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SSKC Competition – Sunday 2nd May 2010

Selby Karateka — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:33:00 +0000

SELBY SHOTOKAN KARATE CLUB
Presents the 2010
SSKC Karate Championships - Sunday 2nd May 2010

Barlby High School, York Road, Barlby, Selby YO8 5JP

The aim of the championships is to teach our students about and provide our higher grades with experience in running competitions, so they can officiate in Open championships.

We need the support of every karateka from Haxby,

Selby and York dojo to make the event a success.

There will be up to thirteen events with Cups and medals for each event.

Registration 13.00hrs, Championships start 13.30 hrs prompt!

With the assistance of our sponsors we have set a nominal fee of £5.00 for each karateka, this covers entry into all events that your Sensei will select you for.
Your fee must be paid to you club by 9th April when entries will close, there will be no entries on the day.

Event 1 – Under 9 - Kata – Mixed
Event 2 – Under 12 - Kata – Mixed
Event 3 – Under 17 – Kata – Mixed “The TSB Cup”
Event 4 – Over 16 – Kata – Mixed – Beg to 3rd Kyu “The Lawrence Hannah Cup”
Event 5 – Over 16 – Kata – Mixed – 2nd & 1st Kyu + Under 22 Shodan “The Lawrence Hannah Cup”
Event 6 – Family Kata – (Parent + Child or Child + Child) “The Gough & Kelly Cup”
Event 7 – Under 9 Kumite – “Knee boxing” – Mixed
Event 8 – Under 12 – Kumite – Shobu Ippon – Mixed
Event 9 – Under 17 – Kumite – Shobu Ippon - Mixed “The SSKC Kumite Cup”
Event 10 - Over 16 – Kumite – Shobu Ippon - Male – Beg to 3rd Kyu – Male “The HT Scaffolding Cup”
Event 11 – O16 – Kumite – Shobu Ippon – Femele – 2nd & 1st Kyu + U22 Shodan - “The HT Scaffolding Cup”
Event 12- O16 – Kumite – Shobu Ippon - Male – 2nd & 1st Kyu + U22 Shodan “The Denby Security Cup”
Event 13 - O16 – Kumite – Shobu Ippon - Female – 2nd & 1st Kyu + U22 Shodan (TBC)

The Events will be run on two adjacent areas to the semi finals.

The Over 16 and finals of the junior events will be undertaken on a central area.

The event will conclude with cup and medal presentations and an IJKA Yorkshire 2010 photograph.

All karateka will be expected to stay to the end of the event to support your club. The event will conclude at approx 17.30 hrs.

JKS (GB) Open Nottingham

Open Karate Traning – Change of time

Adrian — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:55:20 +0000

The Open Karate Training to take place next weekend 14th March at Killorglin Sports Complex will start at 11:00 and not 12:00 as previously stated.

Looking forward to seeing you there..

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A tale of two Sensei – (Hazard & Kato)

Selby Karateka — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:59:00 +0000

It was a long weekend for Rebecca and myself, a mix of family and karate.

We travelled down from North Yorkshire to London to stay with Rebecca's great aunt in Enfield on Friday. After a few hours to catch up, an Italian meal and a couple of ends of bowls we were ready to get our heads down for an early start on Saturday morning. (Don't anyone mention the bowls to Rebecca, definitely not good for her image.)

We were visiting Sensei Paul Herbert's dojo at Dartford to train with Hazard Shihan, I had not managed to train there since 2006, but as always there was a warm welcome.

Herbert Sensei and Hazard Shihan were both Kohai of the late Enoeda Shihan. Dave Hazard's first karate session was in 1969 when he walked into Blackfriars dojo, the class was being taught by Enoeda Sensei and he was assisted by Kato Sensei. To learn more of their introduction I suggest you read Dave Hazard's book "Born fighter".

The session was a mix of the three K's, but all required zanshin. We worked on breathing, the correct course of the block to ensure they are effective. Kumite combinations and a short but great session on Jion, both kata for grading and kata with attitude that "would do the business". I related this to Paul Herbert interview in this months Shotokan magazine where he talks about "allowing training to become a little edgy and ugly" (another good read).

After training we travelled to my brothers on the Surrey / Hampshire board for another family evening including some food and wine.

This morning we were up early to travel to Dr Jonathan's dojo in Buckinghamshire to train with Kato Shihan. Guess what the 3 K's again. With a hall 3/4 full of dan grades, Sensei focus was correct Kihon. Sensei has a way to break down a technique and building it up again to deepen the understanding of the class. The session finished with Kata Mekiyo Sandan. I was pleased because I missed out a couple of Weeks ago when Sensei was at our dojo, I was assisting Gullen Shihan with gradings.

I think we had managed to drive 300km south , circumnavigate the whole of the M25 around London, before heading off North back to Yorkshire. We drove straight to the Barlby dojo arriving with 20 minutes to spare before tonights training session.

In the last 10 minutes of training tonight we even got the chance to run through Meikyo Sandan another few times.

Many thanks to Herbert and Lyons Sensei for hosting Hazard and Kato Shiahan "Sensei-Ne-Rei!"and for the opportunity to train in budo forms of Shotokan Karate, "Shihan-Ne-Rei, Osu!"

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Hazard Sensei @ Dartford SKC

If You Don’t Read Rob Redmond’s Blog, You Are Missing Out!

Joseph C. McDaniel — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:24:00 +0000

Okay, some people are funny.

And some have been there, and done that.

And some are smart.

Rob Redmond is one of the above.

I don't always agree with him, although I absolutely, positively subscribe to his belief that the karate kata are databases of self-defense techniques, and in that I am also in agreement with Iain Abernethy.

But I just looked at a blog entry about karate practice entitled "Your Karate Practice is Not Noble".

I agree with him.

I would have violently disagreed thirty or forty years ago, but I may be smarter now. Maybe just lower testosterone levels. But now I agree.

Now, Gichen Funakoshi would have disagreed. He actually, factually, did believe that the practice of karate would improve your character, and Sensei Kano believed the same thing about the practice of judo.

But the practitioners of boxing have since the Victorian Era and before taken the position that boxing would improve character.

And that, I think, is probably not the case, either.

The Unified Field Theory of Shotokan, Wado, Shito and Shorin Karate Kata Bunkai

Joseph C. McDaniel — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 18:36:00 +0000

I have a theory.

It's not original, of course.

But my theory is that the martial arts guys in Okinawa talked to each other. And they slugged it out with each other, and the loser went away after taking lotsa notes.

And when they had a chance, they'd take a quick vacation over to China, find a local master, learn whatever they could, and come back as the new local expert with the magical new secret techniques (which rapidly spread among the local martial arts cognoscenti, because two guys can keep a secret, as long as one of them is dead, you know?).

I have another theory, which I picked up by listening to guys who are smarter than me, like Rob Redmond and Iain Abernethy. That theory is that the kata in all the major styles of karate are actually databases of frequently used techniques for self defense in civilian settings, mostly without weapons.

Now, you may not like the word databases, and you may prefer the word memory aids. I'm pretty easy on this stuff.

Now, here we get to my most scary and controversial theory: I have a theory that all of the major kata taught in all of the major styles of karate encode exactly the same body of techniques.

And it's a substantial body of technique, at that.

If you watch Iain Abernethy's dvds (and I think you'll be missing out if you don't), you'll see that the kata contain, encoded within them, armlocks that look a lot like Aikido techniques, striking techniques (duhhh) and throwing techniques that look like those in bare-knuckle boxing and in judo and in wrestling. And chokes and locks and gouges.

There are, after all, only so many ways to fight seriously with empty hands, and throws, strikes and punches and kicks, and chokes and locks are sort of the only ways to do that. Well, there are bites, but do you really need a kata and a Sensei to teach you to bite? Really?

Of course, there's also that mind control stuff, but that only works above sixth dan, you know?

Back to my theory: I think the various teachers in Okinawa were teaching self defense, not dances or theoretical, philosophical and religious exercises. And not sporting techniques, because the entire body of what they were teaching was ILLEGAL. So they didn't have All-Okinawa Karate Tournaments, you know? So they didn't much need the kata to address sportive applications of karate, since there WEREN'T ANY in Okinawa!

And the reason that the kata look different from one another is that different guys will make different choices as to which techniques work best for them.

The best ordinary-language discussion of this process is probably found in a tiny, short book entitled "Strictly Street Stuff", by a really cool geriatric named Bill Bryant.

If you're not a stuck-up martial arts horse's patootie who believes that his art is the only true way, you'll love that little book. If you ARE a stuck-up martial arts horse's patootie, you'll HATE the book, because there's nothing mysterious or exotic about it. It just talks about defending yourself, and how Bill came to believe what he believes, and how he trains. Period.

That book is entertaining, but my personal hallucination is that the author of that book, Bill Bryant, did EXACTLY what the kata originators in Okinawa and China did: he strung together movements from his favorite self-defense techniques against roundhouse punches, headlocks, tackles, grabs leading to headbutts or knees, attacks with knives and clubs, and that gave him a nifty little exercise he could do on his own, without a partner, to reinforce his muscle memory and make him better able to defend himself after he was smacked without warning and was watching those funny little stars on the nice black background.

My own extra credit project: I have watched most of Iain Abernethy's excellent dvds about bunkai, and if you don't, well, what a doofus you are!

And I am about to receive, from the Dragon-Tsunami website, several application dvds in the "Encyclopedia of Goju Ryu" series.

I'll get them today, I expect, based on the AMAZINGLY good customer service at Dragon-Tsunami (no, I'm not an owner, nor do I get a kickback; but most customer service is so bad, I want to reward the good stuff!).

My expectation is that the bunkai in the various advanced kata in Goju will be AMAZINGLY similar to the bunkai in Wado demonstrated by Iain Abernethy.

Because there are only so many useful ways to defend yourself from a headlock, or a tackle, or a roundhouse punch, or a kick to the enchiladas, or a head-butt attempt, or a grab to the shirt which will be immediately followed by a head-butt, knee to the groin, or throw (note to self: don't let other people grab your shirt very much. Really.).

I will keep you posted on the results of my intellectual exploration, and the status of my theory after I have more data.

But if the bunkai of Wado and the bunkai of Goju are remarkably different (that is, if they don't simply show ordinary, common sense defenses against ordinary, frequently encountered street-type attacks), I might be surprised!

Really. It could happen.

Exercise during pregnancy: Update

Cerin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 09:56:23 +0000

After yesterdays post about exercise during pregnancy, there was a question about what specific reps and sets of resistance should be done.

So here goes…

…I have a short, official, answer and a long, unofficial, answer. Here is the short one:

There are no specific recommendations for sets/reps at present.

What this actually means is that in all the studies done so far, no one has been able to show if one sets/reps range is better/worse/safer/more dangerous than another. So no one is going to say “do this” or “do that”.

So this leads me to my longer, unofficial, answer.

Disclaimer!!!

Please bare in mind that from this point on, I am purely giving my own opinion built from my own understanding of the subject. If anyone out there knows for a fact that I am wrong, please let me know.

The factors I take into account are:

Women should try to maintain their fitness/strength, rather than improve it.
Joints can become “loose” during pregnancy.

With these factor in mind, I suggest that women could do far worse than simply

continuing with their usual sets/reps that they did before pregnancy, but decreasing the intensity as pregnancy develops.

eg – if you usually did 3 sets of 10 reps at 20kg…continue doing 3 sets of 10 reps, but with maybe only 15kg.

But because of the loosening of the joints, I would do exercises that involve both arms/legs simultaneously. eg shoulder press/squats instead of tricep kickbacks or lunges. This way, one limb can help/support the other. My thinking behind this is, if something happens to the joint in one limb, at least there is the other one there to take over/save the day.

This is the same reason you always find 2 pilots in airliners.

Of course, the above advice is fine if you have been doing exercise before you became pregnant (and I hope you have!). But what if you are new to exercise?

If this is the case, my advice would be to go to your local leisure centre and find/join a class for mothers-to-be. 10 minutes of hands on, face to face advice is worth a million web pages!

Good luck and congratulations!!

Exercise during pregnancy.

Exercise during pregnancy.

Cerin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:48:28 +0000

A good friend of mine just got herself pregnant again (congratulations Sarah!). So I thought I would quickly go over some recommendations for her and others in her predicament

So why should women continue their exercise throughout pregnancy? The best reason I can think of is that it makes for an easier, more comfortable 9 months.

Pregnancy

A study in San Fransisco asked 400 women to record their activity levels and various pregnancy related physical discomforts (eg nausea, heartburn, leg cramps). Those who continued their higher levels of exercise reported fewer symptoms than their more sedentary colleagues.

According to the NHS and Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, some other benefits may include:

Help boost your energy levels and immune systems.
Improve strength and stamina to cope with the weight gains during pregnancy (on average, a 2 stone increase in weight).
Reduce constipation, tiredness and circulation problems.
Relieve lower back pain and reduce varicose veins and swelling of the feet and ankles.
Easier to regain pre-pregnacy fitness levels.
Improves your mood and sense of wellbeing.
Reduces risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (diabetes that develops during pregnancy) and hypertension (high blood pressure).

One final reason I like, is that if you can develop/maintain good habits of exercise, your kid is much more likely to learn and copy these from you, improving their chances in life.

Because your body is changing a lot, some potential risks you need to be aware of include:

Overheating – if your core temperature rises above 39 degrees (normal body temp is 37 degrees), there is an increased risk to the baby. So make sure you have plenty of fluids on hand to drink, and avoid saunas/steamrooms etc.
Laying on your back – when you are in this position, the unborn baby can squash some of your important blood vessels. This can lead to your blood pressure reducing and dizzy spells.
Loose joints – be careful not to over extend any of your joints.
Balance – the shift in your centre of gravity can mean your balance is impaired.

Here are some guidelines for exercise during pregnancy:

Goals – Maintain a fit and healthy body (but not to reach peak fitness). Maximise the usual benefits and minimise the usual risks involved with exercise at every other time of your life. Improve your psychological profile (ie put you in a better mood).
Types of aerobic exercise – Low or non impact. eg walking, cycling (be aware of comfort and balance issues), rowing (be aware of comfort issues), swimming (try different strokes for comfort and avoid overly hot pools), aqua classes etc.
Types of resistance exercise – No specific recommendations at present. Just be aware that your joints will loosen during pregnancy, but properly done weight training should avoid problems here.
How often – 2-3 days per week.
For how long – 15-30 minutes per session (maybe longer if you have a good exercise background).
How hard/intense – Low. Make sure you can still hold a conversation while exercising (the “Talk Test”).

References for the above include the:

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

NHS

The Wright Foundation

And don’t forget, if you like anything here, take a look at my other posts and maybe even subscribe using the RSS and email options near the top right of the page!

Exercise during pregnancy: Update

Kato Shihan Feb Course 2010 @ Selby

Selby Karateka — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:41:00 +0000

Above : Kato Shihan Course - February 2010

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Kato Shihan Open Course – Selby – February 2010

Welcome

Selby Karateka — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:48:00 +0000

A big welcome to William, Michael & Joseph, we hope you enjoyed your first session of Shotokan karate last night. It is always a little strange starting a new activity when you don't know anyone. Hopefully you found us a friendly lot. Looking forward to seeing you all next week.

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JKS SCOTLAND NATIONAL COURSE & GRADING MARCH 2010

Rick Steen — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:16 +0000

Japan Karate Shotorenmei Scotland

National Course and Grading

Guest Instructor

Sensei Pat McLuskey 6th Dan TSK

Venue:

Inverkeithing High School

Inverkeithing, Fife

Saturday 27th March 2010

Course and grading form must be returned to

your class instructor by Friday 19th March 2010

Train hard, enjoy the course and good luck.

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