Nik’s 1st Chinese Birthday

September 9th, 2007 at 23:15 · Filed Under At Home, Days in My Life, Dominik, Family · Comment 

We celebrated Nik’s 1st birthday again upon request from granma and his aunt. Actually, we celebrated Nik’s 1st birthday on August 21 before his aunt came back. Today was Nik’s 1st Chinese birthday so we took this opportunity to celebrate again. LA baked a cake for Nik and D got a basketball from their aunt.

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Health restored

September 6th, 2007 at 22:01 · Filed Under Blogging, Days in My Life, Karate, Training Journal · Comment 

Today, my health was completely restored. I taught the afternoon class and the students were doing good Sanchin. They had absorbed most of the corrections but still lack of training at home. I guess it will take sometime for them to change their attitude for training.

After the class, I went home. Took a drink and a rest. In the evening, I trained in the garden. I was expecting losing muscle power and stamina after 7 days of illness and recovering. Surprisingly, I felt as strong and powerful as before. They maintained although I was too sick over the weekend and Monday was the most serious of all in three days. I did not practice or exercise for the last 4 days until today.

I remember that I would lose muscle power and stamina even after two days of sickness and recovering while I previously training modern style karate. This is an interesting subject to study. But I guess I have the answer and I will write it down in my essay.

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Uechi-Ryu Zankai – My Anamnesis – Part 2

September 5th, 2007 at 23:30 · Filed Under Essay, Karate, Philosophy, Training Journal · 2 Comments 

The Betrayal of Advocates

My fourth teacher had done so much disgusting acts to get rid of me. Of course, he succeeded not. He pursued me in exile to any dojo I went, I became stronger and my spirit burning higher in search of truth. None of these had managed to exhaust me nor to make me quit. But the betrayal of the two very close advocates was really hurt. I promised to a very high ranking Shihan to secretly work things out. The two alter ego thought that I might betray them and become the leader. A good strategy which most people would deploy was to act fast. Not knowing the truth behind me and the commitment I had to bestow, not knowing their careless and selfish acts would cut through our friendship, they chose to realign with their master.

As the matter of fact, I had already decided to switch to Zankai after months long of email communication with Seizan Sensei. I was convinced by Seizan Sensei the Zankai philosophy was the simplest I was looking for. The two advocates’ foolish act had accelerated my crossing over to Zankai. A catalyst added just in time and also allowed me to see clear right through their hearts and prevented another possible disaster after “our” crossing over to Zankai later on.

We had been talking about Uechi-Ryu. We discussed about the risks, difficulties and wonderful techniques of Uechi-Ryu every time we met up for tea to discuss issues at hand. This break up had also cleared the path for the future and had also made my way to become more subtle in dealing with people of intentions.

Suddenly, I realized my egoistic (yes! I admitted) and compulsive behavior had been cleverly utilized to excoriate the clone style I was previously in and expatriated from. People who I had once trusted had seen my weaknesses and quickly exploited my smallness. I was recruited immediately into his karate organization and offered big responsibilities and trust. At last, I saw a light when two clowns broke up the door of my dark room, and I could get out of darkness, surrounded by layers after layers of lies.

Today, I am happy I no longer to be a clown, being exploited by the circus master!

I was exhausted by the political differences and power struggling among the karate organization and among the karate-do practitioners themselves. I had asked myself, had I found the true path? The true path which I reckoned seemed to have the same stinky smell of politics and power struggling. Like many other karate organization, this organization which I once regarded as the clean and righteous place originated from the holy land of karate, was infested by people who lied and did not trust a person who whole heartedly to be their true friend, people who were so thirsty of power and control, people who were so naive and ignorant, people with alpha intelligence and low psychometric profile…

After this ugliest experience, I was quite skeptical about the new organization although I had found convincing after many electronics correspondence with Seizan Sensei. Using all the formal reasoning skills I had and a little discussion with my wife, I decided to take a risk to go to Okinawa to immerse in this new organization. I vowed to myself, this would be the last attempt. If this was another rotten organization, I would end my journey in karate.

When I met Seizan Sensei for the first time at the Naha Airport, I was overwhelmed and forgot to bow. He bowed first and I followed. I was stunt! That night, I met his Okinawan wife, Sumako Senpai (godan). We talked over the dinner at Mintama Restaurant and I could sense their warmth and their good nature. I was more convinced that night.

The next morning, when Seizan Sensei corrected my Sanchin and Kanshiwa kata, he talked about some concepts and philosophy which were so different from what I knew of. That night, we went to Zakimi dojo to meet with Toyama Sensei, Judan (10th dan) Hanshi. He was a very “nice” old man at the age of 80 and still stronger than any well-built full-grown adult male. Before I met Toyama Sensei, I thought he was so high in hierarchy and unreachable. In fact, he was so near right in front of my eyes. He was very humble, but strict. He was very kind but sharp. I could sense his good nature as well and I felt rather comfortable asking him a question and listening to his response although I did not know Japanese. Sumako Senpai was the translator. I was satisfied with his answer and I was more convinced in Zankai.

On the following Monday, I met Jessica Hoffman (who came to Okinawa for her summer holiday and train), Hikaru (15 years old) and Senato (10 years old) in the morning training. They were wonderful people. In that evening, I met Jeff and Dave, Pat and his wife. We trained together and they were good people of good nature. Good people of good nature stays with a good teacher of good nature in a good dojo of a good organization. I was 99% convinced!

What about the other 1%?

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Uechi-Ryu Zankai – My Anamnesis – Part 1

September 4th, 2007 at 11:06 · Filed Under Essay, Karate, Philosophy, Training Journal · 1 Comment 

DISCLAIMER: This article is purely reflecting the state of my mind and representing my freedom of speech and has nothing to do with anybody I work with or affiliate to.

Uechi-Ryu Zankai

My first trip to Okinawa has totally changed my perceptual experience about karate-do, the systems, techniques, concepts and philosophy. The cross-trainings which I have been through, have opened up my mind to be more receptive in the re-learning of this completely different system. Those dirty politics in karate-do I have gone through, have soften my ego and strengthen my will in search of a true budo art. I was lost like tears in the rain, couldn’t find the right path, until the light of Uechi-Ryu Zankai shined on me. I hope this essay will help people (some, not all) who shares the same passion with me in search of karate as a budo art to find this old style Uechi-Ryu as a new beginning.

When I began my karate training in 1985 while I was a schooling teenager, karate was a fascinating terms and it was so cool to talk about. At first, I was really reluctant to join the karate training but under my friends’ persistent influence, I joined them. Being naive and ignorant, we all practiced whatever our instructor told us to do. Days after days. Without my conscious knowing, I was addicted to karate training. After every training session, I started to anticipate the next one to come. It seemed so far away. When the training finally arrived, I was overjoyed.

After my mid high school, I left my school SMK Tinggi St David and continued my upper high school at SMK Munshi Abdullah. At that time, my teacher, Syed Pakri Sensei and his brother had decided to form their own style. Being loyalty, I joined with a friend of mine, Tan Tai-Kiat, searched out the home dojo of the style which we were training in. We were so happy to hear the country chief instructor to invite us to go to the honbu dojo to train. Of course, it was a great honor to be able to train with the top ranking teacher in the country and we took this opportunity.

We took our shodan test after the training and earned the probation shodan. We were very happy to go home with a black belt. Black is the cool color to wear. We immediately initiated karate club at SMK Munshi Abdullah. Both my friend and I became the instructors. Friends and former karate brothers admired us and some were jealous. I could remember a friend of mine, he was as tall as me, somehow had a subtle challenge with me in a kumite. His attacks were intense and powerful. And me, wearing the black belt, my ego surged and I powered up my attacks. At one point, he initiated a turning back kick. I followed. We both got kick at the back at the same time. I could not remembered how powerful our kicks but no one got hurt.

With the black belt ego and realizing the jealousy among our peers, Tan and I trained hard. The size of our class at SMK Munshi Abdullah grew bigger and bigger. The juniors started to join. I could recall the number was about 50 seriously training and almost a quarter were girls.

Our years in SMK Munshi Abdullah was short lived. After 1 and half years, we left after our exam. It was then the classes started to fall apart when another instructor came to substitute us while we were having our exams. Now, it has become a golden reminiscence.

After the exam, I continued my training with my fourth teacher. I trained very hard under his instructions and he being considered a very respected teacher by me. He was very fond of the instructor who replaced us while we were gone for exam. He commented highly how beautiful the senpai performed his kata and he was one of his best students. His statement made me look up to this senpai and I always trained with him.

Then in one of the closed championship, I became the kata champion and the senpai became 1st runner up. I was totally surprised with the outcome of the competition. Then, I gradually submitted to ego when good compliments and comments came to me one by one. I felt proud to take the best kata title away from my senpai. He? On the other hand, he was quite disappointed and gradually came less and less often for training then he quitted. My teacher boosted me and commented how disappointed of him towards my senpai. I took this as an encouragement and a credit for my hard training. Being naive at that time, I did not feel or even bother about my senpai’s feeling.

I was selected to represent the style at a MAKAF (Malaysia Karate-do Federation) championship. I was disqualified at the first round. I remembered one of the referee asked me what kata did I perform. Mixed comments came to me after my defeat in the first round. The chief instructor told me the referee did not even know our kata. My teacher told me, “See! I told you to perform Bassai-dai but you insisted to perform Wanshu”. But, the chief told me to perform Wanshu and my teacher was there to hear that. What a….

After the incident, I was feeling a little down and I had to depart for my career. So I quitted. I came back again after being away for 1 and a half years. A junior bumped into me on the street and he invited me to come back. I answered to his invitation. When I made my return, I focused into kumite. The training was really hard and intensive. Then I was appointed as the Women Team Coach for Melaka Karate Team to SUKMA (Malaysian Games) 1992. My focus turned to training the women team. This was when I gained most of my coaching experience as a competition coach. My team won the first gold medal for Melaka in the women individual kumite event.

I departed again immediately after the game due to some reasons. I stopped training in the style for many years. During the years, I met teachers and friends from various styles when I traveled overseas for work. I trained with them whenever I could. This was the time I started my cross-training. Without realizing it, my cross-training had built a strong foundation which I think it contributes to my accelerated Uechi-Ryu training at Zankai.

When I decided to come back to coaching because of inspiration by my kids, I did not realized my cross-training and some knowledge had laid a path leading me towards the search of true karate-do. First, I found out the style I was training at this while was not an authentic style. When I found out about this, I was marginalized and my former teacher wanted the association to sack me. I quitted from the association on my sole decision. Then I found the true authentic style and I joined. After quite a while of mingling with the country chief instructor, the nature of me to find out the truth, had spotted lies and more lies, I began to distrust him. Then the betrayal of my two close comrades which accelerated my cross-over to Uechi-Ryu Zankai.

Before I stepped onto Okinawa soil, all these, seemed to be a path which led me to Zankai and the true spirit of Okinawa Karate-do. Today, after becoming a member of the Zankai family, all these have become meaningless, nothing but good reminiscence of my achievements and the pain in the ass I gave to some people.

Why all these have suddenly become meaningless?

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Isolation

September 4th, 2007 at 2:26 · Filed Under At Home, Blogging, Days in My Life, Family, General, Medical · 2 Comments 

What am I doing in this wee hour? Well, I can’t sleep. I have had too much sleep. So, I am thinking of writing a post and an essay for my Sensei. But I guess I will leave the essay for later.

I have fallen ill due to a strong virus. It happened on Friday night when I finished practicing, I jumped into my car with AC on to go pick my sister, Mee, at Melaka Mall. When I reached there, she wasn’t there and first thing struck my mind: The bus could be late due to long holiday traffic on the highway. It always happens when a long holiday over the weekend. So I parked my car and got down and went inside Melaka Mall. The AC was cooler there. She did not appear  and apparently, she got on a different bus which used a different route and she arrived at the terminal. I rushed down to the terminal to pick her up.

When arrived home, I began to feel cold. I guessed I had caught a cold. My body started aching and shivering. After Mee finished with the gifts she bought for the kids, I took some paracetamol and went to bed. I felt better the next morning.

Last evening, I collapsed onto the couch after coming home from Jasin class. I was so tired and I took a rest. At 1900, I got up and took a quick hot shower, took some bites and off to City Church class. When I arrived there, I started to feel cold when I stepped out the car. I began to feel sick during the class but I managed to close the training by 2200. After the class, I felt really lousy.

After returning home, I took some paracetamol again and went to bed. Everything was fine until Monday morning when I started to feel some irritation in my throat. I took more paracetamol in the afternoon but this time it did not work. I began to shiver. At last, I went to see a doctor and she prescribed me some antibiotics and some other medication. My fever was 39C. It was another strong virus attack since July 7, 2006.
After the clinic, I went to buy some masks and wore the mask at home and began to isolate myself from the kids. Dmitry and Dietrich were looking at me lying on the bed with a mask on. They must be curious what happened to daddy. This is the first time I isolate myself. I got a feeling, when both of them looking at me pitifully and curiously, that I am a weird and horrible old man in isolation waiting to for his time. I felt weird.

I hope the isolation will minimize the chance for transmitting the virus to them.

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