Category: Karate

So what do we actually do at karate class?

Well, part of it is, of course, the karate training.  We do a few minutes of warm-ups and stretching (some of which I can do well, other bits of which I … don’t), then we go through a standard set of training moves that changes each month.  Then sensei does some further set of exercises, usually changing each session:  different moves, sparring, etc.  The last 15 minutes are taken up with kata practice, usually four or five run-throughs (usually with the black belts going first, then higher colored belts, then us n00bs; the higher belts will run through different katas each time, while on the other end I, as a white belt, get to practice mine over and over).  Finally, we do a stretching/cool-down.

Pretty straightforward, but there’s a also a bunch of Japanese ritual bits that take place at the beginning and end (and even some in the middle that are kind of interesting.  While one could, in theory, teach karate completely divorced of its cultural background, it appears that most dojos including something of the traditions.

While not our dojo, these “Procedures and Formal Rituals” from the JKA Dojo in the Springs matches up pretty well with what we do, including the rituals at the beginning and the end, involving kneeling and bowing and recitation and the like.

Some  might find that an uncomfortable set of traditions, though they are primarily meant to show respect (and thanks) to the sport and its founders, the sensei of the class, and the black-belts (sempei).  The bow to the front of the class is most problematic in some eyes.  In most dojos (i.e., those not set up at rec centers like ours), there’s usually “something” there — a small religious shrine if the dojo has that flavor (Shinto or Buddhist, mostly found in Japan), or (and this is found in most martial arts) what looks like a shrine to the founder of the school or art, or to the dojo’s rules (this is generally secular in nature, though in a Japanese perspective the line can get blurry). 

One interesting bit, at the end of the class, is the recitation of the Dojo Kun, the guilding principles / rules / precepts / creed / motto of the dojo, and the lessons to take out of the dojo into the rest of the world.  Most karate dojos have the same kun (and not all recite it in that fashion), but there are multiple translations.

The Japanese is:

Jinkaku kansei ni tsutomuru koto.
Makato no michi o mamoru koto.
Doryoku no seishin o yashinau koto.
Reigi o omonsuru koto.
Kekki no yu o imashimuru koto.

In the Japanese, each of the lines is prefaced with Hitotsu, “first,” i.e., the rules are all equally important.

This is translated (and recited) in our dojo as:

1. Seek perfection of character.
2. Be faithful.
3. Endeavor.
4. Respect others.
5. Refrain from violent deeds.

Other translations I dug up are:

1. Strive for the perfection of character. / Work to perfect your character / Strive for a good moral character. / Work very hard to perfect or complete human character.
2. Be sincere. / Protect/defend the way of truth. / Have fidelity in seeking a true way. / Keep an honest and sincere way. / Protect the way of honesty and sincerity.
3. Foster the spirit of effort. / Cultivate a spirit of endeavor and perseverance / Put maximum effort into everything you do. / Cultivate a spirit of perseverance, a will for striving. / Nurture the hard working spirit.
4. Honor the principles of etiquette. / Respect the rules of etiquette. / Always act with good manners. / Develop a respectful attitude. / Value or respect etiquette and manners.
5. Guard against impetuous courage. / Refrain from violent and uncontrolled behavior / Develop self-control. / Restrain from physical aggression through spiritual attainment. / Restrain the desire to be aggressive.

They are supposedly derived from 21 rules set forth by Ginchin Funakoshi, who introduced karate to Japan, and who is the founder of the Shotokan school.

Of course, being a ritualistic/liturgical guy like I am, I love this stuff (it also means I probably give it a lot more thought than others do).

Katherine earned her white-yellow belt last night.  For our dojo (the system varies between dojos, even with Shotokan karate or the various organizations folks flock into), that’s 9b kyu, which is still beginner, but not an utter n00b (which is not a traditional karate ranking).

That puts her a half-pip above me, of course, still laboring under a white belt.  Effectively, our dojo only uses the yellow stripe for kids, both as something they can earn (with some effort), and to distinguish between kids who really don’t know nuthin’ (and don’t have the maturity to pick it up quickly) and those who’ve proven they can do the basic moves.  The kata she’ll be working on now is essentially the one I’ve been working on — Heian Shodan — rather than the most basic Taikyoku Shodan, so we can help each other with that.  It also means, I think, that I’ll pull back ahead of Katherine when I test (assuming I pass) at the end of May.  Effectively, she started before me, but she had an extra rank to get through.  We’ll see.

In the meantime, she was Pleased as Punch to get her new belt, and we were very proud of her, up to letting her choose where to go for dinner after and not batting more than an eyelash or two when she chose Chuck E. Cheese (shudder).

Good job, Kitten!

Margie informs me I’ve already used this metaphor, but I’ll use it again:  karate is a lot like golf.  Every simple-looking move involves a dozen different nuances of stance, posture, feet alignment, balance, body position. speed, timing, etc.  Just when you think you have one down, another problem pops up like in a Whack-a-Mole game.

Unlike golf, though, in karate you don’t have the immediate feedback of the ball flying off in some untoward direction.  That’s a mixed blessing (or mixed curse), as what you have instead is either your own awareness of what you’ve done wrong, the gentle suggestions of higher-level belts to help teach you, the not-quite-as-gentle-but-more-informative observations of sensei as to what you need to do differently, or, on occasion, multiple of the above,  (Eventually, in competition, you get another few sorts of feedback, some of them potentially painful).

The up side is that everyone, even the black belts, get coaching and have room for improvement.  Everybody’s imperfect — just some of us are more imperfect than others.  🙂

And, that said, Katherine did her test this evening for her white/yellow belt.  I think she did faboo (it’s caught on video for posterity), and expect it will be rewarded to her on Thursday evening. 

After a karate class when I kept being aware of numerous mistakes (small and large) in my practice moves and my kata, and Sensei specifically corrected me on a couple of occasions (though, as usual, in a positive, encouraging fashion, but, still …), and I discovered that my high roundhouse kicks were perforce more like kicks to the hips than to the head, and I was the only white belt at the class (i.e., low man on the totem pole) … it was nice when oneof the black belts, as we left the rec center, told me that I was coming along nicely.

Now, if only I knew how to hem my gi, which legs are at least 2 inches too long …

Katherine opines, “This is a pretty good day.”

UPDATE: The full photo gallery is here. Yay!

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Katherine practice sparring before the tournament. She got a bronze medal! Woot!

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Well, not really …

So, in case I haven’t mentioned it, Katherine is competing in the Mountain States Regional Karate Tournament on Saturday morning. As a white belt (and at 6), she’ll only be competing against others like herself, and just in doing a kata (no sparring!). She’s really looking forward to it, and we’re really proud of her interest. Sensei seemed pretty pleased, too. 🙂

Results and pix to follow.

Wrapping up my first month of karate, I’m really enjoying it. A few random thoughts/observations:

1. We always start off (and end) with stretching exercises. I’m really surprised by where I’m a lot more limber than I thought (and than some others in the class) — and then those positions where I’m not. Of course, compared to when I see Katherine doing her stretching exercises, I might as well be locked in a body cast.
2. Still a white belt, and likely to be until the next examination that I’m eligible for — June, I think. I have a single kata I’ve been expected to learn so far, Heian Shodan, which is the basic beginners kata . I have the basic moves down — now I need to learn to do them right (a constant challenge for everyone in karate, from the lowliest white belt to the most advanced black). The link to the
   kata makes it sound terribly complicated and mysterious, but most of what we do doesn’t include the Japanese names for the moves, so it’s a lot “simpler.”
3. While the class started this month with only about a dozen people (to be sure, it was also the day of a blizzard), last night we had twenty black and brown belts, plus another half-dozen lower belts.
4. While we do some simple sparring, most of what we do are basic move practices and kata. While watching folks doing kata looks like people doing a very odd dance and doesn’t seem very “martial,” Sensei has been doing a great job of showing how (if there were one or more opponents) the odd moves in the kata actually would be doing something. (More on the “are kata meaningful?” debate here.)
5. Everyone is friendly and encouraging. Sensei is great, and the black belts (and other colored belts) are all helpful in a positive way. That’s nice.
6. I’m actually standing up to an hour of fairly vigorous exercise pretty well for a guy of my advanced years. 🙂 I sometimes end a session a bit sore, but rarely too bad.
7. My gi is still a bit too big, esp. in the cuffs, even after a hot wash/dry. I’m rolling my cuffs up, but I may see if I can get them hemmed. And, no, no pictures yet. 🙂

There’s a regional spring tournament on the 10th that’s actually being held at our rec center. I’ve decided not to compete in the white belt range, but Katherine has decided to do her kata for it. She’s still enjoying it, sticking to it, and really doing well. Which is pretty darned spiffy.

Hmmm … I might have to start a “karate” category here …

No pictures for distribution as yet, but I picked up my gi (karate outfit) last Thursday after class, and wore it for the first time last evening. Yes, I am now committed (and got some nice comments over it and over getting the belt tied more-or-less correctly).

An observation, though: A t-shirt is much lighter (and less heat/sweat-inducing) than a t-shirt with a gi robe over it. This seems obvious, but for some reason escaped me, leaving me very hot and sweaty (well, relatively so). That’s not good, but it’s better to have an undershirt on and not get the gi all sweat-stained, or so is my current thinking.

Biggest other problem is that the pants are just a scosh long (which means they’re significantly long, since they should be definite “high-waters,” by my observation). I may have to ask Margie for a hemming job.

On a positive note, I more or less got the sequence moves down on my first kata, which means all I have to do is do them right. Fortunately, I have a few more months to work on that before testing to get out of my white belt. Still, felt pretty good.

Made it to my (woo-hoo!) second karate class tonight, having cunningly arranged to be out of town on business last week. Rather than a small group of 8, it was more like 22, which made the dance studio it’s done in at the rec center a bit crowded. Still, everyone was friendly to the only white belt there (me), and I still remembered most of my kata from last time, and did halfway decently on the various moves and exercises, so I felt pretty good about it.

If I survive the third class on Thursday, I’ll treat myself to actually buying a gi, rather than doing it in sweats-and-a-t-shirt.

On a parallel note, though I didn’t lose any weight whilst off on my business trip, I actually managed to hold steady at 199, so woot for me!

So last night I took my first karate class.

It’s down at the Lone Tree rec center, and the sensei is the same as the one that Katherine has earlier in the evening (this class is 7-8). Both sensei and everyone in the class was friendly and supportive of the “new guy.” There were six or seven others in the class — if there are more, they were frightened off by the snow and cold. I’m the only white belt — there are three yellows, a green,
two purples, and a black. All men, except the black belt. I was probably the oldest there (aside from sensei).

I didn’t go right in with a gi (karate robe) to begin with. I’m waiting for a few weeks of class to pass. We still need to figure out our family logistics on karate nights– Katherine’s class lets out at 5:35, mine starts at 7, when/where do we do dinner, do I change at home or in the locker room, etc.

Unlike Katherine’s class, it’s not held in the “fishbowl” basketball court, but in a dance studio back behind it. Which makes perfect sense, but it will be a bit more difficult for Katherine to come watch, “so I can tell you what you need to work on.”

Though I’d picked up a lot watching Katherine’s class the past few months, there is, of course, a vast difference between watching and doing. Karate is, in many ways, like golf — about twenty different things you have to remember to do at once, and just when you think you’ve gotten one of them right, another comes to bite you in the ass.

Taking the class was, frankly, a bit daunting. (It would have been more daunting if I’d known I was the only begeinner.) I’ve not taken a fitness/PE class since, well, college (fencing) (unless we’re going to count my years in square dancing), and, well, let’s be honest — the fitness/PE/sports thing is not exactly my forte. But I did — all right. At least I didn’t feel like I’d embarrassed myself when all was said and done. I made many of the right moves, learned most of a kata,
stretched in some ways better than some (and not as good as some others). I wasn’t groaning in pain after the class (I did pop a couple of Advil when I got home).

From an exercise standpoint — it was active (more active than for the kids, it seemed to me), but not exhausting. I worked up a sweat and was breathing heavily at times, and I felt it, but I don’t think this is going to be a “look, I’m losing weight through karate class” kind of thing. Which is fine, because that’s not the main reason I’m doing it. I’m doing it … well, because it’s got sort of a fun panache to it, and because I would like to condition my body and reflexes a bit.

All in all … I plan to go back.

Well, in a couple of weeks, as I have a business trip next week. Bleah.

Katherine continues to enjoy her karate classes (Shotokan – JKA) at the rec center. She’s “re-upped” for another month (January), and gave me permission to join her (in the adult class) in February. Keen.

At right, btw, is Katherine’s sensei (picture from the rec district catalog). I have no idea what his actual name is, but he’s a great guy, and, well, Sensei.