for better or worse, is associated with your dojo and not just for the technical teaching that goes on there. You do not get to choose who will make that association and how it will be done."

~Dave Lowry

The Karate Way; Discovering the Spirit of Practice

Aikido, 7/10/10

So I finally made the return trip to Pat's. The dojo was being painted, so we trained out in the driveway. We started out with tegatana no kata, and it's a whole different thing when you're doing it on sloped concrete, with shoes on. We did one rep, then turned 90 degrees and did it again. Changing the slope affected the kata as well. I told Pat a few months ago that I hated tegatana; now I feel like that was more of a temporary spat.  I'm not gonna say I'm in love with it, but I don't feel like I hate it any more.

We moved on to Releases, 1-8. I am very rusty, as I suspected. We focused on #2. We looked at how when you emphasize the "up" motion in that release (and #4 for that matter), it makes it much harder for uke to turn back around toward you.

Pat transitioned from Release 2 into Ju Nana #15, Maeotoshi. If you look at the brief "up moment" in maeotoshi as being at the top of a hill with uke, I kept trying to push him down off the hill. If I do that, uke has a chance to react or respond to what I'm doing, and compensate for it. However, if I just hang out with uke until he makes the move to get down, I can respond to that and take advantage of it to "send him on his way." This idea of letting him do what he wants to do rather than trying to force him into what I want him to do seems like the very essence of aiki to me. Incidentally, I found that tactile sensitivity was required to do this best. When I tried to guess when he was going to "come down" it didn't work so well - but when I felt when he was coming down through my connection to him, I got better results.

"Your eyes can deceive you... don't trust them"

~ Obi-Wan Kenobi

Next Pat previewed Ju Nana 16 and 17 for me, then backed up and we took a quick look at 11 through 14.

We ended our lesson with a discussion of karate, and had a brief look at Sanchin kata.

Falling Hard

I bought the book "Falling Hard" today, by Mark Law. He is a journalist that took up judo when he was nearly 50 years old, and wrote this book about his experiences.

I read the first two chapters today, and thought I'd post two quotes from the book here:

"A white belt at the dojo is like a toddler at a tea party, and demands a similar etiquette: people must take turns to play with him;it is incumbent upon everyone to encourage him, praise his simplest achievements, and not laugh when he falls over."

"If someone banged a tennis ball past me, it was hardly the end of the world. It was just a game. When someone threw me on the floor of the dojo, it didn't seem like a game at all. I was much affected. The former reflected badly on my ability at tennis. The latter reflected badly on me. And if ever I threw someone, it seemed somehow to be a worthwhile achievement, unlike scoring a goal, or a point with a ball."

I like the book so far. I think it'll be a fun read.

Thursday Thoughts, 8/6/09

"No matter how one may use techniques mastered in secret, if his mind becomes attached to techniques he cannot win. It is one of the greatest importance in training that the mind does not become fixed, either on the enemy's movements or one's own movements, either on striking or blocking."

~Yagyu Munenori

An Additional Thought RE: Intuition VS. Instinct

I posted yesterday about the difference between instinct and intuition. I read a post on Dave Camarillo's blog today that speaks to this issue as well...here's an excerpt:

How can I be so good at driving to be able to do it without thinking? The reason is simple: Because I have done it for 17 years!
You do something long enough, you get good! Period! If you dabble, a little here, a little there, you stagnate.
Armlocks are a natural part of my life. They are like driving; they are like breathing. They come as easy for me as any mundane task in life. I don’t have to think, I do. I don’t have to plan, I do.

Cruise over there and check it out!

Thursday Thoughts, 7/16/09

I found myself with some free time over the weekend, and I was flipping through television channels. I came across a show called "Spectacles" on the Sundance channel. Basically, Elvis Costello interviews folks, and they talk about music, life, etc. Seemed like a cool show.

His guest for that night was Bill Clinton, but they were going to be talking about music, so I didn't change the channel. In case you're unaware, Clinton is a pretty good saxophone player. I'll leave any cheap shots regarding "hot air" and the like unsaid. Maybe I'm feeling generous - I didn't care for President Clinton while he was in office, but I think he was mostly harmless compared to what we have now. But I digress...

They were talking about why Clinton didn't pursue a career playing music instead of politics. His answer was something like "I looked at myself in the mirror one day, and realized that even being a great sax player, I would never be the greatest...I would never be on the level of John Coltrane or Stan Getz...and if I couldn't be among the very best, I didn't want to pursue it."

That made me think about my martial arts practice, and my expectations for how I'll progress. I don't expect I'll be the next Mike Swain, Karl Geis, or [pick any] Gracie. I don't think I'm naturally gifted "raw talent" at this stuff. I don't think I have the potential to become a household name in judo or aikido, but I still consider it a worthwhile pursuit. So I've been thinking about what I do expect from myself as I continue my training - what I want to get out of it (or give back to it, in some cases). I bet most martial artists go through a similar process at some point, and I'm sure if you asked 15 people, you'd get 13 different answers, so the answers may vary for each individual. My personal list may change with time or experience, but here's what I've come up with for myself, in no particular order:

• I want to be better able to defend myself and my family from physical attack should the need arise.
• I want to accomplish something...stick with something. As I glance back down the trail of my experience I see so many projects and goals that lay abandoned...begun with great enthusiasm, but never accomplished. I don't have a particular dan rank in mind, and I'm not under the impression that my training will ever be complete - I think I'll just know one day "Hey - I stuck with this!"
• I'd like to have influence. Not necessarily over a multitude of people, but at some point in the far future, I'd like to be able to begin teaching martial arts, and I hope that I can provide positive influence to those I teach. Not in a "guru-ish", have-all-the-answers, run-their-life kind of way though. I'd like to be a part of helping people enrich or improve their lives. I think in its proper place, martial arts can contribute to that.
• Speaking of which - I always want to keep martial arts in their proper place in my life. There can be a tendency, I think, to elevate the things we enjoy....to place more affection on them than they are due, even above things that matter much more. I'm not talking about feeling guilty for taking enjoyment in hobbies. But when martial arts occupy more of my thoughts than God or my family, for instance, something's probably out of whack.
• Speaking of which (again), I try not to divide the "sacred" and "secular" in my life. To me, it's all sacred. By that, I mean, whether I eat or drink, or work, or play, or grapple, or throw - I want everything to be full of and pointing to Jesus Christ (I Cor 10:31). I want to practice martial arts (and everything else...indeed the way I live) in such a way that Christ's work in my life and my love for Him is evident. This is my highest pursuit. Does that mean I want to preach to my opponents while I'm grappling, or wear obnoxious bumper stickers on my gi? Nah. I just want to let my light shine, so people see something in me that causes them to honor God (Matthew 5:16).
• I want to move toward a more healthy lifestyle. Drop weight, gain endurance, build muscle, and improve my diet. Maybe martial arts can help motivate me to do that.
• I want to represent traditional martial arts in such a way that promotes a respect for them (culturally, practically, and artistically).
• Unfortunately, some in Christian circles have ideas about the martial arts that are way off base (some automatically associate martial arts with demons, humanism, new age philosophy, etc). In the same way some people equate all Christians to a few isolated examples of nuts, some Christians equate all martial artists to a few examples of weirdos (you can read one example of this here). I'd like to be one of the many Christian martial artists whose very lives and training refute these ignorant ideas.

So it's not important to me that I become known as the best aikido/judo player around. My indicators of success or failure will come mostly from how closely I'm moving toward the things on my list.
Anyone care to share a list of their own?

Aikido, 7/11/09

We did aikido outside today...that provided a new set of challenges for me. Sloping concrete is different from flat mats! Wearing shoes made things different too.

We started with tegatana. I almost completely lost my balance once, just adjusting to the different conditions. It wasn't even on a tricky step! It was a good reminder that "real life" (i.e. a real self defense scenario) will not happen or feel like what we practice in the dojo. We tried it again, this time while holding a knife. This served to demonstrate a couple of things: 1) either hand might be the "doing" or "active" hand in the kata, and 2) we shouldn't be lazy or unaware during the kata - the knife made me pay attention so I didn't cut myself (conceptually, anyway - it was a rubber knife).

Releases 1-8 were next. I think I'm improving on these. I feel like I am, anyway. This week I was looking at Nick Lowry's Aikido book again in regard to releases. Quoth he: "...power comes from the movement of center, not the action of the arm or upper body". Pat's been saying that all along, and I've read Nick's book several times over the past couple of years, and it was like that part just clicked to me. I even had it highlighted in the book, but it just wasn't sticking before!

Next we worked on Chain 1. Chains are still a little confounding to me (not the concept - the execution). We started with an emphasis on a "touch-follow, touch-follow..." idea...sort of testing uke during each footfall to see what might be there (an opportunity for a technique). The "touch-follow" is a very short thing....near instantaneous...like testing a stove to see if it's hot (you don't put your hand there and leave it, you touch it, then stop touching it quickly). Pat talked about how during chains, both tori and uke are learning how to flow and deal with unexpected or weird situations.

Picking One Thing

I read a quote from my teacher today (who was paraphrasing one of his teachers) regarding aikido training:

"...you pick one thing to put into place and the rest of it goes to pot, but if you succeed in putting that one piece into place then you have succeeded at that repetition of the kata. Then you pick another aspect and your first thing goes to pieces but eventually working at it like this more than one aspect begins falling into place at a time."

I tend to go in cycles of being (somewhat) comfortable, then overwhelmed in my training. Lately, I've been going through the "overwhelmed" stage again. Not in a frustrating way...more of a sense of awe/wonder at what a deceptively complex art aikido is (that is, how freaking cool it all is!).

Anyway, it can be tough to remember and do more than a handful of things during a technique (example: don't bend your arm, don't force it, move your feet, point your center at your hand, relax, etc). I'm going to use this in my solo practice, whether with the walking kata, or practicing with my imaginary uke. I'll consider it a successful rep if I get that one thing right that I chose to focus on.

Rant, Part 2

Another thing that struck me as ridiculous in The Gift of Fear was the following quote from page 307:

"I recently met a middle-aged couple from Florida who had just obtained licenses to carry concealed handguns. the man explained why: "Because if some guy walks into a restaurant and opens fire, like happened at Luby's in Texas, I want to be in a position to save lives."
Of course there are plenty of things he could carry on his belt that would be far more likely to save lives in a restaurant. An injection of adrenaline would treat anaphylactic shock (the potentially lethal allergic reaction to certain foods). Or he could carry a small sharp tube to give emergency tracheotomies to people who are choking to death. When I asked him if he carried one of those, he said "I could never stick something into a person's throat!" but he could send a piece of lead into a person's flesh like a rocket.
Statistically speaking, the the man and his wife are far more likely to shoot each other than to shoot some criminal..."

Where do I begin? Since the Luby's massacre was brought up, I'd like to say something about that: Here's a snip from the wiki article:

"During the shooting, [the shooter] approached Suzanna Gratia Hupp and her parents. Hupp had actually brought a handgun to the Luby's Cafeteria that day, but had left it in her vehicle due to the laws in force at the time, forbidding citizens from carrying firearms. According to her later testimony in favor of Missouri's HB-1720 bill and in general, after she realized that her firearm was not in her purse, but "a hundred feet away in [her] car", her father charged at [the shooter] in an attempt to subdue him, only to be gunned down; a short time later, her mother was also shot and killed. Hupp later expressed regret for abiding by the law in question by leaving her firearm in her car, rather than keeping it on her person."

My observation is that a shot of adrenaline or a sharp tube would not have stopped Ms. Hupp's parents from being murdered before her eyes. If she would have had her handgun (assuming she had been trained in its use), not only her parents, but around 20 other people might still be alive today. But that logic should be obvious to any thinking person - I won't dwell too long on it.

Mr. de Becker seems astonished that the gun owner would be willing to "send a piece of lead into a person's flesh like a rocket", but is uncomfortable at the thought of performing a field tracheotomy. There could be many reasons this would be the case, but among them COULD be that the man was not trained in that procedure and feared screwing it up and causing a bigger problem. Conversely, he may have been well trained in defensive tactics and handgun use. Maybe the hands-on, bloody aspect of the procedure would be more traumatic than firing at a murderer from a distance. But I'm speculating wildly - we have no way of knowing. We're not given more information. Certainly one could argue that a greater number of lives could be saved by the handgun than the sharp tube. Here's an idea that would surely satisfy Mr. de Becker: Just carry all 3 items. The handgun, the adrenaline, and the sharp tube. But why stop there? Maybe the guy should keep a portable AED machine in his car.

As icing on the cake, the author throws out this line: "Statistically speaking, the the man and his wife are far more likely to shoot each other than to shoot some criminal..." Excuse me, "far more likely"? I'm sorry, did I read that right? I wish he would have cited the alleged "statistics" and given the source. We all know how studies can be skewed. Maybe they're "far more likely" because they're around each other far more than they're around criminals. I would lay odds that's the case. Maybe the study dealt only with brand new gun owners before they'd received any training. But if we're talking about responsible gun owners who carry to protect themselves and their families, and get proper training, I have a very hard time believing they'd be more likely to shoot each other than a criminal, all else being equal. It's absurd. Talk about "unwarranted fear" (which the author claims is a curse)!!!

I'm glad that's off my chest. You may have noticed I harped on training a good bit. As a relatively new "gun guy", I take the responsibility of proper training very seriously. I look at it as a way of protecting my family not only from the bad guys out there, but from tragic accidents as well.

Rant, Part 1

This post is part 2 of my "micro-review" of Gavin de Becker's The Gift of Fear, but part 1 of the aforementioned "rant". In yesterday's post I promised to address the author's anti-gun views in more detail. This post might be more appropriate for my little gun blog, but I'm putting it here to continue the post from yesterday.

On page 306, we read an account of a home invasion. In it, the criminal locates the home owner's handgun and holds he and his family at gunpoint before finally releasing them. Mr. de Becker writes (emphasis mine):

"The intruder not only left, but he left the CD player. He did the family another favor too: he took the gun, which now won't be available to some more dangerous invader in the future (Bill is not replacing it)."

I see a few problems with this statement. Without knowing any details other than those given by the author, I think Bill (the home owner) should have had the gun in a location more accessible to him and less accessible to the criminal. Secondly, how was the theft of Bill's gun doing him a favor? Any time someone breaks into my home and attempts to take my property (or potentially worse), I don't consider it a favor. Additionally, if that gun is subsequently used in a crime and traced back to Bill, I don't think he'll be sending the burglar a "Thank You" card. How is it better to have that gun owned by a criminal (someone who would invade a home and attempt to steal property) than by a law-abiding citizen? And where is the guarantee that this gun will not be sold or given to "some more dangerous invader"? Or that the initial invader may not become more dangerous or emboldened upon acquiring a firearm?

More examples to come!

Thursday Thoughts 6-11-09

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts yesterday: Practical Defense by Alex Haddox. The topic of the episode I was listening to was "Terrorism Survival", and he gave some tips that may increase your odds in the unlikely event you're ever present during a terrorist attack (or any "active shooter" situation). Mr. Haddox stressed that odds are, you and I will not find ourselves in that situation. The statement that follows is probably not original to him, but when I heard it, it summed up why I began training in the martial arts in the first place:

"It's better to have knowledge and not need it, than to need the knowledge and not have it."

My shorthand answer to people who regularly question my motivation for self-defense training has become "Just in case." I could go into statistics, or examples of when I've needed (or very easily could have needed) self-defense skills, and I will if they're interested. But for me, it all boils down to Mr. Haddox's statement above.

Words of Wisdom from Rener Gracie

I recently picked up the new Gracie Combatives DVD set (by Rener and Ryron Gracie). I'm only on disk 2, but I like it a LOT so far.

Rener said something that pertains to training (in all martial arts, I think) during one of their "reflex development drills" that I really like:

"The goal is not to simulate reality right now by going crazy. The goal is to prepare for reality by going slowly."

When my friends and I are playing around in our Judo/BJJ study groups, we tend to do everything all-out, and seldom slow down to analyze things. I think we're about to slow things down, commit more time to drills and a little less time to randori. "Fast is slow; slow is fast".

Rener and Ryron do a fantastic job of breaking things down into their simplest components. Maybe I'll do a full review of this set once I've seen it all. For now, let me just say this: As a newbie, I cannot recommend this DVD set highly enough, and it's a GREAT value at around $120 bucks.

Thursday Thought 6-4-09

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take"

~ Wayne Gretzky

~ Michael Scott

~ Todd

((Regular viewers of The Office will get this))

Judo 5-23-09

I am slowly getting back into the swing of things at the dojo. I think my mind is still muddled or atrophied from my recent time off.

Today we played our footsweep drill, moving from a deashi sweep into other throws. After that we did some very light randori, practicing going from a failed deashi into any other throw. During the course of that, Pat taught me ashi garuma, hiza garuma's evil twin from the mirror universe. I really like ashi garuma. Pat tweaked my foot placement on hiza and ashi - I was stepping too far outside of uke's line of weakness to pull off the throws. They're working much better now, I think, and I can't wait to try these on my nephews. We also worked on a counter to deashi, tsubame gaeshi.

We worked on what to do if we end up sweeping too far with deashi, and helping uke instead of throwing him. I've got to learn to recognize when my sweep isn't working, and taking that as my cue to switch from "doing" to "feeling"... letting go of it if it's not working. My tendency is to hang on to what I was planning to do for dear life. I've got to lose that mental hitch. It reminded me of my first time trying to water ski. Pretty soon after being pulled up out of the water onto the skis, I fell forward, but my mind was determined to salvage an unsalvagable situation. For what seemed like a long time, I couldn't let go of the handle. I was being pulled along by the boat head first, swallowing way more of the river than I should have. It took a while for me to finally figure out I could simply let go and the trauma would end. So if my sweep fails, I need to just go with it. Let it go - it's not accumulating interest, and I don't have to try to catch up to it. I should heed one of Jack Handy's "Deep Thoughts":

"If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let 'em go, because man, they're gone."

We looked at "hooking" from the hamstring during different sweeps. The timing is tricky for me - I kept trying to hook too early, but I need to wait until the instant before uke's foot settles back down. Again, being a "feeler" is important here. Developing that sensitivity is going to be key. I also need to learn to reference my own feet better when I'm in synch with uke.

On days like today, I have trouble deciding whether I suck more at groundwork or standing, hah! Slightly frustrating, but more than that, it's exciting to see what I'll be able to do one day.

Thursday Thoughts 5-21-09

"The belt only covers 2 inches of your ass, the rest is up to you."

~Royce Gracie, on belt rank

Tsukuri

I don't consider myself a great husband. Let me go ahead and say that first. Utterly devoted and loving? Yes, absolutely, but I feel I have a lot of room for improvement, as I do in many areas. So this post is not meant in any way as a peal of my own trumpet. I hope this isn't too much of a ramble, and that it makes some sort of sense. It's just an attempt to A) explain what's been tumbling through my head, and B) get back into the habit of blogging!

My wife and I were having a discussion this morning about our one-year-old's sleeping habits, and what we're going to do about them. At some point, my much better half said "We're just going to have to (whatever was said), and you're going to have to deal with it." Now, I should also point out that her tone and attitude were NOT what they may sound like from what I just typed. My wife is as sweet and un-bossy as can be. But as I considered her words (knowing she didn't mean them that way), I thought of how careful we should be in our communication. Sometimes we get used to certain tones-of-voice, knowing that the people we're around most "get" us, and understand what we mean and what we don't mean. Since we're used to it, it can carry over into our conversations in the workplace, or among strangers. I think it's important to be aware of how things might come across to others, who might not know our natures or idiosyncrasies.

So I carefully and good-naturedly brought it up: "Maybe when we're discussing things like this, we can approach it more from a 'team' mindset rather than one of us laying down the law and expecting the other to fall in line..."

Now, I'm not one to say Aikido fills and informs every part of my life, but I can't deny that the things we practice and think about have an influence over other, unrelated areas. When my sweetheart was telling me later "I appreciate how diplomatic you are when we have a disagreement, instead of just striking back", I thought "Is that indicative of an aiki-tude?" I'm a peaceable guy by nature anyway... but I wondered if things like this are an example of "Verbal Aikido", specifically, the "fitting" aspect (tsukuri). My response drew attention to the "togetherness" of our relationship rather than focusing on the differences (force-meets-force) of our opinions/methods.

My point is only that I should try to consider the "fitting" aspects of my interactions with others as much as I can. Both in how I express myself (in the case of my wife's statement) and in how I respond to the way others express themselves. I'm not speaking of political correctness (at all), but a mindset analogous to the tactile sensitivity we strive for with our training partners and attackers in Aikido.

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone."

~ The Apostle Paul, to the Christians in Rome

Romans 12:18

Thursday Thoughts, 3/26/09

"It is essential to make your natural bearing the bearing you use in martial arts, and the bearing you use in martial arts your natural bearing."

- Kenji Tomiki

I've been doing better at this lately. A couple of examples: Our dojo's "theme of the month" for February was "posture". Some ideas from that have really stuck with me, particularly imagining a line to a balloon pulling up from the top of my head coupled with a line from my center drawing me down like the keel of a boat. I've begun using this idea as I walk anywhere, and I find it helps me feel more alert...more prepared...and like I have a more confident bearing (which may in turn reduce my chances of becoming a target). I've also noticed motions from tegatana no kata bleeding over into my day-to-day habits. For example, we have a narrow hallway at work, and now when I pass someone in it, I find I unconsciously do the "goblet step" (the 3rd motion) in tegatana, just as my coworker breaks ma-ai.

Thursday Thoughts, 3/19/09

" -do without -jutsu is pointless. "

~Yasutsune Itosu