Keeping the Dojo Clean

Helping to keep the dojo clean is an activity that all students should actively pursue regardless of their rank.

Here are some tips:

• Dust mop the floor before class
• Help get out and put away dojo equipment such as focus pads, mirror, sign-in book, etc
• Line up shoes neatly in the dressing room
• Wash the floor after class
  
• Dust 
• Clean mirrors
• Make sure other articles are put back away
• Make sure the bathroom and dressing room are clean
• Take out the trash

Koshi Ideas

When I say "Koshi Ideas" I'm really talking about things that we stress in our Karate to help impart concepts about the way we use our bodies to make power and enable natural movement in our Karate.

If you are a martial artist who does not practice Kishaba Juku shorin ryu, you may think about twisting the hips if I say "Koshi".   But, twisting the hips to produce a powerful technique is only one koshi idea. Really great technique is a product of more than just hip twisting.

Here are some words to describe some of the "koshi ideas" we talk about regularly in class:

• Tuck and Compress
• Connection
• Arches
• Single Hip Twist
• Hanmi
• Multi Hip Twist
• Big Arm Motions
• Big Koshi Motion
• Hikite
• Rising and Dropping Power
• Gyroscopic Koshi
• Circle Point Theory
• Whip
• Bounce into the next technique
• Make power in 2 directions
• Ability to move in any direction
• Make power on one foot
• Natural movement
• Naihanchi Points
• Leaning Body 
• Floating Koshi
• Smaller Koshi Motions

Each of these ideas could be the topic of a separate blog post, so I won't go into the details of them at this time. 

Some of these words or phrases are/were used by my teachers and their teachers.  Some are of my own device. Koshi ideas don't easily translate to written form so many of these words won't make sense to the reader unless they have trained in Kishaba Juku shorin ryu.

Learning to use koshi to make your karate better is a stepwise effort that can be equated to japanese calligraphy.  Beginner koshi is like block printing (Kaisho), intermediate koshi is like semi-cursif style (Gyosho) and advanced koshi is like cursif (artistic/Sosho) style. (See article by George Donahue on fightingarts.com)

Learning to incorporate koshi ideas into our karate is a lifetime endeavor that helps keep our karate ever evolving.

Unfinished Posts

I currently have 19 draft posts!  Some of them are over a year old!  I'm terrible at this blogging thing.

The Blog Posts I want to write this year

There are many...will I get to them?

- beginners karate
- how a bo can teach you empty hand techniques
- keeping the dojo clean
- koshi hojo undo series
- grown up karate vs. kid karate
- teachers vs. masters
- how many kata is enough
- koshi 101
- many more

New Years Day Training 2009

patchny09
Originally uploaded by The Mad Dance Dad.

Every year I try to train on New Year's Day to get the year started off right. We had a training this morning from 9-12 and even though most people went to bed late last night, they still came out to train this morning.

"The Naihanchi 500" was kind of a joke. We really didn't do Naihanchi 500 times, but it did get some people wondering or at least curious!

It was a good training. We started out with some Tai Chi to get the chi flowing and the brains centered for karate practice. Then we did lots of basic cross-deck techniques focusing on hip twisting koshi to get nice and loosened up.

Naihanchi was next, followed by some stick self defense and sparring, followed by regular kata practice and concluding with watching a video of Shinzato Sensei discussing Kata and Calligraphy.

All in all, a great start to the new year!

ps-shirts are available at:

http://www.cafepress.com/KJT.344687070