Made it back to the dojo today for a group class, instead of the early morning practices with Tennis and Maija -- I'll be back to those next week!
So instead of focusing on sword, I got to be all fu-nerd ADD and do both sword and Jujutsu.
Boy have I got a lot to learn when it comes to the not-punchy side of things. The rudiments of joint control are there, but I've no formal training in how to best manipulate them, or balance. I've a hodgepodge of tai chi, judo mixed in with my karate knowledge ( along with a good helping of anatomical knowledge thanks to my dad .)
That helps in a pinch, and when you have to think on your feet, but there's a fascinating methodology to this. It's not quite about getting a hit in, or kumite ( waa-chah .) It's like a lab where you learn with live subjects the dynamic behavior of the body as a system.
It's neat.
This, got me to thinking that I have got to slow down. It's such a different mindset from the quick movement, and strikes side of the martial arts tracks. It fills in the gaps by being taught in what to me feels like it were being told in Entish.
The sound of a clue landing hard follows.
Right. Slow down, enjoy the techniques for what they are, and remember fact other folks are willing to let you toss them around for your anatomical and martial enlightenment.
So, yeah, good class.
Cheers!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Lies To Children
There is a concept out there which is called lie-to-children, also called Wittgenstein's ladder (thanks Wikipedia!,) which I learned about while looking up information on Discworld characters and concepts. I realize this is an odd thing with which to start a conversation on martial arts, but bear with me.
The concept, in a nutshell, is that sometimes it is easier to simplify, or gloss over a difficult concept while trying to teach a more general one. Once you've gained aptitude, it's time to revisit the concept which was glossed over and move to understand it so one may gain a full picture of what is going on.
I've come to a similar place in my knowledge of martial arts. It is both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. The realization which struck me is that the style which I practice, Goju-Ryu Shorei, is what one may call an orphan style; it is not a school that is recognized by, as far as I know, any of the major karate organizations.
You see, for years I had not looked beyond what I heard, or knew as common knowledge within our dojo: that our style had arrived to Argentina with Seibum Uchima Sensei and that there was a fairly direct line to Choyun Miyagi. Beyond that, I was convinced that the Goju-Ryu which I practice was nearly the same as the sanctioned version of it.
Even searching through readily available and curated lineages in the gojuryu.net archive, I could find very little information save for a page reserved for 'offshoots' of the main style.
While the words of the editors of the site show respect for these various new branches in the ever-evolving world of martial arts, now the words mean something different than when I first read them a few years ago. Now that I am far more aware of our lack of ties to larger organizations, I realized that, we are our own school, a distinct style born of Goju-Ryu.
For a while I felt adrift, as if an intellectual safety net had been cut away. I would have to learn our history anew, with new eyes that recognize the differences in styles, but tempered by a mind that understands they are all a continuation of a constant state of learning.
While I had embraced the idea of not dismissing other martial arts, I did not seek out further experience in the field, believing that I could rely on the history of my style to back me up, as if the past could lend veracity and velocity to my words and strikes. The past can teach me, but it cannot reach out and smack someone in a physical sense.
I still feel adrift, a little lost, but with a renewed interest in the history of Okinawan martial arts (and all martial arts systems in general), the styles which led to it, and the future of it. The refinement of our style as well as the application of bio-mechanical analysis to improve, or at least understand, why some techniques work and others do not. These are all fascinating facets which I'd neglected through my sitting on the laurels of my style's ancestors.
These realizations do not obviate the fact that I have trained both diligently and not over the course of my life, and that I have earned my nidan. I will not wake up tomorrow to find that I have lost what skill I have nor that I have forgotten most of the kata -- the latter took a very concerted effort of not practicing them.
What these realization bring to the fore, though, is that I should not take what I believe I know for granted, that I should examine this knowledge as closely as I would the minute motions in a kata that hide deeper techniques so cleverly right where everyone can see them.
Move quickly.
Sound, and calm mind.
Be light in body
Have a clever mind
Master the basics
-- Gogen Yamaguchi
Time to listen to these words, but not feel so romantic about the past that I forget to look forward to the future I can build.
Definitions:
kata: Literally a set of steps to accomplish something, a ‘form’. In the context of martial arts it is a series of movements that help in illustrating possible usages for the various techniques of a style.
Sources:
Shoreikan Lineage - http://gojuryu.net/articles.php?article_id=68
Five Secrets of Goju Ryu - http://www.goju.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=51
The concept, in a nutshell, is that sometimes it is easier to simplify, or gloss over a difficult concept while trying to teach a more general one. Once you've gained aptitude, it's time to revisit the concept which was glossed over and move to understand it so one may gain a full picture of what is going on.
I've come to a similar place in my knowledge of martial arts. It is both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. The realization which struck me is that the style which I practice, Goju-Ryu Shorei, is what one may call an orphan style; it is not a school that is recognized by, as far as I know, any of the major karate organizations.
You see, for years I had not looked beyond what I heard, or knew as common knowledge within our dojo: that our style had arrived to Argentina with Seibum Uchima Sensei and that there was a fairly direct line to Choyun Miyagi. Beyond that, I was convinced that the Goju-Ryu which I practice was nearly the same as the sanctioned version of it.
Even searching through readily available and curated lineages in the gojuryu.net archive, I could find very little information save for a page reserved for 'offshoots' of the main style.
While the words of the editors of the site show respect for these various new branches in the ever-evolving world of martial arts, now the words mean something different than when I first read them a few years ago. Now that I am far more aware of our lack of ties to larger organizations, I realized that, we are our own school, a distinct style born of Goju-Ryu.
For a while I felt adrift, as if an intellectual safety net had been cut away. I would have to learn our history anew, with new eyes that recognize the differences in styles, but tempered by a mind that understands they are all a continuation of a constant state of learning.
While I had embraced the idea of not dismissing other martial arts, I did not seek out further experience in the field, believing that I could rely on the history of my style to back me up, as if the past could lend veracity and velocity to my words and strikes. The past can teach me, but it cannot reach out and smack someone in a physical sense.
I still feel adrift, a little lost, but with a renewed interest in the history of Okinawan martial arts (and all martial arts systems in general), the styles which led to it, and the future of it. The refinement of our style as well as the application of bio-mechanical analysis to improve, or at least understand, why some techniques work and others do not. These are all fascinating facets which I'd neglected through my sitting on the laurels of my style's ancestors.
These realizations do not obviate the fact that I have trained both diligently and not over the course of my life, and that I have earned my nidan. I will not wake up tomorrow to find that I have lost what skill I have nor that I have forgotten most of the kata -- the latter took a very concerted effort of not practicing them.
What these realization bring to the fore, though, is that I should not take what I believe I know for granted, that I should examine this knowledge as closely as I would the minute motions in a kata that hide deeper techniques so cleverly right where everyone can see them.
Move quickly.
Sound, and calm mind.
Be light in body
Have a clever mind
Master the basics
-- Gogen Yamaguchi
Time to listen to these words, but not feel so romantic about the past that I forget to look forward to the future I can build.
Definitions:
kata: Literally a set of steps to accomplish something, a ‘form’. In the context of martial arts it is a series of movements that help in illustrating possible usages for the various techniques of a style.
Sources:
Shoreikan Lineage - http://gojuryu.net/articles.php?article_id=68
Five Secrets of Goju Ryu - http://www.goju.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=51
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