Karate = ?

Karate 空手, translated directly will be empty hand.
So they were asking, if it is empty hand, why is there still leg?

Well, if you think carefully, Karate only suggest that fighting with empty hand. It just implies one is fighting without weapon. It doesn't suggest that one can fight with ONLY hands. Legs, of course can be used as well!

Well, that is just how i see things.

Today's 一言：Practice kicking as well!

SliperRrRrrryyyyy

Today's training was different than usual. It was not on purpose, but just happen that our training ground was slippery.

With the slippery ground below the foot, i found that i can hardly do anything properly. My punch have no power, my body can't charge in, even when I kick i lost my balance easily. Moving on this slippery floor is certainly a different experience. Wondering do people actually purposely train on this kind of condition. Does training on this kind of floor really helps?

I have no idea. But, it was a different experience for sure.

Today's 一言:Careful!

Just punch

Someone asked me what should he do at home everday?
What should one do everyday for improvement?

I think it depends on how far you want to push yourself to; depends on what you want to achieve.
For me, I just punch every now and then.
When walking, I punch.
When sitting, I punch.
When bored, I punch.

Just a repetition of punching and punching and more punching.
At first, it is just to smoothen the motion. Then to make sure the trajectory is always the same, travelling via the shortest distant. Then to ensure the twisting comes at the very last moment. Then to ensure the precision of the punch, hitting the target. Then to learn to twist the heap. Then to generate the energy from the floor. Then to focus the energy of the punch to a point. Then to punch with the whole body following behind...

Today's 一言: Muscle aching

Fear

"When fighting a person of higher ranking, I can fight more relax. For one, i am not afraid of lose, for two, i know he will take good care of me."
"But when fighting with someone of a lower ranking, it can be very stressful. Losing is a bad choice, and on top of that, need to have full control of all the technique."

Who said that it is unfair for a higher ranking person to fight a lower ranking person?
Stepping into the arena, the two person starts off with a very different mentality. The ranking system nowadays doesn't really seperate people based on their ability. Even if it does so, the ability difference is not as vast as most people think.
And in Karate, although physical ability is important, the mind power is as important as well. With such worry and fear, one can hardly concentrate and bring out the best in his or herself.

Today's 一言:It is ok to lose!

A bit more...

When we are tired, how much further will we push ourselves?

Once i thought that at this age, we will not be able to split. But a person changed my perspective. He was 23 years old when he started Karate. He couldn't do a full split in the beggining. But after stretching for 3 months, everyday 15minutes, now he is able to do a full split.

Some people also do that, but they still can't split till now.

What is the different?
IMO, it is how much further you push yourself each time you train. That slightly more is what makes you to improve. As we drill everyday on our basic, some people sweat terribly, saying here pain there pain; some people said no big deal, didn't sweat, not tiring at all.
Who will imporve?

Today's一言:break the limit

Upgrading

Not me.
But somehow, i felt that during grading, when we do our basic, we will put in more effort. Good for building up strength and speed. If we keep on reflecting ourselves, it is good for our form as well.

Sparred with three person today.
Knuckle hit knuckle is more painful than me hitting the wall. I wonder why...
Generally, i see myself improving in attacking. But at the sametime, my defending becomes weak as well. I wonder why again...
I started to force myself to kick more. Since it is practice anyway. There is not much worry of making a foul or being caught and sweep. But kicking in sparring is somewhat differetn from kicking in Kata, kicking in basic. I wonder and wonder...

Today's 一言:Think later, study for tomorrow's test first...

Saturday training

No matter how tired the eyes may be...
With that sligt will, i brought myself up and push myself to dojo for the Saturday training.

Someone once asked me, is it that if all of us learn under the same Sensei, all of us will be equally strong? Assuming that we practice for the same time, same way...
The answer is still no.
Everyone have their own preference. At the beggining, we learn the same basic alright. But from there onwards, we made slight variation here and there. We show preferance towards different technique and we develope our own fighting style. We have different speed and strength and we try to maximize our strong point and cover our blindspot.

Although that our heart beat at an average of 0.8second... but all of us have slight variation, perhaps 0.85, perhaps 0.75... and during a fight, our heart beat at a different tempo again.

Start off with the basic.
Train together hard with the basic.
Only from there onwards, we start to move own with our very own way.

Today's 一言：We are all different

A good fighter.

His name is Nick.
Quote from him
"A good fighter has a strong mind, and his body is still sharp enough to catch up with the mind."
"Take the easy point, don't let other get your easy point."

Fighting with him is really one kind of an experience. When he comes in, 9 out of 10 times, he will surely get me. The 1 time he didn't get me, some how he will still get me in a few step downwards.
In the fight, I really felt that he was controlling the fight, not me. Although once in a while i might be able to attack, counter back... but somehow, I am intimidated by don't know what.
Mind power?
Perhaps, he has one strong mind.
Also, his intuition is sharp enough, and his body reacts fast enough.

"You need to train with these, else knowing it is just useless."
Yeah, he may be able to teach us all the technique, but unless we practice it, else it will be meaningless to us. True that there are a lot of video clips online which shows some wild, difficult, weird (whatever adjectives that you can think of) movement. But what seeing it and knowing it is not enough. One must continue to practice practice and practice until one really learn the thechnique by heart, by the muscles.

Today's 一言:He is good!

Blocking

"You need to block harder. Your blocks are too soft, like touching."

There are a enough power stored in my muscle, but when fighting, most of them are kept there not released. This is what I felt.
It is true that most of the time when i am fighting, i have the tendancy to touch only. It is true that it is enough to deflect some (or most?) of the punches, but if we add in more power, we can deflect the attack, at the same time throw the opponent off his balance.
The technique need not to be a huge movement, the technique can be as small as it used to be, but i just need to allow my energy to flow, releasing the power that is still in dormancy.

Today's 一言: Fall down 3 times today...

Force?

For the first time, I suddenly realized.

I may be able to punch a heavy punch when I am standing still, when i move in with my form. But as what Albert Senpai had suggested to me, the force of my punch are not focused. The power spread thoughout the knuckle, decreasing its efficiency.
But when I am punching while chasing, the punches were almost powerless at the time of contact with the target.
Is it my problem?
Was it that because i have been training Kata all these while and that is why only when fighting with stances and form, I am able to generate my power? Perhaps that is why whenever we drill the basic, we are still in our form and stance. So in a real fight, we should have some stances if we really wanted to generate some power.

But it brings up a question... what am i training for? For competition? or for real fight?
I wonder. Should i build up this power?

Today's 一言：It is for the training of mind

Calm fight

Training was over. I had changed into half gi and was ready to go back to my room.
But somehow in the Dojo, a fight can be initiated by simply a playful punch.
Fought with Hendra. He had his ankle weight taken off. His kick was obviously faster than usual.
But perhaps because i fought without thinking much, the mind was calm enough to look through his technique. It is true that i can't block all of his attack because of the mere speed, but by dodging and evading, manage to get myself into safety. And towards the end, somehow still able to find an opening and drive in a punch.
It was a nice counter.
At least that was what i felt.

Manage to see his attack clearly,
Manage to fing without blinking,
Manage to react instead of acting.

Today's 一言: FUN!