Electricity is on at the Studio

Iain McGilchrist: The divided brain | Video on TED.com

Morning all....I thought Ianin gives a great explanation and many insights into the right/left brain connection...... it's yet another example of the yin/yang model.....and another example of the multiplicity of paradox that we all live within.

I just love learning about our amazing minds/brains ;>) Enjoy!!

Iain McGilchrist: The divided brain | Video on TED.com

Tai Chi class notes Saturday 10/29/11 - Marty

This morning Karen,Wess,Dale and Mike were in class.

      I did the warm ups and standing medation then the 21.Then we  did part 1 three times.

      I worked with Mike on part one fromWhite Crane to the end .

     Dale,Karen and Wess worked on the dance it was a good class.

      Ending with a round with Sifu 

2 Person Work Class Notes 10.26.2011

Small practice (Phil, Bob,Angus)

We warmed up with Guru Riveras locking series.

We spent a lot of time experimenting with the timing of the counters, the direction of the energy in the locks and the counters.

We moved on to kind of a a freestyle joint locking trapping hands, where we brought that same microscope to look at the timing and energy lines. What actually worked well, what didn't. Where were we countering force against force, where were we following and hiding our own lines.

Great practice, time flew by way to fast.

Phil

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." — Aristotle

Modern Arnis Class Notes 10.24.2011

Small class (Marcia, Colleen, Scott, Dave, Phil)

Incorporated forward and backward walking, and side stepping into the regular warm up.

Then we paired up to review sinanwali and redundas.

Moved to redunda staff translation, one person staff, one person canes. forward and reverse. Then both people staff, on doing forward the other reverse.

Worked on pallis pallis translation with staff.

Last 10 minutes reviewed cane forms 1-4 and first line of tai chi cane form.

review 1 & 2 empty hand forms.

-Phil

Adult Karate - Monday, October 24, 2011

I led class with help from Scott. There was lots of energy in the room, so we started out with kicks. We warmed up with crescent kicks, and then the second half of the butterfly kick, so we could string them together after. I thought everyone's kicks looked really good. We did some trapping hands then geared up for sparring. After a couple 3 minute rounds, Scott presented a few drills for us to improve our angle changes. We were running out of time, but decided to end with a round of the kata to cool down.

Youth American Karate Rank Evaluation 10.22.11

Photo by Angus Reid

Group photo from yesterday's Youth American Karate Rank Evaluation

Photo by Yvonne Williams

Promoted to Yellow belt in the front row left to right:
Tristan, Taylor and Tucker

Second row:
Andrew to Green Belt, Yianni to Purple Belt with Honorable Mention Overall, Hanna to Yellow Belt with Honorable Mention Overall, Dylan to Green Belt and Scott to Green Belt with H. M. in Self-Defense

Back row standing:
Sensei Kratz, Dennis Gobiel, Colleen Golrick, Sifu, Teryn Citino and Scott Minor (not pictured is Angus Reid)

I've posted all 6 of the Standing Crane Animal Frolics - I'll label them as such to make it easy to view

crane frolic standing 6

crane frolic standing 5

crane frolic standing 4

Great Youth Karate Rank Evaluation this morning - Excellent showing from the American Karate Black, Brown and Green Belts

Great week of classes this past week.....I'll write more on the Eval. and classes later this week end....

Hope to see you at the Youth Karate Rank Evaluation this morning - 9-noon

crane frolic standing 3

crane frolic standing 2

Crane frolic - standing #1

I've started to teach the Crane Animal Frolics that I learned from Sifu Gallagher in classes this week. It's a set that I've been practicing recently to help re-hab my injured shoulder. I'll post them one at a time starting with the 6 Standing Crane Frolics and then I'll add the 4 Walking Crane Frolics.
(If you go directly to YouTube it seems to load a bit better)

2 Person Work Class Notes 10.19.2011

Dale, Phil, Bob, Angus, Read

Bob, Dale and Read worked on the dance.

Angus and I spent an hour going back and forth with tapi tapi. We then spent a half hour reviewing the unfriendly handshake(right & left), the Guru Rivera locking series and then some trapping with the Rivera Series mixed in.

The time flew by for everyone in the room.

Great practice.

-Phil

Adult Karate 11.17.11 class notes - Dennis

Ron led the karate class.  In attendance were myself, Marcia, Colleen, Scott, Thomas, the twins, and Chelsea.  We started with kata and took turns leading.  After that, Marcia led through basic punches and blocks;  I led some basic kicking drills for balance and conditioning; Thomas led stretching.  We then paired up and did free form self defense.  Finally, we sparred for the remainder of class.

Monday 11.17.11 Adult Karate class notes - Ron

I led the karate class last night. About ten in attendance. We warmed up with the forms then did basics, especially directed to the white belt, then to stretching and slow kicking drills. After a break everyone put sparring gear on for protection during self defense, minus hands/gloves of course. We did quick review on non sparring strikes that are good real fighting techniques...face/eye strike, elbows, low kicks, hammer fist. Did a simple drill on that and then to free style self defense. My main coaching is to encourage people to raise the level of intensity, (with safety), raise the level of reality, (such as not leaving the punch out there when attacking, and pulling or pushing during grabs), responding with multiple strikes, and simplifying our self defense responses. Usually I spend more time discussing the preliminaries to the actual need to use physical response to violence, this class we just went to the actual attack...that also is not so realistic. While I have been, like most of us, in hundreds of self defense/potentially violent situations, only once I have hit anyone full out. We finished with five 2 minute rounds of free sparring, being careful to distinguish that we use only sporting techniques. Everyone was sweating...there was no blood drawn. Ron

The Glenohumural Scapulothoracic Rhythm

I've been meaning to post the correct spelling of the shoulder rhythm I've been talking about recently in classes. As you raise your arms in front of you at shoulder height the lower scapula 'leaks' out to the side and then returns to the original position as the arms descend when they reach shoulder height. To tone (condition) the area pull the elbows back and squeeze the shoulder blades together activating the rhomboid muscle group. 

Judo champion Kayla Harrison talks about the 3 steps to a successful throw

“In judo, there are three major parts to a throw,” Harrison explains. “The first part, the kuzushi, or the off-balance, for ouchi gari is … I’m going to snap my opponent forward. This is going to get him thinking that I’m trying to throw him forward, and in return, he’s going to react by pulling backward.

“The second part of the throw, or the entry — the tsukuri — I’m going to step with my right foot right in between his feet, followed by my left foot stepping right behind that foot. So it’s going to be almost like a T.

---

The third step, for the finish — the kake — I’m going to push his elbow in and my forearm is gonna go right into his body. And as I do this motion, I’m going to hook his leg and make a circular motion.”

Youth Karate rank evaluation on Saturday 10.22.11 - 9:00am until Noon

All active Black and Brown belts are strongly encouraged to be present and participate

Class notes from last week starting Monday 10.10.11 - Sifu

Class attendance was up and down last week.....great help from Colleen, Sensei, Bob, Read, Thomas, Dennis, Marcia, Angus and Ron.

 I had a lot of 'sick' calls last week! I too was recuperating from the cold/virus I started with a week ago Wed. and I'm still dealing with a painful right shoulder injury, so all in all not a great week for me personally. Ginnie also came down with the cold/virus last week...ugh!
This past week I worked with Sensei to put the finishing touches on the upcoming youth rank evaluation. Looks like a good group to test this coming Saturday (10/22) from 9am - noon NOTE: All active American Karate Black and Brown belts are strongly encouraged to participate.
On Wed. night we have a half dozen folks working on acquiring the tai chi solo form...I've been having a heck of a time getting enough Staff help to really teach the class effectively..Thank goodness for Read this past Wed.......Wed. night it THE class to come and assist with students learning the form...if it's at all possible please come and assist.
The Wed. night Arnis class had one student present...David....although I did get some 'can't make it' calls. I gave Dave a private lesson for 40 minutes or so....he is doing great and making progress with his empty hand classical basics. I encouraged him to add 'fluid attacks' to his stick twirling and a circle in his single stick hand changing trying get at the 'follow the weight of his stick' idea.
Huge youth karate classes on Thursday and Saturday with really great help from Colleen, Ron, Sensei and Thomas.
Also had really good turn out for the morning Tai Chi classes....great help there too!!

That's it for this morning

Sifu

new locking sequence June 26, 2011

2 Person Work Class Notes 10.12.2011

Small class (Phil, Bob, Read, Angus)[Luke & Dale called in]

We reviewed Guru Rivera's counter for counter locking series. Once the series was set better in everyone's mind, we had few conversations about countering with retreating, then advancing, vs. just advancing. This brought up conversations on timing and lines among other things which elude my memory at present.

We then carried on from the Monday Arnis class concept using Trapping hands as a base platform and then mixing in the counter for counter series. We looked for the specific locks in the series to apply from the trapping, then countered the locks back and forth a bit, and then transitioned smoothly back into the flow of the trapping.

Read and I also did a little weapons form trading. Read helped me with the beginning of Monkey Staff, and I worked with Read on the beginning of double saber. (Thanks Read)

Great Practice. the hour and half flew by way too fast.

-Phil

Tuesday, October 11th Youth Class Notes

Small class again on Tuesday. Just two students there with Sensei and me. After warm-up, I thought we would try the break fall/pushup exercise again, since it went over well on Saturday. Gianna said she even beat her score from Saturday!

After that, Sensei suggested we get geared up for sparring, and we used the mats as boundaries for our matches. We incorporated some light sweeps and grappling groundwork.

Modern Arnis class notes - Monday 10.10.11 - Marcia

Modern Arnis, 10 Oct 2011-
Small class -Luke, Phil, Colleen and myself. Did some basic warm-ups, sinawalis and redondas. Then concentrated on Guro Rivers's locking series, incorporating it into Trapping Hands while avoiding "force on force". Also reviwed the first three empty-hand antas'.
Marcia :^)

Saturday, October 8th 2011 - Karate Class Notes

I had great help on Saturday from Scott, Thomas, and Jack. In the first class we interspersed the ten with some blocks and punches. I think I let the bar stretching with sidekick drill go on for too long, because energy was low by the end of it. Scott did great helping Forest and Simon with learning the pad holding for thrust kicks which we did next. Some of the more advanced students added in a combo. For the end of class we got out the pads to work on break falls and rolls.

In the second class we added on some triple kicks to the air at the end of the warmup. There was a wide range of belts, so we went through the kata as a group, then broke off into two groups for the next drill. I supervised the smaller students as they did the triple kicks to three padholders. Balance is still a challenge for some, especially when trying to add power to the kicks. Scott and Jack worked with the bigger students and they added in a crescent kick to their combo. We took a short break for stretching and water, and then did a fun conditioning exercise. It used break falls and pushups. We practiced each exercise separately to work on the form. Scott did a great presentation on the proper form of a pushup. The challenge was to see how many sets of one break fall and one pushup you could do in a minute. After a short discussion of variations, we did an optional second round, which most of the students participated in. Very fun class with a good workout. :)

If you want to get somewhere you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up!

Norman Vincent Peale

Martial Arts conditioning should include training for:

Flexibility

Strength

Power 

Speed

Muscular endurance 

Balance 

Cardiovascular fitness

Youth Karate - Tuesday, October 4, 2011

We had a larger Tuesday class than we've had in a while. Keeping with the conditioning theme, we did the ten exercises with the medicine ball. The class was still mainly blue belts, so we were able to get some kata work in. Sensei worked with one of the students who was in the middle of the form, while Jack and I watched the others' forms and then did a drill to work on the catching/pulling into an elbow/cat stance section of the kata.

After a water break, we did a modified "doorway drill" - having our partner push against our retracted middle block position, so when they let go, it would float into the block. The other blocks were a bit tricky to get working correctly with this drill, but the punches worked out well. Sensei noticed that many of the blocks seemed clipped and soft, so we worked on making our blocks more strike-like against pads.

For the end of class, I had one more conditioning exercise I wanted to try with the medicine ball. The idea is to sink into zendashi stance, while turning your body to the supporting leg, then rise up and do a snap kick with the leg that was just extended. It's challenging for the balance with the extra weight on one side, and transitioning from a low stance to a kick. We ended with some stretching.

Another reminder of the positive health effect of slow/deep breathing!

“There are many diseases, illnesses, and
sicknesses that cannot thrive or even survive
in a high oxygen environment.”                      
    – Jonathan Eisen

This is a quote that Sifu Hayward just published in his monthly news letter...Thanks Sifu!!

To reinforceThe Conditioning aspect.

I am really glad to see this post from Sensei/Sifu as I have always been a great believer and practitioner of cross training and what might be considered traditional fitness as a critical adjunct to anyone's martial arts, be it external or internal. I think the MMA craze (or degenerate fighting as Bruce Lee student Jerry Poteet calls it) has turned off some traditional minded martial arts people as much of the success in MMA comes from stamina, conditioning, and strength rather than from good technique. We should not let our opinions about the role of traditional fitness in a "style" we may not like keep us from benefiting from these methods of training ourselves.
I did a lot of traveling earlier in my martial arts training and trained at a number of schools for a week or two at a time all across the US and Canada and one of my pet peeves was a school where the head instructor was too out of shape to lead class and instead stood in front with his arms crossed on top of his belly shouting commands. You know the look, the belt knot has two little one inch tips peeking out from the knot because the belt is a size 5 and the belly is a size 15. I guess I was spoiled (and still am) by the example set by my teacher. There was an extended period of time, when we were on Wells Street when Sensei and I would run, lift weights, and do kata or work on SD or sparring drills 3 - 4 days a week. This was on top of his teaching and my attending a full schedule of classes.
Now I grant you that we were both a bit younger back then (I think this was just after the Civil War), but this type of mixing it up really set the tone for my training even to this day. The internal training has allowed me to continue to train at a very robust and vigorous level and the external, fitness type activities allow me to still have a pretty good degree of credibility training with some strong and fast college kids, some of whom want to see what the old man has got.
I still find that I can challenge myself in many ways physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually by blending the traditional with the non-traditional. My cardio is mainly teaching Aerobic Kickboxing classes. A good CV workout, absolutely, but it also lets me throw upwards of 300-500 basic punches and kicks every week as well as incorporating bag work and some bokken cutting drills and ab work in the mix. I have a super strong 63 year old training partner who has gotten me up to a bench of 275 lbs. (not bad for 57 y.o.) which along with making me feel good (yes, and looking pretty good, I'm vain, so sue me) is critical for maintaining bone density, muscle strength, and RBC production in the marrow.
The nicest thing is that I rarely feel that my training is stale, because I do so many different things. Even adding recreational fitness activities (I also bike and kayak) will help everything else. There is not one thing in your life that will not be positively affected by adding fitness related activity. This is especially true of your martial arts. The best of any art means that it is a living, organic, changing process so don't be averse to trying something new. You won't regret it and you just might find new vigor in the rest of you endeavors.
Thanks Sensei.

"In a lifetime of Martial Arts training, it all comes down to conditioning!"

Sifu Roy

Training theme for October: "Conditioning"

I introduced this months training theme yesterday:  "Conditioning"

A few types of conditioning that come to mind are:

1. General conditioning for good health and longevity - should include stretching, strength training, aerobic training and meditation
(Kata and forms, especially T'ai Chi and Bagua solo practices are world renown for the positive effects they have on  ones overall health.

 2. Skill specific conditioning - Specific exercises that will increase ones ability to perform Martial Arts i.e. stretching in a kick specific posture or stretching or strengthening to counter balance the 'overuse' that can be caused by Martial Arts practices i.e. like strengthening the inner thigh to counter balance the 'over' strengthening of the outer thigh/hip from sport kicking. Every movement/gesture in Martial Arts can have specific conditioning that will contribute to one's performance and skill in that particular gesture/drill/technique. 

3. Conditioning to rehab an injury, treat an illness or recover from surgery - It's very important to seek out injury specific exercises that will contribute to healing injuries or help in the recovery of illness/surgery etc., as they arise.
The idea for an injury is MICE it:
Move (gently)
Ice
Compression
Elevation 

Class notes from Sifu

Good classes this week! Attendance was up and down with at least 1/2 dozen calling in sick. Great help showing up for most classes. Saturday's first Youth Class was small and we had enough Brown and Black belts to go one on one. The second class was larger and we worked on Sparring and Kata.