Japanese Cultural Performance
The MMU’s Japanese Language Society had organized The Japanese Cultural Night on March 2. My karate doukoukai was given an opportunity to put up a performance on that night. The lead was established in December last year and my students and I had been busying for the performance since January and especially after the Chinese New Year.
Tonight, it was finally over, after two weeks of preparation. IMHO, the performance was very good comparing to previous performance. More photos and story here.
Why Kanbun Sensei leaving China so soon?
My research effort about Uechi-Ryu has been gaining some momentum and one interesting fact I found out together with my students about Kanbun Sensei is that, why Kanbun Sensei left China so soon?
The research has sparkled from an unrecorded fact which was told by mouth. We gathered quite some materials which indicated some speculations and deviation from what I already knew of. Kanbun Sensei might have more than one teacher while he was in Fuzhou.
I have established many theories why Kanbun Sensei left China in a hurry. But this information cannot be published at this moment because it can affect the family honor of the Uechi’s descendants as well as shaking the Uechi-Ryu community. All these can come down with a simple question, why Kanbun Sensei left China?
My research is gaining more interesting facts and I am planning to go deeper into it.
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!
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.
Birthday Wish 2007
Last year, I made a birthday wish to learn Uechi-Ryu karate from Toyama Sensei. My wish came through and again thanks to Scott of Canada who led me the path.
Actually, I got to train with Toyama’s Sensei trusted student, Seizan Sensei, my teacher. And I got the chance to meet Toyama Sensei and performed in front of him. I feel I am one of those lucky people to be able to find great teacher.
This birthday, I make another wish, to achieve my dan ranking of my dream before I retire from public teaching. The dan and my retiring year remain as secret in my heart.
Christmas Carol
Here is the video for the Christmas Carol at doukoukai on Friday December 21, 2007. For more story, visit here.
Merry Christmas to all.
The growth of a seed - My greatest challenge
Some upheaval stirred up. Not in my domain but rather from another domain. The upheaval has taught me more valuable lesson from Sensei. He told me a story about a seed. How it breaks through its nut shell, makes its way through boulders and dry hard soil, and finally the surface, growing up into sunny new world. But the challenge does not stop there…
Here’s his gardening wisdom:
When the Gardener plants a seed in good soil and waters it, it begins to grow. First it must soak up the needed water, expand, and push through the hard seed shell. This is painful, difficult, and exhausting work. Did you know of the plant’s nervous system? This is the most painful stage of a young plant’s life! Many seeds just give up and die before sprouting.
This was when you decided to leave the old association, based only on words made many miles away by me, a stranger. You could have just quit karate (“died”) or “stayed in the shell”, but you didn’t. You “soaked up” my words and essays, and decided to break through the shell.
Then the seedling must push up blindly toward the surface of the soil, not knowing what lies ahead, or how far it might be to the surface. Hopefully the soil has been softened and moistened by the Gardener, and hopefully there are no rocks and stones in the way. But despite the greatest efforts of the Gardener to prepare the way, sometimes there are, and the new seedling has to wind around them or push them out of the way. To a tiny new sprout, sometimes even a grain of sand is like a huge boulder! But it must push on, or die.
This was your final decision and preparation, your commitment to making the trip to Okinawa, your arrival, and the anxious hours before actually beginning your work.
It was like holding your breath as you swim through an underwater tunnel, with no way back – how much further, how much further, when will you reach the end and break the surface, how much further…?
Now the tender new sprout reaches the soil’s surface and breathes in the fresh air and begins to absorb sunlight! What a joy! The gentle breeze, the warm sunlight, the uncountable stars at night as the tiny new shoot sleeps and grows using the day’s stored energy. But it is still tender, and easy to injure. It must be protected and nourished through this critical stage of development.
This was your training here on Okinawa, and your realization that all I said to you was true. This was your beginnings of study with me and your fellow students on the Nagahama Dojo, and the encouragement you got whenever you made progress and growth in the system. This is the excitement you felt when you first met Toyama Sensei and finally had an opportunity to perform for him, and met his approval for your performance. This is the culmination of your studies in one short month that cemented your resolve to “plant your roots” in UechiRyu. You have seen the sunlight and now you strive upward toward the source of your energy and growth. And this is my commitment to take care of your development, and see that you have all possible opportunity to reach your potential.
The promise and commitment of the Gardener to the plants in his care. So it was from Toyama Sensei to me.
Now the plant is growing with strong stem and branches, new leaves and increased absorption of sunlight and water. It’s well-formed root system digs deep and cannot be pulled up easily. The bark on its stem grows tougher every day, and stronger each week. Small bugs can no longer assail it. Birds are no longer interested in pulling it from the ground for use in building their own nests – the “sprout” has become too tough. However, not having seen even one season of growth yet, it is still in its youthful stages of development and needs the attention and ministering of the Gardener. There are still some plant-eating animals that can cause mischief – but the Gardener gives what protection he can until the plant is a full-grown tree, which will take some time yet.
The plant is far from mature enough to produce fruit for creating more like itself. That will naturally take several seasons. But it has the start that few of its kind have in the wild, unattended and surrounded by weeds and rocks that stunt its growth and rob it of vital nourishment. It can look down now at its beginnings in the soil, and laugh at what once seemed to be huge boulders and heavy barriers in the way of its growth; they now seem like tiny grains and pebbles, and small light twigs. They no longer bar the way; they add to the nutrition of the soil and the protection of the roots. And so those things that once caused pain and fear are to be appreciated.
My greatest challenge came two days ago when I received a feedback from Sensei about our video performance. Suddenly, I realized the greatest challenge is lying within the concept of the system. It is the hardest to teach to a student. Although I realize most of the concept taught by Sensei on Okinawa, I find myself have not completely absorbed. Even if I have absorbed, I am not able to apply the concept through kata.
The concept in Uechi-Ryu Zankai is simple but rather complicated to understand and to apply. For instance, applying “yawarakasa” and “binkansa” at the same time. Not to mention applying both together with “chikarazuyosa”. For all these three elements, they need a mind with opened senses, to be able to feel and to control every muscles and bones. A better understanding and the capability of manipulating body central of gravity are vital in the process of learning, understanding and applying.
This may not sound too difficult for me due to my prior understanding of bio-mechanics and kinesiology from the cross training of karate which I received many years ago. I also would like to thank those teachers who cross trained me and helped me to understand the concepts (of other styles). Without them, I would have been struggling harder by now.
I have taught my students how to move and how to do kata, alright. Yet, I have not been able to realize the conceptual model in their understanding and application. This is the greatest challenge in my entire karate coaching career.
Theme for my blog
Ever since I revamped my blog to give it a new look in October, I received quite a number of correspondence from my regular readers and fans. They asked me why “The Eccentric Logic of An Eclectic Mind”. Well, another similar representation of the theme (as portrayed in New Look), it is vicariously a random experience and non-concentric logical reasoning of my mind by which referring and/or combining various elements such as philosophy in karate and those seen through my eyes.
This theme is graphically represented by the random header images which I made from photos I took on Okinawa while I was having a walk at the ruins of Zakimi castle. I took some photos of flowers and plants, scenery and artifacts.
This is my favorite. Before I came to Okinawa, I was quite lost in karate. All my surroundings seemed to be thick stone walls. Suddenly, I found an exit, which led me to the Sky! This also signifies my understanding of “karate” as Sky Hand as Seizan Sensei told me. In Uechi-Ryu Zankai, karate-do is like the sky, without border and endless. People build walls surrounding themselves and others to restrict seeking of knowledge and truth as well as to protect their own benefits. I am glad that I have found an exit to this confinement.
These images indicate the road ahead is difficult and the woods on both sides represent challenges, confusions and distractions which can easily get lost in. Fortunately, there is a small road that leads to the destination. The road, as if Uechi-Ryu Zankai.
The gardener on the left represents Toyama Sensei. The two trees represent Seizan Sensei and Sumako Senpai (as well as other Sensei and Senpai) setting a goal for me to reach up there.
These two images are made of floral and artifacts found at Zakimi Castle site. No special significant meaning.
This is an image of some surf boards at Torii Beach. No significant meaning. Just a photography image.
Captivated
To those who are curious why I chose Uechi-Ryu Zankai (including my students), Toyama Sensei’s performance of Sandairyu captivated my heart more than a year ago. The video I saw was actually from Okinawa’s Wonders website. It is very rare to find a grand master to perform such fluent and powerful performance at this age.
After meeting him in person when I visited Toyama Sensei’s dojo with Seizan Sensei at Zakimi Okinawa, his health becomes one of my motivation. I envy to have his health in my old age.
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.
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
Protected: I’m 80!
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.
Busy with Dojo
The opening of the Okinawa Karate-do Uechi-Ryu Zankai Malaysia Shibu Dojo at Bukit Beruang is only 17 days away and there are still a lot of works to be done at the dojo. Patching, cleaning, washing, painting, decorating, fixing, etc, etc, etc…. Whew! It’s not an easy task.
This will be the first Uechi-Ryu Zankai dojo to be opened in Malaysia and I feel a little too much of pressure after I decided to open the dojo. I have been teaching karate in a community hall at Bukit Beruang every Saturday evening. Sometimes, the training is interrupted by functions at the hall although I’ve reserved it. They give higher priority to functions rather than sports.
I was thinking it would be better to have a place of our own so that the training would not be interrupted. And it would be nice to have a decent place to receive visitors who are interested in our training.
I hope the dojo will go well and begin to prosper.
Scenic Zakimi Castle
Here are some scenic photos at the foot and top of Zakimi Castle.
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