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We at TKRI place a high priority on fitness, proper conditioning and diet as a crucial part of safe training. Our blog often features links to karate-related exercises, conditioning safety tips and up-to-date information from athletic training fields. Just today, I was reminded of some of the soundest advice out there, a simple and holistic 7-day approach that addresses all aspects of building a healthy, strong body. In fact, it carries the Charles Atlas seal of approval:
-Eat nutritious, high protein, and swallow raw eggs.
-Try to build up your shoulders, chest, arms and legs: do pressups, chinups, the snatch, clean n’ jerk, and some dynamic tension, although it’s hard work.
Well, maybe it’s best if I just let the expert himself explain it to you (if you don’t like men with too many muscles, you may want to avoid it):
Take a look at Dr. Furter’s 7 -day program here
(Happy Hallowe’en)
Our own Robert Miller has passed the test for the Corrective Exercise specialist program. 
Congratulations, Bob!
If you haven’t noticed already, we at TKRI love making gear out of an assortment of cheap or found items and copious amounts of Duct Tape. I’ve been perusing How-to-box . com lately and finding some interesting ideas on a variety of topics related to training, and it seems like they share in our love of MacGyvering gear instead of paying absurd prices for it. Today I ran across their feature on how to make your own double end bag out of common items, such as Nerf Balls and ice cream buckets. Having never worked in the Nerf Ball medium, I wonder if it would be possible to add a little weight to their design by slicing the ball open, inserting a balloon or two full of sand, then duct-taping the whole thing together again. Stay tuned…
Read it here
The way our bodies move is the basis of all karate technique. Our training should include methods to correct postural imbalances, which inevitably inhibit movement. Too many older martial artists cripple around from years of abusing their bodies and just “pushing through” the pain. That’s not fighting spirit, it’s just stupid.
Correct alignment, or being “stacked,” is the beginning of efficient body use. We have to learn the feeling of being truly balanced. I used to think having good balance was a technique, like juggling. If only I practiced enough, I would get it. That’s not the case.
Everything about our posture and movement has to do with muscle conditioning. Without using muscle, we would just be a pile of bones on the floor. Our bodies are designed to function a certain way. If muscles are too tight, they can limit our range of motion. Also, we get in the habit of using the wrong muscles for a particular movement, because the right ones aren’t strong enough. The more we move that way, the worse the problem gets. It’s a vicious cycle.
Irregular movement patterns, or “compensations,” are signs of dysfunction. I’ve been working with Bob to correct the problem of my right foot turning out. This occurs primarily because I’m using my hip flexors, instead of glutes and hamstrings to stabilize. So, we begin with SMR (Self-Myofascial Release) using the foam roller and stretching to “turn down” those hip flexors. Then, we do specific exercises to strengthen the “underactive” glutes and hamstrings, like Romanian deadlifts.
My balance has improved, and I feel less strain in my knees and hips. Ironically, as my muscles become more conditioned, I experience fewer “feelings” of muscular strength. When things are working the way they’re supposed to, I’m just moving around fluidly and not really feeling where my power comes from.
Unfortunately, this condition is not permanent. We must continually maintain proper function and work to correct any irregularities that arise. Fighting is tough. If we train realistically at all, our bodies will have to endure a certain amount of punishment. And, we are likely to develop some new bad habits down the road. It’s an ongoing process.
Damn, I thought I had some skills on the double end bag, then I saw this guy. Take a look:
I know what I am going to be working on later today.
Why does anybody do anything? I don’t know. We recently had a conversation about how to “sell” karate to newcomers. I couldn’t come up with a good reason to do karate, instead of some other martial art. I couldn’t even come up with a good reason to practice martial arts in the first place! I’m almost forty, and I’ve never been in a fight. Plus, if my life was really on the line, I’d want a gun.
I think anyone who’s interested in fighting is probably afraid of getting beat up. We don’t talk about it, but that’s the truth. It begins with fear. In a recent documentary film about Mike Tyson’s life, he describes being bullied as a youth and never wanting to be humiliated that way again. He actually begins to cry as he talks about the confidence that came from boxing, saying that he knew nobody was going to f**k with him again.
Of course, nobody’s invincible. After years of trying to learn the secret “death touch” stuff, I’ve accepted that there will always be people who can beat me up. So, what’s next? Well, I want to be healthy and have a hobby I can continue to practice into old age. I like to call it “karate for life,” and Bob is the perfect coach for me.
Most people you meet spend a lot of time trying to convince you how great they are, telling you about all the things they’ve done. Bob doesn’t promote himself. “What you see is what you get,” and he sincerely wants his students to be better than him. Teaching karate is his passion, and he’s good at it.
There’s a whole bunch of martial arts schools that cater to kids by giving out all the colored belts and trophies for doing nothing. To me, that’s just “glorified babysitting.” On the other end of the spectrum are the MMA schools that have become popular recently, emphasizing VERY hard training for fighting in a cage. I’m glad somebody out there is doing that, because we’ve learned a lot about the shortcomings of “traditional” martial arts. But, it’s not for me.
Training with Bob is somewhere in-between. He’s firmly rooted in the “classical” styles of karate, but his approach is extremely practical. He’s very open about not being able to make some of the techniques work the way he learned them. Nowadays, his teaching method is based on ideas that come from an intensive study of fields seemingly unrelated to martial arts, like psychology and teaching. And, he places a great deal of emphasis on making sure our bodies are able to perform the movements without getting hurt.
His pedagogy is unique. I can’t explain exactly what Bob does, because I don’t know enough about the method. But, it’s obvious to me that he has a specific goal in mind with each class. We usually start out with stretches to “turn down” muscles we don’t want to use. Then, we do a few exercises designed to activate and “warm-up” the major muscles needed for whatever technique we’ll be working that day. Bob’s been watching people’s bodies move for so long that he can see dysfunction right away. Sometimes, when it seems like he wasn’t even looking at you, he will tell you about some minor adjustment you can make to get the most out of an exercise.
But, he’s not “hung up” on details. He introduces new skills in a very general way and let’s us work out the details on our own. Then, he builds on top of that experience, gradually, with more specific applications. Nothing is ever “set in stone.” If we do something spontaneously and it feels good, Bob encourages us to explore our own way of fighting. Of course, he makes suggestions and keeps things grounded.
When it comes to analyzing the applications of classical kata, nobody is better than Bob. Sometimes, I can’t believe it. But, the stuff really works…and it’s way cool.
Even if my interest in martial arts began with feelings of insecurity, now it’s just what I do. Bob treats me with respect I haven’t earned and gives me the tools I need to constantly get better. He is my sensei. But, more than that, he’s a true friend. Thanks for always being there, Bob. You’re the best.
I thought I would post this video. I really like the drill. Have a look.
This is a series of basic drills we use at TKRI-MO to enhance student’s ability to move in relation to a threat while simultaneously motivating the importance of “getting inside” when it is strategically useful. The “LARP” stick is just padded PVC.
We do not pretend that this drill is at all sufficient for representing movement in relation to strong “motivated” attackers (either armed or unarmed). This set of drills is designed to begin getting students moving fluidly, and thinking about movement in relation to a threat.
Gradually we edit out less efficacious gestures, identify strategically useful ones, relate those to techniques, and then drill and integrate those techniques into more “realistic” and spirited encounters. This helps to establish for the students a “schema” or context for the techniques.
At TKRI we make a careful distinction between evasion, parrying, and blocking. This drill helps students experience first hand the difference in the metabolic challenges (to the defender) between evading (in which the entire body must move in relation to the attack), parrying (in which some redirection of the attack is allowed while simultaneously moving the intended target), and blocking (which requires one to either forcibly redirect the trajectory of the attack, or stop the momentum of the attack entirely).
Here is the video:
In response to some curious/critical e-mails:
Yes, one of the guys is wearing his old BJJ gi top in these videos. Do not worry we are not going all MMA/BJJ (although there are certainly worse things we could do). It is cold here and has been raining for days. The field we train in is pretty swampy. No one wants to muddy up their nice “whites”, and blue does not show grass stains as badly. The gi top is thick and warm.
Of course I am kind of proud of the guys for getting out there and training in the cold and rain. They train whenever they can, where ever they can, wear what seems appropriate for the conditions, make their own training tools, and they seem to like to hit anything that I explicitly do not tell them not to. They hit pretty hard too. Sort of like a “folk” art I think.
Matt over at the Ikagi blog has posted an interesting interview with Forrest Morgan, author of the book “Living the Martial Way.”
Among the topics that Mr. Morgan addresses, this particular statement caught my attention:
“Would you want the U.S. Army trying to defend the nation with swords and spears? What would you think if the U.S. Navy refused to equip itself with state-of-the-art warships because wooden sailing vessels are more “traditional”? Even the less archaic, non-classical, traditionally-oriented martial arts, such as karate-do, aikido, jujutsu, etc., systems that strive to maintain their customs, training methods, and techniques unchanged from the late 19th or early 20th century, are usually not directly applicable to most 21st century threats without some amount of modification… “
Read the entire interview here.
“I can’t sing and I can’t dance, but I can lick any SOB in the house.”
-Jack Dempsey
Note: this essay grew out of notes for an as yet unfinished review of Jack Dempsey’s 1950 book “Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense” and personal notes that developed over the course of a year of intensive work on punching
What does a black belt know about punching?
I first read about Jack Dempsey in an article written by Brian Kennedy and Elizabeth Guo for Classical Fighting Arts in 2006. The article, entitled “Jack Dempsey, Master of Xingyiquan” focused on a boxing manual written by the 1919 heavy weight world boxing champion. As I began reading the article, I wondered what an old-school Western boxer had to do with an Asian martial art, or karate training in general. I was still in the “karate is superior to boxing because it uses the whole body” phase of thinking that some people go through early on in their training (and some never leave, to their detriment). The book in question, “Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense” (1950) seemed quaint and outdated, right down to the rolled up sleeves and pompadours in the accompanying illustrations. By the end of the article however, my interest was piqued, and suddenly my dichotomous conceptions of boxing and karate began to mutate some. The utter clarity of Dempsey’s cited examples set off a new train of thinking: regardless of styles or arts, punching is punching. Using the fists to damage or knock another person out is a skill that is governed by the same principles, regardless of the art that develops it. To borrow a phrase from Harry Cook, we all practice the “two hands, two feet, one head” style of fighting.
We all practice this style, but the training methods that one chooses to pursue can either develop or detract from making it practical and usable. After reading this article, I began to look objectively at the differences between the way that a boxer trains a punch and the way that karate people- both in general and at my particular dojo- trained punching. Before long, I reflected that boxers, on average, spend far more time than karate people hitting things: stationary targets, heavy bags, focus mitts, reflex bags/balls, and of course, other people (yes, there are exceptions, but I am addressing generalities here). Their learning environment is incredibly rich with varied stimulus (static targets, moving targets, responsive targets, non-responsive targets) and opportunities to apply their skills under varying levels of pressure. Simply put, the best way to get good at hitting things is to hit things. I had earned shodan a year earlier, but I did not feel like I was hitting any harder, faster or better. Despite the fact that the dojo I trained in spent a considerable amount of time on pad work, and a makiwara and heavy bags were present and well-used, it was clear to me that despite hard, frequent training, my own punching ability was not what it needed to be (and this is in no way a disparaging reflection on my teacher- it was a critical look at my own pursuit of the skill).
Robert Miller CPT CES
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