That previous marathon post started me thinking and I feel compelled to reiterate that last paragraph. It really became a rant. I've turned into yet another angry blogger...! I would like to say to any young person thinking about starting karate, beware of egotistical old men at your chosen club. They are not as good as they believe they are. There is a rare breed however; grand masters who have devoted their entire lives to karate, and descend directly from the Funakoshi or Harada lineage. These are not the people who I am referring to in this blog and I have the utmost respect for them. Although they do happen to be the people who the egotistical old men model themselves on. After changing karate clubs, my training took a far more gritty, streetwise, and athletic theme, steering away from intense technical & philosophical workouts, although this was still present. With this change came new ideas and indeed different types of individuals to train with. It is commonly known that the strength of Shotokai is in it's diversity, and this new club prompted me to start practicing 'my' Shotokai rather than the sensei's. I am after all, far taller and heavier than average, and can use this to my advantage. Having said this, I, along with almost every other karateka in my style, must remember 'soft' karate. Only after years of training, I realised that my size and power can be combined with relaxation rather than brute force to achieve great results. All of the above is fair enough, but it does not hide the fact that in it's element, karate is, believe it or not, an athletic activity. You actually need to be fit. Why do people not understand this!? The brainwashed old men of above feel that they can start karate in their sixties, train for 5-10 years and then think of themselves as 70 year old grand masters. You would not take up football in your sixties and then expect to be able to keep up with the University under 19s squad! Why do you think karate is different!? As you have probably deduced by now, the point is that this is very different from being a genuine 'soft karate' grand master, so to speak. They can perform amazing feats in their seventies, but not without 50+ years of blood, sweat and tears. Exactly how I train presently. It sickens me to see these ridiculous men cruising up the grades, getting praised, etc when they can't even complete the warm up. Some believe they could defend themselves against a thug 50 years younger & faster. I would honestly hate to think what would happen... I'm aware this post has not promoted the idea of older generations taking up new hobbies, or even sports and events for disabled individuals. For this I apologise, but there are separate competitions for disabled people within most sports. This is superb. Once again though, people seem to see karate differently...

During some 'research' earlier today, I stumbled upon a website, or rather a web page, which talked about karate from a very 'true to life' perspective. I was instantly intrigued just by reading the title... The page itself lists ten myths about karate which are generally believed, as the page itself states, either by karate practitioners, or indeed those who only know about karate from films. I can only say that the article brought a smile to my face; it's strangely (and sometimes sadly) true throughout many clubs all over Britain, or at least mostly true... Please follow the link and have a read. I have my own similar opinions:
1) Karate is an ancient art.
This is actually not true as the article states. There are many ideas and oriental teachings, possibly meditation techniques that are indeed thousands of years old, and some of these do relate to the martial arts of today. However Gichin Funakoshi is regarded as the founding father of modern karate; he lived from 1868 to 1957...
2) Karate is good for fitness training
The article denies this, but please believe me when I say karate really is very good for your fitness. I can understand the author's point of view, fitness is a strange phenomenon. It can be subjective, ie. some people can exercise for years and never really improve their fitness. Combine this with the fact that no matter what sports coaches say, fitness is relative to your chosen discipline, in that somebody who plays football will become 'fit for football', but not necessarily karate. There are many different ways to be fit. Remember, I am speaking from the perspective of a young karateka in his early twenties. I have trained since I was seven. If you begin karate in your forties, when your day job involves ridiculous hours in front of a computer screen, then yes, you will likely struggle, as you would in any sport. Training regimes do vary from club to club, but all I can say to those few who have trained for many years and don't see any improvement in fitness, is come train at my club!
3) Bowing and formality is an essential part of karate training
Once again, this is denied to an extent. I am a little indifferent on this matter. Although I agree that you must always respect your practice partner and that traditions should be upheld, I do think sometimes clubs take it so far to the extent that it becomes a form of vanity. There really is nothing wrong however, with a little 'oriental spirit' within your dojo and training sessions...
4) He's a green belt; that means he's advanced/intermediate/beginner
I personally despise the belt system. The varying levels of skill between different practitioners of the same grade is very apparent. There should also, in my opinion, be a strong differentiation between juniors and seniors. Many of the concepts within martial arts are beyond the comprehension of children or younger teenagers. Although this is similar in many sports to an extent, it plays a far greater role for martial arts.
5) Black Belt is a universal standard
'if one organization can get students from beginner to black belt in two years, and another takes ten years, the standards of proficiency of newly-qualified black belts from the two organizations cannot possibly be the same.' Fantastic. I'm glad somebody has finally just come out and said it. I feel it's something that many people are fooled by. Deep down, I think many know it's true but few actually want to believe it. Usually those who got a black belt in under a year!
6) Karate training will eventually come to hurt less
As he correctly states, it won't. Why should it? It's a demanding physical activity.
7) Move number X in kata Y should be a block, not a strike.
Karate is very open to interpretation. That is why there are so many different 'styles' with one actual named style (ie. Shotokai). There is also a school of though that says there is no such thing as a block, everything is offense. It doesn't really matter, whatever works for you...
8) To master karate, one must achieve inner peace and tranquility
The idea of practicing karate to make oneself a better person is true. Sorry to disagree with the piece again. You finish a hard days work and want nothing more than to put your feet up with a beer and watch Deal or No Deal... Well maybe... But you go to training and feel 120% better after... Or you should...
9) No comment
10) There are secret karate techniques known only to the most advanced practitioners
Of course there isn't. But grand masters who have been training for 60+ years do demonstrate the idea of 'soft' karate. They use no muscular strength and believe me, if you randomly decided to pick a fight, you could not get anywhere near them. The problem is, this idea has been misinterpreted. Many clubs have ridiculous old men who train; they have maybe trained for 5-6 years. They maybe have a bad knee or hip. They of course cannot perform athletic feats. To make up for this, they see themselves as 'Mr Miyagi' , as a supposed grand master, who practices soft karate as if there is some divine intervention involved. I have trained with several of these types of individual in the past. I love they way they talk about their training - 'I've reached first dan and now see that it's only the beginning... etc' It's CHRONIC... They are kidding themselves. Nobody believes in soft karate more than me, and there are many martial artists who have devoted their entire lives to karate, and yes, they are now old men who are genius karateka. But that whisky drinking, cigarette smoking, old bloke in your local club with that massive ego likely isn't one of them...

People generally regard a bad leg or any weak area of the body as the worst place to hit someone. Surely it's the best place to hit someone!! I still remember practicing with a particular character from my previous karate club. On one occasion, I tagged or made contact with his weak leg during a foot sparring session. He seemed to complain for the rest of the practice. More experienced karateka (someone who practices karate) find themselves being tagged frequently during sparring regardless of the fact that Shotokai is in theory a non contact style (during training at least). This is mainly because they have to learn to defend themselves against realistic threats, such as would occur in the pub on a Saturday night... However, this 'incident' was not properly handled by my training partner, who was more experienced than myself. If he was on the street and someone took a dislike to him, he couldn't very well tell them not to hit him on his bad leg!! It's this attitude that can ruin practices for many. People tend to think they are better than they really are, (with anything) and shut off the possibility of learning from someone who is less experienced. In theory, an individual who has maybe only been training for 2 weeks, should be able to turn around and tell me if they think that something that I am doing could be improved. In reality, this would sadly never happen and the higher grade would just dismiss the idea...

Due to the fact that combat is and will remain an important theme among many modern titles, it follows that many martial arts styles will be referenced in a number of ways throughout the industry. Naturally, 3D Fighting is the obvious genre to consider, although adventure and RPG games such as Shenmue use martial arts to form a core gameplay element. (in some ways in a more creative sense as the nature of the RPG is to develop the characters' abilities over the course of the game rather than simply using what has been given at the outset). I have always found martial arts depiction in video games an interesting idea. It is of course anything but realistic, although some titles attempt to recreate more realistic combat sequences than others. This is not necessarily a positive or negative with regard to a particular game or series. A totally realistic fight sequence would be over in less than a second!! However, I still believe that there are a lot of individuals out there who do believe martial arts teaches you various moves that could be executed during a bar brawl... They really do play too many video games! Having said that, there are some strange similarities. My main example here is relaxation. Martial arts centres around inner relaxation. With regard to fighting games, you simply cannot input complex command with speed if you are tense. Relaxed, nimble fingers are

I'm just back from the weekend Shotokai course in Wales. It was a fantastic experience, as well as just a chance to get away for the weekend. It all started with an 11 hour drive to the South of Wales, so as you'd expect, by the time we arrived at our accommodation, we were all shattered. Amazing how tiring sitting down is! The next day began with a 2 hour training session on the beach, followed by lunch, and then another practice to conclude. As Glasgow was the guest club, we all took the chance to explore the Gower and do a bit of sightseeing in the latter part of the afternoon. These residential courses always involve a club dinner, which was first class, and also gave everyone the chance to relax and socialise with people from other clubs (Bristol, London). The course concluded on the Sunday with a demanding 7 hour practice, part of which ended up being actually in the sea! The idea behind this was to change the practice environment and effectively put everyone in a situation to which they weren't accustomed. It really is a true test of balance, when you're trying to move and turn with your feet constantly sinking into the sand... The car journey home was made especially tough by practice beforehand, and my contact lenses meant that I had to stay awake for the duration! All in all, I had a great time, and I'll look forward to the next course in April, which is in Loch Lomond, and just that little bit closer to home...

Started training regularly again now that the summer holidays are over. I realise I'm going to have to be careful when I'm talking about martial arts - I know there are a lot of people out there who study styles other than Shotokai which have ideas or more accurately, attitudes I disagree with. I'd better not mention any names... First of all, Shotokai as in the way I have been taught, is a pure oriental art and is not competitive in any way. I like to think of it as the true essence of the martial arts. So very poetic, but it is true. Training sessions involve certain practices that may seem unusual to the inexperienced bystander. It's very hard for me to explain, let alone put into words, but it's all about learning how to relax and focus, not to mention how to follow another person's movements closely. In other words, you can generate a lot of movement and power without using brute muscular force and can read other people to a high degree. This is a very basic description, but I could write about this for days. It's important to remember that the very thing that throws the human's state of mind and body into the most turmoil is a threat to your life, and the martial arts attempt to teach that reaction out of you, so you'll essentially remain calm and focused at all times even when being assaulted. It's a subconscious state and is not something you can actively think about and turn on and off. Of course this is easy to say and nothing is ever simple, but years of practice and a little life experience helps, to say the least. One of the main attractions of Shotokai is it's accessibility. It's open to anybody - you can even practice if you're in a wheelchair, albeit slightly differently. Just to finish, someone once told me that in their style (no names again), you are always trained to defend from one side and attack from the other. Great... So if I decide to pick up the nearest chair and take a swing, what are you going to do? Defend left, counter right? Hmm, yeah...

A considerable segment of my martial arts training involves learning Filipino martial arts along side traditional Shotokai Karate. As with any art, it is an incredibly deep subject to which people have devoted their entire lives to studying, but for the purposes of this post, I'd like to consider a major empty hand (or panantukan) technique known as gunting.
Many people start martial arts for self defence purposes, but I believe that many, even after several years of training, find themselves with little confidence and even little practical ability to defend themselves should they be threatened 'in the street'.
Gunting (a scissor motion) is a technique whereby the practitioner attacks the limb which is attacking them. I see this idea as a general philosophy in the Filipino arts, and it is an extremely effective self defence method. There are of course many variations, but I practice gunting as a painful bicep strike. Hitting the muscle with either a fist or knife-hand while holding my opponents arm in place with my other hand. This may sound awkward and of course everything takes place in a fraction of a second, but it does fall into place during training. I believe holding the arm in place is important. If you have ever hit your thumb with a hammer you'll understand. Compare hitting it in mid air, to hitting it when it is resting on a surface.... exactly.
These techniques are rapid and sharp, they will stun your attacker and put his/her limb out of commission. Naturally, possible throat and eye strikes follow on from gunting. To women especially, I recommend eye strikes, and being close in to your attacker, a traditional old knee to the 'mid-section' of any man... You don't need any strength...!

The practice session last night brought back memories of training in Ayrshire years ago. I was the human punchbag (with pad protection) - although I really don't mind it. It actually teaches you to relax. If you are tense, being hit hard through a pad will still cause damage.
Last night the class lined up in front of me holding the pad against my quad, taking turns to kick it full force. Most of the kicks were strong but my relaxed leg held out, with one exception. A random, average kick that seemed to 'go through' the pad. Maybe I momentarily tensed my leg, I'm not sure but I felt this morning!
When I was practising as a teenager in Ayrshire, I was the biggest guy there, so was always called forward for the sensei to demonstrate how hard you can hit someone with technique rather than brute force. It was always sore through the pad.
Unbelievably, you can feel the force of a strong punch through 12 people! This was part of another demonstration at a course. Thankfully, on this occasion, I wasn't the person with the pad at the front...

Greetings,
This blog will exist in tandem with Gamesecosse, but, as the name suggests, will centre around the martial arts. I'll (hopefully) write interesting posts about many areas within the martial arts, as well as including my thoughts and ideas from my own personal training and experience. However, I'll certainly not neglect my beloved video games with this blog, and intend to reference them via martial arts in numerous ways...