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...