Uechi-Ryu Zankai - My Anamnesis - Part 10
In my previous anamnesis part 9 and earlier, I mostly wrote about my feelings and understanding of the Uechi-Ryu concepts. This part gives this a change, not to talk about Uechi-Ryu solely but the underlying fundamentals and concepts common in all martial arts.
I am having muscle ache on my stomach, arms and chest due to the heavy workout last night. So, today not much of practice for myself. As usual, after checking the students’ Sanchin, we went on dantai no kata for Kanshiwa and Kanshuu, then Kanshiwa bunkai.
Tonight, only adult students were coming. None of the kids, including mine came for training. My muscles were aching and not much practice for myself. A perfect time to talk about some concepts. I talked about concepts, not so much of Uechi-Ryu but the fundamentals of tanden (or Tantien in Chinese) and the body structure and skeleton alignment. I also demonstrated explosive 1 inch power punch (of course with controlled amount of energy not to hurt anyone). I continued to demonstrate and to explain the concept of Taijiquan and the differences between the external and internal system. I gave quite a lengthy talk about both internal and external weight change and of course, the scientific explanation of this underlying fundamentals. Martial arts is also martial science which involves human anatomy, physiology, bio-mechanism, kinesiology and physics.
I find it important to let older students to know about this so that they can understand the concept and learn to utilize their body more effectively. This fundamental knowledge is also crucial for them to understand not only Uechi-Ryu system but also other martial arts. The knowledge is also an eye-opener to not be superstitious about Qi, Tantien and the myths about Taijiquan as seen on Youtube as well as in discussion forums.
If I say I have not learned Taijiquan before but am able to explain and demonstrate the Taijiquan concepts, will you believe it? 
This appears to be a short anamnesis but I will continue to write about this fundamentals in more depth.
Uechi-Ryu Zankai - My Anamnesis - Part 9
Part 8 of this anamnesis closed the year of 2007. I have written all 8 parts of my anamnesis since my return. It will be a great pleasure to begin the new year with part 9 of this anamnesis. I don’t foresee how many parts will it be. I guess I will keep on writing until this old ship is washed ashore. Until then, I hope my children will continue my saga in their own time when I have passed.
In my retrospection, 2007 had been a great year. A year full of events and incidents. A great year which I embarked on a new chapter in my karate exploration, a totally new direction and a new experience for me. I had visited Okinawa last July/August, a dream place where most karate practitioners would visit and seek further knowledge and experience. I had witnessed with my own eyes for the first time and had broken the myths about karate on Okinawa. I had achieved, to some extent, from Jukyu to Ikkyu after a month long of “severe” training on Okinawa and received recognition and approval (to teach) from both my teacher and my teacher’s teacher. I learned the meaning of “severe” from my new teacher. Upon my return from Okinawa, I set the course on track, a big responsibility for me to teach what I had learned on Okinawa to my students. I opened the first Okinawa Karate-Do Uechi-Ryu Zankai Malaysia Dōkōkai in November. All my students had been tested and a hierarchy had formed before the year ended with Christmas Carol and Nikainen-undō (Training on New Year Eve pass midnight, bridging two years).
I have a rather successful year despite of some sour events. What else do I want more? It is time for me to let go those mistreatment I received. It is time for me to let go the hatred and grudge (did I have any?). It will be nice to let these burdens off my shoulder. This way I can even progress further as I can already see.
I am not only learning a great art of Uechi-Ryu from my teacher, I am also learning the fine Okinawan Budo art from him. I wish to thank him and also those people who have been supporting and assisting me. Once again, thank you all and may you have a happy, prosperous and successful new year 2008.
At the end of 2007, I had seen the challenge for me to teach the concept of Uechi-Ryu, particularly, wa-uke, binkansa and yawarakasa. It is really abstract and hard to be explained and understood by words. So, I begin my research and writing an article (of many parts) to assist my teaching. Part 1 of the article was written two days ago. I foresee it will be many parts of it like this anamnesis. I hope to compile these articles (posts including the comments) into a research paper or book later on. Maybe 10 years later when I have got more time to sit down for word crafting.
Speaking about word crafting, I learn a great deal from my teacher too. Perhaps, my blog will train me to become a writer/author one day.
The last 6 months of 2007 were really exciting and fruitful. I learned a great deal along the process and I find myself with more knowledge and skills. Oh yes, and experience. I would like to thank those people who were the causal factors which slingshot me into this marvelous learning paradise!
Protected: OA9
Uechi-Ryu Zankai - My Anamnesis - Part 8
A great advancement in my teaching/coaching experience occurred when I switched from one karate style to another and finally to Uechi-Ryu. My journey has taught me a great deal about teaching. My current teacher, Seizan Sensei has been my good guidance and I have learned a great deal from him too.
Recently, after the last grading test on December 21, I received valuable feedbacks from my teacher. It is extremely easy to learn movement of kata in Uechi-Ryu compared to any other styles. The main factor is the minimum techniques and stances. The most fundamental and frequently used stance is Sanchin-dachi, followed by kiba-dachi and zenkutsu-dachi. Sanchin-dachi appears 98% in all kata. There is only one blocking technique in Uechi-Ryu, the versatile Wa-uke or circular block.
The wa-uke looks very easy and simple by making a circular motion with the arm. The easiest and simplest thing requires most effort to understand and the most difficult to master. I have been trying to teach the basic concept about wa-uke to my students. Even the most senior student has difficulties to understand my teaching.
We often hear a saying, “Empty your cup… to taste my tea.” or equivalent. It is necessary for those who switch over from other style of karate to Uechi-Ryu. They need to unlearn what they have learned. They have to put all the techniques behind. One most important thing they need to put behind is their attitude before they can open their mind and let the knowledge be absorbed like a sponge.
Besides an open mind and/or attitude to willingly accept new knowledge, skills and techniques which look contrary to their previous training, another important requirement is open up all the senses/feeling during training and learning. Senses or feelings, include vision, hearing, touch, macro and micro movement, instinct, and heart. Feeling is a necessary factor in training which most students and teachers have overlook.
Training with feelings can accelerate the understanding of a technique and concepts behind it. Even my most senior student cannot feel or at least describe her feelings during training or practice. Most karate trainings are merely repeating mechanical performance and lack emphasis on feelings. Feelings are most important in the understanding of Uechi-Ryu concepts.
I will write about effectiveness of training by open up all your senses in a series of articles here. I will also write about advanced wa-uke concept in another article. But these articles will only be available to my students and Zankai fellows.
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.
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.
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.
Uechi-Ryu Zankai - My Anamnesis - Part 4
Previously, I mentioned about some training philosophy of Uechi-Ryu Zankai, how the organic training enhances our health and strengthening our body. In this episode, I am going to dissect the basic foundation of all techniques which we can find in the kata Sanchin using natural phenomenon, ocean waves. I am not going to write the length and breadth of every techniques, but I am going to particularly focus on Wa-uke or circular block.
The old-style Uechi-Ryu (Zankai) is a defensive style and deploys different approach compare to most modern style Uechi-Ryu. So I am not talking about modern style but my focus is the old-style.
Wa-uke is the most important and the only blocking technique used throughout every kata. It is the most misunderstood blocking technique in Uechi-Ryu. Many people, including some of my students, have misunderstood wa-uke. Some say it is slow. Some say it is ineffective. Some say it is less defensive compare to other blocking techniques in other style of karate. Some say how can one blocking technique be applied to all kind of attacks.
Yes, Wa-uke is one blocking technique that applies to all kind of attacks including grappling. Thus, the old-style Uechi-Ryu is a CQC (Close Quarter Combat) system but still remains as effective for long range combat. This misunderstanding is due to lack of in-depth study and understanding of the technique itself and the application (bunkai) and philosophy of Uechi-Ryu kata.
As the name implies, wa-uke or circular block, travel in a circular or elliptic motion. Uechi-Ryu is not a linear system, rather, it is circular. To understand the underlying concepts and philosophy, you have to think circular or elliptic. The movement in Uechi-Ryu kata is like ocean waves. When you are practicing kata, you need to move like ocean waves.
Ocean waves are mechanical waves that propagate along the interface between water and air. The restoring force is provided by gravity.
(Source: Wikipedia)
After we understand the mechanical concept of ocean waves, we now can apply the concept into wa-uke and techniques in Uechi-Ryu kata: A wa-uke is a circular or elliptical mechanical arm motion which propagate in a plane between the defensive and the offensive body. The motion is circulated by gravity and centrifugal force.
The Sanchin kata is the foundation for all Uechi-Ryu kata. As I mentioned in previous episode, all Uechi-Ryu kata have staggering effect, complementing each other. To understand the application of wa-uke, we have to gain deeper understanding of Sanchin. While the understanding of Sanchin increases, it complements the understanding of other kata in the system. One significant point we need to focus in Sanchin is the turning of our body. It not only creates centrifugal force, it is the fundamental movement we need to understand and master in order to apply wa-uke effectively.
With wa-uke, you can perry an attack; a kick or a punch or any combination followed by counter strike. Or if you wish, you can lock then throw or a take down depending on the degree of damage you think is necessary to be inflicted onto your assailant.
The mastering of Sanchin movement and wa-uke is more than enough to defend against any untrained attacks. If the assailant is a trained attacker, deeper understanding and years of training will be required to defend against such attack effectively with combination of other techniques. But if the mastering has exceeded the expert level, the wa-uke and Sanchin movement alone is more than sufficient.
Sanchin alone requires entire life time to understand and master. It embeds vast concept and knowledge like the ocean; providing unlimited exploration, improvement and perfection. We are only a tiny dot floating in the ocean.
Uechi-Ryu Zankai - My Anamnesis - Part 3
Let’s put the 1% aside.
My visit to Okinawa improves not only my knowledge and skill in karate-do. It has been an eye opener and it lets me discover the real karate-do, its culture, philosophy and spirit; as an ancient budo art of Okinawa.
The Okinawan system is not as rigid and militarized as the Japanese system. The Okinawan system is more flexible in many ways. The Malaysian karate-do has been following Japanese styles which are very much a militarized training. The influence was from Shotokan, one of the few introduced to Malaysia in the earliest karate era of Malaysia.
Many times people have been asking me, “Is style really matter?” These people are thinking, if any karate that can teach you to fight well, what is so important what style it is. To me, the real essence of karate lies deep in its root of the style which has been forgotten by the new generation of practitioners. Many who know the real budo path of karate-do are not too interested in changing people’s thinking and often choose to be self-contained for self-improvement and self-preservation.
If you Google for “karate”, you will find many funny styles and names across the world. Many new styles are created outside of Okinawa/Japan. Really, can we call these karate? It is very difficult to have a stand on this argument. Call it whatever if you find nothing wrong about it.
My visit to Uechi-Ryu Zankai on Okinawa was absolutely an ultimate experience. Toyama Sensei is one of the very few grand master who really doesn’t care about the outside world. He is very disappointed how polluted karate is today. Of course, he feels very sad if he sees some videos of poor performance. He is entirely into preserving and passing on his knowledge to his high ranking students. My teacher, G. Seizan Breyette Sensei, a hatchi-dan (8th dan) kyoshi to-dan, is one of the very few high ranking students of Toyama Sensei.
The Zankai’s Training Philosophy
Uechi-Ryu Zankai is one of the remaining few old-style traditional karate-do on Okinawa devoting to continue to teach and to preserve the pre-World-War-2 karate-do which Kanbun Uechi Sensei brought back from China. And Toyama Sensei is the only legendary left on the earth who is actively passing on his knowledge which he learned from Kanbun Uechi Sensei.
The training at Zankai is very organic. Unlike most modern styles of karate-do, the Zankai uses training methods derived from organic living mechanisms which largely resembling a living organism in organization or development and profoundly affecting our bodily organs and functions. Many modern karate-do as well as other martial arts introduce free form sparring element to their training for competitive sports purposes with influences from Hong Kong and Hollywood movies. The introduction of free form sparring is also to transform monotonous old-style training to a more dynamic and exciting activity. It is rather hard to have modern people especially the youngsters to involve in a monotonic daily devotion. Martial arts training in the old days (100 years and more ago) was a daily devotion and monotonous with repetitive training. Modern youngsters prefer exciting new stuff such as sparring to display their male machoism.
The organic training of Zankai enhances functions of heart and lung especially. Take Sanchin for instance. Beginners (new students) learn Sanchin as first lesson in Zankai. To perform proper Sanchin, the shoulder must be down and pulled back, tummy tucked in and pulled up so the chest will rise and expand. This increases the capacity of the lung and reduces pressures onto organs such as the heart, the lung and digestive organs. The heart can pump more freely with bigger room. Bad body posture has long-term effect on our internal organs such as our heart. When our body postures collapse, our organs are squashed against each other. This is the reason for an enlarged heart appears in X-ray. Because of restricted space, the heart has to work harder to push against the pressure from the lung and other organs. Gradually, the heart enlarges due to the stress.
The kata system of old-style Uechi-ryu has staggering effect onto one another and they are closely inter-related and enhancing each other in one way or another. There is no basic or advanced kata in old-style Uechi-Ryu. In fact, all the kata complement each other at various stages of the training, enhancing and strengthening the body (skeleton, muscle tissues, organs and vital body functions), motor skills, balance (stability), breathing, mental concentration and ultimately all the senses.
Human is actually animal but with slightly higher intelligence and having civilization after going through many evolution. The human evolution contributes to the lost of animal characteristics both physically and mentally. Invention and innovation reduce our physical activities while we become more dependent on tools and machineries. Comfortable lifestyle has made us a lazy animal and lose all the primitive animal characteristics and instinct. Essentially, the training retrain us (human) to become an animal again. The training is based on 7 animal forms: Dragon, Tiger, Crane, Snake, Cobra, Leopard and Mantis. Dragon, Tiger and Crane are the major animal forms in the training. These animal forms teach us to move like them. After some period of training, you can notice improvement in physical strength, bodily structure and vital functions.
The old-style Uechi-Ryu training, like many old martial arts in the olden days of China, does not include jiyu kumite or free form sparring. Kumite (for short), cause destructive effects and harms more than constructive growth to our body. The ancient Chinese had learned a great deal about injuries many thousand years ago without sophisticated medical equipment. Many Chinese martial artists were practicing for their health and to protect family and country. They rarely flashing their skills. Until today, this culture remains in modern Chinese martial artists. But no doubt, there are some going around (the world) displaying and promoting their strongest arts. Like many other modern martial arts, the wushu introduces San-shou or free form sparring into some of their training for competitive and other reasons mentioned above.
I have written articles about injuries and their potential long-term effects. You can read my articles about injuries here.
Uechi-Ryu Zankai - My Anamnesis - Part 2
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%?
Uechi-Ryu Zankai - My Anamnesis - Part 1
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.
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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