Leadership

The United States Army Leadership Field Manual states that a military leader of “character and competence acts to achieve excellence.” He must be imbued with the values of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage. He must continually work to develop his mental, physical, and emotional skills to their fullest. He must demonstrate superior interpersonal, conceptual, technical, and tactical skills. He must demonstrate the ability to act via influencing others (through communication, decision-making, and motivation); by planning, executing the plan, and assessing it; and by improving himself by learning from experience. Above all, he must set the tone in preconditioning the will of his subordinates to sacrifice their lives if necessary. The only consistently credible way to do this—if the history of great military leadership is any guide—is to lead from the front as much as possible and share the risk of death with the lowliest foot soldier. Such a philosophy of leadership may underline why the Israeli and American armies are often thought of as the best military organizations today on the small-unit level.

(Above from The Modern Scholar class Command and Control by Prof. Mark R. Polelle.)

Kata Application Evaluation Checklist: Principles

To evaluate a potential kata application, check the items that apply.

1. More than one proper interpretation exists.



2. Every technique should be able to immediately end the fight.



3. Strike to disrupt; disrupt to strike.



4. Nerve strikes are "extra credit".



5. Work with the adrenaline rush, not against it.



6. Techniques must work at full speed and power.



7. Application must work on an "unwilling" partner.



8. Understand why it works.



9. Deception is not real.



10. If you are not there, you cannot get hit.



11. Cross the T to escape.



12. Stances aren't just for kata.



13. Don't forget to breathe.



14. Use both hands.



15. A lock or hold is not a primary fighting technique.
    

Use this checklist to decide if a kata is golden or possibly sub-optimal. A sub-optimal evaluation might indicate that you have not been taught the "real" kata. See also the other two parts of this Checklist; Rules and Other Considerations.

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From The Way of Kata: A Comprehensive Guide for Deciphering Martial Applications by Lawrence A. Kane and Kris Wilder (2005).

Kata Application Evaluation Checklist: Rules

To evaluate a potential kata application, check the items that apply.

1. Do not be deceived by the embusen rule.


2. Advancing techniques simply attack, while retreating techniques imply defense.


3. There is only one enemy at a time.


4. Every movement in kata has martial meaning/significance.


5. A hand returning to chamber usually has something in it.


6. Utilize the shortest distance to your opponent.


7. Control an opponent's head and you control the opponent.


8. There is no "block".


9. Kata demonstrate the proper angles.


10. Touching your own body in kata indicates touching your opponent.


11. Contour the body—strike hard to soft and soft to hard.


12. There is no pause.


Use this checklist to decide if a kata is golden or possibly sub-optimal. A sub-optimal evaluation might indicate that you have not been taught the "real" kata. See also the other two parts of this Checklist; Principles and Other Considerations.

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From The Way of Kata: A Comprehensive Guide for Deciphering Martial Applications by Lawrence A. Kane and Kris Wilder (2005).

Kata Application Evaluation Checklist: Other Considerations

To evaluate a potential kata application, check the items that apply.

1. Consistent with style's strategy.



2. Built on natural physiological reaction.


Use this checklist to decide if a kata is golden or possibly sub-optimal. A sub-optimal evaluation might indicate that you have not been taught the "real" kata. See also the other two parts of this Checklist; Principles and Rules.

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From The Way of Kata: A Comprehensive Guide for Deciphering Martial Applications by Lawrence A. Kane and Kris Wilder (2005).

Permission

From Sensei to Student.

• You have permission to defend yourself.
• You have permission to be rude.
• You have permission to survive, no matter what it takes.
• You have permission to act when the scary man reaches for his belt. You do not need to wait until he draws the weapon or until he points it at your, or until he hurts you. You have permission to beat me, even it I wear a black belt.
• You have permission to become better than the best instructor you ever had.
• You have permission to invent something better than I ever taught you, permission to use it in my class, permission to use it to defeat me, and permission to teach it to your students.
• You have blanket permission to grow and live and survive and fight and run and scream and talk and play and laugh and learn and experiment and sing and dance. You have permission to win, and you have permission to decide what winning is.
• You have permission to act.
• You have permission to be amazing!

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Adapted from Rory Miller's Meditations on Violence: A comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence, 2008.

On Kata - Learn to Move

Excerpt from Rory Miller's Meditations on Violence: A comparison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence, 2008.

To me, it looks like kata is all about hands, shoulders, and hips working together simultaneously with a drop in center of gravity (COG). This is one of the most potent systems of power generation. This is a potent system regardless of whether the action is interpreted as a strike, a lock, or a throw.

The more possibilities you see in anything, the more options you have. Since the actions can be interpreted effectively in so many ways, kata may be more powerful as a training tool if you see none of those (or all of them) than if you decide it is just one of them. As long as the hips, hands, shoulders, and COG work together, there is no difference anyway. Karateka get in their own way when they try to dig into the "deeper secrets" of their movement. Learn to move. Kata is excellent for that. Then reproduce or experience the dynamics of actual conflict and you will see how much really valid technique there is in the old forms.

"Kata is to be done in an air of distrust."—Shuzaku Shitama, 16th dai-shihan of Sosuishitsu-ryu

Indomitable Spirit

Tamashii—Indomitable Spirit

Merriam-Webster definition; incapable of being subdued : unconquerable.

Im my dojo indomitable spirit is much more than a "can do" attidude. More then "Never surrender, never say die." or "Never give up, never surrender! ". It is a commitment to personal excellence and fortitude in everything we do.

Old Japanese saying, Nana-korobi, ya-oki. This means fall down seven times, get up eight.

The concept of One Encounter, One Chance, is part of the Japanese milieu that includes Tamashii. Do it the first time, there is no second place in a duel.

Catch A Punch

If you can catch a baseball you can catch a punch.

—Hanshi Willie Adams

Needle Through Brick (2008)

Needle Through Brick (2008) is a documentary about the struggle for survival of traditional art and culture in the face of a rapidly changing and modernizing world told from the perspective of time-honored Chinese Kung Fu masters.

What becomes of martial arts when the martial needs become subordinate? Martial Arts are part of our culture like painting, sculpture, music and sport; where is the government funding and corporate sponsorship?

I recommend watching this film if you are a student of martial arts. The discussion of internal vs external is particularly worthwhile.

I wasn't very taken by the soundtrack. Didn't notice it while watching the film (I always notice and appreciate film scores, not noticing is NOT a complement in my case.) The samples in iTunes didn't light my fire either.

"We practice until our hand control our mind." "...he is still learning because there is no end in hunting the skill of the art."—Master Tan Kay Teck

Memory Tool?

Now that it is time to continue my training (physical body has recovered 80%) I am going to focus Qigong/Yiquan and the study of history next. To that end, I will study after lunch and then take a nap. Scientific evidence follows, experience will tell. :)

To Learn Better, Sleep On It, a Scientific American podcast, notes follow.

Naps help move new info from short-term memory storage in the hippocampus to long-term storage in the cortex.

...two groups of adults who went through rigorous memory exercises. Then one group took a 90-minute snooze. In follow up tests, the nappers performed even better than their first tries. The nonnappers got worse.

Fighting Tips

The best fighters give a little more then they receive.

• Surprise is speed
• Speed is power
• Thinking is slow
• Slow is weak

Serpent strike is done as an escape from a bear hug, forearm trapped against the attackers chest palm under their chin. Snap the wrist after the strike.

From Mask Market, chapter 15, by Andrew Vachss.

Mahalo Tom Anderson

One more Karate class to go, testing for Ikkyu. After that I will be off the mat for six months.

I plan to train as Mr. Anderson did when he was off the mat. For about a year he was unable to make Vern's classes at Ternion Academy, Santa Clara.

Every day driving to and from work he ran the kata in his head.

I saw a marked improvement in his technique when he returned a year later.

Mr. Anderson went on to become Sensei of Santa Cruz Jujitsu Academy.

No First Strike

There is no first strike in Karate.

What does this mean?

Danzan Ryu no Kihon

Principles of Danzan Ryu Jujitsu

1. Yield to force
2. Do not rely on strength
   
3. Connect
4. Maintain your integrity
   
5. Seek the center
6. Get off the line
7. Lead the mind
8. Break frame
9. Maintain miai
10. To neutralize

Prof. Tom Ball at the 2009 Western Division AJJF Black Belt Seminar in Sacramento California.

My challenge is to understand these fundamentals it everything I do. Each and every technique has all of these principles so where I don't see the kihon I have more to learn from DZR.

Deliberate Practice

I watched a conference presentation, Deliberate Practice in Software Development, at work last week and thought I would blog the key points that I believe pertain to martial arts (and music) training.

Presentation Summary
In the nature vs. nurture debate, researchers have declared nurture the winner. People who excel are the ones who work the hardest; it takes ten+ years of deliberate practice to become an expert. Deliberate practice is not about putting in hours, it’s about working to improve performance. It does not mean doing what you are good at; it means challenging yourself under the guidance of a teacher.

Deliberate Practice—activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.

• The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance. "Individual differences, even among elite performers, are closely related to assessed amounts of deliberate practice. Many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the result of intense practice extended for a minimum of 10 years."
  
• The Rigorous Application of Deliberate Practice Methods in Skills Courses. “The push for action is sometimes powerful…. But unless one has the opportunity to think about what one is doing and to reflect on what went well, what went poorly, and why, the chances for a long-term improvement curve are slight."
  
• What it takes to be great. "Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work."
  

1. Feedback needs to be immediate.
   
2. Identify the skill to be improved.
   
3. A coach is needed to help identify problems and direct the practice.
   
4. Regular and intensive practice.
   
5. Don't do what is easy. Practice the things that are difficult and challenging.
   

Greatness isn't reserved for a preordained few but available to everyone, like the pursuit of happiness, while being restricted to those who put in the work year after year.

Martial Arts for Kids

The best martial arts class for kids are the classes that they go to. If the child does not get to class it doesn't matter what the school's credentials are.

The parent starts the training by committing themselves to the classes. The parent delivers the child at the door several minutes BEFORE the scheduled start time; give the kid a chance to settle down and get ready for training. This shows the child that you respect the Sensei and value what they are teaching your child while showing the child how to be punctual. Stay at the dojo during class (don't treat it like a baby sitting service, your child will know). I recommend a podcasts and audiobooks while you watch the class.

Which school? You, the parent, will be spending several hours a week at this place so don't minimize your due diligence. The correct answer could very well be there isn't a place with classes that matches your schedules at this time.

Parents should ask around and see where their friends are going and also where there friends have stopped going. Ask why.

Parents should first attend/watch a class that their child would be attending. Leave the kids at home for the initial visit so you will not be distracted from your all important task of managing the development of the child. Arrive 15 minutes early and stay a few minutes after the class so you can experience the way the school is run. Your gut will tell you which schools will be good for your child, listen to your gut.

Talk with the chief instructor and the person (teenager?) who will actually be working with your child. Would you feel safe leaving your child is their care for the weekend? What is the instructor teaching? A parent should watch to determine this, do not base the molding of your child's mind on what you read in a brochure or on the web.

After making your choice(s) of potential schools attend a second class with the child. This time observe your child and dialog with them about what is happening.

At 6 years of age the style doesn't make much difference. The instructor is what is important, not the brand name.

Two tips

In Wansu Kata when in the Chinese hidden foot stance be prepared to kick with the hidden leg. In other words, it is not weight barring (not setting up for a hane goshi).

Master Adams says to always watch the back side. To practice this in kata tighten both fist when you punch. Plant both feet in the stance. The full body is prepared not just the single weapon of focus.

The Eightfold Path

Research this website, The Eightfold Path. A home study course in Isshinryu Karate by Shihan Harry G. Smith, a direct student of the Founder of Isshinryu, Grand Master Tatsuo Shimabukuro.

Open vs Closed Stance

I tend to use an "opened" stance because I do jujitsu and use both hands and knees to enter in on an opponent. Last night one of the black belts in Karate spoke about getting a sparring partner to open up their stance so that you have more options to attack.

A closed stance is turning one side toward the partner so that they don't have an open shot to your midline.

Work on ways to use your opponent to open up. As they open the door draft of the energy and attack.

Another black belt suggested I jump to the side and then do my mae gari attacks. This will cause uki to move and limit their options for a second.

Bruce Lee Quotes

"Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless-like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."

"All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns."

"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer."

More quotes at ThinkExist.com.