Old Habits

Last week, another black belt at my club told me he thought I needed to practice my kicks. If you've read my previous posts, you'll know that I don't find ushiro-geri and yoko geri kekomi that easy. After what this black belt told me, it occured to me that it was about time I sorted out these 2 kicks, I'd been ignoring them for long enough; it was time to break an old habit.

ushiro-geri from zenkutsu-dachi

Recently, I've been working on training with a less tense body and state of mind. I've done this by practicing slowly, (see my post, 'The Importance of Slow Practice' for more detail), breathing properly with techniques and just going in to practice with a more relaxed mindset. This has meant that I've had more space in my mind to look at techniques in detail and being less physically tense has allowed me to add that detail to my techniques. Increased space in my mind has also allowed me to express myself and engage with techniques on that level more. Less tension generally has meant that I don't physically and mentally exaust myself each time I practice. This has made it more enjoyable and means that even if it's been a long, tiring day, I can still face practicing. I'd advise anyone who, like myself, is prone to stress and is too tense in training, to try to relax more because it can really improve training and it's worth the time it takes to change your level of physical and mental tension.

So was this relatively new approach effective when it came to working on these kicks? When it came to breaking a much older habit? Not in the beginning. I tensed up mentally and physically as I had done before, as if to psyche myself up for it. After I'd done a few of each kick (badly), My mind was telling me to call it a day in terms of practicing, as I'd done the minimum amount and not found it particularly enjoyable- another old habit, I hate to admit.

It took a few days for my approach of being more relaxed in training to become compatible with improving kekomi and ushiro- geri. My aim with kekomi is to be able to execute it with fluidity as my current execution of it is jerky and hesitant. It turns out that, for me, it was breathing properly with the technique that made a change, I'm still not very fluid when it comes to bringing the leg back, but it's a work in progress.Intrestingly, when I did Nijushiho (a kata containing 2 kekomis), they remained very un-fluid. I haven't known this kata for long, but long enough for the way of doing it to become a habit, which, for me, jerky kekomis had become part of: another habit to break!  As for ushiro-geri(from zenkutsu-dachi), it's more about breaking the habit of pausing at the point where I turn to face the back and raisisng my leg before executing the kick. So far, I've managed it with my right leg but not with the left one.

yoko-geri kekomi

I've given this long account of my last few days of practice to try and illustrate how developing habits(certain ways of doing something becoming engraned in your mind) in training isn't always good. To an extent, certain ways of doing something becoming engraned (habits) can be a really positive thing in karate(and also a thing emphsized a great deal, considering the amount of repetition which takes place in training sessions). For example, developing the habit of doing a kata correctly means that you can do it in a pressured situation, like a grading, without having to think about it. The same could apply in terms of self-defense. Because if you ever have the misfortune to have to defend youself, having to think about it too much is the last thing you want to be doing-I'm not an expert and I don't speak from experience but it's a true enough fact. Also, developing the habit of regular training and practice can be a really productive thing. What's not so good is when mistakes or certain (not good) approaches to training among many other things become engraned. This happens to us all, but, certainly in the context of martial arts, we need to address those kinds of issues because, as I've learned, they're not going to go away otherwise. Practice and repetition are about engraning things in our minds, developing habits, the right ones.

Teaching a larger group

Early last month, I remember being faced with the task of teaching a larger group than one or two Karateka. I made the mistake of assuming that, since I had experience teaching one to one and had developed some basic skills and techniques to help me do that easily and effectively, this was going to be no different.

It was a group comprising of orange and red belts. Sensei had instructed me to help them with their kumite. There were only 5 or 6 karateka in the group alltogether, which dosen't sound like a  paticularly 'large' group to have to teach but, as I found out it was a group large enough to require a considerably different set of skills to the ones I use when teaching one to one.

I managed to go through their kumite with them on the count, before getting them to go through it on their own without much going wrong apart from the somewhat embarrasing, (for me) experience of hearing the lack of authoritativeness and the general uncertainty in my voice when I spoke, but I assume that kind of thing improves with experience. I know I've mentioned a great deal in previous posts that I don't like asserting dominance over students. But this is in the context of one to one teaching and as I said, teaching a larger group requires a different set of skills. With larger groups , I think you do need to take charge, to some extent, Because you are responsible for a larger group of people and have to organise them, when there could be a huge number of 'them' and only one of you (in this case, I was teaching alongside a fellow 1st dan, but while one of us lead the practice, the other paired up with one of the students because there was an odd number and we swapped places each time, but it was just one of us teaching each time).

Another difference I found was how I had to go about delivering advice and feedback. With one to one teaching, I'm used to having the freedom to be really precise and thurough with the student because there's only one of them, only one set of strengths and weaknesses. With group teaching, however, there's a difference. More students mean more sets of strengths and weaknesses and the chances are you won't have the time to go in to the same kind of depth with each student as you can when just teaching one student. The fact there's a whole group of students make going in to that kind of  depth impractical anyway.

I did attempt to look for mistakes that students were making when I was going through it with them on the count but failed to coordinate it with counting the group through it effectively. I put this dowm to partly my lack of experience and partly  because my mind had seized up! One thing I've seen my Sensei and some of the other black belts do is give advice generally to the group (eg: 'make sure you have a good sized stance', 'don't rush, focus on technique'). Maybe this  is the best way to deliver feedbeck to a larger group, especially when you are hard-pressed for time. There is no guarantee that all students will find this advice useful, which really came to the front of my mind, as a perfectionist and someone who enjoys being thurough, but it's just not possible to meet all the different the needs of every single student in a larger group.

Because I like to naturally like to take a narrow but deep approach, I was well suited to teaching one to one. However, the kind of approach needed for group teaching goes almost completely against my instincts. Nevermind, I'll try to enjoy the challenge and being forced to not be a perfectionist every now and then will probably be good for me.

When I see my Sensei or one of the senior black belts take the whole class during training  sessions, they make it look easy-it's not, evidently. Since my breif experience of teaching a group, I realise that what I'm seeing is the result of a huge amount of teaching experience and things learnt through countless trials and errors.

A Useful Technique for One to One Teaching(part 2)

This post follows right on from my previous one so I reccomend you read that one first. In my previous post, I said I'd be talking about where the approach to one to one teaching I described wasn't practically possible, or where it would still be practically possible even if it dosen't seem it when one first considers it;sometimes it's just a matter of being aware of other things apart from that particular aspect of the way one teaches instead of just classing it as impractical in that given situation,I think.

The first situation where my approach could be impractical is that the student is a quiet individual and answers any questions with few words. Here, I do speak from a small amount of  experience; once, I was helping a red belt about 9 or 10 years of age with his kata, who was very quiet. Initially, I got the feeling  that my approach wasn't working so well. This was based on the fact that my questions seemed to discomfort him and even now, I'm not entirely certain how to fully prevent that kind of thing and still find out from the student what to work on with them. Although I can minimize it through accepting the answer I get and not forcing a more detailed one(There's a difference between this and asking them politelyt to be more specific about something if neccasarry ) out of respect for the student both as a karateka and as a person alongside not asking the questions in an imposing manner.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, asking the student about their training instead of just telling them what to do all the time also means the student feels taken respected as a karateka and there's no reason why quiet people shouldn't be taken seriously as  karateka. Even if they answer questions with few words this is not a sign of incompetence because they might think about their training in a lot of depth and just not want to talk about it to a great length.

Another situation where it could be impractical is if the student is a total beginner. I've yet to discover if this is true or not as I've never taught a total beginner. Ovbiously, they don't have  training experience to discuss, so you can't exactly ask them how their training is going in the same way you could to a green belt! Also, they won't be able to say in as much detail what they find difficult about  various techniques, but equally,  they aren't training in that level of detail; as a karateka gains more experience in terms of executing technques, they tend to notice the smaller details. As previously mentioned, I have no experience teaching beginners so I'll be intersted to find out if my approach is practical in that context and how I might need to adapt it.

This approach definitely dosen't work when teaching a large group;it requires a different set of techniques, I will write about this in more detail in my next post.

A Useful Technique for One to One Teaching

I know I wrote a  couple of posts a while ago concerning the issue of teaching Karate and I breifly mentioned this technique in one of them, however I didn't go in to detail about it. Probably because I hadn't realised or appreciated how effective it was because of the amount of teaching experience  I had at the time. I feel that any other karateka who, like myself, aren't very expeienced teachers might find it useful.

To an extent, this will sound blindingly ovbious, but when you're  actually having to teach, as somebody lacking in experience, it isn't like that at all. An effective technique for teaching Karate one to one is, instead of just telling the student what to do all the time, discuss their training with them and ask them some questions about it, ( "How d'you think that went?", " what d'you struggle with in this partcular technique/kata?" etc...) .

This means that, for a start, it's much easier to find out what the student is like as a karateka which can be important to bear in mind when teaching them. It also means that you can identify their weak areas more quickly and effectively so you find the right things to work on with them sooner and the student makes more progress as a result.

Discussing it with them also means that they are encouraged to look at their own training and think for themselves and they get and feel taken seriously as a karateka, therefore they are more likely to have the right attitude to training, make progress and not give up easily if they're dealt with like they're capable of doing those things. I remember my Sensei mentioning once or twice that he taught every student as if they were going to reach 10th Dan- this could've been what he meant by it. I think this effect that discussing stuff  is particularly effective with children, although I've never taught any adults one to one. But I do think, that in many societies and cultures, childern are often talked down to and generally looked down on, so if that's what they're used to, then they're, as Karateka, going to have that mindset that they get from being looked down on in society in training: that they're incapable and that their thoughts and opinions aren't important. I know not all readers will neccsarrily agree with me, but I think that children can be perfectly capable karateka and gain a lot from training.They can't do this if they're not taken seiously in training, even if the rest of society dosen't do the same thing. Infact, the opinion of any student of any age is important to me if I end up asking them what they find difficult about a certain technique/kata to pinpoint what to work on, without it, the efficiency of my teaching would decrease significantly. Or worse, it would have a negatve impact on the rest of their training because they get the idea that they're incapable as Karateka, so they act like it.

For me, as an inexperienced teacher, asking the student questions instead of telling them what to do all the time really takes the pressure off one to one teaching because the focus isn't on me all the time. Besides, it takes expeience to confidently tell people what to do, even if it is counter-productive in the context of teaching karate, so I also avoid showing  my inexpeience so I feel a bit less like a fool(!!) and my decrased discomfort and nervousness mean that I'm able to give better feedback to the student . Finally, if a student is respected, not just as a karateka, but as a person they are more likely to return that respect.

I'm aware a great deal of this is in theory, and you've probably thought up at leat one exception or 'what-if ' by now about this approach to one to one teaching, which I will talk about in my next post. It's true that often in this post I am just speculating, rather than speaking from experience about the effects that it might have, however, in my, at this point in time, relatively short experience of teaching karate, this approach has never had a negative effect.

Advice on Kicks

I don't know about you, but the kicks in Shotokan karate have been far from easy for me to get right. Even now, they are one of my weaker areas. This could be because I'm just naturally like that or lack of practice in my earlier days of training, or a combination of both. One of the things which has happened recently is that certain techniques which I've known for a while and had trouble with executing accurately have begun to fall in to place.

 My Sensei often reminds me to have less physical tension in my body when doing karate; I think now I'm more relaxed than I was as a brown belt, (now that my 1st dan grading is out of the way) which could explain why certain techniques have fallen in to place- it's made a difference and now I realise how much unneccasarry tension I previously had along with how negative an impact it was various techneques!

 Here, I've listed some of my worst kicks and useful things I've picked up about how to execute them correctly as readers might find it useful. If you do try the kicks with my advice in mind, it's worth stretching first and not pushing your body too hard to start with to avoid injury.

1.  Yoko Geri Keage

This is a kick which has only become more easy for me recently. It looks like it should be easy, although  the angle of the hips is just downright awkward, which impacts on the rest of the kick if it's done incorrectly.

. The angle of the hips when executing Keage is similar to that of Mawashi-geri; one has to turn the hip (nearest the kicking leg) over( this was something of a revelation to me!). The images below are my attempt to get across this similarity.

Keage

Mawashi-Geri

.It's the outside edge of the foot that's the striking area for this kick,so it should face down when the knee is first picked up with the sole of the foot facing the inside of the supporting leg, then it's in the right position for when the leg is fully extended.

2. Ushiro Geri

This is definitely a tough kick to get right, and I know it's not just me; I've seen many other brown belts struggle with it. I'ts all very well doing it from a standstill, but the difficulty kicks in whhen one has to do it from Zenkutsu-Dachi. My previous post, 'complex mistakes' talks about this in more detail

.

. When the leg is fully extended and about to  be drawn back before returning to Zenkutsu-dachi, look over the shoulder out of the corner of the eye nearest the kicking leg, (left leg-left eye, right leg-right eye). It means that it's easier not to turn the body too early, which normally happens if you turn the whole of your head fot this part of the kick. The kick is finished properly and it dosen't become a sort of 'ushiro-geri-kekomi'.

.Break it down in to several parts so it's more manageable. Different things work for different people, but pesonally, I favour:

1.Turn to face the back from Zenkutsu-dachi
2.Lift the kicking leg, not fully extended yet,but with the knee bent and the heel tucked in.
3. Fully extend the leg,the body shouldn't be turned at this point.
4.Draw the leg back in and turn the body forward.
5. Return to Zenkutsu-dachi.





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The Importance of Slow Practice

I know I haven't written anything for a while; having ideas about what to write isn't always a regular thing, so apologies for the wait.

Two weeks ago now, we did something in training which I found extremely useful: practicing slowly. It sounds like an ovbious straightforward thing but there's a difference between doing Karate slowly and doing it 'not fast'. I think that a lot of the time in training and my own practice when I was meant to or intending  to do something slowly, I actually just did it 'not fast' . Slow practice requires looking at one's technique in detail, a higher level of control and therefore a higher level of concerntration and I don't think I'd appreciated those things.

Without those things, I doubt if one can get much out of slow practice, and it can't be defined as practice if no progress is made. Also without those things, it's impossible to understand the 'essence' of slow practice, so it just becomes doing it the opposite of fast: 'not fast'. So is slow practice as staightforward as it sounds?

The fact that slow practice requires a higher level of concerntration and mental discipline was particularly useful for me. I've been training for a while now, techniques have become second nature therefore  my mental discipline and concerntration have detiriorated slightly- and what's the use of being a karateka with good technique and the wrong mindset? Because the mind controls the body, not the other way round. Slow practice is getting me used to controlling my body with my mind again and I think, because of the greater level of concerntration required, my mental discipline and concerntration will end up better than before.

Concerntration seems to be the center of slow practice, inconsistent speed is as a result of a lapse in concerntration. As is inconsistent muscle control(also needed more for slower practice) and inconsistent attention to detail. If one loses concerntraion, it shows in the technique. Because of slow practice's demanding nature, it's also useful for developing a strong spirit: not often associated with slow practice. Full-speed practice is, of course, important because the karateka is physically challenged,so develops good fitness and character among other things, but do we need to,alongside that, develop ourselves as karateka in a different manner?

I have now been a 1st dan for just over six months. This post is a result of me reflecting on those months. They weren't totally productive but I don't feel like I've totally wasted the time ether. I've settled in to the role of a black belt a little more now, I still have a long way to go, but it's early days. This is some advice that I'd give to karateka who haven't been black belts for very long ether. I'm aware that the previous description won't fit some readers, but even if you haven't passed 1st dan recently, there might still be something of use to you in terms of general training, or at least, this will  make for an interesting read...

1. If, post-grading, you feel unsure where to carry on training from, do the things you might've been guilty of neglecting as a coloured belt. For me, this was studying the applications of techniques and the history of karate in detail. Being aware of these things early on is far from a bad thing. I'd say that if one isn't, the consquences of it are comparable with leaving certain things unsaid after an arguement with somebody; things build up overtime and start to have a negative impact.

2. It sounds ovbious yet it's so easily forgotten: don't expect too much of yourself too quickly. This can be easy to do as a karateka new to black belt, it's easy to assume things will be straightforward because, to put it simply, you've just become a BLACK BELT!!! The fact remains, however, that acheivement and progress in karate take time.

3. There's nothing wrong with learning the syllabus for 2nd dan, but don't focus solely on it, was what my sensei told me when I asked about it. Now, I see what he meant by it. Black belt  the point in training where you make karate your own. As a kyu grade, you learn the skills neccasarry for doing so. Theres a difference. It's impossible to train with the mind of a coloured belt as a black belt. Learn the syllabus, but do other things that contribute to karate being your own.

4. Different things work for different people, but personally, I find that keeping a training journal makes being fully responsible for training, as you are at black belt, more manageable. Making a note of feedback from sessions and what's happened in practice helps me take a more organised approach to my training if I'm not having to recall everything from memory.

5. If you're teaching yourself something, be aware there's more to it than just learning its shape off a youtube clip. Understanding it takes more than that, it requires extra research around what you're trying to learn(history, technical details, etc..) and possibly  asking your sensei questions about it.

6. When it comes to teaching, avoid making any judgements in the early days or expecting too much of yourself. I speak from experience when I say that it's no easy task, (one of my previous posts goes in to more detail about this). One thing to remember is that the role of a teacher in karate is to help the student learn, not to exert dominanace over them. Ask the student how they feel something is going and what they find particularly  difficult about something. It builds a good teacher-student relationship and makes your teaching more efficient if you know what to work on with the student.

7. Don't underestimate or forget the importance of your love of karate(which it's likely you have if you've progressed as far as 1st dan). Love will mean you are comitted and stick it out through the bad times. It means training will be a lifelong thing for you. Love is the connection between a martial artist and their training. Yes sometimes a colder interest is needed for the less enjoyable things in training, but that's done as a result of love for it.

8. Allow yourself to develop your own views on training to help make it your own- try writing a blog!