Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the 2015 Brotherhood of Veteran Warriors Gasshuku. The BOVW is an organization that was founded by US Military veterans with decades of martial arts experience, for the purpose of providing settings where martial artists from different backgrounds could come together to share and learn. They do not have any sort of curriculum, […]
Matthew Apsokardu is a dedicated martial artist, and the mind behind the excellent website, Ikigai Way. He has a long track record of creating valuable content for karateka and kobudoka, mostly through his website. For some time, now, he has been working on something a bit grander. “Tales from the Western Generation” is a rather lengthy book, weighing in at […]
There is some disagreement in the karate community about whether hidden techniques in kata actually exist or not, but that disagreement largely stems from differing views on what the definition of “hidden” is. In the sense of karate techniques, “hidden” could be used to refer to things that are purposely concealed or obscured, or even completely removed. It could also […]
As of the writing of this article, I have only been training for a little over 8.5 years, and I only just earned my shodan (1st degree black belt) last Summer. Even so, I’ve seen and heard of so many instances of the “shodan slump” to know that it’s real, and I feel grateful that I have managed to avoid […]
When we think of karate training, we typically think of the physical act of training–the sweat, the effort, the pain, etc. People will often mention the mental aspect of training, but they are usually still talking about what happens while you are physically training; things like focus, intent, and envisioning your opponent. There are different types of mental training, however, […]
