The Bubishi is considered, by many, to be required reading for any karateka. It is a collection of essays, recipes, and diagrams transferred to Okinawa from China–most likely in small sections over time–and it is believed to be related to, or part of, a Chinese war manual called the Wu Bei Zhi, which was written in the 16th and 17th […]
This past weekend was our Ryukyu Martial Arts Friendship Gasshuku, which was an event I put together with the intent of getting martial artists together to learn and train in a variety of martial arts from the Ryukyu islands. The idea actually came from the Ryukyu Martial Arts Facebook Groups that were set up by Ryan Parker Sensei. There are […]
I write a lot of articles about karate techniques and concepts, but not a lot about the people who train in karate. Today, I decided I would do that a little bit! When you start training in martial arts, you will notice that there are certain personality traits that keep popping up in certain people. These seem to exist in […]
In reading through a forum on disaster preparedness, I saw a LEO (law enforcement officer) mention “perishable skills,” and it got me thinking. Some skills in life are, more or less, “non-perishable.” You can go years without using them, and then when you need them again, they still work well enough. Things like swimming, or riding a bike, would fall […]
A valuable training tool that many traditional karateka choose to abstain from is the punching mitts, or focus mitts. These come in many different styles, from very basic to high-tech, but all of them facilitate the same thing–a way to turn a training partner into a mobile, modular platform for practicing full-speed striking combinations to various targets without injuring that […]
A very interesting discussion started on one of Theodore Kruczek’s posts on the OKI website regarding people’s perception of traditional martial arts and how to change it. One of the things that I found interesting, and which ties into my previous post about people’s personal systems not needing to have names, was the idea of calling karate something else that […]
Martial arts come with a sense of fulfillment and confidence, but the reason for that depends on the individual student. The exercise, the skills, the meditative aspects, all of them can provide this feeling and some people enjoy all of it. I happen to be one of the people who enjoy it all, but the one thing that probably gives […]
Hello everyone, This is my second go at a martial arts blog–my first foray into blogging was while I was between karate dojo and training in judo, and I just fell out of the habit of posting. This, I am hoping, will be more insightful and more regular now that I am back in a karate dojo. I started training […]
