He said...

Ok, perhaps I’ll turn this blog into a medical drama. I've previously posted on my brush with death last year...

This past week I’ve had a little rash under my arms because I had a reaction to a deodorant a few days ago. Well, I’ve done the hygiene thing and kept it dry and trusted in the body’s amazing recuperative properties. And it spread. And spread…

I decided that I’d gotten a mild case of pickly heat. Pretty common and pretty innocuous. The pattern and the circumstances supported that diagnosis. But it continued to spread. And hurt…

I was useless at aikido Tuesday and the past couple of days I’ve lay spread-eagled under a fan waiting for those amazing recuperative properties to kick in. And I itched and burned and had the pinprick sensations, etc… Fortunately prickly heat is not contagious. Unfortunately, I was considering modifying my diagnosis to something like Hidradenitis suppurativa. Boy, could I use Dr. House at this point!

Well, the last couple of nights I’ve watched my left arm go bad as this neon red rash spread about 4 inches per day. Mind numbing pain, itching, burning, and prickling, similar to what I figure Paul Maud Dib must have felt when he had the Gom jabbar at his neck. I started thinking about a more exotic diagnosis, like necrotizing fasciitis. (WARNING: you had BETTER NOT look that term up in Google image if you are squeamish!) In the meantime, my left arm has swollen and I have gained 6 pounds of fluid.

Well, after this jungle rot had eaten ¾ of my arm all the way down to the middle of my forearm I decided I’d go to the StatCare to get a couple of shots to knock it out. But first I had to go to work and make sure my rehab patients were covered. I figured to zip in and out at work and be off to StatCare. Nope. My nurse has called in with conjunctivitis, so we set out to disinfect everything in the room so my patients wouldn’t get it. Patients start rolling in and it’s 10:00 before I can get off to StatCare. (Found out later that my one of my personal nightmares came true while I was out – I skipped out on rehab and my boss came whirling through the department asking, “Where’s Pat?”)

So, I finally got to the StatCare and the FNP looks at it and says, “Oh my!” and starts talking about running a CBC so they can figure out how fast to get me to the Emergency Room. Hmmm. My day is getting more interesting. So they run their CBC and determine that it is not a systemic infection based on lack of fever and normal WBC. So I don’t have to got to the ER. They decided it was a combination of contact dermatitis and cellulitis.

I got two shots in the butt (steroid and antibiotic) and I got a prescription for two different oral antibiotics and I got instructions to come back to see the MD if by arm continued rotting off. I spent $50 at StatCare and $50 at the pharmacy over the course of an extended lunch. When I got back to work they propped me up at the telemetry monitor with an icepack the size of a baby blanket covering my torso and me moaning, “yeah, baybee!”

I figure that tomorrow should be better and I should have more fun at aikido class due, if nothing else, to regression to the mean.

.

See here for my lovely wife's account of this ordeal...

The steps between the steps

Here is another Musashi quote for us to think about – again, from his Wind book. This one is on walking methods. In aikido we define two walking methods – ayumiashi (normal walking) and tsugiashi (a dropping/sliding motion without crossing the feet). There are benefits to both, and for the most part, we walk using ayumiashi whenever we are outside of ma-ai, instantly switching to safer, more conservative tsugiashi as we cross into ma-ai. Here’s what Mushshi had to say about walking methods…

Use of the Feet in Other Schools

There are various methods of using the feet: floating foot, jumping foot, springing foot, treading foot, crow's foot, and such nimble walking methods. From the point of view of my strategy, these are all unsatisfactory.

I dislike floating foot because the feet always tend to float during the fight. The Way must be trod firmly.

Neither do I like jumping foot, because it encourages the habit of jumping, and a jumpy spirit. However much you jump, there is no real justification for it; so jumping is bad.

Springing foot causes a springing spirit which is indecisive.

Treading foot is a "waiting" method, and I especially dislike it.

Apart from these, there are various fast walking methods, such as crow's foot, and so on. Sometimes, however, you may encounter the enemy on marshland, swampy ground, river valleys, stony ground, or narrow roads, in which situations you cannot jump or move the feet quickly.

In my strategy, the footwork does not change. I always walk as I usually do in the street. You must never lose control of your feet. According to the enemy's rhythm, move fast or slowly, adjusting you body not too much and not too little.

Carrying the feet is important also in large-scale strategy. This is because, if you attack quickly and thoughtlessly without knowing the enemy's spirit, your rhythm will become deranged and you will not be able to win. Or, if you advance too slowly, you will not be able to take advantage of the enemy's disorder, the opportunity to win will escape, and you will not be able to finish the fight quickly. You must win by seizing upon the enemy's disorder and derangement, and by not according him even a little hope of recovery. Practice this well.

I thought it was interesting that he essentially said, “Walk normally, but be careful that your walking doesn’t get you out of rhythm with the enemy.” Similar to his advice that I previously quoted.

.

I have also found it interesting to note that even if we emphasize tsugiashi in kata, when we do randori, we revert back to the more natural ayumiashi and we often have the feeling that we are doing very badly because we can’t make randori work with the type of footwork found in the kata. Working chains more has corrected this for me by showing me that the kata-style tsugiashi is sort of a one-step instantaneous thing. For instance, you might walk around for a while in ayumiashi but then tsugiashi once to push uke. Then you might ayumiashi some more, then throw uke with one more tsugiashi. The ayumiashi has been taken out of the kata for the purpose of boiling each technique down to its essence, but to make it go in randori, there often have to be some “steps between the steps.”
.

One more hint related to this - you can often tell if you have gotten a good offbalance on uke because it will reset him from the tsugiashi he's trying to do to the more natural ayumiashi. So, for instance, the pattern of uke's stepping during a release exercise will look like: ayumiashi up to ma-ai then attack through ma-ai with tsugiashi. Tori gets an offbalance and uke reverts back to the ayumiashi, at which point tori blends using ayumiashi (the steps between the steps) then tori switches to tsugiashi to apply a push...

Getting in synch and flowing around obstacles

Aiki with Patrick M., Kel, and Rick

• Today we discussed getting in rhythm with uke, like Musashi was talking about in the passage I posted a few days ago...


• Tegatana with emphasis on shortening steps to keep in synch with an external pace.


• Hanasu with emphasis on shortening or stretching steps to get in synch during releases #1 and #3. From there we played with brushing off and disengaging. #2 turns into a particularly fabulous brushoff if tori stays light on the feet, times uke's near footfall and brushes himself off of uke.


• Koryu dai ichi section B with emphasis on staying light on the feet and flowing around obstacles.

We're famous!

Our recent crop of yellow belts made the Enterprise Journal today, so I figure we might get some hits for folks interested in kids' judo, so here's the scoop: I teach kids' judo classes.
.
Judo is a Japanese martial art that emphasizes throwing and grappling. Kids love judo because most all kids love to roll around on the ground and wrestle. Look here for some great video of some kids having a blast in our class. Judo is also a competitive sport and you will be seeing some great Olympic judo this summer. As both a traditional martial art and sport, judo offers a great opportunity for fun, fitness, discipline, and defense.
.
At our training hall, we're running it as a seasonal sport in which we take the hottest months of the summer off, so the season lasts from September to April. We have classes once a week and club tournaments once a month. I am in a fairly unique position in the martial arts world, so that I can offer high-quality instruction in a family-friendly atmosphere for very low cost (roughly 1/3 the cost of the local competition).
.
Right now we're in the off-season, so we're not starting beginners right now, but classes are forming right now for the 2008-2009 season to begin in September. Class sizes will be limited, so if you think it sounds like fun, send me an email at mokurendojo@gmail.com to get more information or reserve a spot for your child.
.
I also teach martial arts for older children and adults, so if that interests you, drop me an email at mokurendojo@gmail.com.
.
If you have friends here in Southwest Mississippi that might be interested, then please forward them an email suggesting they check us out.

A helpful handful – shihonage

Shihonage (lit. ‘four-directions throw’ or more loosely, ‘all-directions throw’) is the first of the ‘Six Pillars of Aikido' (shihonage, iriminage, kaitennage, kokyunage, osaekomi, ushirowaza). This technique is very common across most martial arts. Here are a handful of hints I’ve found helpful in working on shihonage.

• Work your way through the name of the thing. Work on finding ways you can throw this thing in every direction.
• Do it part of the time with only one hand and part of the time with only the other hand – like #6 and #8 in Hanasu no Kata. Practicing this with only one hand makes you move your body thru the right arc or you lose it. Don’t cheat by learning shihonage with the illusion of control afforded by using both hands.
• If it goes bad toward the beginning, try flowing into maeotoshi or sumiotoshi. If it goes bad toward the end, try flowing into aikinage (A.K.A. iriminage) or ushiroate.
• We use a crash pad when we practice binding the arm and throwing forward (i.e. hijikime) or when we set it up then step under the arm from the outside to the inside for a floating throw. These are severe falls and represent a severe risk to the shoulder if there is anything wrong with the ukemi.
• Going back to the name, consider Beth Shibata’s article in which she suggests that it might be more appropriate for learning purposes to call the thing the 'all-directions release' instead of the 'all-directions throw'. How does what you call the thing affect your execution of it?

Y'all will be proud of me!

I've finally mastered the secret to a beautiful, effortless deashibarai! All you have to do is find an uke that is 1/8 your size and all of a sudden you are a shoe-in for perfect form!

You get just as wet no matter where you jump in

One of the cool things about aikido is that there are no prerequisites. There is no ‘most advanced skill.’ You can work the skills in any order and call that a ‘system’. A beginner may jump in with the whole class profitably practicing whatever happens to be on the lesson plan for that day. Sure there are safety considerations - you don't make newbies take big falls - but they can still practice the same techniques and principles as everyone else. I've heard it said that there are no advanced techniques or concepts in aikido - just skilled students practicing the fundamentals in a very advanced way.

.

Many Aikikai schools (if I understand rightly) start with ikkyo (oshitaoshi) as the first teaching, while most Tomiki schools start with shomenate as the first teaching and only get to oshitaoshi (Aikikai’s ikkyo) as the sixth teaching after several hours of practice. Either is an okay way of teaching the thing, and after a few hours of practice, it probably doesn’t matter because students of both methods end up understanding both concepts.

In some schools, there is this talk of omote (superficial techniques taught to anyone) and ura (deep, hidden teachings only taught to the initiated) but Musashi in the end of the Wind Book writes about there being no internal teachings and no gate:

There is no "interior" nor "surface" in strategy.

The artistic accomplishments usually claim inner meaning and secret tradition, and "interior" and "gate", but in combat there is no such thing as fighting on the surface, or cutting with the interior. When I teach my Way, I first teach by training in techniques which are easy for the pupil to understand, a doctrine which is easy
to understand. I gradually endeavour to explain the deep principle, points which it is hardly possible to comprehend, according to the pupil's progress. In any event, because the way to understanding is through experience, I do not speak of "interior" and "gate".

...Accordingly I dislike passing on my Way through written pledges and regulations. Perceiving the ability of my pupils, I teach the direct Way, remove the bad influence of other schools, and gradually introduce them to the true Way of the warrior. The method of teaching my strategy is with a trustworthy spirit. You must train diligently.

…In my Ichi school of the long sword there is neither gate nor interior. There is no inner meaning in sword attitudes. You must simply keep your spirit true to realize the virtue of strategy.

Martial arts – They’re not just for kids anymore

Demographers have been telling us for years about the baby boom generation. This is the group of people born between about 1946 and 1964. This is a worldwide phenomenon, but in the U.S. it represents a group of about 80 million people beginning to move into retirement age.
.
Three trends that concern many older adults are health care (in 2004, boomers averaged $2700 per year in healthcare spending), finances (fixed incomes and rising cost of living), and personal safety (Things seem to move faster and violence seems harder to deal with). The perfect solution for these problems is my aikido class.
.
If you are an older adult living in Southwest Mississippi and want an affordable way to get a little reasonable, moderate exercise and learn to protect yourself in an increasingly chaotic and violent world, come check out my aikido class.
.
Fees are both reasonable and negotiable, and you can learn a martial art designed by older adults for older adults, taught by an adult, and proven effective in countless real-world instances for use as personal protection by older adults.
.
You don’t have to be trapped by your own fear and you don’t have to spend a fortune to learn a martial art with the potential to really change your life for the better. Send me an email at mokurendojo@gmail.com and I’ll get you set up or I’ll try to help you with whatever other information you need.

Pick your nose

Straighten your shirt

Wipe your hands

Scratch your butt

Slap a mosquito

Shuffle your feet

How many of us have noticed that we have some unconscious or barely-conscious habits that occasionally take over during a practice. Do you find yourself starting to take a step during a kata and suddenly your nose itches maddeningly. How easy is it in solo practice to give in to the itch and call a do-over for that particular move? This happened to me this morning during the beginning of a jo kata. I'm sure it happens all the time but this morning at least I noticed it.

.

I know my instructor in college was always complaining that I wiped my face with my sleeve or wiped my hands on my thighs during kata. not only does this spoil the kata aesthetically but it changes the place where your mind resides. You have gone from mind-in-the-fight to gotta-scratch-that-nose instantly and at random. What may be worse is trying to avoid the tic. Trying to defer it to a more opportune time. Here you mind is flipping back and forth between the two modes. Concentration and focus are right out the window.

.

I have found in jodo that the occurance of this sort of tic seems to be similar to grabbing your jo with your hand in slightly wrong posture. Do you fix it then strike or strike then fix it? I tend to try to continue the motion with imperfect grip until I come to a node or a lull in the kata when I can reposition the grip.

.

This morning I looked like a cartoon - at least I felt like I did. Trying to do a kata with a mosquito on my foot and some pesky imp tickling my nose with a feather.

Persistence

"This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." -- Winston Churchill

Osotogari

munegatame

Stick & rope

Aiki with Kel and Rick

• ROM and ukemi
• Tegatana with emphasis on relaxing the shoulders down and back throughout the exercise
• Hanasu with emphasis on the stick and rope model - that is, releases #1 and #3, the connection is like a stick - you can only effectively push forward along the length of the stick, lining the stick up between your center of mass and the point of contact. Releases #2 and #4 work like a rope - you can't push a rope, only pull it with both centers of mass lined up with the rope. What this does is minimizes all moments of torque around the shoulder joint.
• nijusan #1 - shomenate
• Sankata tantodori #2 and #3, Sakate yokomen gyakugamaeate and sakate hidari wakigatame - both of these with emphasis on evading and brushing off - minimizing the amount of time you are in the meatgrinder. #2 (at least the way we were playing it tonight - similar to the kokyunage pictured above) is another one of those super-cool ninja invisibility tricks.

Last mokuren blossom of the season

A while back I posted a picture of the first mokuren blossom of the season to give y'all a glimpse of what a riot of beauty this area is in the spring. Here is the last, and best bloom of the season. A little hidden gem I found when all the other blooms were gone and the tree had leafed out.

First mokuren blossom of the season

Ninja hand-slap

Check this out. Chris Marshall and I have been having a little discussion about reaction time and intelligence in martial arts. Chris has posted this really cool online reaction speed tester. Hop over there and play the game. Sure, this is a simple reaction time game, but it has some interesting implications. I thought about challenging Chris to a rousing game of Ninja hand-slap, but alas:

.

• He lives thousands of miles from me, and
• He scored way faster than me on the reaction speed tester, so I'm afraid.

Perhaps if we ever have a live and in-person meeting of the Convocation of Combat Arts, we can have a championship Ninja hand slap tournament. Maybe call it something like, "The Convocation Aggregation Manual Aggravation Challenge-i-fi-cation!"

Who pays the piper calls the tune

I do requests. You pay the piper (with traffic and comments) and you call the tune. Let me know what you'd like to read some scintillating commentary on and I'll oblige if I can. The other day one of my faithful readers dropped me a line with this question:

"I am having trouble with sasae tsuri komi ashi. Any suggestions on drills to work on the timing? I am missing something bad on this one..."

Three things have helped my sasae tremendously:

• Realizing that hiza is an early technique and sasae is a late technique. This means that a chance for sasae always follows a spoiled hiza. Practice hiza-sasae gently sliding your foot down their shin as they step then stopping them just short.


• One of my instructors shows a hook on the end of sasae - so not only do you stop his foot short, but you change the direction slightly so they have two problems to deal with. Do this by wrapping your toes around the outside of the ankle and pulling back slightly with your foot just as you foot stop them so that their foot not only stops 1 inch early but also slides toward you 1 inch .


• Practice the nagenokata form of the thing. This is the toughest timing problem you can have - doing it when uke is doing tsugiashi - you have such a short timing window between when uke picks his foot up and when he puts it back down. You really have to get your feet and arms doing the right thing and coordinated together efficiently. Practice this most difficult timing and everything else will be slower and grosser (wider timing windows) for you.
  

Parkers do judo

Judo with Whit, Knox, and Quin

• ROM and warmups: running, tornado twisters, smashing pumpkins, etc...
• ukemi: rocking&slapping, teguruma with me as spotter interspersed with more running
• newaza: crossface far knee tap turnover to mune
• tachiwaza: osotogari emphasizing kicking knee-to-knee and helping uke to land properly. Whit hammered Quin once. We'll have to work on falling better as well as showing tori how to help uke better.
• newaza: kneeling kubinage into kesagatame. This seems to be the best way to get kids to actually do kesagatame.
• Below is a technique that Knox spontaneously invented tonight - nose gatame - submission by nose honking!

Irresistible aiki

“Aikido is the principle of non-resistance. Because it is non-resistant, it is victorious from the beginning. Those with evil intentions or contentious thoughts are instantly vanquished. Aikido is invincible because it contends with nothing.”

The above quote from Ueshiba, like a lot of what he said, sounds like a lot of mystical woo-woo psychobabble nonsense. But I think a lot of what he was probably talking about is natural and rational - it's just that he spoke in a strange manner.

.

A while back I talked about SWOT. Strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat only exist within the context of an objective. If tori does not have the objective of exerting his will upon uke, if tori does not want to execute his plans upon uke, then tori has no weakness relative to uke and uke presents no threat to tori. Tori has become irresistible because he has no plan of attack. You cannot resist something that is not occurring.

.

But you have to have at least minimal objectives – you know that tori must remain alive and intact. That counts as an objective. In another recent article I talked about SMART goals and I mentioned that if you define your goals properly then you gain a lot of slack in how you execute your techniques. Specific goals (like “I will now do shihonage to make him fall just like this”) get tori into trouble. Broad, general goals (like “avoid, evade, do not engage, roll the ball, brushoff, disengage”), also called strategies, keep tori viable.

.

Tori starts to get into trouble when he begins planning tactics more than about one moderate, conservative walking step in advance. Everything that happens more than about one step in the future has to be handled strategically - not tactically or technically.

.

Ueshiba also said, "Free of weakness ignore the sharp attacks of your enemies: Step in and act!"

Sensei and the wakasensei

Tonight was photo night at kid's judo class. I have a lot of good photos to share. Here is a photo of sensei caught unaware but still looking sensei-ish. Also included for your enjoyment are two photos of my kids trying to look fierce. All I can say is all you aspirants to the 2020 Olympics, look out. Y'all better work hard if you want to earn bronze below these guys! Imagine what these photos will go for in 2021 after these little guys take the Gold and Silver medals... (and no, I can't yet tell which one will be Gold and which Silver.)