Uechi-Ryu Zankai - My Anamnesis - Part 7
While my muscles are slowly building up (stronger rather than bigger), I realized I am going through another steep learning curve like I experienced while I was on Okinawa. I believe it is partly due to lack of training while I was busy setting up the doukoukai. The pressure of next visit to Okinawa next August is getting more intense and I really feel so stressful looking at my performance currently. I understand that my body is undergoing another phase of remodeling according to my physical work out and training. Based on my past experience, I cannot rush things but to let it slowly recover. What I can do now is maintenance training and pushing a little more everyday.
Another reason is being the only person in Malaysia to know Uechi-Ryu Zankai training and there is no second person with adequate knowledge and skill level to train with. Although Allison is approaching, her skill level is still quite far away. A maintenance training will be good to maintain my knowledge and skills I learned on Okinawa and not to let them getting worse or diminished.
With the newly installed mirrors, all the kouhai including myself are able to see the reflection while training to correct body posture and movement. Thanks to our sponsor. This evening, I started to have more intense training after the class. I was alone in the doukoukai so I took off my shirt. I could see my muscle working during my kata performance. When doing kata, it is best to remove the shirt so that the muscles can be seen in the reflection and you can judge whether your training is on the right track or not.
I could see my muscle relaxed and contracted on impact. I could see my muscles twitching during movement. I could see I am on the right track of the training.
My training has been so so since last week. But there is a good news. A new member joined my class on November 13. He has got 5 years of training experience and currently Ikkyu (1st kyu) from other karate style. He found out about Uechi-Ryu in a Chinese language martial arts forum. He is studying at MMU and he is staying nearby the doukoukai. He suffers from asthma since childhood and every time the weather changes, his asthma will attack. He has to relied on medication to get rid of the phlegm.
On the first evening, I taught him Sanchin. He is a fast learner but needs to work very hard to achieve the requirements in Uechi-Ryu Zankai. I was told by him that he vomited a large amount of phlegm the next morning after his first lesson. He has never experienced this before without the help of medicines. It is a good sign as his lungs are learning to breathe differently and are able to discard phlegm by themselves. This is a very encouraging and interesting live experience from a real person who has started to learn Uechi-Ryu Zankai karate-do.
Let us look forward to see if his training will prevent him from the asthma attack after 3 months or so. I wish him a good start in Uechi-Ryu Zankai and best of health.
So, encouraging isn’t it? This has also provided me some motivation and to wake up from the steep learning curve. I could feel my thrusts had become more powerful during my training tonight.
As I mentioned in previous part, the training at Uechi-Ryu Zankai is very dull and monotonous. It will affect one’s motivation if he/she has got not enough new excitement or motivation. I hope there will be more encouraging and interesting live experience along the way to keep us/me motivated. If not, enough proper rest will be necessary to let our body and mind to recuperate to the state ready for more severe training.
Financial Planning
Most people has experienced financial difficulties due to overspending and lack of financial planning. By taking up loans, you are able to afford to enjoy buying stuff you never afford to.
Having mortgages let you enjoy having your dream home. Loans can help spreading your expenditure into many monthly repayment to ease your financial burden. It can also help you to plan your spending and financial investment. For example, you get the lowest loan rate to buy a car. The loan interest rate is 2.5% per annum. You can now invest your extra money into mutual funds or timed deposit which yields higher interest rate. Your loan interest is taken care of by your investment and still have some profit margin.
When you purchase your assets such as car or house by taking up a loan, it is always wise to transfer your risks to an institution by purchasing insurance. You may also consider to transfer the risk of your income with an income protection plan so that you will not default your loan repayments should your income is affected by any reasons. Be sure to get the lowest possible rate for maximum protection.
New Coffee Bean Membership Card
LA, Rich, Nik and I went to Jusco to shop for some products and we went to Coffee Bean for a cuppa and to buy D some surprise. At the Coffee Bean, I saw the new membership card with Christmas theme. It was very nice and I asked my friend Umi who worked there if I could change my card. Unfortunately no, she said. I still had to pay RM25 for the card! I decided not to.
After our drink, we went up to Jusco to see some electrical appliances. Umi called and told me to come to Coffee Bean and she had something for us. When I went there, she presented the card to me as a gift. Thanks Umi! It is a nice Christmas gift.
Calling for Malacca Bloggers’ Gathering
Are you a blogger in Malacca? Would you like to gather with other bloggers in Malacca and make friends? If yes, please contact me with your name, age, occupation, blog’s URI, email address, and phone number so that I can contact you. I am planning a Malacca blogger’s gathering.
The gathering will make new friends and fun! You can exchange ideas, business opportunities, and most of all, have fun! So, tell your other blogger friends in Malacca about this exciting gathering. Send them this post to register.
The date and venue will be announced once I have got enough crowd to move along!
Search My Heart
Searching …
A Disheartening Decision
For the past few days (around two weeks), I have encountered state of affairs I never experience before. I have been puzzled by some frustrating strange behaviors. I really didn’t know what to do with this encounter because lacking of experience handling it.
I have to make some kind of decision and it is always difficult to make one. For the whole morning, I had been troubled by this problem until I received a call from my Sensei. His wisdom helps to clear my mind. Even though he has provided his advice, I still need to make a decision, an awful decision which I never did before in my coaching life.
After the whole afternoon of pondering (and napping), I have concluded. It is now waiting for the execution of this conclusion. It will look brutal but is essential to keep a micro society healthy. I will write more about this decision later.
Protected: Training with an enemy
何谓《空手》之二
现在回想当初的愚昧，我也《人云亦云》，可有得好笑。我倒觉得，练武，最重要搞清楚那门武术里的哲学，才能慢慢领会它的精华。盲目追随他人，缺乏了解，就算练了一身好武艺，也是到老一场《空》！因为没了精华，就没了它的精神！这就是所谓的《空手》。
就如《般若波罗密多心经》里的哲学，《空亦是色，色亦是空》。把这哲学运用到《空手道》里，《空》亦是精神，也是没有边际。《色》亦是《型》（套路），哲学，技术等等。到了最高境界，《空亦是色，色亦是空》等于《型》（套路），哲学，技术等等亦是精神和永无止境的境界，变幻成《无型》，到了《无极》之境界！
何谓《空手》？
在早期，《空手道》在冲绳是称为《唐手》。唐手既是tōte（发音为：toute)。
现在一般普通的说法，大都已经偏离了真正的意义。日文就是有点怪怪的。kara 的汉字是《空》也是《唐》。是以，先为《唐手》(toute)，后改为 karate，是《唐手》也是《空手》。在后来，大日本军国主意的掘起，也就不用《唐手》而改为《空手》。
其实，kara，《空》并不代表空无一物的意思。《空》既是《天空》的《空》(sora) ，意思就是，像天空那样无边无际。这 karate 或 sky hand 的意义，是我从冲绳上地流山会那里学来的。这意义可以说已经绝迹了。好多练空手道的，都以现有的说法为标准，人云亦云。可哀！
译自原文 。
Uechi-Ryu Zankai - My Anamnesis - Part 6
Another Okinawan philosophy which altered my entire perspicacity of karate is the already forgotten meaning of karate. Today’s well-known meaning of karate or empty hand is the by-product of the Japanese Militarism before and during the World War 2.In the early era, it was called tōte (唐手), meaning China Hand. The kanji 唐 can be pronounced as tō or kara. So, the kanji 唐手 (tōte) can also be pronounced as karate. Since kara also means empty, karate became “empty hand” instead of “China Hand” under the influence of Japanese Militarism and ultranationalism.
The kanji word for kara is 空, which means empty. But it can also means sky as in sora. The kanji for kara and sora is “空”. As the result, karate also means “Sky Hand” which signifies the knowledge and perfection of the martial art has no border or boundary and is endless.
This concept is lively and vividly displayed by Toyama Sensei. At the age of 80, he is still training and seeking perfection. At this age, he is still as fit as (or fitter than) most young adults in their 20s. For 70 years of his Uechi-Ryu training, he has a very well built body and a clear and sharp mind. As the last active student of Kanbun Uechi Sensei, Toyama Sensei becomes a living legend whom you will never believe unless you see him with your own eyes. I met Toyama Sensei myself.
My new perception of the meaning of karate has remodeled my karate training and my philosophy utterly.
Garden remodeling
LA and I love plants. I have been searching for some appropriate garden decor. Since we remodeled our garden portion in July, we have no soil ground for any plants. The remodeling is necessary for the safety of our children. Before I left for my sabbatical training on Okinawa, I saw a baby snake crushed to death by a car in front of my house. The remodeling would make our garden neater and safer. The soil ground became a cement ground. No more planting on the ground. We managed to keep some potted plants and we decided no more potted plants so to keep the spacious ground for the children to play and I can train in the garden too.
We love plants. Some ideas sparkled in my mind. We can have the plants hang on the garden wall as well as on the roof of the car porch beside the little garden. The hanger must be stainless and weather proof. I came across this site selling wrought iron garden decor. It has variety of wrought iron garden hooks and plant hangers which I am looking for. I prefer classical design.
With the holiday seasons coming, Wrought Iron Heaven offers discount. Perfect to make a great Christmas gift for LA. I found a hidden back door of how to get great discount while surfing their website. Go to the home page, scroll down half way until you read “Our Store now has over 1,300 home & garden items for you to choose from.” Click on the (,) comma to get your discount.
Smile!
Have you ever experienced you missed a smile with your camera? Smile! Oops! This is especially true when you are taking a photo of a toddler. Now, worry no more. Sony’s revolutionary smile detection technology can recognize the subject’s facial expression and automatically click the shutter when a smile has been detected.
Simply select Smile Shutter, the camera will automatically click the shuttle whenever a smile is detected on the subject’s face. Cool!
Termites Infestation
We had termites infestation in our home more than a year ago. In our area, swamps of alates can be seen every time before and after raining seasons. I noticed some trails from the window frames above the air well at the kitchen side and in the middle room.
There are many types of termites. Subterranean termites are the most common and economically important wood destroying termites around the world. Their nests can be many feet underground. The worker termites come up from the creeks on the walls to reach to any structures like wooden door frames, cabinets, roof as their food source. Termites need moist to survive. They build many tunnel networks underground and within the brick creeks to reach for any moisture and food.
Common household insecticide like aerosols are useless in termites control. They often kills those termites come into direct contact. The smell of the aerosol will deter other termites and these termites will move away and burrowing into other part of the house.
There are two type of termites control available in the market. One is a bait type like Sentricon and Exterra. The other type is Termidor which is liquid. Termidor is injected into the ground via a drilled hole on the floor. We treated our home with Termidor.
It is important to protect your property with regular termite inspections.
Safari 3
I updated to Safari 3 two days ago. It is included in the free 10.4.11 (Tiger) software update. Although it is still in Beta, it is already usable and it has got many features which I like.
- Movable tabs - It is sometime a need to rearrange the tabs according to the tasks I am working with on the browser. When I was too tangled up with web projects and web browsing, I used to like Firefox as it allows to rearrange tabs.
- Reopen all windows from last session - This is another handy features which you can reopen web pages where you left off after say, you accidentally closed the browser. Again, I don’t need Firefox anymore.
Rendering of Chinese characters on Safari is the most superb. No web browser can beat Safari. This is another great reason why I still stick with Safari.
Protected: I’m 80!
三战
三戦 (Sanchin or 三战 in Chinese）
上地流的《三战》和其他空手道的《三战》有所不同。其中最显著的就是上地流的三战是开手型，和中国武术里的白鹤三战有所相似。《三战》是上地流的基石，也是所有上地流套路的模版。
上地流山会的《三战》，不是什么所谓的气功，更把气功的一切错误的观念给一一的打破了。上地流山会传授的古老《三战》，是以改善人体构造，把内脏《放》回原有最原始和最自然的位置，进而改善肺的呼吸法，和改善心脏的操作，减低心脏的负荷，这样就自然地改进人体的血液和自然循，也进一步增强人体免疫系统，也增强人体骨胳和肌肉的强度。所以《三战》也是上地流山会呼吸法和发力的模版。
上地流山会《三战》的呼吸法，最强调自然的呼吸，绝不采用强烈或硬硼硼的呼吸法。自然的呼吸法，绝对不会增添人体里的压力，从而不会增加心脏的负荷，就不会增加血压把血脉给胀大了。
一般上，其他空手道把《三战》解说为人体，思想和精神的挑战。而上地流山会的《三战》是力度，时差敏感和柔软的三种挑战，也以三种动物来象征力度（虎），时差敏感（鹤）和柔软（龙）。
Protected: I’m 60!
Dmitry was promoted
During the soft launching of The Okinawa Karate-Do Uechi-Ryu Zankai’s Malaysia Shibu Dōkōkai at Bukit Beruang, Melaka today, Dmitry was promoted to Ku-kyu (9th kyu) or white belt with yellow band. He obtained yellow belt in previous style before he switched to Uechi-Ryu Zankai. He has to re-qualify himself according to Uechi-Ryu Zankai’s kyu requirement and standards.
I find he has achieved significant improvement compared to previous style. He has also developed greater interest to improve himself and to want to learn more. Unfortunately, I can only allow him slow progression in order to build a solid foundation in him. After all, he has a long way to go and hopefully I will be able to develop persistency in him.
Dmitry’s enthusiastic behavior has influenced Dietrich to gain interest in karate training. He always wanted to learn like his big brother. LA and I were too busy and this poor little boy was trying to get himself into the picture and unfortunately he was too short. He was seen in the photos as he moved from one side to another in another group photo here. I feel so sorry for him and I swear that I will pay more attention to him. I will let him start his training at home and begin his training in the dōkōkai next year.
Unsigned music
Have you tired of commercial production of music? Would you like to try some music you can’t find in the commercial market?
Here’s one site where you can sample thousands of wonderful musical works of independent bands. This site is dedicated to independent artists and unsigned bands to have their musical works heard everywhere globally on the Internet.
If you would like your musical works to be heard, this is the right place to expose your wonderful music to millions of fans of your own without attaching to any production company. Or if you would like your musical talent to be discover, this is also a perfect place to publish your musical pieces. Who knows you can turn a big Star one day!
I found a few interesting musical works but I particularly like Jazz and Trance genre. I found Aeonia’s work very nice to my taste. Although I don’t usually listen to this type of music, it certainly catches my attention.
The other favorite genre of mine is Ambient and my favorite bands include Beautifully Dead, Carlos Reynosa, and Age of Echoes. These musics are very relaxing and reflective. Perfect of winding down after a hard day or for your Yoga practice.
I also like Carl Hauck’s in the acoustic genre.
I really appreciate these wonderful pieces of musics from unsigned bands. It will be perfect if download is available from this site so that I can bring these music with me in my iPod.
Perfectionist at work
It is not easy to work with a perfectionist. It is unusually demanding to with one. I know but I like to work with a perfectionist. The worst thing is that I am also one. It is also very difficult being a perfectionist. Perfectionist has outstanding demands and high expectation.
But being a perfectionist is an advantage. A perfectionist is very good at detailed works and usually will not satisfy when the result is not finer than the expectation. This could send most people on their nerves and become mad.
Dmitry is typing!
While I was working on my MacBook in the living room, Dmitry asked if he could type. “Dad, can I type I love my dad?”, he asked. “Sure, you can.”, I replied. I launched a text editor and let him type. He typed:
I love my dad
I love Richie
I love Nik
I love mum
I love Dmitry
Of course, he was typing with one finger.
An invitation to hiking and hunting
Last month, a friend of mine, Garry called me and invited me for a hiking and hunting. Garry and I have known each other for 2 decades. We met during a hiking. We are both enthusiastic about archery. Recently, Garry has developed immense interest in archery hunting so he invited me to share this new exciting sports. Too bad, killing animals for joy is not my cup of tea so I turned him away. I did not want to disappoint him totally so I told him I would join him for hiking.
I guess I won’t be able to hike with him because of some other commitments. I have been thinking of getting him a pair of hiking boots for Christmas. Since Garry is so into hiking and hunting, I think the hiking boots will be a great Christmas gift for Garry. MetBoots ships internationally and offers free shipping on items above $100. MetBoots also offers gift certificate for someone special.
MetBoots also has a variety of hunting boots to choose from. I bet people like Garry will be fond of it.
Uechi-Ryu Zankai - My Anamnesis - Part 5
I’ve been busy with dojo for the past two weeks and most heavy works like washing, painting, lifting, fitting and etc. started last Saturday. This also means I train less during this period of time. I had slight muscle ache at the back the next day (Sunday) but it was gone on Sunday night.
Posture Improvement
One noticeable result of Uechi-Ryu training is that it corrects my body posture and strengthen my back muscles such as Rhomboideus major, Latissimus dorsi, Thoracolumbar fascia, Serratus posterior superior, and Trapezius. These are huge muscles which hold up our body skeleton to give us posture.
The heavy works on Saturday and throughout the entire week until today does not give me any serious aching except a slight back muscle ache on Sunday but it recovered very fast. I had no more aching on Sunday night. I don’t have much opportunities to do such heavy works often because I mostly use my fingers to type on a computer keyboard. I can remember in the past, whenever I worked on heavy duty job like painting and cleaning with lifting, I would suffer muscle ache especially the back for a couple of days even if I trained in other style of karate.
This indicates the correct body posture together with the movements and breathing in Zankai’s training has significant health benefits especially in chiropractic.
I suffered from a herniated disc on L3 on my right in 1999 and since then, long sitting and bad body posture (particularly while sitting) would give me some discomfort in my lower back. This condition has also improved although once a while I still can feel some discomfort in my lower back. My awareness of correct body posture always reminds me of good posture. I developed this awareness after my month-long training at Zankai on Okinawa.
Chest Expansion
Another remarkable improvement is my chest. In Zankai, correct body posture is not all. The expansion of the chest as I mentioned earlier in part 3, has substantial benefits in pulmonary and cardiac functions. My training has also increased my lung volume as my chest expands.
Chest expansion is not only important for pulmonary and cardiac functions, it is also important for developing chest muscle.
My physical is slowly changing as I continue to train the Zankai’s method. The growth will be slow and will not be readily available to give immediate fast results, but I can feel the slow changes which develop a good foundation for any future development.
Debt Consolidation
How many people are debt free in their entire life time? You get loan to buy stuff you like, for example, car and house. You use credit card for shopping. You have overdue utilities bills. The list can continue.
When the number of creditors increase, you will find repaying your creditors a difficult task and may overwork you. You need debt consolidation loan. It is just another bigger amount of loan to repay back all your creditors. Instead of paying several creditors, you deal with only one creditor, saving time and effort. You may save some interests as well if you are having some higher interest loans.
Are you having huge financial problem and won’t be able to repay your loans? You run a risk of bankruptcy, losing your home and your bank accounts frozen, if you are unable to repay your loans. In UK, there is something called IVA to help you to settle your debts at an affordable level according to your monthly income. Once your application is approved and your creditors take up your IVA, you start repaying your loans at a calculated and affordable monthly repayment amount for five years. After five years, your repayment ceases and all your remaining debt will be written off and you become clean of debt. Your creditors cannot contact you for repayment and all interests will be frozen once IVA has been set up. Creditors cannot sue you to bankruptcy once your IVA is in order, saving your assets and your bank accounts.
These are great debt help to get you out of huge debts you can’t afford to repay.
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