I often hear people talk about sparring—Kumite- and often they identify a range of emotions… for some it’s fun and challenging ( I like to think of it as a physical game of strategy ) but for others it a serious no-go. Some see Kumite as a necessary evil for gradings, but never even an option for them in competition. […]
Possible <rant> I’ve had a lot of questions recently about starting a dojo. For me it is pretty straightforward… I have had a lifetime of positivity from training and this is my time to give something back. So I won’t go over that ground again. However, I do have a habit of setting myself high standards… always have and I […]
I don’t really remember my first Karate class. It was so long ago, I do remember being dragged along more or less against my will. My Dad knew someone who knew someone and we were told we were going. We started in the summer when it was really hot, I remember that, in a community hall with one changing room… […]
So I hear that there is a threat of snow from home… at least that’s they were saying on the radio, in between talking about how perhaps Prince Phillip might have been blinded by the winter sun. They went onto talk about the state of the road, interviewing an advanced driver and someone who was a coach driver at 74, who said he was always in control of his coach… safety of his passengers and all that, mind you he started the interview at 22.30 in the UK, with “good morning” which I have to say didn’t inspire confidence. There was much talk about the Prince and his age, but no one talked about the other driver… Then you put yourself in Okinawa… different story… Yesterday I didn’t run, it was just too wet, I woke at about 5.30 but all I could hear was the rain hitting the balcony, the same balcony where all my karate suits were out to dry. I just about rescued one before it disappeared over the side and into the small space between mine and the building next-door! That would not have been a good news story. The added time in bed was very welcome, we’re getting to the business end of the week and the body is starting to get tight, so I used the time to call home. Higaonna Sensei arrived to the dojo as we were working through kata with various […]
Yesterday was one of those days that I can’t quite get my head around. On the face of it, it shouldn’t have been all that, but wow, by the time I hit the pillow at the end of the day… So I had set this challenge for myself, to make sure that I was getting as much out of every […]
The first few days in Okinawa are always a bit of a blur… if it’s not the actual in ability to walk in a straight line post flight, then it’s the need to sleep at really inconvenient times… like when the sun is up! I tell myself that I’m going to drink gallons of water because aparently that makes a difference, but all in all I arrive at exactly the same place in time and really nothing is any different. First day, I am awake ridiculously early, before the sun and when I say awake, it’s that I’m completely awake. I heard on the grapevine that there was a karate demonstration in the Budokan, Kagami Biraki (thanks James). So rather than train at Higaonna Senseis dojo I had the mind to run to the Karate Kaiken train there and then run to the Budokan. It made sense in my pre-sun up brain. After all I hand Kankles to get rid of! The thing about kankles is that the first few kilometers are pretty awkward, kind of like a hippo trying to do balance beam. Nothing wrong with a hippo, they are just rarely seen doing gymnastics! So I head off, I pass a fire station on my way and the good people keeping Naha safe are out doing their training and looking way more elegant than I whilst at the same time carrying all sorts of heavy equipment and doing […]
So I’ve taken the plunge and gone from a Gopro to an actual camera. I’ve been wanting to do more video editing and creative stuff for a while now but I just never seem to get around to it. I’ve even set myself the task of learning Da Vinci Resolve, which is a free program for video editing. Looked great […]
