Search for the Difficult - If Monkey Do, Anyone Can Do

This past Saturday, I was teaching two students their first weapons kata.  They were learning the beginning basic moves of Chizi kun.  As many new students do, they kept asking about the movements as we went.  I started out showing some of the bunkai initially, before I finally told them to learn a little before I spoon feed you everything.  This is typical of students and just human nature.  You want to know why.  Heck, I most always want to know why when I’m learning anything.  The techniques I showed were primarily grappling.  There are strikes in this kata, but there are a lot of grappling moves.  Usually, you are grabbing the opponent and then striking.  We discussed this and a lot of the things Taika had taught us (Tony was there as well). After class was over, Tony ran off to another dojo where he had been hired to teach the owner’s son Shodo (Japanese Calligraphy).  When he gets to this dojo, he finds a group of long lost Ryukyu Kempos teaching a Tanbo seminar and for some strange reason one lonely student working on Chizi kun.  He listens and watches as they swing with wild flourishes and talk about both of these weapons as striking weapons.  Absolutely no mention of grappling is covered.  Of course he wasn’t there for their whole seminar, or we’d have probably had to talk him down off a watch tower or something.  After Tony told this to me, I decided to do some net and specifically Youtube.com searching for both weapons.  I was amazed when almost all I could find for these weapons was striking.  Taika showed lots of grappling with both weapons over the years and I spent the last five years or so of his life working on Tanbo kata fixups, bridges and new kata that were primarily grappling in nature.  Taika would always say that, just striking with a weapon is easy.  “Easy, monkey can do.”  I spent months on hand changes.  There was lots of laughter on his side of the basement, and lots of frustration on mine.  I learned a lot and learned to look at the weapons from a different perspective.  Everything he had me do was so different from the original ways I learned these weapons, and the old versions on decades old VHS tapes. Taika loved to lock somebody up, and contort their body.  When you watch old videos of him, he was like a puppet master.  Sure, he’d sometimes do the open hand neck strike for demos, but he frequently would grab a weapon where he didn’t just strike somebody with a stick.  He would wrap them up, make their body contort and usually their vocal cords scream. I guess the point I’m trying to get across is, when you are performing your kata and everything feels easy, it is probably time to ask yourself, “What hard bits am I missing?” Don’t be a monkey, they throw poo.

Copyrights - They don't go poof at death.

I won't make this long, as my teaching bud Tony found the below link blogged that says it better than I ever could.

http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html

Suffice to say, that anything Taika published is STILL copyrighted.  It doesn't matter if he had an official 'Certificate of Copyright Registration from the US Copyright Office or another governing body.  The government web site states quite plainly that just publishing something, such as this blog, automatically gives it a copyright.  You don't need a piece of paper or certificate from a government entity.  They do provide the service as a) they make money from it, and b) it makes things a little quicker when a civil suit is filed.  BUT IT IS NOT REQUIRED.

As I am scanning tens of thousands of historical documents for the Oyata family, I have run across several of these.  The one below is for Taika's first published book on Tuite, Tuite: Basic Techniques Nahanchi 1, 2, and 3.  People who are ignorant of the law have started posting his old videos (I have those certificates as well) and his written works online.  Copyrights do not go invalid just because the author dies.  They are valid for 70 years after the LAST author dies.  Non-Believers Click Here.   Note: That is the US governments web site.  If the copyright was published by Taika Seiyu Oyata AND Oyata Enterprises guess what, Oyata Enterprises still exists.  So that 70 year clock starts after the business, still run by the Oyata family, calls it quits and dissolves the organization.  You think Coca-Cola would not come after you for using some of their copyrighted (or trademarked - another story) works?  That company was formed in 1886.  You think the founder is still alive?

Why is this coming up?  Well, people are ignorant of the laws.  That is not saying they are stupid.  But ignorant in real life can get you hurt, injured and in the civil world, sued.  So please, try some of the links and educate yourself.  I have been sent a lot of links to copyrighted material lately, and one such site was a blog with the above book on it.  This gentlemen, was quite ignorant on the laws but has now taken down the above book before any litigation followed.  Looking around his site and others though, I see throughout the web a rash of copyright infringements.  Thousands of people online feel it is no big deal to scan a book, an article, a magazine and other publications and put them online.  Even magazines that are 'no longer in business' most likely have an owner somewhere that has the legal rights to that publication.  Don't risk it.  Get the permission or just refer to it.  The Oyata family has been 'nice' in giving people time to remove these illegal publications and educate themselves.  This strategy has worked so far.  Many of Taika's older works will be republished in upcoming historical releases, so people publishing those works online now are financially hurting the family.  If you publish works that are not yours, you risk a lawsuit that can financially devastate yourself and your family.

Don't Publish Other's Work

Buyer Beware

Danger Will Robinson, Danger.

Today’s rant brought to you by Ego and Résumé.

OK, what am I ranting about now?  Well, it is about all of the people trying to move and ride on Taika’s coattails now that he has passed.  It is truly amazing to me, to see so many people throwing his name around now that he is gone.  Where were they when he was alive?  There seems to be no end to people claiming they were his live in disciple (absolute bogus claim) and his number one this or number one that.  “I am his longest living student.”  “I am his oldest student.”  “I was his first.”  “I was his favorite.”  Might as well add "I was his tallest student" or "I was his shortest."  It holds about as much relevance.  I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

Quite frankly it makes me sick.  Mathematical skills at fudging one’s résumé go back thousands of years, probably back to the first cave man trying to get a job for making wheels.  I love how someone who maybe went to one seminar in 1989 and then didn't train again with him for 4-5 years claims a 1989 start date.  Other people claim that they trained with Taika for X amount of years and yet fail to put on their résumé that they ceased all direct training with the man in the year 2000.  Yet they still claim the 12 subsequent years as if they actually stepped foot in Taika’s dojo during that time.  One such person, would come in Taika’s dojo about once every 3-4 months for a few years until he was banished from the Association and every time he showed the rest of us would be frustrated because we knew that night, Taika wouldn't show us anything ‘special’.  So even if you count the 3-4 visits he had over those few years, he didn't learn anything because Taika didn't trust him.

So when someone’s résumé says they started training with Taika in year 19xx and that they trained till he passed in 2012, be wary.  Did this person just attend 1-3 seminars a year and rarely (if ever) get any face to face time?  Did they start their training at a couple of seminars, then not see the man for 9 years, then train for X years only to disappear due to personal matters?  Did they only show up at a seminar when they wanted to test?  Did they meet him overseas and then quit his association in the 80’s?

All I’m saying is, ask some questions.  Do the math.  Don’t just take someone’s résumé as fact.  A résumé is there for a reason, to get them hired (or at least admired).  A quality company hiring someone does fact checking, and a government entity will do a background check.  Don’t believe everything you see, there are many people out there who have a résumé built on recycled fecal matter.  Instead of looking at those things, look at the person’s ability, their personality.  Even two people that attended the exact same number of seminars over the years, with exact clock hours in training will have different skill levels because we all learn and develop differently.  

Rank doesn't matter.

Arbitrary clocks and calendars don't matter.

Skill and Personality Matter

At least those last two mattered to Taika.

Most of the people with the real Taika clock hours are not out trying to be famous and flinging their résumé around. 

Buyer Beware

The Lost Art of Visualization

In the POST-Taika world we live in, there have been a lot more people coming out of the woodwork and posting videos.  One of the reasons that RyuTe® is not very well known is that Taika had a ban on video uploads on the net whereas all the exiles didn’t have to follow those rules, thus many more people have heard of Ryukyu Kempo than of RyuTe®.  That is kind of sad when you think that Taika used the name Ryukyu Kempo for 15 years after immigrating to the United States (1977 to 1992) and used the name RyuTe® Ren Mei for 20 years before his death.  But as usual, I got sidetracked from the post topic…

In the recent release of all the masters scurrying to fill the void, I am noticing a lot of things when people are posting videos of exercises and techniques I've been exposed to for years……the lack of Visualization.

Visualization: The ability to see not only where your opponent is in relation to the exercise you are performing, but their anatomy, their kinesthetic movements and your changing relations and positions during the exercise.

We all probably have our favorite exercises, and for me that would be the original 1995 Spider Web, as well as the multitude of various add-ons and complete remix that occurred later up to about 2000.  Seeing this exercise and others resurface, particularly on the net over the past two years has brought to light a problem I see with a lot of artist, and for me Spider Web was the exercise that brought this to light in my own study back in 1995. 

Back at Taika’s dojo in 1995 and later at the 1996 Summer Camp at Tall Oaks, I would watch the sessions as everyone learned this exercise and as Taika explained the practical application of it.  We would do each little section and then perform the techniques on a live body.  Regrettably, when we got home most of us didn't have a willing body to abuse, so you did the exercise but not the practical hands on part.  I spent a vast amount of time on this exercise and it is where I first learned to really try and visualize my opponent.  This got my hands, feet, and general body motions refined over time.  It was a great learning experience and still probably the exercise I enjoy and understand the best.

Now what started this rant, was me seeing versions of this starting to surface on the net.  I've seen versions in real life as well, and I’m not saying by any means that I’m perfect, but I think some people need to slow down and look at themselves when they perform an exercise.  Really take the time to analyze yourself.  I’m seeing some wild wacky things now that Taika is gone.  I recently watched a video where the opponent’s arms, of the particular practitioner, would have to be about two feet thick.  I don’t care if this practitioner is visualizing Arnold Schwarzenegger during his peak performance years, his arms are not that thick.  Perhaps this individual was visualizing a space alien and preparing for an invasion.  There was also some amazingly useless hand flourishes and other portions that if done on a real opponent would just simply not work.  Everyone that learned this exercise at any of the seminars back in the 90’s also got the bunkai or practical part with it in various paired exercises.  This is one of the great things about picking Spider Web for learning visualization as opposed to one of the 14 kata in the system.  You actually are 100% sure of all the bunkai because Taika gave it all to us, right up front.  

In training, you should use visualization to understand what you are doing.  Even from the simple steps of visualizing a mirrored opponent in a horse stance and learning to land your ‘middle punch’ exactly where the brachial plexus tie-in is every single time.  You are learning to aim.  Then you can step it up and add your movement to the visualization and then the movement of your imaginary friend.  This is something you should do painfully slow at first.  Slight movements and snail speed.  Imagine what your opponent is doing, and think if that is how you would logically act if you were the opponent.  Include in your visualization them bending over, them falling back or shifting, et cetera.  One great thing that many martial arts styles don’t believe in, is kata.  Kata and exercises (which in reality are just unnamed kata) build up muscle memory and make things instinctual.  If you are going to make things instinctual, it would probably be in your best interest to do the moves correctly.

VISUALIZE!!

I continue to work on this exercise.  I do it fast, I do it slow, and sometimes in between.  But I do it with visualization, always thinking about the positions of my opponent.  I teach it to my students by saying things to lead them to visualization like, the opponent throws his right punch towards your face, you parry and hook his wrist, et cetera.  And most importantly, I check for drift by watching my instructor, Taika Seiyu Oyata, performing the steps and paired techniques on one of my most cherished videos.

Drift

This will probably be my shortest blog ever but I wanted to talk about DRIFT.

Drift: The natural change of a repeated pattern over time.

Drift is something that occurs naturally for a practitioner.  Indeed Taika did it and to a point encouraged it.  He would say, make this yours, make the kata for your body, not mine, and other such similar comments.  If you drifted the wrong way or poorly, you might get a bonk on the head.  No matter how die-hard someone is about traditionalism, I don’t think anyone can rightfully say that there is a single person in this world that does any kata exactly as the originator did the kata.  Each new generation drifts and adapts and I believe this is a good thing (to a point) and believe that this is one of the key things about this style that Taika instilled.  One size doesn’t fit all.

But here is the cautionary tale; Check your drift regularly!

With modern technology, we have cameras and particularly video cameras everywhere.  Any class night there are at least 5 video cameras in the dojo (other than the 4 permanent ones for the online students) that are simply just phones.  It is quite easy to record a video of yourself and periodically check them to make sure you are still doing things correctly or rather, along the same line of intent.  I luckily have a lot of videos recorded of Taika, some by myself and some of other sources.  One of my favorites is Spider Web and I regularly use it to ensure I’m not drifting too far from the original.  I have countless weapons and technique videos I shot while training with Taika that I regularly source to make sure I’m still doing what he wanted me to.  I believe, as he did, that it is ok to take some minor creative adaptions for mainly physical reasons (birth defect, hip dysplasia) but it is also important to check to make sure you are not just remembering it wrong.  When you have about 35 kata and countless exercises in your head, it is quite easy to jumble them at times.  Someone I used to train with knew many more kata than I do, and they quite frequently would get them wrong unless they ‘checked for drift’ with old videos. 

So in short, for a short blog, use technology and record….then check yourself regularly.

Off the Couch

After a class this past Saturday, I sat talking with a yudansha peer who trains with us.  We were talking about all sorts of topics as we typically do after class and I was talking about my practice regimen during my first 6 years, 9 months of Ryukyu Kempo/RyuTe® Ren Mei.  I was saying that I didn’t consider myself naturally adept or anything, but I did train exceedingly.  As the quiet, shy and single guy I was, I spent my free time training.  I didn’t go out to bars much, and facebook wasn’t created yet.  Al Gore certainly hadn’t spent much time in developing his internet tubes yet.  So what was a growing boy to do?

Now it occurred to me during this discussion that my diligence has slacked over the last couple of years.  I would say that a lot of it has to do with grieving.  In addition to Taika, I lost eight other friends and family members during the evil year of 2012.  But some of it is just me juggling so many other things that are not that important.  Some things are, of course (family) but there is fat that I can trim.

So for my students’ enjoyment, here is what I did back in the day (knowing well that most of you are not the single shy geeks I used to be). 

After learning all my techniques for my next test, I would make a spreadsheet in the now defunct First Choice DOS program.  (Ouch, dated myself a bit).  I would then go down to the basement, where I had 50 pennies in a jar.  I would then dump them out and work on individual things, putting the pennies back in the jar after one repetition, sometimes in multiples.  So I’d do 10 outside blocks and use 1 penny and 1 penny for each time I did Naihanchi Shodan or Exercise 1.  I kept a log book and put the dates on the top and worked hard and making sure I did X amount of reps between classes.  Classes were only Tuesday and Thursday at my first Ryukyu Kempo school. 

	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
9th Kyu
Naihanchi Shodan
Exercise 1
Outside Block
Inside Block
Upper Block
Down Block
Double Block
Front Kick
Front Snap Kick
Straight Kick

There really wasn’t anything too magical about this approach, but what it was for me was a motivator.  If there was an empty box on any day (that I wasn’t running a 100+ fever) then I felt ashamed.  You can pretty much blame this tenacity and ‘work ethic’ on my dad who drilled this kind of thing into my head as a child.

As new ranks were reached, I didn’t just make a new sheet with the new requirements, throwing the old one away.  I added them to the list.  I’d break them into categories so I’d have all the kata together, exercises together, hand techniques then leg techniques.  As my list of items grew, it became harder and harder to squeeze in the time.  I’d focus on high reps for the new stuff but still make sure I got some reps in on the older items.  Then came the weapons.  After the first Summer Camp at Tall Oaks I added a weapon, then another here and there.  The list grew. 

This tactic along with other training tools went well on into my early yudansha years.  Then I got sidetracked.  I got married (instant 4 kids).  Got divorced.  Began teaching.  Life got complicated.  I lost track of my list.  I also, have found it difficult to keep up to date on my weapons kata over the years because of my lack of diligence.  I have at least 21 weapons forms that I should know, and a few of them are ‘spotty’.  You know what spotty is, when you start doing the kata and it isn’t second nature.  You stop and go, UH. 

Another tactic I used frequently was when I got home from class, repeating my lessons (kata) just before going to bed.  Then when the alarm went off (setting it for just a mere 5 minutes earlier than normal) I would do that new kata or other item at least once.  To SET the knowledge in my head.

Still more crazy thoughts were previously covered in an earlier blog:

http://tuite-kyusho.blogspot.com/2012/06/subtle-art-of-practice.html

So I find myself once again, typing up a list like I started more than a quarter century ago.  Time to get my mind back in gear, stop grieving, and carry the torch.  Please carry it with me.

Time Machine Not Needed

A Quarter of a Century.  That is a long time for most of us.  For Taika it was just a small portion of his training time.  As we approach the 2 year mark of Taika's death, I hear more and more people talking about returning to the old ways.  There are varying definitions I hear of 'old ways' and I'm not quite sure why people are heading down this path.  I know, some things are 'comfortable' as you grew proficient in them years ago.  I believe that is one reason many people quit Taika's art over the years.  It never got easy because Taika kept evolving. Some things Taika disposed of as he got older were Bogu Kumite and Makiwara.  I've ranted, er blogged, about these in the past so I won't re-rant on those.  I will address other things Taika got away from.  High kicks.  He never, in the last fifteen or more years kicked above his belt and didn't allow us to do so in class.  He felt that the highest point you should be kicking is the hip.  Yes, your opponent may be a lot taller than you, but in that case you should be kicking just above his knee on the inside (Femoral Nerve), the outside (Common Peroneal Nerve), the tendon just below the knee, or the calf (Tibial Nerve).  There are other targets below the waist he commonly struck but never above with the foot and he didn't let us.  He also began taking these out of the kata.  I know his kicks were high back when he was on Okinawa and when he first came here but keep in mind he was teaching mainly Bogu crazed G.I.'s.  The popular part of the art on the island for the servicemen as well as those in the states was the tournament fighting, which had rules about kicking below the belt.  AND remember, that was the 1950's to 1960's.  That is TWO decades or more.  That was not where Taika left his art.  Towards the very end of Kusanku is a spot where many styles, and even us 25 or more years ago, did a double jump kick.  Taika would say, in recent years, "This stupid training!"  In the years before his death he would have us slide the back leg up to meet the front leg, then kick with the right.  He said, this back leg was a hidden step.  It had much better real world value than trying to jump up high in the air.  I for one, will not be returning to the world of nostalgia and jumping up high in the air to kick someone at head height.  Taika always said he would kick a person in the head, only after dropping them to the ground with another technique.  These high kicks he considered stupid and dangerous to the kicker. Videos:  Taika's first known film was a 1968 video filmed during his very short Kansas visit.  A 16mm camera filmed him going through the 12 basic kata and a version of what most of us call Exercise 1.  The last production series of videos was the 14 tape series known as Classic Okinawan Arts, filmed between 1990-1991.  These tapes are now 23 or more years old.  THAT IS THE QUARTER CENTURY I SPEAK OF.  Prior to Tasshi Jim Logue's death, Jim   attempted to get Taika's permission to release the 1968 video on DVD.  Taika didn't want this released while he was alive.  He felt that the 42 year old video was NOT something he wanted people emulating.  Further, he didn't want the then 23 year old Classic Okinawan Arts videos digitized and sold.  Many things had changed in the basic kata forms shown in these videos, and the 'advanced' kata in these videos were nothing like what he was showing as 'timing'.  He did not want people using these videos as his standard as he had evolved past these.  His fear was that people would de-evolve.  His art, unlike many others, was constantly changing.  He constantly evolved and got better.  Though the 23 year old videos and the 45 year old videos are wonderful historical snapshots in time, they are NOT what Taika left us with. A small smattering of things in these videos Taika no longer believed in; ·       Stances o   Horse Stance §  Heels are out, unlike in any of these videos. §  Not as wide now as it was then.  o   Forward Stance §  Heels are out now, unlike in any of the videos. §  Back leg was almost straight, now more flex o   Crossover - The crossover of the feet was with ankle high, now with ankle almost flat on the ground. ·       Head Position o   In Naihanchi Kata, for example, the head turns used to be as far left or right   as possible.  Now, they are just a 1/2-1" in either direction.  Just enough to pick up the extra peripheral view. ·       Chambered Hand o   The hand chambered before a punch does not come completely to your side because it makes the shoulder tight and moves the fist more into the opponent's visual range. ·       Kicks o   No high kicks That was just a few things off the top of my head.  Taika moved on, shouldn't we? When I hear people say things like, "We've got to return to this" or "We need to standardize that" I get nervous.  Taika was always moving forward.  We should not be returning back.  Though the thousands of videos out there are great historical references, we must not go backwards in our training.  We must continue to move forward.  Taika would not want us to go back in time nor stagnate in this one.  If I want to go back in time, I can go back to those that left the association 10, 20, 30 years ago and train with them.  That's not what he wanted.  That's not what I want.  Move along, and stop the stupid training, as Taika would say.

Rank

Rank
[rangk] 
adjective, rank·er, rank·est.
1. having an offensively strong smell or taste: a rank cigar.
2. offensively strong, as a smell or taste.

This is not the rank you're looking for......or is it.  Ok, probably not what you were expecting when you saw the topic heading of RANK on a Life Protection related blog.  This is a homonym for what you were probably thinking, but I believe, the two identically spelled and sounding words are linked when it comes to Life Protection.  I'm going to sound like Yoda here, but rank leads to ego, ego leads to jealousy, and the only important thing left is that no paths from there are good.

One of the things I admired about Taika in the 80's, when he left Ryukyu Kempo behind and forged ahead with his new art, RyuTe® Ren Mei, was that of the belts.  Previously in the style, he'd had the standard kyu rank belts which are a help to large dojo when trying to remember who is supposed to know what techniques.  But at the time he also also had a set of colored belts for yudansha (black belts).  They started out black with various thicknesses of silver stripes, then gold stripes, then the belts turned red with gold stripes.  Taika grew to believe that these belts led to people strutting around at seminars saying, 'Look at me!  I'm more important than you.'  Ego, my theme for the day.  So when he started making his Okinawan hakama, the colored belts went away and then when he made his official RyuTe® uniforms, all black belts wore an integrated belt the same color as the uniform.  The uniforms were white half the year and black the other half.  Tasshi Logue used to joke that he was only a black belt half the year, the other half, white.  I truly believe this was a wonderful first step to get rid of or at least minimize ego.  Also, around this time he began treating everyone as equals.  If you were a true beginner student or a long time black belt, he treated you as equals at a seminar.  This is why he banished these colored belts, and why I find it so interesting that all the banished people have chosen to take up their egos, woops, I mean colored belts, and don them once again. 

When I stated belt removal was a 'First Step' earlier, you may be wondering what would of been the next step.  In my opinion, rank and title deletion would be next. 

By that, I mean that once you get your black belt, you are just a yudansha from then on out.  You don't get a first, second, third, fourth degree black belt.  To maintain your status in an organization you participate.  No participation, no certified status.  This is how most American professions handle things, with continuing education credits.  School teachers, Police Officers, Attorney's and many other professionals have to get continuing credit and participate or they are no longer able to sell themselves in that industry.  So many people spend their time chasing the next belt that they lose site of the real goals; To continually grow, get better, and research with their peers.  Why didn't Taika make that step, well, it was his source of income.  Not that he was greedy, by no means was he.  I am absolutely in no way criticizing him for this, he had to make money in his industry.  He often loaned out money to friends, family, students, and even the homeless.  But running an organization was indeed his job and belts is where you make your money.

Titles:  I have always, even in my current occupation hated titles.  A peeve of mine is people saying, my name is Sergeant so and so.  Well, that is your RANK and then your NAME.  I always answer the phone at work as, "This is Lee, how may I help you."  People will often then ask to talk to the Sergeant.  I say, "That's me."  They seemed shocked that I don't answer the phone as "Sergeant Lee Richards".  I ask my staff to call me by my name.  They seem to respect me and my rank, and just because I don't have them call me Sergeant doesn't mean they have forgotten that I am their boss.  There are people in the arts that demand you call them Renshi, Hanshi or something else.  Most of these don't even understand that a title is a separate document, and not just inherited by their rank certificate.  Most don't have any paperwork to back up their title.  When we were tasked with doing a demo to help convert another dojo to RyuTe® many years ago, the instructor there asked how to introduce us to the his class.  After we told him Lee and Tony, he asked again, what title.  We again said Lee and Tony.  This went round and round for at least five minutes before he gave up. 

Titles do not necessarily warrant respect and respect shouldn't necessarily bring titles.

Loose the Ego.

Makiwara

Makiwara

What it was:

There are so many people out there that that love to talk about 'The Old Ways' of training and two of these ways that drive me nuts are Bogu and Makiwara.  First, for any of my students that might be bored enough to read one of my rants, I guess I should define what a Makiwara is.  In the early years of Karate training, you couldn't just go down to the local sporting goods store and buy a punching bag.  You could however shove a stick or board down into the ground and wrap some rice rope around it.  The board would give or flex as you struck it and the rice rope would be softer than the board.  So this was essentially what they would use to practice punches and kics.

In Taika's early years, he trained on one and actually had some pretty big calluses on his knuckles.  After the war, when servicemen were training over in Okinawa, they still didn't have much in the way of training equipment, and this was cheap.  Years later, when Taika came to the United States, he would have his students train on one.  He would also make them bring a metal coffee can to class filled with their own urine.  Yes, the old remedy of urine being an antiseptic was in play in the dojo and people would make their knuckles bloody then soak them in urine.  Again, old training tips from ancient times.

As Taika got into his 50's, and gained in wisdom, he never trained on Makiwara.  Several discussions in class would come up over the years and he would say that this was, 'Stupid Training'.  He said that the makiwara was a great tool for weeding out the undisciplined, as well as taming those with attitudes.  Much like Punching Bags and Neosporin, there were much better ways in the past few decades to train.  He would talk about how his hands didn't need to be tough to enact any of his Kyusho techniques.  After decades of not hitting makiwara, he was still able to knock any of us unconscious with his fingers, and not a callus on his knuckles.   

  

What it has become: 

In the world of Karate, Martial Arts or whatever name you brand it with, the Makiwara has become a tough guy badge, a rite of passage.  People think that it is cool.  "Hey look at me, I was able to damage myself repeatedly until calluses built up over an already hard and bony surface."  If the two, typical striking knuckles of my fist strike your neck at the correct angle, do you really think they need to be ANY harder than bone?  I suppose if you are breaking boards and cement blocks, then you might enjoy the added protection of thicker skin.  But since boards and blocks don't usually attack innocent karateka, I don't think I'll waste my time training in this nonsense.  So if hardening the surface of a bone (still makes no sense to me no matter how I type it) isn't useful, then the only reason left is ego.  Ego, needs to be left out of the dojo and life in general.  We don't need it in Te and this is just one example of where it rears its ugly head.  Taika had more wisdom and experience in Te than anyone I have ever met, and I think I'll follow his lead, letting the Makiwara go the way of the DoDo.  

Upper Block Training

I actually cringed (Experience an inward shiver of embarrassment or disgust) a little as I typed the title however knew if I typed Upper Forearm Strike 99% of the Protection Art World would have no idea what the heck I was ranting about.  

People know this technique by many names; face, face cover, head, head cover, upper block, high block, et cetra.  All of these tend to make the end use feel that this is a block or a cover and that is not really how Taika used it.  We call them forearm STRIKES to make the student envision them as a little more aggressive rather than the passive 'defense only' image that pops into the head of someone when they hear the word 'block'.  Taika used these in many places over the years, in anything from a defense against a bear hug to a simple forearm strike to the neck.  He showed repeatedly in various exercises which included "single, double, head", that the 'head' motion was just rolling the opponent's arm around to reposition yourself inside or outside of their body. 

ALL of Taika's forearm strikes (single, double, head) have a rotation element of the forearm.  What I mean by the rotation element can best be visualized without pictures by doing the following;

• Place your arm out in front of you palm down

• Rotate your arm until it is palm up

You have just completed the rotation element I was talking about.  So the forearm rotates as the arm in its entirety moves towards its target.  This is a striking multiplier of sorts as you have the normal kinetic energy of the entire arm coming towards its target, plus the forearm is spinning on its axis adding yet more kinetic energy.    All of his forearm related strikes (blocks) have this.  So let me describe what many people call an upper block, once again without the aid of pictures and only focusing on the single arm (though in reality there is a whole lot going on with the other arm).

• Arm comes out at about a 45 degree angle out past your belly button, mostly palm up (almost parallel to the floor), but slanted just a little towards your body because 100% flat would feel all tight and awkward.

• Arm begins rising, and in the last part of its upward rise, rotates out - palm out.

So in that description, the beginning motion is pinky side towards you, and it ends pinky side up and out.  OUT.  Did I mention out.  The forearm, ulnar bone, is rotating forward and up.  

Where my rant comes in two play now are two things I've noticed lately in personal accounts as well as on various facebook postings.  I keep seeing people who are either a) not rotating their forearms to get the extra kinetic bonus points, b) not going forward with the strike, or c) all of the above.

a) Please try this for yourself and you will see just how important it is.  If you do the age old, stereotyped karate chop where you align your ulnar bone to point down (pinky down thumb up for the bone nomenclature impaired), and chop exactly straight down with no twist on the partner of your choice, you probably can get a decent reaction depending on far too many variables to detail here.  BUT, if do the same motion and let the forearm rotate, you will get a significant amount of extra bonus points a kinetic energy arriving into and through your target.  So as you have your hand up before you chop down, have it palm up and then as it is dropping and impacting something fun like your buddy's forearm, it rotates to the point of impact and beyond.  And that is how little people get the great strikes.  Taika I believe was 5'4".  He used every little trick possible to get these strikes to be as effective as possible.

 

b) Abe Lincoln could not do backward Upper Blocks and look cool, so why should you?  Ok, what the heck is Lee talking about now?  Well, I see people doing these strikes and instead of going forward, it is like their arm is frozen at every single joint except the shoulder.  So they let their arm lock into place, and just pivot it on the ball socket type joint of the shoulder, letting it raise up with a forward and then backward arc, that would knock their pretty little top hat off if they were wearing one.  This is a forward moving strike, not a knock my hat off rearward one.

I recently had the misfortune to watch an instructor teaching a series of moves containing the upper block.  Each time he did it, he neither rotated his forearm and just knocked his imaginary hat off.  The really sad part was his original instructor was there as well doing the same patterns and was performing the upper block correctly; out, rotating and forward.

So now the question; How are we getting students in these bad habits?

 Banana Attacks

I think the main thing we are doing is bad formation training and paired dances at their early stage of development.  I have been guilty of the first one myself.  In the past I would have the beginning warm up in class with students in horse stance doing requirements.  Warming up by doing hundreds of blocks, punches, et cetra.  When they would do their Upper Blocks, I would sometimes have a foam stick and to illustrate that they were not high enough, I would drive the foam stick down towards their head.  I've seen people in other styles doing this as well as three step sparing (which we have thankfully have never done) in which the uke steps forward three times with various banana style downward attacks and the tori retreats doing Upper Blocks.  Well, an upper block is a horrible response to a downward move with a knife, bat, banana, rodent, or anything else.  I won't get into proper responses at this point but I think instructors create that problem.

Solution?

First, be a good target.  For the formation upper blocks, I may still walk around with my padded stick now, but what I NOW do is I hold it out in front of the student like it is the opponents neck.  Now when I call off the count they are having to strike forward to hit the neck, pencil neck that it is.  So my students begin visualizing forward motion.  I put it just enough in front of them that they have to go forward with it.  Then when I start to do movement drills, it is forward motion, not retreat that I'm doing.  So I have the stick out of range and they have to shuffle into it.

Second, stop calling them blocks.  If the whole damn world jumped off a cliff would you?  No Mom!  It is a purely mental thing but block has the connotation of, "Oh crap, get me out of here, retreat!!!!!!"   Or maybe just, "Run away, run away!"  Taika would do single, double head or the turtle exercise and that upper block was actually navigating the opponent's arm out and around to switch him from being inside to outside.  He would do a neck strike with it.  He would use it for a bear hug defense.  Yes, these are defensive motions but none of them are running away.  They were motions that exploded forward.  I really believe that changing the name puts a more forceful spin on it and makes the students push harder to defeat rather than retreat.

Of course, you probably have other good ideas so feel free to share them.

Lee