Saturday, May 25, 2013

"Keep trying"


I love this quotation by Thomas Edison "our greatest weakness is giving up.
The most certain way to success is to try one more time."
Many times when a student asked Sensei Nishiyama question about technique or express difficulty in getting something to work, the answer was “keep trying”.
Sensei Nishiyama was a man of few words (when it come to karate, he loved to talk when socialized), he said just enough to give you direction, but wanted you to find out through training.
We must train than contemplate, repeat but don’t be mechanic, don’t just keep going, reflect on what you do, some of the understanding can only come through repetition, if something does not work, figure out what should be done differently, usually the difference is subtle, and therefore require awareness and openness.
That what “keep trying” means.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Poland Seminar, May 11,12, 2013


Last weekend I was teaching the annual international traditional karate seminar in Dojo Stara Wies, Poland.
I had great time; there is nothing more inspiring than when people have great spirit and genuine quest for knowledge.
There were over 250 participants from Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, England, Lithuania and maybe I forgot some.
We worked on fundamentals such as posture, and stance, body dynamics, timing of technique, and of course Kime and how to make Todome.
Than we worked on Kata Sochin, as a mean to understand the fundamentals and relationships to applications.
Sochin kata has many subtle technical details, but also requires certain feeling and energy projection.
We spend a lot of time working on set up strategies and the subtleties involved.

Stara Wiez Dojo is an inspiring place thanks to the vision of Vodek and collaboration of all Polish karate people.
The Polish people show us what can be done when people work as a team, and it is great to see that everyone who comes to camp aside from being passionate about karate also love to be with each other, like a big karate family.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

The art and magic of karate is in the small details which are derived from principles.


There are many teachers who can teach techniques but only few who can teach the art of karate.
Use the form as a vehicles to understand and digest the principles.
The principles and details derived from them make the magic of karate, make the technique effective and effortless, and applicable to any circumstance.
Follow the form and you will be limited to the form, follow the principles, digest the small details, make them your "body system" and you will be limitless, beyond form, and you will effortlessly be able to apply and adopt the technique to any changing circumstance, any space, with maximum effect.