Quote:
Niall Matthews wrote:
Hi Tenyu,
I'm commenting because I had never heard of Seido Karate until today. And it wasn't reading your post - it was checking out where a famous Japanese quote - nana korobi ya oki - fall down seven times, get up eight times - came from after a comment on my blog (the link is below if you want to see). I found a very nice and clear explanation at SeidoIndia. Looking for a way to tell them that I appreciated the article I found a link to the Seido Karate hombu dojo in New York. And then I saw that nobody had replied to your post and I noticed that Seido name again. Wow. Synchronicity. I saw that the dojo does work with young adults and with blind and visually impaired students and veterans as well as normal training. Very cool.
I have one technical comment. Sometimes your foot is landing a fraction before the strike and it seems to me you are losing a little power because of that. But the movements look very fluid and interesting.
How long is your bo? It looks like a jo.
I wish you the very best of luck.
And the quote was by Daruma Taishi... |
Hi Niall,
Interesting you mention that quote as it was one of the lectures by Kaicho that really resonated with me. There were many times in Seido classes, especially the endurance ones, where I didn't think I could ‘get back up' when I thought I had exhausted everything already. Strengthening the mind this way was a very important lesson for me.
I didn't know it at the time but I really think there's a lot to be learned from teaching the disabled. When I was an assistant instructor for Northcoast Aikido's kids class there was one ten year old who was severely autistic, to the point where he could barely take the softest roll or fall. He appeared unresponsive because he could never look at anyone. Originally I didn't get to train with him because I was assigned to teaching stick(staffwork) to the advanced kids, but I felt really bad seeing the other kids to no fault of their own having trouble when paired with him. After a few weeks I finally got switched one-on-one with him. I walked up to him and I could sense he was fully aware of me and his environment even though he was gazing unfocused into the corner of the ceiling. I was pleasantly surprised and immediately tapped into his ‘wavelength'. I still had to go slower but I had him taking ukemi immediately with no resistance and a smile on his face, the first time he showed any emotion in class. What I thought was going to be a difficult task turned out to be extremely fun and rewarding. His mother was present then and became so happy to see his new liveliness. Many times later on I actually preferred working with him over the talented kids because it wasn't easy, if I lost mental connection with him for just one instant no matter how slow we were moving he would clam up and resist the technique either as nage or uke. I don't know yin style taichi but that's what I imagined it to feel like.
Regarding my strikes, my foot should be landing simultaneously with the activation of the strike's asymptote. The beach is on an incline and I hadn't slept in a couple days when they were recorded, so it's not the best example of proper grounding or technique.
I currently use two ‘bo's' designed for my height of 5' 10", one is 54" grade 3 hickory and the other is 57" grade 7 hickory, both 14/16" diameter. I only use Kingfisher staffs since their frequency response is the best I've experienced. I'm sure most here already know Brad's craftsmanship is master class as well.
Thanks for the well wishes, I may need it. I had no students show up to my first class.
-Tenyu